Millennium Falcon
Review by JoshB
I told myself that there would be no toys on vacation. It would be a nice relaxing week at the shore in our beach house, sipping margaritas.
We invited good friends Shogundan and his wife, Shogunnadia, down for the night. Dan says, “I’ve got a surprise for you”
Dan goes out to his car and comes back holding the new Star Wars 3.75" Legacy Collection Millennium Falcon.
Damn you.
But I suppose, while the wives are out shopping, why not shoot a quick review?
We took a 20 minute video showing you all of the features in High Definition - check it out
Thus ended my toy-free vacation, just hours after I arrived.
The Legacy Collection Millennium Falcon is every Star Wars collector’s wet dream. It’s almost perfect – so close to perfect that it makes you wonder why they didn’t go the extra mile.
I shouldn’t complain though, the thing is awesome.
The first thing you notice about the new Falcon is the size – its 2 ½ feet long! This toy was designed to be more in-scale with the 3 3/4” action figures.
The Outside
From the outside, it is immediately clear how much effort went into this ship. All of the details are crisp and clean, and the paint and decals add more realism to the ship.
The gun turret on the top of the Falcon is activated by a lever on the side. Slide the lever up and down and the turret moves left and right, also moving the gunner’s seat inside. The turret fires the bottom two missiles when either the left or right side hits the posts on either side of the turret. Motion and missile firing is accompanied by sound effects.
Moving a bit forward, you have the Radar Dish. The dish is controlled by a knob on the side. Rotate the knob, and the dish moves. What’s more, the knob controls the arm for the training droid inside the falcon.
Take a step backwards and open the flap on the side. The falcon makes a mechanical whirring noise as you lift up the door to reveal a small ship. This mini-fighter is a new addition for the toy and not seen in the movie. The falcon makes another sound effect when the ship is removed. The ship features an opening cockpit, slide out guns, and a firing missile. It’s not bad, but a lot of effort and resources went into this that I think could have been used elsewhere (see the section about the landing gear).
From the front you have a set of three missiles set between the two “mandibles”. There are three buttons to launch the missiles, but only the center one has sound effects. Just below at the bottom is a pull-down missile launcher that can rotate. Very awesome.
The front of the mandibles feature small, light up headlights that activate when you fire up the engines.
We’ll skip the cockpit to talk about it all at once. Be patient.
The right side has the feature that sold me on this toy – the boarding ramp. Hit a small button on the side and the ramp activates automatically, including lights and sounds! It’s a thing of beauty to see in action.
Around the back of the falcon are the engines. The panel on the back where the black vents are is removable and reveals where the batteries are stored. The engines light up and they light differently depending on what sound effects are being played. There is the regular running sound, the not-starting sound, and the hyperdrive sound. All are activated by pressing buttons on the side.
The underside of the falcon is similarly well detailed, and features a moveable gun turret as well. Unfortunately, there is only one gunner chair inside.
The landing gear is the source of the most disappointment here. It is true that this version of the falcon has more accurate landing gear than the classic version, but this landing gear does NOT retract. Instead, it is removable. The thing is, they are TOO removable, and often fall off if you handle it wrong, or push it along the floor. I’m not sure what the rationale here was, because the design of this toy appears to have the room for the landing gear. Instead of spending all that time and resources on the mini-fighter, why not figure out how to make landing gear retract? It’s like having a bat mobile that does all the cool stuff, but then the wheels don’t turn. It just seems like a basic function that was ignored. If you decide to hang the falcon, or fly it around, you can just pop off the gear but then you are left with ugly holes. Another compromise would have been to supply panels to cover up the unsightly gaps left behind.
The Cockpit
The cockpit is our gateway to the interior from the falcon. The lid lifts up just like the classic one does, and actually comes off quite easily. The interior of the lid is detailed and has stickers.
The cockpit is spacious and now features room for four figures. The two pilots’ seats can swivel and slide forward and backward, while the rear seats just swivel. The instrument panels are detailed and the figures can grab on to the controls. The cockpit is also illuminated by two lights behind the passengers. The cockpit area looks great, but when taken in context of the rest of the falcon, is much too large. This is a toy after all, and we are aiming for fun-factor here, not movie accuracy. There is no passage from the cockpit to the interior of the ship, another major oversight.
The Inside
To access the interior of the Falcon, you need to remove the panel nearest the cockpit first, then the panel near the radar dish. The interior is broken down into two compartments.
The first compartment, the area with the boarding ramp, has a few cool gimmicks. There is of course the aforementioned ramp, a smuggling compartment in the floor, the gunners’ station, a large storage area and the medical bed. The medical bed has an area that looks like something plugs in there – maybe the cuff for Luke’s severed hand as seen in ESB? I can’t help but think we will see a different version of the falcon for each movie. The area features tons of sticker detail and pegs on the floor for various figures.
Remember those buttons on the outside that activated the engines? Well, when the cover is removed, those buttons activate dialog from the movie. These sounds are largely, Han, Chewie and Luke when fighting the tie-fighters. I should also mention that the sound fidelity is AWESOME. The back of the compartment features dual doors that are a pain to open if you have fat fingers and no fingernails like me. Inside is just another storage space.
The other compartment also has a smugglers compartment, pegs on the floor, and sound effects. In addition, the holographic chess table lights up and has small holographic characters. Luke’s training ball is also represented here, and moves when the knob on the outside is turned. The focus of the sound effects on this side is the Chess match between Chewbacca and R2-D2, as well as Luke’s training with Obi-Wan.
Two figures are included – Chewbacca and Han Solo. I don’t know if these are re-releases or not, but they are well-suited to the ship, with Han having the communications gear on, and Chewie with the super-articulation.
The biggest problem with the Falcon is where to put it. This is a no-brainer – If you love Star Wars you NEED this. You just do. Just be careful when hanging this from the ceiling – Dan tried twice and both times it came crashing down on the floor. Fortunately, and this is saying something about its construction, it survived both falls unharmed.
I think this falcon will be under many Christmas trees this year. At around $160 USD it’s not cheap, but we Japanese toy fans have paid a lot more for a lot less toy.
Get one, you won’t regret it.
Comments
14 comments postedI can only imagine how much of a drool factor there is involved here. This thing looks fantastically detailed!
The problem is, however, that I've never been a fan of the Falcon. The style, certainly, with exposed components and the rugged function-before-form ethic, but this particular ship never did it for me.
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CollectionDX Staff
I had the GI Joe carrier long ago, and it literally became the white elephant of my collection. It just sat there with little to do with it, taking up the space where my bed used to be. I had to sleep on the floor to make room for the thing. Even to my young mind it seemed goofy-looking and way out of proportion for a carrier.
This toy is a nice nod to what was a great toy 30 years ago. Yeah it was even more disproportionate and was expensive, but it was 1978 and for a first time effort it was incredible. That old mold has seen numerous releases over the last three decades and is a testament to how great some of those old molds were back then.
I was ready to buy one when I first heard about it, I even sold off my Lego UCS Falcon to make room for it, but when I finally saw one on display it just looked odd. The enormous cockpit, the tiny mandibles, the oversize center section. It reminds me of that funky forced-perspective Yamato model kit where you look at it from a certain angle to simulate a visual. At certain views it looks great, but at times it looks way off and comical. For a kid it's probably the equivalent of the old toy to us back then, but to an adult collector I was expecting a bit more. If LEGO can make a minifig scale one for $500, then Hasbro could easily make a closer to scale toy for $300 that is 4 feet long and way more accurate.
Of course I'll be a complete hypocrite and buy one eventually, it's the god damn Falcon after all. But I won't be afraid to take a dremel and airbrush to it and address some of the shortcomings. These are warming shelves everywhere I go, the economy is in the dumper after all, so give it time and I'm sure these will be on clearance.
I wasn't expecting to get one of these, but my wife surprised me with it for our wedding anniversary. I have all kinds of Falcons, from a Micro Machines Falcon on up to my Extraordinaire. I've got to say that this one is by far my favorite. Is it a perfect representation of the Falcon? No. Is it close enough? Absolutely.
Heavyarms
thatsjustprime.blogspot.com
addictedtoplastic.blogspot.com
I dont even collect Star Wars toys and I had to have this. I guess after seeing it for the first time at this years SDCC I was smitten. I know that people may not like the proportions but that doesn't stop this from being one sweet Millennium Falcon. The thing is huge and very we made. My Millennium Falcon (the one shown in this review) has been dropped twice from 7' height while hanging it from the ceiling, with no breakage! Parts came off but they all went easily back on. This toy is one tough customer. I realize that I could have waited and saved a few bucks, but with all the detail and features I feel even at retail, it was still a good buy. Everybody who has come over my house and saw this hanging in my office have been very impressed. It really is an awesome display piece as well as a killer toy!
-Dan
CollectionDX Staff
For those of us who don't really follow star wars toys, what TIE fighter is that?
I fall into one of those weird segments of the collecting world, the playset/base collector.
At one point or another since the mid 90's, i've owned almost every major toyline playset ever released in the US in the 80's and 90's, even the few made in the 2000's. I've also owned most of the big vehicles from these lines as well. It's a rare breed, as most toy collectors just don't have the room to store the bigger pieces. Before I was a robot junkie, I was a playset junkie. The large size did it for me. The challenge of finding complete or boxed vintage examples. The sheer fact that no one really collects them to begin with. People Since 2002, sadly, I've sold off most of them, due to (surprise!) storage space. You try displaying a GI Joe Space Shuttle Complex, a USS FLAGG, and several larger Star Wars items... in an apartment. Your dagobah playset becomes a change recepticle, and Castle Greyskull and Snake Mountain quickly become bookends. Not much room for anything else unless your toy room is a wing in your mansion!
Seeing this at a friend's house last week (i haven't gotten one yet) this is THE Star Wars large-scale playset. I'm very impressed. The proportions are a little off, but that's minor nitpick. It does have a little bit of the forced-perspective Space Battleship Yamato Model type of look, but honestly, if you want to get a screen-accurate Falcon, there are a number of statues and finished models that are available. This is a TOY through and through. It's got adult collector appeal, with it's vintage Falcon nods like the training ball and removable floor, but it's clearly meant for play value for kids, just as the original Falcon was in 77-78. That is something that can not be understated. The sheer size, in the current toy world especially, makes kids PSYCHED when this shows up at their house.
Far better than any previous Star Wars playset, including the excellent Naboo Starship (in my opinion the BEST Star Wars vehicle ever made up till now, if you think differently, you've NEVER owned one), the legendary Death Star playset from the 70's (i've had 2 of them!) and my personal favorite the Dagobah Playset. The Attack of the Clones Arena was a nice piece, as was the volcano from Revenge Of The Sith. But they're NOTHING compared to this. The GI Joe DEFIANT space shuttle still wins for play value, but it's a close finish with the new Falcon.
If you own any modern star wars figures, then you really NEED this. Believe the hype. What's the point of all the 3 3/4" goodness on your shelf with no Falcon? No point, my friends, no point.
This will quickly become the piece to own in the Modern Star Wars line, and will probably be the last large-scale, $100+ playset ever made. It will become a high-demand piece as soon as regular production stops.
I've seen an inordinate amount of disinterest in the "escape pod." If someone doesn't like theirs, I'll gladly take it off your hands. ;p
Man, I kind of want this
But the problem is: where would I find the space for the damn thing?
Hang it from the ceiling, just make sure you use at least 20lb test fishing line for safety. Believe me, I learned the hard way...LOL!
-Dan
CollectionDX Staff
This does look excellent, but I just do not have the space for it at the moment. Also the price is a bit high. These are also warming the shelves here in the UK, so when they drop in price I might get one. The rally cool factor abut this is the excellent Chewbacca figure. I still like the original though even with its faults. Kenner did an excellent job on these toys about 30 years old.
i'm not a SW collector but when I seen the box for this in TRU I knew I wanted one but the size and price put me off... but when the sales come its mine
Transformer and other robot art by me on my DA site blitz-wing.deviantart.com
"What the F**K is an aluminum falcon!?"
--
Sanjeev
I think the hardest and smartest thing I ever did was to give all my Star Wars toys to my nephew on the condition that he actually take them out of my house. He couldn't leave them here to play with when he came to visit, they had to be completely gone out of my sight. If not for that, I would probably be $160 poorer right now.
"This must be settled the way nature intended....with a vicious, bloody fight!"
Onyx Blackman
Principal, Flatpoint High
Hey this is dragonoid_660 am just a 10 year old kid. When I spent my 1 week vacation at my cousins house we went to a playground (which you have to pay to play in) and then i saw that Millennium Falcon! I said to my self "its long! its cool!" and then look at some toys there. Its really cool! I love to buy that!