10179 UCS Falcon Review

[dunamis]

Hello everyone!

By now many excited LEGO Star Wars fans have started receiving their UCS Falcon. Some of us here enjoy writing reviews and sharing our thoughts. I mentioned to Yoda that I was planning on doing a review of this set but it would likely take me a few weeks (of 1-2 hours per night) to finish building the set. Yoda suggested that I do the review as I go so everyone could see the progress of the set. What a great idea!

So, here is the first entry. Feel free to comment along the way. I will try to post photos and updates every night on the build then wrap up the review when I complete the set. If you have any specific questions or photo requests, please be sure to ask.

UCS Millennium Falcon Reviewed by Dunamis

Set 10179

5195 Pieces

$499.95 from LEGO Shop at home

The Box:

Obviously, this is a box like no other. First of all, it comes in its own shipping carton. Inside of that, there is a standard LEGO carton. Finally, inside the LEGO carton, we have the actual Millennium Falcon box and a nice little letter thanking you for buying the biggest LEGO set ever.

Shipping box (Naboo set provided for scale)

LEGO Carton and letter

LEGO Carton

The Millennium Falcon box is really quite nice. There are lots of photos and it does a good job of �selling� the set. There are 8 individual pieces of tape that keep the lid on the box. The limited first edition comes with a seal on the lower left corner.

Millennium Falcon Box (Naboo set provided for scale)

Lifting the lid straight up reveals one compartment of several bags on the right. On the left, we find a thin, square box (like a pizza box) that contains the official certificate of authenticity, two sticker sheets and one enormous manual! Under the pizza box, we find two more compartments each filled with several typical LEGO bags. The box weighs 24 pounds!

Stickers

Pizza Box

Pieces in compartments

Not quite sure what the little 30th anniversary sticker is for yet. The Certificate of Authenticity is on heavy paper and is suitable for framing.

More to come tomorrow. It's late here.

[Bonaparte]

Good idea to make this review while you build the set.

I'll be monitoring your progress and feedback.

The box so huge! Impressive!

[hollisbrick]

Nice review. I'll be watching and waiting for the rest.

[Ras 74]

Will follow this impatiently ;-)

Really like the start of the review *y*

You always seems to pull it of nicely,

in comparission with the exasperating *yoda* X-D :-P

Build On!

Play On!

On On!

[xwingyoda]

Many tks Dunamis for doing that, its really great and I can't wait monitoring your progress on the beast 8-

[Shadows]

Excellent beginning. Our numbers are very close, but I haven't the luxury of space to build it, so I'll be enjoying it by proxy through you. Enjoy! *y*

[Ras 74]

what what what >:-( Have you stopped your medication once again X-D

No actually I

[Vader]

Wow that box is big but i somehow thought it would be even bigger, still it looks like for once lego are actully using all the space inside and not just a fraction like with other sets.

Cant wait to see more dunamis.....you lucky megablok ;-)

[Asuka]

What a wonderful idea, and how nice from you.... *sweet*

And.... Go, Killer, Go!!

[Zaktan of the Shadows]

Thats awesome man! Lucky that you got it! I want it so badly... and it has a huge box too!

-ZotS

[dunamis]

Many tks Dunamis for doing that, its really great and I can't wait monitoring your progress on the beast 8-

[xwingyoda]

Tks for that comparison pic Dunamis ;-)

OK the box is big !! I pictured it a tad smaller though !!

I know what I don't like, its the fact that it has the regular Lego Star Wars logo on top with Vader. UCS sets should have a different iconography like they did in the past. Sure its a trivial detail but it adds to the fact of owning something special !! After all its the most expensive set ever as of now ;-)

Happy building !! And we'll wait patiently for some cool pics later on :-P

*yoda*

[dunamis]

The Manual:

The gigantic manual measures 17

[Winkins]

Very expecting indeed.

Waiting for your kind photo ...

:-)

[Vader]

My gawd that manuel is huge!!!!! That's enough to put a sane man off of buying this set.......Thank gawd none of us are sane thats all i can say X-D

Just how many technic pins does this monster need??? 8-

[Eothein]

Wow I never thought I'd be impressed by a box but I certainly am now. Any chance of seeing all 5000 bricks in a big pile?

My gawd that manuel is huge!!!!! That's enough to put a sane man off of buying this set.......Thank gawd none of us are sane thats all i can say X-D

Too true, never had I imagined thinking about buying a

[simonwillems]

Nice idea, reviewing the set while constructing it.

This is the top of the bill for any lego-collector (also financially speaking..) and I like the look of all those thousands of pieces.

The manual is incredible, I thought I had a really thick manual coming with set 8479, but this one exceeds it with ease...

Review on!

[natelite]

Tks for that comparison pic Dunamis ;-)

OK the box is big !! I pictured it a tad smaller though !!

*yoda*

I don't have the UCS ISD but from the pic i can see that it is about the same thickness, slightly shorter but much wider than the MF. So this leads me to believe that dimension-wise the UCS MF is more compact.

Also, notice how in the content, the parts fit in just nice without additional spare space for anything else. Strange isn't it that when TLC is responsible for the shipping, we see optimum usage of box spaces. X-D imagine if all boxes were this efficient. $4.99 sets would be no bigger than a match box! X-D X-D the MTT would be reduced to 1/4 its current size! X-D X-D X-D

[Courleciel]

good review. *y* Me, I can't build it before Saturday. :'-(

[Mofo Jones]

Great review so far! I am looking forward to additional posts!

As for the number of pins - from the Peeron inventory for the set, there are over 400 technic pins of various lengths!

(insert the "my fingers hurt from building" emoticon)

Keep the pictures coming!

[dunamis]

The Build:

The build is going quicker than I thought. I am sorting as I open the bags that I need. Some bags are in multiples so it is easy to pick them out. The build is a tad repetitive as the framework of the ship is somewhat symmetrical. Here are some progress shots:

Note that two plates (1x4 and 1x8) are stacked in between Technic beams. Then the part below is assembled to hold the structure together.

This took about an hour of sorting and building:

I'll post another update tomorrow.

[dunamis]

The Minifigs:

As you can see, the minifigs are really nice. They even throw in an extra fleshie head! No doubt these will fetch quite a bit on the Bricklink and Ebay markets. I

[Greatdane]

Hey nice review, im up to about the same point as you (page 70 to be exact) , tho i didnt have that missing piece thankfully! I think lego have done a much better job at packing the lego this time, i remember it taking me much longer to find pieces on the UCS ISD build

[xwingyoda]

So I see they even do mistakes on these |-/

That beast looks really sturdy !! That is great !!

Are these yellow parts new ? I am not a Technic fan and never saw these before.

Another question for you: is the instruction book easy to follow, especially regarding the colours. Does the black rally stands out comparing to the dark bley and so on ? I sure hope so ;-)

Can't wait to see moer hehe

*yoda*

[Holodoc]

Are these yellow parts new ? I am not a Technic fan and never saw these before.

You don