Sucram Posted May 23, 2024 Posted May 23, 2024 Intro / A Lengthy Preamble I have quite a long history with Lego Millennium Falcons, going all the way back to when I received the 7965 version for my birthday back in 2012. As soon as I built that model I had a strong urge to do my own modifications to improve it, which began my journey which I will simply refer to as the quest for the perfect Milennium Falcon. After several years of modifying the playscale set, and with the announcement of the 2nd UCS Millennium Falcon in 2017, I decided to take the next step and take a crack at creating my own Falcon from scratch. Scrounging up 1300 Ausbucks to buy the UCS as a 15 year old high schooler was out of the question, so this was the next best option. I drew inspiration from fan builds, the official set, and a bit of my own brainpower, and came up with something that, at the time, I was pretty proud of. It sat at a scale roughly in between the smaller playscale sets and the huge UCS set, which to this day I still think is the best size for Millennium Falcons. You can read about that MOC here: falcon cool view by SucramH, on Flickr So that was where my Falcon journey stalled, for a few years. I made my way through the rest of high school and most of college, during which I finally got a job, which meant I had money to spend on whatever I wanted for the first time. I started saving, with my eyes set on 1 thing: The UCS Millennium Falcon. Mid 2020 rolls around and I have enough cash to finally get it, but of course it's incredibly hard to find anywhere. After a lot of searching, a Reddit post tipped me off that the Harrods website has them available, and for $200 off retail (plus 50 for shipping, but that's pennys in the grand scheme of things). I placed my order and felt an immense satisfaction as my bank account dwindled into the single digits. A couple weeks of feverish waiting later, and I had the box in front of me. I got all my friends over, and we had a marathon building session over 1 whole day, which still remains one of the best days of my life (is that a bad thing?). You'd think this would be where the journey ends, with me in possession of the best and most expensive Lego set ever. But with the Millennium Falcon, you're never truly done. Built the UCS Falcon with 7 other people, took 9 hours by SucramH, on Flickr About a week after the build was finished, I started perusing the internet for modifications people had made to the UCS, and came across Eurobrick's very own thread on just that. Plenty of simple mods to be made which I quickly applied to mine, like changing that random dark grey strip on the mandibles, some other small colour changes, improving the cockpit interior, but then there were some bigger tasks that would require a lot more investment. Reworking the insides to allow a proper interior, improving the rather rudimentary design of the back sublight engines, detailing the underside. These seemed slightly out of my realm of expertise, and at the very least would require ordering a lot of new parts. So I decided to remain content with my Falcon as it was. Life goes on. I finish college, I do a TAFE course, I start university, and all throughout I still keep my eyes on this website and other Lego communities to see what people are doing with their Falcons, whether it be extensive modifications to the UCS like ScottishDave's incredible build, or incredible builds made from scratch like Chrome Vader's. But there was one build that was always in the back of my mind ever since I got the UCS, that being Marshall Banana's Falcon, which has gone through 2 major revisions. At some point Brick Vault started selling instructions for this build, which really seemed like the be-all end-all of LEGO Millennium Falcons. Meticulously detailed, a full interior, just as huge as the UCS, and comprised of over 12000 pieces. I couldn't resist my curiosity, and bought the instructions to take a look at how it was built. It seemed to use a lot of barely legal, or straight up illegal techniques, but the end result looked so good that it was clearly worth it. The thought of building it was something I quickly brushed off, since not only do I already have the UCS, this MOC only shares around 3000 pieces with it. That would mean buying around $1500-$2000 Ausbucks worth of pieces to build it. That seemed ridiculous even for someone as terrible at saving money as me. And now we arrive at present day, 2024. That pdf file of the Brick Vault instructions has been sitting on my computer for more than a year, and one day I just decided to pull the trigger on it. While I'm still somewhat young, if I don't do this now while I have minimal expenses then I'm never going to be able to. I was officially going to build the UCCS Millennium Falcon. Gathering the Parts But it wasn't as simple as just hopping onto Bricklink and buying everything. I wanted to be as economic about this as possible, with my goal being to spend less than a grand in total. So I headed over to my parent's house, armed with the parts list for the build, and started going through my collection of parts. It was a long and painful process, but in the end I ended up with about 3000 parts, knocking a good amount off the 12000 total. Next step was to take apart my UCS and catalog all the parts that would be used in the build, an even more painful process. After a week of my bedroom looking like a bomb had gone off in it, I ended up with a big box of unsorted parts. I then hopped onto Bricklink to order the rest of the parts. I ended up with 15 orders, and later on I would have to make 4 more after one of them cancelled and I realised I was missing parts. These totalled to around $1100. So I failed my under 1 grand goal, but it could've been worse I suppose. Now that my bank account was once again empty, there was nothing to do but wait. Fast forward to a week later and I was ready to start the build. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr You'll notice I made zero attempt to sort the 12,000 pieces at all, which would end up making my build process a lot more time consuming... The Build If you've built the UCS before and was wondering if this build is similar at all, the answer is definitely not. The end result has the same overall look, but the insides are completely different. You start, predictably, with a base of technic bricks that you sandwich together with a bunch of plates. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr Kinda hard to see what's going on with all the shiny black tiles that make up the floor of the interior, but it's basically just a big flat rectangle that everything will go on top of. I've also already tested mounting it on the vertical stand, which we'll get to later. Next you build up these side parts, not sure what you would call them. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr If anything looks out of place in the photos, just note that I kinda jumped around the build a bit as I was going, doing some parts earlier or later than expected. Next we flip the whole thing upside down to attach some underside details, which are some of my favourite parts of the build, especially considerinf you barely see them in the end. This is probably the biggest difference detail wise between the UCS and this model. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr Next up was a very exciting sub-build, the cockpit. Getting to attach it this early on was pretty cool, considering you don't add it to the UCS build until right near the end. This part is actually built pretty similar to the UCS, which is fine because it's probably the best looking part of that model. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr Next up is a major addition: the mandibles. These pointy teeth thing that give the Falcon its iconic shape are built entirely with bricks on their side, which is completely different to the UCS and looks miles better. They were really satisfying to build, until we get to the side grebes, which are built on a long row of plates and attached rather sloppily with clicky hinges. Once you get them attached it's fine, but actually getting them to attach without just breaking was quite the challenge. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr Once you get the mandibles attached, which is also a bit of a challenge, the whole thing becomes very front heavy. Thankfully the next thing to build is the back half, which is perhaps the most unique part of the build. The basoc jist is you build a really long assembly out of 1x2 plates and other small parts, and then *bend* the whole thing to form a big semicircle. It's pretty scary bending it like that, but once you get it all secure it's fine, and the end result looks very proper. This assembly for the engines looks miles better than the UCS, but obviously something like this wouldn't fly in an official set. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr Then we build the hallway to the cockpit, which is a fun build and looks really good. It's just sitting on a 2x2 turntable to give it the angle. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr Next up we have to do all the underside detai. I decided to get it back on the vertical stand for this, which I definitely recommend doing if you're building it. The thing is, the stand doesn't actually connect to the Falcon, the ship just has a hole in it that it uses to sit on the stand, It feels sus as hell getting it on there, and has a tendency to rotate toward whichever side is more heavy, but it definitely won't come off easily. Getting some of the landing gear boxes attached was pretty hard, but in the end the reuslt looks great. Once I attached the landing feet I needed to get it back off the stand so I can do the interior and the rest. This was incredibly hard, but eventually I did it without destroying anything. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr Next on the agenda was the interior, but first I built the docking rings which I should've done ages ago. You're given 2 different options for these, and the one I chose ended up being super fragile, but man do they look good. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr Now the interior. It's bascially just a bunch of sub assemblies that are very loosely attached, but they all line up in a way where it ends up being fine once you're done. My favourite details are the chess area and the room with all the beds. At first I thought having black floors would make the whole thing look too clean for what is supposed to be a rickety ship, but it ends up looking pretty good. The curved hallways are made by bending a solid hose piece, which workes for the back part, but the ones in the front tended to just go back to being straight no matter how much I bent them. Oh well. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr Man it felt good to take it all in when I was done. Last step: all the top panels. This part feels a lot more familiar if you've built the UCS, it's pretty much the same techniques, just jazzed up to look better. The main improvement is the back details with the 6 vents, which on the UCS are made with 4x4 macaronis and end up being way oversized. The Brick Vault version uses a different build with some old wheel pieces and 6x6 dishes, which are the right size but I wasn't a fan of, so I ended up doing my own using the more recent 3x3 macaronis on a 6x6 round plate which give the right size while still looking pretty good. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr The build for the radar dish is pretty damn fragile too, but once again it does look good. UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr ...And we're done! UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr Verdict UCCS Millennium Falcon construction by SucramH, on Flickr It looks even better in person. After a month of building, the question is... was it worth it? For me, the answer is yes. A more important question is, should YOU build this? Well, if you're a mega fan of the Millennium Falcon, and the UCS set isn't enough for you, and you have a lot of disposable income, and plenty of time to dedicate to this, and you go in with the expectation that it's a really tough build, that is very fragile in a lot of places, then... sure. Brick Vault allows you to download the parts list without buying the instructions so you can see how much it'll cost you, so if you're considering it I recommend doing that. Hopefully this post has given you some insight into what it's like to build one of these. And now we circle back to the start of this journey. Is my quest for the perfect Millennium Falcon over? In some ways... yes. I still need to mount it on the stand, something I'm not looking forward to, and I plan on lighting up the back engines too, so when I do that I'll post an update. And as for after that, my next project is going to be a white and blue Falcon modelled after the Solo movie, but definitely at a smaller scale than this. And who knows, maybe I'll even have some modifications to make to this build, because when it comes to the Millennium Falcon, you're never truly finished. Buy the instructions for this build: https://www.brickvault.toys/en-au/products/millennium-falcon-minifig-scale Thanks for reading. Quote
Celeri Posted May 23, 2024 Posted May 23, 2024 (edited) A very interesting project, and well documented, thanks for the share! Even if I did not build any MF set yet (I am not really fan of SW in general and have too much Lego already so I cannot afford to let myself dive into SW theme), I can nonetheless see how much thought you put in this MOC and the vision you had in mind, especially in the front part and its very SNOTted design. I am sure many SW fans will be interested in building it! Edited May 23, 2024 by Celeri Quote
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