Favorite Falcon

[Fallenangel]

Well, my vote was for the 10179 "truescale" Millennium Falcon (most accurate) but...

I completely agree with what afosl said about LEGO Star Wars in general - parts change, and it's near impossible to compare old to new. Each rendition of the legendary ship has its own good qualities and bad qualities. For that reason, the original 7190 is second, over the 4504, over the mini, and yes, over the 10179. The original LEGO Millennium Falcon had a bunch of nice minifigures, lots of play features (though difficult to play with), lots of minifigure tools, big radar dish pieces. It represents the uniquity that was the pre-2001 LEGO Star Wars line and should not be trashed in favor of the newer 4504.

In fact, the 4504 is my least favorite LEGO Millennium Falcon. I confess I don't like halfhearted rehashes (6212 X-wing must die), but that's only a part of it. The main thing is that it looks too... cartoony. The mandibles are horrendously undersized while the cockpit is enormous and somewhat phallic. And I'm still getting used to pale LEGO minifigures. And all those stickers are very annoying - I remember most of the sets at that time still had mostly printed pieces. The snowtrooper with the clone torso brings up another issue; buying a $100 set for the sake of two rare minifigures (and the prices on bricklink were, I recall, outrageous.) '04 I think was one of the few times LEGO even attempted to incorporate accuracy into System sets and, being a children's toy company, they didn't do that well.

My true favorite? None other than the groundbreaking 7778 Midi-scale Millennium Falcon. First, the size; it's a brilliant new scale that really allows for a lot of creativity in design while keeping a low price range. What's more, it doesn't include new minifigures (which might have been expensive molded minifigures, mind you), keeping the price down and the bricklink price even lower; it's very solid and is quite playable. It's also one of the only two LEGO Millennium Falcon sets to include the quadlaser cannon on the underside of the ship - a landmark feature, in my opinion. The design, too, is a relief; in an age where LEGO is becoming more and more like Hasbro, an old-school, plate-on-plate build with minimal Technic use is refreshing.