25 replies to this topic

[TheBrickster]

As the fastest flying falcon in the Star Wars galaxy, LEGO has offered a number of superb Millenium Falcons.

ALL THINGS CONSIDERED (design, playability, size, piece, selection, color, price) which is your favorite?

[Clone O'Patra]

Nice poll Brickster!

My favorite has to be the 4504, the second system-scaled falcon.  I only own the original (7190), but I have seen and held the 4504 and just from pictures I can declare it my favorite.

Here are my reasons why the 4504 beats out all the other Falcons:

1. 7190, the original Falcon, it a poorly designed set.  I got it when it came out, and that was one set that you had to be really careful with.  The floorboards came apart easily, and if it got dropped, there would be nothing left.  Also, there are some ugly gaps between the lift-off roof and the rest of the body.  The interior is pretty drab too; it's basically like one plain room.  Sure, I was excited to get it at the time, and it introduced a bunch of Star Wars figures for the first time, but it's a brittle, not-well-detailed set.

2. Midi and mini scale just don't do it for me.  I guess they look cute and can be swooshed, and the midi one has nice detailing, but they lack any other playability and can't deliver any cool figures.  They're affordable, but I wouldn't want to waste the money.

3.  The UCS has two faults: too expensive, and little interior.  It certainly is a beautiful model, and the figures included are excellent too, but it's simply too much money to spend on LEGO.  While the exterior is greatly detailed, there are only two spots for figures in the interior,  which is a shame.


The 4504, on the other hand, has:
-cool minifigures that were new (in flesh) or rare (only one other set with a Snowtrooper) at the time of release.
-a better roof system than 7190 that eliminates gaps.
-a more cramped, but still better detailed interior than 7190 including a colorful engine generator.  The cramped feel also makes it more realistic to the Falcon in the movies, instead of the big open room that is 7190.
-the added play features of a real escape pod (as opposed to the ludicrous space buggy in 7190) and LEGO's first try at an e-web.
-the same price as 7190 ($100 U.S.), but is a much better set.

One of the only problems was that the Snowtrooper came with a Clonetrooper torso instead of the correct one.

[blhc11]

i think there's already a topic like this in eurobricks, none the less my favorite is the 4504

[Commander Red Hat]

UCS for me, I think it is the closest to minifig scale.  

[Galaxy Explorer]

Wow! You really got my attention- what a great topic! I don't post as much as I'd like, but seeing all those Falcons together just flooded me with nostalgia, so I thought I'd chime in. I voted for 4504, because it is my favorite of the three that I own(the others being 7190 and the MINI). I didn't get the UCS Falcon because of space limitations, and I haven't picked up the MIDI yet, but I don't want to miss it. I think the reason my favorite is the 4504 is that it really looks like the Falcon! I remember a review at FBTB that said it truely looked like a bucket of bolts and I couldn't agree more. It's the one I always assemble when I want to display a Falcon. I'ts big enough to get a guest's attention and small enough to fit on a nice bookshelf(although I would like to see someone's face reacting to the UCS in a home). The play features were pretty cool- I loved the automatic ramp and the hyperdrive section was a nice addition, considering it was a major plot-point in ESB. Which brings me to a big reason I like the 4504- It's based on ESB, and in that film, the Millennium Falcon is a true movie star! I could go on for days ranting about all that, but I'll get back to the 4504. Obviously, the mini-figs contribute to the ESB feeling, but I think the model actually looks "faster" than the others. It's probably the awesome Original Trilogy Box art influencing my opinion. However, I got this set in a blue box, so my fixation was already there. I also enjoy the history of this set- I remember all the on-line speculation about this set when pictures showed up on the back of the box of Cloud City. People thought the cockpit only held one mini-fig, and I don't think many people knew it was going to be Hoth-themed. This was also, I believe, the first Star Wars set to include flesh-colored mini-figs. But I'll leave that can of worms alone. 2004 was also a great year for SW fans- The OT was finally released on DVD, the Clone Wars was enjoying a second season, and ROTS was really going to happen! The release of 4504 just added feul to that fire. Now, don't get me wrong- I love all my LEGO Millennium Falcons, and I'm aware 4504 has it's flaws(Don't swoosh it too hard). It's just that I love this one the best!

[brickfoot]

I Own the UCS and 4505 but I love detail so i gotta go with the UCS Falcon.

[cavegod]

ucs for me as the others apart from the midi are just plain crap!

[Burman]

For me it would have to be 4504. A great designed set with a good interior. The Mid- Scaled version is good as well.

[Walter Kovacs]

I only own two of the five available sets (the MINI and the original), and out of those tow, the MINI is my favorite.  The original is just too fragile to be very swooshable.  

But my vote went to the UCS version.  The details on that set are amazing.  Sure, there's no interior, but who wouldn't want over 5000 bricks of awesome LEGO goodness.

[prateek]

4504 is my favourite for sure. The other ones are too big, too small, or too ugly

[lightningtiger]

Yep, 4504 I wish I had one !
Hope Lego bring out a new one based around this one again.
Keep on bricking !

[Brickus]

The UCS one is by far the best designed, and my favourite, but for playability the Hoth Trooper one.

[ILikePi]

Just a quick note TheBrickster; you missed the bag charm Millennium Falcon.

Based on others' reviews and looking through the online instructions, my favorite Falcon (although I don't own any of the sets) would have to be 4504. The interior is fully furnished, and it's in a manageable size, unlike the UCS version. However, if the UCS one did have a complete interior (like this or this), it would definitely be my most favorite one.

Oops! I clicked "add reply" instead of "preview post". Editing...  Fixed!
EDIT: Never mind about the bag charm being missing from the poll; looks like someone added it for you after my post!

Edited by ILikePi, 10 May 2010 - 04:14 AM.

[brickme]

I like the Mid-Scale Falcon for numerous reasons
1) This is the only "current" falcon that will not break the wallet.
2) It's swooshable, sturdy, and detailed nicely.
3) It is a FUN build. (favorite one so far)
4) It is an all-around better set.
*Loads gun for when the Midi-scale haters come around*

[TheBrickster]

Clone O'Patra, on May 9 2010, 12:52 PM, said:

Nice poll Brickster!

Thanks.  Glad you like it.

blhc11, on May 9 2010, 12:54 PM, said:

i think there's already a topic like this in eurobricks

I actually searched for a similar topic thinking that favorite MF may have been discussed before, but could not locate one.  I don't frequent the SW forum very often, but if there is a similar topic, I'm okay w/ this being merged/added to the original.

Galaxy Explorer, on May 9 2010, 01:52 PM, said:

Wow! You really got my attention- what a great topic! I don't post as much as I'd like, but seeing all those Falcons together just flooded me with nostalgia, so I thought I'd chime in.

Excellent!  It's interesting to read your thoughts.  I like to create polls like this, especially when the collection spans many years.

ILikePi, on May 9 2010, 06:21 PM, said:

EDIT: Never mind about the bag charm being missing from the poll; looks like someone added it for you after my post!

That would be me.    I had considered originally adding but thought it was getting pretty "low on the totem".  

brickme, on May 9 2010, 06:27 PM, said:

I like the Mid-Scale Falcon for numerous reasons

It's neat to see votes for other than System sets.  I suppose LEGO did a really nice job on the design if the Midi.  I have seen it in the stores, but didn't want to buy since it's not minifig scale.  It is a pretty nice set though - esp. for 'swooshing'.

[M'Kyuun]

Clone O'Patra, on May 9 2010, 07:52 PM, said:

Nice poll Brickster!

My favorite has to be the 4504, the second system-scaled falcon.  I only own the original (7190), but I have seen and held the 4504 and just from pictures I can declare it my favorite.

Here are my reasons why the 4504 beats out all the other Falcons:

1. 7190, the original Falcon, it a poorly designed set.  I got it when it came out, and that was one set that you had to be really careful with.  The floorboards came apart easily, and if it got dropped, there would be nothing left.  Also, there are some ugly gaps between the lift-off roof and the rest of the body.  The interior is pretty drab too; it's basically like one plain room.  Sure, I was excited to get it at the time, and it introduced a bunch of Star Wars figures for the first time, but it's a brittle, not-well-detailed set.

2. Midi and mini scale just don't do it for me.  I guess they look cute and can be swooshed, and the midi one has nice detailing, but they lack any other playability and can't deliver any cool figures.  They're affordable, but I wouldn't want to waste the money.

3.  The UCS has two faults: too expensive, and little interior.  It certainly is a beautiful model, and the figures included are excellent too, but it's simply too much money to spend on LEGO.  While the exterior is greatly detailed, there are only two spots for figures in the interior,  which is a shame.


The 4504, on the other hand, has:
-cool minifigures that were new (in flesh) or rare (only one other set with a Snowtrooper) at the time of release.
-a better roof system than 7190 that eliminates gaps.
-a more cramped, but still better detailed interior than 7190 including a colorful engine generator.  The cramped feel also makes it more realistic to the Falcon in the movies, instead of the big open room that is 7190.
-the added play features of a real escape pod (as opposed to the ludicrous space buggy in 7190) and LEGO's first try at an e-web.
-the same price as 7190 ($100 U.S.), but is a much better set.

One of the only problems was that the Snowtrooper came with a Clonetrooper torso instead of the correct one.

Clone summed it up best for me. I own all versions, and while the UCS is a great model, it lacks the playability and interior of 4504, plus it's just plain huge, dwarfing all the other System capital ships.  4504 is just an overall excellent set with a novel solution to creating the roof contour while still permitting easy access to the interior. It comes with a snowtrooper   and e-web, which is a bonus.

I'll second that 7190 was pretty crappy, overall. It was a big deal at the time, b/c we waited a number of years for a Falcon, so perhaps the fulfillment of wish trumped criticism...at first. I remember being pretty disappointed with at after i built it. IIRC, the use of blue and red bricks for various structures and such show blatantly in the finished model, exacerbating its already prevailing yuckiness.  I absolutely hate TLG's insistence on using primary colors in an other wise grey or dark colored model, esp when those colors can be seen. Red and blue show up in the (non-walking) AT-AT, as well. Grrrr

[RileyC]

Yeah Clone O' Patra definitely summed it all up. I definitely prefer playability and features.  The UCS falcon is just too big. Sure its really really awesome but with no interior and the huge price tag just cant justify buying it for me. 4504 is a good mix. Its big enough for a great interior and has some good features. Now if only I could add this set to my collection

[drdavewatford]

I have all of these, and it's really gotta be the UCS. That baby is beautiful. Midi scale in second place because it's genuinely swooshable and actually looks like the MF despite the relatively low piece count.

The others are too inaccurate for my liking, particularly 7190.

The argument that 4504 and 7190 have a vaguely usable interior is bogus in my opinion - my house has an interior, but I don't see anybody voting for that..... Point being that an inaccurate model with an interior doesn't really cut it !

Dr. D.

[M'Kyuun]

I don't think 4504 is that inaccurate. It's a good compromise between playability, shaping, and getting the major details of the ship, which i think they did well. The price would have swelled had it been greebled out along the sides and on the the upper and lower surfaces, along with other details. i don't remember now if it had the lower cannon.

I've seen some nice mods to the set, which really fleshed it out and added much more detail than TLG  could afford to for the price point. I think the set stands on its own, but the beauty of LEGO is that it can be changed if you have the parts, time, and imagination.

The UCS set is a gorgeous rendition of the Falcon, and comes closest to both realistic scale and overall detail, but it's a 5000+ piece behemoth that's more of a model than a playset. Since the majority of the sets are "System scale", designed around the minifig, generally much, much smaller than they should be scalewise, and designed as playsets, the 4504 just fits in better, and it actually offers more interior room than most of the capital ships thus far. Interior matters, Dr. D., oh, yes, it matters!  

But, it's interesting to see why you all favor one version over another, and it's pretty cool that we have a pretty nice range of sizes and detail levels to chose from as well.

Edited by M'Kyuun, 10 May 2010 - 09:45 AM.

[Raphy]

4504 for pure classic awesomeness and playability but for realisticness and minifigure-scale-ness the UCS would do.

[Big Cam]

It sounds like a cop out answer but I have to go with the UCS version, simply becasue it's the most detailed adn just looks the best.

Granted I have never owned any of them, I've seen a few in person adn the UCS one just blew my mind and I really wanted but I have never been able to convince the wife to let me spend over $200 on a single set.

[omot]

Big Cam, on May 10 2010, 04:17 PM, said:

[...] and I really wanted but I have never been able to convince the wife to let me spend over $200 on a single set.

Yeah, Big Cam, it's a desaster: at the beginning of my LSW-Story I told my wife, that the UCS-MF would be the only set to buy ... tricky for myself: now we have a "small" room, ' is called "the lego adventure hall"  

I vote for the UCS-solution, the detailled One ...

[Courleciel]

As for me, the 4504 is the best !
The minifigs, the size, all is perfect in this Falcon.

[afosl]

I've only ever owned the one Falcon - 7190, and since I've only ever seen pictures of the others (except the UCS at a Star Wars Celebration exhibit in London), I can't fully comment on them.
7190 was the first Star Wars Lego kit that I owned, and the first Lego kit I had owned in 12 years.  It brought me out of my dark times and was the beginning of my collection in 2000.
For what Lego was at the time, 7190 was very impressive and I instantly liked it and shrugged off all the inaccuracies, the primary colours on show, the weird craft/escape pod/thing sitting inside, no corridor to the cockpit, and various other bits and pieces.  None of it really mattered.  
I loved that Lego were now making Star Wars sets, regardless of how they looked, they were just cool.  Things in 7190 that instantly excited me were the little details - the printed quarter disc pieces that make up most of the ship, the radar dish, the headlights, the blue tube that makes up the exhaust, the hidden compartments, the game table, and of course my first ever Lego Star Wars characters.  Who could resist?  I must have stared at them for ages, before starting to build the ship.  I loved the head mould and body printing for Threepio, even though his colour was too pale.  He was probably my favourite of the early minifigures.  And to see Leia's hair buns rendered this small was a joy.  Ditto for the rest of the figures.  It was all good.

Of course, designs have improved in time, and the newer falcon - 4504 does look like an improvement to an extent.  The thing that bugged me when comparing pictures of the two falcons, was the size of the cockpit on 4504.  It's too big, and looks a bit out of place to my eye.  The rest of 4504 needed to be bigger to bring the cockpit into scale.  But Lego were otherwise on the right track with the falcon redesign.  We'll probably see another one if the licence continues beyond 2011, and it'll be even better than the last two minifig scale Falcons.

To be honest, I tend to divide Lego kits and their redesigns after a certain point. In 2002 the Lego brick changed.  There were a lot of new elements and colours introduced that year, and all of the redesigns since have taken advantage of that.  
An extreme case in point would be the Slave 1 - 7144 compared to 6209 or 7153, the first Slave 1 to take advantage of the new elements.  To compare the old ship with the new ones is almost unfair.  How can it compete?
Therefore I look at the two minifig scale Falcons in the same way, and forgive 7190 for looking the way it does, and having the colours it does, as at the time some ships in the star wars universe just didn't lend themselves well to the Lego brick of the day at that scale or price point.  Things are better now and bricks seem more designed to fit the ship, rather than the other way around, as it was originally done.

The UCS, midi and mini versions are in a league of their own and naturally have different qualities about them that make it hard or unfair to compare.  You need some kind of class structure or else you end up racing hares against tortoises and that isn't right.

But saying all that, I am probably taking it a bit too seriously.  It's Lego, and it's meant to be fun, like this poll.  For mostly sentimental reasons, I choose 7190 as my favourite falcon so far.  Should I get my hands on another Falcon design, I'll have more to go on and it'll be a fairer fight in my mind.

[Klaus-Dieter]

That's a great and very interesting topic, TheBrickster!

I voted for

4504 Hoth Trooper Version

since this is the only one I own and the only one I really like.
It includes a (more or less) decent interior and the exterior is fairly detailed (at least for my needs) and there are some great minifigs included (at least at the time when it was released - since at this time Hoth Han and Hoth Leia were completely new).

But if TLG releases a new regular MF, I hope that the interior (esp. the place around the chessboard) is more detailed and that it is episode 3 style - with General Calrissian, Nien Numb, a Rebel mechanic and a small maintenance vehicle.


Klaus-Dieter