Flandy

This is a great MOC, I love how different it is from the more recent T-65's. I've been messing with a 9493 and it's turning out ok, but your nose shaping looks interesting.

That makes sense, piece count can be an indication of size/value, but not always.

Hee hee! These are great fun! Nice work on the mining guild tie, very accurate!

I've always wondered about that, why don't we all get the piece count?

Sadly I don't expect arm printing in star wars sets except in UCS, or hard to get polybags. It's an irritating policy from TLG given the quality of figures in other themes. That said, the sets themselves are the big draw for me, the minifigs are a bonus, but it'd be nice if they were a bigger bonus!

I have the best luck on ebay, just got the tie striker for £13 less than in stores with free shipping. Auctions with odd ending times, or being online shortly after a buy it now is listed are when the bargains are had most often. Stores are very hit and miss, but the occasional bargain can be had.

In fairness, Ewan Mcgregor doesn't look anything like Sir Alec Guiness, but he was one of the few good things about the prequels, and was the basis for the Obi Wan in the Clone wars. Initially you reject it when a different actor plays a younger version of an established character, but in a short time you tend to just go with it. It's kind of sad that River Phoenix isn't around to play the part, having already played a younger Harrison in Indiana Jones and the last crusade. On the other hand, Anthony Ingruber played a young Harrison in the movie "The age of adeline" (good movie btw) and was incredibly convincing:

It's not like there is any similarity between Harrison Ford and his lego figure, and the only similarity between Billy Dee Williams and his lego figure is the mustache! Assuming Young Lando will be sporting a similar mustache, I think the existing face prints would do fine, but they'll probably update them with different expressions.

Sorry to hear that, it sounds like you got something a plate out or out of line. I've done exactly the same to both x-wings and although the wings sometimes catch on closing, it just requires a tap to knock them back into line. I will admit the rubber band tension is high and it is a pain to get it all to fall into place, but if you persevere it does work. This requires more parts than are in the kit. if you follow the step by step pics you can see what you need. I never did a parts tally, I just raided the spares boxes, and ordered a few bits (mostly cosmetic rather than structural). The wing tension is about right, they don't flap about and they don't seem to overload the mechanism. As I've said before, this mod compromises the strength of the original for greater accuracy. The finished model is not as rugged as the original, but unless you're 8 and swooshing it around constantly, it's not going to fall to bits. Treat it more as a display piece.

That would be great! I always like building stuff straight out of the box, I find it quite relaxing, laying all the parts out and going through the instructions, but once it's done, I'm all for MOC/MODing!

You're gonna need a hell of a shelf for that one! (and maybe a new house!)

Got the Tie striker today for £12 under RRP with free delivery on ebay.

I love this, it looks exactly how the Lego set should look. Does it owe much to the original sets construction or is it from scratch? I only ask as I have the official set but haven't built it yet and now seeing yours I can't imagine ever being satisfied with it built box stock!

I think this years Christmas tree might have to benefit from one of these! I love it!

You're probably right, which is a bit silly since the kids buying/being given the set have almost certainly seen him get chopped up in the movie. I know my 11 and 9 year old nephews thought it was "cool" when Obi Wan chopped his arm and legs off and he caught fire! They don't seem particularly sadistic, and as he was at the time a bad guy and had just come from killing kids at the Jedi temple, I think they figured he had it coming.

I think it was more a question of a ship that's essenially solar powered being as much use as a chocolate fire guard at night!

Looking back over previous packaging, has it ever been an indicator of future sets? Have LEGO been leaving easter eggs and we've not been paying attention?

Absolutely superb! I understand TLG is bringing out another Y-wing next year but it's unlikely to hold a candle to this one! Love it!

Oooooh bonus! I better go clean the dust off mine and order some!

Looking forward to building mine, they look awesome, but I want to complete purchasing the wave and then wait for that perfect rainy weekend!

I'm talking beyond Star wars fandom, there are no ships from the prequels, no matter how well designed and rendered in the movies, that people can name easily. The OT main ships have expanded beyond the Star wars franchise, and into the general populations conciousness, in much the same way as the Enterprise has. There are bottle openers and mugs and T-shirts and well, you name it (Lucas cashed in big time!) but if there is any for the prequel vessels, it's to a massively reduced level.

I believe it's a "won't totally choke your kid" modification

Because there are no truly iconic ships in the prequels. Ask a none Star Wars fan to name a ship from the original films and they'll say Tie fighter, X-wing, Millennium Falcon etc, but do the same for the prequels and they struggle to decribe one, let alone name one. Hell I'm a fan and I've seen the prequels and I struggle to remember what the ships are called, there seemed to be alot more and they were rarely in the same one for more than half a movie.

Agree on all points, Those are THE ships that are most iconic and 40 years old (not counting the x-wing and tie that we've had recently) I cannot imagine they'd go for any prequel sets when they're currently riding high on the new films, and the original movies are so iconic and beloved.

Being born in 1978 there are two things that I had as absolute constants growing up, and those were Star Wars and Lego. I love both and I'm sure many can relate to the comfortable feeling of familiarity and excitement when watching the movies, or when a large box of unsorted Lego is present on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I think my very first lego was a Fabuland car that I was bought as a very young child. I managed not to swallow any of it, so presumably my parents thought I might be ok with Lego, and while there may have been some sets in between, the next set I remember getting was the legendary 928 Galaxy Explorer, though there must have been some others before that. Probably up to the age of about 14-15 I collected lego, mainly space and town stuff, with some trains, but towards the end it was all technic. The classic black chassis with the flat 4 engine, the Red supercar with the pop up headlights and V4, and the yellow JCB style digger. But then Cars took over. Lego had given me a great start, and led me to love all things mechanical and designing and building things, and a love of cars had developed, so i spent the next 20 years modifying cars. Fast forward to Christmas 2015 and having seen The Force Awakens, My G/F decided it'd be nice to buy me The Millenium Falcon as a cool gift. How right she was. I think the Early Lego Star Wars releases were pretty shonky looking, so even though I'd seen them on shelves, and even bought my Nephews sets, they'd failed to rekindle my Lego tendencies, but the Falcon really worked a treat. I'm not sure she'd have bought it if she knew how the Lego would have taken over, but the cat's out of the bag now, and I've been buying most of what's out there, finding older sets I've missed out on, and discovered the joys (and frustrations it has to be said!) of Bricklink. Given that so far it's been 9 months and the sets have taken over the shelves in the living room, and the spares trays are expanding exponentially, I think I'm going to need to build an extention on the house.........