This folder contains pictures outlining the evolution of my custom Millennium Falcon from 1985 to it's current incarnation.
About this creation
These pictures detail the almost twenty year history of my favorite custom (of my favorite Sci-Fi ship), the Millennium Falcon. I've been making Star Wars LEGO customs religiously since 1983, and I decided in 1984 to try a Falcon. it didn't work out well, and I have no pictures of that first attempt. However, in 1985 I tried again, and while the result was multi-colored and incomplete (even using all my good plates, I was only able to build the front two-thirds), I was pretty happy with it. While I used to disassemble my customs in steps to draw reverse instructions so I could later easily rebuild them, the prospect was just too daunting with the Falcon, so I kept it assembled, hoping for the day that I could get enough pieces to complete it. I also held on to the pipe dream of maybe somehow aquiring enough grey to give it the proper coloring, and possibly even have my other customs built at the same time. well, that dream did come true, thanks to Ebay, Bricklink, and the fact that I no longer have to ask my parents for new LEGO!
The intro pic is a collage which gives a handy head-to-head reference detailing five major stages of the ship's evolution. The other pics show closer look at these stages (apologies for the poor quality of some of them, but it's the best that 1980s 110 film prints run through a scanner could get)! I hope the trip down my memory lane is at least a little bit fun and interesting, as building the ship and having it as a companion since I was a teenager has been quite an enjoyable journey...
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Well, I just learned the hard way that if you try to edit an MOCpages folder (in this case just to add a single letter to a misspelled word)while the Brickshelf folder that it links to is being newly moderated, you lose all pic links (even deeplinks) to that folder, as well as any text you had with those pics...AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!
So, starting over...here's the first pic I ever took of my Falcon, November 1985. As mentioned above, it was the second rendition of the ship (the first, a year earlier, was dismantled since I couldn't build anything else when all my good pieces were being used in the Falcon)! This time, I decided to keep it together and hope to keep accumulating more good pieces (both to build other customs and maybe someday to finish the missing rear section)!
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Early 1986 brought a reduction in red and an increase in grey pieces, but not much else is changed.
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A higher forward angle showing the overall proportions of the ship. Note that there are only two (one on each mandible) of the forward access bays at this point (plus they're square instead of the proper round). I was afraid that adding the second pair closer to the main body would weaken the already somewhat flimsy structure too much.
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A rare shot of the far side of the ship. Note the black axles used as support struts to keep the mandibles from sagging.
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The interior circa 1986. While there isn't much differentiation between the corridors and rooms, there are major features (lounge w/ holo table, main computer, and floor access bays) in place. Obviously, this area (like the rest of the ship) would need a lot more work...
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December 1986, and much of that work has been done. Grey has replaced almost every wrong color except the little red corner slopes and, of course all the blue slopes (it would take 16 years before they would be replaced)! The missing second access bays are now present, though still square. The wiring visible to the rear of the completed portion of the ship is for the LED lamps I placed within the ship (cockpit, hallway, and entry ramp). The power source at the time was 3 "AA" batteries using the battery compartment from an old handheld electronic game! Notice also that the upper quadgun viewport is incorrectly situated dead center in the larger round structure at the center of the ship. That would be corrected in...
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...this pic, an overhead view from about the same time. The viewport has now been properly shifted forward. Also, the black piece from the game mentioned above can be seen in the upper left, sitting atop the rear "box" structure which houses the rear landing gear. This unfinished rear section would remain the same, as the ship survived two 30 mile trips to Ann Arbor (well, the second time it didn't quite "survive" - more on that below), for the next ten years, until...
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...1996, and finally a complete ship! Having finally convinced my brother to give me his unused LEGO collection (actually, I offered to buy them, but he refused for years and then suddenly gave them to me for nothing), I was able to construct a workable rear section. That had to wait, however, until I rebuilt the entire existing front 2/3rds, after the above mentioned second trip to Ann Arbor (in the trunk of my car) ended with Han's legendary ship in pieces! What seemed like disaster at the time ended up being the best thing that could have happened, forcing me to rework and reinforce weak points, correct errors and fill in missing parts of the underside, and make the whole thing more structurally sound. For the first time, the ship was able to stand on it's 5 (or 7 if you count the rear double units as 2 each) landing legs, without any other support, with only minimal sagging of the front mandibles. Needless to say, it became a cool conversation piece at parties. Another new feature was the debut of my new cockpit solution, cut and painted from my old Kenner Falcon from the 3 3/4" action figure line. Purists my wince, but I've alwasy liked the look it gave, and have never found a satisfactory all-lego solution. Ironically, the Kenner Falcon's stunted proportions and improperly small scale was what inspired me to build my own in LEGO in the first place, 12 years earlier!
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A lower side view, showing the entry ramp, which has remained essentially the same throughout all the other changes the ship has gone through. Notice the "imperial scanning crew" classic space minifigs carrying their crate towards the ramp, and the grey "gonk" power droid.
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A straight side view just added when I had to redo this page. The single most common question I get about this custom is "how did you make the plates curve?" The answer: very carefully! ;)
Seriously, though, it was all trial and error with a combination of brick and plate-type hinges, and was especially difficult for the rear section, as there wasn't much for the hull to attach to except itself. At the time, it made the rear top section hard to remove, so I never bothered to fully detail the rear interior.
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A rare shot of the elusive rear, showing my take on the engine array (remember, this was before the ANH special edition hit theatres and showed us the true appearance of the Falcon's engine matrix as it powered up to blast away from docking bay 94.
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A higher angle. The "round" appearance of the rear was basically an optical illusion using classic large and small wing pieces. I'd spent years trying to get the front all grey, and now I was back to the ship's roots with a multicolored rear section.
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Straight rear shot, again highlighting the old calssic space rocket pieces I used as engines.
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An angle of the Falcon I've always liked, similar to the shot of the ship as it touches down on Cloud city.
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I'm always concerned with getting customs to look as good as possible from as many angles as possible. This one has it's problems, but overall it works.
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A shot of the ship with the then current renditions of some of my other old customs, my X-wing and Snowspeeder. On of my dreams as a kid was to someday be able to build all my Star Wars customs at the smae time, instead of having to tear apart the Falcon to build the Shuttle, or tear the Shuttle apart to build my X- and Y-wings, etc. It seemed like it would never happen with the Falcon monopolizing all my best pieces, but slowly I accumulated enough to make it happen (one great thing about being an adult is not having to ask your parents for more LEGO)!
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The interior in 1996. Better than 10 years earlier, but still a mishmash of colors and needing a more refined layout. The shiny objects to the left of the main hold are 9 volt batteries, now used to power the interior LED lights mentioned above (they had to be almost depleted 9 volts, though, as new ones would fry an LED in seconds).
Notice that after all the changes to the ship, those blasted blue slope pieces were still messing up the exterior color scheme...until...
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...2001. Finally, all grey! Thanks to Bricklink and an Ebay dealer who sold me 200 2x2 inverted grey slopes (my holy grail of LEGO pieces) for just $10, I finally realized this dream. Completed in a neurotic series of all-nighters in the months before my daughter was born (I feared I might never have time to do it after becoming a father), the color fixing also included more reworking of the underside as well as a more smooth curve to the cockpit and new side docking hatch structures. Dark grey adds some nice highlights as well.
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A front view showing the more rounded profile of the cockpit, top and bottom.
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A view of the Falcon not unlike how we first see her, in docking bay 94. Note the missing plates on the underside, showing that the renovation was still a work in progress (as it would end up remaining even to this day).
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2002. A new color, dark red, adds an even better touch to the dark grey. The upper hull remains essentially the same to this day (though it's currently in limbo as an upside-down mess since I had to move in the midst of a (hopefully) final fix-up of the underside's problems (see my "Falcon Renovation In Progress" page for pics). The only major change to the top is to lengthen the long "jawbox" (as Robert Brown calls it) structure to extend two studs further forward between the mandibles. Hopefully I'll be able to take pics of the fully reassembled ship soon.
TO BE CONTINUED... :)
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Comments
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I like it |
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April 26, 2012 |
This is amazing. I see people putting lights in a UCS Falcon and building UCS Falcons from bricklink all day long, but I have an utmost respect for builds like yours. It's built with sheer ingenuity, talent, and time. These are the best builds in my opinion. I wish more people could appreciate this as I do... Excellent work ny friend! |
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I like it |
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January 9, 2012 |
one of the best millenium falcons on the internet 5/5 |
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I like it |
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July 29, 2009 |
First off, wow Jordan Williams that's not a nice comment to be making!
I personally think he did an excellent job! The millenium Falcon is a very very difficult ship to build out of legos and obviously since he spend 20 years slowly working it he was spending time with his daughter! There's nothing wrong with building legos as an adult. Grow up kid and leave this guy alone. |
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I like it |
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April 6, 2008 |
cool. please look at my stuff. |
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I like it |
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November 27, 2007 |
very good. see my stuff. w the dark red it looks alot like the UCS millenium falcon |
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I like it |
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June 27, 2007 |
now thats what I call progressive! nice job over such a long span of time. I would have trashed the thing a week after building it the first time! lol |
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I like it |
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February 8, 2006 |
The final version is awesome! Better than the official set! |
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I like it |
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February 8, 2006 |
Ha! George Lucas' used universe... well, until the Prequels came along with all their shiny always-brand-new ships. Heh. Anyways, this is simply an amazing thing you've posted here. Who else has a current custom with such a great history? Every version of the ship impresses me, actually, especially the old ones when pieces weren't much available for this kind of job. You sir, were a very abitious person. Keep it up! |
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I like it |
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February 8, 2006 |
Sweet! I really like how you show the growth of this MOC over the years. And it is the best Falcon I have seen yet. MOC of the Day too! |
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I like it |
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January 10, 2005 |
Wow That Is The Best Custom Lego Millenium Falcon I Have Seen It Could Do With A Better Cockpit Though Apart From That It Is Amazing. |
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I like it |
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November 29, 2003 |
Thank you for showing this to us. It gives people like me hope that someday i can have a model as awe inspiring as that... |
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I like it |
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November 3, 2003 |
Very good. I could never do better. Nice! |
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I like it |
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September 19, 2003 |
I cannot believe that since 1985 you have not accquired a single review. I truly am sorry.
But let me be the first to congradulate you on such a masterpiece, over a decade old. Did you ever intend for it to take so long? I really do think you made the right decision; waiting this long, now with new pieces available, you can upgrade and better suit your wants and needs in creating the ultimate Millenium Falcon, which is to say the least already.
Here I sit, in but my sixteenth year, amazed at such craftsmanship; I could only hope for skills such as yours in my comming years. I praise thee. |
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