Lego Star Wars: Millennium Falcon review

The Lego Star Wars Millennium Falcon (75257) is a bit of a modern legend at this point. By the time of its possible retirement at the end of 2024, it’ll have been a mainstay of the Lego Star Wars line-up for a whopping five years. It’s been a go-to for anybody who cannot justify the mega expenditure of the UCS Millennium Falcon (75192) – one of the biggest Lego sets ever made – and is the sixth playset-scale Millennium Falcon Lego has released, since introducing the ship way back in 2000.

You’d think Lego would have a hard time improving upon the iconic Falcon sets that have come before it. But with huge leaps in build techniques, molding, and printing, over the years, each iteration has brought with it a raft of subtle changes to refine the Falcon formula. And despite its age, this fine playset looks so good, it’s still one of the best Lego sets for adults and padawan learners, alike, and of course one of the best Star Wars Lego sets overall too.

The set itself is themed around the Millennium Falcon’s appearance in The Rise of Skywalker. But unlike the movie’s decidedly mixed reception, there’s an awful lot to like, whether you’re an Original Trilogy stalwart or a sequel buff. And while its higher-end price point, for casual collectors, certainly omits it from being one of the best cheap Lego sets in the galaxy, if any set is worth splurging out on, “it’s the ship that made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs…”.

Specs

Lego Star Wars: Millennium Falcon specs:

Design

You don’t refine the same Lego playset six times in nearly two decades, without ending up with something special. As far as I’m concerned, this Millennium Falcon sits right up there with the best Lego Star Wars starship playsets of all time and is objectively the best Millennium Falcon playset Lego has ever made. If you don’t have the cash to splash on the magnificent UCS Millennium Falcon, this set is by no means a consolation prize and will still look magnificent on the shelf. And if you’re buying it for a padawan, they’ll have a blast with the full interior and decent selection of minifigures.

The key design upgrade is, of course, the hinged top plates. Go back to the most recent Falcons (75105 and 75212) and you’ll find a whopping 12 and 11 hinged plates respectively. The result is a slightly awkward pizza-slice aesthetic with a plethora of unsightly gaps that’s plagued Millennium Falcon playsets ever since the 2004 incarnation. Compare that to this latest model’s five-hinged top plates and I’d never want to go back. This design streamlines the entire ship’s aesthetic with far fewer gaps and a much more rounded top section.

The rear (including the sublight engines) is another area to have received an upgrade. Previous Falcons have used blue tubbing to represent the thrusters, but Lego has chosen to use rows of 1 x 2 transparent blue tiles instead. The result is a much thicker band of blue, which better replicates the prototype. The interior is much more spacious than 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story Millennium Falcon (75212) and is much more akin to 2015’s The Force Awakens Falcon (75105). The new swiveling captain’s chair is a marked improvement, but I do feel that the 2015 Falcon’s rear exterior is more detailed, with a better-looking hyperdrive.

Playability features include a removable gun turret seat that slides into the central gun well. An access ramp that opens just below the left-hand docking ring. A hidden smuggler’s compartment at the rear of the ship. And a spring-loaded shooter on each front fork, activated by pushing a finger into the front circular openings. But the size of the interior is the real winner here. The cockpit can just about fit two standard minifigures as well as D-O. But the rest of the ship provides ample space for ‘figs’, perfect for hours of play.

It’s relatively sturdy for such a large playset, too. Sure, you have to be careful with details such as the turrets and radar dish being prone to pop off, but you can happily pick this ship up and fly it around the room without accident, so long as you’re sensible.

Minifigures

A roster of seven minifigures matches recent Millennium Falcon playset incarnations, although it’s a bit of a push calling the miniscule D-O a minifig. The highlights are Lando Calrissian and Boolio, both exclusive to this set. Lando looks resplendent in his yellow garb, soft-goods cape, and collar. He only features torso and back printing but boasts two faces and a fine-looking hairpiece. Boolio is a fun addition, with a fantastic head sculpt, torso (front and back), hips, and leg printing. For serious minifigure collectors, these two figures are reason enough alone to invest in this set.

Finn is another interesting figure, given that this incarnation is only available in one other set, the long-discontinued Sith TIE Fighter (75272). He features two faces, torso (front and back), hip and leg printing, as well as a satchel. Chewbacca, R2-D2 and C-3PO are all relatively old figures at this point. Chewbacca has featured in a whopping 18 sets. Messy bandolier printing aside, he’s merely a satisfactory figure in 2024, but it’s nice to have Chewie in a Falcon playset, regardless.

R2-D2 still looks decent given his age and will appear virtually unchanged from the latest sets. However, this aging incarnation’s printing isn’t as crisp as nearly identical newer figures and – as always – it’s a lottery as to whether you get even dome printing (mine is skewed). Despite 3PO’s age, the droid still looks great, with crisp torso (front and back), hip and leg printing. Overall, this is a decent line-up that has something for original- and sequel-trilogy lovers alike.

Ease of assembly

Lego Millennium Falcon playsets have been refined over the years, but you have to go all the way back to the 2000 original to find the most substantial aesthetic changes to the exterior. And although this Falcon boasts one of the biggest changes in years, the build will still be mighty familiar to anyone who’s put together any incarnation from 2004 onwards.

The chunky instructions booklet begins by piecing together a sturdy, Technic chassis and laying down some large plates to form the base of the ship’s hull. Various interior details are next, including the cockpit, before moving on to the sublight engines. You then build up the gun well in the center of the ship, flanked by the two corridors that lead to the docking rings. The back exterior of the cockpit and angled corridor are then built up, with more interior details, the docking rings and a largely Technic support for the front forks. Top and bottom turrets, an access ramp, landing gear, and a smuggling hatch are then fitted, before moving onto the front forks and finally, the hinged top plates and sliding front plate.

The Millennium Falcon isn’t a particularly challenging build as there aren’t many complicated Technic contraptions. But where the Falcon’s difficulty ramps up for youngsters is the repetition involved. There’s always a fair amount of repetition when building a largely symmetrical spaceship. But multiple top plates and the modular nature of the wrap-around edge sections, plus the two-tiered front fork sections, make this Corellian light freighter more repetitive than most. While the Millennium Falcon is one of the most fun Lego Star Wars sets to play with, the construction will certainly test younger brick builders.

The set features 27 stickers in total. This is a lot, but not as many as some. As much as I loathe stickers, they are a necessary evil. Printed bricks are always preferred, but stickers provide a cheaper alternative and with this set’s respectable pricing, the number of stickers here seems fair. Printed bricks, however, are thin on the ground. Namely, the Dejarik table that was famously introduced in A New Hope, a 1 x 2 sloped cockpit panel, and the gorgeous printed cockpit, with printed front dish.

Pricing

The Millennium Falcon is priced at $169.99 (£149.99), which places it at the top end of consumer playsets. However, you can regularly find it with a healthy discount off the RRP. Even then, at full price, you’re getting a price-per-piece ratio of 12.6¢ / 11.1p, which is decent for a Lego Star Wars set.

• As with any license such as Lego Mario sets, expect to pay a slight premium for Star Wars Lego sets
• If you were only ever going to buy one big Lego Star Wars playset, it might as well be the Millennium Falcon
• It looks like the Millennium Falcon will join other retiring Lego sets at the end of 2024, and prices will likely increase once it’s been discontinued
• Youngsters will have hours of fun building and playing with this set

For casual collectors, it will likely be the centerpiece of their Lego Star Wars collection and if you’re going to reserve your hard earned for a special set, it doesn’t come much better than the Millennium Falcon. If it it’s a little too expensive, however, we recommend the following set:

That said, if you’re really not willing to spend out on this set, you can pick up the smaller, but still beautifully detailed ‘Midi-Scale’ Millennium Falcon (75375), which is priced at a more palatable $84.99 / £74.99.

Final verdict

The Lego Millennium Falcon (75257) is quite simply the best Millennium Falcon playset to come out of Lego’s Billund HQ. Granted, this Falcon doesn’t boast the best minifigure line-up in the galaxy, but it does provide a little something for original and sequel trilogy fans alike. And if you’re a seasoned collector with Han Solo and Luke Skywalker minifigures coming out the wazoo, you’ll be thankful to receive exclusive ‘figs’ in both Lando and Boolio.

The ship itself is the main focus, and this Falcon is one gorgeous bucket of bolts. The pizza-slice roofing was in dire need of an upgrade and the workaround is delightfully simple and extremely effective. Gaps are inevitable, but they are now few and far between. The cockpit now sits closer to the left-hand docking ring, helping to achieve the most accurate exterior yet.

Children will relish in the near limitless playability. For a Lego Star Wars playset of its size, the Millennium Falcon is still unrivaled when it comes to the detail and space of its interior. But this set originally made the jump to lightspeed at the end of 2019 and knowing what Lego is pumping out in 2024, there’s certainly room for improvement. The interior would benefit from even more detailing, as would the greebling on the exterior.

Hopefully, we can look forward to all of this and more if a seventh incarnation is on the cards. And it most certainly will be. After all, a Lego Star Wars line-up without a Millennium Falcon playset, is like a Jawa without a sandcrawler.

Sci-fi fans should also check out our Lego Ideas Doctor Who set review, meanwhile, our Lego Millennium Falcon Holiday Diorama review offers a look at a very different version of the Millennium Falcon.

Source: Wargamer