Star Wars Millennium Falcon Book and Mega Model by Katrina Pallant and Neal Manning
| Star Wars Millennium Falcon Book and Mega Model by Katrina Pallant and Neal Manning | |
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| Category: Crafts | |
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Reviewer: John Lloyd
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| Summary: At last you too can own the Millennium Falcon. 'I completed the Kessel Run' certificate not included. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? No |
| Pages: 32 | Date: October 2017 |
| Publisher: Egmont | |
| ISBN: 9781405285223 | |
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One of the unexpected results of making a rough-and-ready sci-fi film back in the 1970s, was that George Lucas left a whole generation capable of spelling Millennium. In amongst all the iconic inventions for the film, his design team left him – and us – with a very loveable, very fast and very asymmetrical space ship. How is it balanced when the cockpit is stuck out one side? What is that dish-like array doing on what seems to act as the top? And where can you get your own? Well, beyond the rarity and great cost of the Lego model, I can at least provide one answer to those three pertinent questions, and that answer is… here.
Yes, this joins the growing list of models Egmont have provided for us to both read about and then create. Again it has the same problem, that of being a wonderful thing to have in our collection, but one that leaves us with a bulky artefact as left-over. This is by far the biggest model I've seen, coming in no less than 67 pieces, requiring more than the numbered 23 steps to construct. But that all means that when you take the ten A4 sheets of product from their sheath and use them, you have a ring binder-sized gape left behind for the bookshelf, with only a booklet inside it.
That booklet doesn't get off to a great start, making the Freudian slip of calling the Millennium Falcon not a freighter but a frighter. It looks at all the films to feature the ship in all her glory, taking us through the personnel and key battle scenes and planets she's been on – right up to archly commenting Rey gets later surprisingly skilled with lightsabers. Hmmm, exactly. It comes with several mazes, Minesweeper-styled puzzles and other interactive things, and like as not it will be very out of date a few films down the line from now. But you don't buy the book for the, er, booklet. You're here for what you put together.
So, having folded back the instruction sheet, and then folded it back again, and propped it open a countless number of times as it's most unwieldy, you get started. And somewhen much later, you might get to finish. The instructions do try to be at their simplified best, but that comes at a cost – when you fashion one piece and have to attach it to something you last approached hours ago and forget what's numbered what. Training for flatpack furniture, this is. You also may have to be very diligent and/or as lucky as I was, for if you don't pay full attention you may end up cocking the symmetry up, and I wouldn't like to say how great the pieces would look if you have to do any un-making and re-making operations. I'm sure some of these will be made with portions that are upside down or back to front, and it's the way of things that some won't be finished at all.
But you get the novelty here of the moveable part – yes, in ways that the cinema films have never shown us, things open up for us to see inside the cargo bays. And, in ways the films have never shown, you get trivia factoids displayed throughout the ship, so you learn while you're crafting. And you also get a great sense of satisfaction, especially with the scale of the thing when finished, at practically being dinner-plate sized and all. It is, as before, fully decorated already, and while only time will tell how permanent the moveable status proves to be, it comes with a decent finish and build quality. This replaces the much smaller model that was previously on the market – although to be fair that was branded by Egmont as a smuggler's starship and not the Falcon herself. And if only by due dint of its size it will take pride of place on your shelves.
I must thank the publishers for my review copy.
And if you thought I would get through all my review without mentioning my previous model, that I dubbed Bobby the U-Wing, think again.
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You can read more book reviews or buy Star Wars Millennium Falcon Book and Mega Model by Katrina Pallant and Neal Manning at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Star Wars Millennium Falcon Book and Mega Model by Katrina Pallant and Neal Manning at Amazon.com.
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