Complete

I have finished it: the largest LEGO set ever produced (by LEGO - certainly bigger things have been built from LEGOs). And it's amazing.


I actually finished it on Saturday, but this week has been really busy, so I've not gotten a chance to get the photos online until now. But here they are: pictures I took of it right after I put on the last pieces.



It's astonishingly huge and really very imposing to see in real life. The pictures don't really do it justice (though they are cool): the full effect isn't clear until you actually see it. It's one thing to have an intellectual understanding of how big it is and another to have it spread out in front of you.



One of the most impressive things about it is that it's built entirely out of "stock" LEGOs - by which I mean that, aside from a couple of printed pieces (the radar dish and a couple of 2x2 round tiles), all of the pieces are found in other sets. The combined effect is no less stunning, and it means that should I ever scrap the thing, I could easily incorporate the pieces into my own creations.



The other really impressive thing is the degree to which the parts of the ship don't come together at right angles. Which, if you've ever played with LEGOs, is by and large the only way the pieces fit together. You can get other angles by skipping studs and using hinges, but for the most part, right angles are all you've got. There are precious few right angles on the Millennium Falcon.



And there's so much detail. You can literally pore over the thing and keep finding detail. Even having put it together (and put all that detail in place) I'm still amazed at the effect produced. Totally worth the time to put all those pieces in place.



Since Han and Chewie are always working on the Falcon, I took some pictures of them tinkering.



Here's Han and Luke guarding the ramp. Luke still has his father's lightsaber, it would appear.



Since the Falcon is built to minifig scale, everyone fits in the cockpit:



You can even see Luke manning the top quad laser turret:



The only problem I've run into with having such a massive, imposing model is what to do with it. For the moment, I've solved that problem by bringing it in to work. Not sure how long I'll want to keep it here, though: it takes up a lot of space, even if I don't have it sitting on my desk (it's on top of a bookshelf next to my desk). But my coworkers have enjoyed seeing it. And what's the point of a model, if not to share it with other people?

I might see about a glass display case or build a glass-topped coffee table for the den and install the thing under the glass. But that'll be a lot of work (and money) in and of itself. Later, perhaps.