Millennium Falcon (Kenner ESB version)

Well I've blogged about the Millennium Falcon before, and regular readers (both of you?) will know that it's a toy I never had as a kid, but always wanted. Although somewhat underscale for the 3 3/4" mini-action figures, until the AT-AT came along it was the biggest and most expensive Star Wars vehicle. It's awesome. 

This example was very kindly given to me recently by my late wife's cousin Austin, it was part of his and his brother's childhood collection. Kudos to you guys for keeping the box, Austin, and well done on keeping this thing in one piece. So many Star Wars vehicles got smashed to pieces, blown up with fireworks, etc. and it's great to see that one like this survived.

While the box front carried a new image specific to The Empire Strikes Back, the rest of the package art remained the same as on Star Wars-branded examples.

Gotta set up the tableau right!! The box image is so great, but the eagle-eyed will note I added some "diversity" to the Bespin Guard group. I only had two white Guards in my own collection...

The character mix here is kind of interesting too. Dengar is literally 10 feet away from the people he's supposed to capture, but he's just stood there having a chat with Lobot. 

Meanwhile Lando, Han and Leia are visiting but all have guns in their hands (!) while the Bespin Guards seem unconcerned that these two strangers are packing heat while talking to their boss.

These three discussing the Cloud City Cafeteria's amazing pulled-pork sandwiches maybe...?

Chewbacca working as usual.

Droids hiding in the ship interior. Would've been a good idea for Threepio at least, considering what happened to him in Cloud City.

If you look at the tableau on the box, it's strange... the camera vantage looks low, but you can still clearly see the droids inside the ship. Maybe they tilted the Falcon for the shot, I can't quite figure it out.

Some beauty shots, this ship cleaned up so nicely and looks so good.

Of course, as with most childhood vehicles, some small accessories went missing over the years. The training arm and ball and the hatch struts are 3D printed replacements, unobtrusively marked as such. They look quite good, the struts are kind of translucent but that's OK, makes them less likely to be mistaken for originals. 

Fortunately the old ones were just lost, and not broken off in the hatch holes as often happened.

The space chess table was missing too but I sourced an original one to replace it - they're not hard to find.

Cockpit is all original equipment and looks great! Austin, thank you again for this ship, it's a wonderful piece.

I guess I also should offer an apology for it being over a year since the last post here, but it's been busy. Anyway I will have another post coming up shortly featuring a neat item that's on the way from 4th Moon Toys...