Another Celebrity Building with Bricks or Just a Hidden Product Placement?

LEGO sets have popped up on some Late Night TV shows in the US to include Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, and Conan O’Brien during this stay at home period of time. The most recent one was Anna Kendrick on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.” For those of you who missed previous ones, I have a few posts to include one here and here. Also before the pandemic, Jimmy Fallon had a LEGO appearance listed here. You can watch the clip below if you want. You don’t have to go to far until LEGO enters the conversation.

While Ms. Kendrick is way better at acting and singing than I am, I definitely claim to know more about the LEGO world and I’m pretty sure Mr. Fallon was holding back as well. The Death Star as the largest LEGO set ever… really? And the claim that she was building the largest Millennium Falcon set out there? I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure she built #75257-1: Millennium Falcon released 4 October 2019 with 1,351 pieces.

Which leads me to another question. Did she really build the set or is this just product placement? Yet another time LEGO “randomly” appears on Jimmy Fallon… readly? First he’s giving away #75192-1: Millennium Falcon (the UCS version with 7,541 pieces) to David Beckham. Then Anna Kendrick pops out a set. Hmmm? Does LEGO have a product placement deal with The Tonight Show? We may never know.

Anyways, enjoy watching Ms. Kendrick claim to be a LEGO nerd.

Set Review - #75192 - LEGO Millennium Falcon - Star Wars - Ultimate Collector Series

You can see part 1 HERE.

Part 2 - Assembling the Ship

Time to put it together.  As mentioned in part 1, there are 17 sets of bags.  Normally, I take pictures after each step, but this time I did not as if you want a really detailed review, you can go to some of the sites where they analyze by pieces, build techniques, and differences between other LEGO Millennium Falcon sets.  My plan is to cover the high points and then give my opinion at the end.

The set starts with construction of the internal substructure.  There are many Technic pieces and pins put together to form a pretty solid skeleton for the ship.

Next up was the addition of the... okay, I'm not an official Star Wars fan... are they legs?  Feet?  Stands?  Whatever they are called, you build a bunch of the same assembly over and over to make the legs.  

I skipped a few pics to show the assembly of the skeleton with the legs and the internal rooms.  The rooms themselves were all attached via Technic pins.  This was a bit challenging as there are a ton of holes where you could insert pins, but we ended up getting them right.  Once you find the right positioning, they are easy to install.

I'm not going to spend a ton of time here, but here are the 4 rooms up close for your viewing pleasure.

Next up, the back gets it's shape.  The Falcon does not have a standard shape so I was curious how the designers made all of the curves.  The next bag helps to get the unique shape started.  It also adds the engines in the back with the use of some light blue colored tubes.  You probably could have done the engines with translucent blue pieces too, but the tubes work just fine.

The shape of the front comes out next.  What I found most interesting about this part of the build was attaching all of the random nick-knack pieces to create the detail on the outside of the Falcon.  A lot of this portion of the build was attaching these pieces to the outer frame.

Next up is attaching the bottom of the ship.  I didn't flip it over to take a picture because it was just too challenging to do so given that there aren't a lot of good ways to hold onto the unfinished top.  

Okay so the next 2 pictures aren't super exciting, but let me explain the first one.  The first one is a picture of the ramp.  The design is pretty complicated, but very impressive.  One reason... you build it outside of the ship and then attach it to the frame.  Another reason, it doesn't require a locking mechanism to stay down or up.  It's designed to stay up or down without any switches or locks.  Pretty cool in my opinion, but maybe I'm overly geeking out over this part.  The second picture is just the ship with the bottom completed and the top on the front started.

Now for attaching the top.  Again, the pieces are built off of the ship and then attached after the fact.  Most of them are pretty easy to attach although I had trouble attaching a few as there wasn't an easy spot to hold onto the frame to snap some of the sections into the frame.  The ones shown in pictures 1 and 2 are permanently attached versus later on in the build where sections can be removed to see the internals in pictures 3 and 4 below.  

Almost there... next up is the cockpit.  I found it impressive that the hallway leading to the cockpit does not lock into place via studs or Technic pins.

Whew!  All done!  I didn't record how long it took me to do.  I also didn't take a separate picture of the minifigures.  You can look them up elsewhere if you want to see them in detail.  

Congrats if you scrolled down this far... I realize I'm not the first one to post a review, but one more opinion doesn't hurt.  Should you buy this one?  It's pretty pricey.  The price per piece is decent and the build experience was fantastic (in my opinion), but you have to weigh whether you want to spend $800 (or more with tax) if you buy one of these.  Also, you have to decide what to do with it when you are done.  Do you have space to display it?

I enjoyed the build and am glad I bought it.  I was financially able to using some VIP points and profits from my store so it didn't hurt my wallet much.  If you are in a position where you can do it, go for it!  If not, there are a few other options.  You can use one of the various brick rental services on the web.  I have never used one, but it allows you to build the set at least.  Another option is to team up with some friends to build it all together after you each pitch in.  What do you do with it when you're done?  I'm not sure...

What are your thoughts?  Are the costs worth the build?  Should LEGO stop making such huge models that price a lot of fans out of the market?  Leave a comment and let me know what you think or send me an email at store@bricksforbricks.com.

Set Review - #75192 - LEGO Millennium Falcon - Star Wars - Ultimate Collector Series

Part 1 - Unleashing the Falcon

You can see part 2 here.

It's been a bit since I've posted because I broke down and bought the LEGO Millennium Falcon.  I had $155 in VIP points and I used EBates to get another $20 back.  Besides the discount I also got a Darth Vader Pod polybag (#5005376-1).  I ordered it from LEGO Shop at Home, but at the time of ordering it in early May 2018, it was also available at Target, Walmart, and Amazon.com in the US.

LEGO Shop at Home shipped it off pretty quickly and I got a notice from FedEx that we would have to sign for the package.  I think this is the first ever LEGO order that someone had to sign for.  The email I got said that the package would be 34 pounds.  Whoa!  Here it is:

Like many of the other big sets these days, the LEGO Group has packaged the set inside another box.  The first time I saw this was in the Porsche 911 GT3 RS (#42056).  It is a great way to protect some of the sets that cost a bit more.  If you're going to put a bunch of money into a LEGO set, it had better show up in pristine condition.  This set up helps to make it happen and I'm glad the LEGO Group made this change to their product.

The inner box had a few labels.  Of note to me was that this set was made in April of 2018 and I purchased it in early May 2018.  Considering the LEGO Group's trouble in keeping up with demand for this set, they definitely made up for it with some sped up production.  Also of note is that this set was made in Mexico which I'm pretty sure most sets sold in the US are made there.

Here are some pics of the set box itself.  The front shows a good illustration of the set from Episode VI: Empire Strikes back with a Tie Fighter and Cloud City.  On a side note, there were rumors about this set on other earlier sets and there have been a lot of rumors about a Cloud City set coming out.  Could this picture be a rumor for it?  The back side shows the set itself with some of the details.  

The sides have a schematic, the minifigures, and the other side has a picture of the set with a write up about the set itself.  

I included the top just because.  Nothing really special there.

Inside the big box are 4 smaller boxes with some Falcon art and a few quotes from the movies.  I did some reading of other reviews prior to building and learned that you have to open them all to sort out the bags.  I opened them all and with my helpers, sorted bags 1 through 9.  We put 10 through 17 back in the boxes for later.  I didn't take a picture of all the contents like I usually do because of lack of space to take a giant picture with all of the bags.  I think everyone gets the idea anyway.

A set this big and they had to include a sticker sheet.  Thankfully there are only 12, but still for the price, couldn't they have printed on the stickers?  Most are fairly small and easy to put on, but the big label is a pain as you'll see.

Okay so there is the opening... next up will be the build.  I was up against a move so I had to get it built quickly.  Thankfully a friend and 2 of his boys pitched in to help and made sure we could get it done beforehand.  The build will be up next so stay tuned...