Review: LEGO Star Wars 75257 Millennium Falcon

Time to take a quick look at the LEGO Star Wars set 75257 Millennium Falcon (1353 pieces - 159.99 €) with a new interpretation of the most emblematic spaceship of the Star Wars saga which is also a chestnut tree from the LEGO range.

With each new version, its improvements, its modifications, its qualities and its defects. There is always a Millennium Falcon in the LEGO catalog and it is ultimately the one to buy to have fun or to please a young fan who has not known the previous versions: while the sets removed from the spokes are selling too expensive in the aftermarket, the current version is still available on sale somewhere.

This 2019 version, based on the film The Rise of Skywalker, uses the usual recipe: A (very) compact vessel, with an acceptable exterior appearance, a basic but sufficient interior and maximum playability allowed by the various mobile panels of the cabin.

The ship's frame here is made up of Technic elements that give it all the rigidity it needs to withstand the onslaught of young fans. A few plates to hide the bars and we then assemble the different spaces that serve as a fun base for this playset. The interior is a little empty, but we will console ourselves by telling ourselves that there is room to stage the various characters provided.

The overall look of the ship is good, this model is not a 5000 piece UCS and compromises in ship shape are inevitable. Seen from afar, this Millennium Falcon almost looks great. Up close, it is immediately less obvious with a lot of rough angles and holes in the cabin.

Like on the ship in the set 75105 Millennium FalconTwo Spring-Shooters are integrated into the mandibles of the vessel and you just need to slide your finger into the openings to trigger the shot.

The large sheet of stickers provided will not surprise anyone but it has a rather annoying flaw: most of the round stickers provided are not correctly centered and they will have to be aligned taking into account only their final positioning to compensate.

The rear of the ship is rather successful with the integration of transparent blue parts on a white background. This solution for reproducing the propulsion system is undoubtedly the best possible without having to resort to additional lighting. The hinges retaining the upper panels are really very apparent here, but we will do with it.

Under the ship, it is minimum service with four fixed and fairly basic landing gears and a set of laser cannons based on ski poles plugged into cones that come off easily and that you must avoid losing.

The pizza slice opening system seen in the set 75105 Millennium Falcon marketed in 2015 goes by the wayside with here larger portions of the cabin which can be opened to allow access to the various playable spaces. These different elements can obviously be unclipped to completely discover the interior of the vessel and have fun without being hampered by the protruding plates.

Dejarik's table pad printed on a black shield is identical to the one seen in the set 75212 Kessel Run Millennium Falcon (2018) and the hyperdrive present in this new version is more basic than that of the set 75105 Millennium Falcon. It comes down here to a few pieces on which we stick a sticker.

The cockpit is still so cramped, impossible to accommodate more than three characters, DO included. The canopy and the front face are nicely pad printed, in the right shade, but the whole obtained by assembling the two half-cones is only held by the two tenons visible above the occupants' heads. This is in my opinion a bit tight for a playset. It is also around the cockpit that we find the most approximate finishes of this model with a very unsightly fixing clip for the upper panel of the cabin which remains far too visible.

The endowment in minifigs is correct here even if many collectors will be disappointed to obtain new copies of the minifigs of C3-PO, R2-D2 and Chewbacca already delivered identically in many boxes. They will console themselves with the minifigs of Lando Calrissian, Finn and Boolio.

The star of the set is obviously Lando Calrissian with a very successful minifigure which honors the character played on the screen by Billy Dee Williams but which remains consistent with the younger version of Donald Glover. the hairstyle used here is perhaps a little too "disco" but the details of the face are enough to make the whole sufficiently believable in my eyes. The minifigure comes with two elements that make up Lando's cape, I wasn't asking for so much and would gladly have done without the upper part.

Finn's minifigure is not 100% new, the character's head delivered here is identical to the one seen in the set 75176 Resistance Transport Pod (2017). I'm not sure that the minifigure deserved to receive the hair of young Lando or Nakia (Black Panther) but we will do with it.

We do not know much about Boolio, the alien provided here in a very successful outfit and faithful to what we have seen for the moment that of the character of the film. The character's head is also very convincing with a mix of hard plastic and softer material for the horns and a two-color injection.

In short, if you don't have a Millennium Falcon version System, it is obviously this one that you have to buy right now, especially since the box is already on sale with a reduction of 32% on its usual retail price: 109.00 € at Amazon instead of 159.99 € on the official LEGO store as of this writing.

The youngest will find what they are looking for with a solid and playful playset and collectors will add a new version of the Millennium Falcon to their probably already crowded shelves and some pretty new minifigs in their Ribba frames. There is something for everyone and Chewbacca, C3-PO and R2-D2 will end up in the usual drawer of invasive "duplicates".

Note: The set presented here, supplied by LEGO, is as usual put into play. To participate in the raffle, all you have to do is post a comment (avoid the "I participate, I try, etc ..." be a little more constructive) on this article before November 25, 2019 next at 23pm. You have every right to disagree with me, this is not eliminatory.

Update : The winner was drawn and was notified by email, his nickname is indicated below. Without a response from him to my request for contact details within 5 days, a new winner will be drawn.