For a lot of people building your own LEGO Millennium Falcon is a dream. But not everyone has the budget to spend $800 on one. Well, I am here to tell you that for 1/10th the price you can get your own Millennium Falcon and as a toy photographer this is a true gift. Sure, there’s the Micro Millennium Falcon for about ten dollars but to me the LEGO Millennium Falcon 75375 is the best bang for your buck. And the scale, while not true minifigure scale, is perfect for toy photographers. Let’s just say Luke wouldn’t call this set a “piece of junk”.
Is It “A Bucket Of Bolts” ? Why Toy Photographers Should Pick This Set
If this was only a LEGO review not focused on toy photography then I might say that this set is too expensive for the amount of LEGO you get for how small the model actually is. Princess Leia would call it a pile of pieces, a bucket of bolts, a set not worth her time. This is an $80 dollar set with a measly 921 pieces. That’s not a lot of LEGO for the amount of cash you are forking over. And it doesn’t even come with a minifigure.
But, you are reading this article because you are interested in Toy Photography. Therefore, you are reading this article because you want to know if this set is worth it for you to buy as a toy photographer. The short answer is YES. This set isn’t just a bucket of bolts.
It Can Do The Kessel Run In Less Than 12 Parsecs
There’s no stickers in this build, all the detail pieces are printed tiles, which I appreciated. This allowed me to build this set in 4 1/2 hours. I probably could have built it faster but I was taking photos, videos, and I lost a piece in my carpet that took forever to find. The fact that I built a detailed LEGO Millennium Falcon in a short period of time was a bonus. A faster build, gives you more time to take photos. Just because it was a quick build doesn’t make it any less detailed.
It’s Not Garbage – It’s a Display
“She’ll make .5 past light speed. She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid. I’ve made a lot of special modifications myself.” Han Solo
This set is meant to be a model, a display, a set piece in your LEGO room. This makes it incredibly detailed from every view. It doesn’t matter if you are looking at it from the top, bottom, or sides. LEGO put a lot of effort into making it as detailed as possible, with as little pieces as possible. At 921 Pieces this is by all means not a small set. In the world of LEGO Millennium Falcons this set is in the middle of the pack. It’s ten times smaller, and cheaper than its larger counterpart. It’s what LEGO refers to as a mid-scale set. I can’t even imagine building the 8000 piece set and then lugging that to the beach just to take a photo. That’s what makes this set great. I myself have a LEGO Millennium Micro fighter that I’ve used for toy photography before. But it’s small and not quite as detailed as the 75375 set I am reviewing today. Which is why I think the 75375 set is the perfect Millennium Falcon for a Toy Photographer. It’s a good looking model and that makes it a good thing to photograph.
Even though there are no minifigures with this set. That doesn’t mean this set isn’t great for a toy photographer. In fact to me the fact that there are no minifigures is the only downside. Everything else about this set is amazing. The fact that it is such a detailed version of the Millennium Falcon at a manageable size makes it perfect for Toy Photography. It’s scale is perfect for recreating your favorite Star Wars scenes featuring The Millennium Falcon flying.
Flying With The Falcon
The set comes with a stand, that holds the Millennium Falcon at an angle. It makes it look like its flying without the use of wires. The display also makes it really easy to photograph this set because I don’t have to worry about how I am going to get it to stand up or worry about losing pieces when I place it on the ground. With that in mind for the purpose of this review all the photos I took include the stand in the photo whether or not you see it. As a toy photographer figuring out how to hold your toys up, to make them look like they are flying is one of the hardest things to accomplish. The fact that this set takes that problem away from you is a plus.
Re-Creating Star Wars
It’s well known that to make the movie Star Wars miniatures were used. When I got this set I knew I was going to use it to create iconic Millennium Falcon shots. It’s essentially a LEGO miniature. That is easier said than done. If you read my two part review on The LEGO T. Rex Breakout set you’d know I spent a month and half recreating the entire 9 mins and 12 sec scene from the movie with the set taking over 600 photos to do so. While, I didn’t do that this time I wasn’t any less neurotic about the process.
I thought recreating a space scene from Star Wars would be cool. In general I don’t heavily edit my photos in photoshop. I use lightroom to do minor touch ups and that is about it. When I got this set, I was really interested in brining the set to life by making it look like the movie. I watched a behind the scenes video on how they created the special effects in the original Star Wars film, so I got a lot of my ideas from that BTS video.
Before I started taking photos I asked myself these questions.
What scenes do I remember The Millennium Falcon In?
-jump to lightspeed
-escaping The Death Star explosion
-leaving Tatooine
What do I need to re-create these scenes?
What type of lighting setup do I need>
How am I going to edit these photos to look like George Lucas?
Will I go all out like the T. Rex Breakout Scene and spend months accurately re-creating Star Wars photos with this LEGO Millennium Falcon?
The Sands of Tatooine
With my husband driving, I sat in the passenger seat of my car carefully holding the LEGO Millennium Falcon in my lap. We drove to a beach located about 10 mins away from my home. I needed the sand. I thought it would look like the sands of Tatooine. Turn out this location does not look like Tatooine. This was not a good start to re-creating Star Wars scenes. I am going to have to scout out another location. Or maybe build a miniature set. I’ve already found videos on how to make realistic looking sand based on the scale of your model. The photo I got in the sand, does not look like the movie at all. But, this is something to work on. A photo I didn’t get today, but will work to get in the future. Spoiler alert a lot of these scene recreations are works in progress.
The Millennium Falcon In Space
When I thought about the Millennium Falcon flying through the expanse of space. I thought well a black background would suffice. So, I went to the store to grab a black poster board, then I saw a poster board with a Nebula and bought that one too. The set up was simple until I got to lighting the scenes. Turns out lighting a large plastic LEGO model and not blowing out the background with highlights and not getting weird highlights on the toy was not as easy as I thought. I spent hours moving lights around, trying to take this outside on the porch in natural lighting. But, it just didn’t look or feel like Star Wars to me.
I tried all kinds of angles, and lighting set ups. And while it does feel like Star Wars it doesn’t look like it. Now, I am not always such stickler for that kind of thing. But, I can’t help but thinking that is what a toy photographer should do with this set. Take photos that look like Star Wars, or at least that is what a toy photographer writing a review on a Star Wars set should do.
Return Of The JEDI – The Death Star II Explosion
Third times the charm, right? Escaping The Death Star was my last attempt at a cool Millennium Falcon Photo.
I wanted to recreate that scene in Return of The Jedi where the Millennium Falcon barely escapes the explosion of the Death Star. This was my first real attempts at creating fake explosions with cotton balls and lights. I got some cotton balls, spray painted some orange, and some black and put an orange light underneath them. While it doesn’t look like the Death Star is exploding in the background I do like how it looks like it has escaped an explosion. Even though it’s a small one. Now that I’ve tried to create small explosions with cotton balls I do think that if I spent more time setting this scene up, it can look much more realistic. More George Lucas like. Another photo for another day. And once I get this one there are more to get.
Star Wars is an iconic film filled with iconic scenes. Every one knows what the Death Star looks like even if they’ve never seen the movie.
When I got this set, I wanted to do the Millennium Falcon justice. This set deserves that. It’s well built. It’s detailed, its a model and an actual miniature. The same thing George Lucas and his team had making the movie. This set provides the tools needed to create flying Millennium Falcon scenes. My attempts to recreate scenes from the movie, is not my best work at least to me. But, I’ve tried things I’ve never done before. But trying is not the same as doing. And when I was capturing photos of this set, I don’t think I did that.
That doesn’t make it worth it. That doesn’t it make it junk or garbage like Luke and Leia thought The Millennium Falcon was. Taking photos of this set made me feel like the miniature team who worked on Star Wars. I felt comfortable in the difficulties I had with the set. I felt at home just like Han and Chewy. I tried new things, and learned from it. I am ready to try until I do.
This set is great. I have a list of photos I want to take with it. And for me that is enough. As a toy photographer we hope to buy sets that inspire us, we hope to buy sets give us enough photo ideas and photographs to make the price worth it. This set does that. I spent two weeks, attempting to re-create a bunch of scenes from the Star Wars Franchise. I enjoyed it. The photos I took are not my favorite. But, I enjoyed the process and I know what I want to do in the future.
I will be using the force to re-create these Star Wars scenes again. Because, I am starting to see that I am definitely acting like I am about to spend months re-creating Star Wars Millennium Falcon scenes like my T. Rex Breakout project. I will be doing, I won’t be trying.
Trying to re-create these scenes from Star Wars made me realize how hard making that movie actually was. I’ve always known that it was a feat to make Star Wars. But, to really attempt it in similar ways to the original filmmakers and fail makes it all the more impressive. I’m not saying I’ve failed at my attempts I’m just saying I’ll keep failing better. To quote, Master Yoda ” Do or Do Not There Is No Try” .
For me, I enjoyed the trying process that is toy photography. Sometimes, I love the outcome, sometimes I don’t but I enjoy it always. And to me that is what this review is for. Sharing my love of the Star Wars Millennium set. I loved creating these images, just like I know the filmmakers loved making Star Wars. And that is what it’s all about. Spending time with the toys you love, using them to create stories you want to tell with your camera. All that is to say, to me this set is worth it.
What photos are you going to try?
What Millennium Falcon Scenes Did I Miss?
What is the likely hood I spend months recreate a scene from a movie with over 600 photos?
Let me know.
The Magic Behind Star Wars
The Making of Star Wars Pioneering Special Effects, VFX , and Sound Design – Studio Binder
Behind The Scenes of Star Wars: The Original Trilogy ILM Special Effects Makers – A documentary on ILM and the miniatures
Crafting Tutorial – Fast Cheap Realistic Flames & Explosions for Miniatures – How to create cotton ball explosions.
How To Film Star Wars Miniatures Like The Mandalorian
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From Lego Set to Movie Set: Recreating the T. Rex Breakout Scene
Nice Job, Sabrina. I love this. I like that you shared your successes and what did not work. I am looking forward to seeing what you will recreate with this set!
Thank you. I love the set and I’m really excited to keep trying to re-create the shots I see in my head. I think it is important to share the “failures” and the triumphs.
So much potential with this set! I’m glad they released a smaller Falcon at a size and level of detail reasonable on so many levels: cost, manageability (ease of holding, posing), storage, etc. Thanks for the review, Sabrina!
Thanks, I am happy to spread the love for this set. I never would have thought to get this set, but now that I have it, it makes me wonder about similarly sized sets.
Excellent review Sabrina. And way to go trying and failing (although I doubt you ‘failed’. We all falll short of our goals which is why its so much fun to keep trying and learning.
Thanks for adding the links at the end of the review. Especially the cotton ball explosion. A classic, no mess, special effect!
Thanks Shelly. I always have fun even when I am ‘failing’. Truth is I just stopped before I got what I wanted. I’m definitely not giving up trying to take the photo I see in my head. As for the links, I’d be re-miss if I didn’t share a little of my deep dive into the making of Star Wars.