May the Fourth

Big post today!

I finally have completed the UCS Millennium Falcon! A little over 5100 Lego and 2 years of ordering from eBay and Bricklink and staring a bleary eyed at my spread sheet of parts have lead to one of the most awesome Lego sets, EVAR!

I have lots of pictures to share, so I will keep the jawing to a minimum. Happy Star Wars Day!

And done!

All in all it is great set. There is huge amount of greebling (detail work) that you can see in the close-ups below. All of the top and sides are cover with bars, taps, levers, etc which really give the set an authentic "What piece of junk!" feel.

The most surprising thing I found is that most of the top plates are just resting in place. The upper sections of the hull can be removed to reveal the inside of the Falcon. This would be awesome IF the UCS Millennium Falcon was like the 7965 set that had a detailed interior. Having a detailed interior would have made this set completely ridiculous both in awesomeness and in price, so I can give Lego a pass on skipping that.

Besides, it gives me the chance the to redo the interior myself one day. Glad I have a copy of the Millennium Falcon cut-away book.

This is the "Ops" bag.
All the parts that I got too many of or the wrong color.

It was a fantastic project and I would do again in a heartbeat (though I might settle for the cheaper off-color parts for the interior section). I hope you all enjoyed watching my progress! Stay tuned, I hope to start something new soon!

Last order for the Falcon Rebuild!

I have begun the final push to complete the Falcon before May the Fourth!

According to my notes I have 99.65% of all the parts I need, the only ones I'm missing are 8 3x3 round corner plates (Part 30357). I was suppose to get 16 of them in my last order but the seller contacted me to say they had an inventory error and only had 8. Given that my part counts on this project have been conically wrong, I had to sympathize with them.

So today when I got a 10% off coupon from another seller (Thanks iamklasick) I had purchased from, I went ahead and got the final parts (I hope MY counts are right). 

Here is the latest shots I have on the progress:

Now with side access hatches!

I also picked up Set 75136 Droid Escape Pod mainly because I wanted C3P0 for the Falcon (why didn't they include him in UCS set?) and I like the newer paint job they are doing for R2.

It actually is a pretty cool little set in its own right, 4 minifigs, lots of details on the escape pod itself and neat little hidden compartment for the Death Star plans.

September Order 2: The Netherlands Strike Back

Not exactly an impressive pile....

I received the second half of the September order direct from DeenseSteentjes in The Netherlands.

I am still amazed that I live in a time when I can place an order on Saturday to a small shop on a different continent and receive the package the following Saturday. I have trouble fathoming the logistics of trying to quickly and efficiently route mail through two postal systems!

This is how I knoll...now the order looks better!

The exciting thing are those 46 1x2 dark blue transparent tiles, they are going to be the Falcon's engine exhaust. Previously I bought 20 or so of the light blue transparent 1x2 tiles because of an error (or discrepancy) in the Peeron listing for the UC Millennium Falcon. While they list the light blue transparent color, both Bricklink and Rebrickable list the dark blue version. :/  

Also, I managed to snag 3 more of those gray control hinges! Only 48 to go...



So that is all of September's order: 497 total parts of 23 unique types. If I have all my math right, I should be able to finish the frame and landing gear tomorrow when I get into the office!

Current stats:
I have 4167 of the 5196 parts on hand (80.2%)
Ihave all of 182 of the 287 parts needed on hand (63.41%)

September Parts Order (Happy Birthday!)

Straight from Toy Brick Brigade comes the bulk of my September order! 338 Lego arrived (slightly damp due the two days of rain) at my door this afternoon ready to be inventoried and verified. Turns out they actually sent 339, I got an extra 1x12 light gray plate. No complaints, I needed one anyway.

Zoe, who's paws are in the top-right of the shot, was so excited that she proceeded to try and help me count by first swatting at the piles I was making, then when that did not prove helpful enough, simply laying on the "to sort" pile.

I went over my normal monthly budget this time so I could get enough parts to finish the landing pads (Seven? The Falcon has SEVEN landing pads? I don't remember that!) and complete the main framework. This should take me to step 61 when it is all done. I'm kinda hoping that family and friends took me seriously when I said I wanted cash for my birthday to get a jump on the next steps of the Falcon! :)

Unfortunately, being Friday and the Falcon being at the office, I now have to wait until Monday before I can add these new parts. Ug! Starting off a new year with an exercise in patience...

If I get really lucky, the second half of the order will arrive (form The Netherlands!) tomorrow and I can slip into the office early on Monday and get everything added before work.

More Bricks Arrive!

It's been a awhile since I last ordered parts for the Falcon, mainly because of the way I was going about putting together the orders.

Previously I was looking at the next few steps and ordering just what I needed to complete those steps. However, what I noticed is that as I ran out of certain common parts, every month I was ordering 5 or 6 '1 x 4 Light Gray Plates'.

So I changed my strategy a bit: instead of ordering just the parts I need to complete the next steps, I'm taking a few months and ordering only the parts that need the most of and selecting from sellers that have the best price on those parts.

Yeah!

The happy sight!

This means that I made an absolutely huge (for me) order of 1133 parts from hefBricks with about 200 of those 2x3 Light Gray Plates. His prices were fantastic and even offered discounts of lots larger than 20, 50 or 200. AND he included package tracking so I could indulge in my obsessive package tracking tendencies!

An evening of good beer and
inventorying LEGO. It doesn't get
much better!

The only problem with the order. Still
that's only a 0.08% error rate, pretty
darned good!

If my numbers are right (big 'if' there) this brings me up to 3290 of the 5192 parts that I need. Over half way!

Now I have my August order on deck with another 343 parts, they should be waiting for me when I get back from vacation!