“She may not look like much, but she’s got it where it counts, kid.”
Vehicles in science fiction have always taken on personalities of their own. The Enterprise, Serenity, Mork’s Egg — these are just a few ships that are more like characters themselves. As fun as those properties are, nobody has vehicles as recognizable and unique as Star Wars, and the Millennium Falcon sits right up there on top.
Revell has recently released a kit of the famous bucket of bolts, so let’s find out it really does have it where it counts!
This is a mass market model kit, but as it’s part of Revell’s SnapTite brand, we’ll use the word “model” very loosely. SnapTite kits are just what you’d think; every piece is easily snapped into place. There are no sprues. No filing. No gluing. No painting. This is about as much as model as any G.I. Joe or Star Wars vehicle that Hasbro has put out. And as I’m completely awful at models, that’s all magic to my ears!
Sculpt
Coming in at only around 8 inches in length, this isn’t all that big of a toy. From what I can tell, the sculpt is pretty great. It’s the Millennium Falcon as it appeared in The Force Awakens, so we have the square radar dish rather than the circular one that Lando knocked off. Small details are there, particularly around the side of the ship and the exhaust area. It’s not packed with intricate sculpting, but for the size of it, I’m very happy.
Paint
As good as the sculpt is, the paint (or lack of) does nothing to bring it out. There are a few highlights of red and gray on the panels, but that’s about it. Out of the box, this toy, like pretty much every other Millennium Falcon toy, looks waaaay too squeaky clean. Part of the charm of this ship is that it looks like something even a Jawa wouldn’t buy. It needs to be dirty and worn out, but with apparently zero funds in the paint budget, these companies just push it out in the color it was molded in. I ended up giving mine a black/brown wash with some light dry-brushing to bring out some of the details. I’m no painter by any means, but a few minutes of work definitely helped.
Light and Sound Feature
I’m not always a big fan of action features, but I’m glad Revell added it here as it worked out really well. By pushing one of the exhaust intakes, the back of the Falcon lights up and will cycle between three sounds: rapid fire blaster, warp speed sound effect, and a slower and more controlled sounding blaster. By working the button into the exhaust, the feature takes nothing away from the sculpt.
All in all, I’m very happy with this. At $20, it’s basically the cost of any 6-inch action figure and just about the same size. Like I said, it really isn’t much of a model, as it will take less than five minutes to snap the entire thing together. But the sculpt and cool action feature made this a fun distraction.
Thanks for reading!