Hasbro Legacy Millennium Falcon Conversion

crackerjazz

Hi, here's my conversion build of the Hasbro Legacy Millennium Falcon. I got it at bargain price, but, still, it was painful to put under the knife. Star Wars toy fans will burn me at the stake, but here goes nothing:

The toy is based on the 32-inch, including size and details. Some errors are easily recognizable - the cockpit's too big, the gear boxes too high, sidewalls also too high, jawboxes and cannons too big. The hull curve, though, matches the 5-foot Falcon more than it does the 32-inch, and the 5-foot is what I'm after. I plan on rebuilding it slowly, shaving off the details little by little and replacing them.

I've cut the sidewalls and gearboxes down to proper size and cut off the cockpit as well. Looking good so far. I think Millennium Falcon models are meant to be built really big and detailed. At worst I'll have a huge Falcon hanging from the ceiling "zooming" above the TV.

Here's the Falcon with innards taken out and sidewalls "narrowed":




Those big "B-25" gun turret frames will have to go and be scratchbuilt to specs:



Nice 5-footer curve:



Those sidewalls are begging to be detailed:



View from above:



These "manhole" heat vents will need trimming down:




Maintenance well cutting:

Jedi Dade

Honestly I almost skipped this thread thinking - "Wow that's gonna be an abomination..."

Looking at the progress pics though I am shocked that it doesnt look 1/2 bad. I mean it will never be "right" but it sure looks like it will be at least passable and better than it has any right to look statring out as that toy version of the falcon

I'll be chekcing back for sure... see if you can make me eat my words ...honestly I hope you do

Jedi Dade

Amish Trooper

I was leery at first but your progress so far looks promising. Look forward to more shots.

jedimaster

Major improvements already , keep em coming.

yt

This is great, please keep us updated.

crackerjazz

I wanted to thank Superjedi by the way as he gave me much-needed measurements like that sidewall height, which is so elusive. Here are comparison shots of the rear. That 5-foot Falcon looks real bulbous compared to the 32-inch, which seems to have a flatter hull curvature. It seems to me, that, if scaled to the same size, they would have the same total ship thickness. But since the 32-inch has higher sidewalls, then the 5-footer would have to be considerably dished to compensate for its thinner sidewalls. But - I don't know - you be the judge. That 5-footer really seems to be the hamburger they were talking about. The 32-inch does look more like a hockey puck as someone described.

5-footer rear view:


Hasbro Legacy MF rear view (with 13mm cut off from sidewalls):


32-inch MF rear view from Chronicles:

NAZGÛL

This will be cool to follow! How much do you plan to rebuild the cockpit? All scratch?

omes72

Man this kool. My son or we have one of these & I always look at it like could I?

TazMan2000

In no way am I making light of your effort. It truly is amazing what you are attempting here....but did you know they re-released the FM 1/72 MF?

TazMan2000

crackerjazz

Yes, it's really wonderful news that they're re-releasing the Falcon - it's going to be a hyper-detailed build, despite the parallel mandibles.

This Hasbro conversion is a test of my modification/scratchbuilding skills. I really like the hull curvature - it's a wonderful platform to work on. And it's a bigger Falcon to adorn the display room. There's something about a ship that size in the movie, being able to turn on a dime. That's probably what attracts people to the Millennium Falcon. This 2008 Hasbro is huge, and there's nothing like a huge model to show the ship's heft.

Here's a comparison to the AMT (The 1/72 Finemolds Falcon is just a wee bit shorter than the AMT)

Here are the plans vs AMT:



More cutting to go with that cockpit tunnel:



I'd build the 5-foot Falcon if I had the skills, resources, and house police (wife) approval. No approval requests necessary from my 5-year old.
As with all their work, that ILM 5-footer is a masterpiece. This photo comes from the Chronicles:

Amish Trooper

Ok so after this is done. Where do I mail my Falcon to for you to mod it ....No seriously

vaderdarth

very cool work!

Lear60man

This rocks!

tk1565

Awesome work to date looking forward to seeing it finished

PHArchivist

Wow that is bigger than I thought...

PHArchivist

Sent you an email with "gifts".

Nwerke

You're making a silk purse out of a sow's ear here. Nice!

JediG60racer

i like!!!!!!!

yt

Thats what she said.

chaos_79

Looking good.

Amish Trooper

Hope to see more updates soon

superjedi

Hey! I didn't realize you had started this thread. I'll be sure to look for more updates.

SVTStingRay

looking good, need your address so i can send you mine.

crackerjazz

Hi guys, thanks for the compliments and encouragement. Gotta thank Rob for the photos and Eric for the inspiration. Eric's (Superjedi's) build, by the way, is totally awesome.

Here is where I'm at on my pathetically-slow conversion: I've cut out the rear discs, which according to the Chronicles are solar sensors but which I've read elsewhere are heat vents (thus the impeller-like things inside the 5-footer's discs. In another book they said that the lights (were they halogen on the 5-footer pro become hot so they required exhaust fans. Or maybe the design came first with the solar discs and then they thought they might as well use them for the exhaust fans. Whatever the truth is, these discs are a unique addition to the Falcon's design. And they attract hyper-detailists to giving them fans and real grilles. I'm happy with the current detailing so far - not the height, though, as they remind me of nuclear power plants.







The worst idea I've come across so far of what the discs are comes from a colleague at work who I proudly showed my build photos to from my cellphone (I lovingly stored them there). I was so sure he'd seen Star Wars on the big screen as well. I shouldn't have showed him the photos at all:

P : "What're you building - a pizza ship?
Me: "No, what made you think that?" (It must be the shape heheh. I would have felt better if he'd said hamburger)
P : "Well, the pepperoni's a dead giveaway."
Me: "Pepperoni"?, oh the discs, I thought. "It's the Millennium Falcon. One of the most famous sci-fi ships!"
P : "From Star Trek?"

Some modifications need to be done on the dimensions of the mandibles. Radwulfpino's contour comparison is very interesting. This is from his Photobucket album (Image hosting, free photo sharing & video sharing at Photobucket). Radwulfpino seems to have been comparing the 32-inch to Cory Harvey's (Mensaboy) Fine Molds Falcon. The green lines are the 32-inch's I believe. No doubt about those Finemolds mandibles needing a good cutting. Anyway, my mod is still based on the 5-footer (the one on the right), but I just found the comparisons interesting.



CNC seems to be the future of scale model building. I'm using CNC as well - only the traditional kind, though, of Carving and Cutting:















Using the Chronicles photo (blown upto Legacy Hasbro size), I thought about how to go about building a scratch cockpit. There's a thread here -
couldn't seem to find it - where someone mentioned why not slap on a cockpit of the old Kenner toy to the new Legacy Hasbro and that should do the trick. If you recall, Hasbro likes blowing up the size of the cockpit on its Falcons to fit play figures. Well, I drew out the old Kenner toy and compared it's cockpit to the plan - It does fit - surprise, surprise. With minor surgery this should make one swell cockpit.

BlindSquirrel

VERY cool that the old cockpit fits! A stroke of luck like that doesn't happen enough!

The build is looking great so far. I can't wait to see it develop!