Rebuilding the classic MPC Millennium Falcon kit.

Millennium Falcon Rebuild Blog

A long time ago, in a distant galaxy, far away…

In 1981, my Gran gave me a MPC plastic model kit of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars; the first model kit that was done of this iconic movie starship.

Soon, my best mate and I decided to make this the best model kit that either of us had ever done. And after a couple of weeks of cutting, gluing, painting and weathering, we had a pretty good looking hunk O’ junk!

The Falcon came home with me, and was displayed in pride of place in my room; well away from the prying fingers of my little sister. It joined my X-Wing, Snowspeeder, NASA Space Shuttles, and massive 1980 Pontiac TransAm.

Over the years, some of the other kits fell into disrepair, while others (like the TransAm) literally fell to their death. But I always kept the Falcon in great shape.

So when I moved house, I put it into an old antique suitcase. Where it would stay for nearly 30 years.

Fast forward to 2015; this cynical old guy, who’d tried to see the upside of the prequels but gave up, saw that a teaser had been released for the new Star Wars movie, and clicked on the link with great trepidation.

And a minute later, the reawakened 12 year old me wiped the tears from his eyes and stopped fist pumping the air long enough to thank J.J. Abrams, and remembered that old suitcase in the spare room…

Inside, it was mostly there; some glue had perished, bits had fallen off or broken, but it was salvageable.

So I had the silly thought, well you’re older, wiser, an Engineer in need of an indoor hobby, and you did put a lot of work into this all those years ago.

Little did I know that I was entering a doorway marked “Madness lies within.”