Five years on, is 75192 Millennium Falcon still the ultimate LEGO Star Wars set?

It’s been five years since 75192 Millennium Falcon first burst on to the scene – but a half-decade on, is it still the ultimate LEGO Star Wars set?

When the LEGO Group’s second Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcon arrived in 2017, the biggest Star Wars set to date was… the first UCS Millennium Falcon, which launched in 2007 with 5,197 bricks in the box. 75192 Millennium Falcon smashed through that barrier, upping the ship’s piece count to 7,541 – and similarly ballooning its price from £349.99 / $499.99 to £649.99 / $799.99.

It was the ultimate rendition of the Falcon at the time, soaring above and beyond not just any previous LEGO Star Wars set in scale, size and ambition, but also every other LEGO set full stop. It’s since been surpassed in piece count by the likes of 10276 Colosseum and 10294 Titanic, but remains the LEGO Group’s single-most expensive product – alongside 75313 AT-AT, one of two Star Wars sets that have reached for the heights of 75192 Millennium Falcon.

The other is 75252 Imperial Star Destroyer, itself an update of 2002’s 10030 Imperial Star Destroyer, which debuted in 2019 for £649.99 / $699.99. The LEGO Group later shaved £35 off its UK price, but it was clear that the giant grey triangle was meant to follow in the path marked out by the Falcon. This is an entirely new price bracket for the LEGO Star Wars theme, and one that likely wouldn’t have been possible without the second UCS Millennium Falcon.

But the real question is – particularly with one eye on everything that’s come since – does 75192 Millennium Falcon still hold up today? Is its design just as good, its premise just as ultimate, a full five years on?

In short, yes – and the reason is actually rooted in wider LEGO design principles over the past decade and a half. From 2007 to 2017, the LEGO Group accelerated its design techniques, part library and attention to detail at an incredible pace, and so the gap between the first and second Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcons is, in hindsight, massive.

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10179 Millennium Falcon has aged considerably in the 15 years since it landed on shelves – a quick glance tells us as much – but 75192 Millennium Falcon could launch for the first time today exactly as it is, and we’d have few criticisms. While LEGO design has advanced in the past five years, it’s by no means to the same degree as the decade prior, and so most of the LEGO Group’s major releases from 2016 onwards generally hold up today.

That’s not to say there aren’t areas to improve 75192 Millennium Falcon, or where it might differ if released today. For starters, the interior could be more fully-furnished – albeit with a bump in budget, although 10294 Titanic has shown us what’s possible with an even bigger part count. The minifigure line-up definitely wouldn’t be the same in 2022, meanwhile, as the LEGO Group has now all but abandoned the sequel trilogy.

But the broad strokes of the ship would likely remain the same, which is only testament to how brilliantly designed it was back in 2017. It speaks to the detail across the entirety of the Falcon inside and out, and the rewarding (if lengthy – but that’s what you’re paying for) build process. It also helps that a minifigure-scale Millennium Falcon is only truly achievable at this scale, and with this budget.

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Take the X-wing, for instance, which is arguably just as iconic as the Falcon – if not more iconic, really – but cannot be any better served by the price point 75192 has opened up for the LEGO Star Wars theme. 2013’s 10240 Red Five X-wing Starfighter already went above and beyond minifigure scale at £169.99 / $199.99, so it’s pointless taking it any bigger. By contrast, scaling the Falcon up to this price and size is fully justified, and that’s logic that’s since also followed through to the minifigure-scale 75313 AT-AT.

And yet, no other set from a galaxy far, far away has touched 75192 Millennium Falcon’s piece count (even if the AT-AT has equalled its price). It really is the ultimate Star Wars icon, the ultimate LEGO Star Wars set and – if you like – the ultimate Ultimate Collector Series model, and is therefore still worthy of its monumental asking price, even today.

£734.99 / $849.99 – its price post-increases – is an awful lot to ask for any one box of bricks, just as £649.99 / $799.99 was a lot to ask all the way back in September 2017. That bump in price has come as a result of ‘increased raw material and operating costs’, as the LEGO Group makes adjustments to account for inflation (which would actually put it at £760 in today’s money, so there’s one justification for picking up a copy, even at RRP – you’re welcome).

But whether you find it on sale (as it does regularly appear with discounts through third-party retailers) or have the ability to save up for it at full whack, you’ll still be buying yourself the ultimate LEGO Star Wars experience: five years on, nothing has managed to match 75192 Millennium Falcon at the top of the LEGO Star Wars totem pole.

And given how iconic the Falcon is, maybe nothing ever will.

Keep up with all our celebrations of 75192 Millennium Falcon’s fifth birthday through our dedicated UCS Falcon at Five hub, and consider supporting the work that Brick Fanatics does by purchasing your LEGO using our affiliate links. Thank you!