Getting A Leg Up On Millennium Falcon

You know what they say. The sequel is never as good as the original.

Well, never say never.

The stars aligned for me to tackle my son’s Star Wars Lego set that’s been in a holding pattern for months. You may remember I wrote about my run-in with the mother of all Lego sets after I tried to build it after Christmas and hit a snag: a missing piece.

Well, I ordered it and received the Lego piece, but I let it sit in the box for a while.

You see, I had to build up the courage to build my son’s Millennium Falcon Star Wars Lego Set — all 1,254 pieces, or 1,255 pieces, to be exact.

Would you believe the “missing” piece I vented about was not MIA at all? Turns out I used it on the wrong
part of the frame and only discovered my error on this second attempt, when I realized the picture looked different than ours.

The completed 1,359-piece Lego Millennium Falcon and its simpler sidekick. TANNYA JOAQUIN PHOTO

Oops! Serves me right. I suppose I should apologize to the Lego company, but hopefully, this mea culpa does the trick. Full disclosure time: I did mistakenly think another piece was missing, only to find it stuck to my leg.

Imagine that. A Lego stuck on my leg.

I will give credit to Lego. She’s a beauty, with details including “hull plates that open to reveal a detailed interior, twin flick missiles, rotating quad laser cannons and a detachable cockpit cover.” And the Millennium Falcon is solid, too, which is important when you’re dealing with kids.

This time, the force was with me.

Plus, I channeled my inner Yoda. “Do or do not. There is no try.”

It actually took longer to build up confidence to try again than it did to build this masterpiece. It was done in an afternoon, or in Star Wars time … in the time it took to complete, we watched Star Wars: A New Hope and part of the Empire Strikes Back.

It was fun to introduce our children to a movie series that brings back so many memories for us. But I could see my son’s wheels turning every time Darth Vader’s Imperial Star Destroyer did a flyby. He said, ooh, that looks bigger. Yes, it is. Or in Lego speak, 1,359 pieces.

I said under my breath, “I am not building that.” Luckily, I think I’m off the hook for now, and I didn’t even have to pull a Jedi mind trick. Kaimana decided to build his own “Millennium Falcon,” one that had fewer pieces and was designed using nothing but his imagination.

Now, that’s something Star Wars‘ George Lucas himself could appreciate.