Here I am with my building plate full as in the buffet line and still I want to add more to it. Almost a month ago I started to work on a conversion of the Millenium Falcon ‘Hero’ offered only at Walmart this past holiday season. I burnt this particular toy back when it first hit the shelves on my personal Facebook page in a relentless rant about it. As I previously mentioned, this Millenium Falcon has absolutely no play value. Out of the box kids can only pretend they are flying it by and rotate the radar dish. That’s it! Besides that, this toy can also be another junk in your kids closet most likely to be sold during next year’s garage sale.
But dumb me that didn’t noticed as other did before me the great potential this Falcon has. It measures 29” inches. That’s 3” inches less that the current offering from DeAgostini’s 32” studio scale Millenium Falcon installments kit. While this piece of hollow polypropylene is in no way a match for DeAgostini’s offering, with some TLC and some people in the know producing upgrade parts can make this toy really shine.
So this is the case with the parts I received yesterday. By the way, this is the second shipment from Shapeways. If you never heard of Shapeways, click here to see how 3D printing is rapidly changing the ball game in the model building hobby and after market industry.
As with the first shipment, Shapeways goes the the whole 9 yards to ensure that your order will arrive safe. The picture below shows the bubble wrap that formed a cocoon and this wrap came wrapped in more air pads. So I could say that even Ace Ventura kicking the hell out this box while delivering it will keep your goods safe. As with the first item that I ordered, the detail on the 3D printing is absolutely amazing. I originally thought that the exhaust vents for the Millenium Falcon was going to be detailed but solid. Never I imagined that the level of current quality from 3D prints could deliver such fine and intricate detail. Yes, as you can see on the picture below the vents are hollow -see-thru-. After the pictures were taken, I noticed some printing residue on my 32” screen monitor but an old soft tooth brush and soapy slightly warm water took care of that.
These parts are 3D printed in frosted ultra detail with a clear matte finish that allows the printer to reproduce the fine details from the original 3D rendering. These upgrade parts are made by seller TonyRR and he has a plethora of upgrade parts for this project, DeAgostini’s Falcon, MPC, Revell, Fine Molds and other Sci-Fi subjects. His catalog is growing rapidly so if you are sci-fi builder, you might want to check out his store at Shapeways.
My sincere thanks to Antonio ‘TonyRR’ Regidor AKA 308bits at Shapeways for the review sample.
