Is there a spaceship as universally beloved as the Millennium Falcon? Maybe the Enterprise is close, but then you get into a debate about which Enterprise is beloved, since numerous ships have held the moniker. But there is only one Falcon (even if it’s had a few changes). Maybe it’s the way it looks like a pile of garbage, or a rusty bucket of bolts, the kind of ship that leaves you saying, “Hear me, baby, hold together” whenever you hit a bump, just like the first car you bought in high school. It’s even got those stupid dice hanging from the rearview mirror, and you gotta believe Han’s got a few of those pine tree-shaped air fresheners hung up around the ship. Seeing her fly, somehow, despite being anti-aerodynamic, through the atmosphere, trailing a pretty blue jetstream – magic. Andreas Lenander captures a bit of that feel with his latest LEGO build, showing the Millennium Falcon blasting out of some hive of scum and villainy or other.

It is at a smaller scale, so naturally quite a bit of detail is lost, like the proper number and positioning of the heat exhaust vents on the back or the exposed access hatches on the front mandibles. But who cares when the glowing blue trail is so perfect? The greebles are nicely executed, with a nice assortment of parts, including handcuffs and stickers from one of the official sets. And the city down below looks appropriate for the universe without being tied down to any particular locale. I love the use of the microfighter Falcon’s cockpit cone for a building’s windows. But that LED-lit blue trail is the highlight, fit for the fastest ship in the galaxy, capable of making 0.5 past light speed.