When LEGO sends The Brothers Brick an early copy of a LEGO set to review, receiving it a few days before it’s widely available is generally not a problem. We just spend a couple evenings building, photographing, and writing up the review — no big deal. But when the new 75192 Ultimate Collector’s Millennium Falcon lands with a resounding “thump!” on our doorstep two days before it’s available to LEGO VIP Program members, that’s a bit of a different story. TBB Senior Editor Chris Malloy and I have spent literally every spare moment since last Monday (a week and a half ago) slaving at the brick to bring you our hands-on review of the largest LEGO set ever released.

The new UCS Millennium Falcon includes 7,541 pieces with 10 minifigs, and costs USD 799.99. That obviously makes it the most-expensive LEGO set ever released, and we’ll address the price later in the review.

Fair warning up front that this review will be as much about the subjective build experience and our Gestalt perspective on the completed model as it will be about details like parts, minifigs, and building techniques. We expect that many of our readers will not be able to afford an $800 set, and we want to give you as much vicarious insight as possible into the end-to-end experience. We’ll also do our best to compare this set with the earlier 10179 UCS Millennium Falcon from 2007.

Read our complete, hands-on review of the new LEGO Star Wars 75192 UCS Millennium Falcon