The Millennium Falcon: Day 1

Insert unintelligible squealing

We've always been a Lego family. My dad started collecting the city and train sets when I was a kid. Most people had model trains under their Christmas trees, but we had Lego trains.

The miniature world grew every year as my dad brought in more and more sets. What started as a simple little circle around the tree grew into a sprawling city, and we take it very seriously.

Yes. That is a hole in the wall in the back corner. Yes, my mom cut that hole specifically for the train that only comes out at Christmas.

For me, Lego is as much a part of Christmas as Santa Claus, and the fact that my two oldest are finally at an age where they can use Lego without destroying or trying to eat them is super exciting for me. And maybe a little bit stressful when I hear that all too familiar sound of a piece bouncing across the floor.

Now, as much as I love sharing Lego with my kids, I definitely still have my personal stash, and I might be just a tiny bit President Business about it. I’m not supergluing bricks together or anything like that, but (at least for now), Dad's bricks are off limits.

Though, in my defense, most of the sets I buy these days aren't really meant to be played with. These days I gravitate toward the larger collectible sets. I have the big X-Wing, the Tumbler Batmobile from the Nolan trilogy, and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier.

All of those are a ton of fun to build, and I’ve rebuilt them several times. (In fact, as I’m writing this, the Helicarrier is in pieces waiting to be reassembled after a deep clean).

In 2017, though, Lego release set #75192—the Millennium Falcon. At the time, it was the largest set Lego had ever released with over 7,500 pieces, and it’s an absolute behemoth of a build. Lego has released several versions of the Falcon over the years, but this one is next level, and it rocketed to the top of my Lego bucket list the moment I saw it.

I’ve been chipping away at the price tag for, well, about five years now, hoping that I could get my hands on it before it was discontinued, and that day as finally arrived. The box alone is ginormous. I’m pretty sure our air fryer came in a smaller package than this set.

I cannot put into words how absolutely thrilled I am right now. Seriously. I put the box on the kitchen table and just sort of stared at it for a few minutes.

I’m going to take my time with this one. Partly because I’ll have to do it while the kids are asleep to avoid all the “No. Stop,” the “Please don’t touch that,” and the “No, this is my set” conversations. Looking at this thing, I can kind of imagine how my dad felt every time my brother and I saw him open a new set and begged him to let us help. He was nicer than I am—with his Lego sets, at least.

Truth be told, though, the biggest challenge ahead of me is finding a place to display this. At 32.6 x 28.6" inches, this does not fit on a bookshelf. I floated the idea of a centerpiece for our kitchen table, but my wife was less thrilled with that idea, so for now, I’m settling for an old table in the basement.

I feel like there’s probably room on my desk somewhere, but I’m going to need to rearrange a few things to pull it off, and I just did that to make room for a second monitor, so I don’t know if I’m mentally prepared for another change so soon (Don’t judge me).

Oh, and in case you aren’t sure how big this box is, here's a high chair for scale: