Millennium Falcon Manual: 1977 Onwards (Modified YT-1300 Corellian Freighter) (Owners Workshop Manual) [Hardcover]

This book is without any doubt one of the best 'Star Wars'-Sourcebooks that have been published in the last years. It's filled with secrets and detailed information about the Falcon, but also about the YT-1300 Series. The first chapter about the history and the YT-1300 Series in general, is truly amazing and is reminiscent of the terrific West End Games Sourcebooks from the nineties.

The book features beautiful new artwork, new schematics and the ultimate floor plans of the Falcon. The book features a lot of technical information, but veteran SW-author Windham manages to include plenty of interesting material so it never becomes too technical.

It features a lot of new information, plenty of retcons and it's by far the best book we've ever seen (and probably even will see) about the Millennium Falcon. Its price is very low for just an excellent book.

"She may not look like much ... but she's got it where it counts." (quote by Han Solo), and the same to true of this book. I refer of course to the Haynes volume Millennium Falcon: Modified YT-1300 Corellian Freighter - Owner's Workshop Manual. An official Star Wars product, drawing on the numerous skills of author Ryder Windham, and lavishly illustrated by Chris Reiff and Chris Trevas, this 125 page technical manual is for the most part pleasing and offers much on what is probably the galaxies most famous flying junkyard. Who among us does not know the Falcon, or the exploits of Captain Solo and his Wookiee first mate - but can we say the same of his transport, the Millennium Falcon? The book not only introduces us to some of the Falcon's background, but it attempts to explain her 'stock light' status and some of her design ancestry. Certain details have been taken from canon sources, including the novel entitled "Millennium Falcon", the West End Games series of galaxy guides, various commentaries and other stories as well as the movies in which she made appearances - but it is the technical diagrams which drew me to this volume and for the most part I was not disappointed.

Rather surprisingly the authors choose to include "toys" which were offered with certain large toy versions of the Falcon as supplemental vehicles in their book, most notably the F-LER (which I have never heard of and I am a collector) and the non-canon "Mini-Fighter" which made its debut with the "new millennium falcon" toy. The book includes some nicely rendered computer generated images of the Falcon in profile, showing considerable surface detail, a series of monochrome line-drawings of her interiors both in isometric and flat-plan formats. There is a section detailing the layout of the various instrument panels and functions found in the cockpit; some pages on how Solo made excellent use of the Falcons maneuverability at the Battle of Yavin, the Battle of Hoth (and with Calrissian in command) the Battle of Endor. The vessels remarkable and souped-up propulsion system, weapons and sensors are also discussed, as are other aspects of her operation and design. In fact, in closing my only real regret is that the producers of this book did not carry on detailing everything that there is to know about the Falcon - but such a volume would have been many centimeters thick. I also recommend you look for another book by these fine authors and artists - and this is Star Wars: Millennium Falcon YT-1300 - A 3-D Owner's Guide - also available from Amazon - you will not be disappointed, I guarantee it!

Avoid. Using this book in a vain attempt to fix the notoriously fickle hyperdrive unit of my ship for the umpteenth time, I found I had a number of pieces left over after stripping down and reassembling the entire unit according to the instructions. None of them correspond to the diagrams in the book - I realise that these ships are often "bodged" with off-brand parts (it seems "Made on Alderaan" is no longer a guarantee of quality), but then this manual can hardly claim to be comprehensive if it does not account for the possibility of customisation. Needless to say, my ship is still grounded.

So now I'm stuck in this hollow asteroid, surrounded by Imperial fighters, with a gnarly co-pilot (doesn't help when he's always shedding hairs into the engine compartment) and an equally bilious passenger. The sexual tension is now unbearable, and I may shortly have to ask her to recce the rest of this barren rock while I "resolve matters" with my crew. It's either that or have my groin encased in carbonite, and we know that ain't gonna happen!

Also, the floor keeps rippling in a faintly alarming manner.

I shoulda stayed in that damn cantina and had another drink.