Sorry guys, I'm back at home finally. I spent 6 hours trapped in the Denver airport last night and didn't get home until 2:45am... thanks United!
Unfortunately I'm at a bit of a disadvantage trying to compare this to the POTF2 one in lots of detail since it's sitting up in storage now (yellowing away). So I'm going off memory on the comparisons. I scrounged up some AA's (it takes 3) and finally had a chance to see the electronics working.
I want to know about the engine lights on that bad boy - did they modify the rear at all? It actually lights up, right? Or am I a dumbass?
Yep, the engines light up with 2 blue LEDs, mounted on the far left and right of the engine area. There's a silver slatted vent deal on the inside that they reflect across, and a clear ribbed panel that covers the lights and the interior silver area. Pretty slick, and way better than the stickers on the old one. This and the cockpit seem to be the biggest areas of retooling.
If you press the top left sfx button on the side of the ship, there's a long winding startup sound, which then kicks on the engine lights, which stay on for a good 10 seconds accompanied by a quieter "cruising" engine noise.
There's a nice clean torpedo sound when you press the missle launch button up towards the front of the ship.
The other sounds consist of that a roaring flyby, which sounds sourced from the Yavin approach (very short as it whips by the red planet itself), a longer flyby that sounds like it's from the final approach to Yavin, and the bursting blaster fire from the gun turrets, which lights up the red LEDs on the top front of the ship.
What's also worth noting are the front LEDs, which are a much cooler white than before, if memory serves correctly, which seemed more yellow. They have a Xenon feel to them.
I'd like to know if it is still a little tipsy like the POTF2 one.
You know, I completely forgot about that! Again, not having the old one here right now, didn't it use a couple of C batteries? This one uses 3 AA's, but it still seems a little prone to wobbling toward the left where the compartment is.
I'm still on the fence on whether this is quite worth an upgrade from the POTF2 one in all honesty. It's definitely not a considerable upgrade. The cockpit is much better, the engine bay is much better, the plastic color is more accurate, and it seems to be more durable all around, but it has problems.
The cannon on top tends to not stay together. The attention to detail in stickers seems reduced. There's still no frickin' training remote.
Maybe it's because of the Imperial shuttle spoiling me, but the Falcon needs that level of paint weathering on it to really kick up the authenticity factor, I think. If that had happened, I'd be calling this a vast improvement over the previous release.
I guess my final thought is that it's a solid, if not overwhelming piece for those who either passed on it originally or will buy anything to get closer to the "perfect" Falcon. This isn't that perfect one by far, but one step closer, and one step to the side for it's new imperfections. That make sense?