2016 wasn’t a great year for me, collecting wise. Work has been super busy, which is awesome, but it’s meant that I’ve been spending a lot more time there. There weren’t many new collectibles released last year, either. With the exception of a couple of really nice prints courtesy of Vincenzo Giordano and the Retro Draughtsman, there haven’t really been many notable additions to my collection. The only exciting releases were Raymond Swanland’s awesome “Gamblers Rush” and Jerry Vanderstelt’s “She’s Still Got It“. Both of which I still need to,order.

My blog hasn’t performed too well, either. (Although I totally understand why. I’m no writer and it’s a niche blog at the best of times.) To cap it all, we lost Carrie Fisher. So, good bye and good riddance to 2016.

2017 though, promises to be an absolute scorcher for me, collecting wise.

For starters, I’m on issue 96 of DeAgostini’s brilliant Build The Millennium Falcon partwork. (I’ve been collecting two copies as Chris Lee of Fullscale Falcon.com asked me to get a copy for him too. When it was released in the US, there was no need, but I continued anyway and didn’t cancel the subscription.) I’m no modeller, but I’m really thinking of giving this a go. It looks like a really good project and I thought I’d blog my progress as an absolute beginner model maker. My biggest worry, though is the painting of the metallic quad gun parts. For those that are not yet on board with this yet, I urge you to take out a subscription. I also need to get a few more of the folders to store the magazines in.

I’ve had the floating Millennium Falcon toy from Beast Kingdom on preorder from Forbidden Planet for quite a while now, so I expect that to ship this year. Okay, it’s not quite high end, but it’s pretty expensive and it’ll be an unusual addition to my collection. I dare say it’ll prove to be something of a talking point as well. I need to try and pick up one of the chrome ones too.

Propel delayed their release of the Millennium Falcon drone to later this year and I’ll definitely be picking one of those up. I saw the others at a Maplin’s near were I live and they are quite impressive. For me, I just love the attention to display and packaging that Propel have put into them. The boxes are designed especially to showcase your drone and have lighting to illuminate your model. I believe that there is also a small speaker that plays the Imperial March when you open it. The boxes are rechargeable so there’s no fear of losing either of those features. Other manufacturers will take note. I doubt I’ll fly her though, but if I find a club near where I live, I would be tempted to get a second and start dogfighting.

After nearly seven years of waiting, EFX finally put their mixed media Millennium Falcon up for preorder. It’s due to be released in the first quarter of 2017, so I’m really excited for this as I’ve wanted something from them in my collection since I saw their beautiful X-Wing prop replica. The guys on the Rebelscum Forums are all a bit dubious as to the actual release date, as EFX do have a reputation for delay upon delay. I prefer to remain mindlessly optimistic. You can put a deposit of $200 down, but I preferred to pay for the whole thing in one go.

Finally, QMX (another incredible prop licensee) announced their stunning Millennium Falcon cutaway model last year. This is due for release around August of this year and I will beg, borrow or steal to get one of these beautiful models. Apparently, QMX are aiming for a relatively low price point on these, but knowing their commitment to quality, I can see these retailing for nearer $1, 000 when they do go for preorder. Still, this has instabuy all over it, in my opinion.

2018 sees the release of the Han Solo stand alone movie and that could be expensive for someone like me. 😀 I am predicting (hoping) that QMX will release an “Artisan” prop replica of the Millennium Falcon to coincide with the release of the movie. It’ll be of the Episode IV Falcon, so there would be some distinct differences from my Master Replica Falcon. They have plenty of lead time, so why not? Besides, i want another grail item to lust after. I’ll need to start saving now though, because If they do release something, those bad boys are expensive.