The Original Millennium Falcon Was Built With Model Race Car Parts

• The original Millennium Falcon built for the first Star Wars film used thousands of parts from various plastic model kits, including Formula 1 race cars.
• It measured five feet long and was only used in the first movie.
• These parts, along with aircraft and tank parts, are found all over the exterior of the ship.

We recently caught a social post on X from Tamiya UK, telling us about scale model race car parts that were used to build the Millennium Falcon model for the first Star Wars film. We had no idea just how many parts were used. Once you know what to look for, you can’t unsee cylinder blocks, exhaust pipes, transmissions, and more all over the outside of Han Solo’s ship.

Being fans of race cars and Star Wars, we couldn’t resist checking this out. What we didn’t expect was an insane rabbit hole that had us bouncing from website to website, uncovering thousands of various model parts used for that first Falcon. The search eventually led us to the SquareModels YouTube channel and the video below, chronicling a years-long process of building an accurate replica of the ship. It lists upwards of 2,000 parts from various kits used on the original build, including a plethora of parts from five Tamiya 1:12 scale race cars.

Arguably the most noticeable car components are along the sides. See what looks like half a transmission? That’s actually half the engine and transmission housing from a Wankel rotary engine kit, mounted on both sides. On the very tips of the mandibles at the front are engine parts from a Tamiya Ferrari 312B, easily identified by the twelve cylinders hiding in plain sight. Next to them on the inner sections of the mandibles are exhaust and frame sections from a 1957 Chevy. One part of the ship has what looks like the head from a four-cylinder engine. And this is just the tip of a very big iceberg.

A lengthy (and old) discussion at the RPF forums shows locations and photos of other parts, many of which come from military vehicles and aircraft, as well as cars. You’ll find tank barrels, wheels, treads, landing gear, and much more all over the outside of the iconic spaceship. No wonder it was the fastest, toughest ship in the galaxy. It had Ferrari parts and tank armor all over it. And the rotary engine components explain why it was constantly breaking down, too.

The Falcon model used in 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope measured five feet, and it was only used for that film. A smaller version was made for The Empire Strikes Back, and the design was revised slightly from the original. And now that we know just how many parts were borrowed from various car models in its construction, we can’t stop trying to find them all.