Wookiee Not Included: Millennium Falcon Playhouse

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Wookiee Not Included: Millennium Falcon Playhouse

Millennium Falcon Playhouse

Inside every Star Wars fan is a yearning to sit at the controls of the Millennium Falcon. But assuming that Han and Chewie aren’t landing in your yard anytime soon, the best chance you have at making the Kessel Run in 12 Parsecs is to build your own Millennium Falcon.

We’ve seen every form of DIY Millennium Falcon projects at Make: over the years, from insanely detailed model recreations and full-scale prop-quality cockpits, to easy weekend projects you can do with your kids.

LED Christmas lights help to illuminate the interior  details of the cockpit.
LED Christmas lights help to illuminate the interior details of the cockpit.

Kyle Gilbert’s Millennium Falcon Cockpit Playhouse on Instructables falls into a sweet spot right between geeky detail and weekend practicality. To keep things focused, Kyle sticks just to the cockpit — leaving the holographic chessboard and smuggler’s compartment to another day. He also keeps things on the cheap, using MDF, PVC board, bondo, and some junk drawer odds and ends to populate the dashboard.

The dashboard of this Millennium Falcon cockpit is outfitted with an eclectic mix of switches, wheels, and dowels.
The dashboard of this Millennium Falcon cockpit is outfitted with an eclectic mix of switches, wheels, and dowels.

And really, it’s the dashboard in this project that puts a smile on my face. With office chair wheels for knobs, and silver-painted dowels for kicking the Hyperdrive into high gear (which I would do, over and over again), Kyle’s cockpit is a Wookiee away from practical perfection.

The view from the Millennium Falcon's cockpit.
The view from the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit.

Of course, part of me can’t help thinking about how the ways you could kick this project up a notch. Maybe you could enclose the cockpit with a larger box, rigged with a fiber optic starfield. Or how about adding a simple sound effects board and some speakers to fill your Falcon with Wookiee grunts or stalling Hyperdrive sounds?

If you have your own ideas on your dream Millennium Falcon build, let us hear them in the comments section.

6 thoughts on “Wookiee Not Included: Millennium Falcon Playhouse

  1. (̶◉͛‿◉̶)donald(̶◉͛‿◉̶) says:

    Have A happy Day…. Google Online

  2. Laura Bradley says:

    I see an awesome reading nook! So it needs a corner to lean in and a shelf. :-)

  3. StarWarsintheClassroom says:

    Fantastic project! Agree with Laura; this would be a terrific reading nook, especially in a classroom. Talk about an amazing way to engage reluctant learners in reading!

  4. Kyle Gilbert says:

    Donald, thanks so much for the writeup and the mind blowing link to Adafruit! That’s exactly what I needed, but I never would have guessed I’d find something like that.

    In a perfect world, I’d also wire a screen outside with seamless video that showed stars, transitioned to light speed with the lever, and turned with the steering. :)

    1. Donald Bell says:

      Hell yeah, Kyle! Nicely done. I used that Adafruit board in a half-finished Star Trek prop computer I designed (and will finish someday!), so it seemed a perfect fit for this. They also make a version of the board with an integrated amplifier that can hook directly to speakers you could embed in the dash, but the minijack model is a little more convenient I think. The board can also be powered from LiPo or USB battery pack to keep things mobile. Keep in touch, and if you have other projects you want to showcase email me: donald [at] makermedia.com

  5. Aaron Ketland says:

    Hi Donald, thanks for such a comprehensive guide and what a great project. Thought you might be interested to see that these guys have made a garden shed millennium falcon http://www.waltons.co.uk/waltons-space-shed

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I make stuff, play music, and sometimes make stuff that plays music. Fan of donuts, Arduino, BEAM robotics, skateboarding, Buckminster Fuller, and blinking lights.

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