Graballa's "Rancor's Fist": Alternate Build of Millenium Falcon Lego Set

I am very thankful for all of the Lego Sets that I have built and designed with through the years.

One of these sets was the 2016 Lego Star Wars 75147 Star Scavenger, which I obtained near one of my birthdays. I had seen the Lego Star Wars: Freemaker Adventures TV Show for the first time previously before then, and I had decided that I liked the show, enough for me to want to get the main ship from it.

I very much enjoyed having this ship around. It did not serve in many of my battles, but I built many different versions of the Freemaker Salvage and Repair Shop from the tv show for my ship to park in. Additionally, I remodeled and improved it's mini Scavenger to be more realistic to the TV show's mini scavenger.

2017's Christmas brought me a family gift of the Lego Star Wars 75186 Arrowhead set. The ship's shape has a very elegant design and shape. It looks very artisitc, if that can be said about a spaceship.

A later Christmas, I was happy to receive a set of beautifully hand-painted figures, namely a Graballa Figure, a Baash minifigure, a Raam minifigure, and a Yuppau minifigure. These figures were perfect! My Freemaker collection was now very impressive, and near complete!

However...

I realized that Graballa The Hut did not have a ship for him to use. He was missing the Rancor's Fist space vessel from the TV show. Without it, he could not get anywhere, except barge into my Freemaker's shop occasionally. His bounty hunters could do a lot of things, but they couldn't travel as a true Hut gang would.

It was around this time that I was thinking that my Lego Star Wars 75105 Millenium Falcon, from the Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens movie, could use an alternate build.

One of the Lergest Alternate Builds

Normally, the Alternate Builds that I do with Lego sets are on a small scale, where each piece makes a big difference in the outocme of the model. However, I was up for the challenge of trying to make something much larger out of an alternate build. What I then made could aguably have more displacement volume than the entire Lego Millenium Falcon: the set from which these pieces came from. 

C3-P0 stands beside the ship for a sense of scale

This model was huge! My favorite parts, though was that it contained a hangar, and had a separate spot that fit a Jabba-sized figure without preventing the ship from closing. Additionally, I was able to model a pretty good interpretation of the interior of the Rancor's Fist (the ship's name) from the show into this Lego interpretation model.

On top of these perks about the model, it also contained a Stromng and Sturdy carrying handle that accurately balanced the ship upright. This carry handle was necessary for a ship so large and shaped as it was. This carry handle connected and intefgrated itself into the frame of this ship (yes, frames and framework are necessary in order to make a study model of this size).

Below, a friendly helper holds it in front of the camera (using its very sturdy, yet subtly designed carry handle).

The Framework of this ship is comprised 2 parts: a top frame, which is a square shape made of Lego Technic pieces, and a bottom Technic frame, which utitlized much of the same techniques as the original Millenium Falcon set. This bottom frame had plates that were placed on top of it, which support all of the bricks and mounts of the side and top panels. This whole bottom frame then had four small holes made in it, which then connected to 4 technic beams that drove up through those holes to connect to the top frame via Technic pins. This whole setup made a very sturdy frame for the main ship.

This frame work can be easily seen when looking at the main hangar area

A Full-Length Hangar Bay

One of the main areas featured in the Freemaker Adventures TV Sow is the Hangar Bay of this ship, the Rancor's Fist. It is here where Naare's ship is pulled out of the water, and here where Kordi Freemaker is "rescued" from Graballa the Hut, though she had really already talked herself out of being kidnapped anyway. 

Regardless, I knew that this ship needed to have a hangar, preferably one in which microfighters could fit in it. I wanted to fit a pirate spaceship microfighter in the hangar, and maybe even two. 

The design cooperated in this case, and I was able to fit them into a nicely sized hangar. It didn't even bulge out too far on the ship.

Here's a look inside the Hangar with C3-P0 as a reference for its size:

Note that the hangar doors can swing outward, allowing a very physical landing of microfighters inside the ship. Here below is a microfighter that I personally designed occupying the hangar. This microfighter design took inspiration from the Lego X-Wing Microfighter designs, most notably the nose sections, and my modifications of them. I believe that it is Baash who occupies the pilot's seat on this one.

Note how the top of the hangar on this side can hinge up for easier access to the interior of the Hangar. This ease of access was essential to making this design be a good, useable model.

Here is the microfighter model I designed, if one desires a closer look. It is also covered more thoroughly in my forthcoming Custom Microfighters post.

This ship can also fold up its wings for easier storage if the wings are detached and the cannons are clipped to the fuelage.

Exterior

The Rancor's Fist needed to have easy accessibility, which we shall cover later, but just as important was maintaining a good overall look to the ship. I was thus very satisfied to put windows on the ship which made it look good, and be more historically accurate to the TV Show. These windows happen to look right into the booths contained in this ship, which we'll also cover later.

Raam is seen through this window while he plays space-checkers with Baash

I was also able to make the Hangar look quite nice from an exterior viewpoint. Notice that the hangar looks like it is almost an addon or a noticeably different part of the ship. Yet, it still looks quite well with the ship, and integrates nicely into its sides.

Profile Views

From head on, the ship looks quite like a skiff or a space-version of a Sail-barge. That was what I wanted, even if I couldn't make it perfectly accurate to the Rancor's Fist seen in the TV Show.

Note the side, skiff-like, panels on either side of the ship. They also house double sets of blasters of the ship, allowing it to make some good shots at frontal attackers. A closer look at the back area reveals that I had to mount these side panels very high on the ship, to prevent the panels from snapping off when the ship is placed on the ground. It still looks good to me, though.

It's also here, in the back, where many key engine features of the Millenium Falcon were used to make the engines featured on this ship. A bit of ingenuity on my part told me that this would be the best place to use the falcon's blue "engine lights" band. Overall, though, I think that this placement of the engine vents was quite accurate enough to be somewhat realistic to the Rancor's Fist, which normally features multiple small engines in two relatively large, vertical bands at the back.

I also made use of the Falcon's natural curved shape pieces to make the rear of the ship's curved shape. In the show, though, the rear is a bit more flat, with the engines being a bit more indented.

Back Engine Maintenance Area

The Interior of the back area, near the engines and behind the Hangar, was difficult to equip and outfit, unlike what the exterior would say about its design. The Interior was curved, and bricks do not like being curved; They prefer to be straight. So, it was with a bit of tinkering that I decided to centralize some engine equipment and place a systems console on one side, with a fold-down bed on the other side.

This fold-down bed can allow more space in the back area for figures to stand when the rear of the ship is opened up, and stores extended outward when the rear area is closed. I also fit a small tools/ weapons rack to serve as a divider between this area and the forward hangar area.

This back area's covering panels peel down just like the Millenium Flacon's panels do. For this image, though, the back section had to be completely removed.

With all of these areas being covered, it is now time to get to the main course of this post, and the most commonly featured area in the Freemaker Adventures TV Show: The Main Lounge.

Rancor's Fist's Main Lounge / Cantina

One of the quirky things about Graballa's ship is the orderly starship-style arragnement of the cantina-like booths that run both sides of his throne room. Adding to that cantina analogy, Kordi even says in the TV show that it "feels like Tatooine in here..." 

To make this same feel, I modeled two Cantina-like booths on each side of the center walkway of the ship. One booth houses a nice couch for Dengar to sleep on (which he often does do in the show).

The other booth houses a center space-checkers-like table for the other multitude of occupants of the Ranco's Fist to sit at.

At the end of this hallway, near the front of the ship and to one side, I placed an elevated dais for Graballa to Sit on, with a computer terminal nearby, which is almost taken straigh out of the TV Show.

Yeppau also stands to the side of Graballa, ready to assist with any answer, namely "yep" and "nope."

What I am especially proud of here is that this steeply angled roof and walls allow Graballa to sit here while the ship is folded up and closed. Later in this post is an image that shows that nice fit that Graballa has.

Above is a recreation of the scene from Season 1, Episode 2 - The Mines of Graballa.

In this scene, rowan and R0-GR find themselves captured by a hut, trying to convince him that they did not, indeed, find a precious kyber saber crystal. Kordi is in the background, ready to strike up a distracting bargain with the hut while rowan and their vintage droid, R0-GR, escape to safety.

Top Hatch / Hole

Going on with the references to this TV Show scene, later in the episode, The freemakers escape through a hole that they shoot in the ceiling. I wanted to include a hole in my design that my Freemakers could escape through, should they ever wish to. In pursuit of this, I incoprorated a hatch into the model that is located under the carrying handle. This isn't exactly a spot to be shot and exploded open, but rather a dedicated emergency hatch of sorts, which could likely be easy to blast open if needed.

Here, Rowan just decided to cut it open, as he has gained a lightsaber at this point in my timeline.

But then again, there was a blaster available at that computer terminal to blast that hole open, anyway.

Front Ramp / Storage Area

This ship does have an area in the front, which features a hingeable floor, which makes the main means of access to the inside of this ship. It is probably the only means of access for Graballa. Normally during space flight, though, this area is unused. This is why I have chosen to store a swoop speeder bike in the nose compartment here of the ship.

During flight, the sloped ramp here in the front is prevented from gravity drooping it down by the use of the upper cover. The upper cover has the front portion of the ship attached to it, which portion has two inward "teeth" on its inside that create a groove that the bottom floor locks into. Gravity then keeps the top cover down, which then keeps the bottom ramp in this groove, and thus prevents the bottom ramp from drooping when the top cover is on.

Easy Accessibility and Gap-less Fit

This model that I designed has many amazing features, all of which fit inside a nice, tightly-fitting cover. Here below is the top hingeable cover over Graballa's throne area. Looking into this hole, it is plainly seen that Grabballa fits inside this model nicely. This might be hard to imagine, considering the size of the figure, unless a photo could be shown, which I have provided below.

In addition to there being a convenient top cover for the main room, there is also a top cover for the Hangar bay. This removable cover allows full access to the hangar, such that all portions of the hangar can be visible from a top perspective. Here's a view below of the ship with its top hangar cover removed.

It easily presses back in place with two studs and additional friction from surrounding bricks that holds it in securely.

Final Remarks

This design was created to house my new Freemaker Adventures characters. It was made out of the pieces of the Millenium Flacon Set from Star Wars Episode 7. It has many nice spots straight from the TV Show, while using many key components from the Millenium Falcon Lego Set (Note the Flacon's Main Radar dish being used in the center of the ship design featured here). This design is my personal interpretation of the Rancor's Fist, the Ship that Graballa flies in. It handles well when lifted properly, and the flooring is firm, and elevated nicely above ground level.

There are many different designs about my Freemaker Adventures Lego collection that are referenced here. They will likely be featured in later posts, with links to them added here at the appropriate points. They will be found elsewhere on my blog, as well. The whole while, my designs are posted here to inspire, and be shared with the Lego Community. 

Happy Designing!