Why did the Falcon gain 2 more legs in ESB?

[JediTricks]

Have you ever noticed that in ANH, the Millennium Falcon has 3 legs (1 in front, 2 in the back) but in ESB there are 5 legs (2 new smaller ones right behind the front 1 to either side)? I noticed this when I rewatched the trilogy in the early '90s and have wondered ever since why it was done from either a behind-the-scenes reason OR even just an EU reason. Anybody else wonder about this? Anybody have the answer?

[Beast]

They were probably added, so that it would seem more plausable that they could hold up the massive weight of the ship. I'm sure that if it ever becomes a contention that Lucasfilm needs to address they will do somthing like the following.

"The Millenium Falcon has 3 primary main landing legs that are set to deploy simultanious. When landing upon Cloud City's Landing Platform Han Solo deployed the secondary landing legs, to stabalize the odd shaped ship against possible wind gusts on the exposed landing platform."

Sounds plausable, and negates the changing number of landing legs. I don't have any of the detailed SW ships books, but they may mention somthing about them in there. I'm going to do some on-line searches as well. So far nothing at the Star Wars: Technical Commentaries website.

MTFBWY and HH!!

Jar Jar Binks

[JediTricks]

You can see the legs in Echo Base as well. I don't think they *needed* to add them primarily based on an EU point of view, I mean the ship doesn't even have a place for them to retract anyway so might as well chalk it up to the magic of the Falcon.

Perhaps it was a structural necessity, since they had to build an entire life-sized filming prop for ESB since the one in ANH was only half of the ship.

The Falcon went through other changes in ANH too, the cockpit window was different inside than out and different from the effects miniature prop to the "life-sized" filming prop... MAGIC!

[bigbarada]

Well the behind the scenes answer is that ILM built an entirely new Millenium Falcon model from scratch for ESB.

However to explain this in an EU sense: in ESB you will notice that there are two really large additional compartments added onto the bottom of the Falcon where the extra landing gear come out. I just assume it was something that Han added in the time between ANH and ESB. I'll try to find some pictures to back this up.

There are perfect pictures to illustrate the difference in the Star Wars Chronicles book, but I don't have a scanner. If you have the book, look on page 96 for a clear view of the bottom of the ANH Falcon and compare it to the bottom view of the ESB Falcon on page 177. Plenty of room for additional landing gear on there.

[bigbarada]

Well, I found the perfect site for you JT. This guy claims to have been trying to figure out the inconsistencies of the Falcon throughout the films since 1977.

http://www.synicon.com.au/sw/mf/falcon.htm

Anyways, here is a comparison shot of the ANH Falcon and the ESB and ROTJ Falcon. You can clearly see the addition of two new hull boxes that could explain the sudden addition of new landing gear.

[darthvyn]

well, he's made a lot of special modifications to this ship... who says he stopped doing so after he joined the rebs?

[Beast]

That's true, there is about 2-3 years between ANH and ESB. Plenty of time for Han Solo to add a couple extra landing legs to the Falcon.

MTFBWY and HH!!

Jar Jar Binks

[JediTricks]

I've seen that page before, I forgot all about it. The EU explanation works for how they got there, but the "why" still seems a little shakey to me. I'll look in the SW Chronicles in a while, it's in the other room.

There's still no place for those legs to go though, the forward ones retract straight up into the center of the main hold.