After searching the web for a good image of this box and lid - and found nothing of quality - I bought it and scanned in a version for all to have and enjoy!
When I was 11 and SW came out, two years later (1979) seemed like an eternity to wait for a model of Han Solo's pirate ship. I knew that I wanted a model of the ship, but I never dreamed it would have such a cool photo of the actual model from the movie! I loved that box lid. Jump ahead to 2009, after having and losing track of the model and box three times in my life, I decided to find the image on the net. Nothing. Some were so-so photos by sellers, but nothing of quality that I considered archive quality. I decided to buy another box - just for the lid - scan it, save it and share it with all you other Millennium Falcon freaks out there like me.
So, I present to you (and I'm a professional Graphic artist by the way) a MEDIUM res image of our beloved ship from the 1979 MPC model box lid. The box I purchased was not mint, but the Falcon pic was in very good shape. The box itself had faded a tad over time, but it wasn't too far off accurate (remember, I've had three before). I've enriched the color ever so slightly to accommodate the fade. Also, to make my color correction trustworthy, you all should know that I have an actual 16 x 20 photo print of this exact Falcon pic from the Lucasfilm archives with a COA on Lucasfilm letterhead from the archive director, granting me permission to obtain a print for personal collecting use only and NOT for distribution of any kind. (that's why I'm not posting THAT image).
So, I say all this to certify that my color correction is probably about as dead-on as you can get where the "Falcon photo" is concerned. My actual box "blue values" in the space artwork are a tad more aqua than this jpeg, but that is due to fading. I did not concern myself so much with capturing the blue as I did making sure the Falcon color was accurate.
Now of course, I personally have the highest resoluton possible at 100% of the box lid size: 19.75 x 14.5 at 300 res = a 73.6 MB image. But I obviously can't post that huge monster here. So I've uploaded the max sizes I can use through ImageShack - 1.5 MB (and now, 3MB - scroll down). Click on the image (once, then again after it comes up, for maximum size).
Oh, and in case your wondering why I didn't retouch the box edges, it's because this is a "vintage image" and I felt the old faded box edges were a nice touch to keep.
(see larger 3MB jpeg link below)
