When is a rumor just a rumor?

Any more, in the world wide web of conjecture and speculation, all "facts" are dubious beasts.

Enter a couple jpegs from the extremely reputable Star Wars web site www.galactichunter.com.

Now, it has been a rumor for some time (at least a year) a totally redesigned Millennium Falcon was in the works. But with a visible no-show at Toy Fair this year, most of those rumors got dashed to the proverbial rocks. Still, the whispers for a new Falcon would not go away.

To be honest, a totally decked out Falcon makes perfect sense right now. The old ship is QUITE old, dating back to the very first Kenner Falcon and having had in recent years more "work" done on it than Joan Rivers face. And to a degree, the old Falcon has held up fairly well. But let me be blunt; "fairly" is the operative word.

Look, I know Hasbro's party line is "we don't make any money off collectors." And that's fine. I don't by it one bit, but they can hold onto that fallacy all they want. I promise you, though, that THIS Falcon, if true, is very much the offspring of the collector community. That kids will reap a lot of joy from such an item is a given. But I highly doubt the under 12 set has been begging for the level of detail this ship is sporting.

Okay, so back to the rumor. We’ve posted the pictures below, but the original source is here.

What say you? Real? If not, it's both an incredible con job and a crushing let down. If it's real, though... then Star Wars fans rejoice.

click on either image for a high resolution version