As a kid growing up in the 70s, I was a little excited about the idea of space travel. I missed the moon landing: The Apollo programme had drawn to a close, Skylab was preparing to burn up in the atmosphere above Western Australia, and we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Next Big Thing in space travel – the Space Shuttle.

And so it is into this milieu that as LEGO® Minifigures were unleashed on the world, that we had worlds of Castle, Town and Space unleashed on the world. Past,Present and Future. One had a passing interest, one was the mundane and every day and the other captured my imagination from the moment I saw the catalogue that read “… coming in 1979.” I may not have had many space sets as a child, but the ones I had I could still assemble by heart after 40 years, as I emerged from my dark ages and returned to my childhood LEGO Collection. Of course, while 1979 was the release date in Australia and Europe, a limited range was released in The USA in 1978.

As I have continued to explore the worlds of LEGO Classic Space and beyond, I have seen it through old catalogue scans, battered box photos and crumpled, stained instructions, while cleaning the dust and grime off bulk lots of elements, assembling weathered spacemen and wondering if I need to get my glasses cleaned.

When I saw early mentions of Tim Johnson’s book “LEGO Space: 1978-1992” turning up for preorder on Amazon, I was excited. Tim is a passionate fan who grew up in a similar era to myself and, as a self confessed parts nerd and founder of the website NEW ELEMENTARY, he was always going to bring some interesting insights to the project.

Published under the Dark Horse Books imprint, this book updates my memories of one inch square product shots in faded catalogues, and upscaled blurry scans, to 72 inch 4K high definition. It brings us a near exhaustive list of sets with archival photos from the era. High resolution product shots,abound: many more than we could ever hope to achieve with our own Kodak box Brownies or equivalent. We are taken behind the curtain, to see those original moonscape shots in production: the lights, the backdrops, the carefully shaped styrofoam and more. These were the days before computer generated imagery, cloning tools and digital compositing. Everything we saw was real, with tricks of the light filling in the gaps in between reality and imagination.

But this is more than an up- to-date high-resolution catalogue. Tim grew up in the era when these sets were in their prime, and his love for the theme is apparent in his writing. The set descriptions follow three narrative threads: a description of the set and how it fits into the range; an ongoing story such as we may have made up our selves during our play, incorporating each set into the narrative, and, perhaps the most interesting aspect for the discerning AFOL of today, a description of each element that helped to make up the form of Classic Space sets. As different elements are introduced into the parts palette, we can see how they influenced the shape and form of Space sets. Scattered between the standard product shots are advertisments from comics, box art and other ephemera that all came together to make this part of our childhoods.

But this about more than the product: it is about the people – While the Lead designer on LEGO Space, Jens Nygaard Knudsen, may have passed away a couple of years ago, we gain insights into his process from featured interviews from designers who have been associated with Space themes over the years: Niels Milan Pedersen, Bjarne Panduro Tveskov and the late Jørn Thomsen, as well as Instructions design expert, Connie Bork. Further insights are provided by other members of the design team, discussing their experiences with different sets in their own childhoods.

Why does the book finish at 1992? The final chapter provides us with some insight to this: 1992 is the final year of the Classic Smiley face appearing in LEGO Space sets: from the introduction of Space Police 2 and Ice Planet, we see the minifigure design evolve to more detailed expressions. This evolution provides a suitable end of an era in the storytelling.

Depending on where you live, LEGO Space is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year or next., and LEGO SPACE: 1978-1992 is a fitting tribute. It’s a beautifulhardback book, suitable for display on your coffee table and I heartily recommend it to anyone with an interest in Space LEGO sets, the history of LEGO Design, and the design process in general. With 200 pages and thousands of archival images, I have been enthralled both for the random ‘open a page and glance,’ as well as the ‘sit down and read for half an hour.’ As you may have gathered by now, I heartily recommend it: 5/5 Arbitrary Praise Units. If you are looking for a Christmas Present for a fan of LEGO Space Themes, and they didn’t already preorder this book, you could get Christmas shopping sorted out reaallllly quickly! LEGO Space 1978-1992 is now available through Amazon and other booksellers (link via the Australian publisher).

What do you think? Have you preordered this bookor put it on your Christmas list? Let me know in the comments below.

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Until Next Time,

Play Well!

I purchased this book with my own money, and all opinions are my own. A conversation with Tim back in 2016 may or maynot have inspired the founding of the Rambling Brick…