Today, lets take a look at the 70431 Space Explorer Rover and Alien Life – the 6 wheel rover of this year’s City Space Redux. This set draws on the long pedigree of Exploratory rovers, and brings some alien life to the story. It has 311 pieces and is priced at $AUD49.99/$USD34.99/€29.99/£24.99
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It was 1979, February and I was now staring at the LEGO® Catalog for the 3rd consecutive hour. I was enarmoured with the new spaceships. Fast forward to 2014 and the time had come to patch the 918 shaped hole in my collection. The 928/497 Galaxy explorer may have been the Ulimate Space Playset of the era, but the one man spaceship just seemed to do all the right things for me. Zip forward another decade and it appears that LEGO City is heading into space in a new direction.
While I might have considered the 2022 NASA Artemis sets as bringing us most of the things that we needed in a Space theme, the models were rooted in a near-future reality that may well be achieved by the end of the decade. While the elements were there, some of the sets were rooted on earth. The other daunting prospect here was the cost of entry, with 3 large sets and one moderately sized one all starting at $USD 40.
This year we see LEGO City return to space, but it feels a bit different to the last time: it feels like the inevitable narrative time skip has occurred and we are now exploring the wider galaxy. We see recurring themes encountered in Classic Space: searching for minerals. Now we a re looking for opalescent purple crystals that can be converted into batteries; Investigating the genesis of life on Strange New Worlds and shipping it all back home. To say nothing of the big silver band sown the sid of the box saying “Space”
The astronauts have a variety of robots to help them, as well as a collection of new outfits and accessories. More on that in the near future.
I was really excited when the LEGO Group sent the new City Sets over look at. Then the challenging moment arrived: which one to look at first? The small one? The Big one? The one that sat somewhere in between?
And so I Opted for the 60430 Interstellar Spacecraft. With 240 pieces, but only one (exclusive) minifigure this space ship appeared to be one of the most swooshable in the theme. And it felt like it might be the model to bear the closest resemblence to Ye Goode Olde 918.
Lets take a closer look:
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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.
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Blacktron to the Future?
It was 1987, and for the first time ever, a collection of LEGO characters that could be defined as ‘the bad guys‘ was released. They were’nt part of Town, they weren’t in any Castle; but they were in Space. And their name was Blacktron. Gone was the Classic Space logo from their torsos: this was a functional black printed torso, with white lines providing the detail, while the helmet was no longer the traditional shape, but rather a motor cycle helmet. Now with a visor. But for extra menace, the visors were an opaque black. The opportunity for incognito was remarkable.
This band of intergalactic secret-stealing rapscallions were the pinnacle of villainy for a couple of years, only to be succeeded by their more fluorescent sequel: Blacktron II (Electric Boogaloo??).
But Now they Are Back! And I think, for the better! Set 6894 Known in the USA as the BLACKTRON INVADER, it was also referred to as the BLACKTRON CRUISER in the UK/Europe – although the European catalogue in 1988 confused the labels for 6894 and 6941 (Blacktron Battrax or Blacktron Prowler).
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Well, back for a limited time, and not as a general retail release…
The LEGO Group has released official images of an upcoming gift with purchase: 40580 Blacktron Cruiser. I might have just wept a little. The new set is expected to come as a gift with purchase in the new year.
This set follows in the footsteps of the 40567 Forest Hideout, seen earlier in the 2022, rereleasing a popular set from days long past, using contemporary building techniques.
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As I write this, we are awaiting the second launch window for Artemis I, after the mission was delayed earlier this week, as the result of cooling problems. This mission will see an integrated test of the Space Launch System rocket as well as the Orion space craft – which will house the crew when they are taken to land on the moon in 2024.
In Greek Mythology, Artemis is the twin sister of Apollo, as such it seems fitting that this is the name chosen for NASA’s missions to return to the moon, 50 years after the last man stepped foot on the surface.
This year, the LEGO City range has featured a number of sets with a ‘Space’ theme, based on the components being investigated for the Artemis mission. We have previously looked at the Lunar research Base, as well as the Lunar Rover. The Rocket launch centre represents the largest set in the theme, with 1010 pieces, and with a RRP of $AUD249.99. This is a big set, and contains everything you need to set up a rocket launch base. Designed in cooperation with NASA, the rocket bears more than a passing resemblance to the Artemis Space Launch System… But I am getting ahead of myself.
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It seems like an age ago that LEGO Ideas ran a fan vote to determine which LEGO Theme would be commemorated as part of the company’s 90th Anniversary Celebrations. I had long hoped we would see a grey and blue castle, with a transparent yellow Bionicle mask mounted above the drawbridge. Today I am delighted to say that I was mistaken. Not one set or one theme, but at least two. Will we see more? I honestly have no idea.
A revised 928/497 Galaxy Explorer was announced at LEGO CON today. This is the Iconic LEGO Spaceship. The emblem of LEGO Space in the early days, representing the ethos of peaceful exploration, before the introduction of conflict was required to drive the story-telling.
The set was revealed by Mike Psiaki – who revealed it is 1.5 times larger than the original set.
10497 will arrive on August 1st 2022, and will cost $99.99 / £89.99/ €99.99 /179.99 AUD/129.99 CAD. IF YOU ARE KEEN, it will be available for preorder in some markets from today!
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Back in the early days of LEGO® minifigures, the majority of sets that we had to play had a modest part count, and could be pulled apart and rebuilt in less than an hour: there was plenty of source material for alternative builds, either from the suggestions on the back of the box, or using an ideas book, such as #6000 – which documented the adventures of Mary and Bill, initially in a Town-based adventure, but takes a detour through the worlds of Classic Space and Castle…
Sets were built, played with and rebuilt. Hardly anything was kept together for a significant amount of time.
Flash forward 40 years, and the way some kids play seems to have changed: sets become display pieces in some households, gathering dust until the owner enters their dark ages, before moving on to sell them on the secondary market.
In part, I can understand this: sets have become a bit more sophisticated over the years: more pieces, more complicated building techniques, and we have already invested a couple of hours in building the core model. I encountered some examples of this recently as I worked on the new Creator 3in1 sets – Viking Ship and Midgard Serpent, as well as the DownTown Noodle Shop: pulling these sets apart and building the alternative models took up to 2 hours, depending on the models.
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In the previous article in this series, we looked at Classic Space – and what might define the theme: More than the colours, the sets of this era were united in working together for a common goal: exploring, mining and drinking oversized cups of coffee, while wearing their spacesuits inside. We have ships, bases and rovers, with a variety of colour schemes passing by over the years.
By the time I got to 1987, I had completed school, and was just starting off at university. My brother had recently stopped playing with our bricks, and they were put into storage – to be retrieved as we both gained children of our own. I was well and truly into my Dark Ages. All I know has been derived from fellow AFOLs, catalogs, the brickset database and picking up the occasional set or three along the way.
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Today, The LEGO Group have announced a new type of LEGO City Set: LEGO City Missions. Following the basic themes of Water Police; Mission to Mars and Wildlife Rescue, the online building instructions, in the form of an online storybook, provides challenges for the builder – encouraging problem solving, and expanding the play available. This takes me back to the days when the Fabuland set Instructions used to be primarily a story book, to take the child on their journey.
For AFOLs, we might also regard these sets as providing awesome parts packs for related themes, including Space. To say nothing of a selection of new animal moulds – including a city scale hare, are well as a baby crocodile (seeing this element move from Marvel minifigures, through to the City range.) Perhaps we should say nothing about the vibrant coral frog.
Read on for more pictures, as well as the press release:
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