The spaceship design is reminiscent of the X1 Patrol Craft but wider and with a different color scheme and no tail. So technically this is the first space monorail (more on those later). (This formula will be repeated with variations several times.) It even boasts a tiny monorail for the long trek between the base and the launcher. Thoughts: The quintessential space base set: base, spaceship + launcher, and a rover. (Shout out to the headlight brick on each side used to sideways mount transparent red 1 x 1 plates.)įeatures: Open front base spread over two crater plates, launcher with spaceship, small rover, monorail with sled, radar dishes and antennas for communications, and four astronauts. I think the part selection just wasn’t there yet. It’s mostly enclosed but then leaves that awkward gap above the windscreen. It looks a bit ridiculous with those 12 tiny wheels. It can’t fit both the second astronaut and the sensor array at the same time.

There’s nothing inside the vehicle (other than a steering wheel) to make it a lab. Thoughts: Look at all those green windows! 💚 I imagined these rolling across lunar landscapes like so many alien elephants. I have fond memories of crashing this ship to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust.”įeatures: Elevated vehicle with opening side doors, radar, articulated arm that could hold either a sensor array or a shovel with two astronauts and a pair of accessories. Up to this point all windows had been transparent yellow. First appearance of a transparent green window brick. Thoughts: One of the finest small fighters. The new bar piece provides a back roll bar detail, and again the new clip piece is used to hold an accessory.įeatures: Small open fighter with twin engines, lasers, and transparent green windscreen piloted by a red astronaut. Thoughts: Kind of goofy with the big blocky swinging arms but I like it.

There are many good pieces packed into this small set.įeatures: Small sturdy vehicle with twin ground-scanning radar dishes mounted on moving arms, driven by a red astronaut with a walkie-talkie. Love the shovel piece with articulated arm. Thoughts: I’m a sucker for sets with construction/loading functionality. Slope, Inverted 33 3 x 2 Hollow with Towball (Scoop): shovel scoop for use with the arm pieces.įeatures: Small vehicle with articulated shovel, printed computer slope, white astronaut, and a walkie-talkie (held in place with the new clip piece).Here colored in gray and used as articulated mechanical arms. Arm Holder and Arm Pieces: These were originally maxi-figure shoulders and arms from the mid-70’s.Bar 1 x 4 x 2 with Studs: Railings, etc.

Brick, Modified 1 x 1 with Headlight: Useful for SNOT (Studs Not On Top) building, aka sideways building.Plate, Modified 1 x 1 with Clip Vertical: Great for holding accessories and building storage racks.But now I’d like to look at some of the parts that are new (or new to the Space theme) in each year’s sets. They were the parts that enabled the Space theme to exist. There were so many new parts and new prints crafted especially for the LEGO Space theme that I didn’t bother going into them. From here on out I find it interesting to examine how the set designs changed and consider how much might be the availability of new parts and/or existing parts in new colors and how much might just be changing aesthetics or a market demand to try something new. These were the first Space sets introduced since the initial wave.

Lego shuttle projects