Worst set ever: Space edition

[robuko]

There seem to be a few comments from members (like myself) who didn't actually own the set but agree that it looks awful, and a couple of comments from people who owned it and think it was brilliant. Would it be fair to surmise that 6951 was a horrendous looking set with some excellent play features?

It certainly has excellent play features. There are 5 reviews on brickset and 4 of those give it 5/5. It also appears on 2 "best ever" bricklists and zero "worst ever", so I think we can agree that owners like it. It has 3 vehicles and 3 astronauts in under 300 bricks. I should mention its role as Archie the Library in KDog's Lego Space comic, which rocks. By the way, the alternate builds are great too, as I remember. It's not so expensive, I thoroughly recommend the sceptics to pick up a copy. As for its unconventional looks, the colour consistency is good, only the small feet and big hands let it down in my view. It would look a lot better without the jet feet, maybe put some big hoverdiscs there and it would look a lot better.

That mess of Randomness was awesome! ...

Loved it loved it loved it.

Amen!

Seriously, I respect different views but try it before you slam it. This really is a great set.

[LegoJalex]

I'm not very found of the look of this one. Funny design. Is it supposed to resemble a cat?

http://www.brickset....ail/?Set=2153-1

Set 1195 Alien Encounter; worst space set ever.

Looks like it's build by the kid next door... Actually the majority of Life On Mars sets looks like that,

except for some bigger sets.

Agree that this one might top my list too

Edited October 30, 2012 by LegoJalex

[Devorath]

http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=5982-1 Smash And Grab from SP3. The ship was boxy and the ATM looked really jagged and horrible with all the slopes sticking out. It's headlights were flick fire missiles and the chassis and the ATM (when hooked on) got in the way of the sticks to fire them. The Space Police Commando helmet (Also used for the ADU) looked rubbish on the figure and the SPC also has the same face as every other SP in the wave :/. Not to mention he's kind of out of his depth, he has a jet pack and a laser gun, vs a spaceship with flick fire headlights.

[Suspsy]

I too vote for the Life on Mars Solar Explorer!

I think the 6985 is probably one of the worst capital ships.

Never. The Cosmic Fleet Voyager was one of my favourite sets as a child. Four minifigures, lots of interior space, detachable halves, and plenty of tools.

http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=1478-1

Now this was a ridiculously lazy set. They didn't even bother with an MTron logo for the hood.

http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=1787-1

Always thought the wheels looked ugly that way.

http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=6813-1

I choose this one out of the SP3 sets to illustrate the sad point that they were all woefully underarmed. I turned my Galactic Mediator into a 16-gun war machine as soon as I got it.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

Suspsy, they're the cops, not the army/navy.

I found this thread while looking for stuff about the Solar Explorer, which I actually like (more below)

I think I would go for #7065 Alien Mothership as the worst Space set so far. Don't own, but have seen. It's more valuable as a parts pack than anything else, and hoo boy does it not live up to its name. It just looks like a rather skeletal and plain flying saucer rather than the command ship of the alien fleet. Looks can be deceiving, I know, as something that looks bad in form can still make up for it in function (As with 6951 - which by the way I actually have most of thanks to my uncle giving me his old LEGOs).... but that doesn't happen with this set either. You can't dock the other alien ships with it, it's really only got seating for the conquerers' head honcho, there's no real tools or transmitter arrays or anything... Ugh. This might have avoided the bottom spot if the name didn't make a promise the design broke, but then again it might not have. I think even a KFOL would only want this thing for parts and figs, which is a pretty damning thing for a set.

Some of the sets I've seen hated on here (like 1478, 6813 -which is SP2, Suspsy, 1195 Alien Encounter...)... You do have to bear in mind that they're impulse sets. They're designed to be cheap, little pieces of the theme's world that a kid can by with a week or two or perhaps three's allowance (unless they're one of those unlucky sods who gets $1 or less for allowance) or some recycling money, and overall they do it well and are fun to play with.

I don't think the Solar Explorer's bad at all. Mediocre at worst, and it's fun to play with. It looks and feels very much like an evolution of NASA's rockets and shuttles, which are the definite inspiration. It has a detachable probe robot, and the middle section is a detachable solar-powered shelter/research station that holds one astronaut on a little rover car, obviously designed to be left behind for a bit to get some work done and picked up again later; similar in principle to the Landing Modules used by the Apollo missions but more technically advanced. Coulda done with some greebling and control tiles on the inside but that's not a huge strike against it. The solar panel roof could have been brick-built, but a plastic sail-type piece still lends itself to other uses (if you're not a careless buffoon who loses the thing ). I also like the overall Life on Mars theme in terms of narrative, aesthetics, and designs.

[Krikkit]

I may be grilled for this, but in my personal opinion (as far as modern Space goes) 7067 Jet-Copter Encounter's color scheme irked me quite a bit. Although not a fan of helicopters, simply for the over-bearing play value, I actually appreciated its design quite a bit.

However, the smokey-grey cockpit, the trans baby-blue "containment pod", the contrastive light and dark grays, blues, neon-oranges, yellows, light-blue suits and puke green aliens was a mouthful as it was an eye-ful. I understand there exists sets much more poorly designed in Space, but this one in particular kept me drooling at its cool design cues as it kept me at a distance because of its mashed-up colors. The tacky stickers and uninspired alien craft also weighed in for me.

I suppose you could say it was the worst color-choice design for a set, as unfortunately much of Alien Conquest was in my eyes. The prototype trans-yellow windscreens would have suited the ADU much better, in my opinion.

Very x men...

[Faefrost]

When examining "worst sets" I tend to rule out the tiny impulse sets. There is only so much you can do with them, and at the end of the day they are mostly 1 of 3 wildly similar things. Sometimes you get a rare surprise, they are never great, but there is never enough there to be outraged about.

For worst I tend to look at larger sets that just fail in some spectacular way. And my opinions will often evolve between simply looking at a set, and having it in hand to hold, build and play with. A great or near perfect example of a great looking set that rises to near the top of the "worst ever" list is the 6892 Explorians Starship. It's a huge beast. The largest Space line flagship until Benny's ssS came along. It attempts to do some interesting things with a more industrial look that channels designs like those in Silent Running or the Black Hole more than Buck Rogers or Star Wars. But in spite of this it really is a poorly designed horrible set. Major parts fall off every time. The main floor of the ships interior falls off the bottom of the ship. The nose is held on by 2 studs and held up by one technic piece. It is littered with horrid giant useless specialized pieces. And it looks best in flight mode... Which can only be seen when you are holding it. Attempting to set the ship down automatically converts it to the much uglier landing mode. The ship is packed with great play features. All of which fall off if you blink.

Second runner up for me is the 6979 Intersteller Starfighter. Not a horrid set per SE, but feels like it was designed by three different people in three different cities who's only communication was some scribblings on a bar napkin that got passed around. And then had every gimmick in the marketing departments playbook dumped on it. Lights! Fiber optics! Magnets! It's a fondly remembered mess.

[Robert8]

I'd say 7691: ETX Alien Mothership Assault. That thing is a mess. But what truly makes it the worst is this "minifigure":

This is a whole new level of failure. That thing doesn't even look like LEGO.

I swear I had to check twice if that was an official LEGO product the first time I saw it.

[SerenityInFire]

I'd say 7691: ETX Alien Mothership Assault. That thing is a mess. But what truly makes it the worst is this "minifigure":

This is a whole new level of failure. That thing doesn't even look like LEGO.

I swear I had to check twice if that was an official LEGO product the first time I saw it.

Not to mention that with the hole in the chest it looks like it fell victim to Kano's fatality.

For me it has to be the Spyrius Robo-Guardian 6949, I mean it can hardly stand up with its arms and things extended and it looks so blocky and chunky and well un-robot like. I actually like most of the Spyrius ships, even the little ones, but this robot is rubbish. It is a close second for the smaller version set no 6889, but at least that one stands up on its own.

No way. I had both Robo-Guardian and the smaller Recon Robot as a kid and both sets are nothing short of fantastic.