53 replies to this topic

[Algernon]

So I was browsing the "worst set ever" thread in the Star Wars forum and thought that us true Spacers deserve one as well. There's been a lot of fantastic Space sets over the ages, but lets face is folks, there are some real clunkers out there.

Anything's fair game; just try to avoid picking one of the countless $2.99 throwaway sets (like one of the "flying planks"), since they're not really designed for the wow-factor anyway. Stick to the "main" lines of sets if possible.

My pick: http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=7691-1

I actually liked the Mars Mission line (particularly the second wave), but that set is just an eyesore. I was suckered into picking it up and trust me, it's much worse in your hands than it is on the box.

Sound off! What's your vote for the worst Space set in existence?

[just2good]

I was never a fan of pre-1990 Space and Mars Mission (most of the sets look the same to me in that line), so I'll pass on picking any of those sets. I never liked 5983 Undercover Cruiser from SP3. The figures are nothing special, the two ships are crud, ect. The only really good thing is the PPP ratio (barely).

[Apollo]

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.

Edited by Apollo, 15 October 2012 - 06:07 AM.

[JopieK]

I would probably vote for Jack Stone of Bionicle, in the Sci-Fi real I would go for the UFO sets from some years ago.

[Blacktron]

For me 7065 http://www.brickset....ail/?Set=7065-1 was one of the worst sets of the last few years. I think it was designed to look big and impressive. But other than it's size, there is nothing impressive about it. For a real mothership, it's much to small with very little inside space. There is not much play value, because there is little you can do with it. No removable smaller ships, no removable ground vehicles, no drones, no gunner stations, no lab, no prisons - nothing. It's a boring and uninspired UFO design.

Edited by Blacktron, 15 October 2012 - 02:26 PM.

[vynsane]

I don't know if I can pick out a single "worst. set. EVAR" but I will say that both Space Police 2 and Blacktron 2 were major disappointments to me in comparison to their predecessors. As much as I loved the designs and color schemes for both SP1 and BT1 so did I loathe their descendants. It was not long after their release that I went into my "dark ages".

[whitswj]

Squidmans Pitstop.

http://www.brickset....ail/?Set=5980-1

That set could have (and should have) been a whole lot more. It didnt look great on the box but I bought it just to complete the collection. The small ships were poorly developed and the base had no cohesive functioanlity with the small ships. It was probably designed to hit a pricepoint more than anything else. Not a bad parts pack, I guess.

[DraikNova]

This one: http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=0013-1

Actually, it's pretty hard to choose, since a lot of them are great, but I'm going to have to go for this clunky bugger: http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=6856-1
It's basically a box with wings, two satellite dishes and an antenna stuck on it, with a nuclear reactor pod above the pilot's seat.

[Algernon]

I'm surprised Roboforce hasn't been mentioned yet:

http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=2151-1

Probably the biggest afterthought in the whole Space library. The line only had four sets, and introduced some very strange new molds. Some of the printed parts are very rare and quite cool (especially trans-neon diver helmets), but the robot designs are pretty bizarre. The Robo Stalker, at least, is kind of cool.

Edited by Algernon, 15 October 2012 - 06:44 PM.

[DraikNova]

Personally, I like Roboforce. Well, I like the two larger sets. However, I must say that while the smaller ones are pretty bad, at least they showed some interesting concepts and no major design flaws.

Edited by DraikNova, 15 October 2012 - 07:02 PM.

[snefroe]

the worst, imo, is the Mars Mission trike set 7694. My god, what a horrible thing. I liked the first year of Mars Mission, but it went seriously down hill afterwards

[Algernon]

DraikNova, on 15 October 2012 - 07:02 PM, said:

Personally, I like Roboforce. Well, I like the two larger sets. However, I must say that while the smaller ones are pretty bad, at least they showed some interesting concepts and no major design flaws.

I'd say the completely immobile "roller skate" legs count as a pretty serious design flaw... but I just thought it beared mentioning since it's one of the more oddball footnotes in the Space theme.

I have one more contender to add: this massive disappointment deserves mentioning as it was one of my most anticipated sets from Space Police and wound up being the worst. So many flaws with the design, I don't even know where to begin. It's doubly disappointing since Space Police 3 is one of my all-time favorite Space themes.

[Apollo]

snefroe, on 15 October 2012 - 07:21 PM, said:

the worst, imo, is the Mars Mission trike set 7694. My god, what a horrible thing. I liked the first year of Mars Mission, but it went seriously down hill afterwards

I found the entire Mars Mission line rather successful in both design and function.  There were a couple of sets that were not of my partiality, e.g. 7647 Switch Fighter, however I think that design-wise, the second wave was a fantastic wrap-up to the theme.  Consider and compare 2008's legendary 7649 Ultra-Drill Walker to the excellent, yet flawed 7699 Armored Drilling Unit of 2007.

[Dannylonglegs]

Algernon, on 15 October 2012 - 06:43 PM, said:

I'm surprised Roboforce hasn't been mentioned yet:

http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=2151-1

Probably the biggest afterthought in the whole Space library. The line only had four sets, and introduced some very strange new molds. Some of the printed parts are very rare and quite cool (especially trans-neon diver helmets), but the robot designs are pretty bizarre. The Robo Stalker, at least, is kind of cool.

That's what I was going to mention! I'm really easy to please as far as sets and designs go, but the only redeemable quality of anything in the entire robo-force theme was the translucent helmets.

~Insectoid Aristocrat

[Hikaro Takayama]

While I liked the helmet and minifig design for the UFO and Insectoids, I'd have to say that they, along with Roboforce, were the ultimate low in LEGO Space....  They were all afflicted with the poor set designs, overabundance of crappy over-specialized parts, and funky colors that most other classic LEGO themes (with the exception of the Adventurers) were suffering from in the latter half of the 1990's....

It's no wonder Space was replaced by Star Wars right after those three themes, and didn't show up again for several years.

[Tohst]

http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=6892-1

I love me some classic space but not all were winners.  It like the less fun version of:

http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=6926-1

which is not good to begin with.

-Tohst

[Faefrost]

I am making a concerted effort to not judge any such things based on more modern and refined aesthetics. So I am not going after the in hindsight hideous and cliched fad stuff such as the overblown neon colors, holo effects etc of days gone past. Yeah it seems horrid now, but it was kicking back in Reagan's era.

But my eye keeps coming back to the Mars Mission sets. They were more recent, so days gone by aesthetic does not apply. They had that horrible cramsicle color scheme. Truly yech aliens. And the thing that puts them at the top or rather bottom of the list, these were the first attempts by TLG to really start blending the elements and features of their technics and Bionicle lines into one of there more traditional system lines, and the fitness just wasn't there yet. We complain about plated over technic beams in SW sets and huge open spaces etc. these sets were the worst offenders.


http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=7644-1
I know some love this set. But I always find it as an example of too much going on, and the cramped and crowded use of all the technic stuff just doesn't hold up over time.

http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=7690-1
Another example of how much disparate ideas they could pile into one disjointed set. Tons of technic, an almost interesting looking ship, but then orange tubes and nerd rockets everywhere. Kind of a mess.

And then we have what is possibly one of the absolute worst space sets eve, from the Life on Mars theme. The infamous Solar Explorer. Looks pretty on the box, until you realize that there really is nothing there. It's just a beam with a piece of sail wrapped flimsily around it.
http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=7315-1

[purpleparadox]

I'm gonna have to agree with Faefrost...7315 Solar Explorer.

[Spider-Man]

I liked the Solar Explorer! I removed the middle section and just attached the front part of the shuttle to the back and had a great time with that!

[Amset-Rah]

Solar Explorer was alright at the time, but the flimsy part was pretty low.

Same goes for the Alien Conquest mothership. For what's supposed to be the main imposing ship for the aliens, all we got was a big, bubbling saucer with an outer ring of railroad. I'll admit, it's a great parts pack, but again, for a mothership, I expected a little more, since the ADU easily has them beat in terms of a home base.

[Algernon]

Amset-Rah, on 16 October 2012 - 04:20 AM, said:

Solar Explorer was alright at the time, but the flimsy part was pretty low.

Same goes for the Alien Conquest mothership. For what's supposed to be the main imposing ship for the aliens, all we got was a big, bubbling saucer with an outer ring of railroad. I'll admit, it's a great parts pack, but again, for a mothership, I expected a little more, since the ADU easily has them beat in terms of a home base.

Yeah... while those sets left a lot to be desired, I really don't know if they deserve to be called the worst sets ever.

[DraikNova]

While the mothership was a great set in my opinion, I keep thinking that to make it really impressive, one would have to have had put the budget for the human HQ (which I think would have worked better as a 60 euro set) into it.

[zero1312]

To me it was none other than this:
http://brickset.com/detail/?Set=7644-1

[Hrw-Amen]

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.

[Nintendawg]

First set that popped into my mind was the Solar Explorer also. I got the set in a big mixed lot in 2009 or so. When I was building and when I got to the part where you fold the plastic sheet over, I remember being disappointed but thankful this terrible design did not become common.