Review: 1793 Space Station Zenon

[Cardinal Brick]

This was surposed to be part of a pentology of Unitron reviews, that would appear shortly after Christmas and then real life got in the way and I've spent more time reviewing academic books than I have Lego but as this was the one closest to being finished I thought I should finish it up and post it for all of you. One of the the limited and sadly non-European 1995 wave of Unitron sets, so strap yourself in while we visit Space Station Zenon

Set Name: Space Station Zenon

Set Number: 1793

Number of Pieces: 340

Figures:3

Released: 1995

List Price: $ Unknown for some reason £N/A Never seen across the pond

1793 Peeron.com

1793 Bricklink Catalog

Some Lego space themes don't even get one base (M-Tron, UFO, Insectoid) so for a theme with only four sets to get two seems not just odd but a real extravagance. That however is the strange world of the Unitron theme and so without further addure lets take a closer looks at Space Station Zenon.

Sadly I don't own a boxed version of this set however owning any version of it in the EU is quite rare so I count myself quite lucky I was able to pick one up with instructions.

Here are the instructions which gives you a good idea what the box would have looked like.

What's in the box (the box is a metaphorical box)

Everything that would have come in the box it don't look like much.

Minifigs

You get three minifigs in this set which seems a tad on the stingy side, actually for the size of the set and the price I paid for it its almost as back as a licensed set. One is the Unitron 'chief' who was a regular over this side of the Atlantic and there are probably more of him than there are of the grunts.

Moonbugg

The first part of the build is a small buggy for those missions that are to far to fly but you feel to lazy to walk to. The design is nice and I like the use of he trans-blue panels, however I dislike the fact that you can't open up the panels so our intrepid driver has to clamber over the panels in order to get into the driving seat.

Flying Pod

The second part of the build is a flying pod, which like all the other Unitron pods is interchangeable. Nice design as always I don't like the pods openness but that a minor complains. The only other problems is that there nothing to integrate it with in the base, so you're forced to buy the other Unitron sets.

The Base

Now we come to the main article, the base itself. The first point to make is I'm not a huge fan of a spread out build over a large base such as this, the Grand Carousel annoyed me a fair bit as my capacity to make mistakes is huge. Leaving the base looking rather wrong but anyway I paid a bit more attention than normal.

Construction begins

Soon the station is looking quite good I must say.

It's been suggested that Unitron were a more 'military' theme and well armed faction than others and there are some details that support this claim here in the base. Enclosed in each of the BURP are missile launchers which can't be seen by anyone approaching the base however with a flick of a switch the BURP lower away to reveal them. Just the bit of kit to keep the Spyrus robots away.

The shield.

To complement those missiles the canopy section rotates 360 degrees when the BUROP are lowered. While we'll never know unless the designed chances along on this thread and decides to till us it seems to me logical that this is a rotating shield that turns to face whatever direction incoming fire is coming from.

Telescope pod thing.

From the box art this looks like a pod you'd expect to be able to blast off into space with so its a bit disappointed that there's no launching of flying from this, though it's still an interesting part it reminds me of a poem 'it's nice but what is it'

Transmitter

Under this little assembly in the corner is a control panel maybe some for or emergency transmitter for when the base is under attack, if there was a Spyus figure in the set I'd assume it where the spy would access all the Unitron data but there isn't

The Whole base

Just a quick look at the whole base before I add other parts, first with everything off and down and then with everything up and open.

Lastly lets put it all together, it's quite an impressive set.

The Rating System

Figures: 8/10 (A good selection from the days before you'd get both sides in a set.)

Parts 7/10 (A reasonable selection with some nice trans-blue parts.)

Fun Fun Fun 9/10 (There's a nice selection of things to do with the base without any more sets and once you get a few other sets you can have a great game, there's even swooshing opportunity.)

Design 8/10 (Not totally convinced a nice design but parts like the telescope drag it down for me.

Price ?/10 (I could tell you what I paid for it but that would be a bit pointless, I do have some old US shop at home catalogues but there not with me at the moment I'll update this when I find one.)

Grand Total 32/40 (A high rating but a fine set deserves nothing less)

Conclusion

It's not the best Unitron base, the review for that the monorail transport base will follow shortly, however its a bit unfair to compare that base to this as its so much bigger and one of the best space sets released. The base has a nice degree of functionality I like that fact the the designers have managed to build a small base with so much going on, missiles, telescope things, rotating shields and other bits that move.

One point I will make is that I think the base that the set sits on is the wrong colour I think this is my biggest complaint about the entire set. In 6991 Monorail Transport Base every base was black with was a nice change and looked very good as a colour scheme, then sadly next year the Unitrons are stuck with a light grey baseplate its just wrong to me. Sadly the 32x32 base plate has never been produced in black so I can't even buy one to improve my set.

Overall I think while it isn't the greatest Space base ever it's probably superior to a number of the later bases in terms of looks and in terms of details, also Lego have built a base that doesn't use the raised base plate which I think is a bonus as for to long every space base had to have one of these.

[Izy]

It's old..ancient, and it looks pretty.. simple ?

I voted average, I do like the minifigs though! furthermore..

[TheCrimsonTrooper]

Nice review. It seems rather strange that you could not find the original retail prices for it though.

[CP5670]

I like the vehicle with the trans-blue mudguards, and all the hidden and pop up weapons in the base. I think the "telescope pod" is supposed to be a surface cannon. The ship pod is pretty generic and has room for improvement, although it's nice how those were interchangeable between the Unitron sets.

One is the Unitron 'chief' who was a regular over this side of the Atlantic and there are probably more of him than there are of the grunts.

That was probably because he was included in the 6705 Space Explorers pack, which was sold worldwide. The grunts only appeared in the actual Unitron sets.

The original price of the set was $44, which was about average for its size and piece count. The Unitron sets tend to be much more expensive today than other sets from that time period, due to their US-only availability (except for the monorail).

[KurttKrueger]

Thanks for the great review Cardinal Brick! Really looking forward to your future Unitron reviews. Being in the UK, we never saw Unitron back in the 90's, with the notable exception of the commander in the minifig pack (as you mentioned). That guy was my favourite out of the whole lot, and I only ever had the one!

Really pleased your doing Unitron reviews, as it gives me a chance to get a proper look at these sets, of which I've only ever seen on the internet.

With regards to this set, I do feel that the base is somewhat disjointed in terms of spacing. It feels a little to stretched out and open, if that makes sense? Still, the minifigures are great, and the vehicles are quirky, and thus cool.

[feanor]

I cannot see anything interesting on this set...

The look of this base is typical generic mid-90's Space base, with a quarter dome, like the 6983 Ice Station Odyssey or the 6959 Lunar Launch site, it feels repetitive. I also don't see any innovative function like e.g. the similar in size but much older 6953 Cosmic Laser Launcher.

By the time Unitron appeared, Lego Space was already well exhausted. And I guess that back then the Unitron fraction was created to put the new monorail in some context, and the other sets of the theme were only filler.

[lightningtiger]

Thanks for the review 'Cardinal Brick' - I consider this one 'average', I only like the hidden weapons idea and that thing you didn't know what it might be, well I say heavy cannon - which is a very handy weapon to have on a space station/base.

I'm a conformist! !

[Artanis I]

This set is a lot of fun, there's so much to do. Hidden guns that rotate 360, main part of the base rotates (that's different!), big laser cannon that folds out and spins around, really cool looking buggy with some clever piece use, slick mini pod/ship... I built a MOC vehicle that can hold the mini pod ship things, I think the one disappointment with this set was the lack of docking the pod with anything.

The laser cannon thing is pretty cool, it reminds me a bit of when Han Solo and Luke Skywalker are shooting TIE fighters.

In case you're wondering, no these sets (excluding monorail - which I never saw anyway) didn't come out in Aus, so I bought them from Bricklink. I had the 6705 minifig pack in my younger days, and my favourite figure was the Unitron chief (although it wasn't until years later that we found out what the line was called - the catalogue didn't have a subtheme heading for the monorail, it was on the opposite page to Spyrius). Fast forward 10 years to when I discovered via Internet that these US sets existed. At first I didn't like the colour scheme of the sets but after buying the monorail from eBay (already had 6990) and a bunch of figures from Bricklink I thought I'd give the US sets a go. They really are cool looking sets in real life! Colours really work together.

I don't think Space Station Zenon (should it be an X?) is too open, sparse or spread out, it leaves room for parking the vehicles! It also has that isolated "frontier" feel about it. (There's hostile aliens nearby.) It does seem a little bit undeveloped, but then again, it's not the only base. Stick it next to the monorail and it's fine.

Such a shame it's such a rare (therefore expensive) set, it's a good one. Don't let these photos fool you, they don't do it justice. It's up there with the best medium-sized space bases.

[Cardinal Brick]

CP5670 - I never thought of it being a cannon, I quite like that! It also makes alot of sence.

Artanis I - I had a similar experience and that how I ended up getting all the sets, though as a child I knew about the US only ones from relatives but was never able to get them sadly. It's quite hard to do the base justice in a few photos there simply so much to do with the set it's much easier to understand when you have one with you.

KurttKrueger - should have the next one finished up by Sunday or early next week depending on how things go, though it might be a while before we get to the monorail, I have no idea who to take pictures of such a large set!

[KurttKrueger]

KurttKrueger - should have the next one finished up by Sunday or early next week depending on how things go, though it might be a while before we get to the monorail, I have no idea who to take pictures of such a large set!

Well, your doing a good job so far, Cardinal Brick. I look forward to the next review!

[Artanis I]

Cardinal Brick: yes, I agree. This is another example where you appreciate the set much more when it's right there in front of you.

KurttKrueger: I like your avatar! The new space helmets look great, don't they?

[KurttKrueger]

KurttKrueger: I like your avatar! The new space helmets look great, don't they?

Thanks Artanis I! Yes, they're pretty cool. Can't wait for them to be available in other colours. Who knows, maybe in a new Space theme next year? Bring back Futuron!

[Cardinal Brick]

Just incase anyone wanted to read it I found the offical US catalogue discription for this set today while cleaning up.

'Space Station Zenon

In the farthest reaches of outer space three astronauts guard Space Station Zenon, command base for the Unitron tram.

While an all-terrain vehicle explores the alien landscape and a Uniton spacecraft get ready for take off the station's giant antenna monitors the horizon for upcomming adeventures.'

[Artanis I]

Just incase anyone wanted to read it I found the offical US catalogue discription for this set today while cleaning up.

'Space Station Zenon

In the farthest reaches of outer space three astronauts guard Space Station Zenon, command base for the Unitron tram.

While an all-terrain vehicle explores the alien landscape and a Uniton spacecraft get ready for take off the station's giant antenna monitors the horizon for upcomming adeventures.'

Pfft maybe on yours it can be a mere antenna. Mine is a laser cannon, and is capable of destroying enemy ships! The base already has 4 other antennae, it doesn't need a giant one!

[Cardinal Brick]

Got to agree with you on that one, maybe it's something to do with Legos no war policy that it can't be a huge cannon.