Lego Space Races

[KDog]

I saw an interesting discussion on Wikipedia about whether or not most of themes in Lego Space were supposed to represent one species or not. Obviously, UFO, Insectoids, the Martians, and the green creatures in Mars Mission are all aliens from other worlds. But what about the human-like astronauts in all the other space themes?

My feeling for it has always been that the Classic "Space Agency" was from Earth and that the themes that came after it showed the agency as it evolved and branched off. Futuron seemed obvious as "The Next Generation" of the Space Agency, and consciously or not, Lego charted this progression through a change in color schemes that had later Classic sets look like the forthcoming Futuron sets. The Space Police were obviously connected to Futuron. Blacktron seemed like a band of thieves and rebels who were pursued by the Space Police. Spyrius seemed like another group that operated on the wrong side of the law. M:Tron, Ice Planet, Unitron, and the Exploriens seemed like more specialized branches of the Space Agency. Ice Planet even had the same logo as Classic and Futuron, which I think makes the connection pretty clear. I suppose the other specialized groups could be explorers from other planets or other agencies, since they don't share the same logo, but they all look human to me. I'm not sure where Roboforce fits in, since they kind of look like cyborgs. Life on Mars with its "less-advanced" spacecraft designs seems like it might be set in an earlier time, but that might depend on whether you think all the themes that came before were exploring deep space or staying fairly close to and within our solar system. Mars Mission, to me, seems like either the next real Lego Space set, or perhaps it is set between Life on Mars and Classic Space. The Mars astronauts sport a version of the classic space logo, though, so they must be from the same group of explorers as Classic, Futuron, Space Police and Ice Planet (and by extension, Blacktron). And since the astronauts from Mars Mission are on Mars, I think it helps the arguments that these explorers are from Earth. Of course, another question is whether the aliens in Mars Mission are the Martians themselves fighting the humans they were once friends with. I prefer to think they are aliens from elsewhere attacking the under-prepared miners, but they sure do look like the general concept of "little green men" from Mars.

However, a few people in the discussion I saw were, to my surprise, of the opinion that, maybe aside from astronauts sporting the Classic Space logo, many of themes in Lego Space represented groups of explorers from different planets, or at least from different space agencies. I had never thought of it that way, and it surprised me to hear that viewpoint.

I'm curious to hear what your interpretations are of the "races" in Lego Space. Does it document the future of Earthen space travel, with some aliens encountered along the way, or is it a Star Trek-like universe with many different species exploring space? Part of the reason I'm interested in hearing opinions is that the storyline in my Lego: Space comic pretty much represents my views stated above, and I wonder if I'm off-base compared to many other people's thoughts on the space themes.

Whatever the case, I think Lego is to be commended for not offering a whole story behind the toys, rather providing a simple premise and letting kids' imaginations fill in the blanks. I think that's part of the beauty of Lego, that it leaves a lot open-ended. That's why I'll always prefer Lego's original themes over licensed properties like Star Wars. Just about every kid knows that story. (Granted, I would like to know the intent of Lego's creators in designing the space sets.)

[xenologer]

Im not old enought to have seen Classic Space / Futuron firsthand. Mainly started with M-Tron BlackTron2 and I kinda considered them to be two rival syndicates, with SpacePolice2 being the govt end of it.

Exploriens were the actual explorers, digging up alien aftifacts and whatnot, Spyrius beign some corporation aiming to steal their research.

Ice Planet didnt really seem to fit with the other themes though, mainly because they seemed limited to a single planet.

Missed Insectoids, UFO, and Robotforce stuff, so I can't really comment, but I figure they're all in the distant future compared to the previous themes, with all the non-human races.

I guess the two Mars Mission themes are kinda standalone like Ice Planet was.

[CP5670]

I also think of them as different factions that all originated from classic space (which had three or four distinct subthemes in itself, as seen in their color schemes), simply because they are all humans apart from UFO and Insectoids. TLC generally seemed to release a good military group, a bad military group and a kind of civilian faction every three years. The bad guys were obviously both Blacktrons, Spyrius and UFO, the good guys were the two Space Police and Roboforce, and the rest were seemingly civilians except for possibly Unitron.

The S@H catalogs from those years often give interesting information about the factions, both through the descriptions and the pictures. The civilians frequently had heavy weaponry but either had non-military objectives or were under attack from one of the bad guys. Some catalogs contained explicit descriptions of the themes, like this one from the US 1992 catalog or this from the European 1991 one. I don't know how the Space Police 1 can have the fastest ships though, given that they hardly have any engines at all. :-P Here is another one, although it's in Dutch and I can't read it. Can anyone translate it?

I also remember reading a number of other things about various factions. One said something about the Space Police defending M:Trons from Blacktrons, and Ice Planet was supposed to have advanced rocket tech that the Blacktrons and "even renegades within the Space Police" wanted to steal. It was also written somewhere that the Exploriens were looking for alien life and had found those fossils (which presumably were related to UFO), either in a catalog or one of the Lego club magazines from that period. Unitron is a weird one, as they would fit into the good military role if you go by that three year rule TLC always followed otherwise, but the catalogs and posters show the Spyrius destroying their monorail. I think TLC released the monorail as a standalone civilian-oriented set in 1994 and only decided to make into an actual theme the following year, as the box for it actually has the description from the Spyrius sets.

Edited February 23, 2008 by CP5670

[KDog]

Thanks for posting those catalog scans! It's hard to find any descriptive info about the factions, and I had never seen those. Those tidbits will help with the comic. If anyone could point me to more of these for the other space themes, I'd be most appreciative.

For as little as I know about M:Tron, I'm happy that I actually hit the nail on the head by having the other characters call them "science nerds" and joke about "the power of magnets." lol

[CP5670]

Check out the various background scenes shown in the catalogs. You can often tell who each faction's friends and enemies are. The Blacktron guys were friendly with Futurons in 1987 and 1988, having separate bases but seemingly working together with the Futurons, but when the Space Police came out in 1989, they became angry, taking Futurons hostage and breaking their monorail (TLC decided to make them the bad guys only at that point :-D). Futuron is also referred to as the "Valor Squadron" in the US 1988 catalog. That Brickfactory site doesn't seem to have these particular catalogs but has most of the others.

The Lego club magazines or the full scale S@H catalogs from then may have more stuff. I have some of the Mania magazines and catalogs from roughly 1994 to 1997, which contain some tidbits on Exploriens and UFO, but I don't have anything before that.

On a side note, that Futuron monorail seems to break down constantly. One catalog shows them fixing it themselves, another one has the Blacktrons derailing it and yet another one has the M:Trons helping them fix it. :-D

Edited February 23, 2008 by CP5670

[SuvieD]

Don't be fooled, the black classic figure formed the original Blacktron group which is a sort of space illimanti. Blacktron controls everything behind a veil of secrecy! Or something like that.

I think it is about time that we got a Neo Classic/Futron space series.

[KDog]

Don't be fooled, the black classic figure formed the original Blacktron group which is a sort of space illimanti. Blacktron controls everything behind a veil of secrecy! Or something like that.

I think it is about time that we got a Neo Classic/Futron space series.

So, Schwartz is behind this!

I totally agree with you about a truly revived and updated Lego Space toyline. I'm hoping that Mars Mission is a bridge to that, getting us off of familiar ground and launching Lego back into the new frontier. The problem, I suspect, is that the Star Wars license prevents a more general space theme like in previous years, hence Mars Missions and Life on Mars having a more developed storyline and gimmicks, so they have a brand identity that is obviously different from Star Wars. At the least, Lego should reissue some of the older space sets in their Shop-at-Home catalog. I was surprised they never did that, as they reissued sets from other themes.

And CP5670, the problem with Futuron's monorail always breaking down is hilarious. And I love how the Blacktron guys suddenly became angry and started on their path to the dark side. LOL I didn't realize they weren't intended as villains from the get-go. BTw, you asked me if I'm going to the Lego convention, but I didn't even know there was one.

[CP5670]

It would be great to see something like the old space line return. The SW line is very good but one thing I always liked about space were the dynamic looking, high contrast color schemes on everything. Most of the SW sets are done in more dull (but realistic) tones. The Mars Mission line is a big step in the right direction in this respect, in spite of a few other flaws. I certainly want to pick up some of those sets once the current problems with the brick quality have passed over.

I think the BT1 Battrax was once a candidate for a reissue - I remember seeing it on an online poll somewhere - but the Main Street set won out that year. The Legends concept seems to have died out altogether though. :-(

There are a couple of Lego events this summer; the one I was referring to was this one, which isn't too far from here. I'm guessing it will be similar the 2006 Brickfest, as it's in the exact same place and run by some of the same people. I was at that one and have a few photos in my sig link. The location is very convenient for me, only about a 20 minute drive from my parents' place, so I'll be signing up once I can make sure I'm free during those days.

Edited February 25, 2008 by CP5670

[Deinonychus]

I never even knew Blacktron were bad guys until the Space Police showed up and started tossing them in space-jail. |-/

And coming back around to more recent sets, I've always been of the opinion that the Mars Mission Aliens were hostile invaders from somewhere other then the Red Planet because 1) We already have LEGO Martians, and 2) Having the human miners as the focus of the line who would be "stealing" their crystals doesn't fit with LEGO's theming.

For a little while there I toyed with the idea of the crystals being the egg/larval/unevolved forms of the transparent green aliens...but pretty much rejected that when I realized that they too use the crystals to power their vehicles.

[KDog]

Oh man, Main Street over Battrax? It' a bummer we got so close and missed out. I've always been of the impression that Lego Space has its fans, but more people are into Town and Castle. I've always figured that fans of Lego Space tend to really like sci-fi in general, and that's not the majority of the population. Maybe I'm off-base. I'm glad I picked up a Battrax from Bricklink recently, though. Awesome set! But maybe we should start contacting Lego about reviving Legends!

The event in DC looks good. Do they have the requisite dealer room?

I like your idea, Deinonychus, about the crystals being the Aliens' larvae. Major oops on the astronauts! But yeah, that would be like running a car on babies! :'-(

[CP5670]

I'm not sure what happened with the Legends actually. They were releasing them at a slow but steady rate, two or three per year, but stopped them altogether in 2005. It's hard to know if they didn't sell well or what.

Space is actually fairly popular on some other forums. I think Eurobricks just has more of a pirate and castle focus. There is also no shortage of (non-SW) space themed models on Brickshelf. I think the most impressive one I've seen is this, which was apparently made by a single guy. 8-

[KDog]

That Blacktron MO is astounding. Those towers are beautiful. And I think my favorite part might be that the guy made Blacktron versions of some Classic Space sets, like the Solar Power Transporter and the Alien Moon Stalker. It fits the idea of the building being the Blacktron Intellidence Agency, stealing tech.

Edited February 28, 2008 by KDog