LEGO Sci-Fi Ongoing - Rumors, Speculation, and Discussion

[Artanis I]

They shouldn't have tried to remake the Renegade. They should've done the Battrax. 10000%. It would've been so easy to make a really cool upscaled modern version.

[Black Falcon]

On 10/24/2025 at 7:52 AM, danth said:

Thanks for being specific about what you wanted to be different. Did you want more interior in the main front cockpit, or in the central section?

Personally I wanted bigger, less messy wings, and much less blocky sensor/gun unit on the left protrusion, for starters

It isn´t really about interior, more about the general look of the ship in the first place - so it would look like there is actually something inside. The galaxy explorer also had a big part of the ship that was just wasted space if we want to call it that - you had the wings on the sides and a big part of the front which were basically just flat - and then you had the big middle section where the cockpits and the cargo bay are. So one big section. The renegade has the cockpit and then some areas that look like there could be something but there is just no way where someone could get there, inside of the ship. As I said with that it is actually quite true to the original modell, so you can´t really blame the desinger for it - and without increasing the parts count and the price there is also no way to change it - but if they would have done that, somewhat similar to how they did with the 60446 galactic spaceship (which is actually a good comparism because they could have used the same system for the modularity) I think it would look better.

Aside from that, I think they should have used another windscreen. While the one worked for the galaxy explorer, personally I would have prefered if they would have used one that gets narrower to the front, something similar to the one they used for the XL15 or Blacktron Cruiser GWP, just in the size of the one they used here, going from 6 to 4 studs in width.

3 hours ago, Artanis I said:

They shouldn't have tried to remake the Renegade. They should've done the Battrax. 10000%. It would've been so easy to make a really cool upscaled modern version.

The Renegade makes more sense though, considering you got the Galaxy Explorer already. Plus I guess spaceships generally sell way better than ground vehicles.

[Black Falcon]

There is a leak of an insiders reward in the usual place, showing a built classic space logo with a baby-sized blue astronaut and a small spacecraft  - neat little design, but beeing an insiders reward, probably not going to be cheap..

[RichardGoring]

It looks like it will be a yellow box GWP similar to 6550800 Barracuda Seas, which was about the same piece count and 2400 points, so you'd expect it to be the same.

I didn't get 6550800 Barracuda Seas as it wasn't hugely appealing. A pretty basic build, albeit a nostalgic reference to a classic theme.

This could be similar, although it might pair well with 40786 Micro Command Centre (more pieces at 214, and only 2250 points), which would make it a lot more appealing, as there is a lot more play value to it. It's an expensive way to get a mini Galaxy Explorer though.

[Black Falcon]

6 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

It looks like it will be a yellow box GWP similar to 6550800 Barracuda Seas, which was about the same piece count and 2400 points, so you'd expect it to be the same.

Yeah, that is the price I would expect aswell. Wouldn´t mind if it is lower though. Maybe I will get it if it ever goes on discount, but not for full price.

[danth]

On 10/24/2025 at 11:52 AM, icm said:

I'll note that @danth's own Renegade remake is wildly different than the original in most respects. It's a wildly creative build that transforms into a totally awesome mech! But the original doesn't do that. So it seems a bit rich to criticize the 10355 for being too different from the original when your own design is so wildly (and totally awesomely!) different too.

I don't agree that building a MOC makes one ineligible to have an opinion on an official set. 😉

I think my only gripe that is purely based on "being too different from the original" is the overuse of yellow. It's an Icons set, it should keep the iconic color scheme of the original. I think that's a fair expectation. And I think almost every review I've read or watched called that out specifically, and almost all of the mods I've seen remove the excessive yellow. It's an almost universal criticism across the fanbase.

I don't think I've ever complained about the other major difference from the original, which is the larger rover replacing the storage unit. Well, I've complained about the execution. I think it could have integrated in a way that hides the wheels and two-stud gap in front of it when docked, but I am fine with the change conceptually, and I'm glad it got us another windscreen. 

On 10/24/2025 at 12:27 AM, 6180HydroSearchSub said:

In short, I think Renegade was trying to do more with its design on a smaller budget. I think if money were no object, we could have gotten a Blacktron Renegade that was every bit as nice as the Galaxy Explorer.

If this is true, then maybe the new Renegade really is a good remake, because I thought the major failing of the original was trying to stretch its parts budget too thin. I love the original but the build is a bit janky in hand. 

On 10/24/2025 at 6:49 AM, 6180HydroSearchSub said:

It feels kind of silly that I'm only making this realization almost a year after Blacktron Renegade was released, but I'm starting to think the crux of the issue is that LEGO placed Blacktron Renegade in the wrong line. Maybe instead of ICONS, LEGO should have put Blacktron Renegade in the Creator 3-in-1 line. It's not the best fit, but if you think about it, Renegade has much more DNA in common with something like Benny's Spaceship than Galaxy Explorer: emphasis on play patterns, relative simplicity of design and building experience, and the general scale of the ship vis a vis the minifigures. Furthermore, although a Creator 3-in-1 Renegade would have still gotten the inevitable comparisons to 10497, instead of the second part of that sentence being "but it's no 10497," the narrative would have been "but this was intended for kids."

I agree, and I know somewhere in this forum I've said the new Renegade is more comparable to Benny's Spaceship than the Galaxy Explorer. It looks like a set from kid's theme. 

Putting the new Renegade in Creator 3-in-1 is an interesting idea. I think its official Alienator build sucks even worse than the main build though, so I'd want different/better builds. And less yellow. 

[danth]

On 10/24/2025 at 11:52 AM, icm said:

By contrast, the Renegade is mostly defined by its functionality. A proper remake should have at least as much modular self-compatibility as the original (which the set does) and also intercompatibility with other contemporary Blacktron remakes (with the set does not). To maintain modularity, an upscaled version needs beefed-up module joints to stay sturdy, but then that changes the proportions and we end up with something that's more chunky than spindly.

This contributed to one of the main things I don't like: the big chunky block that is the left side sensor array (or whatever it is).

It's too bad the connection design takes up so much vertical space. Maybe to prevent sagging? I feel like there has to be another way to do those connections that would allow a flatter/sleeker profile and eliminate the blockiness.  

[icm]

8 hours ago, danth said:

It's too bad the connection design takes up so much vertical space. Maybe to prevent sagging? I feel like there has to be another way to do those connections that would allow a flatter/sleeker profile and eliminate the blockiness.  

Yeah, it's to prevent sagging. It's like an I-beam: the tall joint has the clips on the top and bottom of the joint, because that's where the most force is. In my own NCS builds, I prefer to use a more compact four-pin joint that uses two 1x2 Technic bricks with two holes stacked right on top of each other. That has plenty of force to hold together the front and back halves of two-module spaceships like the FX Star Patroller and Gamma V Laser Craft with almost no sagging and no rotation. It ought to work well for modules as large as the cockpit of the new Renegade, since that's no heavier than the back half of my FX Star Patroller or the back half of my Starfleet Voyager. (I built a Starfleet Voyager remake recently that splits the front and back half for mix-and-match swapping with my FX Star Patroller and Gamma V Laser Craft remakes, but I haven't taken pictures of it yet.)

[danth]

12 hours ago, icm said:

(I built a Starfleet Voyager remake recently that splits the front and back half for mix-and-match swapping with my FX Star Patroller and Gamma V Laser Craft remakes, but I haven't taken pictures of it yet.)

Uhh, why are you keeping us waiting? That sounds awesome!

[6180HydroSearchSub]

23 hours ago, danth said:

If this is true, then maybe the new Renegade really is a good remake, because I thought the major failing of the original was trying to stretch its parts budget too thin. I love the original but the build is a bit janky in hand. 

So I started sketching out a Blacktron Renegade MOC designed more in line with 10497 Galaxy Explorer beginning with the shuttlecraft, and one of the things I noticed was piece count: the original 6954 shuttlecraft is constructed with 16 pieces; the 10355 is 24 pieces; the MOC is 68.

I then compared with the original/remake ratios for both 10497 and 10355:

• 928/497 is generally listed as containing 338 pieces. A rough estimate minus the moon base/baseplate gives us approximately 300 pieces for the Galaxy Explorer/rover/astronauts (I eyeballed 40 for the moonbase). 10497 contains 1254 pieces. The ratio of 300:1254 is 4.18, i.e., the 10497 remake contains 4.18 times the number of pieces than the original.
• 6954 is generally listed as containing 315 pieces; 10355 contains 1151 pieces; or 3.65.

Which is to say, I think the new Renegade got shortchanged. If 10355 had budgeted a similar upscaling factor as 10497, the set would have been closer to 1317 pieces. In any event, my MOC exercise does suggest my earlier hypothesis might be true--a new Renegade designed more along the lines of 10497 would have been way over the price point LEGO was trying to hit.

[Lord Insanity]

Honestly, I have always thought the Renegade was the worst looking of the original Blacktron sets.  At the price point LEGO chose they should have done a 10497 style upgrade to the Invader.  Unfortunately they wasted that remake on a stupid "gift with purchase" that wasn't possible to just buy outright. 

A good remake of the Renegade needed at least double the price point.  Basically it should have been closer to this MOC showcased on BrickFanatics than what we actually got.  If they made a $200-$300 version that looked as good as this one, it likely would have been as highly regarded as the Lion Knights Castle.

 

The biggest problem is that the corporate suits at LEGO won't see the design failure of what they released, they will chalk it up to a theme failure. 

[Renny The Spaceman]

3 hours ago, Lord Insanity said:

Honestly, I have always thought the Renegade was the worst looking of the original Blacktron sets.  At the price point LEGO chose they should have done a 10497 style upgrade to the Invader.  Unfortunately they wasted that remake on a stupid "gift with purchase" that wasn't possible to just buy outright. 

A good remake of the Renegade needed at least double the price point.  Basically it should have been closer to this MOC showcased on BrickFanatics than what we actually got.  If they made a $200-$300 version that looked as good as this one, it likely would have been as highly regarded as the Lion Knights Castle.

 

The biggest problem is that the corporate suits at LEGO won't see the design failure of what they released, they will chalk it up to a theme failure. 

This annoys me because if LEGO just used the smaller version of the same cockpit piece they absolutely could have built the sets head up in the same way as this build. I swear that's like the stealth biggest issue with the set. The massive cockpit with no detailing around it really makes the set seem out of proportion and chibi

[Black Falcon]

On 10/29/2025 at 8:43 AM, Renny The Spaceman said:

This annoys me because if LEGO just used the smaller version of the same cockpit piece they absolutely could have built the sets head up in the same way as this build. I swear that's like the stealth biggest issue with the set. The massive cockpit with no detailing around it really makes the set seem out of proportion and chibi

Well I mentioned before, that I would have used another cockpit aswell, but there is no way they could have done something similar with the budget they had still, without decreasing its size by a big amount.

[Renny The Spaceman]

45 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

Well I mentioned before, that I would have used another cockpit aswell, but there is no way they could have done something similar with the budget they had still, without decreasing its size by a big amount.

Yeah, I know they couldn't have done that but if the cockpit was downsized they could make a better designed set in that price range, the set as is doesn't justify being it's size and it couldn't afford to be bigger. A smaller cockpit means with the same amount of parts it'd go further in detailing the set and make it less bobbleheaded 

[6180HydroSearchSub]

On 10/31/2025 at 11:05 AM, Renny The Spaceman said:

Yeah, I know they couldn't have done that but if the cockpit was downsized they could make a better designed set in that price range, the set as is doesn't justify being it's size and it couldn't afford to be bigger. A smaller cockpit means with the same amount of parts it'd go further in detailing the set and make it less bobbleheaded 

Agree that the cockpit should have been downsized, if nothing else, than for scaling consistency between the original ships and their upscaled counterparts. However, I don't know if a smaller cockpit would have result in this scenario. According to a digital Studio model of 10355, the cockpit section consists of approx. 116 pieces. Even if a smaller cockpit somehow led to a 30% reduction in pieces needed for that section, we're only looking at approx. ~35 pieces saved. To @Black Falcon's point, and assuming my earlier hypothesis was correct, I don't know that an extra 35 pieces would have gotten us close enough to a scaling ratio comparable to a 10497-like update.

Just as a point of comparison: I recently made some digital mods to 10355 that I'm planning on adding to my own copy of Renegade IRL (below pic). 35 extra pieces on top of the existing set (i.e., not counting color changes that in theory wouldn't have added to the budget) would just about account for the upgraded antenna array and rear wing shaping. However, I estimate there's at least another 35 or so extra pieces worth of changes to modify the existing 10355 to the version in the picture below--which I personally find looks closer to the original Renegade but still nowhere near what I thought an ICONS-style Renegade would have looked like when it was announced.

[Renny The Spaceman]

7 hours ago, 6180HydroSearchSub said:

Agree that the cockpit should have been downsized, if nothing else, than for scaling consistency between the original ships and their upscaled counterparts. However, I don't know if a smaller cockpit would have result in this scenario. According to a digital Studio model of 10355, the cockpit section consists of approx. 116 pieces. Even if a smaller cockpit somehow led to a 30% reduction in pieces needed for that section, we're only looking at approx. ~35 pieces saved. To @Black Falcon's point, and assuming my earlier hypothesis was correct, I don't know that an extra 35 pieces would have gotten us close enough to a scaling ratio comparable to a 10497-like update.

Just as a point of comparison: I recently made some digital mods to 10355 that I'm planning on adding to my own copy of Renegade IRL (below pic). 35 extra pieces on top of the existing set (i.e., not counting color changes that in theory wouldn't have added to the budget) would just about account for the upgraded antenna array and rear wing shaping. However, I estimate there's at least another 35 or so extra pieces worth of changes to modify the existing 10355 to the version in the picture below--which I personally find looks closer to the original Renegade but still nowhere near what I thought an ICONS-style Renegade would have looked like when it was announced.

It looks a lot better here to me, very few parts can go a long way. Definitely reinforces what I think about downscaling the cockpit 

[danth]

18 hours ago, 6180HydroSearchSub said:

I recently made some digital mods to 10355 that I'm planning on adding to my own copy of Renegade IRL (below pic).

Less yellow, and a sensor array that actually looks like a sensor array. Nice. 👍🏼

[Black Falcon]

12 hours ago, Renny The Spaceman said:

It looks a lot better here to me, very few parts can go a long way. Definitely reinforces what I think about downscaling the cockpit 

The cockpit is still the same, just with yellow switched to black.

38 minutes ago, danth said:

Less yellow, and a sensor array that actually looks like a sensor array. Nice. 👍🏼

It makes the yellow in the middle section even more prominent though - especially since there is now actually more yellow than in the Lego version.

[Renny The Spaceman]

23 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

The cockpit is still the same, just with yellow switched to black.

I get that, but the point made is this subtle improvement only took 35 pieces, roughly the same saved by cutting the cockpit size back

[Black Falcon]

1 hour ago, Renny The Spaceman said:

I get that, but the point made is this subtle improvement only took 35 pieces, roughly the same saved by cutting the cockpit size back

The biggest difference is the colour change though, aside from the antennas you hardly spot the rest on first sight, so wouldn´t change your first impression.

[Renny The Spaceman]

38 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

The biggest difference is the colour change though, aside from the antennas you hardly spot the rest on first sight, so wouldn´t change your first impression.

👍

[DonQuixote]

On 10/29/2025 at 5:32 AM, Lord Insanity said:

Honestly, I have always thought the Renegade was the worst looking of the original Blacktron sets.  At the price point LEGO chose they should have done a 10497 style upgrade to the Invader.  Unfortunately they wasted that remake on a stupid "gift with purchase" that wasn't possible to just buy outright. 

A good remake of the Renegade needed at least double the price point.  Basically it should have been closer to this MOC showcased on BrickFanatics than what we actually got.  If they made a $200-$300 version that looked as good as this one, it likely would have been as highly regarded as the Lion Knights Castle.

 

The biggest problem is that the corporate suits at LEGO won't see the design failure of what they released, they will chalk it up to a theme failure. 

This moc  looks absolutely stunning 😍 

So now we are getting an Enterprise-D, will we get someday a Battlestar Galactica set? I would love to see some Cylons and chrome colored Centurions. Way cooler looking than  Stormtroopers. 

The original series was goofy and low budget but the remake series that started in 2003 is actually very good. One of my favorite series ever made. 

[6180HydroSearchSub]

15 hours ago, Renny The Spaceman said:

It looks a lot better here to me, very few parts can go a long way. Definitely reinforces what I think about downscaling the cockpit 

Thanks! One thing I noticed was just how many parts of the original set looked unfinished. For example, the Black Fence 1 x 4 x 1 Lattice pieces around where the smaller craft dock just stick out like a sore thumb on the original model. Just a few tile pieces would really integrate them into the rest of the wing--in my mod, seven tile pieces per wing, 14 total. Given how simple that would have been, I have to assume the only reason the designer didn't do that was for budget reasons.

4 hours ago, danth said:

Less yellow, and a sensor array that actually looks like a sensor array. Nice. 👍🏼

Thank you! Closeup on the sensor array below in case you're interested.

3 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

It makes the yellow in the middle section even more prominent though - especially since there is now actually more yellow than in the Lego version.

Yes! Strangely, I felt the 2 x 8 black tile on the LEGO version actually highlighted the yellow in the area, whereas minimizing visual complexity by adding more yellow paradoxically led to the opposite effect.

[Black Falcon]

13 hours ago, 6180HydroSearchSub said:

Yes! Strangely, I felt the 2 x 8 black tile on the LEGO version actually highlighted the yellow in the area, whereas minimizing visual complexity by adding more yellow paradoxically led to the opposite effect.

Hmm, well to me it has a different effect. I am actually surprised you didn´t try to remove more black parts there too and instead used yellow hoses instead of the black ones.

[danth]

18 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

It makes the yellow in the middle section even more prominent though - especially since there is now actually more yellow than in the Lego version.

 

15 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

Hmm, well to me it has a different effect. I am actually surprised you didn´t try to remove more black parts there too and instead used yellow hoses instead of the black ones.

Big yellow hoses instead of the yellow stripe would be my choice, if there are any big hoses available in yellow. Actually this one just came out last year: https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=14301#T=C&C=3