Lore behind Classic Space?

[hikouki]

Is there a lore around the various Lego Space themes? Classic Space, Blacktron, M-tron, etc?

[Oky]

Classic Space didn’t really have any. It’s not even clear what roles the different colors of space suits were meant to represent. But later factions had a bit of lore, like who the good guys, bad guys, and civilians are and even some named characters. You can read up on it on Brickipedia: https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Space

[Classic_Spaceman]

5 hours ago, Oky said:

Classic Space didn’t really have any. It’s not even clear what roles the different colors of space suits were meant to represent. 

The designers have said that Red were pilots, White were explorers, Yellow were scientists, Blue were soldiers, and Black were spies; we do not really see this carry over into the sets, but there is some lore there if you want to use it. 
 

[Murdoch17]

7 hours ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

The designers have said that Red were pilots, White were explorers, Yellow were scientists, Blue were soldiers, and Black were spies; we do not really see this carry over into the sets, but there is some lore there if you want to use it. 
 

They've also stated red was originally the Russian cosmonauts, with white being the American astronauts. This lore went out the airlock when other colors came about, however.

[Operacion Saturno]

One of the best things that Cassic Space had and differs from new Lego themes was they had no official backstory, roles, or missions.

Lego left everything open for the imagination to go wild.

Some of the big questions I always had back in the 80s about Classic Space, besides the color astronauts where:

When they are going to release the grey astronaut or the green one?

The light gray/black/trans-green ships were a different faction from the blue/light gray/trans-yellows or the whith/black/trans blue ones?

What was the deal with the yellow astronaut "twins"? there were at least 3 vehicle sets displaying them,

The names in the boxes really tell you the purpose of the set? Because some names made no sense at all.

Why there were no aliens?

[Black Falcon]

Well there were no Aliens, because the Classic Spacemen are explorers, but didn´t found any yet ;) And actually I think if Lego would make a new Classic Spacemen Set now and introduce Aliens, it wouldn´t be classic Spacemens anymore

[Operacion Saturno]

6 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

Well there were no Aliens, because the Classic Spacemen are explorers, but didn´t found any yet ;) And actually I think if Lego would make a new Classic Spacemen Set now and introduce Aliens, it wouldn´t be classic Spacemens anymore

My point. Nobady knew the answer to those questions. It was up to your imagination to anwser them. Those were  some of the questions I had when I played with Lego back in the 80s. 

[HAL-9001]

On 8/11/2023 at 8:00 PM, Operacion Saturno said:

My point. Nobady knew the answer to those questions. It was up to your imagination to anwser them. Those were  some of the questions I had when I played with Lego back in the 80s. 

I remember seeing an 'Idea Book' (maybe like Idea Book 6000 or something?) where the astronauts do encounter "aliens" that are basically minifigures, but facing "backwards" and with bricks instead of normal heads.  Except then the last page of the book reveals the whole thing was someone's dream or imagination or playtime. 

[danth]

3 hours ago, HAL-9001 said:

I remember seeing an 'Idea Book' (maybe like Idea Book 6000 or something?) where the astronauts do encounter "aliens" that are basically minifigures, but facing "backwards" and with bricks instead of normal heads.  Except then the last page of the book reveals the whole thing was someone's dream or imagination or playtime. 

Yeah that was a somewhat official story. I can't seem to find any of that stuff right now though. EDIT: These guys from the Lego 6000 Idea Book from 1980?

There's also Jim Spaceborn comics: https://classic-space.jimdofree.com/jim-spaceborn/

And random comics from ads:

Edited August 16, 2023 by danth

[Operacion Saturno]

14 hours ago, HAL-9001 said:

I remember seeing an 'Idea Book' (maybe like Idea Book 6000 or something?) where the astronauts do encounter "aliens" that are basically minifigures, but facing "backwards" and with bricks instead of normal heads.  Except then the last page of the book reveals the whole thing was someone's dream or imagination or playtime. 

Actually, in the back of the box of the original Galaxy Explorer you can see a pair of Aliens/robots in one of the alternative builds.

[danth]

48 minutes ago, Operacion Saturno said:

Actually, in the back of the box of the original Galaxy Explorer you can see a pair of Aliens/robots in one of the alternative builds.

Here's a pic.

Upper right.

[Aanchir]

On 8/16/2023 at 12:31 AM, danth said:

Yeah that was a somewhat official story. I can't seem to find any of that stuff right now though. EDIT: These guys from the Lego 6000 Idea Book from 1980?

Yep! These same aliens and some of the builds associated with them also appeared in the "Captain Indigo" comics from LEGO Bricks & Pieces magazine, where they are identified as "Zarkonians" affiliated with the Zark Empire. There were also a number of stories and activity pages in "De LEGO Krant" magazine from the Netherlands which portrayed Classic Space astronauts encountering extraterrestrials (including some meta-examples where the "aliens" in question are human kids interacting with minifigure-shaped space explorers).

And of course, who's to say that the LEGO astronauts of the 70s and 80s didn't already include multiple species among their ranks? After all, even without specialized "alien" face prints or body parts, it's entirely possible that some of those astronauts feature Vulcan-like ears, Klingon-like forehead ridges, or even prehensile antennae under those helmets of theirs!

I do think it's notable that even in examples of Classic Space media that involves aliens, it's still presented as a "first contact" type scenario — in keeping with the Classic Space sets' emphasis on "frontier" environments and infrastructure populated by scientists and explorers whose tasks included launching probes and analyzing the surface in utilitarian-looking planetary rovers. By contrast, Jens Nygaard Knudsen and his team consciously designed the Futuron sets to represent already well-established space colonies that were home to a thriving extraterrestrial society. Later subthemes like Blacktron, Space Police, and M:Tron continued to build on that foundation.

[wannes_dn]

On 8/16/2023 at 6:36 PM, danth said:

Here's a pic.

Upper right.

 

[Space78]

I think this video does a nice job of explaining the appeal of Classic Space.  The fact that it had no predetermined story, no "bad guys" is what makes it so appealing and timeless.

[TalonCard]

On 8/10/2023 at 7:38 PM, hikouki said:

Is there a lore around the various Lego Space themes? Classic Space, Blacktron, M-tron, etc?

There is Blacktron lore for sure; I made a video summarizing what we know about it here; I plan to do one about M:Tron and Classic Space in the future as well. 

The thing about LEGO lore, especially from that time period, is that it tends to have been created in extremely small amounts for specific projects: club magazines exclusive to certain regions, advertising comics, storybooks, video games, etc. Sometimes there's a surprising amount of consistency, sometimes it's clear that the storytellers involved were doing their own thing, probably with little oversight and/or preserving of the information by the LEGO Group itself. I like to find what elements are compatible and present them as a consistent whole, but for anything from the 80s-early 2000s it's often what amounts to an MOC of miscellaneous story fragments. And always, the emphasis was on allowing kids the ability to continue the story themselves, so even the most fully fleshed out Space theme has a lot that's open ended.