Question about Current Space Factions

[TF Twitch]

I was reading through Brickipedia the other day as I was trying to find out what the current Space factions are. There has always been a civilian, "good guy", and "bad guy" faction. Right now the "current" (aka 2009-2010) good guy faction is Space Police III, but there is no civilian counterpart. The most recent civilian faction was Exploriens (1996-1997). So I was wondering who the current civilian faction would be? I am not including the Galaxy Squad or Alien Conquest themes since the GS and ADU are specialized task forces. I am currently working on a story where Blacktron rises again (they have big robots/mecha now) and terrorize the civilian faction. Any tips, advice, and suggestions are very welcome!

[Faefrost]

I was reading through Brickipedia the other day as I was trying to find out what the current Space factions are. There has always been a civilian, "good guy", and "bad guy" faction. Right now the "current" (aka 2009-2010) good guy faction is Space Police III, but there is no civilian counterpart. The most recent civilian faction was Exploriens (1996-1997). So I was wondering who the current civilian faction would be? I am not including the Galaxy Squad or Alien Conquest themes since the GS and ADU are specialized task forces. I am currently working on a story where Blacktron rises again (they have big robots/mecha now) and terrorize the civilian faction. Any tips, advice, and suggestions are very welcome!

I think the last human civilian group would have been Mars Mission. Who mainly seemed to be a kind of corporate resource acquisition group. Somewhat akin to the Power Miners or Atlantis teams. The civilian opposing force to SPIII were the crime gangs and the alien space mob led by Brickdaddy.

[B-Lister]

Blacktron never really went away. Maybe they were driven underground, but the SPIII sets show that they're alive and well, if not thriving, with a spacefleet like in the past.

[Aanchir]

The idea of there always being a civilian, good guy, and bad guy faction really only applies to 80s and 90s space themes where each individual theme represented a single faction, and themes would be kept in production for multiple years so one year's faction could coexist with the previous few factions. Neither is the case today. All modern LEGO Space themes include both a "good guy" and a "bad guy" faction. There are no explicitly civilian factions... then again, some of the ostensibly "civilian" factions back in the day were suspiciously well-armed, so to a certain extent this is just a case of modern themes dropping the pretense of years past, since conflict play has always played a big role in LEGO Space's appeal among kids.

Space Police III is no longer really a "current" theme by any stretch of the imagination, because again, sets aren't kept in production for years on end like they used to be. The most recent "good guy" faction was Galaxy Squad, while the most recent "bad guy" faction is the aliens from the same theme. Before that, the "good guy" faction was the ADU from LEGO Alien Conquest and the "bad guy" faction was the aliens from Alien Conquest. And before THAT, the "good guy" faction was the Space Police and the "bad guy" faction was the Black Hole Gang from the same theme.