AyliffeMakit Posted July 4, 2014 Posted July 4, 2014 Hello dear forum-goers, and welcome to... So, recently I went and treated myself to the Grand Emporium, and because of my location in the UK (probably won't be United for long...) I managed to get this and a generic Chima polybag (Things! Excitement!) for free. Because the high-quality boxed packaging instantly stood out as soon as I poured my purchases out onto the table, I decided to have a go at reviewing it for you. WARNING: PICTURE-HEAVY BASIC INFO: Set number: 5002812 Set Name: Classic Spaceman Minifigure Price: FREE with all purchases over £25/€30 for VIP members (until 7th July) PACKAGING: Unlike the other freebies that Lego has offered in the past, this set is presented in a very nice high-quality card box that really makes it stand out from the crowd. On the side of the box there are also some nice retro Lego System logos, which makes this even more nostalgic. There's also the rather strange inclusion of a little "2014" logo, which could possibly be a hint that we're getting one of these retro sets every year possibly? Either way, the prospect of more of these high-quality freebies excites me. ....and to make sure we don't destroy our precious boxes (like I usually do with the thumb flaps) the box neatly slides out with a pretty box that could possibly be used for displaying the contents. I really think that this is a really great idea from TLG instead of just another throwaway polybag, so whoever thought of that back in Denmark deserves a round of applause and a gold star for this. Go on, have a gold star. ...which leads us to the nicely packed bag of pieces hidden within. PIECES: Inside the bag are these lovely pieces that I've laid out for you to see the (fairly obvious) contents of the set, except for the minifig: All of the pieces included are pretty basic and were in production back in the 80's, except for the black 3 studs-long stick piece, which I haven't seen before in that colour and isn't too necessary in the final model anyway. It's not exactly the most astonishing array of parts, but then again this probably isn't a set that someone would get as a parts pack... INSTRUCTIONS: Usually a set this small would just come with a folded piece of paper and would be not really worth keeping hold of, but as with the high-quality box TLG have really pushed the boat out with this set, producing a lovely booklet that's truly excellent. The first two pages are taken up by the instructions for the minifigure and the robot/droid, which have a nice beige background with a space logo of some sort. The rest of the booklet is filled with a rather nice timeline of various space sets and themes, going up to last years Galaxy Squad sets (for some reason there's a significant lack of Benny's SPACESHIP SPACESHIP SPACESHIP, which is pretty strange). I forgot to take a picture of this, but I did get a picture of the two-page minifigure timeline at the back of the booklet (or part of it at least). The back page also reveals that minifigures actually talk using emoticons (who knew?). THE FINISHED MODEL: Before we look at the figure (patience, young Padawan), lets first peek at the lovely robot/droid that is included in the set. Overall it's actually a very nice model that's very faithful to the original robots from the 80's. The colour scheme seems a bit more like blacktron than Classic space, but they're from a similar time period so this time I'll let it slide. I didn't think I'd like the droid so much when I originally saw the promotion, but I really have to say that it's definitely grown on me and I really think it goes well with the minifigure included, even if the robot does look like a blacktron robot... anyway, let's move onto the main event, the minifigure! To be honest there's not much to say about a minifigure like this, mainly because it's so iconic. It does use the newer helmet (just like all of the reissued spacemen), which is a bit of a shame as they could have used Benny's helmet mould, even if it does have that moulded crack (although that would have really upset NCS builders who use these helmets all the time). I do think that this is a good figure, but there is a noticeable colour difference between the body and the legs, which is upsetting. FINAL VERDICT: Overall, I think this is an outstanding example of how a free item should be done, and is truly my favorite promotional item that TLG has ever provided. Now, if only we had purple classic space minifigures..... RATING: 7/10 Thanks for reading! Quote
Bob De Quatre Posted July 4, 2014 Posted July 4, 2014 the black 3 studs-long stick piece, which I haven't seen before in that colour and isn't too necessary in the final model anyway I built this promo-set yesterday and wondered too why use that 3L bar... It's clearly not necessary... But tonight I built Benny's spaceship, and two little droid at the back are loosing their arms at the slightest touch... And guess what, a 3L bar in there could help keep them tigthly in place Quote
Clone OPatra Posted July 4, 2014 Posted July 4, 2014 Is this entire set made in China? The facts that it comes in a funky-looking bag, has no extra parts, and the minifig has no printing on the neck would lead me to believe so, and it would explain the color discrepancy issue with the legs/torso. If so, quite a shame that LEGO couldn't make a high (/normal) quality figure for this promo… Quote
AlmightyArjen Posted July 4, 2014 Posted July 4, 2014 Unfortunately the helmet misses a visor... Quote
Mutant Orc Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 Looks like a nice promo! And it certainly is better done than most, although it's a shame about the leg/torso issue you mentioned. Still, white legs aren't all that rare so we'll just have to swap them out for a 'proper' pair from our own collections. i don't actually have any of the original Classic Space figures or sets. But I have a couple of the figures from 1987 and a few others that were given to me not long ago in a random bag of lego. Unfortunately the helmet misses a visor... Well, it is meant to based off the 1978 figures, and the space men didn't have visors until '87, so they were just being accurate I s'pose.. Quote
danth Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 I think they may as well just give these guys visors. The "new" helmet looks weird without the visor. Quote
DPrime Posted July 5, 2014 Posted July 5, 2014 Awesome review, thanks! Any word of these making it to North America? Quote
snefroe Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 Naturally, I just had to have this, so I bought some sets online, making sure I reached the 30 euros... I was hoping, however, i'd be aible to get a second set on Saturday at the Lego shop in Wijnegem, but they'd already run out , even though, officialy, this special deal runs untill the 7th. A shame that I only have one, but it'll have to do then. It's still MISB, i'll never open it, so it's great to see this review, now I know, at least, what is in the box I'll keep an eye on Bricklink, though... This may be interesting to replace some of my older minifig torsos. Quote
Backgild Posted July 6, 2014 Posted July 6, 2014 Is there any chance of seeing these as a free August promo with the Exosuit? Quote
DPrime Posted July 7, 2014 Posted July 7, 2014 Is there any chance of seeing these as a free August promo with the Exosuit? That would be ideal, of course! :) I'm just getting back into Lego after a dark age... Do European exclusives typically become North American exclusives eventually, and vice versa? I'd hate to have to Bricklink this... Quote
___ Posted August 30, 2014 Posted August 30, 2014 BTW: is the planet logo golden or just yellowish orange? Fingers crossed for the gold as it was in original CS... Quote
___ Posted September 2, 2014 Posted September 2, 2014 Please, does anyone know the answer to my previous question (the one above this one )??? Quote
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