kritch Posted July 31, 2015 Hello, I reccently rediscovered some of my old Tente sets hidden away, and decided to reinterpreted as Neo-Classic Space. Tente was a construction toy that was produced in Spain from 1972 to 1993. It felt much more brittle than LEGO and pieces snapped easily, however in the 80's, when I was spending long summers in Spain and was right in the target age group, they made some interesting sets (especially space themed), and I managed to collect a few. So far I've rebuilt 4 of the 5 space themed sets I have, Tente went in for a lot more domed screens than LEGO and had some interesting pieces that LEGO don't do, so a number of the sets have been changed significantly, but that was partly the point. I'd be interested to know if anyone else had Tente and if you've ever rebuilt them in LEGO. The original names of the sets are, from top to bottom, Space Patrol, Vigilantic, Pegasus and Krang, the orignial sets can be seen here: http://www.latentete.../?serie=Compact The whole Tente range is worth checking out; the best archieve site I can find is www.latenteteca.com/ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
___ Posted July 31, 2015 (edited) Looks very good tho I never heard of TENTE, hm...was it some kind of LEGO clone or something (looking the link you provided it looks like that to me)? EDIT: Now as I am listing thru that page I have to say one big WOW!!!!!! Those Astro models are at least as good as original CS LEGO of that era but in some cases - to me - even better, ehm more thrilling in design concept, I am like spellbound now, gee...PERFECT, thanx for the tip my friend! Edited July 31, 2015 by bublible Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kritch Posted July 31, 2015 I have to say one big WOW!!!!!! Those Astro models are at least as good as original CS LEGO of that era bublibe, glad I could help. I sorta agree, obviously classic space will always be awesome, but the specialist pieces in Tente lent themselves really well to that kind of space set (I like all the hand drawn illustrations on packaging as well). They definitely had more of a harder Sci-Fi edge to the design. I don't think Tente had a huge market area, I read somewhere that it was really designed with the only the Spanish market in mind, and the only sets I ever saw in the UK were given away with a box of Ice Cream cones (weird). I think the ship sets had a wider distribution in the US and Europe, but I wasn't really interested in them. You can still get unopened sets on eBay, although they are a bit pricey. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
___ Posted July 31, 2015 (edited) You can still get unopened sets on eBay, although they are a bit pricey. Oh, rather not: last time I was into buying this kind of things (complete LEGO Space line from 1978 till now, everything pristine like new, no yellowing, no hard-bites, simply as if it was made yesterday - most of them still in unopened boxes even those from 80's!) it almost ruined me financially...literally! Edited July 31, 2015 by bublible Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PaulPrime Posted July 31, 2015 (edited) I was born in Spain and when I was a child I spent all the time I could playing with TENTE. I still own some pieces in the form of a big trailer with a car inside (Knight Rider style). I built lots of spaceships too. I can't believe somebody else knows about la TENTEteca. I didn't expect to see that site mentioned here either. Thank you very much for that. The ships are great, by the way. I wish I had all my old TENTE pieces. Oh, the memories. Edited July 31, 2015 by PaulPrime Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
___ Posted July 31, 2015 I was born in Spain and when I was a child I spent all the time I could playing with TENTE. I still own some pieces in the form of a big trailer with a car inside (Knight Rider style). I built lots of spaceships too. I can't believe somebody else knows about la TENTEteca. I didn't expect to see that site mentioned here either. Thank you very much for that. The ships are great, by the way. I wish I had all my old TENTE pieces. Oh, the memories. Yea, I already downloaded all PDF catalogues from that site for inspiration... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Catarino Posted August 4, 2015 Nice intepretations! The first one is my personal favorite! I've never had Tente but I heard of it since I'm close to Spain (Portugal) perhaps? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
___ Posted August 4, 2015 BTW do I understand it right that basically LEGO and TENTE bricks are interchangeable? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PaddyBricksplitter Posted August 4, 2015 Those are some nice builds. I like them. I don't think Tente ever made it as far as Ireland. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FonsoSac Posted August 4, 2015 BTW do I understand it right that basically LEGO and TENTE bricks are interchangeable? No. They were incompatible. The TENTE studs were bigger than LEGO studs. Geometry was a a bit diferent. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
___ Posted August 4, 2015 No. They were incompatible. The TENTE studs were bigger than LEGO studs. Geometry was a a bit diferent. Ah, it looked so promising! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FonsoSac Posted August 4, 2015 In Spain some kids had TENTE and others had LEGO. It was like your football club, yours is always better. I've owned some TENTE sets and some LEGO sets in late 70s and early 80s. I've always liked LEGO. IMO, The plastic was best quality and the pieces matched best. In Spain TENTE had space "minifigs" and special pieces with diferent shapes years before LEGO, they were inventive but then the Space Theme and minifigs arrived and LEGO began to be less "square". All changed Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
___ Posted August 5, 2015 In Spain some kids had TENTE and others had LEGO. It was like your football club, yours is always better. I've owned some TENTE sets and some LEGO sets in late 70s and early 80s. I've always liked LEGO. IMO, The plastic was best quality and the pieces matched best. In Spain TENTE had space "minifigs" and special pieces with diferent shapes years before LEGO, they were inventive but then the Space Theme and minifigs arrived and LEGO began to be less "square". All changed Aha, interesting to hear this kind of stories from the first hand - thanx. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
msx80 Posted August 5, 2015 super interesting insight! and great models too Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kodan Black Posted August 5, 2015 I had (and still have somewhere) quite a few of the navy ships from Tente. My brother and I would have big naval battles with them. It was totally hit or miss if you would ever find them in the toy stores though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FonsoSac Posted August 5, 2015 (edited) Yesterday I forgot to say kritch's models are great. They are a nice reinterpretation. My favs are the first and the last. IMO, the last could be a LEGO set while the first maintains the spirit of TENTE. Edited August 5, 2015 by FonsoSac Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kritch Posted August 5, 2015 BTW do I understand it right that basically LEGO and TENTE bricks are interchangeable? FonsoSac has already answered this but I thought I'd add that one of the other major differences was (is) that tente has "pin" style connections in addition to the LEGO-style ones, for example the Tente antenne has a pin on the bottom rather than a stud, and it could fit into a hole in the stud of the tente plates, which was good in theory but they were the pieces that snapped most and left a little piece of tente stuck in your plate piece making it useless for connecting to other things. When I reccently rebuilt my tente models I was amazed at how brittle they feel, a number of times when I was putting them together I thought I was going to snap them in half, it was difficult to know how much force to apply to get them to stay together properly. Also if you hold the model at either end and give it a very slight twist, it creaks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
___ Posted August 5, 2015 FonsoSac has already answered this but I thought I'd add that one of the other major differences was (is) that tente has "pin" style connections in addition to the LEGO-style ones, for example the Tente antenne has a pin on the bottom rather than a stud, and it could fit into a hole in the stud of the tente plates, which was good in theory but they were the pieces that snapped most and left a little piece of tente stuck in your plate piece making it useless for connecting to other things. When I reccently rebuilt my tente models I was amazed at how brittle they feel, a number of times when I was putting them together I thought I was going to snap them in half, it was difficult to know how much force to apply to get them to stay together properly. Also if you hold the model at either end and give it a very slight twist, it creaks. More interesting details once again, thanx for your insight. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
FonsoSac Posted August 5, 2015 FonsoSac has already answered this but I thought I'd add that one of the other major differences was (is) that tente has "pin" style connections in addition to the LEGO-style ones, for example the Tente antenne has a pin on the bottom rather than a stud, and it could fit into a hole in the stud of the tente plates, which was good in theory but they were the pieces that snapped most and left a little piece of tente stuck in your plate piece making it useless for connecting to other things. When I reccently rebuilt my tente models I was amazed at how brittle they feel, a number of times when I was putting them together I thought I was going to snap them in half, it was difficult to know how much force to apply to get them to stay together properly. Also if you hold the model at either end and give it a very slight twist, it creaks. Oh. Yes, I remember some studs with a broken pin inside. I didn't care of it but nowadays it would have irritate me Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
danth Posted August 5, 2015 This thread is great. Those Tente sets just fill me with wonder. Like what would Lego Space have looked like in another universe? Well, now we know. After this thread I went looking for old Space sets in other brands like Tyco Super Blocks. There was some nice non-Lego stuff out there. Also, Kritch, I love all of your reinterpretations, but that last one is just incredible. The trans-red tips on the grapple arm -- perfection! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tohst Posted August 6, 2015 (edited) Those MOCs are very nice. I had two of the space Tente sets and I thought the pieces were awful. Just very light and brittle. But until Blacktron came around it gave me a 'bad guy' to go against the Classic Space Corps. Looking at some of the other sets I see at least one Tente piece that was copied almost exactly by Kreo. http://www.latenteteca.com/wp-content/uploads/img/modelos/AstroKit.jpg The white piece in this picture looks very much like one of the Kreo pieces I thought was an original. I guess they were, ummmm, inspired by more than just Lego. -Tohst --edited to fix the link....hopefully Edited August 6, 2015 by Tohst Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
