kaelthas

Review: 70841 Benny's Space Squad

HOW DO YOU RATE THIS SET?   

67 members have voted

  1. 1. On scale 1-5

    • Poor
      0
    • Below Average
      1
    • Average
      3
    • Above Average
      10
    • Outstanding
      53


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I acquired mine on 28 December, out of the shop window of the Entertainer. Literally, out of the window, it was their last one. I've noticed Lego products shelf lives have been getting shorter since the 90s, but this one seemed to be selling out before even the year of introduction! That said, there were two more in when I went back today. However, none of the staff seem to recall selling them to children. It might be the case that this thing is sold out, only to adult fans, and children who discover it through the yet to be released the movie would miss out on it, denying us the opportunity to test for true appeal of revived classic space.

Pretty good, concise review, though I also agree it would have been better to save the photograph of your full collection for the end to avoid confusion.

The one thing I cannot agree with is the low score for playability. When I was a KFOL, I was never given the really big sets (apart from a couple of basic sets and the 1994 fire station), and I certainly could never afford them with 1 Pound a week pocket money. One of the few times I did get a large classic town build, I gave up on it and simply used it for parts. I did, however, get many small individual vehicles sets, and played with them, often on their own, for hours.

As for this set, I find it infinitely more playable than the 2014 Spaceship, Spaceship SPACESHIP!, for the simple reason that it doesn't fall apart (with the exception of the robot, which is based on a couple from the earlier set!). Having four astronauts with just two vehicles encourages real thinking behind play and scenario possibilities. For instance, here are Jenny and Benny on an ill-advised EVA date.

 

evadate03.jpg

Speaking of Jenny, she is actually the only authentically 1978 era space figure. As for Kenny, Brickipedia does list the yellow spaceman in a figure pack from 1979, but not in a set until 1982. Another curiosity is that the blue space figure (introduced in 1984) was never sold with a blue colour scheme spaceship, although one was sold with a blue scheme base. Lenny is, of course new to this set. I think all four appear in the foreground on the space launch clip.

Edited by Bornin1980something

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Well, apparently

Spoiler

you don't see much of this in the movie,

but I can say that it is very much available again, and has been for over three weeks. I persuaded a friend to buy one for his daughter. Not that he needed much persuading - his daughter is called Jennifer! 

That said, I wonder if Jenny might be named after a man, Jens Nygaard Knudsen.

Edited by Bornin1980something
spoiler

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3 hours ago, Bornin1980something said:

Well, apparently ...

Well you just ruined the movie for me, thanks dude. 

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40 minutes ago, danth said:

Well you just ruined the movie for me, thanks dude. 

That ruined the entire movie for you? So you were just seeing it to see what happens with Benny?

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53 minutes ago, leafan said:

That ruined the entire movie for you? So you were just seeing it to see what happens with Benny?

Yeah pretty much. 

Same as the last one. 

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1 hour ago, danth said:

Yeah pretty much. 

Same as the last one. 

If the only way you were going to like it was if it was focused on Classic Space content, then all they did was save you a trip to the theater for a movie that would end up disappointing you one way or another.

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11 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

If the only way you were going to like it was if it was focused on Classic Space content, then all they did was save you a trip to the theater for a movie that would end up disappointing you one way or another.

I'll be the judge of what ruins a movie for me and what spoilers I want to hear. I can enjoy the anticipation of something, even if it doesn't happen. Is that hard to understand?

1 hour ago, Bornin1980something said:

I didn't reveal all I know, but I'm sorry. Shall I edit the post?

I would add spoiler tags. Thanks.

Edited by danth

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This was the first boxed set I acquired from this movie (first set overall was a polybag), and it will be the first of which I get duplicates.

I’d like to see something like a headgear assortment polybag (like they used to do; it could now be part of the Xtra line) containing these new-old helmets in red, yellow, blue, white, black, gray, and green, plus gray air tanks, that we could use with our Series 17 Rocket Boy, Exo-suit, Vintage Minifigure Collection, etc. minifigures.

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I picked up two today. Great shout out to adult classic space fans, and the price is good. As someone else said, I do wish Benny had a normal suit and helmet in this set instead of his usual beat up look, especially since the latter already appears in several other sets.

Edited by CP5670

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I acquired this today (and saw TLM2!) and the figures really are delightful, particularly Jenny for her 1978 authenticity. For $10, a great deal. Two vehicles, four figures and a robot? Sign me up.

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Great Reviews! I finally picked this up.  It took a while as stock was scared since it released.  I like the pink one, it always nice to have some new colour variations.  Kinda sad that they categorise the torso as licensed part though but I don't have plan to build an army so one squad is enough for me.  I also uploaded my thoughts on the set as well if you are interested.

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This one set I had to have from the LEGO Movie 2 line, and now that these are finally put in Australia (only 3ish months after the rest of the world), they're thankfully easy to come by.

While I love that LEGO has made this, has anyone else noticed a quality issue with the white one? On mine the torso and helmet are the white that I expect LEGO's white to be, while the arms and full leg assembly have bad colour matching and look a little off white. It doesn't totally ruin the figure, but in good light it's annoying. It sucks that LEGO had better colour consistency in the 70s than they do now.

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1 hour ago, Digger of Bricks said:

For those who wanted a Bright Blue recolor of the "unbroken" helmet this set introduced... :blush:

Thank you for sharing! I hope they will become available on Bricks and Pieces as I want some for my blue spacemen with regular modern helmets!

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5 hours ago, Digger of Bricks said:

For those who wanted a Bright Blue recolor of the "unbroken" helmet this set introduced... :blush:

Now we just an unbesmirched blue Space torso!

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