1994 Lego TV commercial: the ham-fisted incompetence of Spyrius

[hagridshut]

I never watched a lot of television growing up, probably because I was too busy building Lego , so I never saw this TV ad, which I stumbled upon on YouTube: Lego Space - Spyrius 1994 - Commercial

Spyrius is portrayed as a bunch of ham-fisted thieves.  Instead of using their saucers to "spy" on Unitron, they send their gigantic robots in a flagrant, ham-fisted attempt to steal a Unitron monorail vehicle.  This is completely opposite of what I would expect from a faction whose name implies a spy agency.  The attempt fails, with the first giant Spyrius robot falling down after clumsy attempts to snatch the Unitron vehicle, and the Spyrian android agent/commander accidentally being grabbed by his own robots as the Unitrons slip through their cybernetic manipulators.  Total defeat and embarrassment for Spyrius   

This is very different than their role in my childhood Lego MOC civilization.  In the universe I created, Spyrians (both the biological/cyborgs and android minifigs) were capital ship and battlespace commanders, Unitron minifigs were fighter pilots and marines, and Classic/Futuron/M:Tron/Ice Planet were a mix of explorers, scientists, and resource prospectors.  Space Police were still cops, but Blacktron II (trans neon-green guys) operated a legitimate spaceport and ship construction business.  Spyrians were the best at my house, not bumbling idiots! 

[Littleworlds]

 Its actually quite charming! And I see the intention of showing off their latest sets and squeezing them all into a TV spot - so from that perspective it works well. Its also always good to let things look nicely harmless in case parents are watching too 

[KevinMD]

@hagridshut I agree it doesn’t seem to fit with the concept of “Spyrius” as I see them either, but the comedic effect was good for a laugh.  Neat commercial and quintessential 90s.

[CP5670]

Great find. The catalogs from that period show Spyrius assaulting the Unitron monorail and just tearing everything up, and are not very subtle about it.

[Falz-fein]

Cool

[LucByard]

I love this. The visual aesthetic and the scenery took me right back and reminded my of how I got drawn in all those years ago. Instantly showed this to my 8-year-old who agreed it looks awesome.

Those were the days.

[hagridshut]

I found some more background information on Spyrius that I did not previously know.  The wikia/fandom page for Spyrius has some scans of marketing materials in the Gallery section: https://lego.fandom.com/wiki/Spyrius#Gallery

Summary:

1.  There was an emergency summit of Lego space factions that took place on Ice Planet 2002, to discuss the threat of Spyrius.  The Space Police described Spyrius as "a gang of villains and their robots".  
2.  The main activity of Spyrius is espionage, and Spyrius activity is very difficult to detect.
3.  Spyrius appears to know the secrets of the other factions, causing the other factions to be very concerned.
4.  "Major Kartofski" (represented by a Spyrius Android minifigure) is the leader of Syrius. 
5.  Spyrius spacecraft (saucers) have stealth technology that makes them difficult or impossible to detect.
6.  The Spyrius agent conducting espionage on Ice Planet 2002 has a cloaking field that makes them invisible except for their eyes.  This appears to refer to the Spyrius Android minifigure. 
7.  The Space Police are intimidated by Spyrius' giant robots.
8.  Another report on the final page claims that the cloaking field disguises the entire Spyrius Android except for his hands, and that the field is generated by the clear helmet that the Android wears. 

I didn't know any of this, despite having built 3 of the Spyrius sets as a child: Saucer Scout, Recon Robot, and Saucer Centurion.  The Scout and Centurion are still intact, but the Recon Robot was quickly dismantled for MOC pieces, for reasons following:  

I honestly thought the large Spyrius robots were fairly stupid, as they relied on wheels to move around, and did not appear to have any means of flight.  This would severely restrict their ability to maneuver and fight on uneven terrain or terrain with highly varied elevations.  However, I was a huge fan of the Spyrius saucer ships and minifigures.  

25 years later, Spyrius is sill one of my favorite themes.