LEGO Sci-Fi Ongoing - Rumors, Speculation, and Discussion

[Classic_Spaceman]

2 hours ago, Robert8 said:

The only thing I can think of is because they have Star Wars they cant have an official in house space theme

The only "evidence" for that theory is extremely tenuous and has an absurd number of exceptions (e.g. Ninjago and Monkie Kid jets that look like spaceships); more likely LEGO has just put their focus elsewhere (remember that we have not gotten an underwater theme or mining theme since Atlantis and Power Miners retired). We now are getting Space sets, but they (along with Castle and Pirates) are primarily AFOL-targeted nostalgic remakes. 
 

2 hours ago, jodawill said:

The new one has a more realistic color scheme and doesn't seem to have any sci-fi elements like lasers, although it's hard to tell for sure from the leaked image.

No obvious lasers or transparent dishes, but I would not say that the colour-scheme is particularly "realistic"; at least, not any more so than classic themes that used white as their base colour (late Classic Space, Futuron, Exploriens). 

2 hours ago, jodawill said:

That doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the new one. It's just different, and it probably reflects society's shifting views on futurism than it does Lego itself. 

Some of that, but also that this set is for an exploratory faction (which typically have had white as their main colour; exceptions being SP3 and Galaxy Squad), and because the model was designed in 2023 instead of 1983 or 1993 (so there are more curved parts available to make the rover look sleeker). 

2 hours ago, jodawill said:

I would probably like it more if it was black with a trans green windshield and antennas.

IMO, it really just needs a trans-orange canopy (though if it is using the new trans-black, that could look cool as well); a Blacktron III Battrax recolour would be awesome, though! 
 

[Lyichir]

8 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

IMO, it really just needs a trans-orange canopy (though if it is using the new trans-black, that could look cool as well); a Blacktron III Battrax recolour would be awesome, though!

Oh, if the new sets use the new trans-black that'd be very exciting—and a realistic choice for spacecraft seeing as they typically need decent solar shielding for windscreens.

[Classic_Spaceman]

11 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

Oh, if the new sets use the new trans-black that'd be very exciting—and a realistic choice for spacecraft seeing as they typically need decent solar shielding for windscreens.

The station uses trans-clear, but the rover seems to have trans-black (though given the image quality, it could be trans-brown); I think that trans-black (if used) could actually look really good, since it has a bluish tint that would accentuate the sand blue parts. 
 

Edited November 22, 2023 by Classic_Spaceman

[danth]

5 hours ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

@danth: Thoughts?

Hmm. Mixed feelings right now. Not sure yet. Need better pics.

3 hours ago, Robert8 said:

How on earth (lol) is this a "City" subtheme? 

 

The only thing I can think of is because they have Star Wars they cant have an official in house space theme

Right?

[Lyichir]

In what universe would Star Wars prevent a space theme but allow a City subtheme with "SPACE" logo and branding about as big as the City branding itself? Let's be serious here.

[Classic_Spaceman]

15 minutes ago, danth said:

Hmm. Mixed feelings right now. Not sure yet. Need better pics.

Do you think that this counts as a Space set? 
 

2 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

In what universe would Star Wars prevent a space theme but allow a City subtheme with "SPACE" logo and branding about as big as the City branding itself? Let's be serious here.

The space branding is even bigger than the City logo, since it covers an entire side of the box! 
 

[Aanchir]

Ironically, if it didn't have City branding, I just know that there would be folks in this thread complaining that it's not "true" LEGO Space, just like I've previously seen people say about themes like Life on Mars, Mars Mission, or Space Police 3.

All in all, though, the rover design seems to draw primarily from some of the rover concepts we've seen from real-world space agencies in the past decade, including several of the concepts for the Lunar Cruise that JAXA and Toyota are co-developing for NASA's Artemis program. The style of rocker-bogie suspension in this set is shared with some of these concepts, as well as with many of NASA's previous unmanned rovers. So it's not too tricky to imagine how City designers in this day and age could arrive at this sort of "futuristic" design even without pulling from any actual sci-fi reference material.

Edited November 22, 2023 by Aanchir

[Umbra-Manis]

I'm glad to see city moving in a slightly more sci-fi direction by giving us an actual alien, although at this point I wish they would give us a little more vibrancy in the color scheme and less white. 

[Classic_Spaceman]

2 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Ironically, if it didn't have City branding, I just know that there would be folks in this thread complaining that it's not "true" LEGO Space, just like I've previously seen people say about themes like Life on Mars, Mars Mission, or Space Police 3.

People complained that SP3 was not a "true" Space theme?? 
 

[Space78]

From the looks of the box picture for the rover, seems like Lego might be making "Space" a subtheme of City?  I'll be really interested to see what the minifig looks like.

[TeriXeri]

18 hours ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

 (remember that we have not gotten an underwater theme or mining theme since Atlantis and Power Miners retired). 

Exactly, and since then, City had mining for crystals/gold and underwater gems/treasure multiple times, and more recently with Space crystal geodes, Ninjago went the Atlantis route with underwater villains for 1 season , Nexo had rock/lava monsters for 2 years. Even the recent 2022 City Space had boulders (asteroids/ice comets) with crystals inside.

None of those were branded as such, but certainly contained elements of past themes.

I don't think everything need to be direct "reboots" as we recently see with Castle/Space/Pirate IDEAS/Icons/GWP, to be considered, I think a kid could easily play "power miner" scenarios if it had some 2016 Volcano, 2018 Mining sets with monsters from the various other themes to support it. 

Same with the various Aquazone-esque themes and sets made long after (with 2020 ninjago and the recent Monkie kid underwater palace serving as big underwater location sets, or even something like sets from Avatar the way of water (licensed but still very suitable)

 

Space is obviously part of the bigger 3 "original" multi decade themes (along with Castle and Pirates), so City going quite the extra mile here with branding isn't that weird, especially with the 2022 space logo's already being quite close to the original.

Edited November 22, 2023 by TeriXeri

[Aanchir]

12 hours ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

People complained that SP3 was not a "true" Space theme??

Yep. Of course, the reasoning varied from person to person:

• Some folks only count "deep space" themes as "true" LEGO Space (excluding themes like Life on Mars, Mars Mission, and Alien Conquest), and considered the appearance of an Earth-like planet in the background of some of the SP3 box art enough to exclude it on those grounds.
• Others felt like the robot dog and the alien cars and trucks were too clearly inspired by subject matter here on Earth, and thus considered it more like a futuristic version of the Town/City theme than a Space theme.
• Some people took particular issue with the open-faced helmets worn by the officers in the theme's first year, which suggested the possibility that the theme's ambiguous lunar setting might have a breathable atmosphere.
• And of course, there are certain folks out there who haven't considered ANY Space theme since an arbitrary cutoff date (often in the mid to late 90s) a "true" LEGO Space theme, just because stuff like the inclusion of alien minifigures and the lack of interaction between different subthemes/factions in the magazines and catalogs made subsequent sets feel too different from the "LEGO Space" sets they'd grown up with.

Obviously, it's fine to have these sorts of preferences about what you prefer to see in a LEGO Space theme. But it always feels a bit silly to me when folks try to justify those preferences by coming up with elaborate rules for why only the sets they like within a given category actually qualify as part of that category. It's perfectly okay to be a LEGO Space fan while still acknowledging that LEGO Space includes certain sets and themes you happen to dislike!

20 minutes ago, Space78 said:

From the looks of the box picture for the rover, seems like Lego might be making "Space" a subtheme of City?  I'll be really interested to see what the minifig looks like.

Yeah, while City has had plenty of space sets before, this is the first time they've had a dedicated banner to signal that they belong to a particular subtheme. And I think LEGO CIty Space is only the second product line in the theme to get this treatment after LEGO City Stuntz. I wonder whether specific branding like this is gonna become a more common thing for other City subthemes in the future as well.

[TeriXeri]

1 hour ago, Aanchir said:

And I think LEGO CIty Space is only the second product line in the theme to get this treatment after LEGO City Stuntz. I wonder whether specific branding like this is gonna become a more common thing for other City subthemes in the future as well.

City Missions had quite a big logo on both sides of the box, but that was only 3 sets, Stuntz indeed was a multi-year big subtheme with it's own box coloring (very big logo + orange sections) etc.

Edited November 22, 2023 by TeriXeri

[Classic_Spaceman]

3 hours ago, Space78 said:

From the looks of the box picture for the rover, seems like Lego might be making "Space" a subtheme of City?  I'll be really interested to see what the minifig looks like.

Either that or the SPACE branding will be used across multiple themes and sets (Icons spaceship, CMF, etc). I am hoping that it is a new City subtheme, though! 
 

3 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

None of those were branded as such, but certainly contained elements of past themes.

Right! And Space has gotten more off-brand content than any of the other classic or ‘90’s-‘00’s themes, considering how inherently sci-fi LEGO’s in-house themes are (Friends and City are the only themes not to have gotten mechs, and City is actually getting one next year!). TL;DR, blame Ninjago for the “death” of Space, not Star Wars. 
 

3 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Some folks only count "deep space" themes as "true" LEGO Space (excluding themes like Life on Mars, Mars Mission, and Alien Conquest)

For me, Alien Conquest is the only Space theme that I feel exists in a weird grey area; it has aliens and spaceships, but it also takes place entirely on Earth. I would probably categorise it as an action theme (like Power Miners or Atlantis), despite the fact that it is basically SP3 with the roles reversed! 

3 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Some people took particular issue with the open-faced helmets worn by the officers in the theme's first year, which suggested the possibility that the theme's ambiguous lunar setting might have a breathable atmosphere.

I always assumed that there was some kind of force-field on the lower part of their visors (especially since they wore airtanks, so the atmosphere was clearly not breathable!), similar to Classic Space helmets - Is anyone saying that they were on a planet with a breathable atmosphere? 

3 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Obviously, it's fine to have these sorts of preferences about what you prefer to see in a LEGO Space theme. But it always feels a bit silly to me when folks try to justify those preferences by coming up with elaborate rules for why only the sets they like within a given category actually qualify as part of that category. 

Agreed! My personal least favourite “rule” is when people complain that the presence of conflict makes a theme not a “true” Space theme - Ignoring the OG designers’ own comments that the “antennas” and “lights” on classic Space vehicles/ships were absolutely intended to be weapons! 

3 hours ago, Aanchir said:

I wonder whether specific branding like this is gonna become a more common thing for other City subthemes in the future as well.

Good point; once other sets leak, we will have a better idea of what the banner means long-term. 
 

2 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

City Missions had quite a big logo on both sides of the box, but that was only 3 sets

True, but I get the feeling that those were an experiment that did not sell well (based on how discounted they are!); had they sold better, the subsubtheme could have continued as Stuntz did. 
 

[Space78]

1 hour ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

Either that or the SPACE branding will be used across multiple themes and sets (Icons spaceship, CMF, etc). I am hoping that it is a new City subtheme, though!

 

Good point, and that would be interesting if Space were a "cross theme" theme!  From all the leaks we seem to know there will be multiple space themed sets next year.  I am also very curious if that is a one year deal, or if "Space" will continue for a while.

[Artanis I]

The one photo I've seen tells me this is more Space than City Space has ever been, but it is still not Space enough for me. I'll Bricklink the minifigs.

More interesting colour schemes & use of translucent elements is desired and not present.

[jodawill]

I think 71460 actually makes a better "real" space set than the city one. It's a different color scheme than any of the previous themes, but that's fine. It would of course look better if you remove the school bus elements. Otherwise, that's the kind of set I would personally like to see in a new space theme. It still has some white, but that blue sets it apart from the sterile look of the new space set and the Exploriens. It's wackier and it has stud shooters. I like it quite a lot. I'm tempted to start collecting that theme. It's pretty similar to Time Cruisers, isn't it?

[legoturtle]

Third image leaked from upcoming sets. (CITY/Space 2024). I am very surprised about these leaks.

Edited November 28, 2023 by legoturtle

[jodawill]

That's interesting. Unless the image was shared by a person who stole the package in transit, someone is probable going to lose the privilege of doing early reviews. It has a visible number on the sticker which may be a unique identifier.

This ship looks good, but I do wish it had a more interesting color scheme.

[icm]

AFAIK, all new sets are reviewed by Safety Korea to make sure they meet South Korean toy safety requirements. A picture of the toy and the summary of the compliance check is posted on their website. It's not a leak, as such. It's standard toy industry reporting in compliance with the law.

[Lyichir]

2 minutes ago, jodawill said:

That's interesting. Unless the image was shared by a person who stole the package in transit, someone is probable going to lose the privilege of doing early reviews. It has a visible number on the sticker which may be a unique identifier.

This ship looks good, but I do wish it had a more interesting color scheme.

The source of this leak is actually fairly novel—it doesn't seem to be a reviewer but rather a Korean government product safety organization (similar to the U.S.A.'s US Consumer Product Safety Commission). So rather than a review copy, this set may have been sent to be evaluated ahead of being imported or something? There's only so much I can glean from the site not being able to read Korean myself, but it is still odd to see a set leaked through an outlet like this.

Regarding the set itself, it's a bit of a shame I don't see any of the orange that was on the Space Station build, since that had me hopeful that it might be the new reddish orange and might show up prominently across the entire range of sets.

[DentedFrood]

9 minutes ago, jodawill said:

This ship looks good, but I do wish it had a more interesting color scheme.

It's default space ship, white on top, black on bottom. Still feels future nasa space instead of science fiction/fantasy space. I like it, but it needs a pop of color added somewhere

[legoturtle]

What is that small thing next to spaceship? I also hope that we will get color scheme and also, a new lego space faction. It is not NASA.

Edited November 28, 2023 by legoturtle

[icm]

11 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

The source of this leak is actually fairly novel—it doesn't seem to be a reviewer but rather a Korean government product safety organization (similar to the U.S.A.'s US Consumer Product Safety Commission). So rather than a review copy, this set may have been sent to be evaluated ahead of being imported or something? There's only so much I can glean from the site not being able to read Korean myself, but it is still odd to see a set leaked through an outlet like this.

Not so odd. It's happened a fair few times before that the first pictures of an upcoming set are from the Safety Korea compliance check.

[Lyichir]

7 minutes ago, icm said:

Not so odd. It's happened a fair few times before that the first pictures of an upcoming set are from the Safety Korea compliance check.

Huh, I stand corrected. I'd never remembered seeing that as a source in previous years.