New parts useful in Space MOCs

[danth]

I thought it might be cool to have a thread to catalog useful parts in new sets that are useful to Space MOCers.

For me, the main parts I always look out for are windscreens. But of course there are all kinds of useful parts. Other categories I find important are minifig parts, joints useful in mechs, and "spacey" wheels for rovers.

Anyway there are a ton of colored windscreens this year! And I'm specifically excluding trans light blue and trans black; those are City/Star Wars windscreens as far as I'm concerned.

2022 Colored Windscreen Roundup:

New trans yellow windscreen:

X-Wing windscreen in trans light green:

Large trans orange bubble:

Small trans orange Nexo Nights windscreen:

 

Large space windscreen in trans red, and another large inverted windscreen in trans red:

Trans pink bubble:

Trans pink airplane canopy:

Trans orange Speed Champions windscreen:

Trans orange large spaceship windscreen:

Trans red Speed Champions with black printing:

There are also some new trans-colored panels, thanks to Friends. Useful for Space bases and larger space ships.

Small window panels in trans yellow:

Large window panels in trans neon green:

Large window panels in trans purple:

[Aanchir]

Oh, this is a great thread to have! I've heard a saying among some Spacers that "every part is a space part", but there are still definitely a lot of parts that even at first glance get me thinking about all the possibilities they could open up for Space MOCs. And it's nice to have a thread to talk about those from a MOC perspective, rather than in terms of whether or not they foreshadow future Space sets.
 

While not entirely new parts, I've been thinking a lot lately about how neat the LEGO Friends tube slide pieces (49736 and 49737) could be as connections between modules of a space station or moon base. Originally they only came in Tr. Light Blue (which I know that you don't consider especially "spacey" due to its widespread use for regular glass windows and windscreens in Town/City sets), but this year a Tr. Medium Reddish Violet (Trans-Dark Pink) recolor was introduced, and I'm eager to see if more colors might show up in the future!

The biggest drawback of these parts for Space contexts is that any tube longer than your finger will force you to rely on on gravity to reliably get minifigs from one end to another without any risk of getting stuck in the middle (unlike the pneumatic transport tubes from Life on Mars and Mars Mission). After all, they are designed for use as slides, which are typically a "one-way trip" from top to bottom! But it's still something I'd like to continue experimenting with.
 

A new mold that I think could be very fun for space MOCs (particularly if new recolors show up) is the 3x3 "splatter" tile (80677) from this year's City sets. When I first saw it, I couldn't help thinking back to the various MOCs I've seen that have used BrickForge's custom spill/splat piece to represent stuff like futuristic acid, fuel, or chemical spills for an M:TRON or Classic Space cleanup team.

Unfortunately, none of the colors so far are super "spacey", but in the very least, the brighter-colored ones could be used for some kind of chemical sludge until we get a more exciting recolor like Tr. Fluorescent Green (Trans-Neon Green). On that note, I had similar thoughts about the debut of transparent 1x1 quarter circle tiles earlier this year — including Tr. Fluorescent Green ones! Together with square/rectangular tiles in the same color, I imagine they could making great acid pools or veins of energy crystals for a planetary landscape!
 

The various Tr. Medium Reddish Violet crystal pieces from this year's Ninjago sets would also be a fun way to liven up some alien landscapes. Honestly, it's a bit surprising to me that while space sets have such a long, rich tradition of using brightly colored transparent windscreens, weapons, and accessories to help them look as futuristic and "unearthly" as possible, most official Space sets have stuck to fairly basic earth tones for planetary surfaces. And in turn, the Space MOCs we create often end up based around baseplates and BURPs in those same earth tones since they're so readily available. As such, rock and crystal pieces in bright, exciting colors tend to really fire up my imagination!
 

Oh, and I mustn't forget about all of the wild new parts from this year's City Stuntz sets!

• There's an awesome new helmet mold similar to the generic "crash helmet" with hinged visor used throughout the late 80s and early 90s, but with attachment points in the back for stuff like horns and pigtails. In a Space context I could definitely see it being used to connect breathing tubes, cables for some kinda neural uplink, or horns/tendrils for alien characters. It appears in three colors so far (Bright Red, Bright Orange, and White).
   
• The Blade Stunt Challenge includes a new recolor of a futuristic-looking Ninjago blade piece introduced a couple years back (65184). Its biker also has a cool, futuristic-looking minifig face print with a narrow visor across both eyes. His outfit, like a lot of racing suits without super specific logos or motifs, could also probably be turned into a spacesuit relatively easily!
   
• The two stunt loop sets include some of the new City road plates in funky colors like Bright Orange and Bright Yellowish Green which could perhaps be interesting as landing pads/runways/hangars at a spaceport or aboard a mothership. The loop segments themselves are good colors for spaceship or moonbase canopies, though I fear the slightly angled shape used to create a smooth loop will create significant complications.

On a more general note, hair pieces in bright colors like Dark Azur, Bright Green, and Vibrant Coral are becoming increasingly common in all sorts of themes, even modern day ones like City and Friends! For Space MOCs, I think they'd pair nicely either with "human" skin colors for futuristic humans like the Minifigures Series 16 Cyborg, or with more whimsical skin colors for humanoid aliens!

[TeriXeri]

Not exactly big recognizable parts like windscreens but still a bunch of space parts and recolors in those 2 new mission sets.

60355: Water Police Detective Missions has a bunch of blue, azure and vibrant yellow parts like tails and jet engines  , also a vibrant yellow backpack with 4 studs, a flexible tube in black, and classic space detector and a more modern variant of the space "flashlight"

60354: Mars Spacecraft Exploration Missions has a bunch of wings and rocket parts , like the more classic ribbed engine in what looks like gunmetal, a bunch of dishes like the radar dish in yellow, a 2019 rubber band claw in azure, some light grey tails , 3 wide rocket engines etc. Also a 2x1 cheese slope and a white flag with an orange tinted (mars) space logo.

Vibrant Yellow isn't a traditional color but still adds more options for bright accents.

Pick a Brick does offer a bunch of transparent parts as well, including trans neon orange (Transparent Fluorescent Reddish Orange)

 

Edited May 30, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Aanchir]

35 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

Vibrant Yellow isn't a traditional color but still adds more options for bright accents.

One particular thing I think Vibrant Yellow could be very useful for (especially in a LEGO Space context) is as a solid-colored equivalent of Tr. Fluorescent Green/Trans-Neon Green, sort of like how the original Blacktron color scheme used both Bright Yellow and Tr. Yellow. Previously, some sets used Bright Yellowish Green for this (like the Hero Factory set Toxic Reapa), but it was never a really great match.

[TeriXeri]

8 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

One particular thing I think Vibrant Yellow could be very useful for (especially in a LEGO Space context) is as a solid-colored equivalent of Tr. Fluorescent Green/Trans-Neon Green, sort of like how the original Blacktron color scheme used both Bright Yellow and Tr. Yellow. Previously, some sets used Bright Yellowish Green for this (like the Hero Factory set Toxic Reapa), but it was never a really great match.

Yeah I was thinking that, maybe not Blacktron 2 (as the B logo might be a bit closer to lime green), but there were many other space factions too.

Edited May 30, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Murdoch17]

Don't forget that Creator set 31130 (Sunken Treasure Mission) has a recolor of the Benny's Space Squad classic helmet-revamp in Dark Bluish Gray! (along with a neat DBG / dark blue torso that could be repurposed for Space!)

It's too bad the helmet or airtanks are not Light Bluish Gray... could've been useful for all those custom "Rocket Boy" CS astronauts floating around.

Edited May 31, 2022 by Murdoch17

[CP5670]

Great thread. I keep an eye out for these parts too. I picked up the Lightyear ship partly for that windscreen. It's a clear shout out to classic space fans.

Those trans neon green windows and the trans red windscreens are fantastic. I'll get some as soon as they show up on Bricklink.

The hardest color to find these days is trans-green. The other colors all appear occasionally in sets, but large pieces in trans-green largely disappeared after 2000.

Edited June 2, 2022 by CP5670

[danth]

A new windscreen in trans-purple as mentioned in another thread:

4 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

The return of the old X-wing windscreen in 2 sets now (white in this one, and trans-purple in a wakanda set) hopefully means it will be made more.

[TeriXeri]

At least I think it's trans purple, it's the old X-wing shape.

76211: Shuri's Sunbird (picture from Brickset)

Could be a print or a sticker.

Edited July 26, 2022 by TeriXeri

[jonwil]

Some more potential Space parts I can think of:

The 4 x 4 dome piece with the 2 x 2 indent comes in trans-yellow in the Dr Strange set with the giant tentacle thing and also in the Dr Strange lab set (seems like it could find use in Classic Space MOCs somewhere).

The 1 x 6 x 5 panel comes in trans-red in the new Star Wars Justifier set.

The new Avatar sets are full of parts perfect for creating alien landscapes.

 

[TeriXeri]

New pictures for 76211: Shuri's Sunbird shows indeed a trans-purple cockpit (decoration is a sticker), and it also comes with 6 trans-purple sliding garage door pieces.

Those 6 wide radar dishes look some frosted version of trans light blue.

And the Black and Grey torso/leg combo have a very sci-fi look to it as well

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by TeriXeri

[MaximillianRebo]

It's probably been said elsewhere but Shuri's Sunbird looks like it wouldn't be hard to mod it into a Blacktron-esque fighter.

52 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

Those 6 wide radar dishes look some frosted version of trans light blue.

There are satin trans light blue dishes but only in three sets so far. If this is the same colour hopefully it will bring down the Bricklink prices a bit.

[TeriXeri]

Coming back to the Shuri's Sunbird , those quarter round/sloped bricks that surround those dishes could be interesting as craters, especially if they get made in other colors as well.

Edited August 5, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Murdoch17]

NewElementary is doing a space parts fest featuring a host of CS (and Neo-CS!) parts, if anyone's interested. They'll be posting one article for one of the festival-goers starting next Thursday, every Thursday until they run out of the seven MOC maker's. Check out the article I linked to find out what parts are included.

[Operacion Saturno]

You need to consider also all the new trans yellow pieces released this year.

Tile, Round 1 x 1 Quarter

Brick, Round 4 x 4 Dome Top with 2 x 2 Recessed Center

Windscreen 3 x 6 x 2

 

 

[jonwil]

The 3 x 6 x 2 windscreen came out in 2021 actually.

 

[danth]

 

Really cool new red windscreen from Monkie Kid (new in trans red at least).

And from the Chinese festival set, parts to complete your purple Classic Space minifig.

Edited November 15, 2022 by danth

[AmperZand]

The word from Promobricks is that the forthcoming CMF series 24 will include a brown CS spaceman with some kind of gauge or measuring device and a CS baby in blue.

[arnoldtblumberg]

4 hours ago, AmperZand said:

The word from Promobricks is that the forthcoming CMF series 24 will include a brown CS spaceman with some kind of gauge or measuring device and a CS baby in blue.

The pics have hit IG, and it's true. :) But the "measuring device" is nothing new (not in terms of parts, anyway). It's a gray walkie talkie radio with a printed 1x2 tile on it that has what looks like a video screen and controls. I think it's supposed to be like a CS version of a baby monitor. :D It all looks wonderful too.

[danth]

1 hour ago, arnoldtblumberg said:

I think it's supposed to be like a CS version of a baby monitor.

I'm hoping the face on the screen is Mom/Dad and not the baby with big baby eyes. Then it will be generally useful. Like a small print version of this old Idea Book sticker:

 

Actually the little stars in the background of the print make it look like it was in fact designed after the above sticker...

[arnoldtblumberg]

21 hours ago, danth said:

I'm hoping the face on the screen is Mom/Dad and not the baby with big baby eyes. Then it will be generally useful. Like a small print version of this old Idea Book sticker:

The official pics are out, and nope, it's the baby on the "monitor screen," sleeping with three "Z"s. :)

[Killian]

On 6/2/2022 at 11:59 PM, CP5670 said:

 I picked up the Lightyear ship partly for that windscreen. It's a clear shout out to classic space fans.

The hardest color to find these days is trans-green. The other colors all appear occasionally in sets, but large pieces in trans-green largely disappeared after 2000.

The guy who designed the Buzz Lightyear spaceship for the Disney Lightyear movie said online that he made the windscreen yellow on purpose because he wanted Lego to make that part in yellow.

I have so many trans-green large parts from the last wave of Nexo Knights, I think that was only 4 or 5 years ago, so maybe there's still plenty on Bricklink?

[danth]

19 hours ago, Killian said:

I have so many trans-green large parts from the last wave of Nexo Knights, I think that was only 4 or 5 years ago, so maybe there's still plenty on Bricklink?

I believe that is trans bright green. Not a bad color, but different from the regular trans green used in Classic Space sets.

[Lyichir]

1 minute ago, danth said:

I believe that is trans bright green. Not a bad color, but different from the regular trans green used in Classic Space sets.

Yeah, classic trans green isn't commonly used for things like windscreens anymore (probably due to its opacity compared to brighter trans colors). IIRC the last set to have a windscreen in that color was the D.Va mech from the Overwatch theme, which introduced the 6x2x2 curved windscreen in that color: https://brickset.com/sets/75973-1/D-Va-Reinhardt

[Killian]

On 11/25/2022 at 4:30 PM, danth said:

I believe that is trans bright green. Not a bad color, but different from the regular trans green used in Classic Space sets.

Oh, OK. I don't have any classic space stuff. Had a look and the darker green looks slightly less see through than the bright green