2024 Space sets

[Murdoch17]

19 minutes ago, Inspecter said:

All I'm hoping for are the new old style helmets in green and gray. Hopefully these space sets have them, oh and new spaceman colors of course.

Technically, we have a gray one. (Dark gray, that is ) but yes, both would be welcome. Especially green.

[Ruthin Road]

I wonder how Lego will proceed with the reimagined sets. I would guess if you asked the average casual middle aged Lego fan to describe a Lego space ship then it would most likely be blue and grey with a trans-yellow canopy. If you asked them if they could name a theme then I would guess Blacktron or perhaps Space Police would be the most common answer. Is the casual pure nostalgia market big enough for many more remakes beyond these core sets/themes? Perhaps so. However if Lego need to attract adult fans of other themes to make the sets viable then the builds and parts will need to be interesting, and the sets polished. If they are to be partly aimed at children as well then they will need proper play features. There is already a suspicion that the recent Eldorado Fortress remake had a smaller budget than the Galaxy Explorer and Lion Knights Castle of the previous year.

I suspect a release every 2 or 3 years may be the pattern. While the sets themselves may not be the most profitable in the portfolio, I suspect they may act as something of a loss leader, keeping the faithful like us buying Lego while awaiting the next big release.

[Time77]

On 8/15/2023 at 1:39 PM, Khargeust said:

Maybe a remake of the Battrax in addition should be too much, even as a GWP. It would be three Blacktron I sets... They should cover other factions and Space LEGO Space timelines.

The designers are kinda limited. 

They cannot make: M-tron, b-tron II, ice planet, spyrius, exploriens, roboforce, ufo, or insecoids. Not denying anyone's love for Futuron or UFO, but the popular stuff is CS, b-tron, M-tron, and Ice planet and I can only see lego making the popular stuff

On 8/16/2023 at 11:22 AM, Khargeust said:

Why is everyone saying "Lego can't do that" because some trans-neon parts are retired? Why couldn't they recreate new ones?

They could, but its just unlikely that they'll bring these colors back just 2-3 years after retiring them.

[Black Falcon]

On 8/28/2023 at 12:20 AM, Ruthin Road said:

There is already a suspicion that the recent Eldorado Fortress remake had a smaller budget than the Galaxy Explorer and Lion Knights Castle of the previous year.

I am pretty sure it had a higher budged than the Galaxy Explorer but less than the castle ;).

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I suspect a release every 2 or 3 years may be the pattern. While the sets themselves may not be the most profitable in the portfolio, I suspect they may act as something of a loss leader, keeping the faithful like us buying Lego while awaiting the next big release.

It looks more like we get mora then one set each year now. ;) So there is a good chance for space sets to get a spot in that more often than every three years. It is kinda hard to tell how good these sets are selling. If you look at the comments to blogs and such you would think they would sell pretty well. But that is mainly only how AFOLs think about those, so hard to tell how the normal people, kids etc see them. 

10 hours ago, Time77 said:

The designers are kinda limited. 

They cannot make: M-tron, b-tron II, ice planet, spyrius, exploriens, roboforce, ufo, or insecoids. Not denying anyone's love for Futuron or UFO, but the popular stuff is CS, b-tron, M-tron, and Ice planet and I can only see lego making the popular stuff

Space Police seems to be quite popular too.

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They could, but its just unlikely that they'll bring these colors back just 2-3 years after retiring them.

Well you never know, they might just make a new similar colour. It kinda depends on whether they need it or not, IMO. For a revival Set they for sure won´t bring it back, but if they need it elsewhere, it might be possible.

[Classic_Spaceman]

5 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

I am pretty sure it had a higher budged than the Galaxy Explorer but less than the castle ;).

Galaxy Explorer had eight new prints (nine, counting the CS Red torso) and a recoloured helmet (plus CS White pieces were revived after being out of production); Eldorado Fortress has three new torsos, three sails, and a recoloured tricorne-ponytail piece - Ten to twelve boxes/changes for the GE, but only seven for EF. 
 

[Black Falcon]

9 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

Galaxy Explorer had eight new prints (nine, counting the CS Red torso) and a recoloured helmet (plus CS White pieces were revived after being out of production); Eldorado Fortress has three new torsos, three sails, and a recoloured tricorne-ponytail piece - Ten to twelve boxes/changes for the GE, but only seven for EF. 
 

Eldorado also had four parts in new colours and a printed imperial and pirate flag and it is actually hard to say how many pieces they brought back that were not in production.

[Classic_Spaceman]

5 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

Eldorado also had four parts in new colours and a printed imperial and pirate flag and it is actually hard to say how many pieces they brought back that were not in production.

I somehow completely forgot the flag!
Also, it brought back red epaulettes - Which other parts got recoloured? 
 

I am not making an argument either way Re: the budget for these sets, BTW - I am just speculating. 
 

Edited August 29, 2023 by Classic_Spaceman

[Black Falcon]

1 minute ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

I somehow completely forgot the flag!
Also, it brought back red epaulettes - Which other parts got recoloured? 
 

LEGO® ICONS™ review: 10320 Eldorado Fortress | New Elementary: LEGO® parts, sets and techniques

 

[Classic_Spaceman]

2 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

LEGO® ICONS™ review: 10320 Eldorado Fortress | New Elementary: LEGO® parts, sets and techniques

 

Ah, thanks! 👍
 

[Time77]

11 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

Space Police seems to be quite popular too.

Not in my experience. Definitely gets more love than exploriens, but it's still slim

[Black Falcon]

16 hours ago, Time77 said:

Not in my experience. Definitely gets more love than exploriens, but it's still slim

Well my experience is mostly based from what people talk about, like for instance in this forum. You hear things like Classic Space, M-Tron, Blacktron or Space Police a lot. The mention of Ice Planet surprised me a bit on your List.

[Classic_Spaceman]

2 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

The mention of Ice Planet surprised me a bit on your List.

Ice Planet is extremely popular; we may be talking about it less because LEGO retired trans-neon orange, which is an iconic part of the IP2002 colour-scheme. 
 

[Merlo]

I often hear about classic space, mtron and blacktron, space police and then after those ice planet and then after those maybe futuron and rock raiders and a few others.

If I had to guess I'd say that many would love to have remade whatever sets were among the most coveted ones in those lines, like the Cosmic Fleet Voyager, Mega Core Magnetizer, Mission Commander, Monorail Transport System, Deep Freeze Defender, etc.

10497 seems to me was the talk of the town far and wide, and that one remade a ship that was not that interesting to start with (because it was among the first so the design is more modest). I can't imagine that if the same designer remade any of the sets I've mentioned up there that I wouldn't buy them. Heck, I bought 10497 and I never had any classic space sets in my life.

[Black Falcon]

Well for me it wouldn´t matter much which theme they would bring back. What matters is if the Set is good or not.They could even make a new Faction.

[danth]

4 hours ago, Merlo said:

10497 seems to me was the talk of the town far and wide, and that one remade a ship that was not that interesting to start with (because it was among the first so the design is more modest).

I agree with this. Actually the original Galaxy Explore might be one of the ugliest ships in Space. I vastly prefer the Starfleet Voyager or the Stardefender 200, at least in terms of aesthetics.

1 hour ago, Black Falcon said:

Well for me it wouldn´t matter much which theme they would bring back. What matters is if the Set is good or not.They could even make a new Faction. 

Yes! Just give me trans colored windscreens, proper astronauts (with airtanks and visors), and some version of the Space logo.

[icm]

5 hours ago, Merlo said:

10497 seems to me was the talk of the town far and wide, and that one remade a ship that was not that interesting to start with (because it was among the first so the design is more modest). 

 

30 minutes ago, danth said:

Actually the original Galaxy Explore might be one of the ugliest ships in Space.

I agree that the original Galaxy Explorer is not that interesting to start with, and it has some ugly angles like anything else. That said, I think there are four reasons why it's the most popular ship for fan remakes and set references, including its remake as 10497.

1 - As the very first big Spaceship, it's easy to pick it as a unique set to highlight when talking about Lego history. If you're going to talk about the history of Space, why highlight the third, or fourth, or eighth big Spaceship as the best of all time? Far easier to pick the first.

2 - As the very first big Spaceship, it's the one that was most fondly remembered by the first generation of AFOLs to build web forums and share their MOCs online, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. That generation of AFOLs was pretty vocal about missing Classic Space and building Classic Space-inspired spaceships, including Galaxy Explorers. So as later KFOLs, TFOLs, and AFOLs came online, they learned about that Classic Space and Galaxy Explorer nostalgia, and they built their own Galaxy Explorers to show off their building skills in comparison with the older folks. In that respect it's a meme cycle: Why do AFOLs care so much about the Galaxy Explorer? Because everybody else does.

3 - The shape and functions of the Galaxy Explorer are very simple, limited by the available parts in 1979. It's basically just a big flat wedge-shaped wing with a box-shaped cabin, a windscreen, and a ramp at the back. That makes it very easy to remake in whatever building style you like, and it's a very appealing blank slate to add whatever play features, moving parts, furnishings, greebles, or design flourishes you like - or make variations of it in a wide variety of color schemes. You can take great liberties with the design of the Galaxy Explorer, and it's still recognizable as a Galaxy Explorer. Sort of like pizza - you can do almost anything with pizza, and it's still recognizable as pizza. Whereas with the later ships, beginning with the very next medium-sized ship (the Starfleet Voyager) and the very next large ship (the Galaxy Commander), the shape is far more complex and far more constrained by the play features. It's so much harder to remake the Galaxy Commander, or the Deep Freeze Defender, because those have to be a lot more than just a box with wings, or wings with a box. Why do AFOLs remake the Galaxy Explorer so much? Because it's so easy to make it your own.

4 - The motif of the wedge-shaped spaceship is ubiquitous in sci-fi visual design. Lots of people find it appealing and simple. The Galaxy Explorer is the most uniquely Lego take on the wedge-shaped spaceship, so it sort of carries the flag for the idea of a "Lego spaceship."

[Merlo]

I agree that it very much made sense to remake the first ship.

My point was only that I don't really imagine the average Lego AFOL to be in their 60's. I'm in my 40's and that ship was before my time.

So, if I bought the remade Galaxy Explorer, you can bet I would instabuy anything ranging from Blacktron to Blacktron II and I'd be interested in the themes from my dark ages as well if they were made to look good too.

It would be more difficult to remake more complex shapes, yes, but only in terms of man hours. If a person can make Galaxy Explorer look sleek, they would have no trouble doing so with the sets that looked kinda badass when all brick-y too.

[Time77]

8 hours ago, icm said:

Why do AFOLs remake the Galaxy Explorer so much? Because it's so easy to make it your own.

Nothin easy about those trans-yellow canopies. Yeah, recently they've seen more production, but for a long while you were very limited. Futuron is way easier to make with blue canopies being more common, but yet futuron isn't made more often.

Edited September 1, 2023 by Time77

[Classic_Spaceman]

12 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

They could even make a new Faction.

10 hours ago, danth said:

Yes! Just give me trans colored windscreens, proper astronauts (with airtanks and visors), and some version of the Space logo.

Absolutely! A new faction that utilises the full range of modern colours would be amazing! 
 

[Merlo]

I'm afraid that without a remake as a strong basis they'd just make a set in their signature "not particularly cool for neither grown ups nor kids with colors all over the place" style.

think: Eldorado Fortress in space!

Edited September 1, 2023 by Merlo

[Black Falcon]

2 hours ago, Merlo said:

I'm afraid that without a remake as a strong basis they'd just make a set in their signature "not particularly cool for neither grown ups nor kids with colors all over the place" style.

think: Eldorado Fortress in space!

Well, it is not new that you don´t like the style of the renewed Sets. But when you look at the overall feedback the majority is positiiv. ;)

 

If you look what kind of other spacelike Sets they made that are not based on some movie vehicle like Toy Story or Star Wars, they still look good and not to colourfull IMO. But well there we have the different tastes again ;)

[danth]

3 hours ago, Merlo said:

I'm afraid that without a remake as a strong basis they'd just make a set in their signature "not particularly cool for neither grown ups nor kids with colors all over the place" style.

I was following this, but

3 hours ago, Merlo said:

think: Eldorado Fortress in space!

then you lost me.

[Merlo]

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Well, it is not new that you don´t like the style of the renewed Sets. But when you look at the overall feedback the majority is positiiv. ;)

That's not really true. I don't complain about the style of the sets, I complain about their half-assedness ;)

There are many sets out there whose style doesn't gel with my preferred style and that I would never buy, but that I otherwise think highly of.

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If you look what kind of other spacelike Sets they made that are not based on some movie vehicle like Toy Story or Star Wars, they still look good and not to colourfull IMO. But well there we have the different tastes again ;)

"They still look good" sounds like our tastes are not so different after all ;)

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then you lost me.

Let's take a look at 4 similar themed sets: Lego 6276, Lego 10320, Blue Brixx 105181  and LoL MOC 6263

Now let's imagine some categories, whatever comes to mind, things like:

-how easy it is to rebuild

-how elegant does it look architecturally

-how "realistic" does it look if you squint real hard and imagine it's a real building

-does it look clean or messy?

-add your own

Worst, but not an unlikely case, is that 10320 is plum last in all these categories.

Best case, 10320 is still convincingly last, but avoids last place in some of the individual categories. The only thing that comes to mind at the moment is that it has a much higher brick count than 6276 so it's more appropriate for AFOL's who don't have nostalgia for that set.

Edited September 2, 2023 by Merlo

[Black Falcon]

1 hour ago, Merlo said:

Best case, 10320 is still convincingly last, but avoids last place in some of the individual categories. The only thing that comes to mind at the moment is that it has a much higher brick count than 6276 so it's more appropriate for AFOL's who don't have nostalgia for that set.

The Bluebrixx one would be last by far. I mean, it is by far the ugliest, followed by the old Lego Set, which at least has the "charm" to look at the old Set. I couldn´t deicde whether the Moc or the new Lego Set does look the best, they both look great in their own aproach.If we are talking about how easy they are to build, I would guess the Old Eldorado would win that one by far, then I for the other three I would have to build them, to really make a choice there. They all don´t seem to be that hard to build but might have some fiddly things. 

For how realistic they look - I would say none of them really looks realistic to me. When we talk about play features, then it is an easy win for the new Eldorado, followed be the old one, followed by the moc. 

[Merlo]

Old Eldorado was an amazing set, it was peak Lego at the time. Obviously it looks a bit too simple for AFOL tastes now, but it's the only one that's really easily rebuildable, especially when combined with other sets from the time. It does a lot given how many limitations it had with both brick size and brick count. It has that + the historic aspect in it's favor.

Blue Brixx set very much looks like a companion set to Barracuda Bay, which is vastly superior to the new Eldorado. It's more elegant, but less playful than that set. New Eldorado takes some inspiration from that set, but does everything worse except the ramp (which is great). The red highlights look much more like what they're supposed to be here, not trying to imply detail that's not possible with low brick count. The gray base shaping is much less amateurish, the trees are superior and there are no weird decisions like the black docks the original had. I am not amazed by the author's vision on these sets, but he had some vision, while the Lego designer had none and just did a poor remake. Lego also took modularity and the red roof tiles from this set. Some of the details in the new Eldorado (or lack there of, especially on stone transitions and the docks) are very difficult to look at.

Both old Eldorado and Blue Brixx set have tame color schemes so I've included the Legat of Legion MOC to show that a set can have lots of colors and not look like the cat threw up on it :)

I don't quite like the LoL style. I don't hate it or anything, but it's a bit much for me. But, still, that set has half the pieces the new Eldorado has and has that imagination, flair and feeling of atmosphere Lego used to have.

But what it all comes down to is:

Looking at the old set, and being alive in 1992 or whenever, it was obvious it was a great set at the time.

Looking at the LoL set, it's obvious it's a great set even now.

Looking at the Blue Brixx set - I'd like something more imaginative so not super keen on the idea, but no complaints on the execution.

Looking at the new Eldorado - it's just inadequate, in almost every way. The only thing it has going is that ramp, and that's all.

It looks like some weird combination of:

-the designer had no ideas / Lego guidelines were so strict he was not allowed to do anything

and

-the designer doesn't possess sufficient skill to make even a moderately attractive Lego build / the designer was given 2 days to put the finished product on the table

I don't know which is true, but it's a mess. I would imagine it's difficult to take a 30 year old set, with all the advances we've had in Lego since then, and make a set that's not even as good, let alone "better by 30 years of progress".