Space Getting Better?

[legotrainfan]

Just plain no is my answer to the poll! After the Spyrius series of 1994 no nice space sets have been produced. Here I exclude Star Wars since it is a licensed theme and nothing that TLC itself created. They just reproduced the vehicles and spaceships of the film with LEGO bricks. And even though many Star Wars sets look great, I don't own one and don't want to have one unless someone gives me such a set as a present. It's just not real LEGO space stuff for me.

[JTaylor]

Hmm well I feel very young, I was very small when the Explorian sets came out but I remember looking through the magazine pages wishing I could own the giant space ship for so long , then

afterwards I think the "Robo Raider" sets came out and I loved those - and I believe

there was alien species as the protagonist's

This was my favorit particuliar alien set. I think I liked this theme the best because its what came out when I was

just beginning my lego ventures! Other people probably feel some nostalgia towards the themes that were out when they were growing up.

Just my 2 cents!

[Darth_Legois]

ah...

well as you can see, i'm a "honorary citizen" these days. I'm not quite sure what that means, but it sounds as if i'm this God which all these slaves mods are working for. Or maybe that's just yet another sign of me slowly losing my mind... In other words, not sure if i can still give tags. Don't we have a space mod for that?

Siegfried is the admin for this forum but there's no specific "Space Moderator". Also they don't hand out space tags out anymore. and when they did it meant you made a lot of contributions to the space forum.

[The Alchemyst]

Well, being born at the end of the Spyrius line, I can say I remember looking through those wonderful catalogs at the UFO and Insectoids lines.

First Space set I got was Space Simulation Station from Space port, before the turn of the century. I enjoyed the set immensely, rebuilding it to new Space crafts.

Truly looking at the olden sets though, and from a MOCer's POV.

I'm sure all you have fond fond memories of classic space, as children.

But in terms of sets, I do think recent sets, with much sleeker designs, neat functions, articulation [when it matters], distinct figures truly do mean more.

[-TA-]

[Piterio]

I wasn't really Involved into Space themes (even if born same year M Tron appeared) until I have seen Ice Planet 2002 in one of catalogues. This and Spyrius were my favourites. from UFO I got only one saucer, Insectoids were ugly and I prefered Adventures. In 1999 Space Port came once again (lats appeared in 95' till then) and then Life on Mars - one of my most favourites with the set "Recon Mech RP" (but in Poland it was called "Robot Firemaster" xD). I liked its design with claw, flamethrower and gas tank on back. I liked the Martians - they looked so adorable :D 2007 Mars Mission for me was like nothing... now I regret this, because some sets were well designed and intresting. Must look for them on E Bay...

And now Space Police III - aliens are like from Star Wars, some of which are dressed in 90s Space suits. I like that refferences more like actual sets. Hyperspeed Pursuit and Enforcer are the best, but the SNOT design is not so adorable. It looks just weird for me - not like Lego. I'd say - "more like game". Another bad thing - flick friggin fire missiles - who came with the idea of this? Good and fresh in Vikings line, bad in star Wars and SP3 theme.

So is it improvment at all? In design, colours and figures - yes. But not in the plot or enjoyment - nowadays they look more like models, not toys. Maybe I got this feeling because of FF missiles or something, or maybe the designs are "out of this galaxy" or just simple nostalgia and affection to the older sets.

[vexorian]

I started with LEGO at the spyrius age. Then I got most of the spyrius sets and all the ice planet sets. Then some exploriens. I also got like 4 of the captain set for space police 2 because that was the only space police 2 set around, and I also got some few m-tron and space police I. I also had close encounters with the true classic era sets thanks to a friend in school back in the day.

I really think there were many cool and awesome things in the space era, then it got reduced a little until the blacktron 1 and space police 1 era which was once again freaking awesome... But as biased as I am I just love the Ice Age/Spyrius times. I mean, the design elements, the giant robots , the droid minifig, the magnets, the consistency... Exploriens are also cool for me although not as freaking cool as 1993-1994.

I think it went very bad between exploriens and mars mission, inclusive. First the large pieces were starting to get overused too much. Then they had got a little overboard with the details in UFO. And the life on mars had very plain human vehicles. Not to mention the huge hole in which there were no space sets at all, now THAT's a bad thing... (I did like some sets from these times, I keep my large UFO and I also loved the mechs of life of mars, but comparing with the previous ages, it was not enough).

Space police 3 seems so cool right now. Specially the 2010 sets. I have not gotten any set yet, but I think one of these days I might surrender to the impulse and go buy the Galactic enforcer that is standing on my local store's shelf as if it was waiting for me. Then I'll not be able to find space for it and explaining such an expense to my family will be hard, but I really feel that urge :/

So, I'd say yes and no. SP3 is in my opinion better than basically everything from 1996 to 2008. So space got better. But it is not really better than spyrius or ice planet, and it may be very far away from the good things on the classic era (although nostalgy might be making biased in here). But I do appreciate that there is such a solid theme after so much time.

Edited February 27, 2010 by vexorian