Review: LEGO Ideas #007 Exosuit

[Ardelon]

A good review of an impressive set. So, is Classic Space an official term? Or is this the first time „Classic Space“ was used on official material?

Good build and nice minifigures, but the build itself could have used a bit more colour. All that grey and nothing but it is a bit drab compared to classic space.

Yes, I also thought the mech doesnt fit with the aesthetic of the classic space men (& women). But hey, its a cool mech, and 2 cool spacemen with it, even if they dont really fit together.

[Masked Builder]

Thank you all for the kind words! I too will be picking up at least one more. Two if I can.

And yes I did know where that part came from. This is just the second time it's been in another set.

[A Plastic Infinity]

Thanks for the excellent review!

More reason to buy this.

[bjorn77]

The barrels gives the mech a touch of steampunk that I'm not fond of. I'm also not convinced by the lower part of the legs. But all things considered it seems like a decent set. For people who wishes the space turtle would come in a poly bag, you can bricklink an army of turtles for next to nothing. At least if you skip the silver.

[Floundie]

Great review! I'm really interested in this set, I'll definitely pick it up when I can.

[slacker int]

Thanks for a great review! This was an awesome year so far for Classic Space... Can't wait to pick up one of these to go with Benny's Spaceship,spaceship, spaceship!

[Strelki]

It does not look as bright or flashy as an exo force robots.

[Faefrost]

I like it! Thanks for the great review. The set looks interesting. Much better than I was expecting given that they had to convert Pete's status and fragile sculpture into a playable and jointed action Mecha. I don't think we could have reasonably asked for much more. The barrels really don't bother me that much. I never really understood the seeming hatred of that piece in some quarters. I have no problem with Mark Staffords explanation of why he used it. It's hollow and hides a connection transition.

Now more importantly, where can we find T shirts like the one Peter Reid is wearing? (Also am I correct in guessing that "Yve" is pronounced "Ivy"?)

Edited July 13, 2014 by Faefrost

[MKJoshA]

I too dislike the barrels (what was wrong with the original idea?), but it's not enough of a dislike for me to avoid getting one. I'm still trying to decide whether to get it right away or to wait and see if it goes on sale as deeply discounted as the BTTF set did.

[SMC]

Thanks for the great review

are the green spacemen the same green as Galaxy Squad?

[plew2000]

Great job! I wonder who would win treebeard or this mech?

[SMC]

Great job! I wonder who would win treebeard or this mech?

treebeard, well the ent looks a lot bigger

[woofmcmoose]

Now more importantly, where can we find T shirts like the one Peter Reid is wearing? (Also am I correct in guessing that "Yve" is pronounced "Ivy"?)

Ans #1: i've seen some on ebay, not sure if they are 'official'/licensed though.

Ans #2: pronounced 'Eve' (at least based on the dialog in the promo video).

Nice looking set. I like the green = cadet in the official fluff too. It is also suitable explanation for why they haven't previously appeared in CS, I mean who would normally let cadets out running star ships etc... (I'm looking at you Mr Crusher!).

[SMC]

Nice looking set. I like the green = cadet in the official fluff too. It is also suitable explanation for why they haven't previously appeared in CS, I mean who would normally let cadets out running star ships etc... (I'm looking at you Mr Crusher!).

I think that's good reasoning for anyone (like me) asking why green we have not seen it before but its classic?

crusher wasn't even a cadet, not at the start anyway

[snefroe]

thanks for the great review! the set doesn't look as spectacular to me as in the video, for some reason, but it's still a nice set to have. i'll take two, in any case, 1 to keep as an original, the other one to moc. it's seems like there's loooooots of stuff to change, like headlights of some kind, and a life support unit, and a decent power supply... i'd also change the claws, cos i don't like them very much. the arms... i would turn the 2 x 2 round tiles of the elbow joints around,... the cockpit...that needs A LOT of work...

it seems to me, the trouble with these exo suits is that they're only as strong as the weakest element, in this case, the astronaut. for instance, if the air in the astronaut's air tanks has run out, the exo suit "runs out" as well, because the astronaut doens't have a build in air tank in the exo suit... which is kinda stupid for a machine that is supposed to enhance the work of the salvage team...

anyway, the BIG PLUS of the set are those two green space dudes...

i wonder what the price is in Europe. 35 $ seems fair, hope that doesn't change into 45 euro or something...

[Faefrost]

I too dislike the barrels (what was wrong with the original idea?), but it's not enough of a dislike for me to avoid getting one. I'm still trying to decide whether to get it right away or to wait and see if it goes on sale as deeply discounted as the BTTF set did.

Mark Stafford the Lego set designer who converted Peter Reid's project design into the final product, has actually given a pretty good explanation for the barrels. Both the part usage and the color. Over on Redit. Here's the key quote explaining the barrels.

http://www.reddit.com/user/Lego_Nabii?count=50&after=t1_cipamwb

I'm the LEGO Designer (Mark Stafford) who had the pleasure of turning the original MOC by Peter Reid into this LEGO set.

The set version might look taller, but it can be posed to be exactly the same size as the original.

A common question seems to be why the barrels? Pete's original version had lovely lozenge shaped forearms and they are very iconic to the design. However they are entirely made of single stud connections. When moved they just come apart. So I had to find a solution. The new Friends 2x2 underside bowl has a hole through it so I could maintain the shape while putting a light-saber blade through the middle to secure it all. However the elbow is a technic cross-axle so I had to transition these two types of connectors. It made the arm very long (I built about 10 versions of the lower arm and this was still the best looking version. However when Pete saw it the length was a big deal to him and we worked together to find a way to shorten it. Pete's solution actually involved getting rid of the curved parts. I had the idea to transition inside another part - and the barrel worked perfectly. Pete agreed, we both wished we had another colour change available to make it silver or light grey, but we didn't!

I knew the barrel would be controversial as I used one in my first year at LEGO as the jet nozzle of the Agents jet in set 8630 Gold Hunt and everyone hated it back then too! It was used here because it's hollow as much as anything else.

Why the green classic spaceman? With limited new parts for Ideas sets I had to use a torso assembly (body, arms and hands) that was currently in production. This left three colours that would work for a classic spaceman. Black (available thanks to Darth Vader), Blue (thanks to Benny from the LEGO Movie - too obvious) or green (thanks to Ninja Turtles).

There was a second reason to go for green, I've met and talked to Jens Nygaard Knudsen, creator of the Mini-figure and all of the original classic space sets (from day one all the way to Spyrius). According to him the Red and White spacemen started as Cosmonauts and Astronauts. Later they became red pilots and white explorers, yellow were introduced as scientists, blue as security/soldiers, black as spies. Pete and I decided Mech Pilots should be a new colour. Green!

Why not use the original helmet? Because that element used to break. The chinstrap often snapped (just like Benny the blue spaceman in The LEGO Movie) so it was replaced with this style helmet. This helmet has been produced in all five original spaceman colours so if it's consistency you want then it is possible to make all your classic spacemen look the same. Unless a new type of stronger plastic comes along The LEGO Group will never remake the original helmet for quality and safety reasons.

Why isn't it all light grey? I had limited colour changes available, both Pete and I believed it was more important to make a classic space minifigure then reuse a Galaxy Squad spaceman and this limited me even more. But even though there are around 4 or 5 parts I would have changed light grey I would still have had to bring in the dark grey and trans-yellow parts because of the building experience. If every one of these parts was the same colour it would be horrible to build, a slight lapse in concentration would lead to the wrong parts being used in the wrong place, finding parts in the pile of bricks from the box would be very hard. At the end of the day this has to be fun to build, not frustrating.

Hope that clears up a few things.

)

Edited July 13, 2014 by Faefrost

[Backgild]

Nice looking set. I like the green = cadet in the official fluff too. It is also suitable explanation for why they haven't previously appeared in CS, I mean who would normally let cadets out running star ships etc... (I'm looking at you Mr Crusher!).

I didn't quite get that same interpretation from the text. It says its their first mission since graduating, but I wouldn't consider them cadets. In my personal universe, green is going to represent engineering, specifically, starship and space station design and construction. It's a bit broader than just salvage teams, but it makes sense to me that the engineers would be tapped for a salvage mission of a mysterious craft. I'll be using them side by side with the existing colors, but it's conceivable that the construction activities occur at more established bases away from the frontier, and that is why we haven't seen green yet.

[Hive]

Yes, I also thought the mech doesnt fit with the aesthetic of the classic space men (& women). But hey, its a cool mech, and 2 cool spacemen with it, even if they dont really fit together.

Yeah, it's a weird fit - a sort of clash of styles. But still a cool set; a good-looking mech (that just needs a bit of customization with colours) and a couple of figures that one can only love.

Oh, and I forgot to say it in my first post: great review! Thanks!

[Fire spray 31]

As far as colors I had heard somewhere that TLG always uses at least 3 colors in a set. I am not sure if that is true-just remember reading along the lines. But I will definitely be getting this set. I just hope there are enough to go around!

[WhiteFang]

Mark Stafford the Lego set designer who converted Peter Reid's project design into the final product, has actually given a pretty good explanation for the barrels. Both the part usage and the color. Over on Redit. Here's the key quote explaining the barrels.

http://www.reddit.com/user/Lego_Nabii?count=50&after=t1_cipamwb

That was a very insightful read.

[M'Kyuun]

Thanks for posting the Reddit excerpt. It's always cool to know what goes into any official design. I'm really pleased with Mark's and Pete's final version. I, too, wish they could have found a way to include the gears at the shoulders, but otherwise it's a great redesign of Pete's original. I hope to score 2 of these beauties.

[Mencot]

Awesome set, I am so gonna get this Lego Ideas set also, maybe even 2 I Really like it that they gave us an new colored classic spaceman, although I never many of the classic space sets because I was so young when they came out. In 1987 when the theme ended I was 4 years and my brother was 6 years, so we had more of the next generation space sets but I have always liked the one color Classic spacesuit better then the latter ones. The Exo-suit is awesome and I actually like (my opinion) like the final product better than the original design (altought it was also awesome), great parts and the use of the the barrel piece isn´t that bad as someones claim (my opinion again ofcourse ) Overall an really great little set, it is awesome that we get pretty much extra stuff for a small price ( 2 minifigures, turtlebot, "grateplate") :thumbup: thumbs up for the set and designers. And also thanks MB for a great review.

[Zepher]

This looks like an awesome set, Masked! Thanks for the detailed review! Those pictures make the LEGO look so shiny and sleek. The reddit excerpt was extremely insightful as well Faefrost. I buy only one or two sets a year for money/space conservation, but this is likely to be one of them.

[Herky]

great review and great set, green spacemen? that is very cool, had been waiting to see how this turned out, glad it turned out well, now just waiting to buy

[Faefrost]

Thanks for posting the Reddit excerpt. It's always cool to know what goes into any official design. I'm really pleased with Mark's and Pete's final version. I, too, wish they could have found a way to include the gears at the shoulders, but otherwise it's a great redesign of Pete's original. I hope to score 2 of these beauties.

I agree those gears added so much texture to the original. I think Mark said that the problem was all technic gears are color locked so the builder can easily identify them, rather than counting teeth. And the current locked tan color just looked horrid on the mech.

Edited July 14, 2014 by Faefrost