mon-o-mat
-
Content Count
298 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by mon-o-mat
-
-
2 hours ago, Doddsino said:5. Any space buildings or stations have 4 walls and a roof. This drove me crazy as a kid since most of the time the ships and vehicles were a thousand times cooler than any set that had a baseplate. The Spyrius Lunar Launch Site as an example despite being an ugly set, what purpose did the transparent canopy have? To block space radiation? None of them ever looked fully complete.
The problem with this approach ist that you waste large ammounts of bricks on additional walls, that could find better use in additional features or just size. And of course it blocks lots of play, something even an open up feature cannot really solve in my eyes. Personally I remember, that the bases I build as a kid often resembled a table-top map with an open top design.
-
On 4/12/2024 at 5:54 PM, Aanchir said:Oh that's lovely! I like the use of airlock connectors on the sides, rather than just for connecting the spaceship modules front to back. I think the back wings could use more black on them to match the design language of the front wings and the wings of the various spaceships in the official sets. Also it could maybe stand to use more Sand Blue (unless you consciously omitted that color out of personal preference, which is totally valid if so).
Thanks, yes, the colors are in need of some refinement. Especially for the blue. The sideways connectors came as an idea from studying the last big space polic ship. You might notice, that the front section of the main body looks suspiciously similiar.
-
4 minutes ago, JesseNight said:@mon-o-mat Now we're talking, that looks great! Hope to see more pics of that one in the future!
Btw did Lego really abandon the canopies using a hinge to open, or is it just not visible?
Thanks.
Hinged canopies are of course still used, i.e. the Interstellar Spaceship has one.
-
On 4/1/2024 at 11:51 PM, JesseNight said:The interstellar spaceship is imo the best thing of the series (but I'm a bit biased towards spaceships rather than bases or land vehicles).
There's always room for a bigger spaceship in the series, right?WIP on my side:
-
21 minutes ago, MAB said:Space is a bit like Castle in that it covers a very wide subject area and to survive should cover as much of that as possible, even if that means some fans opting out for a year or two. Just like Castle can cover man vs man type factions, it can also go into fantasy and cover dragons, trolls, dwarves, etc. Space is similar in that it can cover human exploration but should also cover fantasy elements such as aliens and fantasy planets. Covering exploration would be fine for a while but soon gets boring if similar but slightly different ships in the same colours year after year. I found Alien Conqust to be a fun break from other Space of the past, especially the aliens and alien ships reminiscent of1950s B-movies. Whereas other that don't like aliens can just sit it out and wait until what they like comes around again. There is a big issue that if they make only part of a genre again and again for one group of fans, then they are missing out on a large section of the market.
Alien Conquest was a nice as an concept (Lego X-COM), but a failure in its implementation. The Tripod looks definitifly the best from the Aliens's side, while the two UFOs... They are too samey and I don't see, what the larger one really offers over the smaller, besides a ring, that makes it just larger (and cost more) and a spaghetti arm.
And the ADU seriously lacked a standalone Jetfighter I think.
But I understand why people really don't see it as a Space theme as the humans don't even have a single space ship and the setting is just Earth.
BTW, I just noticed a badly placed Sticker on a official? product picture:
-
20 hours ago, Canondorf said:
Who wrote those marketing texts? Especially the Blacktron II one not only sounds bad, it also doesn't contain any real impulses for imagination.
The interesting part in my eyes is, that there were actually THREE years of sets in one catalogue. This of course means, that despite having only a small amount of new sets per year, and only one faction per year, you probably had a wide variety of sets around.
2 hours ago, Canondorf said:The classic themes seemed to have the pattern of: Good Guy Civilians, Bad Guy Spies, and Good Guy Protectors. At the very least, I think one good guy civilian, and one rival faction, makes sense. It seems like 2024 City Space is the "civilian colony" theme of today. Depending on how Lego wants to develop this current 2024 Space theme, you could have multiple civilian factions like at the height of the 1990s when Futuron, M-Tron, Ice Planet, and Unitron overlapped - or perhaps give the current 2024 civilians mining-themed sets like the legendary 6989 Mega Core Magnetizer instead:
I think it would be possible to spread the current three factions out, to give them each a couple of more specialized sets. To be fair I have no idea how to give the Pilots interesting sets that are better than the current Interstellar Spaceship, but I think the Scientists and Engineers could use some reinforcements.
-
5 hours ago, Lyichir said:Smaller magnets can be a major hazard for kids if they were to swallow them, leading to stricter laws about magnetic toys in several countries. So nowadays magnets have to be encased in an unopenable plastic shell that's too large to potentially swallow.
Sounds reasonable. But of course the old magnets were so much better for a sci fi crane than just plain hooks.
-
9 minutes ago, Canondorf said:
Oddly enough Ice Planet is one of those themes I could imagine today. Maybe with a new light block as gimick to represent special heaters that are needed to survive the harsh envoirement.
Btw, do we know why the magnets were retired? And why they then came back for two City sets, but completly oversized?
-
2 hours ago, Artanis I said:Simply substituting the legs for the ones from Galaxy Squad, and adding a yellow visor:
Nice. I actually don't really like the standard visors the pilots get. It just doesn't look right to have the large visor but having the helmet behind most of it. It was clearly made be not clear.
-
33 minutes ago, Space78 said:The tinted windscreens are OK, they are just too dark for me. Instead of adding to the visual effect of the set, I think they take away because the "trans-black" is just too dark to easily see what's behind the screen. Lego is also using these a bit deceptively. The pictures on the boxes and the website have much lighter (almost clear) windscreens, so they don't really represent what is actually in the set.
I wouldn't say that they are much darker then the old transparent brown. But I actually think that my intersellar spaceship has a darker teint than the other windscreens. So it could be a consistency/quality issue again...
-
5 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:I think you are reading to much into it. Different themes have different colour shemes and they choose to use more realistical colours that are more based on actual existing Spacevehicles for it, making it look like those ships would actually be future spacecraft that were developed based on nowadays spaceships.
This also makes sense considering City is a theme that is picturing the actual world though of course they also don´t keep to close to if where needed.
This. I quickly looked though Ninjago and Monki Kid sets. Generally coloured windscreens are used for very flashy sets with mostly carefully choosen colour styles. Many others, still use just clear.
Personally I really like the sleek look, that is really enforced by the black windscreens.
-
34 minutes ago, Lion King said:Sorry if I change the flow of discussion but have you seen HD pics of CMF Sereis 26 aka Space CMF? They are cool in the better pics!
Space Penguin
-
50 minutes ago, Kit Figsto said:I think that this is the crux of the issue right here. I'm, I guess, tangentially a Space fan (in that I do like some of the sets and themes, but I wouldn't consider myself a hardcore Space fan). I feel like the 80s/early-mid-90s Space stuff captured a similar aesthetic, for the most part. As time went on, we started to get some more specialized parts, or minifigure printing became more complex (compare Ice Planet to Blacktron I, for example), but I feel as if the sets still had some level of compatibility.
I feel like this changed with probably Life on Mars or Mars Mission, since that was around the time that LEGO began to produce a lot more specialized elements, namely adding more curvature into the mix, which I think is a big change specifically for Space since Castle and Pirates sort of already had their specialized parts (pirate ship hull/mast parts, castle walls, etc), whereas Space, with it being a largely vehicle-based theme, had to rely on a lot of angle/wing plates to capture curves. Ironically, most of the aforementioned specialized parts for Pirates/Castle don't really exist anymore, whereas Space still makes good use of a lot of smooth slope/curved parts.
In addition to parts, I also think that time itself has simply changed some things. The idea of futuristic spacecraft looked a bit different in the 70s/80s/90s than it does now (and that can even be seen if you compare some of the ships from OG Classic Space with some of the mid-90s stuff).
Anyway, IMO, that's probably why there exists a distinct different of opinion between a lot of Space fans. Some people tend to favor the older aesthetic (which can be captured while still using modern parts, I think the Galaxy Explorer and Blacktron Cruiser do a fantastic job of creating sets that fit in with 80s/90s Space but also look a little bit sleeker/updated), while others are okay with whatever comes out under the Space umbrella. As a side-note, I sort of wonder if the current City Space sets were just released as "Space" or some sort of subtheme name and not just "City" if some folks would have less of an issue with them.
Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinions on the sets, and I think at the end of the day, "buy what you like" is probably the best rule to follow.
I would say, the look of classic space also came from a limited amount of specialized parts, namely the cockpit-pieces, the wheels and some of the more decorative elements. Then the major brake came with the introduction of rounded windscreen elements in the early 2000s together with new building techniques like a lot more Technic within system lines, making larger and sturdier builds possible, which also changed the way stuff was designed.
-
1 minute ago, Space78 said:Huh? Trains pre-date all of the classic themes - going back to the 1960's. I suppose you could argue there was not an "official" theme named Trains, but they really never fit under another theme, so that makes them at least a "category" in my book. And Castle was one of the original themes in 1978, so not sure what you mean by Castle not being a "Lego-theme"?
Simple, a Lego train is a train made from bricks. This will of course also attract all sorts of trains fans. The same is true for castles.
On the other hand, for generic Sci-Fi/Space to become Classic Space as most fans of Classic Space want, you need special designs like trans yellow windscreens.
-
On 3/19/2024 at 5:45 PM, Space78 said:Agree. I'm starting to think there is just much less community interest in "classic space" than some of the other classic themes such as Castle and Trains. I say this after looking at the Bricklink designer program finalists. There have been space themed submissions, but none have made it to finalist after four rounds. In comparison, each round of finalists has had at least one Castle and averaged one Train themed set. Maybe this is bad logic, but it just seems the Castle and Train AFOL communities are either much larger or more active, at least on the Bricklink Designer program.
Unlike "Classic Space" Trains and Castle are not Lego-themes per se.
Otherwise I would say the City -and weirdly the Friend- sets of this years should count with the generic Sci-Fi /Space theme Lego had in the past, that now is known as "Classic Space". -
I don't think it already has been discussed here, do you people think the very closed up builds of the buildings are actually fun for children that would want to play with them?
Because if you think of it, most play sets are either open from the back, or they open in a way that gives you access while still providing a sense of outside and inside or transforming it into a different build, this being very common for many castle sets.
The space bases of this year on the other hand don't really work that way when opened up anymore. Obviously I cannot really talk about the dome, but the crane base becomes really flimsy when opened, as it really misses an endpoint and the landing gear things on the side start to collide very soon and have to be turned away. Also, as the crane with the useless backpack rack is still in the middle of the whole building it doesn't create a nice play area either as the space actually inside the base is still extremly restricted. The dome looks the same from the pictures. Either it is closed and can basically not be played with, or it is opened but looses basically all it dome-iness to provide like 3 studs to play on.
-
18 hours ago, Aanchir said:I feel like that ring may be a hand-hold to assist the green-suited astronaut in getting up from bed and into his wheelchair!
Makes also sense. But I still wonder who's idea it was to put a bed into the dome with the weird alien plants xD
-
49 minutes ago, Aanchir said:Probably part of the same build section as the sleeping compartment. The outer wall for that section is 16 studs wide, but the sleeping compartment itself just takes up the eight studs in the center, leaving a roughly 2x4 space for additional furnishings on either side In the close-up image of the sleeping compartment you can see a little bit past the right wall of the sleeping compartment that I think is meant to be a shower, so the kitchen might likewise be in the space past the left wall (which is unfortunately not visible in any of the pics so far).
Truth be told, "kitchen" is probably not the most accurate descriptor if it really is only equipped with two beverage dispensers, though perhaps there could be other details there not mentioned in the set description like a mini-fridge or microwave oven. If not, the space is just big enough that it may be possible to mod in a feature like that using a 2x2x2 mailbox or 2x3x2 cupboard piece.
EDIT: I was just Googling to see if any other sites had listings for this set yet, and the Target (US) listing includes a lifestyle video that shows a brief glimpse (around 3 seconds in) of what does indeed appear to be a black 2x3x2 cupboard with a Tr. Light Blue door to represent a mini-fridge or oven of some sort. Unfortunately the angle does not show the drink dispensers, but there is a white mug sitting on top of the cupboard piece, so I assume the drink dispensers are a little further to the left.I imagine LEGO's own listing for the set might go up on Monday, since online retailers started posting pics of the Friends rover just shortly before LEGO revealed it on their own website.
EDIT 2: I just noticed the description also mentions a food-delivery drone? But I can't see this in any of the photos or videos revealed so far, so I have no idea what that looks like or where it's tucked away.And there is a shower xD. Also I think the towel holder is on the wrong side,because I have no idea what the silver ring could be else.
-
9 hours ago, Aanchir said:There are lots more pics up here! The green astronaut has a hoverbike parked outside (same engines as the polybag one but built different in the back to accommodate his wheelchair). No green droid, but there is a sleeping compartment and, according to the set description, a kitchen with water and juice dispensers. Seems like a nice add-on to the main base overall.
Wonder where that kitchen is supposed to hide if it isn't made up of just something on a 2x1 base.
Something I also noticed: The dome is made up from trans black, but even on those marketing pictures it looks way to blue for my taste. The color seems to only really work smaller quantities and without much backlight giving it that shiny black look. Even the small rover imho has this problem..
-
52 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:Friends Rover looks awesome and that side build is amazing too, makes 60432: Command Rover and Crane Loader looks even less of a deal, especially in USA where it's $85 and Friends rover is $50.
Science lab looks like a good deal as well, love the idea that they put one of the small aliens in it's own spacesuit for inside, and it's a lot more friendly compared to the Andromedon suit from Xcom2.
$50 stil seems to be to expensive for what you get. But this set has clearly the better impelementation of the living quarter module. Simply because it is open in the back it allows for slighlty more space inside and a better acess compared to the Command Rovers, that wastes huge ammount of space and bricks to provide the slot for the module with its tiny 6x6 playspace inside.
-
3 hours ago, Space78 said:You're right, it does look a bit minimalist, but maybe there's more not in this picture? At first I did not realize that center structure was a rock, but I suspect you are right. However, the black "vines" coming out of it seem a bit creepy to me. If that's a rock structure, what are those black vines with "flowers" and pink frogs on them? Seems odd to me.
I mean, there are four sides to the building. One has an airlock to the outside and a single screen, one has a closed up but coupling airlock and nothing else. One has somthing that looks like a bed and one has an actually used airlock and a microscope in the corner. Could really contain more science stuff
I think there is also not much use when closed, but it could actually look quite nice. Also the question is, what the attached module contains. And if there are others coming to actually use the open module space.
-
3 hours ago, mon-o-mat said:After playing around a bit digitally as I don't have any set with the modules yet, only really interested in the rover anyways, I have come to the conclusion, that the modules have a stupid size.
They are to small to do anything usefull with them, especially if you want them to fit with the Rover or the spaceship from the base, while they are still so large and blocky, that designing aroound them is annoying.
-
After playing around a bit digitally, I have come to the conclusion, that the modules have a stupid size.
They are to small to do anything usefull with them, especially if you want them to fit with the Rover or the spaceship from the base, while they are still so large and blocky, that designing aroound them is annoying.
-
On 1/31/2024 at 2:50 AM, TeriXeri said:I'd say the value of that set is a bit of a flaw, sure it has the biggest terrain build, and it's a land vehicle that can carry a module (not sure where the big base crane would attach the hook tho, only a bar sized handle near the bottom) but the rover crane could've been different as it takes a lot of space, but can only really move small things , and not to the ground, pretty much only to move battery packs.
Of course there's a lot of space to customize the vehicle to have something very different, it can be converted to at least a pretty big cargo vehicle if crane and module are removed , and the technic frame is pretty much just technic studded bricks, so length of the middle section can be changed as well, or a turntable could be added to have 2 sections able to steer like some classic space sets, or split in 2 4 wheelers , etc. etc (would be nice to see some alternate builds too)
It's not a bad set, but a bit overshadowed by the good value of the 4+ set, the Spaceship, and 6 wheel rover set .
I have a suspicion that the modules were originally supposed to be fitted with a crane eye, as both "ground" sets with these modules have a crane quite prominently. At some point it became clear that it didn't quite work, so they changed their mind. The large base wis this huge crane at its core was given this tiny pallet in order to have something to lift. The crane on the rover, maybe once similiar in size to that on the land train the arctic subtheme with the frozen mamoth some years ago, was shrunken down instead. Right now, the crane is barely better than the one in the 4+ set and definitly not fitting to be one of the main features on such a large set.
On 1/31/2024 at 12:37 PM, Classic_Spaceman said:I really think that the blue team leader (dark blue) should have been included in the command rover rather than the interstellar spaceship.
The pilots' team leader should have been in the space station, the scinteiest (green) in the rover and the construction/mining leader in the base. This way each of the larger sets, would have gotten an appropriate commander as minifig.
1990s Lego Space was best - how to revive Lego Space
in LEGO Sci-Fi
Posted
Back then, there were just less parts and colors for designers to play with. When you just have handfull of different accessories to create knights from or decorate spaceships with they will look similiar.
But of course the main problem is, that everything that is not a on-shot has to be a story driven multi media project.