Artanis I

Okay, so you've all seen my previous comments in this thread about SP3 (which I still stand by) but right now I make my first comments on this particular set after having purchased and built it. Lots of fun. Not too many stickers, (although 0 would be better) at least 4 printed pieces from memory, not too much repetition during the build, Craniac is A+++, I could go on for hours, but I'd just be repeating what everyone else has already said. So instead I'll talk about some things from a personal viewpoint. I like bases (and ships/vehicles) to have lots of space for multiple minifigs. Message Intercept Base & Monorail Transport System are awesome in this respect. Explorien Starship, Galactic Mediator, Galactic Enforcer, Spectral Starguider & that Futuron one I can't remember the name of (it looks awful and has 8 wheels) - Interplanetary Rover maybe - are also good examples. Space Police Central? Room for a dozen or more police figures. Excellent. 1 each on the little flyer ships, 1 each in target practice, 1 on controls at the pod storage, 1 in the truck, 2 or more in the lounge area, 2 near the guns in the front up top, 2 or so inside the dome, plus others standing or wandering around everywhere else. Package only comes with 2, but hey, where are you going to put all the officers that came with your K9 Bot squad? Not to mention Lunar Limo, Container Heist & Smash n Grab. Prison pods SP3: This set has 2 prison pods, with 3 places to put them. Galactic Enforcer had 4. SP2: Galactic Mediator had 2, but you could fit another 1 or 2 in the back. SP1: Mission Commander only had 2, no room for any more. Space Lock-Up Isolation Base had 2, with room for more (I forget exactly). Mission Commander was the only disappointment. This base has a good amount, plus a good solid transport vehicle for them - you can truck the pods around between all the SP3 sets that have them. Space Police commandos: I have also had trouble with some of the helmets not going all the way down. I couldn't figure out why this is. I'm a little disappointed that the visors don't pivot up and down (however these days it's rather impolite to not take your helmet off when they aren't in use). All the same I much prefer the 2010 figures to the 2009 ones. That goes for the aliens too. Craniac is a ripper, and Jawson suits as a henchman really well. As far as its "Spaceness" is concerned, it looks very different to all other Space subthemes but I have an imagination, and can pretend it fits in the same world. Or galaxy/universe whatever. That's all I have time for, this set is fantastic, although it costs a lot of money it really makes the subtheme worthwhile.

Fiddlesticks, haha. I used to love playing with my cousins' Fabuland when I was very young, I didn't have much myself. They were girls btw, and they had heaps of it. I think today's duplo looks like it's aimed at an older audience than it was. Is there still a market for Fabuland? It seems that with so many specialised pieces these days standard Lego is slowly turning itself into some variation of Fabuland. Also, look at all the SP3 villains, Toy Story figs, & the regular appearance of new creatures and so on. I'm unsure, but I'll say yes bring it back (for the girls and the younger market - send duplo back to the little kiddies)... but no I wouldn't buy it personally.

Finally found & bought this set the other day. It's fantastic. Some obs: Brick Daddy is never going to glow in the dark unless he gets out of the limo, pretty much no light gets in there. There's one bit during construction where you're building with black & trans yellow: I had one of those faux deja vu moments where the indescribable awesome Blacktron I vibe hit me really hard. It was an awesome feeling! (Just wait until I can unpack and set up the MIB again... oh yeah!) Long. This ship is LONG! It looks evil. In a good way, if that makes sense. Purple Lego is pretty cool, the colour is really vivid - like standard green. Purple & black is a great colour scheme. Most SP3 from 2009 looked better on the box than in reality. This set (like most 2010 SP3) looks better in reality than in the pictures. The boot/trunk whatever YOU call it has a conveniently shaped space perfect for carrying a "body" which is cool. It means that you can kidnap or dispose of victims. Or an officer or commando can stow in there to discover the secret hideout base. A few people have referred to Brick Daddy's head, and the "squidlike tentacles" on the back. I think it might also be possible that it's braided hair (like Coolio)? Good to finally see the Big Boss of this operation, whose head has been on all the buckles, insignia etc.

The limo is quite something! The 3 sets on sale are well worth those prices though.

Okay, maybe in Europe it's fine. Considering our increasingly more favourable exchange rate at the moment, Lego should be a lot cheaper here this year, not more expensive. Here, for AU$59 it's more than the $44 or $49 price we had for Container Heist / Space Truck Getaway, plus these days piece count is (in my opinion) irrelevant since it seems most of them are those cheese wedges or other similar sized tiny bits! If you want to compare quantity fairly between new & old sets, compare the grams, not # of pieces?

Why didn't I think of that?.. Bugger. Oh well, looks like a 2nd Undercover Cruiser is on the way then! And more Raid VPRs... will keep at least one sealed. Might grab another Smash n Grab and turn it into something else.

It doesn't, it falls over backwards. Looks ridiculous fallen over. UNLESS... you fold the back part down like a motorbike kick-stand. This is not in any picture I've seen, as all of them have the back folded up in line with the cockpit part. It looks fine bent down for display or landed, but I would have it up when in flight for play. You could put some clear perspex under the back to hold it up if you really wanted, though. I bought this set the moment I (finally) saw it in a shop. When I first saw photos, (that didn't show the undercover mode) I wasn't looking forward to it. As soon as the transformation was revealed a month or two ago I was very keen on it. I really like this set, and I'm GLAD it only has Jawson, and not another new alien. Bad guys need henchmen, they can't all be different and exclusive. Plus it brings down his price on Bricklink! It's expensive for what it is, but it's a fun set to build, look at & play with. Some obs: this and Gold Heist are the biggest SP (1, 2 & 3) ships/vehicles without a prison pod. I don't see it as a negative, after all, the Galactic Enforcer makes up for it with 4! The mini Jawson ship is much more "solid" than the previous SP3 sets' secondary craft - some of them are little more than flying carpets with handles, this one could be sold separately as a cheap set. One of my disappointments about SP3 in general is that it's difficult to get bunches of the same vehicle without having to put up with all the extra stuff that comes in that set. (eg if you want 5 of those jetski looking hoverbike things, you get 5 Squidmans too ... you want 3 of the police ships from hyperspeed pursuit, you get stuck with 3 of the BHG ships and 6 Skull "Twin" minifigs too ... however if you want 4 Rebel Hunters, you simply buy 4 Rebel Hunters.) But this set you could buy a few of, you could have a handful of undercover ships in convoy, and you could have a handful of the smaller ship too without having to make up some silly story about why. Not as many as last years' sets had, but I'm still not keen on putting stickers on a set. A MUST HAVE for SPACE, SPACE POLICE or SPACE POLICE III fans/collectors. You young fellas, save your money now and buy it cheap in 10 or 20 years time off ebay like I've done with most of my lego, haha, because this set is expensive for what it is.

I don't have big reservations, I just think it's strange. For 20 years, all the way from Classic Space until the "space theme wilderness" the same mindset of "colonising or exploring desolate planets with no breathable atmosphere" was held... but now when the Space theme is officially reintroduced - "Space Police" is as you say more like "Future Police", the mindset resembling more a post-modern civilisation on already settled and terraformed planets. Which is legit, but a strange move. It's like canning the Pirate theme for 10 years then reintroducing it in a modern setting with speed boats, automatic weapons, mobile phones, helicopters & motorbikes. The fans of the old sets in the theme would feel weird about it being called "Pirates" despite it being a perfectly reasonable name. (Extreme example, I admit.) The continuity is gone; you can't easily put these sets side by side in the same story - they're from a different era, which in turn alienates the subtheme from the rest of the theme. Does that make sense? (Is SP3 a subtheme of Space or is Space Police a new theme on its own?)

Haha. Aayla Secura minifig not far away from release, but getting two would be an expensive venture!

I'll agree with both of those statements. I have 2 of these. The Explorien ships/vehicles were all rather unusual in appearance and used a lot of new pieces not available in previous subthemes. The colour scheme is very reminiscent of Futuron & the 1987 Classic sets (new SP3 brings it back yet again) but the greys on the minifigs were something new. The helmets with hoses were new too. The bottom plate catches if you try to drive it on thick or soft carpet. The wheels don't turn on hard surfaces too well, so it really only goes on hard carpet or synthetic turf. Like a mini-golf green. Just take your Lego down to the local 18 hole 2-par putt-putt centre!

I think Lego has been making Star Wars sets for too long, (where every planet and moon has breathable atmosphere) and they forgot that SPACE LEGO IS IN SPACE, NO AIR: VACCUUM!!! Airtanks and full helmets are a necessity when not in a sealed base or ship! Come on, guys. Get with the programme, haha.

What if you put a round plate on the top of his head first? Would possibly look quite silly though.

Message Intercept Base is a ripper! I like the look of Space Police Central, and am glad Space Police finally get a decent sized base but it still looks too "Town Police" to me, not "space base" enough. Change the minifigs over and lose the mini flyers and you wouldn't know it was from the Space theme. Look forward to Craniac, he looks the coolest alien so far. I'm a fan of the nameless+faceless space figures, but these aliens are too cool to pass up. The 2nd round of them are even better than the 1st.

The only way to get to the Lego section at our local Myer is to walk extremely conspicuously through a very long thin children's clothing section. I don't go there very often! I'll head in there and have a look though in hope there's some new SP3.

Thanks for the review! At last, a SP3 ship (other than Galactic Enforcer) that seats more than 1 minfig. Instead of insisting on getting a good guy & bad guy (with their own transport - however pathetic) in every set, TLG could build better ships with 2 minifigs of the same team. So much easier to build fleets with too. Of course, having more than one Lunar Limo has its discouragements: I could never justify more than 1 Brick Daddy unless I changed one slightly and pit them against each other in a mob war. Actually on second thoughts that sounds like fun! I really look forward to buying this set! The other two look pretty good too, now that I've seen plenty of decent photos. A bit pricey, but hopefully worth it.

I've been "walking through to the other side" of the Lego aisle at K Mart on a regular basis ever since SP3 was first released, but haven't been for a couple of weeks (ever since I heard the 15th of June date for release). Maybe I should go back there very soon... like tonight... any 1 of the new 3 will do.

Where did you see it? According to the Toyworld website all 5 SP3 sets will be released on the 15th of June. I got the first 2 sets from Bricklink in February or something. K Mart often have good Lego prices so hopefully they'll stock them all soon.