icm

It's the same design. Ok, back to work. Potato, potahto.

I just can't understand the logic of this post. It's like you're saying the original ship suggested all these extra details for you to imagine, and the new ship has those details, but then, no, wait, those details aren't actually present on the new ship. My head is spinning.

The shape of the 76832 reminds me of the Classic Space 6872 Lunar Patrol Craft from 1985, but there aren't all the parts in all the right colors yet to build a 76832 in the blue and gray. Having seen Veynom's recolor of it in black and yellow, I now think it's more suited to Blacktron than to Classic Space. Either way, or straight out of the box, it's a real hot ship!

@danth by @Veynom

10497: looks spaceshippy looks weird in a good way courtesy of its bulky and weird blue fuselage looks a bit retro is not a fighter plane that would fight an X-wing do fighter planes have four seats, two beds, and a rover garage? So do you want innovation in a new Galaxy Explorer, or don't you? I'm confused. Seems to me you wouldn't be satisfied with any new Galaxy Explorer. Enjoy your spiffy new Monkie Kid's Galactic Explorer! (But that's not AFOLy enough for you, so you're not interested.) Got it. Enjoy that 90th anniversary Cosmic Fleet Voyager!

All right, well, there’s no accounting for taste, etc. Have fun building your own Cosmic Fleet Voyager MOC for the 90th anniversary, I’d love to see pictures of that as your hypothetical ideal anniversary spaceship.

Yeah, my Cosmic Fleet Voyager is a very free interpretation of the original set, unlike my Galaxy Explorer. The Cosmic Fleet Voyager is a lot harder to reproduce faithfully with modern parts in an interesting and satisfying way because it has a more complex shape and it splits in the middle. Mine was just built freehand with parts I already had, so it’s really more of a “spaceship inspired by the Cosmic Fleet Voyager” than a faithful remake. When I was a kid browsing Brickset I thought the 6985 was super ugly, but my opinion has changed! I’d be totally down for a good 6985 update. There aren’t a lot of MOCs on the web to compare one too though, unlike the dozens of Galaxy Explorers.

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=28327&idColor=1#T=C&C=1 This part was introduced in 2017.

I knew I was forgetting something in the list I typed out a few posts ago ....

I think that AT-ST is really cute ... for about half the price!

Glad to! The 10497 is deliberately scaled to 1.5 times the original in the key dimensions. Other versions are more or less haphazardly sized - some big, some small, but none of them (except mine, which is very simple) seem to deliberately set out to meet a specific "scale". I've seen three approaches to building the wings in AFOL Galaxy Explorer MOCs: Simple studs-up wedge plates, like mine. Inverted wedge plate sandwich, like Wolf Leews. Slope-built brick-thick wings, like many others. The 10497 has a completely different approach to building the wings: the core is a five-plate-thick studs-up wedge plate build, yes, but the leading edge is tiled and mounted at an angle, with cheese slopes mounted underneath the leading edge to give it a bit of a chamfer. To me, that's a very fresh and unique take on the wings. I've thought many times about adapting the wing of the 10283 Space Shuttle Discovery into a Galaxy Explorer wing, and that would similarly be a five-plate-thick studs-up wedge plate build with a leading edge mounted at an angle, but that leading edge uses baby bows to be rounded. (The designer interview at The Verge basically says they started out with that idea.) - But the wing in the final 10497 design is distinct even from that. The approach to the main glass and greenhouse at the back. Plenty of Galaxy Explorer MOCs use the Benny spaceship canopy (that's what kicked off the boom in Galaxy Explorer MOCs in the first place), but it's virtually always set in flat in a simple studs-up manner. Approaches to the back greenhouse vary, but I've never seen this one before, except perhaps on a much larger build. It's a clever way of taking advantage of the natural slopes in the canopy to get about the right angle for the front windscreen, a steeper angle for the front of the back greenhouse, and a nice flat top. To me, that's very fresh and unique. The entire approach of building most of the main fuselage at a slant. I have never seen that before on any Galaxy Explorer MOC. It's totally fresh and unique, and it just works. The three-point retractable landing gear. Many Galaxy Explorer MOCs have three-point retractable landing gear, but it's usually external landing pads that fold flat against the bottom of the wing without folding in flush. The three-point retractable landing gear on 10497 folds in flat and flush, so it blends right into the bottom of the wing. I tried to do that on one of my Galaxy Explorer digital builds ("Gal Greeble", inspired by carrierlost on Flickr), but I couldn't figure out how to make it work. So that's a very impressive, new, fresh feature. The sliding black ramp at the back. Again, that's a feature I tried to implement in my 928 "Gal Greeble" inspired by Carrierlost, because the basic height of the cargo bay was so high that a simple hinged ramp would be very, very steep. But I couldn't figure out how to work it. I haven't seen that feature on any other MOCs. So again, that's a very impressive, new, fresh feature. The 2x2 seating in the cockpit. Almost all Galaxy Explorer MOCs have tandem seating for two in the cockpit. The shallow tapering slope of the windscreen piece makes it hard to even seat two comfortably; usually the front seater has to be seated so deep they have very little visibility except straight overhead. When a Galaxy Explorer MOC seats more than two, it's usually in the back section, not in the front windscreen area. But building the whole forward fuselage at a slant allows an incredible four seats in a 2x2 configuration under the single windscreen. I haven't seen that feature on any Galaxy Explorer MOCs. To me, it's very impressive, fresh, and new. The two beds in the back that let the crew lie down with their airtanks on aren't exactly a groundbreaking, innovative piece of Lego engineering, but they're a cute feature I haven't seen on other Galaxy Explorers. The detachable wing engines used as space scooters are a fun, cute play feature that echoes similar play features on past Lego Space flagships like the Blacktron Renegade, the Space Police 1 flagship, and the Space Police 3 flagship, so they're a fun surprise. I haven't seen that feature on any other Galaxy Explorer MOCs though, so that makes them a new, fresh, fun, innovative feature on the 10497. This is a very small point, but the way the rear hinging sections are clipped back to the main fuselage when closed on the 10497 looks different than it is on most Galaxy Explorer MOCs. Every Galaxy Explorer MOC has a different level of greeble and engine greeble; I like the level of greebling on this one. It doesn't feel too little and it doesn't feel excessive. Most Galaxy Explorer MOCs are designed with only the Galaxy Explorer in mind; they probably wouldn't be easily transformed into a 924 Space Cruiser or a 918 One-Man Space Ship, despite the fact that the self-similarity of the three ships at different sizes (small, medium, and large) made it almost (but not quite) possible to build either the 924 or the 918 out of the original 928 ship. I haven't seen any Galaxy Explorer MOCs that come with "alt builds" for the two smaller ships. Certainly my own design couldn't be taken apart and rebuilt into the accompanying 924 and 918 that I designed to go with it. So it's an amazing and completely unexpected bonus that the 10497 is actually a 3-in-1 set that can be rebuilt into a 924 or a 918, each of which looks good enough to be an A model released as a set in its own right. (Most Creator 3-in-1 B and C models don't look good enough to be released as sets in their own right). That's a very fresh, fun, innovative feature of the 10497 that is really going the extra mile, in my opinion. So, that's all I can think of off the top of my head that makes the 10497 special, fresh, fun, new, innovative, compared to every other Galaxy Explorer I've ever seen, entirely apart from the "omg it's an official set" aspect. I think it's a pretty long list. I can't wait until my two pre-ordered copies ship!

Actually I’m very well informed about most of the NCS Galaxy Explorer remakes that have been made (I reverse engineered about a dozen of them in Studio) and I built my own. My opinion of the official set 10497 is that it’s got more fresh ideas, imagination, and flair than 90% of the fan builds out there, and that includes my own. I think it’s a fantastic set, and not just because it’s a Galaxy Explorer. I was actually expecting to be disappointed with the rumored Galaxy Explorer remake, because there are so many ways for one to be honestly pretty boring! But that’s not the case here. There’s no accounting for taste, of course. You think it’s boring, I think it’s great. I’ll post a picture here of a different Galaxy Explorer remake, one that is a lot closer to the original. My very own remake was intended to reproduce the dimensions of the original as closely as possible with very simple techniques and clean lines, in deliberate contrast to the excessive profusion of greebly bits and bobs and pipes and hoses on many NCS Galaxy Explorers. But you know what? It honestly turned out pretty boring! According to my personal taste, I would much rather have the 10497 be the “official set” version of the Galaxy Explorer remake than my own MOC or, honestly, any other fan build of the subject I’ve ever seen. Speaking strictly from how I like the design, not from the point of view of “this is the official set, omg”. Flickr album with a whole bunch of reverse engineered Galaxy Explorer fan builds https://flickr.com/photos/149520828@N02/sets/72157708529956604 Oh, and btw, the difference between the “official version” in a set and “just build your own MOC!” is that an official set is widely available, easy to get as a single purchase with a relatively low price, and easy to reproduce and modify and share. A MOC, if you take the cheap route of not buying parts specifically for it, is likely to be clunky and mismatched (remember your multicolored childhood builds and how you always wished you could do better? I do) or, if you do buy parts specifically for the MOC, very expensive and time-consuming, as you’re buying parts, some of them individually very expensive, from different locations, with shipping fees adding up fast. So there’s legitimate reasons to get excited about 10497 just from the perspective of “omg it’s the official set” if you’ve wanted a Galaxy Explorer even if you don’t particularly like the new model on its own merits. It’s a heckuva lot cheaper and easier than a MOC. Making a really good Galaxy Explorer MOC is financially out of reach for a good chunk of adult Lego fans and certainly for any children who may be aware of Classic Space (I was reading Brickset and Eurobricks, though not posting, at ten years old). I spent a heckuva lot more than a hundred bucks on my version, I can tell you that. So here comes an official set that’s bigger and better and cheaper, and not only that, I actually really like the build on its own merits? Dream come true. Sorry, one more thing (I realize I’m being a bit of a keyboard warrior here). If you’re looking for a modern Lego spaceship that’s 100% original and has a lot of fresh ideas and isn’t gray and blue and yellow, just buy the 80035 Monkie Kid Galactic Explorer and leave the 10497 Galaxy Explorer alone. Seriously, all the imagination you think is missing from the 10497 is in the 80035. That came out this very year, 2022! I bought a copy of it in January and I can tell you it’s a great Lego spaceship that deserves its place in the lineup beside every other Lego Space capital ship ever released, and it stands on its own as definitely a new thing, not a remake of any older spaceship.

Funny you should mention a Cosmic Fleet Voyager, I just built one of those a few months ago. On a scale of 1 to 10, how closely does this resemble what you’d like to see in a hypothetical update? (Probably pretty low, it’s very simple studs up construction. I’m no Mike Psiaki.) More pictures on Flickr, you should be able to just click on the picture and go there.

Congratulations on finishing this very challenging project! I look forward to the Otana whenever you can make that happen, that’s going to be a real masterpiece.

Toa Mata canisters were the best, for reasons already stated, but Bohrok canisters were a close second. They had a clear function in the story, they stacked well and displayed the set inside well, and last but certainly not least their storage clip for hanging the balled-up Bohrok was a killer idea. It worked perfectly, it made for a great toy, and it made perfect sense in universe. In fact, I’m going to go out on a limb and say the Bohrok canisters weren’t second best, but the very best. The Toa Mata canisters had the slickest product reveals, with the rotating sleeve and all, but the story purpose and use of the Bohrok canisters was far more intuitive if you weren’t super familiar with the comics and the games. The story and lid functions of the Toa Mata canisters required a bit more explanation.

Really great interview. I'm so glad to hear the instructions for the 918/924 B and C models will be available for download. That might be all the justification I need to buy two. Not three, though ... I'm sure I can fill in any remaining parts for the 918 C model from my loose parts bin.

See, I read the new set as a Barracuda Bay quality re-imagining of the old Lion Knights castle, and certainly something with way more effort than “this old set, but with new bricks, and worse”. That would be a direct remake with the same size, the same features, the same size for each feature, etc. Or with a more modern approach that would be very similar to the castle from the 2013 line. Clearly they didn’t do that, they put in a heck of a lot of effort to do a higher quality re-imagination. But you can’t please everybody. If they had done a more direct update it’s quite possible you’d be complaining about their failure of imagination, like you are in the thread about 10497. That’s a direct re-imagination at Barracuda Bay quality and you complain it’s not original enough.

Which is precisely what makes this set so cool, because it’s a set that the fans have been begging for for years through Ideas and fan builds. Like, we’ve been building this all these years and FINALLY this is the OFFICIAL VERSION! It’s like the difference between building your own fan model of the X-wing in 1980 and upgrading it over the years and then finally getting the official set in 1999. Unless you’re a killjoy who thinks that anything that’s not a 100% original never-seen-before, never-thought-of-before, idea is boring, derivative, and uninteresting. You can bet there would be more complaining from the fans if the super special 90th anniversary Classic Space set WASN’T a remake of something like the 497. In the interview on The Verge, Mike Psiaki says they actually considered going down that route, building a ship that was merely inspired by the 497 instead of a direct remake, but it ended up looking like another Space Shuttle so they didn’t go ahead with it. Personally I think that no matter how neat a different spaceship might have been on its own merits, it would have been a real facepalm moment for Lego to release such a ship when the 497 remake has been fondly anticipated/dreamt of for so many years. You can’t please everybody, but I think they pleased a whole lot more people this way than they would have the other way.

Definitely the same windscreen. Dunno if there are stickers.

https://www.theverge.com/23173235/lego-galaxy-explorer-90th-anniversary-birthday-price-release-date This article has a picture of the ship partially built and a picture of the small and medium sized spaceship alt builds (the 918 and 924 to the set's 928). I hope we get instructions for those! I bet those pictures and the interview in The Verge's article will show up on Brickset in a day or two.

Copied from my comment on the Brickset article: Wow! This is so much better than I imaged from the rumors. Four seats in the cockpit! Two beds! An airlock door! A two-stage rear ramp! A clever back-hinge locking system I haven't seen on any other Galaxy Explorer build! A clever way of building the whole forward fuselage on a slant that I haven't seen on any other Galaxy Explorer build! Three point retractable landing gear! Detachable wing engine pods as space motorcycles is such a classic Lego Space feature! Best. Lego. Spaceship. Ever! I need three of them by this evening, Alfred. It's very important.

Recommended Retail Price.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/06/15/lego-factory-virginia-youngkin/ I'll just leave this Washington Post link here without further comment.

That's a fun project, thanks for the pictures. Which one was the hardest to get right?

This link goes to the 2022 Cobi product catalog. Look at pages 35-37 for the cars they offer in this approximate scale and price (15 euro). https://cobi.pl/xo/katalogi/2022/handlowy-wiosna-lato-2022-cobi/72/index.html Brick-built? I don't think so. Not by a long shot. That hood and front fascia are anything but brick-built. The Lego Speed Champions James Bond Aston Martin DB5 kit # 76911 (phew, long name) may look kind of clunky, but it is FAR more brick-built than a Cobi car. I probably won't get the DB5 or the Charger on day 1, but I'm interested in both of them. I might get the DB5 for a friend and the Charger for myself. Ironically, I already bought the purple 1970 Dodge Challenger from 2021 because it was the closest thing available to a black 1970 Dodge Charger. (Mods, sorry if this is getting too off-topic. Please move this post to Community or delete it altogether if necessary.)