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Here's some more refinements on my Galaxy Explorer, which is inspired by pretty much every Galaxy Explorer redux ever made but especially by "LL928 Comes Home" on Ideas and this topic on Eurobricks. The base is mostly inspired by 926 and 6970. The ship is intended to use stickers from 70816 for decoration, and miscellaneous other stickers and decorated parts that aren't available in Stud.io, and the flag on the moonscape is intended to come from here. The rover is supposed to be able to park inside the base and also to fit in the front half of the spaceship's cargo bay while two crates occupy the rear half, but I haven't worked out that loading scheme in detail yet, and the rear fuselage may need to be reworked because of that. The outbuilding that supports the antenna is intended to be an electric rover charging station, among other things. The main challenge now is to build low-elevation rockwork for the moonscape that evokes the original crater plates, is fairly large, is fairly simple with a low parts count, and also has fun play features like panels that blow off, boulders that can be launched out of craters, or something like that. The intent is to keep it around 1100-1300 parts for an imaginary price point of $120 (consistent with the inflation-adjusted RRP of 928) or $150 (consistent with today's most expensive Star Wars and City playsets). Please comment, question, criticize! How can this be a better playset? How can it better evoke the original while staying consistent with today's design ethos or the style of today's flagship playsets? What's to be done about the rockwork? (About that I don't have much of a clue myself, right now.) Also see some bonus pictures of a quick and easy space scooter modeled after 885. Pictures in quotes for brevity. Thanks for looking! Flickr album

Since the thread has already been bumped and I frequently add and subtract Alien Conquest and Galaxy Squad sets from my Brickset wanted list without ever buying them, I'll chime in - The reasons I didn't buy any Galaxy Squad sets when they were still in stores were, first, I wasn't allowing myself to buy Lego as an adult yet, and second, I told myself that if I ever was to buy Lego as an adult, it would just be to pick up the 2012 X-wing model (9493). The reasons I don't buy Galaxy Squad now are first, too much competition from other Star Wars and City kits I want, and second, although I think the theme is very well executed, I just...don't...really...like it. If I want militarized spaceships, I'll go to Star Wars. If I want airplanes, I'll go to City. I'd much rather have an in-house Space theme where the conflict is only implied, and I'd much rather have minifigures whose heads and faces aren't encumbered by sci-fi headsets and goggles, nor the torsos by chunky armor that gets dated really fast. I appreciate the nods to Classic Space and Futuron in the primarily white ships with separating modules and carefully chosen accent colors (primarily blue), and I think the bug alien minifigures and vehicles are much more convincing and interesting builds than those of Insectoids. The theme has everything going for it except originality of concept, on its part, and general interest, on my part. I just don't like people that look like cyborgs and aliens that look like bugs. Never have, never will. Didn't like "Men in Black" as a kid, didn't like the Borg in Star Trek, never wanted to see the buggers in Ender's Game. I guess there's enough people like me in that way that Galaxy Squad didn't sell.

I vote for #5 and #9.

Thread bump to ask if anyone has had this problem: This evening I copied my Stud.io folder and build files to a new flash drive and foolishly deleted the old one before testing the new one. Now the program will open my build files, but none of the parts are visible in the build window and they all show as corrupted in the parts list. Parts images aren't showing up in the bottom tray either, and when I pull a part out of the bottom tray to place it in the new build it doesn't show up in the build window and it shows as corrupted in the parts list. I've reinstalled the program twice, once directly from a fresh download of the installer, but it's still not working. Has anyone else had this problem? How can it be resolved? Thanks for your help. EDIT: Got Stud.io reinstalled on the original flash drive and it seems to work. It still doesn't work on the new flash drive, but the build files copied back from the new flash drive to the old one open correctly on the original drive.

Those are all great builds. I like the red station wagon and the white sedan the best.

Lord Nelson would be proud to have this in his estate at Paradise Merton, if it weren't for the Yankee colors! Are the lower decks finished and furnished, or is all the space needed for structural support?

Thanks for the nice double review. You really show off all the details of these sets. They're both really charming little sets that seem to capture all the essentials of their respective films in an affordable package, but that little Quantum Realm ship just doesn't hit all my "SPACESHIP!" buttons, so I don't think I'll pick it up after all. Also, the lack of leg printing on Wasp compared to Ant-Man and Yellow Jacket is pretty disappointing. It would be pretty cool if TLG copied that cockpit technique for a City helicopter, though.

Such a fine ship. Is it based on a real vessel? How do you plan a build like this?

That's a very nice little biplane there. I like the way you've achieved a more subtle dihedral than the original set, and the second seat and curved horizontal stabilizer profile are great. Also, the extended empennage is much better than the stumpy rear fuselage assemblies that official sets always have. However, It's a little disappointing to see that the ailerons and wheels no longer move, and the outboard struts look pretty flimsy.

This question is kind of off-topic, but there have been a lot of small digital mockups of various imagined parts of the Bugatti in this thread. Could someone point me to the best software for prototyping Technic models? Is there a package that can simulate mechanisms in motion? I've tried to build small mechanisms in LDD and Stud.io, but the part placement for anything but snapping bricks is very tedious and I can't figure out how to get a mechanism (say, a gear train) to move. Thanks! And back to the Bugatti - Has anyone been able to get a good look at the steering geometry? Does it have Ackermann steering this time, or just the same old parallel steering links used in most medium-sized Technic trucks?

^^^ OK, fair enough.

When someone takes a picture of a set in a Lego store, then Brickset is willing to post that picture. That's what they did with the 75181 UCS Y-wing, a couple days before its official reveal. This seems to be the same situation. Can someone link to the exact language in the Eurobricks forum guidelines that prohibits pictures like that? The clause against leaks doesn't say anything about sets that you see in the store with your own eyes and photograph with your own camera and buy with your own money. Are we now going to condemn Jangbricks for the times when he got sets before the official street date, perfectly legitimately, and side with TLG in demanding that his reviews of those sets be taken down, too? Let's be consistent, people. We like Brickset, we like Jangbricks, let's stop piling on the guy who got lucky enough to buy the Bugatti.

This is a very nice Enterprise. Off the top of my head, it's the best one I can remember seeing. The choice of a Millennium Falcon style petal fold for the saucer lets the warp engines be small enough to support with conventional construction techniques, while still looking good for display and sturdy for play. I've thought about buying the Mega Construx Enterprise, but each time I decided not to because its one-piece nacelle struts and other large parts for finish detail seem like such clumsy solutions. You show that a handsome display Enterprise doesn't need those cheats. Thanks for posting.

These are all impressive models, but the Airbus is my favorite. It's a very nice compromise between scale modelling and playability. The way you've integrated the windscreen and contoured the nose works perfectly for a minifigure set, but it still looks like the real aircraft. The model as a whole is very large, like one would expect for a scale model, but not too large to imagine playing with as an official set. How many pieces? However, the wings would look a lot better if you built them at an angle, because then the curved slopes on the leading edges could be continuous instead of stepped.

I'm a bit surprised to see bright colors and interior detail/functionality listed as "selling points" or "nostalgia points" for Classic Space relative to other Space subthemes and Star Wars. As a kid browsing through the Brickset database, I always thought that Classic Space had pretty drab, dull colors - all that gray! all that white! such unrelieved acres of blue! - and was pretty devoid of cool functions (though I admit I wasn't aware of most of the modular play features). It wasn't until M-Tron that Space really got colorful, and Star Wars sets certainly have (and have always had) quite as much accent color to relieve the gray as CS ever did. It wasn't really until the Blacktron Message Intercept Base that Space started to get cool features involving parts that move together as part of a mechanism, and that's after the Classic era. Likewise, even the earliest Star Wars sets had plenty of location builds and other accomodations of the idea that there's more to life than jumping in an X-wing and blowing stuff up, as General Organa would say - while, as Aanchir notes, many of the vehicle sets in Classic Space had little more than a cockpit and sometimes a cramped cargo space, and only the 1979 and 1980 moonbases were real buildings, as opposed to skeletal platforms. All that considered, I'd hazard a guess that the focus on jumping in an X-wing and blowing stuff up as opposed to going boldly where no one has gone before is what makes many Classic Space fans indifferent to Star Wars. But what do I know? It's not as if there's any really broad survey data for comparison. Besides, many Neo-Classic Space builders have decidedly militaristic interpretations of whatever faction operates the LL ships and their successors, and the official NCS ship (70816) acts as a "battleship" when it appears onscreen. So - heck, I don't even know what question I'm trying to answer. Maybe I better go to bed. For the record, I'd certainly love to see a new Space theme that includes detailed interior spaces in mobile bases and fixed bases. In the meantime, I'll just pretend that the upcoming Arctic Mobile Exploration Base is a great big Gerry Anderson-style behemoth land vehicle that's about to run off a cliff on a distant desert planet that mysteriously resembles a cheap 1960s soundstage, unless our hero the CMF Series 16 Astronaut can shut down the fusion reactor (sabotaged), engage the emergency brake (also sabotaged), or bail out the top hatch (jammed). He'll make it out, but you just know that rover won't appear in the next episode!

^ Please, let's be civil. You greatly exaggerate the frequency of Doctor Who wish posts from the OP, and the degree to which they "spam" the licensed thread. Not all of us have the time, space, funds, or skills to produce physical MOCs, but many of those who don't do a valuable community service by highlighting the excellent MOCs of others, and this is a good example. ^^^^^^^^^^^ Thanks for posting. This series looks great, and it would probably be a modest sales success if it was produced in the brick. TLG has certainly not hesitated to pick up much more questionable licenses before. That being said, it's an exaggeration to say that TLG would be "daft" not to capitalize on the novelty of Jodie Whittaker as the first woman Doctor by releasing a CMF series.

I'm not British at all, but my dad and uncle grew up watching Stingray, Thunderbirds, and Captain Scarlet when they first aired, so I grew up watching them on VHS and DVD and wanting Lego sets based on them. There have been a few good Thunderbirds projects on Ideas, but they haven't received enough support to be really viable. I think TLG missed its chance to do Gerry Anderson sets when it didn't pick up a license for the new series Thunderbirds Are Go (which is fantastic, by the way).

Gee...just one D2C ship that can compete with the 10210 Imperial Flagship and isn't a rotting ghost ship, that's all I need. Imperial Flagships now are priced as insanely as 10179 Millennium Falcons circa 2016.

He meant "deployable." Which means "retractable."

Where did Tintin and Haddock go that Johnny Thunder did not? In no particular order: 1. Various Muslim-majority countries on the Mediterranean coast. JT won't go there...too political. 2. The Moon. That's obviously not JT's thing, but we can hope City goes there someday. 3. Treasure hunting in the South Pacific. JT and co. could do that, but Town, City, and Aqua Raiders have pretty much picked all the wrecks clean by now. 4. Old castles in Britain and assorted fictional small European countries. That's too close to home for JT and co. 5. The Andes. A long-lost Andean civilization would be right up JT's alley, and reasonably distinct from the jungle ruins close to City. If JT ever comes back, he should tackle nos. 3 and 5.

Excellent work. Thanks for posting these pictures. It's amazing how much you've managed to simplify and improve the External Tank. I'm not sure how I feel about the revised wing, though. On the one hand, it uses modern parts and avoids the awkward gap in the original version. On the other hand, it's very...busy, and the parts needed aren't all available in dark bluish gray. Of course, it would really help if TLG introduced some nice new chainable 45-degree wedge plates with the same design as other wedge plates, like those used for the elevons. I wonder if the original version's reliance on old-style wedge plates is one of the reasons why it didn't make it through the review.

It's clear from the pictures on FBTB that the X-wing engines are built using this part.

I think that canopy appears in the Flying Fox set from Justice League (link).

It looks like the X-wing uses a different mechanism to open the wings than past models. The jacks between the wings are the same, but they're actuated by some sort of sliding mechanism instead of a simple knob. It'll be interesting to build that and see how it works.

That connection has been used in a few official sets before. (I can't remember which ones off the top of my head.) I was really surprised when I first saw it. Thanks for posting, though.