danth

Those are exactly the kinds of things delineated in licensing agreements. It's why Lego can do spaceships for other non-Disney licenses, and can do NASA style space sets, and why Lego CAN'T do just single SW minifigs, but CAN do large buildable SW figures. All of that stuff is spelled out in extremely complicated legal documents.

Galaxy Explorer is an 18+ set. There's your loophole. Obviously I'm speculating. I'm guessing based on clues. I could be totally wrong. But I'm pretty sure there's a reason why Ninjago hasn't gone to space, Creator hasn't had a real Sci-Fi space set, and Space is now in City. And it's not something Lego is ever going to admit to. Really looks like Lego toeing the legal line of license agreements.

I was following this, but then you lost me.

But one follows the other.

Didn't you just tell me that Monkie Kid is different because it's for a Chinese market? Licensing agreements are labyrinthine morasses, and Lego has teams of lawyers figuring out what they can and can't do. A theme you can't get in US Walmarts and Targets is going to be affected differently.

How? Why? How is going underwater not worse in that regard? Sounds the same to me. Throw swords and "sci fi swooshies" and a bunch of other junk into a blender, see what comes out. A space bus is just the same gimmick as a castle tank. A cactus cat, a monkey mech, a gator copter -- all the same tired mash up gimmick. If they had to give a reason, that means it's PR. Obviously the creative team wanted to do space, and the people in charge of not pissing off Disney said no. Of course they can't just tell us that. Fair enough. I guess I meant "failed to excite Space and Castle fans and other AFOLs who want cool stuff that isn't weird".

Right. Dad: What do you want? Kid: Minecraft, Fortnite, Roblox... Dad: Here's some SW Lego! I...I mean you love SW right? Kid: Uh...sure dad.

Right, but I think there is an implication, in even just explaining the approach, that Lego, in its mystical wisdom, is trying to appeal to kids, and that kids want different things than AFOLS, and that Lego understands all these differences, and that AFOLs don't. And I completely reject that. Even if that's not what you meant, others always use kids as an excuse to magically wave away any and all AFOL desires and criticisms. I think that 1, AFOLs are big kids and we want the same things as most kids, and 2, many licensed themes are bought mostly by adults. To my dying breath I will assert that it's mostly adults that buy SW, Marvel, and Harry Potter sets.

I agree with this. Actually the original Galaxy Explore might be one of the ugliest ships in Space. I vastly prefer the Starfleet Voyager or the Stardefender 200, at least in terms of aesthetics. Yes! Just give me trans colored windscreens, proper astronauts (with airtanks and visors), and some version of the Space logo.

That isn't very spaceship specific. 😁 Sci-fi swooshies eh? I guess that's a fair way to categorize a huge number of designs. Just so long as we don't pretend that's all that matters. Which people in this thread are definitely doing. Let's continue with that line of thinking. Aren't Monkey Kid and Ninjago both just "Martial Arts Action" lines? Why do they both need to exist? They all have the same "sci fi swooshies" too. You can even lump in Dreamzzz. They're all fantasy action themes with swords and swooshies. Chima and Nexo Knights too. Why even have themes? Let's just have one theme then. If it's all the same, why do we need all these different themes? But that works the other way too. You can do a Space theme with ninjas and science and all of that. So what does Ninjago give us that Space couldn't? Strangely, space is the one place that Ninjago specifically hasn't gone. They had an underwater subset, a cyberpunk season, heck even island windsurfers, but never went to space. Maybe Monkie Kid was allowed to go to space since it's mainly a China market theme. I really don't like this thing where we use the supposed naivete of kids to talk us out of expecting things we like as AFOLs. Castles and Pagodas are similar ideas but one absolutely does not satisfy the desire for the other. And I reject the idea that Kids don't or won't care about differences like that. When I was a kid I rejected Space Police 2 because of the color change. I completely resented it as a theme. And I threw out all my Tyco Super Blocks because they weren't Lego. Kids care about little differences, maybe more than adults. I think this is a big reason Nexo Knights failed. People who want a castle want a castle, they don't want a hot pink glowing castle tank. People who want space ships want space ships, they don't want a flying crossbow piloted by a knight. Sometimes Lego sets are just too weird and alienate everybody. Including kids. As a kid I hated that kind of thing. I probably liked Nexo Nights more as an adult than I would have as a kid, because I can appreciate the camp now.

I'm going to go the other way. Since we have mechs in every theme, like SW where there aren't even mechs in the movies, and now in City(?) Space, and since we have space ships in Monkie Kid and City and Friends (and supposedly EVERY theme according to you all, since Ninjago helicopters are apparently space ships), then... Why the heck can't we just have a real, unified Space theme? Obviously space ships and mechs are super popular. They could easily constitute a theme. I guess we are getting a "Space" theme finally in 2024 with aliens and mechs, but it's pretty weird that it's in City.

Yes! This is great advice. It's a great set, and I've seen it on sale for $20 at multiple major retailers (no idea what the Europe situation is though). I wish it had more Space-y colors, but despite that it's pretty nice.

I'm not sure where all these complaints about this set falling apart are coming from. I can open the windscreens over and over with no issues. The ONLY time I had parts pop off was when I tried to lift up the entire 1000 piece set from a single wing tip. I only did this because I had shoved the set deep into a huge drawer in the bottom of a storage closet in my Lego room. I was too lazy to crouch down and pick it up right. I knew it was dumb as I did it. A small chunk of wing edge came off. So I got down and picked it up right, popped the chunk back on, and all was good. It's a Lego set. Parts are going to pop off sometimes. It's also a 1000 piece set, and an 18+ set at that. If you run around the room going "brrrmm" holding it by a wing tip, it's not going to end well. But with two hands a competent adult can carefully swoosh it around no problem. Despite being an 18+ beautiful display piece, it's remarkable sturdy. Xenon X-Craft is an amazing set. For all the reasons you gave. I didn't have it as a kid, though I had other space sets. When I got the set as an adult, I loved it. It had everything that made Galaxy Explorer great, but in a tiny package. Plus all the great parts. It was like Classic Space distilled perfectly into a single set. I still think we need a CLASSIC. SPACE. CREATOR. SET. with all kinds of good trans parts and prints and rocket bits. And chunky wheels.

I tire of these question. Let's just hope we get some cool sets in 2024. 😁

They did that in Nexo Knights. Of course I don't consider it a Space set. Why would I? It's not Space. It's Nexo Knights. Is the Futuron Monorail really a city set because City also had a Monorail? Are all Disney Princess castle sets really Harry Potter because both have castles? What kind of questions are these? 😕

I see a couple cool trans blue parts that I can bricklink, and a ridiculous number of stickers. And too many el cheapo dreamlings or whatever they're called. Also I'm sick of mashups like this. I don't want a spaceship/schoolbus. Not everything unlicensed has to be some bizarre mish mash. Except TLG definitely disagrees.

Yeah but Galaxy Explorer was an 18+ one off set which probably isn't covered in whatever licensing agreement Lego has with Disney. I don't know. I'm speculating. But obviously having a SPACE. HOVERBIKE. in the City theme is at least peculiar, is it not? Are you denying that this is weird? Honestly if we get cool colored windscreens, and not a bunch of crappy stickers, I'm going to buy them and I'll just ignore the City classification. But... IT'S STILL WEIRD. Okay. Do Space hoverbikes exist? I mean you can argue that mechs exist too. You can buy one on Alibaba!

If it's released in a non-Space, Earth based theme, and it looks like a Jet and or Helicopter, and Jet and or Helicopter (or some similar word) is literally in the name, I'm not going to consider it a space ship. It only gets dicey when something looks more like a real life space shuttle or landing craft. I.e. the Overwatch Gibratler looks suspiciously like a space shuttle to me. Though if it blasts off without rockets, maybe it really is a spaceship, or specifically a rocket ship. But a Ninjago jet is clearly not a spaceship. Brickset calls Alien Conquest sets Space. I don't consider them Space-y enough to collect them. Unlike Mars Mission and Galaxy Squad. I don't know what to think about 2024 City space. We haven't seen them yet.

Something that has anything remotely to do with space? Like, having spaceships? This is not that hard. The Monkie Kid rocket ship and moon base sets are the only two pictured that have anything to do with space. And Alien Conquest has aliens and UFOs at least. Though not much other than that connects it to Space. That one could have easily been a City theme!

Oops sorry, I was talking about when Ninjago was scaled back to 10 sets a year while TMNT sets were being made. So yes, scaled back, not totally gotten rid of. Thanks for the correction. Ok but how many of the helicopters you posted had laser beams for rotors and a pilot with air tanks? You guys are making the argument that any set with any similarity whatsoever to something that existed in one Space set means "this could have been a space set." I.e. Insectoids existed so any set with a bug in it "could have been Space set"? No. You guys are basically gaslighting at this point. "This Halloween set had a spider. Could have been a Space set!"

Congratulations, you just listed all the years SW movies were not in theaters (except 1999 which was when Space consisted only of leftover Insectoid polybags) thus proving my point. Quoting my past self here: You can even see the same thing with Ninjago. They got rid of it scaled Ninjago back to a handful of sets to make way for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There's an argument that they really scaled back Ninjago to bring in Chima, but that's hogwash. Ninjago was 4 boy ninjas and their master with who fight mutant bad guys. It IS TMNT with the turtle gimmick removed. It was Lego's audition for TMNT. Once they got TMNT, they didn't need Ninjago. Except TMNT fizzled out after a couple years (or they lost the license to Mega or whatever), so they brought Ninjago back to a full theme. Chima may have been the "replacement" for Ninjago, but Ninjago was the stand in for TMNT the whole time. Also, some of you posting obvious jet fighters and helicopters as proof that Lego can do space sets? That's really weird guys. Seriously? You could just not make silly arguments.

Yes, I would call a 100% chance decent, myself. 😁

😒 🤣 Guys, can we just admit there is something seriously wrong in Billund? They're tying themselves into pretzels trying to have unlicensed Space sets without having unlicensed Space sets. This is a City set? Really? Is there some sort of internal power struggle? Does Lego just really hate Space fans so everything they give us has to be extremely begrudging? Or is this all not to piss off Disney?

I don't think this deserves much more than an eye roll. MAB, I don't even believe you anymore. I think you know this isn't true, and you're just lying. The evidence is overwhelming. We've been through it over and over. Lego even admits that they don't want their themes competing with each other. You can look through Brickset and see all the years where Space is gone and there just happens to be SW movies in theaters. I have a post on this, I need to link to it in my signature because it comes up again and again. Speaking of "there is no evidence this is true": how well various Space and Castle themes sold. Nobody has this information. Except Lego and they're not divulging.

One set can't be all things to all people. It's okay if 10497 doesn't scratch your particular itch. It's okay if it's not your favorite set ever. It's okay if it wasn't custom designed to your particular tastes. The real problem is we get ONE Classic Space set every 10 years. So we all hang all of our hopes on one set, and of course some people are disappointed. It also means even if 10497 is basically perfect it's still going to get all kinds of criticism for not being something else.