Canondorf

I see Aquazone as space-adjacent at least. Maybe it's set in the near-future on Earth, making it contemporary to say 2019 City Space, Life on Mars or Mars Mission? I've been going through Lego Space lore this past week, trying to find what I can about things like names of technology, and terminology. So that I could gather it here (for reference, for interest, for everyone's common use). Does anyone here know what type of FTL is used in Lego Space? I couldn't find a single reference to what type of FTL propulsion is used in Lego within comics or anything. Ship's log books were referred to as the Explorer's Log in early exploration of the solar system. As an example, I looked at the terminology for various "crystals" in different space themes, and they are mostly quite consistent: - "lunar crystals" (comic: Journey to the Moon) ----------------------- [neon green] - "biodium" (theme: Life on Mars) -------------------------------------------- [red] - "energy crystals" (theme: Mars Mission) ------------------------------- [neon green] - "energy-crystals" (theme: Lego City Space 2024) ------------------ [purple] - "super-crystal" (theme: Lego City Space 2024) --------------------- [violet] - "energy crystals" aka "brickonium" (theme: Rock Raiders) ---- [neon green] - "energy crystals" aka "brickonium" (game: Rock Raiders) ----- [red] So perhaps different forms of "energy crystals" were first discoverd on the Moon, then Mars, and then have been mined for hundreds of years since, across the galaxy. An early war was fought over them on Mars, with the dangerous mysterious CrystAliens, humanity's first interplanetary war. The CrystAliens must still be out there in the galaxy somewhere, lurking. Then a new purple variety was found by the 2024 Space guys, perhaps deposited by asteroids from silicate microbes or something (my headcanon). A lot of that information was from either Lego catalogues or comics. This is a list of comics that I could find for different space themes: - Journey to the Moon (Space Port) - Mystery of the Red Planet (Life on Mars) - First Contact (Life on Mars) - Robot vs. Robot (Life on Mars) - A Slight Shock! (Life on Mars) - For a Few Crystals More (2024 Space) - The Unknown Galaxy (Classic Space) - Encounter at Ice Station Odyssey (Ice Planet) - Another Universe (UFO) - Rock Raiders (Rock Raiders) Many of them are avialble online, photographed from old magazines. I considered posting all of them here, but it might overwhealm the thread with massive scans/pictures. I'll try to include a few higher quality examples only. There are some translations of Russian scans of a Life on Mars comic. As many of you may know, The Unknown Galaxy is a classic of space lore, providing what might be an early stage of the Classic Space era. Encounter at Ice Station Odyssey is not that great, but one of the few appearances of the Blacktron II. There is a short story giving some background on Spyrius, including references to this United Galaxies council type organisation: These Rock Raiders comics were available here, on a Rock Raiders related forum. They are not the best ones that I read through. I also thought this was an incredibly well-researched lore video on Blacktron: There are also two videogames, the Mars Mission related Lego: Mars Mission - CrystAlien Conflict for web browsers and Lego: Rock Raiders for the PS1 and PC. I also tried to piece together as many planet names as I could: - Planet Earth / Planet Terra (Sol System / Milky Way Galaxy) [City Space] --- Earth's Moon (Sol System / Milky Way Galaxy) [City Space] - Planet Mars (Sol System / Milky Way Galaxy) [Life on Mars, Mars Mission] - Planet W [2024 Space] - Planet X [2024 Space] - Planet Zonia [Classic Space] - Planet Commercia [Classic Space] - Planet Robus [Classic Space] - Planet Blacktron [Blacktron I] - Planet B2 [Blacktron II] - Planet Axel [Blacktron II] - Planet Krysto / Ice Planet 2002 [Ice Planet] - Planet Spyrius [Spyrius] - Planet Uniton [Unitron] - Planet Zotax [UFO] - Planet Xizos [UFO] - Planet Zeebo [UFO] - Planet Holox / Planet Armaron [Insectoids] - Planet U ("Distant Galaxy") [Rock Raiders] - Planet X2½ [Alien Conquest] - Planet Lavoo (Selva System / Selva Galaxy) [Galaxy Squad] - Planet Zorax (Selva System / Selva Galaxy) [Galaxy Squad] - Planet Veedo (Selva System / Selva Galaxy) [Galaxy Squad] - Planet Selva (Selva System / Selva Galaxy) [Galaxy Squad] --- Selva's Moon (Selva System / Selva Galaxy) [Galaxy Squad] - Hive Planet (Selva System / Selva Galaxy) [Galaxy Squad] - 814FTW (Selva System / Selva Galaxy) [Galaxy Squad] - 214DAL (Selva System / Selva Galaxy) [Galaxy Squad] If I was to piece that all together, I would say that a planet is first just assigned a generic six-character code like 184JKL when telescopes detect it among millions of exoplanets, then might be informally named after a letter of the alphabet upon first survey contact by a passing ship like Planet N, and then if it is properly explored and settled might get a proper human name like Cooltron. Or it may already have an alien name. In addition to the return of Futuron II, Blacktron III and Space Police IV, if Lego wanted to re-introduce other factions, I would personally then go for one of the hostile aliens, either the Zotaxians who already look completely badass, or the CrystAliens who had bad minifigures that would be easy to update but are pretty mysterious like the Chigs in Space: Above and Beyond. They must be humanity's oldest foe, probably have other branches and lost colonies out there in the wider galaxy. Again, does anyone knows what type of FTL has ever been named in Lego? That would be great to know! (And very important lore!) So there, it's all archived, so that people in future can hopefully find some use in this thread.

I'm not sure that fleshing it neccecarily ruins the old aesthetic (as you say the Blacktron Renegade handled modernisation well). For example of the preservation of principles on a MOC I Googled, on this one, the cabin still sits on the front of the drivetrain: Admittedly, it's a big looking MOC. I would say that including a few little rovers, as secondary vehicles within larger ones, akin to City Space 2019 say, would be a good start.

Some further thoughts: Within 16.3 light years of Earth, there are 60 stars, in 52 star systems. The nearest, Proxima Centauri, part of a three-star system with Alpha Centauri A & B, is 4.25 light-years away: There are between 100,000,000,000 and 400,000,000,000 stars in our home galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy. It is a large spiral galaxy, with a disk 100,000 light-years to 170,000 light-years in diameter. Most of those 100 billion to 400 billion stars have planets. We don't know how rare an Earth-like world, inside it's star's Goldilocks-zone, is. 80% of stars are red dwarf stars, usually too faint or small to have a wide habitable zone. Binary and trinary systems are most common. We can assume that the Lego Galaxy, if it isn't identical to our real The Milky Way, is a similar large spiral galaxy. We have some small satellite galaxies. The nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way, the Andromeda galaxy, is similar to the Milky Way, except larger. Although marketing and descriptions differ between different countries, we can gather the names of various planets in the Lego Space universe. Presumably "Planet Earth" exists in Lego Space, sometimes referred to as "Planet Terra", the Latin for Earth, in some Lego Space material, if I remember. The Alpha Centauri star system exists, the closest star to ours, and there is a secret Blacktron base there. There is "Planet Krysto" aka "Ice Planet 2002". There is "Planet Blacktron" the capital or base of the Blacktron faction. There is "Planet B2" the later Blacktron base or capital. There is "Planet Spyrius" capital of the Spyrius faction. There is "Planet Unitron" where many factions meet. There is "Planet Axel". There is "Planet Zeebo". There is "Planet U" in a distant galaxy where the Rock Raiders found themselves after an accident. Then in another universe, there are "Planet Zotax" and "Planet Xizos" in the Zotaxian Empire. The insectoid world "Planet Holox" aka "Planet Armeron" also appears to be in the Zotaxian universe. At some point, it seems there is an organisation called The United Galaxies, maybe something like the United Nations, perhaps the origin of the Space Police's laws, perhaps established the Galactic Council. In real life, it will take hundreds of years with nuclear propulsion to reach nearby stars, unless we invent something better. It would currently require something like a generation-ship or sleeper-ship. So Lego Space must have some form of faster than light (FTL) propulsion by the time of "Classic Space", where civilization seems to be inter-stellar. Something like a warp drive, jump drive or hyperdrive. As far as I know, Lego have left this completely up to the indivdual builder to imagine, and we don't have any material on what they officially use. Then again, it's possible they just take generations to get to nearby stars! Early exploration in real life, will likely be of our own star system's major planets, dwarf planets, Jovian moons, Saturnian moons, asteroids and comets. Of which there are millions. Then it would logically advance to the nearest extrasolar star systems, with their own asteroids, planets, moons and dwarf planets. So, if City Space and Lego Space exist in the same timeline, then at some point, I assume humanity invents a type of FTL travel. At light speed, it would still take almost a year to reach the outer edge of our own star's cometary Oort cloud. It's likely that early Lego astronauts at first only explore nearby stars, including faint brown dwarf and red dwarf systems like Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, Proxima Centauri, Wolf 359 and Groombridge 34 A & B. They would likely find uninhabitable worlds, but beautiful, mineral rich, mysterious planets like Mars, full of wonderous canyons, mountains, craters, etc, as well as distant lonely asteroids and ice bodies. You can see it in the pictures from Lego box covers and magazines. Perhaps this is why they need mobile tracking stations like the one pictured below; to track asteroids, to explore them, or avoid meteor showers. Human Factions: |- Classic Space / Futuron / 2024 Space |- Blacktron I / Blacktron II |- Space Police I / Space Police II / Space Police III |- M-Tron |- Ice Planet |- Spyrius |- Unitron |- Exploriens |- Roboforce |- Rock Raiders Most of the Lego Space themes didn't include alien life. It later become more common. I prefer to keep alien life to a minimum, as fewer aliens seems to be reasonable, closer to hard sci-fi, fitting the aesthetic from 1978-1996. Let's assume that the Drake equation, the estimate of how much alien life exists, is very low for the Lego galaxy. They perhaps find primitive microbes more often, but less often complex life, and even less often intelligent life. It's only later, when they gain very fast propulsion, and can explore distant planets like Ice Planet Krysto 2002, that they begin to encounter a handful of civilizations. However, if you believe that every theme of Lego exists in the same universe, then humanity first meets peaceful native Martians on Mars in our own solar system, then gets attacked by an unidentified civilization on Mars, during it's early exploration of the solar system. Some of the few choice civilizations would be: "Martians" (from *Life on Mars*) [Friendly] "CrystAliens" (from *Mars Mission*) [Hostile] "Alien Life" (from *2024 Space*) [Neutral / Friendly] "Zotaxian Empire" (from *UFO*) [Neutral / Hostile] "Buggoids" or "Bugs" (from *Galaxy Squad*) [Hostile] I'm not going to include every alien, including the silly ones from late-Lego-Space themes like Space Police III (which had stupid stuff like cop cars chasing aliens with dollar bills or alien gangsters wearing 1920s mob-era fedoras - it's not Lego Space as far as I'm concerned), but only ones that seem like a major civilization, or which are definately part of a reputable space theme. I'm not even sure Alien Conquest counts as a Lego Space theme, or else we could include Planet X2.5 and those aliens. But the above ones have appeared in either a decent City Space theme or a decent Lego Space theme. Then, if you are okay with aliens as part of the Space theme, this is a more detailed speculative timeline: 20th century - "1995 City Space" | humanity is launching space vessels to orbit [e.g. 6339 Shuttle Launch Pad] 20th century - "1999 City Space" | humanity is launching space vessels to orbit [e.g. 6456 Mission Control] 21st century - "2011 City Space" | humanity is launching space vessels to orbit [e.g. 3368 Space Centre] 21st century - "2015 City Space" | humanity is launching space vessels to orbit [e.g. 60080 Spaceport] 21st century - "2022 City Space" | humanity is exploring the moon [e.g. 60350 Lunar Research Base] 21st century - "2019 City Space" | humanity is exploring planet Mars [e.g. 60226 Mars Research Shuttle] 21st century - "Life on Mars" | humanity encounters native aliens on Mars [e.g. 7315 Solar Explorer] 21st century - "Mars Mission" | humanity fights another species invasion of Mars [e.g. 7693 ETX Alien Strike] 23rd century - "Classic Space" | humanity is exploring asteroids and extrasolar planets [e.g. 6980 Galaxy Commander] 25th century - "2024 Space" | humanity is exploring asteroids and extrasolar planets [e.g. 60431 Space Explorer Rover and Alien Life] 28th century - "Futuron" | humanity is exploring asteroids and extrasolar planets deep into the galaxy [e.g. 6893 Galactic Starship] 28th century onwards - "Blacktron", "Space Police", "M-Tron", "Ice Planet", "Exploriens", "Rock Raiders", etc Alternatively, if you find some of these aliens to be a litte bit too much on the cartoony side, you can just ignore them. The main part of the Lego Space theme is those human factions. From Classic Space to Rock Raiders. Possibly including Aquazone. It's possible they are exploring the seas of some alien world, an ocean under the surface of an ice moon. I'm gonna suggest than rather than a crowded Star Wars style galaxy, there are perhaps only a few major colonies in the Lego galaxy, perhaps planets that were named by explorers: Futuron, Krysto, Blacktron, Spyrius, Unitron. I'm gonna suggest it's best to keep to just existing aliens, or it muddles the setting.

The final thing I'll say, is just that I think 2024 Lego City Space (or whatever we are calling this new theme) is a step in the right direction to having Lego Space back, the beloved theme that we think was probably killed by poor choices in the late 1990s, followed Lego's licensing deal with Star Wars. I think this could be seen as either Futuron II or Futuron 0, and bringing either Blacktron III or Blacktron 0 back to steal their crystals would be great. But I think, as I said above, that the 1990s aesthetic was in some ways actually more evocative of the magnificent desolation of space, it's infinite wonders, than these car-like vehicles. I also think the range was inspired a little too much by popular movies and games, rather than Lego's own excellent past: The 60431 Space Explorer Rover strongly resembles the ND1 Nomad from Mass Effect: Andromeda. The 60433 Modular Space Station strongly resmebles the Endurance from Interstellar. This is fine; taking inspiration from other science fiction is what science fiction has been doing for 120 years now. Homage is a high compliment. Or else Star Wars wouldn't have "tractor beams" and "proton torpedoes" like earlier Star Trek had "tracktor beams" and "photon torpedoes", etc. Or "spice" in Star Wars and Dune. Or various methods of FTL being labelled warp drive or hyperdrive, etc. What I think however is that copying other design philosophues, actually dilutes Lego's own unique aesthetic, that was equally good and valid: The small NASA-punk style open-top one-seater vehicles, that were little more than seat, fuselage, and a few thruster nozzles. They could do with a return in some cheap polybag sets alongside bigger stuff. Lego could actually do with having more faith in it's own prior design philosophies and antecendants. It makes for a good playset to have something astronauts can quickly hop around in. Lego's own stuff looks industrial No nonsense civilization of diligent workmen in space. The open-top lunar rover style vehicles give out construction vehicle vibes. It's got an engineer's eye dream of a space colony, where these people are building, mining, setting up transport networks, etc. If in the 2000s space went wrong by introducing too many weird themes that had cartoony elements, then it makes sense to go back to Futuon, Blacktron and Space Police as the basis for a revival of the Lego lore. In general, I agree with this guy's take:

The only reason people tend to put Classic Space first then Futuron is because it seems even behind the scenes, that is what designers were thinking. The Secret Life of LEGO Bricks by Daniel Konstanski, says that Futuron was developed as a far-future continuation of the earlier civilization seen in Classic Space. Their colonies or outposts become an entirely new civilization with extensive planetary infrastructure and transport networks. There is one other circumstantial piece of evidence that 2024 Space comes either before or after everything, and it's that they have a different system of uniform colours to the Classic Space and Futuron guys. Three departments, Blue, Green and Yellow, for pilots, scientists and engineers. As opposed to four or more colours in those other two. It might indicate either an earlier or later development. - Blue: Pilot/Explorer Division - Green: Science Division - Yellow: Engineering Division vs. - Red: Pilots - White: Explorers - Yellow: Scientists - Blue: Security - Black: Spies Interestingly, I also seem to remember reading that originally, Lego was envisioned as three eras: Castle for the past, City for the present, Space for the future.

Just to be clear, I didn't make that lovely Futuron re-design, it was someone else on the internet :) I've written a couple of speculative timelines of how it all fits together, but here is another for interest: 20th century - "1995 City Space" | humanity is launching to orbit - [e.g. 6339 Shuttle Launch Pad] 21st century - "2022 City Space" | humanity is exploring the moon - [e.g. 60350 Lunar Research Base] 21st century - "2019 City Space" | humanity is exploring planet Mars - [e.g. 60226 Mars Research Shuttle] 23nd century - "Classic Space" | humanity is exploring asteroids and extrasolar planets - [e.g. 6980 Galaxy Commander] 25th century - "2024 Space" | humanity is exploring extrasolar planets - [e.g. 60431 Space Explorer Rover and Alien Life] 28th century - "Futuron" | humanity is exploring exoplanets deep into the galaxy - [e.g. 6893 Galactic Starship] Alternatively you could swap 2024 Space as being *after* "Futuron I", meaning it would be "Futuron II". It's a little unclear whether their space suits are meant to be intermediate between "City Space" and "Classic Space", or between "Classic Space" and "Futuron", or alternatively after "Futuron". The story on the marketing blurbs says that they are looking for the energy crystals, which seem to power their crystal-botanic-battery fuel cells. Maybe they are some form of silicon-based microscopic crystalline life-form leaving a high-energy crystal deposit as biological waste, and being spread across multiple star systems by asteroids i.e. 'panspermia' hypothesis. Ideal resource for Blacktron to steal :)

I wouldn't mind if Lego went with a realistic astronaut life support pack, but some of the 2024 Space astronauts don't even have packs of any kind! They are just wearing the 2024 Space Suit without anything on their back; no room for compressed oxygen at all. It's quite immersion breaking. The blue pack that some pilots wear, is also is largely empty of equipement or space for compressed oxygen. It looks more like some sort of tiny jet pack. It looks totally impractical as a life-support device, seemingly having no room for compressed oxygen. If Lego decided to go full hard sci-fi with a revival of the far-future Space theme, and make a new all-enclosing chest-and-backpack piece the new standard for Lego Space, I would be quite happy with that - though I suspect many people would rather just have the classic tank back as a homage.

The Classic Space sets look like an extension of the real-life Apollo programme Saturn V technology, going into an alternative future, where Saturn-family rocket development never ended. In real life, the reliable Saturn rockets were retired, and NASA was diverted into the wasteful Space Shuttle programme. Some people think NASA should have continued to develop Saturn technology further, continuing on to Mars and beyond. The Classic Space rockets have white-and-black checkerboard patterns, like an old Mercury-Redstone missle, or Jupiter missle, or Saturn V launch vehcile. So I agree that the 2024 Space theme is sometime after City Space. But I also think that Classic Space also comes first, perhaps 100-200 years after City, and is the first Lego Space faction after City Space. City Space goes through the Lego equivalent of the Apollo Programme (1976, set 565), then Shuttle Programme (1995 City Space, set 6339), then the Artemis Programme (2022 City Space, set 60351). In the latter, they set up bases in the solar system as evidenced by sets like "60350 Lunar Research Base". Eventually, they move out of the solar system, becoming the Classic Space faction, in sets like "491 Galaxy Explorer". During Classic Space, they gain FTL travel, exploring the nearest stars, and ships like the Galaxy Explorer start colonising the Lego Galaxy: Out there in the Lego Galaxy's equivalent of the nearest stars, which are largely just red dwarf stars, like 80% of the galaxy, they find lots of airless barren asteroids, minor planets, moons, gas giants, etc. Also rogue astronauts found the Blacktron faction. These barren stars are rich in minerals, so they begin setting up an amazing industrial civilization, building outposts and monorails on these barren lifeless bodies. They realise that terrestrial-style planets with oxygen atmospheres are relatively rare, explaining the airless, low-G, barren aesthetic of Lego Space, where everyone is always floating around some asteroid or moon. Assuming this is true, now the question becomes does 2024 Space come next, or does Futuron come next? You could interpret the 2024 Space focus on 'energy crystals' (60431 Space Explorer Rover) and 'super crystals' (60432 Command Rover) as evidence that they are just discovering the fuel that will power the later Futuron civilization, or it could be that the Futuron I came before them, and they are just finding a more efficient fuel (maybe the crystals are some silicon-based microbe that gives out emits more energy than it consumes, like in Space: Above and Beyond). The resulting fuel cells are called 'crystal-botanic batteries' (60434 Space Base). I initially thought that 2024 Space came before Futuron. Now I'm gonna go against that and propose that they come after Futuron, and are essentially Futuron II. Maybe that Unitron and Exploriens are not really a different civilization either, but exist around the same time? I don't have evidence for it, just essentially the look of the space suits, which have a kind of progression from Classic Space, to Futuron, to 2024 Space: I've not really got any evidence to go off, other than this vague impression from the uniforms. They could come between Classic Space and Futuron. However, Classic Space and Futuron seem to have shared the same colour system. Red: Pilots, White: Explorers, Yellow: Scientists, Blue: Security, Black: Spies. Wheras 2024 Space has adopted a new three-colour division of their departments, which might suggest it comes after Futuron I, as a new Futuron II : - Blue: Pilot/Explorer Division - Green: Science Division - Yellow: Engineering Division Either way, if 2024 Space come before Futuron, or after Futuron, you have the possibility of a 2025-2026 Blacktron revival. Futuron II and Blacktron III. Classic Space never had an antagonist faction, but Futuron had Blacktron. They seem to use electronic warfare, operating listening posts, perhaps to pick up messages from the Futuron, to steal their technology (6987 Message Intercept Base).

I've seen some pretty good lore speculation over the years, on how Lego Space fits together. I'd love to hear your interpretations of the lore of Lego Space, based on art, set names, product descriptions, comics, little snippets from old magazines and catalogues. I'll give a couple of ideas to get started. One is a timeline, in which all the Lego Space themes are a development of one another. The other is just a general "they all exist side-by-side at once" interpretation. First off, if you regard Lego Space as being related to City, rather than it's own thing, then a timeline might look something like this: - 20th Century - City Space - 23rd Century - Classic Space - 28th Century - Futuron, Blacktron I, Space Police I, M-Tron - 31st Century - M-Tron, Blacktron II, Space Police II, Ice Planet - 38th Century - Ice Planet, Spyrius, Unitron - 46th Century - Spyrius, Unitron, Exploriens Lets say that future Lego people became an entirely space-bourne civilization. They live in their pressurised suits most of the time. They have explored thousands of remote asteroids, around barren gas giants, as well as local stars, red and brown dwarfs. As seen on the box artwork. Then they begin to venture out across the entire galaxy, as described in set names like "Galaxy Explorer". Perhaps they have few, if any, actual terrestrial worlds, existing mostly in pressurised space habitats. However, some sources mention a couple of planets, like the Blacktron's main base or homeworld, . Perhaps the galaxy just has a couple of major bases that the factions operate out of, beside their remote outposts: Perhaps Lego Space is a relatively low-alien setting, with few planets having intelligent life. Most factions are humans, long-separated colonies like the Blacktron. Zotaxians come from a parralel universe, when they invade the Lego Galaxy in the UFO theme. There are occasionally some primitive life forms like the green aliens in 2024 Space. When you look at the artwork of the Lego sets, they often depict the settlement, mining, exploration, of asteroids, barren moons, around uninhabitable gas giants, giving this sense that the Lego Space guys are a civilization in a "rare-Earth hypothesis" type galaxy. They are steely eyed missle men, adapted to airless environments, mining, being essentially hard-working engineers, explorers, scientists, like Lego City's construction sets. However, even though you sometimes see older uniforms being treated like a relic, such as statues of Classic Space astronauts in later works, there is another way of looking at it, since we know next to nothing about the timeline, in which all the old factions just exist side by side in the galaxy at once. Futuron, Blacktron I, Space Police I, M-Tron, Blacktron II, Space Police II, Ice Planet, Spyrius, Unitron and Exploriens are just a dozen different factions existing side-by-side. Perhaps there is an organisation something like this: Government - The 'Futuron Federation' [Capital: Planet Futuron] | --- Exploriens Division | --- Space Police Division | --- M-Tron Mining Corporation | --- Ice Planet Rangers Government - The 'Blacktron Conglomerate' [Capital: Planet Blacktron] | --- Blacktron I Faction | --- Blacktron II Faction In addition you have the Zotaxian Empire invading from another universe. Perhaps the Unitron are somehow a treaty or alliance between multiple factions, acting as a kind of mutual defence organisation between the Futuron, M-Tron Corporation, Ice Planet Rangers, etc. One English language product description mentions the "laws established by the Galactic Council", so perhasp this Galactic Council is a kind of Space UN, which Futuron and Blacktron are both members of, and theoretically meant to follow, but in actuality are rivals. Now that 2024 Space has re-introducted the uniforms of the Futuron, it seems that we can at least say that Classic Space, Futuron, and 2024 Space are the same exact civilization: They already all bear the Lego Space planet-and-ship logo. This raises a lot of interesting questions about where they go in a timeline. Perhaps they are just a different variant of the Futuron uniform, and exist side-by-side within the Futuron faction, say around the 28th-37th century in that completely speculative timeline above. Or perhaps they are between Classic Space and Futuron? Or perhaps they are after Futuron I, the long-awaited continuation of Futuron II as a faction, going forward, into a era of the theme that we haven't seen yet, with new Blacktron III and Space Police IV on the horizon? What are your interpretations friends?

At first I thought that 2024 Space was a prequel to "Classic Space". It seemed to have a technological aesthetic slightly above the NASA-style sets of City Space. It was just my personal head-canon. It seemed below far-future Futuron or M-Tron or Ice Planet or Unitron in a timeline. However, the latest sets have brought back the Futuron style uniform. This makes me think that the sets are simply contemporary to "Futuron I", or even a continuation. Perhaps this is "Futuron II". Perhaps we will soon see "Blacktron III" re-introduced as antagonists? And "Space Police IV" as protectors? I would love to see it; the complete revival of the Lego Space theme. In general I like the sets. I think Lego almost hit 1990s levels of coolness, but there are things that just didn't completely do it for me. I'd like to offer a friendly critique of the range. First off, I put Ice Planet oxygen tanks on a 2024 Space minifig, and oh god, it looks so much better. Oxygen tanks were a symbol of the hard sci-fi aesthetic of Lego Space. They give a real isolated "I'm having to carry around all my air" vibe to the old sets. Like they were on distant asteroids and hostile planets in some remote barren star system around an ancient star. The addition of an Ice Planet oxygen tank to these 2024 Space guys makes them look soooooo much better. Bring back the classic tank! In general, I think the level of technology in the 2024 Space sets looks interesting, hard to place on a timeline with previous space sets, very Mass Effect like, but could do with something that hits home, that they are in an extreme environement, far far away from habitable comfort, like the bulky oxygen tank. Also it was a Lego signature; the slightly retro look of the tanks just works. In the 1990s sets, there were often no canopies covering the pilots of vehicles. Giving a sense that they are operating in vacuum or near-vacuum. They often had this interesting configuration of a forward piloted drivetrain, where the pilot was sitting on the front of the vehicle's drive wheels, giving it a fuel-cell powered moon buggy feel, less like a gasoline-powered car with a car-like drivetrain from today. That gave a very airless vacuum-of-space type aesthetic, in how a small secondary craft would simply be just a few thruster-nozzles attatched to a little hopper. 2024 Space by contrast has gone with a completely enclosed look, which in certain circumstances looks good, but on ground vehicles, it can look a bit much like a "car". I wouldn't mind a few open-top secondary ships, that acknowledge the lack of need enclosed vehicles in many environments, when you are already wearing a pressurised environmental suit. Overall, compared to say Futuron, the two look related, as do many of the goodguy space factions - Classic Space, Futuron, Ice Planet, Exploriens, 2024 Space - but I do miss the deep transparent colours that the canopies had on older sets. They just somehow looked far future, when combined with the angular designs. I initially interpreted 2024 Space as being a prequel to "Futuron", set after "City Space", so the aesthetic was halfway between City Space's moon missions, and Futuron's far-future civilization. But the lastest set now uses Futuron uniforms, so it seems more like this is much more a full space revival, closer to Futuron. Near-contemporary to all the other 1990s Lego Space themes. Comparison: If I was going to revive Lego Space for good, I would re-name or label this range "Futuron II", a far-future off-world civilization, and then re-introduce "Blacktron III" and "Space Police IV" as antagonists and protectors of these good-guy civilian explorers. Perhaps the name "Exploriens" was always just a name for the exploration division of the Futuron Federation or something, with "Space Police" being another division. Perhaps "Unitron" was just a name for an alliance of "Futuron", "Space Police", and "M-Tron". Who knows how it fits together? I've seen people re-colour the 2024 Space sets, with blue Futuron canopies, and it looks very good. I'm not saying that the range needs to copy every aesthetic from the older sets. This is a new era. We have different views now on space technology than in the 1990s, more focused on digital IT systems, nano-technology, AI, smooth curved computer-aided design, etc, as opposed to pure Newtonian engineering. But if this is indeed a revival of space, then it would be nice to see the return of these uncanny futuristic designs like low-G lunar-lander type vehicles, moon buggies, etc. Then just keep these three factions in circulation, if necessary, add "M-Tron II", "Ice Planet II", Zotaxians and stuff if more factions are needed.

I'm a fan of science fiction in general, and something I noticed with some of my other sci-fi hobbies, is that really it's a "trade off". So building quality means you get long-time loyalty, long-term sustainable sales, but less overall uptake. Building for mass appeal, on the other hand, means you get short-term uptake, but nobody remembers or cares about the product two years later, and you may lose all your fans through complete dissolution of your identity. Like so much in life, it's a sacrifice of energy, one way or the other, between two different outcomes. The great science fiction franchises, that are still talked about after 50 years, which have fierce loyalty, built their world's deep, rather than wide. They got long-term sustainable reliable sales of their merchandise through loyalty, and fierce fans crossing three or four different generations. They tended to be the ones with some deeper and coherent vision or philosophy. In many cases, when the corporation in charge of said franchises disgarded the "ideal form" of these franchises, they destroyed 50 years of fandom, and found that the short-term audience that they had aquired forgot them. I think, being honest, that this is what happened to late Lego Space themes. They alienated fans, and missed the point or appeal of Lego Space. All of that sounds good to me :) 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:

Although I know from long experience on internet forums that there are some people who can get really angry when a person argues for this, sometimes to the point that you can get personally attacked no matter how polite you are, I don't believe in taste being subjective, I believe there are objective ways to define even abstract things like beauty. (It doesn't mean you can't have co-equal "different types of beauty", or anything like that, but they are each approaching a "true form" of a different "ideal"). So, the reason I personally want 1990s themes back, is just that I think they were objectively beautiful, perhaps approaching a different ideal than say the Star Wars aesthetic aims at. I think younger collectors would love them just as much today; the colours are timeless on some of them, I would say. Dare I say, they were objectively better as playsets too, in that they allowed quite a wide latitude of imagination, or customisation and interpretation. Of course, this is my opinion, just as everything we utter are our opinions (needless for anyone to say). MOCs are, like you say, not for everyone, some people build Lego for the sets. On that front, 2024 Space is a good start, but I hope it's just a start, that they are warming up to a bigger space civilization. Antagonists. Mining rigs. Hidden secret bases. Monorails traversing remote canyons. Telescopes hunting new worlds, tracking stations, listening posts, lonely outposts, and radar dishes. I didn't have any Unitron aside from a minifig or two, nor do I think the above set is the best base I've seen, but the set seems to have quite a lot of interesting elements. A rover. A spacecraft. The suggestion of a large structure. Some kind of telescope or message intercept dishes. Something like a probe or satellite. All with quite few pieces, lots of studs to stand minifigs on, etc. It was just a random set I pulled off the internet to compare. Very imaginative I would say. Just wanted to say I think this is super cool. Exactly what I would love to see in an official set. Exactly, people don't want "change for the sake of change", I think personally. They just want something "done well" each time.

I'll do a hopefully positive friendly critique / review of the 2024 Space revival. I'm thankful that Space is back. I like the sets, and am hoping they are a prelude to the re-introduction of Blacktron alongside these 2024 sets as an antogonist faction ("Blacktron 0", I guess, if this is earlier in history?) The only thing I would say, is that I'm not a huge fan of the orange elements, which I'm guessing is inspired by the orange fuel tank on the NASA Space Shuttle, or the Ares launch system, I wish the glass canopy had been more blue-coloured like old space, and have mixed positive and negative feelings that the overall look is a little aeroplane-like like Mass Effect. I wish the old box art was back too, as it fired the imagination. I like some designs much more than others: The flagship set, the Interstellar Spaceship, is a very sleek and pretty design. It feels solid too. 10/10 within it's own aesthetic. 8/10 judged by 1990s space's aesthetic. I just miss elements like rocket nozzles, RCS thrusters, etc. I am guessing the engine is something like an aerospike, Hall-effect thruster, or Star Trek-style fusion-powered impulse engine of some kind. In the current era, VTOL rockets, with bell-nozzle engines, are still the height of technology and affordability, whereas space planes, a concept that always had critics, are largely just attached to rockets for now. As a matter of interest, I photoshopped Lego 60430 onto a classic blackground (with the laser grid thing) to see how it would look: Much better :) It looks like it could be an early Classic Space-era or early Futuron-era space vessel. If you photoshopped the canopy as the same darker blue as 1987-1996 space sets especially. In terms of where it might come on a fictional Lego Space timeline, I would say this was a couple of centuries after City (after present day). It has the Classic Space / Futuron logo, as late Lego City astronauts started using, meaning Classic Space civilization was probably born out of present day astronaut programmes. So you could place 2024 Space either just before Classic Space, where the spacesuits have become more Star Trek-like, or maybe between Classic Space and Futuron, in terms of aethetics. (As if humanity abandoned sleek aeroplane-like fuselage in favour of pure stripped-down rocket ships at some point). The space suits are starting to be primary coloured, just like the Classic Space figures, and Futuron figures. I like the overall aethetic, but for different reasons than why I like the 1987-1996 Space era. Basically these sets look like Mass Effect. But in classic space, I appreciated the use of rocket engines, bell nozzles, RCS thrusters, etc, which will probably never go out-of-fashion, as well as open canopies, and big inflated wheels like a moon buggy. I also think this item would be great for a return; these EVA jet packs, which look totally realistic, just a zero-G, vacuum thruster pack, no wings or aerofoil: One way to quickly get back some of the older space aesthetic, would be a couple of mini-sets like the open-top, seated-at-the-front Lunar Rovers, or small rocket nozzle LEM-like vehicles, which could be sold for cheap on supermarket shelves, or packaged in with bigger sets. They are not the most detailed sets that the 1990s produced, but they are totally functional elements, keeping afloat via small bursts of RCS propellant like a LEM. Those smaller open-to-space vehicles are a nice hard science concept, whereas I'm not keen on the 'hover bike' concept, as it's close to Star Wars, with anti-grav technology speeder bikes. So I'm hoping for a return of straight-up rockets, rocket launch rovers with satellite payloads, as well as the iconic bell nozzle pieces of the 1990s: I feel that the return of space in 2024 is a great start. Perhaps the mis-management of the Star Wars brand by movie studios has effected Lego's descision to re-introduce their own Lego Space theme. I'm hoping however that this is just the start of a wider revival of the classic factions, eventually producing mining vehicles like the M-Tron and Ice Planet Rangers. If this is simply the first "Futuron" faction in a wave, hopefully Lego will embrace the past sets more going forward, treating this wave as a prototype.

Agreed 100%. I really like the colours of Spyrius, Blacktron 2 and Space Police 2 as well, so it's a pity not to use them. I was thinking, in an ideal world, Lego could have say 20-30 sets in is permenant circulation, among the 5 factions. Then if a particularily well-received update or MOC is deemed popular by Lego, add that to the list, but otherwise be very cautious in changing classic sets. Like say always have a Blacktron cruiser, Futuron monorail, Ice Planet satellite launcher in circulation. I came across some of the many excellent MOCs on Google images, of how the classic sets could be updated: I'm not sure who to credit with those, so apologies. The problem with 2010s Space, right as it died off, was the science fiction influences became quite generic, I feel. Silly B-movie alien invasion aesthetics, or making Space Police resemble 20th century cops, or limiting action to the planet Earth, or the planet Mars, rather than open exploration. I think this might be an example where a no-alien sci-fi worked better. I personally didn't like the designs around that time at all, or the colours. I just meant that Futuron in 1987, then Unitron in 1994, then Explorien in 1996, all shared the same white with blue canopy aesthetic. You could explain that post-hoc by saying that they were all related, perhaps all descended from the classic space guys :) One from each: In my head-canon, I see them as successors to each other. Unitron might have been a unification of Futuron, M-Tron and Ice Planet perhaps. However, you could say something like "Futuron continued to exist alongside the others" too.

The themes and colours of the 1990s were the most beloved, and should have just stayed in print, rather than changing every couple of years from 1996 onward. The sets were quite hard science hard sci-fi, where everyone wears an oxygen tank, always wear a space suit, the environments are all airless low-gravity, and the smaller ships look like stripped down rocket engines with seats attached (since there is no need for canopies, in a vacuum, your pressure suit acts as one). Rocket bell nozzles are present on most vehicles, displaying respect for Newtonian laws, and Newtonian motion. In our solar system, there are hundreds of thousands of airless bodies, minor planets, and so on. Around our solar system, most stars are uninhabitable red dwarfs, invisible even to decent telescopes. So early space exploration for the purpose of mining would likely be expeditions to low-G environments, and perhaps barren solar systems around faint stars. Something like 50 out of 60 local stars are red dwarfs, unlikely to have a habitable planet perhaps, due to high radiation, solar winds, or other factors. There are dozens of large minor planets in our solar system alone, for example Pluto, Vesta, Ceres, Eris, Sedna, Makemake. Likely there will be many more around other stars, as well as endless asteroids and comets. Early Lego sets showed explorers setting up mobile tracking stations, radars, telescopes, etc. Very realistic and cool. The Blacktron also had hidden listening posts for intercepting data from other factions. Later sets and themes made the mistake of moving away from this very pleasing aesthetic toward too many smooth aircraft-like vehicles with specialised parts. This made Lego space look like generic sci-fi. They became more toyish-looking, like a cheap knockoff starfighters, rather than following this far future but realistic hard science fiction aesthetic. For example, the satellite launchers used by factions like the Ice Planet, look very similar to real world ballistic missle launchers: Essentially this quite unique look, with well-established colours, was changed for no reason, when it had very good faction differentiation. The vehicles became more aeroplane-like, just like Star Wars, just as Lego was also producing Star Wars vehicles, meaning there was no distiction between Lego and other generic sci-fi in the 2000s. As nice as it is to see a Space revival, the City Space stuff looks generic and too near-future. Here are the factions I would bring back, and just keep in permenant stock: FUTURON/UNITRON White, Black, Transparent Blue Canopy (The standard civilization of space explorers. Unification of Classic/Futuron/Unitron/Explorien. Main civilization.) SPACE POLICE Blue, Black, Transparent Red Canopy (The police forces of the above civilization. They protect the Futuron, and also other organisations like M-Tron.) BLACKTRON Yellow, Black, Transparent Yellow Canopy (The technological rival and thief civilization. They will seek tech advance by any means. Espionage experts.) M-TRON Red, Black, Transparent Light Green Canopy (The mining specialists. They use magnets to mine minerals. Blacktron steal their technology and raw ore.) ICE PLANET RANGERS White, Blue, Transparent Orange Canopy (Ice world specialists. They explore barren ice worlds and export water ice. Blacktron steal their satellites.) Essentially four good guy factions, and one based on stealing their tech. You could easily make a Real-Time Strategy game of this. Optionally you could add Aquanauts and Aquasharks to this same far future sci-fi setting, as water-only factions, mining ice planets like Europa around other stars. The reason for Blacktron 1 and Space Police 1 colours, rather than Space Police 2 and Blacktron 2, is that they fill out the colour spectrum better without clashing with the other themes, are distinct, and at least in Space Police 1's case, I would say more aesthetically pleasing than Space Police 2. Combining Blacktron 1 wasp-like colours, with Blacktron 2's cool designs would probably be the best way to handle that. Otherwise you have both Blacktron 2 and M-Tron using the same transparent elements. Just keep printing the same sets, adding a few good ideas or updates occasionally, and they can stay across generations.

Lego Space could be seen as quite hard science fiction. Everyone wears pressurised space suits constantly. Everyone carries a finite oxygen supply in a tank. Visible rocket motors power their ships according to Newtonian laws. The environments they explore appear very hostile, probably low gravity, airless bodies. The majority of stars in the Milky Way galaxy (an estimated 85%), are red dwarfs, quite barren stars probably unable to have habitable planets. The majority of them are in multiple star configurations, such as binary systems, or trinary systems. In such systems, essentially each star may have it's own solar system. There are around 60 stars, 52 of which are faint red dwarfs, invisible to the naked eye, within about 16 light years. This increases exponentially with distance, so that within just 50 light years, there are around 2,000 stars, in 1,400 star systems, according to an estimate. There might be a million bodies within our solar system alone. Lets assume that Lego Space was a hard science setting, with either slower-than-light travel (via sleeper ships), or very limited slow FTL, and was about astronauts mining these millions of bodies: - 20th century: Lego City space missions probe the planets of the solar system. - 21st century: Lego City space missions establish bases on the Moon and Mars. - 22nd century: Earth ocean minerals begin to be exploited by Aquanauts, and their enemies the pirate Aquasharks. - 23rd century: By this time, a culture of astronauts has arisen, born to explore, they begin to settle the nearby stars. - 26th century: [Humanity's sphere is now across 14 nearby star systems, inc. 100,000+ asteroids.] - 27th century: The asteroid outposts and colonies are united under a government, becoming known as the Futurons. - 28th century: Blacktron, a group of criminal technophiles, begin to steal tech, and Futuron creates the Space Police. - 31st century: Breakaway cultures, the mining-oriented operation called M-Tron, later the Ice Planet rangers, appear. - 32nd century: Blacktron are re-organised into the Neo-Blacktronian group, the Blacktron Future Generation. - 33nd century: Blacktron attacks escalate against the Ice Planet and M-Tron, with Space Police attempting to respond. - 35th century: [Humanity's sphere is now across 50 nearby star systems, inc. 1,000,000+ asteroids.] - 37th century: Space Police, M-Tron and Ice Planet sign the Unitron Accord, uniting into a single body, the Unitron. - 38th century: Spyrius, the ideological successor to Blacktron, begin a campaign of espionage against Unitron. - 41st century: During an era of relative peace, frontier explorers return to science, calling themselves Exploriens. I personally like Lego Space from about 1987 to 1996 the most, and wish they would bring back those factions and designs. Just freeze them at that point. I think that was the best looking, most imaginative. I think the Lego Space theme got watered down with too many changes of theme, too many toyish looking models in the 2000s, whereas this original hard sci-fi aesthetic was timeless. Just bring black Blacktron 1 or Blacktron 2, Space Police 1 or Space Police 2, and maybe M-Tron and Ice Planet. Keep them in print forever as a cross generational thing.