Cardinal Brick

Well finally I've gotten into the swing and now we have the second review in the series of Unitron Reviews, the smallest set that was produced in the theme the Crater Cruiser Set Name: Crater Cruiser Set Number: 1787 Number of Pieces: 180 Figures:2 Released: 1995 List Price: $18 (USD) or $21 in the catalogue I have 1787 Peeron.com 1787 Bricklink Catalog 'Small medium and large tires make this the best space mobile ever for cruising up and down the treacherous slopes of lunar craters. Comes with enough pieces to build a small space craft to hover overhead or check out the next galaxy' – US Shop@Home catalogue Sadly with all the Unitron sets from 1995 I don't own a box of this set so we will dispense with the normal box picture. So lets start of with the instruction picture As a mentioned in another space review Lego space has a lot of planets with a grid pattern Minifugers I like the Unitrons they have one of the more interesting patterns, I think apart from one of the Exploriens they've got the best torso printing of the time. In this set with get two of them, one is the Unitron grunt the other the chief though due to his released in 6705 the chief turns up far more often in Europe! A case of to many chiefs The Pod Not a complex build (hardly a surprise there), it's a sturdy little craft though some may not like the fact that the po is open to the outside rather than totally enclosed but then the Unitrons do have full face helmets and tanks on. The one problem is that as far as I know you wont be able to mount this do directly on the monorail without removing some of the engine block. I haven't tested this that'll come in the theme review but I've read it else where. Front Front with raised canopy Rear with engine block The ground craft. I'm not to sure about this part of the set, I like the idea but there are a few flaws. The use of three different wheels is good and I like the look that they manage to produce which is different from the normal space vehicles. Again as with the pod some may not be to pleased with the cockpit of the rover being open to the elements but that doesn't both me personally, I would like to have steering of some sort. If the front wheels had been put on a 2x2 turn table I think it would have improved this part of the set. Also I'm not to struck on the huge radar scanning array at the back which I think it good but needs to be folded back in order for the pod to land, I think it would be better to be able to to land the pod with it up. But enough of me talking lets get to the images. Front Side overhead Dish down With the pod landed on the back Finally lets look at the set all together The Rating System Figures: 8/10 (Yeah I like the Unitron figs.) Parts 6/10 (Not to bad but nothing that really thrilled me apart from the wheels) Fun Fun Fun 8/10 (Quite a lot to do here for a set that size.) Design 7/10 (The backs a little bit bear but I don't think that can be helped) Price ?/10 (I can't really comment not living in the US when it was out) Grand Total 29/40 (A fair rating for the set I feel) Conclusion I don't think this set is amazing but I do like it. The concept of a ground craft which can launch a scout to see what's over the next crater does appeal to me and I think it's well executed. The pod is solid but nothing spectacular. The ground craft has good and bad I like the wheel arrangement though as I said steering would be nice I also like the huge array at the back. The body does looks a bit long and back without the pod on the back but I don't think that that could really be helped if you wanted to mount a pod on the back. I like the set and I'd have bough it if it had been available this side of the pond, do I think the premium is fair well it depends how much you're adding on. I paid about £13 including shipping for this which I thought was a good deal. Really it's just a shame that Unitron wasn't fleshed out more so we could have had other things to mount on the back of this set.

Got to agree with you on that one, maybe it's something to do with Legos no war policy that it can't be a huge cannon.

Just incase anyone wanted to read it I found the offical US catalogue discription for this set today while cleaning up. 'Space Station Zenon In the farthest reaches of outer space three astronauts guard Space Station Zenon, command base for the Unitron tram. While an all-terrain vehicle explores the alien landscape and a Uniton spacecraft get ready for take off the station's giant antenna monitors the horizon for upcomming adeventures.'

Welcome aboard! I think alot of people lurk around for a while before joining I certainly did. "Accidental" purchase you say it's funny how often that happens to us all! Hope to hear more from you and have a great time here.

Nice to hear you can pick it up at a normall toy shop! It's a shame Tesco just don't put them out on the shelves here.

An excellent series, when I fist saw it I did wonder for a sec if this was going to be series 3 sadly not! I love the Stewardess, and the hobo is also excellent. The detective could do with a diffrent hat though I think

CP5670 - I never thought of it being a cannon, I quite like that! It also makes alot of sence. Artanis I - I had a similar experience and that how I ended up getting all the sets, though as a child I knew about the US only ones from relatives but was never able to get them sadly. It's quite hard to do the base justice in a few photos there simply so much to do with the set it's much easier to understand when you have one with you. KurttKrueger - should have the next one finished up by Sunday or early next week depending on how things go, though it might be a while before we get to the monorail, I have no idea who to take pictures of such a large set!

Doctor Sinister these are all excellent, I do love the first post about the show being Ruined FOREVER

This was surposed to be part of a pentology of Unitron reviews, that would appear shortly after Christmas and then real life got in the way and I've spent more time reviewing academic books than I have Lego but as this was the one closest to being finished I thought I should finish it up and post it for all of you. One of the the limited and sadly non-European 1995 wave of Unitron sets, so strap yourself in while we visit Space Station Zenon Set Name: Space Station Zenon Set Number: 1793 Number of Pieces: 340 Figures:3 Released: 1995 List Price: $ Unknown for some reason £N/A Never seen across the pond 1793 Peeron.com 1793 Bricklink Catalog Some Lego space themes don't even get one base (M-Tron, UFO, Insectoid) so for a theme with only four sets to get two seems not just odd but a real extravagance. That however is the strange world of the Unitron theme and so without further addure lets take a closer looks at Space Station Zenon. Sadly I don't own a boxed version of this set however owning any version of it in the EU is quite rare so I count myself quite lucky I was able to pick one up with instructions. Here are the instructions which gives you a good idea what the box would have looked like. What's in the box (the box is a metaphorical box) Everything that would have come in the box it don't look like much. Minifigs You get three minifigs in this set which seems a tad on the stingy side, actually for the size of the set and the price I paid for it its almost as back as a licensed set. One is the Unitron 'chief' who was a regular over this side of the Atlantic and there are probably more of him than there are of the grunts. Moonbugg The first part of the build is a small buggy for those missions that are to far to fly but you feel to lazy to walk to. The design is nice and I like the use of he trans-blue panels, however I dislike the fact that you can't open up the panels so our intrepid driver has to clamber over the panels in order to get into the driving seat. Flying Pod The second part of the build is a flying pod, which like all the other Unitron pods is interchangeable. Nice design as always I don't like the pods openness but that a minor complains. The only other problems is that there nothing to integrate it with in the base, so you're forced to buy the other Unitron sets. The Base Now we come to the main article, the base itself. The first point to make is I'm not a huge fan of a spread out build over a large base such as this, the Grand Carousel annoyed me a fair bit as my capacity to make mistakes is huge. Leaving the base looking rather wrong but anyway I paid a bit more attention than normal. Construction begins Soon the station is looking quite good I must say. It's been suggested that Unitron were a more 'military' theme and well armed faction than others and there are some details that support this claim here in the base. Enclosed in each of the BURP are missile launchers which can't be seen by anyone approaching the base however with a flick of a switch the BURP lower away to reveal them. Just the bit of kit to keep the Spyrus robots away. The shield. To complement those missiles the canopy section rotates 360 degrees when the BUROP are lowered. While we'll never know unless the designed chances along on this thread and decides to till us it seems to me logical that this is a rotating shield that turns to face whatever direction incoming fire is coming from. Telescope pod thing. From the box art this looks like a pod you'd expect to be able to blast off into space with so its a bit disappointed that there's no launching of flying from this, though it's still an interesting part it reminds me of a poem 'it's nice but what is it' Transmitter Under this little assembly in the corner is a control panel maybe some for or emergency transmitter for when the base is under attack, if there was a Spyus figure in the set I'd assume it where the spy would access all the Unitron data but there isn't The Whole base Just a quick look at the whole base before I add other parts, first with everything off and down and then with everything up and open. Lastly lets put it all together, it's quite an impressive set. The Rating System Figures: 8/10 (A good selection from the days before you'd get both sides in a set.) Parts 7/10 (A reasonable selection with some nice trans-blue parts.) Fun Fun Fun 9/10 (There's a nice selection of things to do with the base without any more sets and once you get a few other sets you can have a great game, there's even swooshing opportunity.) Design 8/10 (Not totally convinced a nice design but parts like the telescope drag it down for me. Price ?/10 (I could tell you what I paid for it but that would be a bit pointless, I do have some old US shop at home catalogues but there not with me at the moment I'll update this when I find one.) Grand Total 32/40 (A high rating but a fine set deserves nothing less) Conclusion It's not the best Unitron base, the review for that the monorail transport base will follow shortly, however its a bit unfair to compare that base to this as its so much bigger and one of the best space sets released. The base has a nice degree of functionality I like that fact the the designers have managed to build a small base with so much going on, missiles, telescope things, rotating shields and other bits that move. One point I will make is that I think the base that the set sits on is the wrong colour I think this is my biggest complaint about the entire set. In 6991 Monorail Transport Base every base was black with was a nice change and looked very good as a colour scheme, then sadly next year the Unitrons are stuck with a light grey baseplate its just wrong to me. Sadly the 32x32 base plate has never been produced in black so I can't even buy one to improve my set. Overall I think while it isn't the greatest Space base ever it's probably superior to a number of the later bases in terms of looks and in terms of details, also Lego have built a base that doesn't use the raised base plate which I think is a bonus as for to long every space base had to have one of these.

Thanks for the review, it's a nice little set. I'm still undecided as to if I want to move to the new power functions train sets but if I do go for it I'll be sure to get this set.

Thanks for the review, thi is one of those sets I've always wanted but have never gotten around to getting though you've moved it up a few places on the list! I always think it's great when you've wanted a set for year and you fianlly get it and discover it's even better than you thought it was going to be. I'm impressed with nearly everything i think for the size of the set the support sub is well made and a good size. My only comment is I don't quite understand the play feature but hey its a play feature and looks fun for kids so it doesn't really matter does it.

Thanks for the review its nice to have a look at this set. I quite like Atlantis, I'm a diver so that might be part of it. But I'm not a huge fan of this set, I might pick it up if there's a sale but otherwise I think not

Thanks for the review, it's a nice set and I might pick it up at the point though I'd not really sold on World Racer as a theme yet

Thanks for the review, I'm still not greatly intrested in World Racers (partly as I've got enough themes on my plate at the moment) but this doesn't seems like a bad set though I agree with you I'd be nice to have a second pit stop.

I saw this app yesterday and downloaded it, I havn't comment on it yet but just to say thanks for producing this!

It's an amazing set, looks just like it should and is all I could ask for but the price is just a killer for me £260! Best value?! If I throw in another £20 I could by 2 Imperial Flag ships, I know there's always a premium on Star Wars sets but compared with the Emporium set basically I'm handing over £120 for the privallage of a Star Wars set.

Amazing you items just keep getting better and better, I love the Spontoon!

It's not a bad promo set though I don't think it's anything to write home about, I'd much rather a Buzz one to be honest, I'm just not a huge Woody fan

One would asume not as you don't have Tesco stores in the US, more info here

You have to buy certain fruit products and cut out the tokens and then send them off in order to get the sets, so you can't just walk up to tesco and buy them, if you could they'd be none left in London by now!

Set Name: Alien Space Ship Set Number: 30070 Number of Pieces: Sorry I haven't counted them Figures:1 Released: 2010 List Price: £2.29 (GBP) + Three tokens from Tesco fruit 30070 Peeron.com 30070 Bricklink Catalog It seems that Star Command have decided they need some help to defend the universe from the Evil Emperor Zurg, but they want to do it on the cheap, so here we have the answer the Alien Space Ship Lets start with the poly bag it comes in Flying through space not much else to say Now lets have a look inside at what we get in this small bag The contents of the bag. A quick look at the instruction booklet. A quick look at the very long and complex instructions provided Honestly I'm not just filling space The Minifigs Only one, the Little Green Man (LGM) I'm quite glad to be able to get one without having to splash out 19.99 on the Build a Buzz/Zurg sets. Front. The Space ship On to the craft very quick simple build produces a rather Classic Spaceish scooter craft you the LGM to fly though the universe on. Though quite how he copes with vacuum I don't know. Overview of Scooter. Now a quick comparison with the other Star Command vessel we have and we see that Star Command either works on a large or a small scale nothing in between. Scooter and Star Cruiser. Finally a look at the set all together Complete set LGM on scooter The Rating System Figures: 9/10 (Honestly I love the LGM) Parts 6/10 (Not much really.) Fun Fun Fun 4/10 (Not really much you can do but that's true of all poly bag sets, though there is some swooshing to be had) Design 5/10 (So so, nothing we haven;t seen before) Price 10/10 2.29 (I eat huge amount of fruit anyway so it was just £24,99, I was expecting more and I'm more than happy to pay this for this set.) Grand Total 33/50 (It's great for the LGM not so great as a set.) Conclusions Lets be honest this set is about one thing and one thing only, getting a LGM without paying 19.99. In that it does it's job while I would like to be able to buy a bucket of LGM in one go rather than sending off for them I don't mind. The scooter is secondary and not very important but well executed so I have no complaints on that front, it's just sad this set isn't widely available but poly bags never seem to be anywhere. And finally an unfunny comic page

Not quite that magnificent, as I'm sure you'd need about 10 times the number of parts to build that, but I'm sure it'll be good

That sounds great I do hope we get to see pictures soon, I do hope we keep getting new sets each year.

The price seems very high, though perhaps it'll be less in the UK if it has a Routemaster style bus and a taxi it sounds like it'll be an amazing set. Can't wait for images.

I'm in London to, though South of the River, my advice would be to head over to Bluewater it can be a bit of a treck from where you are but you can get a TFL bus so if you've got a travel card it wont cost you a penny, and then you can visit the lego Brand store there, otherwise I've found very few independant toy shops in London with a good selection. Though if someone knows some I'd love to hear it aswell.