CP5670

Those numbers can be misleading since the vast majority of those users are search engine bots. Still, it's good to see EB expanding.

I occasionally build these box picture models, but most of them are pretty lousy. It was usually only the largest sets that actually had ones worth building. That 4-wing XT Starship variant and the Galaxy Explorer one look nice enough though. Among space sets, I remember 6783 and 6957 had good ones, and the big walkers in 6986 and 6987 are great.

This is great and looks like a lot of fun to play with. I was actually trying to build something similar a while ago, but this is better than anything I was going for.

That modern plane logo definitely reminded me Lufthansa when I first saw it. (which I think is supposed to be a bird, but always looked more like a hand to me ) The post office logos are interesting. They look unusual, but I didn't know what they were inspired by. How about the Technic logos used on the front hoods of 8880 and 8448? I wonder if there are any real car companies with logos like that. The 8880 one was actually used on several other sets as well.

Speaking of these clutch gears, there seem to be two different kinds of them. The original ones from 1997 have light gray centers and have a much higher torque "threshold" before they start slipping, even though they have the same "2.5-5.0 N-cm" markings. I have two of these from 8479, but haven't seen them in anything after that. The usual kind with dark gray/blay centers slip much more easily. Has anyone seen any sets apart from 8479 and 8735 that contain the light gray variety?

This is a nice article. It has a bunch of errors and probably exaggerates the dominance of licensed sets over in-house ones, but it does highlight various shifts in TLG's corporate mindset that have occurred over the last five years. There was another such article posted on Lugnet some years ago profiling TLG as a business. In that one, Knudstorp had said that TLG's traditional, "only the best is good enough" attitude towards quality and the corporate culture surrounding it were dragging down the company, and he had been brought in to shake things up. The effects of that can certainly be seen today. I don't like it but in a way I think it was inevitable, as we've seen the same thing happen in many other markets aside from just that of construction toys. They are simply responding to what the majority of consumers want. Yes, they make some things in China. The special numbered items (like the classic minifig collections) and the Power Functions parts have been brought up. Most of the production for regular sets is run out of the Czech Republic and Mexico though. I'm not sure how much stuff they still produce in Denmark.

Here is something interesting I noticed while looking at some old catalogs today. The old 6986 Mission Commander was called the Galactic Enforcer in the UK.

There was actually an ISS set, 7467, although it was microscale. That Discovery theme also had a minifig scale lunar lander though. I think the original space was definitely still sci-fi though. Realistic space was what the Town subthemes Launch Command and Space Port did.

I love the cheesy background story behind this theme. It's more well developed than any of the old space themes.

Thanks, guys. I just wish I was home right now instead of being in Norway, so that I could build some set. I will be going back tomorrow though.

That is very cool. TLG has made sets based on obscure vehicle concepts many times before, so it's unlikely but not out of the question.

It's a spambot.

Since the 80s, in fact. They even had a Mindstorms-type lineup based on the 4.5V/12V system back then, including touch and light sensors that never appeared in any mainstream Lego set. They also had a similar system called Control Lab in the mid 90s, based on 9V. Both worked by running off computers directly instead of having RCX/NXT type bricks.

I spent the last hour reading over this. As usual, it's an excellent and very thorough piece of work. I think 1992-1997 were Technic's finest years, and this was right in the middle. I didn't realize those "figure" models in 8032 and 8062 were that interesting. I never thought much of them but need to try building them now once I get back home. The claw truck thing in 8062 is easily my favorite model in that set though. It may be a good idea to add some information on 8062's storage case itself, which has a neat customizable design. I like 8858 a lot, but always thought its original $70 price (which was worth more back then) was too high for its relatively small size. I passed it up as a kid and got one many years later, and the later 8435 had the same functionality in a $50 model. It's still a very nice set though, and includes a cool Technic flag sticker for the alternate model. 8880 was an awesome model, but it unfortunately seems to be rather severely affected by the oxygen sensitivity described here. The white bricks in both of mine (unopened sets bought around 2001) suffer from this issue to varying degrees, including rare ones like the wheels and the transmission cover. I'm hoping I can use the hydrogen peroxide techniques people have brought up here to undo the effect. Do you have this problem with your copies of the set? Cool, I didn't know that other variety existed. All of mine have round holes. I'm guessing the cross hole ones came first and were replaced at some point, as later sets with this piece used the round hole ones.

I like these too. I would use them frequently if I had more of them. The CRAPPs seen in various 1990s space bases are also decent, or at least not as bad as people seem to think. I don't think any official sets really used that piece well, but it does have potential.

They have the full tour page for the event up now, if anyone who wasn't there wants to see what it was like: http://www.brickfair.com/tour/ I notice that they have put up a picture I took.

Nah, then we would be throwing insults around. I was just referring to Holodoc's comment that the NCS site is a good place to get the "feel" of classic space. I find them to be much more neo than classic.

Well, I think the techniques make all the difference here. It gives them a quite different look and feel, more like the UCS sets than anything classic. Look at the pictures of the sets I mentioned: 497 (blue/gray/trans-yellow/some trans-red) 6980 (white/blue/trans-blue/mostly trans-red) 6952 (gray/trans-green/trans-red) 6780 (white/black/trans-blue/mostly trans-red) I don't see how these are in similar colors, at least any more so than Blacktron, Unitron, Exploriens, etc. If you replace the minifigs, they might as well belong to completely different factions. The only thing they all have is the use of trans-red as a highlight color, but trans-neon green took on the same role with everything from Spyrius onward. In fact, many of the later space factions used variations on the four classic space color schemes described above. SP2 has the same colors as 6952/6940 with black added in, Futuron and Exploriens (and SP3 for that matter) are based off the 6783/6972 colors with only the transparent highlights differing, and Unitron and Ice Planet respectively have the same base colors as 497/6971 and 6980/6929, with different transparent colors. I do see your point about the continuity of the theme, but that continuity is really only present in the minifigs.

You're right, that one sticker is missing. I actually thought you meant the Technic logo on the back, but I would have expected them all to be there.

I buy stuff from Lego Education (formerly called Dacta) regularly for my own use. The eLab set is one of many such classroom sets they have made over the years. These sets are generally more expensive than equivalent Mindstorms sets but can contain rare and useful parts, like the solar cell you mentioned, and they often come with special trays for sorting and storage. I've used some of their Mindstorms sets in a robotics club back in high school, but that wasn't really a class. I remember the school had also gotten a couple of 8455 and 8457 Technic sets for parts.

It's in the sticker category. 8880 is one of the very few sets to have its stickers in the LDraw collection. I'm looking forward to the site update.

Although the NCS models are wonderful, they aren't really classic space at all. They have the same color scheme but have almost nothing in common otherwise. I guess you guys mean 1978-1982 though. The white/blue/trans-blue sets like 6980 came out in 1983. 6980 not only had a different color scheme from 497, but was built with a very different concept and style in mind. It looks surprisingly modern for its time and I think it's a better model than 497.

Most of my childhood space sets were from that era, and I never had that much trouble finding good parts for MOCs. Classic space had a couple of widely different colors and styles in itself. The only thing that sets like 497, 6952 and 6780 have in common are the minifigs. I guess you would exclude Futuron and SP1 though, despite the minifig torsos having the same insignia?

Good thread. I take it to mean 1978-87 (anything with the classic minifigs with old style helmets). There was a lot of variation in the sets over those years and the entire lineup had at least 4 distinct color schemes, but the minifigs were the one thing they all had in common. I refer to the later stuff as themed space or space factions. I see many people associate classic space with the blue/gray/trans-yellow color scheme, which suggests that they only see the very first space lineup as classic space. If you look at all the 1978-87 sets, it was not the only color scheme used, or even the main one in any way.

I think Space hit a peak from about 1987 to 1992, and still remained very good up until Insectoids in 1998, which was a little weak. LOM wasn't really Space at all in the sense I think of it (few transparent pieces and no dynamic color scheme), while MM and SP3 have some good ideas but have too many poor sets and are hurt by being products of their times. I don't like the heavy reliance on stickers and a complete lack of theme-specific printed parts aside from minifigs, as well as color variations and other quality issues. Both MM and SP3 have a couple of excellent models and are otherwise forgettable. On one hand, this is not something new. Among the old space themes, I think only Futuron, SP2 and Spyrius had uniformly good sets across the whole theme, and the other factions were pretty hit-or-miss. However, I liked the part selection in the old themes much better. There were numerous sets in both classic and themed space that I thought were decidedly weak, but were still worth getting for their unique yet versatile parts. The modern themes rely a lot on studless Technic construction or parts that don't look like Lego (the spiky things on the SP3 enemy sets). I also find that the modern curved canopies are less useful than the old, blocky and angular ones. That being said, the Galactic Enforcer is my favorite space set in a long time. If the same set had come out in 1992 or so, I would consider it at least equally good as any of the old 698x flagships. SP3 has a lot of cool ideas as an overall theme (alien minifigs, backstory, box art and police log videos), but this is the only actual set that really lives up to that standard. Also, people should clarify what they mean by "classic space." It can mean at least 3 different things in common usage (only 1978/79, 1978-1987 or 1978-1999), and I see people using the term in different ways already. I use it to mean 1978-1987.