Horatio-Caine

Thanks! I do have a liking to small crafts with big engines. Thanks, given the design that's one of their uses! I didn't have a mothership in mind but now that you mention it I might give it a go sometime, it'll take a while because I've got two other new ideas I'm currently working on along with some more rough ones in my head, along with two other finished ones I plan to show at some point. Because it will be housing one of these Insector crafts and I like to make my designs as thin/sleek as I can it may take a while to think something up when I get to it, although I'm sure I'll come up with something. Ideally I'd like to turn some into an actual physical example, but limited pieces and money make it out of the question right now. It's annoying as I have a fair bit more Blacktron stuff I plan to show before I move on to something else. I have finished the background info about the craft now too. "One of Blacktron's standard small go to fighters, found on large ships and bases if in need of evacuating or to mount a large attack when engaged in battle. Rumor has it this originally wasn't a Blacktron made spacecraft. The story goes that a then unknown insect like alien spacecraft crashed near a Blacktron outpost. It was shortly found after and taken never to be seen again. The Blacktron organisation saw potential in the design to the point that deep behind closed doors, they worked on their own more advanced version of the craft, while still keeping the original crashed example. The end result came the Insector, Blacktron's now common small, powerful and all purpose craft. Small but deadly, the Insector can seat two pilots for more control. It has a photon torpedo railgun at the front, armed with double lasers at either side giving it plenty of firepower. Combined with a large engine it is very fast and agile. Everyone better watch out."

Thanks, yes your right! It does look like a more advanced version of that set, I had seen it before when Galaxy Squad was first released, however didn't even think about it at all when I was designing this for the last two days, come to think of it even the name I gave it has a connection to that line. I will be doing a bit of a background story and information, so the stolen and then modded idea is just perfect. Aside from the Meteor Monitor remake, and compared to my first craft the Xerra, this will be the smallest Blacktron craft I will be doing (at least with a closed cockpit), the rest I have got planned are all bigger.

Going back to an original design idea and not a remake now, I wanted to this time build something small but agile, that could seat two people. A bit of inspiration actually came from Star Trek Nemesis from those Scorpion attack fighters. I wanted to do something like that because as since it seats two people, you could see it being hijacked by some protagonists in order to get away from where they are being held captive, whether it be a base or a large ship. Out of all of it comes the Blacktron Insector. Space Shots

Right, I've been wanting to show off some more space MOC's I had done since last time, however the problem is the fact that I just don't have the cash to get the parts. Thankfully I can at least use MLCAD/LDraw since I made my first MOC I showed a few months ago, which does at least mean I can show off the models. Who knows I might end up being physically able to build them one day, but for now I suppose computer generated design still works well enough. So here goes, I've got a few more I'll show soon. Anyway, not a very big one this time, I decided to do a remake for 2013 of the classic 1875 Blacktron Meteor Monitor. I combined some older traits of the original set, along with some of the more modern design of 7049 Alien Striker (I don't like Alien Conquest to be honest, however some parts like this model were good), and the end result is this. Space Shots Small yes, but is that necessarily a bad thing? Enjoy!

Thanks, the mods look nice and make the set even better, the walkway was such a good design, if I ever build my own large Blacktron base I'd most likely do the walkways very similar. I pretty much like all the alternate models 6987 had, not the biggest fan of the walkers but that alternate model was pretty mean looking. The two bases looked good as well, and the spaceship looked very menacing and well designed, its bigger than all the other Blacktron spaceships from the line so it would make a great main attack vessel, shame it was just an alternate model so you've only got the one picture to go by if you want to make it or something along the lines of it. Thanks, yes I do have a liking for Star Trek, mostly the movies, I've not watched many of the episodes since when I got into liking it they didn't really show the episodes on TV as much anymore. Wasn't really into it until sometime after Nemesis came out, but I started to like it because I thought Patrick Stewart was excellent when I first caught some bits of TV episodes and films, so naturally I took the most liking to the Next Generation characters, followed by the original series of Kirk, Spock .etc. I'm not really into the rest like Enterprise, Voyager and DS9, something about it just seems to be missing compared to the those two, its a shame because I'm told Voyager gets good later on. The main thing I've come to like about Star Trek over all the other space franchises which I've got less interested in since is that there are quite a lot of great quotes and meanings that are quite true to real life, and quite inspiring. I actually remember liking Nemesis the first time I got to see it, it does have some good bits, however the problem was that I had not seen First Contact or Generations (which I know a lot of people dislike, however I liked it a lot and thought it was one of the best films) yet at the time, so when I watched them all after (this was after the 2009 reboot I recall when they started showing all the films on Film 4), my opinion of Nemesis dropped a lot, Insurrection was ok but not in the leagues of First Contact (its a bit like 6988 following 6987 in my view). I'd still watch them if they are on but I always feel it's a shame the TNG cast didn't get the justice they should have with the last few films.

Thanks, glad you liked it. They don't seem to make bases as much at all anymore when it comes to space. Looking through Brickset the last base they made was from Space Police 3 in 2010, 5985 - Space Police Central. 2009 there is 5980 Squidman's Pitstop when it comes to a bad guy base, although I find it difficult to call that a proper base as it doesn't look that big to me. I paid just over £50 for it, the auction was open to Worldwide bidding so there was a bit more competition, I'm still satisfied though as it was complete and in good enough condition so I've not needed to replace or find any parts that are missing.

Thanks, I won it on eBay last weekend in which it arrived today. The original Blacktron spaceman design will always go down as a classic, I like the Future Generation design too but compared to this I don't think it is as good. The newer Blacktron spaceman designs, most noticably the torsos I think are good to be honest, not as good as the original Blacktron but I'd say a bit better than Future Generation.

I wasn't expecting to review anything, and this is the only review you'll most likely see me do, however given the set it is then I'd be only happy to review it. Some facts: Released: 1988 Pieces: 569 Minifigures: 5 Build time: Around 2-3hrs Price paid: Just over £50 The set is the all time classic Space base from my favourite Space subtheme, Blacktron. It is the one and only 6987 Message Intercept Base. The best space base made in my opinion and pretty much the peak of Lego space. Many say that the bad guys got the biggest base, but in a sense when it was released in 1988 for its first year it was kinda a good guy base too, it was only in 1989 when Space Police came out that Lego changed the space story/canon somewhat and made Blacktron become outcast in a way and splitting away. Either way that doesn't stop it from being amazing, the Star Trek: First Contact of Lego space bases. And sometimes its good to be a little bit bad. The story goes that a while ago I managed to get a new example of this set, however the box wasn't great and was missing the front flap/lid, I managed to get another empty box which also wasn't great in other areas, but had the lid. I carefully took the lid off and carefully glued it to the new examples box successfully. I still had somewhat of an original box left though, so I decided to buy a complete set unboxed with instructions to pair with it so I can sell it back in better more complete condition than before. However that gave me a great excuse to make it and while I'm at it post a review. So let's get on with the details. It looks like this new. The Building Process With all that out of the way, time to empty the parts, get out the instructions and start building the detailed model. First, the set comes with some pretty nice parts, some of the more special ones that stand out are shown below. The trans yellow windscreen parts as always look great, there is even a 4x6 trans yellow plate, which rings back to the old classic space days. A nice use of castle wall pieces too, as well as the large black panel piece with the iconic Blacktron logo. The Minifigures/Crew The base comes with 5 classic Blacktron astronauts, sporting the mostly black body with grey detailing, and the intimidating pure black visor, becuase not being able to see your face is just cooler and so much more badass. It has a good amount of crew, however an extra figure or two would have been nice for a base this large and detailed, but oh well, at least its better than a lot that came after where the numbers seemed to go down to about 3. Instructions Being released 25 years ago now, the instructions that came with the set were harder to follow than now, less pages but more work on each step, I like that though. The front cover shows the base opening and closing as well as two of the four alternate models that can be built. A massive walker (basically a much larger Alienator) and a spaceship, which looks a bit like a much more fearsome Spyrius Saucer Centurion (6939) released some years later. The Baseplate This is pretty much the last big space base set that still used a flat surface studded plate before the raised baseplate came along afterwards. It actually consists of two plates, one large flat one, next to another one the same size with some cool crater detailing, another nod to what was used in classic space. These two together as you are about to see makes for one hell of a large home. Vehicles The base comes with two vehicles, a small but nimble buggy and an agile spacecraft. While not as large as separate models like the Battrax (6941) or Renegade (6954), they are still cool and give the base a sense of being complete. The buggy doesn't contain a lot of parts, however despite that it is the little details that make it rather nice. Those large tyres make it compensate for the not too many parts it has, and it just looks so space like. Even the transparent red rocket piece at the back with the transparent red cone at the front while only being as few pieces just make it look sleek and a lot of fun. It could totally ace the car chase scene in Star Trek: Nemesis. The spacecraft is one of the gems of the set, it is a small Vic Viper like craft. The wings can be adjusted to fold up and down, in some ways it resembles one of those mini Klingon fighters from Star Trek Into Darkness. Very clever design, even the thrusters are neat and it has enough firepower at the front and on the wings. It resides in the hanger of the base and actually stems around one of the main functional features of the base which will be revealed. It must be great being him. Ready to boldly go...where no one from Futuron has gone before. Space... The Base Itself Now onto making the big part, the base itself, what a joy it is to make. Here's a shot of part way through making, to show how this set is full of detail, this actually feels like a base, a place where if you are a Blacktron astronaut you really can chill out here after a hard days work. Control stations, tool/weapon holders and the spacecraft launchpad, plenty of stuff to do. The base is now complete in all of its glory. As you can see, there is a control tower to the right, which quite cleverly using a sort of gear piece below it can move backwards and forwards connecting to the base or separating on its own and making things look bigger and more spaced out. When separated it allows you to open up the walkway/corridor in between. Another part that uses the same method is the hanger itself, which again through the use of a rotating gear piece opens the hanger right out, to allow, yes you guessed it, the spacecraft to jet off. It also makes the unique and rare yellow 3x3 dish pieces at either side open out. One small flaw with this mechanism is that it is a bit fragile if you aren't careful. The Blacktron astronaut not in the craft can only just about hide his jealousy that he's not in it. And now back to work, can't be long until its is my turn to fly it, or mine. Another load of excellent interior detail this set offers. Dammit, I want the car! Well at least I have this weapon. The detail just doesn't end, revealed in the middle towards the rear of the hanger is a small and cute control booth that can be accessed via ladder, just below is another control area. Going back towards the right end of the base are more control areas, including another raised area with a yellow seat, although how the guy gets down is anyone guess. I may find it hard getting down, but I'm still higher up than you are. Relax, I know what I'm doing. And now my final and favourite part of the base, the corridor/walkway in between. This may not seem like a big bit, bit it is so nicely detailed and feels really realistic. You can lift the two windowed areas up via the hinges to put someone in the staring or walking down the corridor. In order to lift the one up at the front of the base you have to move the control tower forward a bit, otherwise you won't be able to get your hand in, it's a bit annoying but doesn't take much to do at least. I gotta get to that craft now! Well that's it, to sum up this is a fantastic base and my favourite, so many nice touches that overall make for a sweet build. It does have some minor flaws, like as mentioned no stairs to the top part in the control tower and no way of getting up to the base itself from the outside, but this is Lego so I'll just use my imagination. A bit flimsy in places and an extra minifig or two would be nice, however that could be solved easily now. As a whole it makes for an amazing space base that could even be modded to make even more detailed, while its obvious the colour scheme is also classic too, can't beat mostly black with some yellow highlighting. It gets my seal of approval, and it was fantastic having the chance to make it again. Pros +Amazing design and detail +Superb colour scheme +Nice vehicles +Many nice compartments +Great playability Cons -Flimsy in some places -One or two more minifigures would have been nice Overall: 95% Anyway I hope you enjoyed my review, thanks for reading.

I don't really have in interest in the mech model either and mech's in general (the smaller spacecraft that goes with it was very cool though), the other alternate models I thought were just as good as the main one. The bottom left one is my favourite, I like it more than the main set itself, shame there is only one picture and no instructions for it or any of the other alternates. Someone out there has probably managed to build it though, I've seen some people make the alternate models on older sets like this and do an accurate job on them. Nice MOC by the way, the front window panels/cockpit part looks especially nice. Thanks, I thought those Explorien hologram pieces were cool, probably because they remind me of Star Trek and those famous words 'on screen,' mind you, a lot of the Explorien line itself kinda did, especially the big ship.

Predictably I'd have to go with Blacktron, although at the same time I think it should be brought back with a rebooted/modern version of their main rivals Futuron. However I'm not expecting any of that to happen given current trends.

That varies as some models are more popular than others, also depends on condition and what country you are buying from. Looking at eBay.com seems that as of late if you buy at the right moment complete boxed examples of 6973 go for around $50. Although because there were so many space sets and themes the prices vary set by set, to get a good idea of value the best thing to do is to check the recent sold listings option on eBay for the sets you would be after. Continuing with older Lego Space, I've just finished uploading images of the latest two personal favourite older Space sets I have recently obtained thus far to my collection, which are 6954 and 6987, classic Blacktron sets to take you back even further. Anyway I think I've gone on long enough now so I'll stop!

Well in terms of my next acquisition that might be a while as my recent run of being able to obtain some of my other older favourite new sets has exhausted my money supply, it'll probably be after Christmas until I get anything new added but who knows. However for now I have decided to upload pictures of the current ones I have over the next while to my Flickr page for those interested in what some older sets look like new/boxed. And to start off I thought that I might as well start with the set talked about in this thread, 6973. I took another picture of the hologram, and also the poster which might bring back some more memories! And the rest of them you can see by clicking this link.

Yeah I agree there, those posters were superb! I was also wrong about the poster in the link being from 1994, it is 1993 as it turns out, however again that one doesn't include the Blacktron 2 spaceship flying over. Sadly I don't own the space monorails now (used to when I built the sets to play with and display years ago), I do have a new example of the Town monorail 6399, although at some point when opportunity and money allows I would also like to get 6990 or 6991. I loved all the monorails, it's a pity it was rather short lived, that Seatron monorail concept that I only found out about a bit ago also looked pretty cool as well.

The poster is just this. Basically the picture from the catalog blown up bigger minus the set number boxes. The picture in the link shown is from the 1994 catalog, mine is a bit different as it is the 1993 catalog picture with the Blacktron 2 ship flying over. I think a lot of sets came with posters, I still have the 1993 Pirates poster that I kept from a used example of 6286 I think (sold that many years ago now) and also a 1994 Town poster.

Thanks, I was pretty happy with the price yet alone having it come with the hologram. I personally doubt it is worth that much, although it is a nice and seemingly rather uncommon extra. Having gotten back into Lego to make Space MOC's when it comes to building, I am also a collector so I'll be keeping this new to admire along with the other older NIB sets I own. The Deep Freeze Defender is a personal favourite spaceship and also I feel the best Ice Planet set so it is nice to have it in my own little Lego Vault, of course it's got nothing on Lego's own one haha!

Yes I know this might seem a little odd, although I suppose it fits in with the Sci Fi part of the forum and it is hopefully interesting information to do with the Ice Planet line from way back when. Its probably nothing huge but I couldn't really find anything else about it so here goes. A few days ago I purchased a NIB 6973 Deep Freeze Defender from eBay to add to the small collection of new unused old sets that I was most fond of which came today. When I purchased it I noticed it had a label on it saying 'Free Hologram Inside,' and since once of the seals had come off that gave me an excuse to at least have a peak inside before I carefully put everything back and store/admire it. Along with the usual 1993 catalog, service leaflet and even a poster I found the hologram mentioned. It is only palm of your hand sized, but it's cool nonetheless. I have attached some pictures, sorry it is hard to show it off well. It is basically a picture of Commander Cold with the cool icy background and the stars/sky design Lego did back then. This is definitely new to me, most of the sets I owned for display including this one from when I was mostly into Lego before were from the 90s era and before and I've not seen this in them before, perhaps they were a special freebie that were on a certain few. Makes me wonder if there are any other similar things like this from sets at the time now. I do know that some 6990 boxes came with a free space background sheet.

Many thanks for the positive replies everyone, I'm glad you like it! I'll admit that there are certain areas where a bit of yellow would make it look nice too, although again I personally I have settled in with this look. I updated the Flickr page with a story/description, which I will now add here too. And now for Blacktron's introduction story. "Coming from far and unexplored sectors of the Galaxy, emerges a new threat, in the form of…Blacktron. The Xerra is just one of their sleek and formidable ships they have at their disposal. Designed to be incredibly fast and agile with very powerful weapons, they are used to take over and overwhelm parts of planets bit by bit in order to quickly form territories. Its weapons include twin lasers at the front, torpedo launchers at the far sides of the wings and finally a very powerful drilling beamed weapon at the front which is capable of massive destruction. It has been reported that it was able to destroy more than half of ships much larger in very little time; its only disadvantage is that it takes longer to regenerate after it has been fired heavily. Its sheer speed is also thanks to having two powerful warp thrusters either side at the back, coupled with its main massive rotating warp core engine that enables it to travel at warp 10 at least, which makes it able to travel between planets through space easily making it extremely hard to detect. There is always an enemy waiting to come into play, and now it is Blacktron's turn."

Hi there, I'm new here but have been lurking for a while. Long story short, I was into Lego from when I was young and then lost interest in about 2008 or so and sold all my Lego stuff, which was a mixture of nice example older sets from the 90s and before, along with a load of older Lego sets I got when I was younger at that time and predictably at that age mixed them all up, so essentially a massive lot of pieces. I also sold most of the NIB older sets I had (big mistake there I was kicking myself soon after that!). At that time I was more interested in having the older sets on display as I'm not really a fan of what is being made setwise now mostly, however I do find the newer parts useful as you'll see next. I still have a soft spot for Lego though and this year decided to come back but not to buy and display older sets anymore, no, this time I wanted to let my creativity show and build my own stuff every so often when time, money and space allows, also to buy a few of my favourite older Lego sets new as I am a bit of a collector too. I've already managed to obtain a few. Anyway, over time, my favourite Lego theme grew to be Space, and from it my favourite subtheme was easily the original Blacktron faction, nothing beats that in terms of coolness to me. After I saw all these MOC's of them going through Flickr and all, I felt that it would be cool to do my own version of Blacktron. I know some people will say that it needs some yellow highlighting bricks, however when I saw pasukaru76's Phase Black Blacktron spacecraft on Flickr, I personally felt that looked amazing so for my personal version of Blacktron I have gone down that path mostly. From that I began work on my first Blacktron craft and first MOC. It started in June, I purchased a few sets for parts along with part orders and took me about a month to get the majority of it done, since mid July I have been finishing and tweaking little details, the last one being what the minifigures will look like, I wanted to make them a bit different while still being recognisably Blacktron. It has now all come to this, I give you the Blacktron Xerra. All pictures. I'll add a few details/story about it later on, for now though I hope you like it.