Author: Mark

New Parts

• Minifig, Utensil Loudhailer
• Minifig, Utensil Metal Detector
• Container, Box 2 x 2 x 2 with door
• Support 2 x 4 x 5 Stanchion Inclined
• Windscreen 6 x 4 x 2 Canopy
• Wedge, Plate 8 x 8 with 4 x 4 Cutout

Super Model (1593)

Features: You get a communications module and a ship that docks with a ground vehicle. Red and yellow astronauts.

Thoughts: Wonderfully weird and awkward.

Space Patrol (6803)

Features: Small gray spaceship with blue accents, white astronaut, and a video camera/gun

Thoughts: Updated version of the small flying wedge. Swooshable. 🚀💫

Comparison with 1979’s Space Scooter (885)

Surface Transport (6823)

Features: Small, articulated ground vehicle with a scanner and a container for samples. Yellow astronaut.

Thoughts: Simple, functional, cute.

Seismological Vehicle (6844)

Features: Articulated ground vehicle with containers, dual sensors, & ground-scanning radar. White astronaut.

Thoughts: Fitting companion to the Surface Transport.

Space Supply Station (6930)

Features: Small base elevated over a crater plate with a command center, four radar dishes, two storage boxes, four astronauts, two ground vehicles, and two hovercrafts.

Thoughts: There’s not a lot to it, but I quite like this base.

Galaxy Commander (6980)

Features: Large modular spaceship with twin  cockpits, separateable front and rear sections, and deployable base. Also comes with two ground vehicles, a landing pad, and five astronauts (two yellow, two white, and one red).

Thoughts: The largest Classic Space set and the only one to come with five astronauts. This was the flagship update to 1979’s Galaxy Explorer (497). This ship carries its own base with it. The white, blue, and transparent dark blue color scheme is similar to that seen in the Cosmic Cruiser. This was the last ship to come with its own landing pad.

Separated into segments.

Base with computer, rack for air tanks, opening wall/roof, and folding radar tower.

Front module. I like the elaborate front weapons.

Ground vehicles

Rear module with base docked. The docking mechanism is similar to that used in 1981’s All-Terrain Vehicle (6927).

Side-by-side comparison with Galaxy Explorer (497)

Wrap-Up

Not sure whether to call this five sets or six. I guess it’s five new sets and one set of building instructions for a rehash of two previous sets.

Next: Space 1984!

New Parts

• Yellow Spaceman: joins Red & White
• Dish 6 x 6 Inverted (Radar) Webbed: previous dishes were solid and either 4 x 4 or 8 x 8.
• Minifig, Utensil Camera with Side Sight (Space Gun): either an old-fashioned video camera or a bazooka
• Wheel Full Rubber Balloon with Axle hole: perfect for traversing craters
• Hinge Plate 1 x 2 with 2 Fingers / 3 Fingers: New hinging system that will be widely used in a few years, but adoption is low in the early 80’s.

Surface Explorer (6880)

Features: Excavator/backhoe type machine with grabber jaws on one end and a shovel scoop on the other. Twin steering wheels, computer, radar, and twin lasers. Comes with a yellow spaceman and two accessories.

Thoughts: It’s like the mullet of space vehicles: business in the front, party in the back! First appearance of the yellow astronaut. This set goes all in on the new balloon tires. This set is a return to the mostly gray color scheme of early space ground vehicles.

The black space gun/camera can be removed from the webbed radar dish to be an accessory for the astronaut.

A close-up look at the new balloon tires. This set comes with 12 of them!

 

Cosmic Cruiser (6890)

Features: Small rocket sled that docks inside a larger spaceship shell (for faster-than-light travel?) piloted by a red astronaut.

Thoughts: Unique design. The blue on transparent dark blue with white is a new color scheme. The hinged vehicle roof is also new this year. The blue slope with classic space logo is unique to this set because its logo is smaller than those that appeared on the early enclosed spaceships (such as the Galaxy Explorer).

The inner rocket sled reminds me of 1981’s Small Space Shuttle Craft (6842)

Close-up look at the new hinged vehicle roof (here in a relatively rare transparent dark blue)

 

Mobile Rocket Transport (6950)

Features: Large vehicle with new big tires and independent suspension with computers, radar dish for tracking, and a jointed arm for placing a large rocket. Twin yellow spacemen.

Thoughts: Most epic of all the rocket launchers. Much larger than 1978’s Mobile Rocket Launcher (462). The color scheme harkens back to the earliest Space sets: white and black for the rocket and light gray, blue, and transparent yellow for the vehicle (albeit inverted with the base of the vehicle in blue and the top in gray).

The arm is long enough to set the rocket vertically on the ground. I really like the giant transparent yellow inverted space slope combined with the regular windscreen slope and 1 x 6 transparent yellow bricks.

Independent suspension handles craters with ease!

Close-up of the satellite that the rocket deploys.

Wrap-Up

At just three sets this has been the smallest wave yet. Mobile Rocket Transport (6950) is the stand-out set for this year- it really is a fantastic set that stands the test of time.

Next: Space 1983

Onto the third wave of LEGO Space sets!

New Parts

Some of the new parts for 1981 follow:

• Arm Grab Jaw with Holder: nice addition for articulated arms
• Engine, Strakes, 2 x 2 Thin Top Plate: bottom-mounted engine pieces
• Hinge Plate 2 x 4 with Articulated Joint: sturdy connection for jointed vehicles
• Plate, Round 1 x 1
• Plate, Modified 1 x 1 with Clip Light: useful for holding small plates, antennas, or accessories.
• Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Ladder
• Slope, Inverted 33 5 x 6 x 2: the giant inverted space slope. Pairs well with the 6 stud wide transparent windscreen slopes.

Moon Buggy (6801)

Features: Small hover vehicle in gray with black accents, computer, white astronaut, walkie-talkie and a laser gun.

Thoughts: How is this a buggy without wheels? Cool use of radar dish the way it fits onto the plates both above and below. Nice to get two accessories and a printed slope in such a small set. This set has grown on me since building it – it’s definitely in the running for favorite small set.

Space Digger (6822)

Features: Small vehicle with four jets, positioning thrusters, and an articulated grabber arm piloted by a red astronaut with a walkie-talkie

Thoughts: Sort of like a space backhoe? Compact but functional. ❤️ the grabber jaws. Four of the new engine “strakes” provide support and thrust. The new clip light plate is used to mount the transparent red headlights.

Small Space Shuttle Craft (6842)

Features: Small ship with a single large engine, positioning thrusters, and side-mounted lasers piloted by a red astronaut.

Thoughts: Like riding a rocket. This was a speeder bike two years before Return of the Jedi showed us how speeder bikes should look like. White clip light plates hold a pair of black antenna at the rear. The new plate with ladder provides a way of mounting the speeder bike shuttle.

Space Probe Launcher (6870)

Features: Articulated ground vehicle that launches a small flying wedge with one red astronaut.

Thoughts: Neat small set but needs a second astronaut. The larger tires give it a rugged look. Mobile launcher is another archetype that will be revisited. I like the design symmetry of using the clip light plates to hold transparent 1 x 1 plates at the front of both the spaceship and the truck (also symmetry of a pair of positioning thrusters at the rear). Also note the use of the new articulated joint to connect the truck’s cab and trailer.

Here the plate with ladder part is used to represent the truck’s front grille.

 

All-Terrain Vehicle (6927)

Features: Ground vehicle that deploys a base via a clever mechanism. Dual radar dishes, two astronauts, and a pair of accessories.

Thoughts: Transparent dark blue windscreens! 💙 The ground vehicle uses white and black with transparent blue while the base employs the classic blue and transparent yellow color scheme.

Q: Why is this ground vehicle rocket-propelled?

A: Because space!

I really like the look of those transparent blue windows and the symmetry of the inverted slope below and regular slopes above. This photo also provides a good look at the white clip ring piece bearing transparent red headlights and the black ladders granting access to the cockpit.

The white 2 x 2 slopes on the doors connect with the blue inverted slopes on the sides of the base helping to lift it up and in. The transparent red round plates mounted on the sides of the base slide up the white 1 x 2 slopes on the vehicle’s sides. What an excellent design!

It’s quite cramped inside the base though. The astronaut cannot sit in the chair unless she doffs her backpack or wears it on her front. I do quite like the sturdy mechanism for raising the roof (no less than 4 hinge bricks).

 

Star Fleet Voyager (6929)

Features: Wasp-waisted mid-sized spaceship with a Concorde-style angled nose, cargo storage in the rear, a single red astronaut, and plenty of accessories.

Thoughts:Was this the replacement for the previous mid-sized ship, Space Cruiser LL924?

Opening cockpit roof. The windscreen and roof look great in transparent dark blue. The backwards facing Classic Space logo seems a little odd.

We’ve seen the mechanism of the back splitting open on hinge bricks twice before in the LL924 and Galaxy Explorer LL928, but this time the crate itself forms the floor of the cargo area and the doors latch the crate securely into place when they close (hence the 2 x 6 plate mounted on the crate’s roof).

Interesting use of window shutters as doors for the crate. I like that they provided six different accessories for this set. Some clip onto the outside of the ship, the rest go in the crate.

Wrap-Up

These are the six sets for 1981. Note the increased use of white and black in the color scheme as well as the introduction of transparent dark blue windows. LEGO was definitely trying to mix up the color scheme from the initial years. My favorite set of the lot is probably the All-Terrain Vehicle (6927) although the Moon Buggy (6801) is a great tiny set.

Next up: Space 1982

These were the first Space sets introduced since the initial wave. From here on out I find it interesting to examine how the set designs changed and consider how much might be the availability of new parts and/or existing parts in new colors and how much might just be changing aesthetics or a market demand to try something new.

New Parts

There were so many new parts and new prints crafted especially for the LEGO Space theme that I didn’t bother going into them. They were the parts that enabled the Space theme to exist. But now I’d like to look at some of the parts that are new (or new to the Space theme) in each year’s sets.

• Plate, Modified 1 x 1 with Clip Vertical: Great for holding accessories and building storage racks
• Brick, Modified 1 x 1 with Headlight: Useful for SNOT (Studs Not On Top) building, aka sideways building.
• Bar 1 x 4 x 2 with Studs: Railings, etc
• Arm Holder and Arm Pieces: These were originally maxi-figure shoulders and arms from the mid-70’s. Here colored in gray and used as articulated mechanical arms.
• Slope, Inverted 33 3 x 2 Hollow with Towball (Scoop): shovel scoop for use with the arm pieces.

Shovel Buggy (6821)

Features: Small vehicle with articulated shovel, printed computer slope, white astronaut, and a walkie-talkie (held in place with the new clip piece).

Thoughts: I’m a sucker for sets with construction/loading functionality. Love the shovel piece with articulated arm. There are many good pieces packed into this small set.

Mineral Detector (6841)

Features: Small sturdy vehicle with twin ground-scanning radar dishes mounted on moving arms, driven by a red astronaut with a walkie-talkie.

Thoughts: Kind of goofy with the big blocky swinging arms but I like it. Perfect companion to the Shovel Buggy. The new bar piece provides a back roll bar detail, and again the new clip piece is used to hold an accessory.

X1 Patrol Craft (6861)

Features: Small open fighter with twin engines, lasers, and transparent green windscreen piloted by a red astronaut.

Thoughts: One of the finest small fighters. This thing felt like it was all engines. First appearance of a transparent green window brick. Up to this point all windows had been transparent yellow. I have fond memories of crashing this ship to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust.”

Mobile Lab (6901)

Features: Elevated vehicle with opening side doors, radar, articulated arm that could hold either a sensor array or a shovel with two astronauts and a pair of accessories.

Thoughts: Look at all those green windows! 💚 I imagined these rolling across lunar landscapes like so many alien elephants. In reality this set is kind of mediocre. There’s nothing inside the vehicle (other than a steering wheel) to make it a lab. It can’t fit both the second astronaut and the sensor array at the same time. It looks a bit ridiculous with those 12 tiny wheels. It’s mostly enclosed but then leaves that awkward gap above the windscreen. But I love it anyway. It gets an A for effort. I think the part selection just wasn’t there yet. (Shout out to the headlight brick on each side used to sideways mount transparent red 1 x 1 plates.)

Beta I Command Base (6970)

Features: Open front base spread over two crater plates, launcher with spaceship, small rover, monorail with sled, radar dishes and antennas for communications, and four astronauts.

Thoughts: The quintessential space base set: base, spaceship + launcher, and a rover. (This formula will be repeated with variations several times.) It even boasts a tiny monorail for the long trek between the base and the launcher. So technically this is the first space monorail (more on those later). I also had this set as a child. The spaceship design is reminiscent of the X1 Patrol Craft but wider and with a different color scheme and no tail. The 1 x 6 x 5 display brick inside the base on the left shows the Alpha-1 Rocket Base (483) and repeats the “LL2079” numeric code seen within the Command Center (493). I believe this was the final set to feature a vehicle with the iconic gray air tanks mounted on the front.

Wrap-Up

Just five sets in this second wave. I owned two of these sets, but these were the last LEGO Space sets I had as a child. Everything from this point on will be 100% new to me.

Next stop: Space 1981