Having promised a few weeks back that I'd be more proactive about posting a notification here on Gimme LEGO when set reviews and other new articles that I'd written were published elsewhere, I figured that I should let you know about some articles that I've written for Issue 4 of Bricks magazine which came out earlier this week.
As you've no doubt already guessed from the front cover above, the latest issue of Bricks is mostly concerned with various facets of LEGO space. The content spans almost four decades, with Jeremy Williams' Classic Space retrospective rubbing shoulders with an overview of the newly-released Star Wars: The Force Awakens sets and a look back at the Space Police III theme. There's also an interview with LEGO designer Mark Stafford who has worked on a multitude of space and sci-fi themes including Space Police III, Mars Mission, Exo-Force and Alien Conquest, while Exo-Suit designer Peter Reid gives us a tour of his favourite LEGO mechs.
Given the space focus I was predictably keen to be involved, and when Bricks editor Mark Guest approached me about writing a potted history of the LEGO Space Shuttle I was happy to oblige. As a longstanding fan of the Space Shuttle I've previously reviewed a number of LEGO's Space Shuttle sets including Set 6544 Shuttle Transcon 2 (below) and Set 3367 Space Shuttle. I'd also been meaning to do a round up of LEGO's Space Shuttle back catalogue for absolutely ages but had never gotten around to doing it; Mark's request was therefore just the push I needed. Anyway, it's finally done now, and at over 1,000 words it's a fairly comprehensive overview of the subject which covers pretty much every Space Shuttle that LEGO have released over the years, including some pretty obscure stuff.
In addition to my Space Shuttle feature, Bricks Issue 4 also includes my review of the recently-released City Space Set 60080 Spaceport (below) as well as a brief overview of the other three 2015 City Space sets.
Bricks is only available online at the present time, and you can order it here.
It's strange how the human mind works; one minute you're compiling a Bucket List of old sets that you missed while your attention was elsewhere, and the next you have an urge to build a Space Shuttle. OK, so not so strange really - one of the sets I blogged about last week was the classic Technic Space Shuttle set, so it's not such a stretch to see how the desire to dig out an old LEGO Space Shuttle set and build it might have come about....
Set 6544 Shuttle Transcon 2, which contains 342 parts and was released in 1995, is one of a total of ten Space Shuttle sets that LEGO has released over the years. That's a lot of shuttles, and indeed I'm struggling to think of too many other vehicles which LEGO has used as source material on so many occasions. Hell, even the Millennium Falcon has only appeared in 7 sets to date, and one of those was a bag charm....
You can see the box below (click pics to enlarge), a little the worse-for-wear after 16 years but still just about intact. Pleasingly, the box contains a sturdy cardboard inner tray which holds the pieces and helps to maintain the structural integrity of the flimsy outer box.
As well as showing off the inside of the shuttle cargo bay, the back of the box (below) shows a few alternate build ideas, including what appears to be a training simulator and control room.
The instruction booklet is large, clear and easy to follow. There are no part call-outs, but the build is simple enough that the absence of these doesn't really cause problems, and there are no colour discrimination issues.
In time-honoured fashion, the first step is to build the minifigures. The set comes with three of them - two identical mechanics in red caps and an astronaut wearing a lightweight space suit complete with with a lovely shiny gold visor
Once the minifigures have been assembled, it's time to get cracking on the plane, which is completed in just 22 steps. When compared with the likes of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner set and other recently available LEGO aircraft, it doesn't seem all that big. When I think back to the tiny LEGO flyers of my youth such as my much-loved Caravelle, however, I suppose this must in fact have seemed like a pretty substantial aircraft to LEGO builders in 1996. It certainly looks great to me - nice design, nice colour scheme, and critically, it's very swooshable....
Time has not been so kind to the shuttle, which is next in line to be built. As well as the marked discolouration affecting many of the white pieces, which I may replace in due course, the design itself isn't the best IMHO - it's a little too short and stumpy for my liking, although to be fair if the shuttle was much longer then it would be almost the size of the aircraft that carries it.... The cargo bay opens to reveal a small satellite plus an articulated Canadarm to manouevre it into position.
I was struck by how similar some aspects of the build were to that of the currently available Set 3367 Space Shuttle which I wrote about in March of this year. Still, I guess there are only so many ways that you can build a shuttle at this scale. What can't be denied is how much more imposing the newer version is when you put them side by side. Some including myself may grumble about the use of large, custom parts in the latest iteration, but there's little doubt which is the more faithful recreation of the subject matter.
The final part of the build was the small tug, which comes complete with an attachment to drag the aircraft and its massive shuttle payload into position, and then we're done.
The shuttle attaches to the roof of the aircraft below by way of a couple of Technic pins and we're ready to rumble !
One of the reasons I love this set is that it takes me back to my childhood, and specifically to one of the Bond films of my youth - "Moonraker". I can still remember how excited I was watching the scene in the film when one of the Moonraker Space Shuttles owned by Hugo Drax is being given a piggy back by a Boeing 747 and is literally hijacked in mid-air (pic below). Interestingly, the American Airlines-esque red, white and blue stripes on the aircraft from the movie just so happen to be a feature of the aircraft in Set 6544, which surely can't be a coincidence....
It might seem far-fetched to younger readers that Space Shuttles were carted around the country on the back of Jumbo Jets in the 'old days', but that's exactly what happened, and if you need proof then check out the amazing video below from NASA TV:
If you can't see the pop-up above then click here to check out the video on YouTube.
LEGO have therefore grounded this set in reality, and while the aircraft isn't particularly reminiscent of a Boeing 747 apart from the four jet engines, is it for me nevertheless the clear highlight of the set - nicely proportioned to my eyes, and to be honest something that LEGO could easily have got away with releasing as a standalone set, albeit with windows along the length of the fuselage rather than storage compartments.
And now for some good news : unlike some of the retired sets I've featured over the last couple of weeks, this one can be picked up relatively cheaply. I bought mine, which was boxed and complete exactly as you see above, from eBay for the princely sum of £8.25 + postage in May 2009, and while I'll probably need to spend a couple more pounds replacing the discoloured parts, that's still a massive bargain in my book. If you're patient, you may be lucky and find one on eBay for not much more than I paid. Alternatively, you can visit Bricklink and buy one right now; boxed examples start at around £30 over there.
I've got a bit of a thing about LEGO space shuttles, always have done. I've therefore made it my mission to track down and aquire all the different space shuttle sets that LEGO have produced, which I think reached an all time high with last year's awesome Shuttle Adventure set.
As luck would have it, LEGO gave us another new space shuttle this year, which is part of a range of four 2011 City Space sets. I posted a few first impressions of these sets a couple of months back, and was I confess pretty lukewarm about the newest space shuttle, mainly due to the large, one piece cockpit which is just the latest in a long line of big, ugly, unnecessary parts (POOP) included in modern sets.
Anyway, POOP or not, I had to get the shuttle - it would have been rude not to given my love affair with the subject matter - and so it was that I sent £24.35 of my hard-earned cash to Amazon.co.uk and they were kind enough to send me Set 3367 Space Shuttle in return.
The first thing that struck me was the box - it seemed slimmed-down compared with recent sets of a similar size. This is most welcome; while I'm familar with the argument that bigger boxes make more of a splash at retail, smaller boxes are kinder to the environment and take up less space in my already over-stuffed LEGO repository, so I'm a huge fan of this latest packaging development - bravo, LEGO.
On carefully opening the box, out fell two numbered bags of pieces. As well as the previously-identified cockpit POOP there was further POOP in the form of the rather large tail section. Also present were a crumpled instruction booklet and a Dreaded Sticker Sheet, or DSS. I was delighted to recently learn that LEGO are now packaging the instruction booklets of larger sets in plastic bags stiffened with cardboard so as to avoid them getting damaged. Unfortunately this treatment doesn't extend to the smaller sets like 3367.
The build was predictably quick and simple given the relatively modest 231 piece count and the 5-12 age recommendation. Due to the simplicity of the set and the POOP within I was not expecting to be particularly impressed when I was done, but I have to confess that once built, I quite liked it.
First thing to like : the minifigure. Although only one is provided, I think he's great ! His default attire is a regulation helmet with clear visor, but when a zero-G spacewalk is on the cards, the standard helmet comes off and he's able to don a serious heavy-duty helmet with a huge gold visor (pics below; click to enlarge). The interchangeable helmets are a nice touch, and there's even somewhere to store the bulky alternative helmet and visor in the shuttle's cargo bay when it's not in use.
Next thing to like : the satellite, which can be manouevred to some extent using an arm which rises out of the open cargo bay. OK. so it's pretty rudimentary, but given the size of the set it's nice that the shuttle has a vaguely functional Canadarm. It's also good how the satellite and arm fold up neatly inside the cargo bay, allowing the cargo doors to close completely over the payload.
"Houston, we have a problem...."
And finally, the ship itself. Notwithstanding the one-piece cockpit and tail, it's an infinitely swooshable little model with a rotating front wheel, opening cargo bay doors, moveable flaps and room inside the cockpit for the astronaut. And it actually looks like a shuttle to boot, which also helps.....
So in summary, a relatively inexpensive and swooshable model with some nice play features and a cool minifigure. Better than I expected, and worth getting if you're an inveterate LEGO space-head.
I've always had a thing for LEGO Space sets. One of my very favourite sets as a kid was 928 Space Cruiser and Moonbase, and through the ages I've always been drawn to space-themed sets, be they one of the many Space Shuttles that LEGO have produced, the excellent if short-lived Discovery theme from 2003, and of course the Star Wars theme which I collect obsessively.
Set 928 - a big part of my love affair with LEGO Space....
I was therefore delighted to see that later this year, according to a NASA press release, LEGO will be giving us 4 "NASA-inspired sets" in the City theme, each of which will contain "NASA-inspired education materials". Images of these 4 sets have been circulating for some time, and now that they've been made available for pre-order by Amazon in the UK I thought it was about time I took a closer look.
As a massive fan of the real-life Space Shuttle, I really have to start my round-up with a look at the 2011 version. You can see a picture of Set 3367 Space Shuttle below :
First impressions are mixed. For sheer accuracy and resemblance to the real thing it looks pretty good, but this is in large part due to the use of a large, one-piece, custom-made cockpit section. I've made my views on such large pieces known very clearly in the past - I hate them and wish we could go back to brick-built alternatives (even at the expense of realism) - but it's the way the LEGO company are going at present as evidenced by the majority of aircraft and train sets over the past few years, so we're stuck with them. Otherwise the set looks OK, with opening bay doors, a satellite, a mechanical arm to manoeuvre the payload, and a cool astronaut minifig. Amazon is quoting a piece count of 217 and a pre-order price of £26.99 which is, to be honest, less than I was expecting.
The largest of the 2011 Space sets with 494 pieces is Set 3368 Rocket Station (picture above). It's somewhat reminiscent of a couple of older Space sets (Set 1682 Space Shuttle Launch, which I've previously written about, and Set 6339 Shuttle Launch Pad) in that it features a large red gantry. The big difference is obviously the huge rocket on the launch pad, in contrast to the Space Shuttles of old. In fact, I was surprised that the only older set I could think of featuring a large rocket on a launch pad with a gantry was Set 358 Rocket Base from 1973, which is still one of my all-time favourites, and was the subject of a previous blog entry. So we're well overdue another one ! Looking closely at the picture of the 2011 set, it also seems to suffer somewhat from "large piece syndrome", both with respect to the rocket and the launch gantry, but I do like the overall look of it anyway. It's showing as available for pre-order at Amazon at a price of £49.99 and is due for release on March 1st of this year.
Any excuse for a pic of Set 358 Rocket Base - inspiration for 2011's Rocket Station ?
The other 2011 City Space sets are Set 3366 Satellite Launch Platform and Set 3365 Space Moon Buggy. Pictures of these smaller sets, which are currently available for pre-order at Amazon at £13.99 and £3.99 respectively, can be found below :
So the verdict ? Well, on the basis of what I've seen so far, LEGO Space 2011 is shaping up to be OK. Admittedly not awe inspiring, but not bad either. That being said, even if all these sets had been utter dogs I'd probably have gone out and bought the lot of them anyway. I'm a total sucker for LEGO Space and will probably remain so until I'm pushing up daisies. Less than £100 for all 4 sets combined seems reasonable, and I have no doubt I'll be picking these up come March.
So I didn't have to wait 24 hours to order my Imperial Shuttle after all - it showed up as "available now" on the UK LEGO shop@home website yesterday afternoon (i.e. a few hours early) and I gleefully put my order in with indecent haste. LEGO have recently been offering free postage on all orders over £25, and this offer was due to run until 31st August, so I managed to save £5.25 shipping costs. OK, so it's a drop in the ocean compared with the £239.99 purchase price, but it all helps...... Anyway, I got an e-mail timed at 05.25 this morning telling me that the set had been shipped, so DHL permitting I should have a LEGO-tastic weekend to look forward to.
Talking of shuttles, I've always had a bit of a thing for the space shuttle, and I've therefore been on a longstanding quest to snap up all the (many) space shuttle sets that LEGO have released over the years. I was therefore delighted to find one that I didn't already have over the weekend on Ebay. It's set number 1682 "Space Shuttle Launch" and it was apparently only ever on sale in the U.S., which is presumably why I've never previously seen one for sale in the UK. Anyway, here's the set :
I managed to bag it, complete with box and building instructions, for a little over £30 + postage and it should be on its way as I type. At least I hope it is (!). If you want more info about this set then click on the following link :
At this point I'd really like to plug one of my favourite LEGO-related sites. Brickset (URL www.brickset.com) is a fantastic resource for LEGO enthusiasts, containing set descriptions and photographs of most of the sets that LEGO have made over the years going back to the 60's and beyond, as well as a facility to store an inventory of all your sets and minifigures, news, and tons more. The photo of set 1682 that I've linked to above is on Brickset, as is the set description. I'd really encourage anyone with even a passing interest in LEGO to visit and check it out if they haven't already come across it - it's brilliant ! And no, I have no financial interest in the site, in case you're wondering !
