LEGO Sci-Fi Ongoing - Rumors, Speculation, and Discussion

[Aanchir]

Ooh, looks lovely! The more I look at the pics of this set, the more I appreciate a lot of its details: the shaping of the hull, the yellow stripes and Tr. Red body panels along the sides, the upside-down build of the cargo hold's upper flap, etc. In spite of the diagonal cargo hold panels not being flush with the fuselage, the model as a whole ends up looking really sleek, aggressive, and stealthy. The droid build is also updated really tastefully. And the cockpit even appears to use the classic space seat like the original (albeit in black rather than grey).

I've never really been bothered by stickers, so that's not an issue for me. And comparing these pics to pics of 6894, I realize they actually help improve the fidelity of the yellow patterns. Yellow printing on black parts has always been prone to looking washed-out compared to actual yellow bricks, even in the original LEGO Blacktron sets. I know that's not likely to make stickers any more palatable to those who would've preferred printing. But I feel it's an interesting trade-off compared to the original set.

Still wish we had a pic that showed the back a little better so I could see how they changed the rear engines, but that's the only visual detail I'm having an especially hard time making out in these higher-quality images.

[Lyichir]

I'm particularly fond of the droid update, replacing the old (long retired) control yoke piece with the gun handle piece from the Overwatch sets. It's a much more versatile piece and evokes the hunched posture of the droid from the original set very effectively!

[GeoBrick]

I'm almost disappointed the Blacktron pilot comes with airbottles... It would've given him a profound reason to chase the 10497 LL928 to the end of the Universe and beyond.

Love the new sloped controls that come with the ship, especially with its target display on it.
Anyone else thinks the sticker on the slope of the engine section should be placed upside-down? And still no good look at the back of the engine section. I like to know if this time there's a better resemblance of an engine exhaust then a mere cylinder.

[zoth33]

The set looks great.  I loved the Blacktron theme.  Wonderful to see it back.  I still have some of my old figs floating around in my collection.  

The amount of people going on about the Zelda triforce thing is annoying though it's like people have no idea that things existed before.  The Blacktron symbol was out 2 years before Zelda released their triforce.  

[danth]

23 hours ago, Aanchir said:

And comparing these pics to pics of 6894, I realize they actually help improve the fidelity of the yellow patterns. Yellow printing on black parts has always been prone to looking washed-out compared to actual yellow bricks, even in the original LEGO Blacktron sets. I know that's not likely to make stickers any more palatable to those who would've preferred printing. But I feel it's an interesting trade-off compared to the original set.

I went and looked at pics of people's used 6894 sets and I'm not seeing any issues. I'm actually amazed at how great they look despite being yellow on black. I need to dig out my own Blacktron sets, but I've been feeling lazy...although 6894 is the only original Blacktron set I don't have.

Any chance the sloped computer piece is a print?

Just remembered we haven't had a Classic Space themed Creator set yet. In some alternate timeline, they did a Blacktron Creator set this year, and this GWP set also got the same prints.

[GeoBrick]

3 hours ago, danth said:

Any chance the sloped computer piece is a print?

That's my impression as well. I can't see the typical edges of a sticker on the slope.

[Classic_Spaceman]

6 hours ago, danth said:

Any chance the sloped computer piece is a print?

I doubt it, unfortunately. All other set-specific details (aside from the Minifig torso) are stickers, so I cannot see the computer being printed. 
 

[Triceron]

Blacktron Renegade was the first set I ever got, so this is super nostalgic for me.  Stickers are a dealbreaker though, and I've lost all interest in this...

[Lyichir]

Brickset has their review up! The back printing on the astronaut figure is a nice surprise!

[danth]

I'd like to see a pic of the back of the figure while wearing an air tank. Hopefully enough printing shows around the edges to look like something.

Why is the control panel in the cargo hold gray?

I'm just now learning that the original Invader's main thruster is gray though.

[jusvans]

I was super excited to see this set revealed a few days ago as a "young" classic space fan...now with the details being a $190 GWP on Jan 1st, ouch. Ouch. Lego.com is sold out of a fair few items and there really isn't much in this first wave to justify buying. Yeah its a high piece count so I knew the GWP price would be higher, but good gosh Lego. Why? First time I'm actually highly considering skipping a self-desired GWP. *Sigh*

[jonwil]

There are definitely things I want that I could justify buying to snag the gwp, like the Australia postcard,  maybe new City sets, maybe the marvel red gauntlet or the Chinese New year set with the purple airtanks.

Edited December 30, 2022 by jonwil

[Lyichir]

On 12/29/2022 at 1:51 PM, danth said:

I'd like to see a pic of the back of the figure while wearing an air tank. Hopefully enough printing shows around the edges to look like something.

Why is the control panel in the cargo hold gray?

I'm just now learning that the original Invader's main thruster is gray though.

I'd also like to see how the printed back looks with airtanks. That said, one nice thing about the airtanks is they'll probably make it easier to display new and old figs together (with the new one being particularly useful if you want to have a fig without airtanks for whatever reason).

The dark grey panel in the cargo hold stood out to me as well, considering I think dark grey bricks were rare in the era of the original set. Then again, maybe that makes for a small coincidental benefit from the stickers—if you want a more authentic look you could easily use the same sticker on a black piece instead.

By the way, picked up the Astronaut and Spacebaby CMF today! Will have to see about using some of my spare parts to see if I can make a cradle/bassinet based on the little beds from the Galaxy Explorer.

[Murdoch17]

Since I can't afford the new Blacktron GWP's threshold, I decided to convert the spaceship from the film "Lightyear" into original Blacktron colors. As such, the blue will become yellow, and white will become black, with all the trans-green changed to trans-red. (I had to change two part types as the slopes by the canopy aren't buyable in black from Bricklink yet, although they do exist in the Black Panther bust set.)

Anybody else done something similar with set 76382 - XL-15 spaceship?

[GeoBrick]

9 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

Anybody else done something similar with set 76382 - XL-15 spaceship?

I seem to remember someone posted pictures of the XL-15 converted to Classic Space colors.

[Bob De Quatre]

11 hours ago, Murdoch17 said:

Anybody else done something similar with set 76382 - XL-15 spaceship?

 

[Murdoch17]

That looks fantastic @Bob De Quatre!

Edited December 31, 2022 by Murdoch17

[Wesley D]

I'm hyped for my first Blacktron set!

Collecting minifigures made me craving for the simple, oldschool and nostalgic Blactron minifigure. The Evil Mech, mixing the color palette of Blacktron 1 and 2, learned me really appreciate the look of the menacing Blactron 1. The Galactic Bounty Hunter was looking simply amazing on the box art, but opening the blind bags gave me my biggest LEGO disappointment to date, due to the metallic printing.

Despite the huge disgrace the spaceship comes with stickers, it feels like I need a fleet of those hunters. Too bad the Blacktron Cruiser is a GWP. LEGO isn't making it easy for us!

[Snojd]

I'm very upset with LEGO, a price cap of 2100 SEK to get the "free" with purchase blacktron ship. They have it valued at 349 SEK, I would happily buy a whole fleet of them if I could. Not making it an ordinary set is a crime! Oh how I hate capitalism and my inability to optain luxury plastic toys :) 

[CP5670]

Fantastic set, but I wish it was a standard set they sold and not a freebie. It will make it much harder to buy multiple copies. The stickers are probably due to the fact that it's not a "regular" set, as is the selection of parts (mostly "standard" parts except the minifig and windscreen).

Edited January 2, 2023 by CP5670

[jonwil]

I snagged my Blactron set yesterday (thanks to some City stuff, a build-a-minifig pack, the Australian Postcard set and a Big Bird keychain) and its a great build.

Would have been nice if they could have made the 3 x 6 wedge plates in trans-red again but its still a great looking set.

 

[RichardGoring]

I saw the set in person this evening, and it's so much larger than I expected, and as a result, looks better, to my eyes. I wasn't going to try and get one, but it may have persuaded me too. 

[AstroFalcon]

On 12/27/2022 at 8:02 PM, GeoBrick said:

I'm almost disappointed the Blacktron pilot comes with airbottles... It would've given him a profound reason to chase the 10497 LL928 to the end of the Universe and beyond.

My headcanon is that the black airtanks in 10497 belonged to his friend whom the Galaxy Explorer crew successfully took down. He's back for revenge. 

[Killian]

I'm surprised that in a world where schools use whiteboards because blackboards were considered racist and Lego's Boba Fett spaceship had a name change because the original name had awkward racial connotations.. They're still officially calling their evil space criminal faction Blacktron.

I would have expected it to be renamed "enemy ship" or "Shadowtron" or something 

[Aanchir]

4 hours ago, Killian said:

I'm surprised that in a world where schools use whiteboards because blackboards were considered racist and Lego's Boba Fett spaceship had a name change because the original name had awkward racial connotations.. They're still officially calling their evil space criminal faction Blacktron. 

I would have expected it to be renamed "enemy ship" or "Shadowtron" or something 

Whoever convinced you that was the reason schools started using whiteboards instead of blackboards was either pulling your leg or mired in conspiratorial thinking. As somebody who grew up with both whiteboards and blackboards in school, the main reason that whiteboards began gaining favor over blackboards around the 90s is that whiteboard markers produce less airborne dust than chalk. Chalk dust can not only create issues for people with asthma or certain allergies, but there were also a lot of concerns in the 90s that it might damage newly-installed computers (which were still a pretty huge investment for schools that had them) by clogging their fans.

But even by the time I first entered grade school, most chalkboards in classrooms were made of steel with a dark green enamel coating, rather than black slate (since steel chalkboards are considerably lighter and less fragile than slate ones). As such, the term "blackboard" was already sort of a misnomer by that time — making it even less plausible to attribute the rising popularity of whiteboards to racial sensitivity. It's not like we had any dark green students or teachers dictating what surfaces we should write on!

Anyway, if anything, the term "Blacktron" calls to mind espionage-related terms like "black ops" or "black sites". It certainly has no more racial connotations than the Black Falcons from LEGO Castle or the Black Order from Marvel.

Edited January 3, 2023 by Aanchir