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

[Kit Figsto]

5 hours ago, R0Sch said:

Say no more! :))
*removed image of giant Blacktron Renegade*

This actually looks quite cool, I expected it to be ridiculous (and it is!) but it works!

[icm]

@danth: Fair enough 

Edited December 19, 2024 by icm

[iragm]

23 hours ago, jodawill said:

My hope for the hoses obviously dwindled when I saw it was going to be the Renegade

Why?  I've found 4 Renegades in bulk buys and all of them had trans-yellow hoses.  Both this set and Battrax came with either trans-yellow with black ends or solid yellow with black ends.  But the chances of that style of hose coming back was always pretty slim, I think.  I would have liked to see one of the currently-in-production types of hoses used, re-colored in trans-yellow if possible, or in just yellow.

23 hours ago, jodawill said:

But it would have been nice to have a decorated slope

The "hexagonal flag" or whatever this piece is called is awesome.  It's a wing, a tail fin, part of a geodesic dome, whatever.  It will make for some really amazing MOCs.

 

20 hours ago, Aanchir said:

One small but significant change I greatly appreciate is having one universal coupling design between modules, instead of some modules only having "male" pins or "female" pin holes

Yeah, for real.  Blacktron I's modular system was pretty lacking, and most of the alternative configurations just aren't as cool as what the ships look like "out of the box".  This lends itself to a lot of customization.

 

19 hours ago, Lord Insanity said:

I'll probably buy several copies of the set just to support the printed parts and overall selection of "parts in the right color" for what I want to build.

I will load up on the printed parts when they hit PAB.  There are some great ones here for sure.  I'm bummed that the 2x2 yellow printed tile didn't come back -- that and the space wing returning in yellow would have dropped the price of original Blacktron sets by a ton.

I posted this on Reddit and I'll post it again here:

Most of what makes Blacktron good is that it's aged like a fine wine. The sets at the time were futuristic, but they are now so old that they look retro-futuristic in the best possible way. I love the 8-cylinder diesel engine on the Battrax, and all the hoses. Where are the hoses on this set?

But the original set designs are just not that great apart apart from the 80's-ness and the color scheme. The modularity is a great concept, but was done much better in Blacktron II. The designs are very much a product of late 80's Lego, and have a certain awkwardness about them (so do the Futuron and SPI sets from the same era). I actually didn't like the theme at all until I stumbled across the Message Intercept Base in a bulk lot, and it instantly become my favorite space set of all time (well, tied with the Mega Core Magnetizer, I guess).

Anyway, my point is that this is fine, the original wasn't "best set of all time" material, and this nicely recaptures the 80's tech feeling of Blacktron. I'll buy it when it's on sale.

[Black Falcon]

9 hours ago, zinnn said:

Can a Moderator separate and move the posts about the new Blacktron set and create a new topic? It's pretty ridiculous that there's no dedicated thread to that new set.

Just noticed there was one! But some clever person decide to shut it down lol, whyyyyy?

9 hours ago, Artanis I said:

People were already talking about it in 2 other threads - no need for a 3rd. We repeat ourselves too much as it is.

Well, yes and no. Sure people would still use this thread to discuss it itself but I was actually really surprised that the Blacktron Thread was closed, since, well this is the Sci-Fi-Subforum and we are basically getting two big Space Sets this year we know of, the City Spaceship, and the Blacktron one. If a Subforum can´t have an own Thread for a Set like the Blacktron Renegade, then I don´t know. The Galaxy Explorer had it´s own and so had Eldorado, the Lion Knights Castle and tons of other Sets.

For the Space CMF, people also talked in this thread, the 2024 Space Sets Thread and the CMF thread btw. And sure it probably is better if all discussion about a set is in one place, but in the end people will just post where they think it will fit and not look for a better option. But basically all discussion about a Set should be in the respective thread of the set and Thread like this more for general discussion or Sets that don´t have own threads.

On a side note, to me it is kinda hilarious that the Blacktron thread was closed, but the 2024 Sets thread (that is now renamed to 2025 Sets) is still around, although it basically has the same use as this thread here. ;).

 

[icm]

It occurs to me that it ought to be pretty simple to build an extension module for the right boom to bring back that aspect of the asymmetry of the original build. How much do you all think the right boom should be extended, four studs? Six? Eight?

[Stereo]

5 hours ago, iragm said:

Yeah, for real.  Blacktron I's modular system was pretty lacking, and most of the alternative configurations just aren't as cool as what the ships look like "out of the box".  This lends itself to a lot of customization.

Sort of, this ship has little "tongues" under the connections on the main body build to help support the cockpit, so you can't connect multiple of the set to itself without modifying that.

Edited December 20, 2024 by Stereo

[Lord Insanity]

22 hours ago, Aanchir said:

As awesome as that would be, I think you'd have to scale the Renegade up quite a bit more than 1.5x to have corridors that would fit a minifig! I'd love to see somebody attempt that in a MOC though.

Well I wasn't necessarily thinking full corridors that could fit a minifig so much as the illusion that it could.  Maybe like the current city space sets airlocks that can technically fit a fig through but it's not something you're likely to do much.  It is more the implied feature.

Now that I think about it and look at the shape of the connections on the Renegade Mk2, they should have recolored the airlock piece to black and used those.  That would have been a massive "tie the sets together" feature.  We could have had the "not a cockpit" end be a docking boarding pod.  The missing cargo section could have been compatible with the city space pods to "steal" them.  Okay, now I really hope they recolor that airlock piece black at some point.  That will make for some fantastic mods.

 

7 hours ago, danth said:

I take it as a given that a trans colored windscreen put on a contrastingly colored ship will cause the windscreen color to "pop" or stand out in a noticeable way. This is what has been done all along in Classic Space. Trans yellow on blue, trans blue on white, trans green on gray, etc.

However there are rare counterexamples:

The blue bricks certainly "pops" on the white, but the windscreen itself doesn't stand out. Does it matter? Does it look just as good this way? Maybe.

But I wouldn't say it makes a glowing effect. Can't blue glow? Or maybe only certain colors make a glowing effect? I have no idea.

This here is exactly how I see the solid yellow on trans yellow.  It makes the windscreen "disappear".  Trans yellow on black, that pops.

I really am happy for the people that like the yellow on yellow.  Hopefully that means more sales.  Let's be realistic here, if this doesn't sell the corporate suits won't hear: "the color scheme was wrong", they'll hear: "customers don't want Blacktron".  Like most artistic preferences, one person's masterpiece is another person's trash.  For me that yellow on yellow is the first thing that needs to go.

[jodawill]

6 hours ago, iragm said:

Why?  I've found 4 Renegades in bulk buys and all of them had trans-yellow hoses.  Both this set and Battrax came with either trans-yellow with black ends or solid yellow with black ends.  But the chances of that style of hose coming back was always pretty slim, I think.  I would have liked to see one of the currently-in-production types of hoses used, re-colored in trans-yellow if possible, or in just yellow.

I forgot the Renegade had the hoses also. They do still make those hoses, but they're currently only available in black. The current mold is 73590c03a on Bricklink. I think the only difference is that the ends don't come off, and the Blacktron sets probably had the tabs also.

[iragm]

8 hours ago, Stereo said:

Sort of, this ship has little "tongues" under the connections on the main body build to help support the cockpit, so you can't connect multiple of the set to itself without modifying that.

The video interview with the designer says that multiples of the set can be connected.  The original Blacktron sets had "male" or "female" connections, but they weren't consistent about the cockpit always being either "male" or "female", which sometimes made things awkward.  This looks like any connection can be attached to any other, which is much more flexible.

7 hours ago, jodawill said:

They do still make those hoses, but they're currently only available in black

Right -- they're available in black, a color that can be used in just about any theme.  That part isn't coming back in yellow.  I would have expected a ribbed hose or something, though.

[a guy from somewhere]

Rightttttttt well getting back into more mainstream sci-fi stuff, I haven't seen anyone review the new intergalactic city spaceship so im guessing we will have to wait till January 1st to find out what is in that section behind the cockpit. I do want to see how it pairs with the other space station set, im pretty sure with 2 extra pieces (inverted 2x2 plates with technic pins) you can mount the entire ring section half way through the intergalactic spaceship. It wont spin, but the idea of a gravity wheel is close enough. I just need to pick both of them up for a decent price, ive been struggling to find the space station for under £80 in the UK. These space sets are proving to be very popular because apart from the small rover and spaceship, none of the other sets have appeared on second hand sites for cheap yet. Ive got my eye on the big space base set for £50 but it's my least favourite set of the wave and id rather get the space station and the big spaceship. For those across the great pond, is the space science lab set a retail exclusive in the US too? It's exclusive to Argos here in the UK and it's a royal pain in the big behind to actually find. 

Edited December 20, 2024 by a guy from somewhere

[Lion King]

On 12/18/2024 at 9:43 AM, Lion King said:

Is this spaceship recovering El Dorado or Forestmen’s Hideout’s treatment?

It looks like no one answers my quesiton… i just don’t know what kind of treatment this spaceship recieve from. Like Galaxy Explorer, Lion Knights’ Castle or El Dorao.

[SpacePolice89]

14 minutes ago, Lion King said:

It looks like no one answers my quesiton… i just don’t know what kind of treatment this spaceship recieve from. Like Galaxy Explorer, Lion Knights’ Castle or El Dorao.

I don't know exactly what you mean by treatment but I think it is designed the same way as the other Space sets such as the Galaxy Explorer and the Blacktron Cruiser. It has the same colors as the original theme had and the minifigs are almost the same as the ones from the 80s. I prefer this over the heavy modernization that is seen in new Castle and Pirates sets.

Edited December 20, 2024 by SpacePolice89

[Classic_Spaceman]

21 hours ago, danth said:

That's the second time I've heard that, and there's no such glowing effect, and there's no way two people independently came up with that. Is that just some talking point that Lego PR disseminates to explain away why this set f&cked up the traditional Space color blocking in which a colored transparent windscreen is set against a contrasting color?

21 hours ago, Lyichir said:

God damn it, I'm tired of being accused of being some sort of undercover shill for Lego. Me describing the canopy as looking like it was glowing was my own words, from my own brain, describing the way the yellow parts light up the interior of the cockpit visually so that it doesn't just feel like a sea of black parts inside dampening the look of the colored windscreen. It feels similar to me to how the Galaxy Explorer remake made heavy use of white inside the cockpit both to differentiate the interior and exterior of the ship and to make the yellow of the windscreen pop more than if contrasting grey and blue had been diffused through it. Stop being so conspiracy brained—just because other people have different opinions than you doesn't make their opinions automatically less authentic.

Yep, this^^ 
 

2 hours ago, a guy from somewhere said:

I do want to see how it pairs with the other space station set, im pretty sure with 2 extra pieces (inverted 2x2 plates with technic pins) you can mount the entire ring section half way through the intergalactic spaceship. 

I would recommend using Technic plates, 2x2 round bricks with axle hole, and a Technic axle-pin combo piece instead - Attaching pods to the ring station with inverted 2x2’s will inevitably break just from gravity!! 😬
 

[Lion King]

3 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I don't know exactly what you mean by treatment but I think it is designed the same way as the other Space sets such as the Galaxy Explorer and the Blacktron Cruiser. It has the same colors as the original theme had and the minifigs are almost the same as the ones from the 80s. I prefer this over the heavy modernization that is seen in new Castle and Pirates sets.

Ah so this spaceship’s style is more like Blacktorn Cruiser GWP? I built that GWp and i don’t like it. It feels….off - i can’t put my finger on it. It has classic feeling with a modern touch. I also don’t like Forestmen’s Hideout GWP too. I feel both GWP sets were underwhelmed to me. 

I always like a whole facelift to the sets with new building techniques and new parts, not just basic building techniques like Forestmen’s Hideout. 

I’m not just sure what kind of design treatment this spaceship received similiar to Galaxy Explorer, LKC or El Dorado. 

[Stereo]

5 hours ago, iragm said:

The video interview with the designer says that multiples of the set can be connected.  The original Blacktron sets had "male" or "female" connections, but they weren't consistent about the cockpit always being either "male" or "female", which sometimes made things awkward.  This looks like any connection can be attached to any other, which is much more flexible.

Oops, landing gear and blurry review footage of black parts tricked me, what I thought was plates just under the connection point was the middle of the landing gear's leg, 2 studs wider and 3 studs farther down.

[Lyichir]

43 minutes ago, Lion King said:

Ah so this spaceship’s style is more like Blacktorn Cruiser GWP? I built that GWp and i don’t like it. It feels….off - i can’t put my finger on it. It has classic feeling with a modern touch. I also don’t like Forestmen’s Hideout GWP too. I feel both GWP sets were underwhelmed to me. 

I always like a whole facelift to the sets with new building techniques and new parts, not just basic building techniques like Forestmen’s Hideout. 

I’m not just sure what kind of design treatment this spaceship received similiar to Galaxy Explorer, LKC or El Dorado. 

I wouldn't necessarily consider this equivalent to the Blacktron Cruiser GWP... for starters, that set was closer in scale to its source material, whereas this set, like the Galaxy Explorer remake, is 1.5x the scale to allow for more detail and functionality to be added. GWP sets don't necessarily have the size or budget for that kind of enhancement, which is probably part of why the classic GWP sets you mention hewed closer to the source material they were inspired by without adding a ton of new features. By contrast, this set adds a "dropship" feature for the rover, retractable landing gear, removable power cells, a larger crew cabin, plus plenty of new aesthetic detail.

The differing scale is part of why I'm not too broken up with the two retro-inspired Blacktron sets not being compatible without modification—that plus the obvious factor that the two sets weren't developed simultaneously like the classic Blacktron sets, so the GWP wasn't necessarily designed with the needs of a larger set in mind.

[Black Falcon]

4 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I don't know exactly what you mean by treatment but I think it is designed the same way as the other Space sets such as the Galaxy Explorer and the Blacktron Cruiser. It has the same colors as the original theme had and the minifigs are almost the same as the ones from the 80s. I prefer this over the heavy modernization that is seen in new Castle and Pirates sets.

I don´t actually think those two got the same treatment really. The Galaxy Explorer was more modernized than the Blacktron Cruiser was. 

42 minutes ago, Lion King said:

Ah so this spaceship’s style is more like Blacktorn Cruiser GWP? I built that GWp and i don’t like it. It feels….off - i can’t put my finger on it. It has classic feeling with a modern touch. I also don’t like Forestmen’s Hideout GWP too. I feel both GWP sets were underwhelmed to me. 

I always like a whole facelift to the sets with new building techniques and new parts, not just basic building techniques like Forestmen’s Hideout. 

I’m not just sure what kind of design treatment this spaceship received similiar to Galaxy Explorer, LKC or El Dorado. 

I think it is kinda hard to say really. I mean the Lion Knights Castle obviously is the most modernized Version of all those Sets, and the main reason obviously is because it isn´t depicting an old Set - all the others had to keep something of the old Sets and I would say they all did a good job in their own way. But that beeing said, it is also kinda hard to tell which of them is closer to their predecessor - I would say the Blacktron Cruiser is, if we are not counting sets that were really close to old set like the Forestmen GWP. 

But the other Sets are all somewhere between that and the LKC, but I think in the end it doesn´t matter much if it is closer to the Galaxy Explorer or the Eldorado Fortress, since I don´t think that this is the main reason if you like a set or not - there is just much more to that IMO: 

That beeing said, so far I liked all of the retro Set, although I didn´t buy all of them (not bought the LKC yet, but definitely will do that before it disappears and didn´t buy the Eldorado either, mainly because Money and especially space is limited).

[SpacePolice89]

1 hour ago, Lion King said:

Ah so this spaceship’s style is more like Blacktorn Cruiser GWP? I built that GWp and i don’t like it. It feels….off - i can’t put my finger on it. It has classic feeling with a modern touch. I also don’t like Forestmen’s Hideout GWP too. I feel both GWP sets were underwhelmed to me. 

I always like a whole facelift to the sets with new building techniques and new parts, not just basic building techniques like Forestmen’s Hideout. 

I’m not just sure what kind of design treatment this spaceship received similiar to Galaxy Explorer, LKC or El Dorado. 

The new Renegade is similar in style to the original Blacktron sets but a bit larger than the original Renegade. I think it looks great because I like sets that are not too much modernized but it is still different enough from the original to be worth purchasing. The Cruiser GWP is much sleeker that the new Renegade but they both have the original Blacktron 1 colors, looks and minifigs. 

59 minutes ago, Black Falcon said:

I don´t actually think those two got the same treatment really. The Galaxy Explorer was more modernized than the Blacktron Cruiser was.

I was more thinking about that both have stayed quite true to the original factions. They both have the same colors, overall shape and minifigs as the originals.

[SpacePolice89]

1 hour ago, Black Falcon said:

That beeing said, so far I liked all of the retro Set, although I didn´t buy all of them (not bought the LKC yet, but definitely will do that before it disappears and didn´t buy the Eldorado either, mainly because Money and especially space is limited).

Same here. I also like all the retro sets to some degree but the Space sets are the only ones I like enough to buy. The Castle and Pirates sets feel too modernized and studless for me to be on my to buy list. I was really close to buy the new Eldorado Fortress but I didn't like that they replaced the classic minifigs with new ones and I also have the original which I like more so I didn't buy it. If they had included the original minifigs I would have bought it. I wonder why Space has original minifigs and colors but Castle and Pirates do not?

Edited December 20, 2024 by SpacePolice89

[GeoBrick]

13 minutes ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I wonder why Space has original minifigs and colors but Castle and Pirates does not?

The Galactic Explorer had the original minifig prints, but the Blacktron Renegade definitely does not. They expanded with a back torso print there. 

[Lyichir]

32 minutes ago, GeoBrick said:

The Galactic Explorer had the original minifig prints, but the Blacktron Renegade definitely does not. They expanded with a back torso print there. 

While that's a change I feel like it's a useful one, since the vest/harness-like appearance of the Blacktron torso sort of implies the existence of details that would continue onto the back while the monochromatic torso with badge/logo of the Classic Space figs does not. It's not hugely important (since the airtanks cover most of the back anyway) but nevertheless I felt like the addition of back printing was a nice touch when it debuted with the GWP and I'm glad it's back for this set.

[Black Falcon]

1 hour ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I was more thinking about that both have stayed quite true to the original factions. They both have the same colors, overall shape and minifigs as the originals.

But the same goes also for the Galaxy Explorer.

1 hour ago, SpacePolice89 said:

Same here. I also like all the retro sets to some degree but the Space sets are the only ones I like enough to buy. The Castle and Pirates sets feel too modernized and studless for me to be on my to buy list. I was really close to buy the new Eldorado Fortress but I didn't like that they replaced the classic minifigs with new ones and I also have the original which I like more so I didn't buy it. If they had included the original minifigs I would have bought it.

It probably helped that I didn´t buy the Baracuda Bay, so it was easier to skip the Eldorado Fortress. As for the Lion Knights Castle, there is no way I will skip that one.

1 hour ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I wonder why Space has original minifigs and colors but Castle and Pirates do not?

Well, I think noone was surprised that classic Space got the classic minifigure. It is just to Iconic in the way it is done and people wouldn´t want to have a change. Blacktron was updated with the Backprint but otherwise not much updated - my best guess would be that they did it because they have done it with the cruiser and the cruiser had it done, to match better with the Minifigs from the Galaxy Explorer. Personally, I wouldn´t have minded if they would have done an updated version of the Blacktron Torso.

If they are expanding into newer themes in the future, like Blacktron 2, Ice Planet and M-Tron however, I do think they will change towards the Design they used for the CMFs. Doesn´t mean they will use the exact same torso, but something similar at least and the Faction Logo will likely stay the same.

[GeoBrick]

1 hour ago, Lyichir said:

While that's a change I feel like it's a useful one, since the vest/harness-like appearance of the Blacktron torso sort of implies the existence of details that would continue onto the back while the monochromatic torso with badge/logo of the Classic Space figs does not. It's not hugely important (since the airtanks cover most of the back anyway) but nevertheless I felt like the addition of back printing was a nice touch when it debuted with the GWP and I'm glad it's back for this set.

So do I.
In any case, I'm wondering now why not for instance a few suit creases were added to the CS minifigs.

[Renny The Spaceman]

3 hours ago, GeoBrick said:

So do I.
In any case, I'm wondering now why not for instance a few suit creases were added to the CS minifigs.

Just would be a little annoying and out of place with the pre-existing ones. Especially as they've decided it'll be a cold day in hell before they redo black and blue

[SpacePolice89]

11 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

But the same goes also for the Galaxy Explorer.

I think the Cruiser and the Galaxy Explorer were modernized in a similar way, the big difference in my opinion is that they made the GE much larger than the original wile they kept the Cruiser quite close in size to the original. I like all those sets very much, both the new ones and the originals. The fact that they kept the colors and minifigs in all those sets makes it possible to display them next to the older sets without looking out of place.

11 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

It probably helped that I didn´t buy the Baracuda Bay, so it was easier to skip the Eldorado Fortress. As for the Lion Knights Castle, there is no way I will skip that one.

I see why many people like the LKC but for me it is too smooth and studless. I still like it and if I would buy it I would make some modifications to make more studs visible (roof section and top of walls/towers).

Edited December 21, 2024 by SpacePolice89