Ron Dayes Posted February 25, 2021 Posted February 25, 2021 Okay i admit - that title is really misleading. There definately arent any SW sets made in 1985 or prior to that- or at least, none that i heard of last time i checked.BUT - why weren't there any? Were was Lego when the Deathstars fell? (pun intended) The whole world went nuts about Episode 4 and by 1985, most of the western worlds population had seen at least one of the movies, if not enjoyed the whole OT. Toy manufacturers (Kenner, etc) produced figurines and plastic spacecrafts in large bulks. There was TV adds, campaigns, ceral toys. It was literally impossible to escape the phenomenon. And TLG? - they went off and made classic space (which ofc, we love as much as Star Wars). While it is very intriguing to know what kept TLG from producing Star Wars sets after the motion picture releases, the sad truth is, it never happened until 1999. Or did it? in a parallel universe - an alternate reality?Welcome to my alternate reality! Where i travel back in time, to the 80ies, with todays knowledge to reproduce things that have never been. I dont do this just with SW, but afterall, i thought i'd share my rendition of vintage 1985 Star Wars sets here in this forum. Most MOCs contain 99% of elements released in the year or piror to that in the given context. Yet, since its an alternate reality - for the sake of great part design - i pretend some small elements from the 90ies existed even back in a day^^ Hope you enjoy! Feel free to check my flickr stream for alternate reality designs of other themes ;)Alternate Universe LEGO X Wing 1985 by Ron Dayes, auf Flickr y wing Box Art 1985 by Ron Dayes, auf Flickr X Wing 1985 by Ron Dayes, auf Flickr Quote
icm Posted February 25, 2021 Posted February 25, 2021 Hey, those look great! I did a few builds along those lines myself, only mine used a 1987 parts palette and no custom prints. Maybe we could swap the Studio files of yours and mine by DM? Quote
jimmynick Posted February 25, 2021 Posted February 25, 2021 Ah, very fun! The X-Wing in particular looks great. Just goes to show what's possible even with a limited part palette. Thanks for sharing! Quote
Alexandrina Posted February 25, 2021 Posted February 25, 2021 Gotta say, the blockiness is a cute factor that the modern sets don't have, it's like a hybrid of classic Space and the very early (1999-2001) Star Wars sets. Those janky minifigures remind me of the really early brickfilms and webcomics from the days when Star Wars sets didn't exist, and the days when 90% of the characters hadn't been made in minifigure form - so in a strange way these designs aping an aesthetic from more than a decade before I was born take me back to my childhood. I'd love to see more if you ever do any! Quote
Hold0511 Posted February 25, 2021 Posted February 25, 2021 These are great the 85 Y-Wing would sell well today - its better than a lot of the recent ones! Quote
deraven Posted February 25, 2021 Posted February 25, 2021 Those are excellent! I definitely made some myself back in the day, but the thing that strikes me the most is how good these can look just using some more modern SNOT techniques even with the limited parts palette of the time. Quote
JintaiZ Posted February 25, 2021 Posted February 25, 2021 These are great! Interesting to see how much LEGO has evolved in the past 35 years... Quote
TeddytheSpoon Posted February 25, 2021 Posted February 25, 2021 Great concept. Honestly I was preparing to write a 'well, actually' sort of post when I saw the title - consider me pleasantly surprised! The TIE is probably my pick of the bunch. I love the OP's box art as well, perfect composition make it feel very 80s! Quote
Ron Dayes Posted February 26, 2021 Author Posted February 26, 2021 23 hours ago, icm said: Hey, those look great! I did a few builds along those lines myself, only mine used a 1987 parts palette and no custom prints. Maybe we could swap the Studio files of yours and mine by DM? Really enjoying that there is others out there who took that approach - to be fair, your's are more realistic in a way - thats definately what they would have looked like with TLG's designer team back in a day. The Y-Wing really has those classic space vibes^^ I dont hand out files unless i build them myself to check if really possible and firm in structure - im somewhat a perfectionist and dont want to hand out problematic mocs. @MAVERICK26@jimmynick@JintaiZ@caiman0637 Thanks so much for the positive feedback guys. It made me do another one, this time the "hard to get right" A Wing^^ Lego has definately evolved through the great minds that came before us, so now we can even alter the past - at least imaginary and digitally 20 hours ago, deraven said: Those are excellent! I definitely made some myself back in the day, but the thing that strikes me the most is how good these can look just using some more modern SNOT techniques even with the limited parts palette of the time. Really, do you have pics of that? (odd request, but some actually fotographed their stuff back in a day, would be lovely to see!) Snot! - this is the way ;) All it would have needed is an uncommon out of the box thinking back in 1985... 22 hours ago, Alexandrina said: Gotta say, the blockiness is a cute factor that the modern sets don't have, it's like a hybrid of classic Space and the very early (1999-2001) Star Wars sets. Those janky minifigures remind me of the really early brickfilms and webcomics from the days when Star Wars sets didn't exist, and the days when 90% of the characters hadn't been made in minifigure form - so in a strange way these designs aping an aesthetic from more than a decade before I was born take me back to my childhood. I'd love to see more if you ever do any! True, the SOT method is very nostalgic and practical for the designers and users alike. However, now going back in time - it didnt have to be that way afterall in most cases, like 50% of studs could have been reduced. On the other hand, would we have missed studs on top? would lego sets be hyper real by now if they had that mindset back in those days? On it btw, just posted another MOC ;) 21 hours ago, Hold0511 said: These are great the 85 Y-Wing would sell well today - its better than a lot of the recent ones! Many thanks - honestly i think the current Y-Wing Sets are pretty good, allthough they could be much better ofc using some "good ol' Snot" ;) 19 hours ago, TeddytheSpoon said: Great concept. Honestly I was preparing to write a 'well, actually' sort of post when I saw the title - consider me pleasantly surprised! The TIE is probably my pick of the bunch. I love the OP's box art as well, perfect composition make it feel very 80s! Hold on - you wanted to start with "well actually"? What were your thoughts? - do you know something we dont about SW sets prior to 1999? prototype stuff :D?New MOC: A Wing 1986 alternate universe box art by Ron Dayes, auf Flickr Quote
TeddytheSpoon Posted February 26, 2021 Posted February 26, 2021 1 hour ago, Ron Dayes said: Hold on - you wanted to start with "well actually"? What were your thoughts? - do you know something we dont about SW sets prior to 1999? prototype stuff :D?New MOC: I wish, I was going to be boring and bring out the grey bricks and tanks story! That A-wing is superb as well. Looking at the model itself I would never guess it was made from a 1986 palette! Quote
Mandalorianknight Posted February 26, 2021 Posted February 26, 2021 (edited) These are great, you've really captured what they'd look like in that era. Reminds me of that guy who tried to do the entire star wars trilogy in lego back in the late 80s/early 90s. That A-wing is great, though your solution to the sides might be a bit advanced for 1986-lego still hasn't figured out that they can angle bricks for the wings on their system-scale A-wings! Edited February 26, 2021 by Mandalorianknight Quote
icm Posted February 26, 2021 Posted February 26, 2021 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Mandalorianknight said: Reminds me of that guy who tried to do the entire star wars trilogy in lego back in the late 80s/early 90s. Do you have a link to that? I agree with what @Mandalorianknight said, that A-wing (and the Y-wing) look spectacularly advanced for a 1986 palette. Edited February 26, 2021 by icm Quote
jimmynick Posted February 26, 2021 Posted February 26, 2021 Wow! That A-Wing is on another level. Love the effective use of hinges and (presumably) headlight bricks to effect the triangular fuselage. Quote
lowlead Posted February 27, 2021 Posted February 27, 2021 7 hours ago, Ron Dayes said: ...New MOC: A Wing 1986 alternate universe box art by Ron Dayes, auf Flickr ^^ OH MAH GAWD I love this A-wing!! Quote
deraven Posted February 27, 2021 Posted February 27, 2021 7 hours ago, Ron Dayes said: Really, do you have pics of that? (odd request, but some actually fotographed their stuff back in a day, would be lovely to see!) Boy, back when photos were taken on actual film? I don't think so, but might have a couple of pics of the Star Trek stuff I build around the same time. I remember building a micro starship Enterprise out of, like, 10 pieces and letting my imagination do the rest! And the A-wing is lovely, too! Like you said, if some visionary had thought a little more creatively at the time maybe Lego would have skipped some of the Jack Stone type of stuff along the way. Quote
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