I was 8 years old when I got my first Lego Classic Space set LL918. I remember I spent hours with catalogs looking at LL924 and the Galaxy Explorer LL928. When I got LL928 from my grandma I was thrilled and couldn't let go. I even took it with me on holidays.

Galaxy Explorer Dropship by Giorgio Chronas, auf Flickr

A few years later I saw the Galaxy Commander in the store. At the time, due to my father's job, I was living in an a developing country in Africa, where Legos were very rare. I was gazing at the store window, nearly paralyzed and probably with a wide open mouth. I had just past my birthday and for Christmas time I would have to wait a long time. As quickly as I could I ran back home broke that piggy bank into pieces, took everything I had and ran back to the store. I still remember the feelings I had when building this spaceship and looking at every new part as if it were yesterday.

Galaxy Commander Dropship_1 by Giorgio Chronas, auf Flickr

Now, decades later, being an AFOL I still love space topics, specially neo classic space models from other Afols. A few years ago I remember seeing Wolf Leews modernized version of LL928 (and 924 and 918) in LegoIdeas and having exactly the same feelings. I tried to push it in LegoIdeas but unfortunately it did not make it to the threshold. Wolf Leews, if you see this post, thanks for sharing the instructions. I have your models in my showcase ever since.

The idea of an own classic space model did not let go of me. It took me again years of thinking how to approach this topic. My problem was I wanted everything. I wanted to have a command centre, several spaceships, some robots some cool versatile and functional vehicles, a garage where the vehicles would go for repair, a habitat, a repair bay for the robots. And I wanted the antagonists as well: Blacktrons! And I wanted everybody to build up his own space station. Uff!

Galaxy Explorer Commander Dropship

I knew this was impossible. Then my Lego Pueblo came to mind. It was a 4in1 set proposal at LegoIdeas that you could buy multiple times and stack to each other building up your own Pueblo village. My Lego Pueblo did not make it to the threshold but if I did such a concept once, maybe I could do it again.

Many months of thinking and planning what to do, which bricks to use, color scheme, how to combine classic space with Blacktron, drawing and doing research followed. Then I started building. The target was a 3in1 space creator set with three different scenarios that you could combine forming a big space centre. Each scenario should have its own theme and its own playability concept. At the same time some models of one scenario should connect to models of other scenarios, so at the end you have one big unity. I also needed a story. As I love sci-fi and astronomy this part was the easiest one for me. What came out was space station "Antares", a 3in1 space creator set, where New Classic Space searches for Legonit ressources and Blacktrons trying to steal it from them. One alternate build is the Mining Outpost, the other one is the Bot Repair Bay and one is the Galaxy Dropship.

9 Antares Classic Space3x by Giorgio Chronas, auf Flickr

With the Galaxy Dropship I combined the features of the Galaxy Explorer and the Galaxy Commander and built a mashup that had its own look. Like the Galaxy Commander the dropship can be split into a space fighter and the cargo bay. Like the Commander it may hold a space lab. But it also may hold a space buggy like the Galaxy Explorer. Since the space buggy is from scenario Mining Outpost, I decided it may also hold the truck from its own scenario. Then I continued. The Galaxy Dropship may hold the trailer the fuel or plasma tanks or even a small space fighter which actually is the cockpit of the robot of scenario Bot Repair Bay. The set seems to be huge, too big, but actually it is only big when the set is acquired multiple times. As a single set it has less bricks than the biggest official LegoIdeas set. I hope you like it and support it at LegoIdeas. It is another attempt to bring back some space without StarWars.

5 Antares Galaxy Dropship by Giorgio Chronas, auf Flickr

6 Galaxy Dropship Hangar by Giorgio Chronas, auf Flickr

Guys I do not want to bore you too much. Please take a look for yourself at LegoIdeas. Check out the three different video animations (search for "Legocionado" at YouTube) and take a look at the pics of the updates at LegoIdeas (I have made some animated gifs explaining the concept). Here are the direct links:

To LegoIdeas "Antares":

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/447bf8bd-a7e8-4c0d-9918-59c668b23018

2 Antares Classic Space by Giorgio Chronas, auf Flickr

 

To YouTube animated video for the "Galaxy Dropship":

 

 

This is super detailed!

  On 9/13/2021 at 7:26 AM, EmersonDAnite said:

This is super detailed!

Thanks Emerson! It has more to offer, but I could not show everything in just one article. At LegoIdeas there are more infos and pics, especially in the updates.

I love this idea!

Awesome!