2025 Space sets

[Sebbl]

This space series has reawakened my passion for sci-fi themes. The 60431: Space Rover Explorer and Alien Life is one of the best sets I've built in recent years. Consistent colors and useful Technic elements directly inspired me to build an alternative model. Now it has steering and the camera rotates when driving. Next up is the 60430: Interstellar Spaceship 🧑‍🚀🚀
If you're interested, I created a topic for it here.

Edited February 13, 2024 by Sebbl

[Robert8]

White Classic Space Baby coming soon. Pics leaked online

That would be 3 so far blue, pink and white

[Lion King]

46 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

White Classic Space Baby coming soon. Pics leaked online

That would be 3 so far blue, pink and white

You are late to the party - that white space baby will be in GWP - a micro classic space launcher set. 

I could undertand that there are many sci-fi threads but this white space baby has been discussed in Sci-Fi forum last week.

[Robert8]

Oh I see

there are so many space sets everywhere this year that is difficult to keep track of everything

[Lion King]

31 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

there are so many space sets everywhere this year that is difficult to keep track of everything

I agree!

[Surge]

seeing people say the promo starts on the 19th, what happened to vip early access on the 16th? Is that still true?

[Rolyat24]

20 hours ago, Surge said:

seeing people say the promo starts on the 19th, what happened to vip early access on the 16th? Is that still true?

In Brickset’s review published today they say Friday the 16th.

Interestingly, the space babies aren’t babies at all but have the traditional smiley face. I’m not sure if this makes them more or less desirable. 

[Surge]

3 hours ago, Rolyat24 said:

In Brickset’s review published today they say Friday the 16th.

Interestingly, the space babies aren’t babies at all but have the traditional smiley face. I’m not sure if this makes them more or less desirable. 

thank you!

Yea im personally not a fan of that change. its fine for the blue one, but now theres technically no white space baby to go with the blue and dark pink ones. I still think im gonna get this set as the different blue one is nice, but I hoping they end up doing a white baby one day 

[danth]

https://brickset.com/article/106194/review-40712-micro-rocket-launchpad

Looks like the trans yellow windows in the base are panels not bricks like I originally thought. Either way, new in trans yellow! And extremely useful.

So are the trans yellow pieces made just for this GWP or are they going to be in some other upcoming set?

[danth]

I think the Space logo stickers on the rocket and base are just gratuitous. Lego loves to slap Kragel paper on any unstudded surface and it's really sad.

On the other hand, the Space logo on the 2x1 cheese slope would have been a godsend as a print. Same with the base console stickers. If they don't want to do that just for a GWP, here's a freaking idea: release some actual Space sets that use the same printed parts. Maybe a small Creator set or something.

[JesseNight]

On 2/15/2024 at 12:23 AM, danth said:

Looks like the trans yellow windows in the base are panels not bricks like I originally thought. Either way, new in trans yellow! And extremely useful.

Oh wow, I gotta get my hands on some of those! Hope they won't get too valuable (as in appearing in more sets and not just this gwp).

[Fenghuang0296]

Has anyone come up with any creative ideas regarding what to do with these torsos and their gorgeous variant on the Classic Space logo?

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=973pb5500c01&idColor=153#T=C&C=153

Or, for that matter, any of the surprisingly wide diversity of variants on Classic Space we’ve been getting recently. From different colours thereof, to Mr. Oz’ Dreamchaser variant in DREAMzzz, we even got a harness with a ‘space mining’ variant ages ago. 

[Space78]

On 2/14/2024 at 5:46 PM, danth said:

I think the Space logo stickers on the rocket and base are just gratuitous. Lego loves to slap Kragel paper on any unstudded surface and it's really sad.

On the other hand, the Space logo on the 2x1 cheese slope would have been a godsend as a print. Same with the base console stickers. If they don't want to do that just for a GWP, here's a freaking idea: release some actual Space sets that use the same printed parts. Maybe a small Creator set or something.

It would be interesting to know what the actual cost difference is between putting printing on a part vs. producing a sticker.  So, for this GWP, how much is Lego actually "saving" giving us a sheet with 5 color stickers vs. just printing those on 5 different parts?  Also, some of the stickers don't need to be as large as they are.  I'm thinking of the long blue sticker on the command center.  All you really need is the printed space logo on the brick, the black bars on each end of the sticker don't really add anything, IMO.  Does anyone know the difference in cost of printing on a part in color vs. producing a sticker?  Are we talking like a 1 cent difference??

[Aanchir]

37 minutes ago, Space78 said:

It would be interesting to know what the actual cost difference is between putting printing on a part vs. producing a sticker.  So, for this GWP, how much is Lego actually "saving" giving us a sheet with 5 color stickers vs. just printing those on 5 different parts?

The main cost difference is just in terms of number of new elements. From what designers have said in interviews and social media comments, the main reason for using stickers in sets with lots of unique decorations is to mitigate the logistical cost of introducing numerous new elements that have to be produced, stored, and tracked separately in LEGO's manufacturing and packing facilities. A sticker sheet is one new element no matter how many stickers it has, whereas printing these same parts would require introducing five new elements.

Ever since LEGO's brush with bankruptcy in 2003 they've gotten a lot stricter about how many new element "frames" are allotted to particular sets/themes. And GWP sets like this usually tend to have just one or two new decorated elements (including sticker sheets). For example, Forest Hideout had a new printed torso and printed shield, Tahu and Takua had two new printed curved slopes, and Blacktron Cruiser and Majisto's Magical Workshop each had a new torso and sticker sheet.

The last GWP this size that I can remember having as many new/unique decorated elements as the Micro Rocket Launchpad was the Jane Goodall Tribute, which had a new printed torso, printed head, printed chimpanzee (not technically new for builders, but because it had long been out of production it still required a new element frame), and nameplate sticker.

[danth]

They can put as many printed parts as they want into one bag and store/track it as if it were a sticker sheet. They've already done that in some cases. So yeah, designers have said it's about storage/tracking logistics, but it seems to be a PR-crafted excuse.

Edited February 16, 2024 by danth

[icm]

5 minutes ago, danth said:

They can put as many printed parts as they want into one bag and store/track it as if it were a sticker sheet. They've already done that in some cases.

When have they done that?

Edited February 16, 2024 by icm
Added bold text in quote for emphasis

[danth]

36 minutes ago, icm said:

When have they done that?

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=77486&idColor=1#T=C&C=1

[icm]

Huh. That's interesting. I imagine they've only worked out how to do that for 1x1 round tiles that are all lined up and printed at once somehow, not for arbitrary sets of printed pieces. Cobi and Bluebrixx include pre-assembled prints across multiple pieces, but I think the parts for those have to be assembled on the backing by hand at the factory, and naturally that's more expensive. I do wish Lego would do that too - I'm not bringing it up to be a Lego apologist here, just to say that it's probably not the same industrial process.

[danth]

6 minutes ago, icm said:

I imagine they've only worked out how to do that for 1x1 round tiles that are all lined up and printed at once somehow, not for arbitrary sets of printed pieces.

One thing to remember is that every bag of Lego bricks is a bag of arbitrary parts (possibly with different prints). They even do bags within bags to reduce the need to store parts individually throughout the manufacturing process.

Edited February 16, 2024 by danth

[icm]

Yes, but that doesn't mean that every bag of Lego bricks counts as a single part, which is the point you were making that they could conceivably do for a set of printed parts to reduce inventory costs for a GWP.

[Space78]

So, it sounds like it is less about cost of production and more about part inventory, at least "officially" from Lego's standpoint.

[jodawill]

I imagine the fact those parts were just 1x1 round tiles has a lot to do with the fact they were able to do that. They were all produced with the same tooling. It was probably a very one-off type thing, not a standard procedure in the factory. It would probably be a lot harder to do that if the parts were different molds because each of the parts might be manufactured in different locations and it would take up spots at each stage along the way.

Also, 1x1 round tiles are one of the few parts that they do the most printing on. They probably have great infrastructure setup for printing those compared to very randomly shaped parts that would require special tooling.

[Black Falcon]

29 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

The last GWP this size that I can remember having as many new/unique decorated elements as the Micro Rocket Launchpad was the Jane Goodall Tribute, which had a new printed torso, printed head, printed chimpanzee (not technically new for builders, but because it had long been out of production it still required a new element frame), and nameplate sticker.

That would be 4 then, though Hair and Face were also exclusive so actually 6. If we look at the GWP we have the the new white baby head + Torso, the new blue head print and stickers - which would be 4 already plus the new transparent elements. Though if it is true that it works like every unprinted part needs one budget point (or however we want to call it) and a second for every print we would actually need two more for the white space baby. 

[jodawill]

Forest Hideout also had the black curved panel, which was exclusive to that set. I wish I had bought some when they appeared on PAB. They were only available briefly.

[Lyichir]

2 hours ago, danth said:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=77486&idColor=1#T=C&C=1

In addition to what others have said above, notably that was done in a regular retail set (three overall, in fact), not something like a GWP that's produced in smaller quantities. I seriously doubt the "extended line" team responsible for sets like this one typically has the budget for a dedicated pre-pack like this—even if it's just one part for the purpose of replacement parts, it's still much more production-intensive than an individual printed part would be.