The Space Timeline

[Lind Whisperer]

Could we consider 2015 as the awakening year?

Excellent question.

Without any modifiers(e.g., other themes) listed, I would personally list 2015 as the year, based on the recent trend of themes "happening" the year of release. (e.g., Atlantis, Alien Conquest, Dino...)

Also, it mentions that they've been asleep for "thousands of years." Which, if you haven't read Lovecraft, might seem not important. Unless you have, and you recognize the alien head as being almost definitely a reference to He Who Hibernates in Mighty R'lyeh Under the Sea...

[axaday]

2000

Arctic (2000)

An Arctic expedition uncovers more meteors, containing the first known example of alien life.

I know I'm late to the game, but I've been working on my own take on the Futuron/Blacktron themes that I loved as a kid and read this thread for reference. I saw that part I quoted and had to go do some research to see what you were talking about. Neat! I guess you mean the trans-green scorpion. I wondered if you recalled that Explorien had a vehicle called "Scorpion Detector". Maybe that's what they were looking for?

[Hermes Mocs]

Hey fellows,

before I add my two cents to the canon theory, let me say this: The information collected in this thread is truly a gem for every fan of the Space theme, thanks for that!

I am surprised that in three years of this thread's existence, no one came up with the concept of spacetime and consequently time dilation. Both "simple" time dilation and gravitational time dilation could be explanatory to the inconstistencies remaining in TalonCard's timeline.

For example it was said multiple times that the evolution of the classic space themes' technology (e.g. spacecraft) seems to be rather slow, given the fact that the themes cover the time ranging from AD 2079 to AD 4036+. We have to remind ourselves that this is indeed the time passing on earth, but not necessarily the time passing in space, that is the time our spacetravellers experience passing.

For an example I will refer to "the spacetravellers" as a whole, since of course they would be scattered through space and therefore experience time individually.

Let's start on earth in 2079. After several Mars missions the Classic Space astronauts are the first to leave to a distant destination, consequently their ships travel with, compared to the speed of light, significant speed. As a result of this the Classic Space astronauts experience time passing slower, depending on acceleration and travelled distance.

While on earth hundreds of years pass, the spacemen may age only little. So speaking of "generations" is actually reasonable; while in earth years ca. 1500 years pass between Blacktron and Blacktron Future Generation, BFG members may indeed be actual sons and daughters of Blacktron members. Of course, even if in the perception of a BFG member no more than 50 years passed since leaving earth, they'll likely measure their time in earth years - simply to have a standard time - so the dates in the timeline still make sense, even if we take this theory into consideration.

This scenario does also explain the Classic Space factions' isolation from any further earthlings except those developing from their very own colony, that is Zonia.

This theory also allows to reasonably integrate Clutch Powers and Ninjago into the given timeline. Let's assume Ninjago (if it even is an own planet, I have no clue on this theme) is in the immediate "stellar neighborhood" of our very own sun system or earth; the time passes similar enough to that on earth to say it is synchronous and time dilations ocurring on travels between the two are rather insignificant. Clutch Powers may in fact be on Ninjago ( A ) in the 2100s (earth years), later travel into deep space ( B ) and finally accompany SPIII officers in 4k-somethings ( C ). In his perception, no more than 30 years may have passed between event A and event C.

Ninjago now may take place anytime after the 2100s, maybe around 2400s in earth years, since it's said that the earth still looks similar to its 21st century appearance but also that Clutch Powers' adventures on Ninjago are far in its past. Ninjago's technology would fit into that time range perfectly I guess.

If Universe indeed is contemporary with Ninjago, this theory can be applied for Universe, too. Though I think that Universe is off any other of the space themes; I hypothesize the maelstrom causes wormholes to connect different themes and times - nothing is said about Crux' position (both in space and time) in the Space theme's universe. Even the rhetoric ("Imagination Nexus") makes me think that Universe rather is an illustration of a child's creativity (cp. made up universe in The Lego Movie). I strongly disagree with including it into a Space canon.

I know that this theory is almost ridiculously complex given the fact that we try to canonize a toy's story (indeed!). Though I have to point out that nothing of what I explained is fiction. Actual space travel will one day be determined by this effects; civilizations like our very own will propably decompose due to the fact of asynchronous cultural progresses, biological evolution etc.

It is nicely portrayed in the recent blockbuster "Interstellar". Time dilation is caused by gravity there; could also be a factor here, since some of you mentioned black holes appearing in the stories and comics.

Now it's up to you: Do you think the theory explains enough to let it coexist with your previous theories? In my opinion it's a nice addition or option at least; it explains a lot that has not been explained yet.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Hermes Mocs

[Arctic_Ace]

In the story of the 21109 Exo-Suit there are space pirates. Could this be Blacktron?

[TalonCard]

It could always be Blacktron!

Updated timeline post with new date from the LEGO Awesome Ideas book and Time Cruiser backstory from the recently-unearthed Klick magazine comics. (Thanks to Pereki for making those available!)

TC

Edited January 3, 2016 by TalonCard

[Lind Whisperer]

EDIT.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Lind Whisperer

[Eyrezer]

Wow, what a thread! It had never occurred to me to consider all the LEGO Space themes as being in the same continuity. Excellent effort drawing together lore from so many different sources. It was a fun read through. It is a shame that many of the links now seem broken but I did read up on Life on Mars on Brickipedia. It mentions that in the video game "Soccer Mania" the players ends up on Mars. Unless, I missed it in the timeline above, this is another theme/game to add in to the timeline (link).

@TalonCard, any updates to the timeline since you last posted several years ago? 

[TalonCard]

Hey Eyrezer! I could be wrong, but I don't think there have actually been any major date related lore additions since the last version. I think there's been some additions to the lore rediscovered through the UFO and Insectoid photo comics in Klick magazine and to Classic Space and Blacktron through LEGO Legacy: Heroes Unboxed that haven't been added, but nothing that relates to the timeline (though if anyone has anything, be sure and chime in!)

[TalonCard]

I've taken the timeline I posted years ago and turned it into a video, now updated and expanded to cover all existing LEGO original minifigure themes and subthemes (or at least that was the goal, lol, I'm sure I've missed a few here and there. If you'd like to check it out, here's the link!

[Canondorf]

Lego Space could be seen as quite hard science fiction. Everyone wears pressurised space suits constantly. Everyone carries a finite oxygen supply in a tank. Visible rocket motors power their ships according to Newtonian laws. The environments they explore appear very hostile, probably low gravity, airless bodies.
 

 

 

The majority of stars in the Milky Way galaxy (an estimated 85%), are red dwarfs, quite barren stars probably unable to have habitable planets. The majority of them are in multiple star configurations, such as binary systems, or trinary systems.  In such systems, essentially each star may have it's own solar system. There are around 60 stars, 52 of which are faint red dwarfs, invisible to the naked eye, within about 16 light years. This increases exponentially with distance, so that within just 50 light years, there are around 2,000 stars, in 1,400 star systems, according to an estimate. There might be a million bodies within our solar system alone. Lets assume that Lego Space was a hard science setting, with either slower-than-light travel (via sleeper ships), or very limited slow FTL, and was about astronauts mining these millions of bodies:

 

- 20th century: Lego City space missions probe the planets of the solar system.

- 21st century: Lego City space missions establish bases on the Moon and Mars.

- 22nd century: Earth ocean minerals begin to be exploited by Aquanauts, and their enemies the pirate Aquasharks.

- 23rd century: By this time, a culture of astronauts has arisen, born to explore, they begin to settle the nearby stars.

- 26th century: [Humanity's sphere is now across 14 nearby star systems, inc. 100,000+ asteroids.]

- 27th century: The asteroid outposts and colonies are united under a government, becoming known as the Futurons.

- 28th century: Blacktron, a group of criminal technophiles, begin to steal tech, and Futuron creates the Space Police.

- 31st century: Breakaway cultures, the mining-oriented operation called M-Tron, later the Ice Planet rangers, appear.

- 32nd century: Blacktron are re-organised into the Neo-Blacktronian group, the Blacktron Future Generation.

- 33nd century: Blacktron attacks escalate against the Ice Planet and M-Tron, with Space Police attempting to respond.

- 35th century: [Humanity's sphere is now across 50 nearby star systems, inc. 1,000,000+ asteroids.]

- 37th century: Space Police, M-Tron and Ice Planet sign the Unitron Accord, uniting into a single body, the Unitron.

- 38th century: Spyrius, the ideological successor to Blacktron, begin a campaign of espionage against Unitron.

- 41st century: During an era of relative peace, frontier explorers return to science, calling themselves Exploriens.

 

I personally like Lego Space from about 1987 to 1996 the most, and wish they would bring back those factions and designs.  Just freeze them at that point.  I think that was the best looking, most imaginative.  I think the Lego Space theme got watered down with too many changes of theme, too many toyish looking models in the 2000s, whereas this original hard sci-fi aesthetic was timeless.  Just bring black Blacktron 1 or Blacktron 2, Space Police 1 or Space Police 2, and maybe M-Tron and Ice Planet.  Keep them in print forever as a cross generational thing.

Edited March 21, 2024 by Canondorf
minor edit

[Artanis I]

Nice. I agree about the 1987-1996 being the peak, but it was fading away towards the end. I do rate the 2010-2013 sets much higher than what happened in the post-Exploriens period.

[Classic_Spaceman]

New Blacktron II lore, courtesy of the CMF designers: 

“The challenge with a mutant is when this vessel gets infected unwillingly, that’s not a fun story,” Tore says. “That’s why he has this smirk to the side. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I’ve got this extra stuff, now I can wield two guns in one hand.’ And on the back of him, there’s this little sign at the top, [which] is actually a sign from Alien Conquest. One of the leaders had it as an emblem.” 

“The idea was these Blacktron II guys, we’ve never heard of them since they were out, so basically to up their game they bought some technology from these [Alien Conquest] guys and got their body enhancements. So that was kind of the story here. And they did it willingly, of course!”

Blacktron II’s transhumanism connects back to the Series 3 cyborg Space Villain, and could be the reason for the Blacktron I—Blacktron II split - Blacktron II wanted to pursue genetic and cybernetic experimentation to augment themselves, while Blacktron I did not, leading to a schism within the faction. 
This backstory also confirms that the Alien Conquest aliens are still around by the time of Blacktron II, and suggests that they use genetic engineering tech on themselves, retroactively justifying the drastic differences in the classes’ appearances (and their job-related traits: Troopers are strong and dumb; Pilots move, talk, and fly fast). 

I am also wondering about Kranxx and Rench now - The latter is lime green and affiliated with Blacktron II, so could he be another mutant? If so, would that make Kranxx a mutant as well? Kranxx’s chest is suspiciously Human in its structure, compared to the other SP3 aliens. . . 🤔
 

Edited April 30, 2024 by Classic_Spaceman

[PaleozoicBricks]

On 4/29/2024 at 10:49 PM, Classic_Spaceman said:

Blacktron II’s transhumanism connects back to the Series 3 cyborg Space Villain, and could be the reason for the Blacktron I—Blacktron II split - Blacktron II wanted to pursue genetic and cybernetic experimentation to augment themselves, while Blacktron I did not, leading to a schism within the faction. 

Ahh, so that's why blacktron II has always been my favorite faction, It always goes back to Transhumanism with me lol. 

[Renny The Spaceman]

On 4/30/2024 at 3:49 AM, Classic_Spaceman said:

 

Blacktron II’s transhumanism connects back to the Series 3 cyborg Space Villain, and could be the reason for the Blacktron I—Blacktron II split - Blacktron II wanted to pursue genetic and cybernetic experimentation to augment themselves, while Blacktron I did not, leading to a schism within the faction. 
 

I like this headcanon, the Blacktron CMFs take a lot from both versions of the faction so I don't think one could've of neatly transitioned into the other. 

 

A separate headcanon I have is, while the original CS sets aesthetic slowly evolving into Futuron makes it pretty clear CS became Futuron, I like the idea that the more modern CS stuff from the 21st century come from more remote planets where the LEGOLAND Space fleet set up. They're all evolving and adapting to their individual environments leading to the differing aesthetics of the exo-suit to any other space set. I imagine these splinter groups all eventually make their way back to the galaxy at large and fold into the shifted status quo of post Futuron LEGO Space (Hence the Exo-suit crews potential meet cute with blacktron) bar one small group by a black hole or something experiencing major time dilation. They've made a new class of Astronaut called a dreamer (the purple one according to LEGO), who's job is to innovate new ideas. They innovated all sorts of new roles (hence the ever expanding roster of CS colours) the a reinforced Galaxy Explorer and stronger space helmets. They're all so proud of all they've done, thinking no-one else in space is as advanced as they are with their flying engines and pink suits, completely unaware that outside of their bubble space is now full of more extravagant ships, more humanoid robots and less nonexistent visors

[Classic_Spaceman]

On 5/24/2024 at 1:43 PM, Renny The Spaceman said:

I like this headcanon, the Blacktron CMFs take a lot from both versions of the faction so I don't think one could've of neatly transitioned into the other. 

Something else - Blacktron II was officially called “Blacktron Future Generation”, which (retroactively) fits with a transhumanist faction that is focused on evolving themselves. Blacktron II’s vehicles also have interestingly organic-looking cockpit pods (like the faceted eyes of an insect) - Maybe they started their biotech experiments with their ships (reverse-engineered Zotaxian Insectoids tech?), then later started doing the same to themselves?