The 5 best Lego space sets of the 1980s
Josh
Thursday
10:20 am
I have a giant tub of Legos in my closet.
Not today’s corny, action branded, pre-molded Lego chunks, mind you, but the classics. My blocks are blue, white and gray, and every one of my minifig faces has a smile on them.
Given that my toddler seems to be working his way out of the “eating foreign objects” stage of development, I gave them a quick dig through and let myself be flooded over with the memories. Thanks to the Internet and my well-worn and largely torn manuals, I was able to recapture some of the best sets below. I had all of these, and I’m tempted to download the full manuals and rebuild them with my son. Once I’m sure he won’t eat them.
5. Mobile Rocket Transport (1982)
My favorite thing about this set was the solid nature of its construction. It had big, chunky tires and a great pivoting wheelbase that allowed me to take the Mobile Rocket Transport over the most rugged of couch cushions.
4. Robot Command Center (1984)
OK, this one was a little too weird to fulfill my obsession with giant, Transformer-style knockoffs, but I loved the modularity of it. It had the ability to store a little rocketship in its chest, fire a missile from its back and launch a car from its crotch (there’s a pickup line in there somewhere). The only thing I didn’t like? Shin-snakes.
3. Solar Power Transporter (1985)
Even as a kid, I could never figure out why they called this the solar power transporter; it didn’t appear to have any solar panels, and once the solar power was converted to plain old power, wouldn’t it just be a power transporter?
That said, the vehicle was built to be clicked apart to create multiple vehicles (yes, I know that’s what all Lego sets do, but this one was constructed that way). The two halves of the transporter could be merged into a little, schizophrenic explorer while the central section became a base. At which solar power was supposedly somehow collected. Or transported. Whatever.
2. Beta 1 Command Center (1980)
This was an early one from my childhood, and my first “big” Lego set. While the Beta 1 would later be replaced by the ultimately cooler Monorail set in 1987, the Beta 1 was the first big space command center, and therefore the best one. It featured a spacecraft on an angling launch pad, and a little monorail that traveled from one end of the base to the other. As you can see, it was a pretty short trip. My favorite bits, though, were a giant screen display and huge satellite dish. (I would later use that display to build a Lego bar nearly 30 years later for a photo shoot, but that’s a different story.)
1. Galaxy Commander (1983)
This was the big one. I remember staring lustily at it on the shelf of Service Merchandise as a kid, and repeatedly telling my parents that, “It was the ULTIMATE in Lego sets.” They pulled a charade that it wasn’t going to happen this year, but there it was on Christmas of 1983 under the tree.
The ship itself was a fantastic piece of engineering. It split apart into three components — a fighter, a lab, and some type of connector piece that allowed the lab to be quickly dropped off in a hostile offworld location.
It was built so every hatch opened smoothly, and the lab even featured a hinge that allowed the roof and wall to easily swing open so you could watch your minifigs eagerly crunch numbers and analyze rock samples in the basement while the fighter jet was off blasting aliens to pieces somewhere on Planet Kitchen.
What were your favorites? Did I miss any big ones?
Amber
Jason
Nick Burns
Christy
Charlotte
Bill
Blain
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Reader Comments
I remember all of these, but I don’t think I ever had any of them. I really only ever used LEGOs to build houses. My brother was the artist: he could build anything he wanted with the LEGO sets we had—itw as remarkable, really—so I don’t think we ever got any of these special sets.
Ah! And another reason comes to mind: Playmobil. Those are the sets that we had in spades. I remember the giant pirate ship very fondly.
And Erector sets: we had tons of those. But I do remember all the LEGO space sets all the same. They looked cool.
I was a Lego boy all the way. My sister had a couple of Playmobil sets, but they always seemed a little restrictive to me — like Legos, but you couldn’t take them apart.
I had some Erector sets, too. But the little screws always hurt my fingers when I tried to remove them without tools.
Playmobil definitely wasn’t designed for those who are good with their hands. And come to think of it, I’m surprised that we had so many of the sets given how much my dad liked to play with the LEGOs and Lincoln Logs and Erector sets and such. But it was just as well for me, since my architectural talents were limited. I could have made any of these LEGO sets by following the directions, but I would have been hard pressed to reuse the parts to build anything else. And my brother hated following directions and building what he was supposed to. So hmmm…. That is probably why my parents, in their infinite wisdom, stuck to generic LEGO sets.
This is the one I love and remember:
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/?q=6940_1&v=z
It’s like one part AT/AT, one part dinosaur.
Plus the front section and the back section could both disconnect from the middle and be combined into its own flying vehicle as part of the original design.
Oh, I remember that one! It was a lot of fun, but I remember being bothered that the leg articulation was only horizontal/swivel, and that I couldn’t pivot them at the hip or knee.
I could also never quite figure out the logic of those swiveling windows, either. (Yeah, I was a horribly logical child.)
The phrase “screen door on a submarine” comes to mind.
OK, I take it back: we had the one David put up. I remember that my brother and I used to fight over the red and green parts when building other things, and that I liked to build greenhouses with the domed parts.
I also remember playing with the yellow parts and the radars shown in Josh’s first pic, so maybe we had more of these, too.
#4, that is, of Josh’s pics: I think we had that one. And I agree: it’s an odd one. That’s probably why we used it for parts very early on.
Want to see some of those Lego pieces in use today? I built this last year for my grown-up job:
http://www.geeksix.com/?attachment_id=2122
I hate you guys…
I never got Lego… I got Mega Blocks… My mom always said “They’re just the same”.
But no they aren’t! Look at that! The closest to any of those I ever got was a Mega Blocks car, which only came with a windshield, a seat, and some wields, but of course no instructions!
Yeah…
I was a classic…Lincoln Logs ftw! My brother was the lego guy. Although I am a fan of the castle and medieval sets. And the occasional Star Wars lego set.
In defense of Mega Blocks, they made for great additions to my Lego set — a blue block is a blue block.
My biggest problem with them: A standard Lego block was three “flat pieces” tall. The Mega Block people divided their standard block into twos, thus a disparity in “flat pieces” was created, and this caused 8 year old Josh much consternation.
I have to add one more thing. I DID get one set of Lego blocks as a child, and it came with one of the smiley little me… And I treasured him…
Not creepy at all, eh?
I still remember trying to build a car out of giant tinker toys that I could drive to 7-11…. That activity consumed every spare moment I had for months.
What is majorly missing, Josh are the medieval lego sets! My house rocked the castle sets like no one’s business, even holding multiple family design sessions in which we planned out what our real life castle would look like, features and all. My favorite set though – Robin Hood’s Fortress: http://www.toplessrobot.com/robinhood.jpg
Searching for this picture lead me to this peice of brilliance. WOW. http://www.thebricktestament.com/
And THIS!
http://happysquid.blogspot.com/2006/09/robin-hood-lego-prince-of-thieves-part.html
Ah, yes: the LEGO Bible. I remember well first stumbling upon such about a decade ago. The seduction of Lot by his daughters stands out in my mind. LEGO people really shouldn’t be naked. It’s all shades of wrong.
Ok I can’t read and missed this was just about space sets. sorry for the misplaced excitement.
That’s OK, Charlotte. But while we’re on the subject of medieval Lego sets, let me say this: I loved the idea of them, but there were a few things wrong:
• The prefab castle walls were lame, big-time. It’s a toy line based on bricks — I’ll give you three guesses what castles were made out of. Why create prefab walls?
• The aforementioned prefab walls were one brick wide and 5 bricks long. The high occurrance of odd numbers used in a primarily even-number-based building system was a major nuisance to 8-year-old Josh.
I was always surprised by the prefab thing as well. I mean, really: it was LEGO. That seemed counter to the whole point.
As for the other issue: that’s all you, Josh >;)(though I don’t honestly know what I would have thought about that because we never had the prefab LEGOs).
I liked them. They were convenient little nooks in which the assassins would hide before stabbing the king, or good places for the princess to sit and dream about being rescued from her terrible uncle (who took over when the king got stabbed).
And lest we not forget that hair actually DOES matter:
Despite the smorgasbord of LEGO sets out there, what my brother and I really fought over the most was the hair. When we were into LEGOs, hair on LEGO people was still a rarity. I think that’s one of the things we liked about Playmobil.
“Lest we NOT forget”? That’s what I get for changing the sentence in my head as I typed it.
Seems like 8-year-old Josh had several frustrations and nuisances…
You know, don’t know what it was with me as a kid, but I insisted on City and only City. No Space or Castle for me, no sir. I still get inappropriately excited when I see the mid-80s LEGO airport set (it came with a plane, helicopter and SEVEN people!) And I would spend hours looking at the scenes in those LEGO catalogs. Really. Hours.
And anyone who tried to meld Mega Blocks with LEGOs quickly realized that the MBs lacked the LEGO underside cross-support, making them less likely to stick. Just sayin’.
Oh, and did anyone else come up with a language to make it easier to play with friends? Like “I need a blue one-by-two full” or “white two-by-ten thin”. Perhaps it was just me and my friends, but, well, good times.
And one last thing: Everyone knows the best LEGO Space set from the 80s was the monorail. It came with a LED and a motorized engine. I vomit contempt upon your robot command center AND galaxy commander. That right there is a LEGO snap.
I am looking for instructions for some old lego sets. I have a box of legos that was old when I got it in the 80s. There is a set for an old helicopter that has a windshield shaped like a sideways bay window and there is a robin hood set (very small) that built a little wagon and had some coins. My 4 year old boy is now playing with these legos and he loves robin hood and helicopters; I am not an engineer and would love some help!
Supposedly, this site has instructions for every Leog set ever. You just click on a picture and then proceed through the slide presentation.
http://www.hccamsterdam.nl/brickfactory/year/index.htm
If this one doesn’t work, it’s definitely out there. Just Google old Lego instructions or some such.
Good call, Amber! Another good site is http://www.peeron.com — they’re all in there, if the interface is a little clumsy.
I had 1 & 5 and my neighbor had 2 & 4, so my childhood was covered!
Then came the knight sets!
YES!!! Between me and my two brothers, we had all five of these! You’ve missed the LL928 ship though (unless that was from before 1980, in which case, okay.)
http://www.cloudyco.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/galaxyexplorer.jpg
I loved Space and Castle Lego, but never had a big set. I had the LL918 (it’s in the 1979 catalogue), which I adored as I thought “LL” stood for “Laura’s Lego” and the AT/AT looking thing.
I’m trying to find the other Space set I loved. It was a vehicle with a detachable command module thing.
Detachable command module…. you sure it wasn’t the Galaxy Commander listed above? The back part of that separated into a rectangular little base of operations, and had a swinging roof.
I can recall having a couple of specialized sets, one space one (none of these though) and one of a castle. My brother and sister had the same space ones and we shared the castle. I remember it was always kind of a drag to have to build to a plan, usually we just liked to mix everything in together and make something up. Much more fun.
We had tons of Playmobile, too, but I’ve never heard anyone compare it to Lego as they are to me not at all alike.
I never had any of that Erector stuff, or Meccano. For some reason.
I did both — I always had a “canon” period, where my sets were plan-built before dumping all of their parts into the collective.
And, as far as Playmobil, I could never get into them — for me, they were just Lego sets that couldn’t come apart.,
“I always had a “canon” period, where my sets were plan-built before dumping all of their parts into the collective.”
I might have done that too, if I’d had more sets. We had the couple I mentioned but mostly it was just this huge pile of odd bits we inherited from one of my cousins. At least with these ones you’ve listed imagination still played a role. Not like the ones they make today where specialized parts have been taken to a truly absurd extreme.