Lego was doing reboots long before reboots were cool.
Actually, they were doing reboots before “reboot” was used in context with a
storyline, heck, in 1991 most of us didn’t know what the original context for the word was. They didn’t do gritty reboots,
however. In fact, they went just the opposite direction.
Remember the hallmarks for a bad guy? Blacktron II has
none of them. Their visors are transparent, their structures are rounded, and their
model names are non-threatening. Even their uniforms are mostly white, with a
black octagon and a bright green “B” emblazoned in the center. Though they
retain the satellite dishes and antennae, they do not appear to sport much in
the way of weaponry. Finally, the picture on the box for Blacktron II’s “Space
Landing Pads (6710)” clearly shows M-Tron ships alongside Blacktron II ships
and structures. Would the heretofore neutral M-Tron ally themselves with bad guys?
Are those dishes and antennae really for such a sinister intent as espionage,
or are they simply for communication and atmospheric data collection? Perhaps more
pertinent is why did Lego go to such great lengths to distance Blacktron II
from the bad boy image, yet allow them to inherit the name of their violent
predecessors? Perhaps the real answer has something to do with marketing or
some other such real world tedium, but that’s boring. I prefer to make
something up, like an internal split or the faction evolving over a number of decades,
or even centuries.
The following year Lego released three models for another
reiteration of an old faction, the Space Police. Space Police II are as heavily
armed as the original Space Fuzz, though their greenish-blue visors and
cockpits are less aggressive than the red featured by their forebears. The “Solar
Snooper (6957)” model does feature a Blacktron II figure, but he is standing
alongside the vehicle instead of being imprisoned inside it. Perhaps this
suggests a demilitarized role for the Space Police II, more in keeping with
traditional police work in upholding laws inside a nation, or at least inside a
cooperative network of nations. Then again, the massive “Galactic Mediator
(6984)” is a little much for pulling over speeders and broken tail lights.
The Space universe was filling out nicely, but in ’93 Lego
thankfully decided to pull away from their “II” phase. Rather than make a
second generation of M-Tron, they gave us a completely new neutral faction in
Ice Planet 2002. They live on a planet, mostly ice no less, so their vehicles
are equipped to deal with heavy snow and rough terrain. Most vehicles also have
a toothed saw for their pilots to wield, so they can chop through the ice. They
are mostly open canopy, however, so presumably their suits are quite warm. Ice
Planet guys often use missiles as well, and not just the small fighter jet
kind, either. They have big rockets designed for launching satellites into
orbit. They make a wonderful standalone faction, since they can play with
others if you want, but they don’t need a nemesis to be interesting.
Lego had a great thing going on by now. After Space
Police II they came out with a brand new faction every year, perhaps adding a
model or two to the previous year’s faction, but continuing to expand the
universe. Most factions could conceivably be good or bad, and each is free to interact
with the others to whatever end you choose. Alliances, trade agreements,
espionage, double agents, battles, embargoes, kidnappings and jailbreaks, sabotage
and spacewalk repairs, you could and can play any of these scenarios and not
break Lego canon.
That’s not to say they became, boring, though… Continued
in Part IV
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