There comes a time during any narrative when the writers
have exhausted the story. The characters have nothing more to say, the
revelations have been made, the secrets have been uncovered and relationships have been resolved. We don’t want to
stop watching/reading/following the story because that would be disloyal, and
we loved that narrative like a childhood dog that stuck with us through thick
and thin. In its later years, however, it just sits around smelling like a
dirty rag and puking on the carpet. Such is the case with the Lego space line.
After Ice Planet 2002 they offered Spyrius, Unitron, Explorien, UFO, Roboforce,
and Instectoids, some of which were decent ideas with decent sets, but taken as
a whole they just didn’t live up to the standards set by their predecessors.
Rather than detail everything they did wrong, I would like to shed some light
on the things they did right.
Two things makes Spyrius stand out from the other bad
guys in the Lego Space universe. First, their home base has a half assembled
rocket that appears to be made from stolen Ice Planet parts. This implies
direct antagonistic interaction, which helps guide the narrative as you play
with either faction. Second, they were the first faction to have non-human
figures, using some droids and/or cyborgs in addition to the normal human
figures. Non-humans are not as sympathetic as humans, which makes it ok to hate
and kill them.
After Spyrius we have the ideologically pure Unitron. How
do we know that they are ideologically pure? Because their name is basically
“Unity” with the obligatory spaceish suffix “tron” tacked on the end. Besides,
they use blue and white bricks so you know they have to be good. Most of their
sets appear to be fairly mundane except for the imposing Monorail Transport Base,
but even more exciting than their structure is the flavor text that my contact
in the Lego world reports as something along the lines of, “Welcome to Unitron, the
crossroads of the galaxy. Aliens of all races come here. Most of them have
peaceful intentions, but if they don't, Unitron is there to mediate and if all
else fails, reach for their lasers.”
This
does a little to open up the interfactional dynamics, especially if you have
sets from multiple factions. Ice Planet scientists could meet up with M-Tron
representatives to broker a deal, with Spyrius agents (hired by Blacktron)
spying on the exchange, only to be picked up by Space Police once they leave
the Unitron controlled base and enter Police jurisdiction.
One of the brilliant things about the previously explored
Ice Planet 2002 guys is that they are a standalone entity; you can enjoy them
without buying a set from another faction. Conflict, you see, is crucial to narrative.
Your protagonist needs something to work against, otherwise, your characters
just stand around with their hands in their pockets. Even this is impossible
for Lego people because, as you may have noticed, they don’t even have pockets.
The classic solution is to set up a villain as inexplicably, delightfully, and
willfully evil, then have you good guys fight them. Ice Planet turned this
concept on its head by setting up their environment as their key source of
conflict, not an “evil” faction. Lego set up Explorien with a similar concept
in mind. Explorien does exactly what their name implies. However, they are more
flexible than Ice Planet because they aren’t confined to the glacial obstacles
of the ice planet; they can explore on jungle, desert, volcanic, water, as well
as ice planets. However, just because you don’t need an extra faction to play with doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be
nice. After all, the environment is an impassive obstacle. You can’t negotiate
with it, trick it, double cross it or change its mind. It’s just there,
formidable, but limited in interactive potential. Lego caved in the case of Ice
Planet and gave them Spyrius as bad guys to bump noses with, but worked for a
more elegant solution for Explorien, who’s mission is to search out square
“clues” that can be read with specific parts in some of the sets. What they do
with these secrets once they are discovered is never stated, so you can have
them do whatever you want. They could be sold, protected, forged, etc. Thus,
Explorien sets work fine by themselves because you can build drama with the
“search” portion of their mission, but they leave the door open to interact
with other factions, both good and bad, through the disposal of their research.
Conceptually speaking, Explorien is one of the more interesting factions Lego
came up with because they offer so many options in their narrative. They are
definitely the exception for Lego Space’s twilight years.
Spyrius dabbled with non-human characters, but UFO went
whole hog. They are a clearly alien race, armed to the teeth, and with a menacing
appearance. Again, dehumanized characters are easier to hate, so they
predictably assume a bad guy role.
Adding aliens to the mix is a great way to increase
complexity without doing a lot of work. Since they do not share the same
biology with humans, any of their motivations can be separate from what we
might expect. Do their ships run on the same fuel sources as human tech? Will
they hire out as mercenaries and if so, what do you pay them with? Is their
idea of a perfect home planet completely different from what humans would want?
It is interesting that the sets include a lot of shapes and blocks that are not
compatible with any other sets. If their future Insectoids didn’t also have
those unique pieces, I would applaud Lego on their subtle commentary on the
fundamental differences between humans and a theoretical alien race. However, it
looks as though they were progressing toward using more unique pieces in all of
their sets in that time period, so the clever commentary appears to be an
accident.
Insectoids represent the end of an era. They have a
fairly clear story behind their faction which turns out to be an elaborate
excuse to build insect themed ships and vehicles. They live on an inhospitable planet
taken over by giant insects and arachnids, so they build their ships to look
like the bugs in an attempt to blend in. It’s a silly idea and, though
silliness is appropriate for toys aimed at 5-10 year olds, it is kind of
limiting. Just like UFO, many of their parts are unique to their own faction,
so it is hard to come up with your own Insectoid models. Finally, they used a
lot of light and sound effects. The simplicity and open ended nature of the
early Futuron and Blacktron models was over.
I would like to note that the vast majority of this Lego
Space analysis came completely from my personal observances. I discovered Brickipedia
about two thirds of the way in, but avoided using it in order to keep all
conjecture as my own. Since I am virtually a complete Lego outsider I am almost
positive that some of my ideas are “off,” but I sure had fun doing it.
This concludes the series on Lego Space!
And now, back to our regular scheduled programing.
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