The Lego Space Saga Part IV: The Twilight Years

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.

The Lego Space Saga Part III: Do We Get a Do Over?

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

Lego Space Saga Part II: The (potential) Plot Thickens

It’s December 26^th, 1988, and your parents and extended family apparently love you way more than you can possibly appreciate. Between the grandparents, mom and dad, “Santa Claus” and uncle Norv, you have received the complete Lego Space collection for that entire year. After hours of assembly you finally begin to play, and immediately notice that Futuron is hilariously outgunned. Fortunately, the guys in white are already working on a plan.

The following year saw the release of the Space Police, who apparently serve as the military arm for the Futuron forces. Their uniforms are identical to Futuron’s in design, but with black instead of the customary yellow, blue or red. However, their visors are red instead of blue, and their aesthetic is a far cry from Futuron’s passive white, rounded models. Space Police use a narrow, elongated construction with black bricks, blue trim, and cockpits tinted red. Most of their vehicles are equipped with a tiny holding cell, and each is armed to the teeth. The Space Police are clearly not messing around.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the Space Police is their name. The Marines and the Air Force are military branches that engage with foreign enemies, but police deal in domestic troubles, inside of a nation. Another interesting detail is that Blacktron’s largest ship is called the “Renegade.” Could it be that Blacktron was intended to be a breakaway faction from the Futuron Empire? Are they really bad guys? Then again, Blacktron are obviously interested in fighting Futuron, not merely leaving them.

The forces appeared to be balanced once more, but Lego still had a problem. Futuron are boring. It’s easy to sell bad guys; just load them up with a passel of weaponry and watch them go. Good guys are a harder sell. With the exception of police, they need to have a mission separate from “fight the bad guys,” otherwise, what are the bad guys going to disrupt? They also have to have some kind of flair as they go about their constructive mission, otherwise the bad guys are more fun to play with. Futuron are alright, but they lack pizzazz, panache, and pulchritude. Lego needed their white hats to have a good gimmick to go along with their good intentions. Rather than revamp Futuron, Lego chose to develop a whole new faction to throw in the Space universe. Enter M-Tron.

M-Tron have a distinct look all their own, with models made of black and red with glowing green trim. Their surface vehicles all have oversized tires for rough terrain, and their space ships have multiple horizontal fins, perhaps for better lift in atmo. Their minifigures are immediately recognizable in their transparent green visors and the “M” logo emblazoned on their chests. The “M” stands for “Magnets,” which they use to haul around their boxes of unidentified MacGuffins. The “tron” stands for futurism, I think. Their release saw a nice balance of space and surface vehicles, so M-Tron was fully prepared to enter the galactic fray from the beginning. The surface/space hybrid vehicle offered the following year made an outstanding addition, giving them some of the most interesting models in the Space theme to date.

Lego’s development of the Space theme was both clever and calculated. They could have easily fixed Futuron’s deficiencies by militarizing their basic designs, but instead they added the Space Police. Likewise, they could have kept releasing Futuron models and simply added the magnet trick, but again, they chose to introduce a new faction. Just as Lego provides a variety of blocks for us to assemble into different shapes, they gave a variety of factions to assemble into different narratives. Space Police default as working for Futuron, but they could defect, or take bribes, or be selective in who they apprehend and when. Do they help keep M-Tron safe as well? What about that fourth faction, do they help support the good guys, or do they sell to the highest bidder? The beautiful thing about Lego is that they allow you to decide. Again, the limiting factor is not the toy, it’s your imagination.

Continued in Part III…

The Lego Space Saga Part I: Heroes and Villains

My brother-in-law enjoyed Legos as a kid. Maybe that’s a bit of an understatement. He memorized the names and box numbers of the sets he wanted. He knows all of the best sets and the pieces that are included in them. When you say “Anaheim California” he doesn’t think “Disneyland!” it’s “Lego Store!” He once took gross advantage of their “cup full of bricks” policy by building a cone shaped block that not only perfectly fit into the container, it also included as many of the rarest parts that he could find. Now that he is a responsible adult with adult responsibilities, well, he also has an adult income, and his adult, responsible wife encourages him in his obsession. Now he is free to not only buy all the brand new sets that he wants, but he can backtrack and buy all of the sets that he wanted before, and could never persuade his mother to buy.

While filling up the gaps in his Space collection, he realized that he had never really understood Lego’s intent with the story. Several factions have been introduced and it is clear that they exist in the same galaxy and are meant to interact, but he wasn’t certain as to their interfactional dynamics. Since I’m a story kind of guy, he provided me with some basic information and asked my opinion. I did a little more research myself, and this is what I came up with.

Before we proceed with this fun, in-depth analysis of Lego and their Space theme, I offer one massive caveat; I am wholly unqualified to make this presentation. I am not a toy historian, a sociologist, or even a Lego enthusiast. I am only an English undergraduate who loves to speculate. Please do not cite this blog post in your doctoral thesis on marketing trends because, as much sense as some of this may make to you, I have no idea what I am talking about. That said, please come in and enjoy.

In idyllic bygone days when attendants pumped leaded gas for you at 30 cents a gallon and you could get unpasteurized milk delivered to your door, toys were sold based on their intrinsic value. Then Star Wars came and blew toy manufacturers’ minds with how many boring toys they were able to sell, just because people liked the story behind them. The late 1980s saw a mad rush to attach a storyline to every toy, like the Care Bears, and a toy to every storyline, as exemplified by GI Joe, TMNT, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, etc. Amidst the mass marketing of dolls action figures, one toy company was being left behind. Lego needed a change in business model.

Lego has never been a company to cling to atrophying nostalgia in the face of innovation. They were among the first companies to switch from classic wooden toys to plastic, after all. However, the trend toward story based marketing presented Lego with a particularly difficult challenge. Storylines are restrictive. They tell you who the good guys are, who the bad guys are, and when and how the inevitable defeat of said bad guys at the hand of the unlikely-yet-plucky good guys occurs. There is no room for flexibility, no room for hypotheticals. The point with other toy companies was to force the kids’ parents to buy the complete set, so the kid could reenact the storyline without having to imagine anything at all. Lego, on the other hand, is all about imagination. Sure, it pretty much goes without saying that the first thing you build with a Lego set is the thing on the box. After that, you break it apart and build your own creation. Most kids don’t even keep their sets separate, they just have a big ol’ Lego box with every piece in every color and every theme just jumbled up like OCD hell. They can build anything and everything they want. The limiting factor with Lego is not the toy, it’s your own imagination. Thus, restriction is the antithesis of Lego’s ethos. How was Lego going to survive as a toy company and jump on the storyline bandwagon, yet still be Lego?

Lego already had a few different themes going on, and they had been doing the space theme since 1979. This made sense, as people around the globe of all ages had been obsessed with space since Sputnik launched in October of ’57. Given the continued real live Space Race/Cold War with the U.S.S.R., it made sense to turn the space theme into a story with good and bad guys. In 1987 Lego released the same old space theme that they had been doing for nearly ten years, with the same aesthetic, the same blue, yellow and red uniforms, and one small exception; they were renamed as “Futuron.” Additionally Lego Space offered a new faction called “Blacktron.” There was and is no story accompanying either faction, so kids can do anything they want with them. However, there are a few clues given to help us figure out who the good and bad guys are.

First, Futuron was obviously there first. Kids likely already had some of these sets, so there was inborn loyalty from the outset. Blacktron was the new, the unfamiliar, the “other,” the makings of a bad guy.

Second, Futuron bases and vehicles are made up of white bricks trimmed mostly with blue, whereas Blacktron is made of black (duh) with yellow and red accents. We tend to associate white with good and black with evil, and this shows repeatedly in storylines. Think of Darth Vader (black outfit, red lightsaber) fighting Obi-wan (white and earth tones, blue lightsaber), or the color of the cowboy hats in westerns. I could belabor this point to death, but I like you so I won’t.

Third, the visors of Futuron spacemen are transparent, but Blacktron visors are opaque. This means that you can’t see a Blacktron’s smiling face, which is important because everyone knows that bad guys only smile when they are doing something evil, and even then it isn’t with the carefree joy that all Lego people had in 1987, and mostly still have to this day. Additionally, hiding facial features dehumanizes a character, thus making him less sympathetic. Think about the Footmen in TMNT. The turtles murdered the crap out of those guys and you never blinked an eye because, I mean, it’s not like they were people, even though they were clearly 100% more human than the turtles.

Fourth, the aesthetic of Futuron buildings and vehicles is smooth, with a lot of rounded features, like the Federation ships from Star Trek and good guys everywhere. Blacktron has fins and angles, with visible hoses hanging out. You can see this sharp look in the Romulan ships, or even Reaver structure from the movie Serenity.

Fifth and finally, the names of the sets give a clue. Futuron “debuted” with the benign “Areo Module,” the “Orion II Hyperspace,” “Cosmic Laser Launcher” and “Monorail Transport System.” The only nod to military application they have is the “Stardefender 200” (emphasis mine). All the Futurons want to do is launch a few lasers and transport some stuff. They’re not above defending their stars if they have to, but they definitely aren’t going to be the ones starting anything untoward. Blacktron, however, came out with the innocuous “Battrax,” the decidedly aggressive “Invader,” and the rebellious “Renegade.” The following year they would release the “Alienator” and “Message Intercept Base” (1988), revealing an interest in espionage.

The open ended storyline in Lego Space had begun with a minimum of information; Futuron are good, Blacktron are bad. But was this enough information to get Lego into the storyline craze? Or was it too much, compromising their freewheeling, “anything can happen” mentality?

To Be Continued…