Finally, a new Classic Space Set - Benny's Spaceship

prevere

Per Lego Wikia ... coming in August. Looks fantastic.

http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/70816_Benny's_Spaceship

prevere

Although the dark bluish gray just doesn't feel right.

mountebank

I came to this thread hoping for a Crossroads-themed spaceship and find that I'm bitterly disappointed.

Which, if we're being honest, could have been utterly marvellous.

Paperballpark

@mountebank complete with wobbly walls and pieces that fall off when pushed!

Aanchir

It's a beautiful design with great minifigures. Truly a marvel to behold.

I didn't live through Classic Space (child of the 90s here), but I inherited a certain amount of nostalgia for it from the old idea books and printed elements I would get from yard sales. It was a truly momentous occasion in LEGO design, not only because it launched a theme but because it launched the FIRST theme that was not, in some explicit way, based on things that had existed in real life. Although it borrowed from visions of an extraterrestrial future that had been cemented in popular culture, it was still groundbreaking to have a theme that indulged so deeply in things purely imagined and never truly seen. Since the themes I have loved most over the years are things like Aquazone, Spyrius, BIONICLE, Ninjago and Hero Factory that are inspired by science-fiction or fantasy and set in "invented worlds", I feel like I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the classic space sets.

It's fantastic to see how such a "classic" look can be recreated and even renewed with modern parts and building techniques. There have been "Neo Classic Space" MOCs that attempt to demonstrate the same thing, of course, but sometimes I feel like they go too far when it comes to updating the fleet. This one is still unquestionably a modern set, but has the characteristic wedge shape and angular cockpit glass, among other features that come together to give it a retro look.

I have been a bit uncertain about whether I'll be collecting LEGO Movie sets. I certainly don't think I'll be collecting all of them, but I'm becoming convinced I need to get SOME of them, and this one stands out as a must-have.

mountebank

Beige. Lots and lots of beige. Dodgy new hair moulds. Sandy's abandoned crutches in the corner. These will now all be tragically missed opportunities.

Paperballpark

You should do a Cuusoo submission @mountebank. Don't forget the shoulderpads! I'm sure there's an old part you could use for that...

mountebank

Ha ha, the mind does boggle at the thought.

Anyway, it's a cool looking set and I'll leave the sensible posters on this thread to resume their discussion.

Legofanscott

Seems a bit strange releasing it so late after the film

Not that it will make any difference in sales figures as i think most people will buy it for what it is, a classic space ship, not so sure about the other sets though

DrLegOBrick

Extremely excited for this! After reading a few other Lego websites, the price will be between $80-$100, meaning £80-£100 knowing Lego, near 1000 pieces, the back detaches and becomes an escape pod, and (I think), the end shuttle's on either wing detach, and the nose detaches. The "919" stickers are a great touch, and I'm loving Benny, the supposed simulated dirt and cracked helmet sound, and look, great. Will this be the biggest Lego non IP space ship, beating the Explorien Starship and the Galactic Enforcer?

augen

Does the Benny character have the old style helmet and is he in dark green?

(obviously not Benny from Crossroads, as his woolly hat was blue IIRC)

BuriedinBricks

@Legofanscott - I tend to agree that it seems strange to have the two biggest sets in the line slated for release months after the movie has likely left theaters. I'm sure there's some sort of supply/retailer issue in mind here, since my guess is the vast majority of LEGO is sold during the months leading up to Christmas. If they put out the largest sets too soon, they probably would sell very slow.

On the ship itself, I love it. I'll have to dig out my classic space guys so they're ready to go.

DrLegOBrick

Kind of, it's complicated. In the film, his helmet is a properly cracked original, witch obviously isn't possible to do with the official figure. In the sets, he'll have a new helmet, crack, damaged print and all, witch can be seen here:
http://www.lego.com/en-us/movie/explore/characters/benny
How I know he'll appear like this is because the other character pictures somewhat differ from the film, and are identical to their appearance in the official sets, Vitruvius is a good example as his staff is regular parts, not a chewed up lolly pop as seen in the film. And Benny's blue. Hope that makes sense...

Jabba_the_Taff

A great looking set. Maybe the set releases will coincide with the DVD release.

LegobrandonCP

The classic space logo looks beautiful.

bluemoose

Legofanscott said:

Seems a bit strange releasing it so late after the film

I'm assuming the 2nd wave of sets will be available around the time of the DVD/Blu Ray release.

The new ship doesn't really adhere to the established 'AFOL' Neo Classic Space (NCS) look & feel, but I don't expect that to impact sales of the set very much. I do expect to see some 'proper' NCS versions of it as soon as that trans-yellow canopy becomes available ;-)

Legoloverman

Yeah, I'll definitely be doing some proper NCS with that canopy.

Unfortunately there aren't any trans clear ones for sale on Bricklink - I could do with a head start.

mathew

Looks like the classic space logo is printed onto a few of the pieces. Too bad there isn't a monorail in the movie ; )

sidersdd

mathew said:

Looks like the classic space logo is printed onto a few of the pieces. Too bad there isn't a monorail in the movie ; )

There may be. Here's a shot from the same DK book that the Benny ship appears in.

sidersdd

Astro Kitty was shown in the book as well - which should come in that set. I don't recall seeing that posted here.

DrLegOBrick

The monorail can be seen at 0.03 in this trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBddHNTZInY

augen

LegobrandonCP said:

The classic space logo looks beautiful.

It would be great to see a new classic space theme with a modern figure, but keeping the original planet logo.

mressin

^ But there is! 8683 and 8827.

scnr;

legodude

I'm glad they didn't do the so called NCS look, I would have passed entirely, never liked that pseudo take on CS.

Ambroise

Whaoo... I'm now very excited too.

Looks like there will be quite a few pieces (I counted at least 7 slopes/tails) with the CS logo; I hope they will be printed... I wish the same for the LL929 name, but I have less hope there...

Anyway, I now want to built my 928 again. :p

InsomniacEve

Hi all Classic Space lovers.
Benny actually have his own facebook page (so does Emmet, Batman etc, and it's pretty funny if you have time to read through what "they" say).
Anyway, Benny the 1980 something space guy said on fb he is submitting a petition to LEGO to release the Classic Space line again. But he need more supporters on his page. There's currently about 4800 fans on his page.
Not sure if many of you know about this, but if you want it to be released again (I know I do!!), please go fan his page :) Please help Benny spread the words.
Type this in the Search box: Benny the 1980-something Space Guy you'll find him.

It's not a fake, it's run by LEGO I believe, because Batman, Emmet etc is on there too, but of course Benny is everyone's favorite.

VBaskin2008

I'm gonna get Benny's Spaceship soon!

KiwiLegoMeister

To think I just bought a brand-new-in-the-original-sealed-box 1985 Benny (set #6805 for $3NZ in a junk shop yesterday ...
Oh well ... now to start saving for the #70810 (MetalBeard's Sea Cow ) ...

Hardrada

Sorry, just saw the the spaceship was already announced on his page.

sschmotz

So has the release date for this been pushed up to March? Original post says August but the link is now showing March. If so, that's fantastic. I love the classic space theme and this is a decent sized set. Look forward to getting this one.

wagnerml2

Wow! I may create 50 fake facebook pages just to sign the petition. For those of us 40-something AFOLs, Classic Space was a mainstay. Re-releasing in an updated format would be a dream come true!

Aanchir

InsomniacEve said:

Hi all Classic Space lovers.
Benny actually have his own facebook page (so does Emmet, Batman etc, and it's pretty funny if you have time to read through what "they" say).
Anyway, Benny the 1980 something space guy said on fb he is submitting a petition to LEGO to release the Classic Space line again. But he need more supporters on his page. There's currently about 4800 fans on his page.
Not sure if many of you know about this, but if you want it to be released again (I know I do!!), please go fan his page :) Please help Benny spread the words.
Type this in the Search box: Benny the 1980-something Space Guy you'll find him.

It's not a fake, it's run by LEGO I believe, because Batman, Emmet etc is on there too, but of course Benny is everyone's favorite.

It is, in fact, a fan-created account, not an official LEGO account. Why would the LEGO Group be petitioning themselves?

wagnerml2 said:

Wow! I may create 50 fake facebook pages just to sign the petition. For those of us 40-something AFOLs, Classic Space was a mainstay. Re-releasing in an updated format would be a dream come true!

Posts like these are an embarrassment to the LEGO community. Online petitions rarely send a really meaningful message when dealing with a company as big as the LEGO Group, and part of the reason for that is because idiotic, deceptive tactics like this completely destroy any kind of authenticity they might have had. I'm trying to mince my words here, but as much as I agree that classic space is awesome... you don't DESERVE the LEGO Group's efforts to please us AFOLs if you think they can be earned through shameless lies and sleazy misdirection.

Paperbackwriter

Kinda harsh, eh?

Trenth

Jeez.....I don't think you understand hyperbole.

oldtodd33

And I thought I was having a bad day!

Plell

If online petitions actually worked I'd be drinking a Crystal Pepsi right now.

Aanchir

Trenth said:

Jeez.....I don't think you understand hyperbole.

I get hyperbole. I know wagnerml2 isn't actually planning to make 50 fake Facebook accounts. But creating ANY fake account undermines the purpose of an online petition. And sadly, I can't take for granted that people are kidding about this kind of thing since I've seen plenty of people admit to doing just this with complete seriousness — including some of the "bring back Ninjago" petitions back when people were worried about that theme ending, or various BIONICLE-related petitions. And it's immensely frustrating to watch people who fully believe in the power of online petitions play an active role in reducing their legitimacy. Even if you don't sign a petition 50 times, even saying that you will makes the petition inherently less trustworthy.

TheLoneTensor

Wait, wait. Are you saying there are lies and deceit on the internet?

mathew

Oh my gawd. It's just a Facebook fanpage. And actually not bad. Don't read it if you don't like it. And quit acting like Lord Business ; ) Didn't you learn anything from the movie?

Paperbackwriter

Is the bottom line 'toys'? We are adults who play with toys. Have fun. Enjoy. Be thankful we can indulge in such frivolity. I love all of you!!

Aanchir

mathew said:

Oh my gawd. It's just a Facebook fanpage. And actually not bad. Don't read it if you don't like it. And quit acting like Lord Business ; ) Didn't you learn anything from the movie?

I have absolutely nothing against the fanpage. It's funny, the person creating it clearly put in a lot of time and effort, they don't seem to be trying to pose as an official page, and they're fully entitled to post online petitions. I have said nothing negative about the fan page itself. My issue is purely with wagnerml2's post. I don't get why I should seem like a bad guy for expressing the inherent contradiction of well-intentioned fraud.

I have the same issue with plenty of other petitions or polls I see online. As a brony, I love to see My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic win online polls, whether it's for "best fans", "best girls' TV show", or whatever. A lot of other people do also. Some of them like it so much that they create scripts to repeatedly vote for the show and thus artificially inflate the vote count. This kind of thing drives me crazy, because what could have been a useful measure of how the franchise or fans are perceived online becomes utterly meaningless, and for anyone aware of the fraud it ends up reflecting badly on the entire fandom. If it's a poll for "best fandom" then this becomes the height of folly, because winning these polls in this manner actually reduces the fandom's ability to do well in them when playing fair.

I hope you understand why casual, flippant remarks like that bother me. Even if a person is well-intentioned, you don't make your point-of-view look significant by saying things that throw the measure of its significance into question.

Paperbackwriter

Maybe, because none of this IS significant.

mathew

Aanchir said:

As a brony, I love to see My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic win online polls, whether it's for "best fans", "best girls' TV show", or whatever.

I don't know what to say in response to that.

CircleK

^ lmao

Paperbackwriter

I grew up in Detroit. But sometimes I think the Internet is a scarier place.

wagnerml2

@Aanchir - I don't know who peed in your Cheerios this morning, but get grip, Geez. Go to bed, get a good night's rest and let's try it again tomorrow.

TechnicNick

I was kinda hoping for an informed discussion about a set a lot of people will love. Oh well.

mressin

sschmotz said:

So has the release date for this been pushed up to March? Original post says August but the link is now showing March. If so, that's fantastic. I love the classic space theme and this is a decent sized set. Look forward to getting this one.

I spoke to a toy store manager recently and he told me that he expects the second-wave movie sets to be available between late February and mid-March.

TheLoneTensor

mathew said:

Aanchir said:

As a brony, I love to see My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic win online polls, whether it's for "best fans", "best girls' TV show", or whatever.

I don't know what to say in response to that.

I can't wait for the My Little Pony movie where the brony Dad at the end explains to his son that whole thing.

wagnerml2

Is Benny's ship a regular release or an exclusive, like Sea Cow?

Aanchir

wagnerml2 said:

Is Benny's ship a regular release or an exclusive, like Sea Cow?

It's a regular release. POSSIBLY exclusive to a certain retailer, but I don't think that's very likely. Certainly it's not Direct-to-Consumer/"LEGO Exclusive" like the Simpsons House and Sea Cow.