We Take A Journey Through LEGO Time and Space

The 12^th of April is an international celebration of the first human flight into space. Yuri Gagarin was the crew of rocket Vostok 1 on the space mission in April 1961. He managed to complete one orbit around the Earth that lasted over 108 minutes. The Vostok 1 launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan with the Vostok 3KA space capsule. Gagarin was sent into space with rations for 13 days, but unfortunately, his food had to be created in such a way that it wouldn’t produce crumbs - so he was armed with chocolate sauce and liver meat puree packed into toothpaste like tubes (yummy!). Yuri parachuted to the ground after ejecting from his capsule at 23,000 feet.

 "In all times and all eras man’s greatest joy has been to take part in new discoveries” - Yuri Gagarin (before the mission)

IT’S OUT OF THIS WORLD

LEGO has created some totally spectacular space-related sets, beginning way back in 1978. It is one of the oldest and most extensive themes in all of LEGO history and there are well over 200 sets. Launching from these sets we have the iconic spaceman of old who we still get to see in more modern sets - it’s so awesome that Benny has stood the test of time! Not only did we have the LEGO Spaceman Minifigure introduced but we also received a bunch of new pieces, radar dishes, antennas and transparent yellow windows to name a few.

BLACKTRON AND BOMBER JACKETS

As we blasted our way into the 80s wearing leg warmers and neon spandex, LEGO was creating the Blacktron and Futuron Minifigures within the LEGO Space range. More spaceships were being created too and more colours were being added to the LEGO Space palette with red and yellow now apparent. Ships like the “Renegade" could split apart into smaller ships to enable more playability. 1989 saw the LEGO Space Police intervening in Blacktron’s nefarious activities and with them came new LEGO Minifigures and more coloured transparent windshields and windows. The new LEGO Minifigure Series 26 USA will slip in nicely with these guys, good or bad.

CRAZY CONSTELLATIONS

Space exploration in the 1990s took us to the LEGO Ice Planet 2002 in 1993, LEGO Spyrius in 1994 and then LEGO Exploriens in 1996. Three new planets to explore but no alien lifeforms yet as these burst out in 1997 with LEGO UFO. This theme introduced us to a selection of curved pieces giving us smoother shapes and more galactic-looking ships. Following in 1998 was LEGO Insectoids, a dastardly fleet of space and land vehicles that resemble giant insects that were piloted by robotic droids. Towards the end of the 90s, LEGO entered a licensing agreement with Lucasfilm for the production of Star Wars LEGO, which caused the other space themes to take a back seat.

KEEPING IT REAL

During the 1990s LEGO were creating more realistic space-themed sets in the LEGO Town range one of which, Technic Space Shuttle 8480 features a fibre optic system to light up the gears. LEGO 8480 had a huge selection of working features making it very futuristic. As the popularity of the realistic space sets grew, LEGO created a new sub-theme entitled LEGO City Space and the sets were co-designed by NASA education. These sets do tend to have more focus on playability than accuracy to the original but they cover a range of wallets, starting with 60428 LEGO Space Construction Mech for £8.99 moving right the way up to 60434 LEGO Space Base and Rocket Launchpad at £124.99.

BIG KID ROCKETS

LEGO doesn’t just cater for the little astronauts in our lives, they have the space-loving AFOLs covered too. The LEGO Ideas International Space Station (21321) is a set to behold comprising 864 galactic bricks that celebrate 20 years of the ISS. This space wonder allows us to create a brick-built mini-NASA space shuttle, three mini cargo spacecrafts and the main ISS itself, all manned by the two LEGO astronaut minifigures. If you want to display a pivotal moment in history then LEGO 10266 NASA Apollo 11 Lunar Lander is the set for you. Two LEGO Minifigures with NASA detailing and 1,087 bricks create this historic moment including footprints, a flag and a descent stage that has an opening camera and laser hatches.

We could go on for eternity discussing the many out-of-this-world sets that LEGO have given us but we will behave! Let us know if you had any of the original LEGO Space sets, if so what did you think of them? Do you have any of the more recent realistic display LEGO Space sets and which are your favourite?