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The pictured Space Lego set first went on sale in 1979, and holds special memories for me as it was the first Space Lego kit I owned. Space Lego took the recently improved Lego Town sets into a new dimension with new pieces including the angled flat sections used for space craft wings, the laser guns (as I called them) like on the very front of this model, and of course the great little oxygen cylinders on the backs of the little men. I loved playing with my Space Lego so much that I ensured it was always kept separate from the rest of my Lego. I stored all the Space Lego kits I bought in an old Quality Street tin, and would build countless space ships out of it every day.
The little spacemen were initially available in white and red, though yellow ones came out after a few years. Initially there was a little sticker of the Space Lego logo, a planet with a space ship leaving a trail behind it, that you stuck on the chest of the little men, but after a while this started being printed directly on to the body piece itself. Whilst there were no sides as such, I always pretended that the white spacemen were the good guys and the red ones the evil guys. That was the beauty of Lego though. You were free to make and interpret it all however you wished, as the Lego company never forced any particular story or conceptions on to the kits.
The space kits introduced several new pieces to the Lego range, and I remember scanning the Lego brochures for new kits with new pieces, and putting these to the top of my list of kits I would like to have. The new piece may have been as simple as one of the radar dishes with the holes in, but in black rather than grey, but that was part of the fun of trying to get hold of every possible brick type.
With the release of episodes one to three of the Star Wars trilogy other the past few years, Lego cashed in with some licensed kits and I must admit I succumbed and started buying the Star Wars Lego kits. There’s something about owning a Lego Darth Vader with light sabre or R2-D2 that brought my happy memories of playing with my Space Lego flooding back. Click on the following Amazon link to find some of these new sets…
Search for Star Wars Lego items on Amazon.co.uk
This was my first space set too. Sadly I now only have a few parts remaining of that set. For me the white spacemen were the foot soldiers (They reminded me of the stormtroopers from star wars – shiny and white), and the red ones were higher ranking seargents. Yellow ones were commanders, and the later blue ones admirals. I think the black ones were some kind of elite asassins like the SAS or something! I never liked the futuron ones which were half white and half yellow, red or blue. The classic ones between 1978-1986 were the best. I just bought a whole load of them off ebay since all of my original ones were either lost or are in bad shape. The faces tend to wear off and the legs go wobbly and they can’t stand up anymore. Also the helmets tend to get broken (Trampled on) and the air tanks just go missing or the neck part snaps off. I have a feeling that since they stopped making them during the mid 80’s, they are going to become very valuable to a certain generation of thirtysomethings.
where can i buy a lego space man poster!!! help
I’ve no idea but that would be a great subject for a poster. I did come across this rather cool Lego man poster on Unplggd.
I had that set too and still own every brick of it bar the support for the tail fin which broke, like every version of that brick which i had.