Exclusive interview with Tim Johnson, author of LEGO Space 1978-1992
Posted by Huw,
The highly anticipated book LEGO Space 1978-1992 by Tim Johnson, perhaps best known as the founder of New Elementary, will be published next week.
Our exclusive interview with him reveals what's in the book, how he got involved with writing it, why it stops at 1992, and whether he was able to uncover any information about the mysterious unreleased set 1526.
Brickset: Tim, tell us about yourself and your LEGO background
Tim: I came out of my Dark Age at age 40, gosh, that’s 13 years ago now. Ten years ago, I founded the deep-dive parts website New Elementary, and I’ve done all sorts of LEGO stuff since then: I’ve written and built models for DK Books, and I was the editor of Bricks Culture magazine. I work as a digital producer and writer/editor in Melbourne.
How and why did you get involved with writing a book on Classic Space?
It was a commission. In 2020 I heard that Dark Horse were looking to produce a book on the early years of LEGO Space. To work with The LEGO Group on my favourite theme certainly was a dream come true.
What can we expect to find in the book?
Beautiful nostalgia and new insight! The book has two main narrative threads: the historical overview and the individual products. I examine how the LEGO Space theme came about and its changes over time under the creative leadership of Jens Nygaard Knudsen, including new interviews with four employees who worked there in the 1980s. The majority of sets are described individually, along with photographs and advertisements from the time.
So this isn’t a complete listing of every set?
No, we felt people who want that can get it already… on great websites like Brickset! It was hard to decide where to draw the line because of course you never know which set is going to be someone’s childhood favourite. In the end, we put almost everything in, except for supplementary sets like minifigures and baseplates and some of the limited availability promotional sets.
Did you have access to the LEGO Archive when researching it?
Yes, not direct personal access, but the LEGO Archive team were amazing at digging out visuals – I received well over 1500 images to choose from. They uncovered the original photographs used in the box art, catalogues and magazine advertisements. So some of these images will already be familiar to Brickset readers, but you will be seeing them like never before: crisp, high-resolution photography… and uncropped! They also gave permission for us to publish some never-before-seen development models.
Were you able to uncover any information about the mysterious set 1526 that was never released?
We found the original photography for the box art! So of course that went in. We couldn’t find any information about why it wasn’t released though; unfortunately, details about promotional sets are far scarcer. I couldn’t have made this book without all the hard work that has been done by the fan community over the decades – certainly, Brickset was an essential resource!
Were you able to speak with the sets' designers?
Yes: Bjarne Tveskov, Niels Pedersen, and also the late Jørn Thomsen who were all extremely generous with their time. It was a huge shock when Jørn passed away earlier this year, and we have dedicated the book to him in honour of his incredible work. I also spoke to Connie Bork who joined the fledgling Building Instructions team in 1984… her insight was fascinating! Current employees also assisted, including Mark Stafford who interviewed the original creative director, Jens Nygaard Knudsen in 2008.
The book covers the era 1978 to 1992. Why did you decide to stop there?
We decided to stop with Blacktron 2, largely because that was the end of the ‘classic smiley’ era. It was hard to choose as there were pros and cons to every cut-off point that we discussed! Jens Nygaard Knudsen moved to a different department in 1993 so that seemed a natural point, but there was no clear cut-off there, as themes he developed were released after the moved.
Can you share an interesting or surprising fact that you discovered while writing it?
Before they went ahead with printing the box artwork, they would mock them up – which, in the pre-Photoshop era, meant physically cutting and pasting photographs, logos and text – to create a prototype box for approval. We have many photographs of these in the book. I found them interesting because they don’t include touch-ups, such as the brightening up of transparent parts that didn’t photograph well, and in some cases the proposed photographs are different from the final choice.
What are your own memories of playing with classic space as a child?
I was an astronomy-obsessed eight-year-old when LEGO Space launched in Australia, a perfect age really. With four older sisters, LEGO had always been present in my life but 1979 brought this whole new universe with the three LEGOLAND subthemes and their minifigures, baseplates… and host of new elements which, you will not be surprised to hear, excited me even back then. My sister and I would build a city under our pool table using the road and crater plates, placing my LEGO Space at one end and her LEGO Castle at the other!
Do you have a favourite set or faction?
I entered my Dark Age in 1984 so as you can imagine, I’m an early Classic guy through and through. 918 was my favourite as a child, as it was the biggest ship I had, and I still love its clean shape. Writing this book gave me a fresh appreciation for Futuron though, which I had always dismissed as a bit vanilla, so I have now picked up a few of the sets. I really love their clean design, which was more consistent than other subthemes. The book has some insight about the new ways that the US wanted to brand and market Blacktron and Whitetron (as Futuron was originally going to be called).
When is it released and how can we get hold of it?
Check out the pre-order deals now, as it comes out on Tuesday 14 November. It will be in bookstores and online in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, France and China I am told, and surely some other countries too. There is only an English language version at this time.
Thanks Tim, I can't wait to get hold of a copy!
It can be pre-ordered at Amazon and will be shipped next week.
- Amazon.co.uk (£34.45)
- Amazon.com ($44.99)
- Amazon.ca ($65.99)
- Amazon.com.au
- Amazon.de (€48.99)
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34 comments on this article
Cool. Xmas is coming. Reminds me of fun holidays gone by. I can see curling up with this book and a good mug of whiskey-nog.
That Huwbot post below on the homepage seems all the more contrived. ;)
Looks a great book. Next time you interview an author could you ask if they’re expecting a paperback out eventually for those of us who hate hardbacks. Thank-you
I know pre-order and first week sales figures matter to authors and publishers, but I'll be holding my breath and leaving this as a Christmas present. Sorry Tim!
Oooooo yeah, looking forward to this - both cos space stuff is right up my street and also cos Tim's work on New Elementary (along with the NE team as a whole) is stellar! Will grab whenever I see it instores!
Sounds great. Someone please do this with vintage castle!
If we pre-order do we get this limited edition cover with all the space logos backwards?
@Ridgeheart said:
"Yeah, the backwards logos are a bit of a bummer, but it doesn't detract from the book itself, which seems great."
When you look at Amazon, the logo's are correctly displayed on the cover....Weird
Sorry, I was using an old verison of the cover, which has now been updated and replaced here.
Oh this looks awesome. LEGO Space was my first connection to LEGO, so I definitely want this. Plus, when I got my first copy of the new Galaxy Explorer, my kids were like, “Why doesn’t LEGO make stuff like this anymore?!?”
They’re a little biased, I think, by enthusiasm contamination from me. But still, this seems like a great coffee table book.
I saw this book yesterday when I was at Walgreens looking for something to read. If I had known I had time traveled to the future I would have bought a news paper.
I pre-ordered this on Amazon so hoping it shows up soon!
I just realized I saw this book listed on fresh comics, what I saw at Walgreens was the Newsweek Lego the Toy That Changed Our Lives;
https://magazineshop.us/products/lego-special-newsweek-edition-the-toy-that-changed-our-lives
I fell better about not getting a paper now.
I think it's really fantastic to be getting a book like this. If this is successful I would hope other Lego themes might get a similar treatment, with an in-depth, insider look at their development and history.
The interview is great, and the sample pages have my HYPED. This will be the first book in a very long time that I read cover-to-cover the day it arrives!
I was born in 1972, and got my first Lego set around 1976. Classic Space was my favorite Lego theme from the day it was released, and a deep dive like this is a dream come true!
I'm so appreciative they fixed the backwards image on the cover. I still would have bought the book, of course, but that would have hurt my soul a little bit because I think I'm going to love this book so very, very much.
I already had it on pre-order and have been counting down the days until it arrives!
Like Tim, my exposure was only to the first few years of CS, specifically the first three in my case. I'm particularly looking forwards to that coverage.
This is definitely going on my Christmas wish list. I grew up with classic Space as the main staple of my LEGO addiction. Plus, I have all 5 models shown on the cover - which I can appreciate as well!
I miss those old moon base plates, those were great.
I pre-ordered this when it was first announced, and so glad that I did, as it looks amazing. :-) Although it'll be a Christmas present, so I won't actually get to read it until Christmas day. :-( Thank-you Tim for all of your hard work and effort, I'm really looking forward to reading this.
Imagine if those prototypes were the final design.
Any word on if there'll be a 1993-Present volume?
$45 is a lot to pay for a 200 page book.
This would be right up my alley and I would love to buy it but it is 50% too expensive. As well as I might enjoy the finer things in life, I'm also very attuned to the concept of value. CAD$32-35 would be fine by me for a toy book but certainly not CAD$65 - maybe we'll get a discount eventually.
Maybe if it would come with 3 classic spacemen (one in sand blue, one in magenta and one in lime green)... with that maybe I would buy multiple copies.
I wonder if we get an insight why the 493 - Space Command Centre of 1978 featured in the pic came with a brick-build crater plate? Wasn't the molded version ready for the early release in the US?
While I imagine that finding the cutoff was very tricky as he mentions, I'm sad that the fan favourite Ice Planet 2002, which came out in 1993, won't be featured.
So many spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIPS!
What a wonderful work, and happy to support the founder of the (joint!) best LEGO website going.
@followsclosely said:
"$45 is a lot to pay for a 200 page book. "
So you're saying the PPP (Price Per Page) is too high?
@followsclosely said:
"$45 is a lot to pay for a 200 page book. "
Agree, but there are no other books like this that I know of, so for the classic space fan, it's a must purchase.
This is on my Amazon wishlist. I always need ideas that are not terribly pricey and what not and I have found most LEGO books fit the bill. Something I would not likely buy myself, but would welcome as a present from the family.
I think Lego Space lost its strength after 1994. Spyrius felt like it had the "classic" design ethos to me. Unitron was the last Space series I attempted to collect when I was young; I quit because it left me disappointed, and what followed didn't seem much better. If Jens Nygaard Knudsen's tenure was the cut-off for this book, I'm wondering what the first theme was he didn't design. Of the other 1992+ themes, I thought Ice Planet was a masterpiece, Spyrius was quite good, and Space Police II quite underwhelming.
@AllenSmith said:
"I think Lego Space lost its strength after 1994. Spyrius felt like it had the "classic" design ethos to me. Unitron was the last Space series I attempted to collect when I was young; I quit because it left me disappointed, and what followed didn't seem much better. If Jens Nygaard Knudsen's tenure was the cut-off for this book, I'm wondering what the first theme was he didn't design. Of the other 1992+ themes, I thought Ice Planet was a masterpiece, Spyrius was quite good, and Space Police II quite underwhelming."
Yes, but Space Police III was epic!!
Whitetron? Seriously? ???????
@tim1724 said:
"Whitetron? Seriously? ???????"
If that naming scheme had been kept, would we have gotten a Very-Very-Dark-Greytron?
@Ridgeheart: Took me a while to realize what you were talking about with "Magnetron," as that line was called "M-Tron" over here. And I'll join you in mourning Seatron. If that had been released, I would have been all over it. Underwater themes and sets are my jam, whether real-world or sci-fi. And Seatron was not only sc-fi, it was Space!
Pre-ordered my copy on Amazon back in the summer, really looking forward to this book. Love the classic space theme, from start to finish. Ended up building 1526 a while back from spare parts, but not sure where I packed it when we moved several years ago, after seeing the pic above I need to start digging through some boxes of sets and find it.
Received my copy yesterday through a Dutch online store.
Beautiful pictures, and a very interesting read. Loads of interesting facts and trivia. E.g. it is speculated in the book that red and white spacemen were meant to represent Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts respectively. Never looked at them that way as a kid, but makes sense!
Highly recommended.