Cuusoo Exo-Suit logo revealed

Classic Space logo! That's nice. Can't wait to see what they do, seeing as the original suit is so... complex.

I like it, may be the first Cuusoo set I buy depending on the price.

Oooooo....I am liking this Cuusoo even more! Anyone else catch the part about the Ghostbusters Cuusoo will be out in June? Makes me think the May VIP Early Sale is the Ghostbuster set after all...

Nicely done logo. I'm very excited about this set! I plan on getting two or three. I will definitely buy one of the Ghostbusters sets too.

I've grown out of legos, but I check this site once in a while. This set was always my favorite MOC and, if the final version looks like the actual one, I will get it.

looks like MARS MISSION

Did it mention a price? I'd buy 1-2 if it was $25ish.

This set may be a setup with the classic mars mission they may be thinking of bring back the series and this set may be the start if it. Just look at it thy brought back agent is mars mission next?

@maelstromkid - off to your dark ages then? Enjoy them, but do come back soon! ;)

I really hope the mech stays true to it's design. As for the design, upon first reading it, I thought it said Exo Force, and nearly went ****, jumping up and down. Still, I am concerned on the price, as it looked to have over 700 pieces in it.

If this DOES inspire a theme, I REALLY hope they don't have an "enemy" like TLG has insisted on inserting into Space since about 1997.

Even if your imagination does make enemies out of different factions, why can't Space just be about exploration? I have lost just about all interest in what used to be my favorite theme ever since they implemented gimmicky helmets/heads and monster aliens.

Keep it simple - classic helmet and oxygen pack. No goofy monster heads. And keep a solid color theme again! Blacktron 1 & 2, M- Tron, Ice Planet, Space Police 1 & 2, Spyrius, Unitron, Exploriens - all great, solid, 3-color themed concepts. Even the older "Space" only really had variation in the spacemen's colors.

@DanRSL Space themes have had conflict for a long time — it's never been purely about exploration.

From Jens Nygaard Knudsen, one of the original LEGO Space designers and the inventor of the LEGO minifigure: "We started with only Red and White figures, we considered the red ones to be the 'bad' guys, and that they were two competing factions.... The original two colors were explorers, yellow were scientists, blues were technicians or mechanics and I guess the black were warriors, but we were not allowed to make a big deal out of this. We were not allowed to make war."

And from Niels Milan Pedersen, another classic space designer: "There were a lot of disagreements about the aerials and other elements that pointed forwards on the ships because of the 'no war' policy. We were not allowed to make weapons, and these things we built looked aggressive, so there were a lot of 'radar dishes' added and 'sensor probes', but to us they were really guns!"

To be honest, I would also love a space theme that isn't purely "good guy" against "bad guy", and incorporates some non-conflict-based futuristic living. But at the same time, I appreciate that the LEGO Group is more honest and accepting about the ways kids tend to play than they were thirty-five years ago.

(All quotes are from an interview conducted by Mark Stafford in the sixth issue of Brickjournal)

Re: gimmicky helmets/heads and monster aliens: I don't think those would go away even in a hypothetical non-conflict-driven Space line. These days at least, when kids think futuristic space adventures, they think alien encounters. There's a reason alien minifigure concepts were being developed for themes as early as M:Tron.

And besides, none of the recent space helmets have been very gimmicky at all. Mars Mission used the basic motorcycle/knight/space helmets, Space Police III's first year used the simple leather aviator helmet with a black visor, and all subsequent Space sets have used a pretty basic helmet design that, while it has some detail, is not very elaborate or gimmicky by real-life standards and certainly not by fictional futuristic standards. Compare with a real-life NASA space helmet (http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/275028main_helm_226x189.jpg) or the helmet used by Felix Baumgartner in his "space jump" (http://www.redbullstratos.com/technology/pressure-suit-and-helmet/).

But maybe when you mentioned "gimmicky helmets" you were thinking more of 90s themes like UFO and Insectoids than themes from the past decade.

Let's hope the real set actually lives up to the original model in some way and doesn't suck.

If they can keep the look and feel of the Cuuso AND hit the price point of $29.99, then I will be picking up one or two of these.

@Aanchir
Thanks for the Lego history, I didn't realize that they had those self-imposed restrictions. Although it's not such a stretch to see why I would like a "return" to peaceful form, even if it secretly never really was. Although I definitely made them fight myself as I'm sure everyone did at one point, it was nice to have bases that weren't fortresses, and ships that were debatably "collectors" or whatever instead of warships.

Unfortunately (for me, at least), I agree that the "gimmicky helmets/heads" are likely here to stay. For clarification, I was referring more to the Insectoids/Space Police 3 villains variety of helmets (that look more like Castle than Space to me). The new standard of space helmet, which you're right, IS more true to life is fine with me, despite the loss of visor movement and incompatibility with oxygen tanks.

The heads, though, I just can't get over for whatever reason. Strangely, I don't mind the recent Atlantis helmets/heads in general. But for some reason I still can't see an appropriate helmet being used in Space aside from the "space helmet". Chima is a step in the right direction having new helmet molds instead of heads, at least.

I think it's more Lego's failing in making a cohesive theme for a LONG time. The closest I feel they came was the Alien Conquest line, which had pretty good color and style theming (for the aliens, at least) but something still didn't add up. Good guys vs. bad guys just isn't cutting it for me, but then again what do I know? I'm sure they still make a lot of money on them.

Not asking for Shakespeare, either. How about Space Miners/Archaeologists and Space pirates who try to steal from them? You've got exploration AND conflict, but not conflict as one dimensional as "Ahh, bugzoids are attacking! Attack them!"

Awesome set!

"there were a lot of 'radar dishes' added and 'sensor probes', but to us they were really guns!" Yeah uhm... that's also how I used those.

Although I love the fact that we can finally get a CUUSO set that isn't some licensed 80's childhood memory, I think the model will change fairly dramatically with the conversion into a saleable set.

Just looking at the image you can see greebling that would need to be removed (look at the feet for example, they have minifigure hands precariously wedged in) and I think removing this will detract from the look.

Hopefully they can find a balance! it's unfortunate they couldn't reveal more about the final set in the article.

One thing is for sure I'm not waiting around to buy this like I did with the Mars rover. Never again. I'm getting the Cuusoo sets day one from now on

@zipsforbananas Not sure I ever will be back. I'd rather spend my time playing music, arranging it, listening to it, or playing video games than LEGOS. I will always remember them

@DanRSL: Ah, OK, I see what you mean. The SP3 bad guy helmets (Skull Twins, Snake, Slizer) were indeed pretty gimmicky compared to your typical space gear.

As far as cohesiveness is concerned, I think the LEGO Group has done a good job. As far as Space is concerned, as you said, Alien Conquest was VERY cohesive. Both the human and alien factions had distinctive color schemes, costumes, and motifs that tied them together. So did Mars Mission and at least the first wave of Space Police III (where there were some very clear unifying colors and motifs for the vehicles of both the police and the Black Hole Gang, even if the latter were a bit of a ragtag bunch compared to the uniformed Space Police).

Funnily enough, the actual classic space theme was a lot less unified than subsequent themes... it was pretty consistent starting out with its blue, gray, and yellow structures and red and white spacemen, and red and grey for some scout ships and moon rovers... but then there were sets like 6929 Star Fleet Voyager and 6980 Galaxy Commander. By 1985 color schemes were all over the place, what with sets like 6952 Solar Power Transporter. It seems that the designers sort of played around with different color scheme ideas within the theme until they came up with the idea of introducing separate factions/subthemes with their own unifying costumes and color schemes. It was an improvement, to be sure! I'm glad that AFOLs (and The LEGO Movie) have basically chosen just one of the classic color schemes to embrace, as it lends "Neo-Classic Space" a greater sense of consistency.

Sweet, I cant wait to see the final product!

Very interesting that they've decided to tackle the Classic Space angle as a primary focus of the set. I wonder if this has anything to do with Benny's Spaceship being released around the same time? Most kids aren't aware of what Classic Space is all about, but with Benny's Spaceship basically being a full-on tribute to Classic Space, it could spark the interest of kids which could drive them towards getting the Exo Suit.

And if both of those sets do well, maybe we'll get a Classic Space II theme! :-D (wishful thinking)

If a space theme were to come out, I'd like a reboot of Mars Mission. It had a very simple motif, good basic vehicles, and an overall balance over exploration and conflict. If they do, however, I would still like them to keep the figures simple and not cartoonish like Alien Conquest did.

@Blockland: I wasn't fond of Mars Mission. It raised a whole bunch of ethical questions. After all, it was basically a highly-militarized human faction attacking a highly advanced alien species for their energy crystals, trapping them for research purposes, and mining their territory. Yes, I know they weren't actually native Martians, but I don't see how that makes things much better — their ships were designed to run on the Martian crystals and ours weren't, so that seems like a pretty good indicator that they had been there longer. At least in Alien Conquest, it was abundantly clear that the aliens were the ones attacking our planet to harvest our resources and not the other way around. Galaxy Squad is a sort of a middle ground — the two sides are fighting but the reasons are not made clear at all. Which is admittedly worse from a storytelling perspective than Mars Mission's resource war, but at least it offers an opportunity to write your own context favoring whichever side you choose. In Mars Mission, it seemed pretty clear that WE were the bad guys.

Life on Mars was better, although its complete LACK of overt conflict left things almost entirely open-ended unless you read the online comics, which conveyed a very specific narrative that was perhaps TOO peaceful for the huge weapons on the Martian vehicles to really serve any meaningful purpose. They were for mining, I guess...

I think Benny's Spaceship, Spaceship SPACESHIP! hit a nerve in fans Lego is picking up on. I think sets based in REAL space flight might work for a while, remember we have not just NASA but Russia, ESA, Japan, a China, and India all sending stuff up. The different types of ships would make good "teams". More so that they have more "spacey" colors to work with as well. (Dark grey, green, red, navy, etc) They could add things like ISS, Hubble, Galileo.. Dig into some of the retro-future plans all of these agencies have. Fill the ships with experiments, control panels, little windows... Be sure to scale the models so they could make a few Friends astronauts too.

I think having Star Wars is really holding them back as well from putting real effort into their OWN Lego Space program. Maybe they could take a few years off before the new movies hit?

@mabhatter: We did have a real spaceflight-based theme a couple years ago in LEGO City. It's a bit of a shame there weren't more sets in that subtheme, especially since some press releases about the corresponding LEGO/NASA partnership revealed an ISS model that was part of that partnership, which turned out not to be purchasable or even structurally sound in Earth gravity. If a consumer version of that set had been revealed I would have been really keen on picking it up. =P

In the meantime, the Cuusoo platform has done a good job with individual space– and science-related models like the Hayabusa probe, Shinkai submarine, and Curiosity rover.

I don't think that Star Wars has reduced the prominence of the LEGO Space theme at all in recent years. In its early years it definitely did, what with the lengthy hiatus non-licensed LEGO Space took between 2001 and 2007, but ever since Mars Mission we haven't gone two years without a new Space set of some sort.

The same doesn't hold true of Pirates, another of LEGO's flagship themes, which doesn't even have Star Wars to point to as an excuse — it didn't get a full wave of sets at any point between 1997 and 2009, and next year will be the first full wave of sets since then (though the licensed Pirates of the Caribbean theme can at least account for its absence in 2011).

Furthermore, 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2013 all had ten Space sets each. There have been only three years in the entire lifespan of the Pirates theme when that theme had more than ten sets. There hasn't been a year with ten non-licensed Castle sets since 2010! So the only one of the LEGO Group's evergreen themes that's really doing better than LEGO Space these days is LEGO City!

Don't get me wrong, Star Wars has definitely impacted LEGO Space sets. After all, now they are obligated to be designed to stand out sufficiently from Star Wars to avoid competing with each other. But that's not really a bad thing, and in fact I've heard more complaints about the LEGO Group's non-licensed space themes being too SIMILAR to Star Wars than about them being too different.

With the new Star Wars movies coming out in the future any chance of Star Wars gradually going away is not going to happen.

@Aanchir, So what if WE were the bad guys, it gave a sense of difference from the rest. Also, why not involve some other group of aliens hostile to the drone aliens [relying the Crystal Cache info]. Also, if you happened to play Lego battles, the Aliens were just trying to repair their ship while being hostile to both the Mars Mission people and Space Police. If anything, I'm pretty sure we could do the exact same thing [if the aliens weren't those rock ones from Apollo 18].

i saw the photo of the set it is a mech with a mini figure

i will buy it
but whats the price?

I know things progress and move on, but I feel the use of the old LEGO space logo a little odd.... The stuff I played with in the late '70s and early '80s was all blue and transparent neon yellow with not a hint of 'mecha suits'. The logo is a nod towards retro for me and mecha suits just don't fit in that path of history for me, whether it's made from LEGO or not

I don't buy space sets or robot sets, but I'm buying this one for sure.
(Provided it ends up like the original).