Review: 70816 Benny's Spaceship, part 2
Posted by Huw,
In part one of my review I covered the box, parts and minifigs. Now it's time to build the spaceship and give you my opinion.
The set contains 940-parts which thankfully are divided into seven numbered bags. I know some people like the challenge of a huge pile of parts in front of them and to spend ages rummaging at every step of construction, but I'm not one of them.
Construction
Bag one contains three minifigs and parts to build the two small detachable craft that are mounted on the wing tips at the end of the build, and the robo pilot's craft.
The detachable craft are an interesting design. The wings are hinged as is the canopy. When a minifig is seated in them, it is vertical. The sticker then becomes a 'head-up display' in front of their face.
The robo-craft is a competent design but nothing special and unlike anything from the classic space era. If it had trans-red canopy, it could have passed as an original space police craft, but alas it does not.
Construction then begins with the chassis of the spaceship. This section is the rear of it.
The contents of bag three is built as a separate subassembly that is then connected to the rear section by Technic pins.
Bag four adds the wings and an assembly to extend them. It's a smooth movement: the wings slide in the 1x4 grooved bricks you can see in step 1 above. Yellow technic beams connect the wings to the rear engine which, when pushed in, causes the wings to move out.
Just in front of this mechanism is what is presumably the craft's energy source. I've no idea what it is though, I can't recall if it's mentioned in the movie.
Construction from bag five begins with Astro Kitty and Benny which completes the minifig selection.Then, the fuselage is built up and bulked out.
The octagonal section at the top, which will become where Astro Kitty sits, is hinged to reveal an area underneath with a couple of seats, control panels, and a clear panel at the back to enable the crew to keep an eye on the power source.
The cockpit is also added and it's great to see so much room in it, enough to seat three minifigs which I believe was not possible in any of the original classic space sets. The old-school seat/bracket piece has been used which is cool.
Bag six completes the rear of the fuselage and provides a bay for two robots.
Small robots were an integral part of the original classic space sets so it's really great that two have been included, using classic space parts as well as cheese slopes.
Before the two top engines are added, this is how the back looks. The lower engine is pushed in to extend the wings.
Bag seven adds engines, tail wings and other details. Adding the small craft to the wing tips completes the construction.
Here's the cockpit fully loaded with all the protagonist minifigs...
... and Astro Kitty in her own slot at the back.
One wing of the small craft is folded up to enable it to be clipped to the main craft's wing. Note the LL929 markings, which follows on from LL928 used on Galaxy Explorer in 1979.
The 6x6 perforated radar dish is hinged and is shown in its down position. The long red bars in front of it are the new flick-missiles: one touch and they go flying an impressively long way.
An impressive set of engines...
This view shows the view of the wings from a low angle and it is not pretty. The mechanism for the sliding wings has necessitated some huge chunky parts that detract from the sleekness of the craft's look.
Other than the wing area, the underside is not too bad although devoid of detail as is normal with this sort of model. One reason being, I believe, because it can't be seen in the photo on the front of the box, so why waste parts and money on it...
Here's the entire set. After all those photos it seems I have omitted to take one with the wings extended. Sorry about that! Extending the wings exposes the Technic missile launchers, the yellow tip of which you can just see in this view.
Overall opinion
Construction was enjoyable and never boring or repetitive. Thankfully there are no large Technic sub-assemblies to build which can be tiresome in sets such as this.
There are a lot of stickers. Many of them are for 2x4 tiles or other square parts and so can be positioned easily. However the classic space symbols affixed to the rear tail fins are not so easily applied accurately.
The completed model is an impressive size: 50cm long and about 35cm wide with wings retracted. It's packed with details and features that can be moved or detached and I reckon it will provide a lot of play opportunities for kids. I particularly like the way Astro Kitty is positioned, like an astromech droid on many Star Wars ships.
It's larger and more intricate than any original classic space ship but it retains their unmistakable look and colour scheme. The designers have made good use of new parts but have also used many that featured in the the original sets which I thought was a nice touch. Overall I think they have succeeded in bringing classic space right up-to-date.
The only thing I don't care for is the clumsiness and bulk of the mechanism under the wing. From most views, including that on the front of the box, it's not visible but it does detract from the overall sleekness of the ship and that's a shame. I guess it was a toss-up between having the wings move and providing playability, or having something more streamlined. Most AFOLs would probably choose the latter in their designs, but of course I appreciate playability is more important to the target audience.
The minifigs are also great, particularly Benny, Wyldstyle and Astro Kitty (if you can call her a minifig) and are the icing on the cake.
Price-wise, it's £80 or $100, which for 940-parts makes it pretty good value so I can think of no reason why you shouldn't buy it...
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25 comments on this article
Great review Huw. I absolutely have to get this set!
The power source, along with the inside of the craft, was not mentioned in the movie as far as I know.
As for the side-on picture, I personally think it is a very good one, especially since it shows the bulk of the ship. From other pictures, such as the one directly on top of that one, the ship looks long, drawn-out, and skinny. Not so, however. Great review, I will certainly be getting this one!
This set looks amazing, and the price is quite reasonable as well. I was expecting it to be more in the UK.
I think it looked nice as well when flipped upside down, as it is not flat and featureless.
This SPACESHIP seems to be somewhat shaped like the shuttle in the Classic Space logo itself. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but it's a nice touch. The perforated radar dish is 6x6. The canopy on the robot ship does NOT come in trans-red, so they would have had to cast yet another new part for this, and it's not really necessary seeing as the outside of that craft was not seen in the movie. I just saw it on 5/23, so my memory is pretty good on this. The energy source is not mentioned, but it might be seen in the fast construction scene--I didn't think to pause and go frame-by-frame through.
I really hope this isn't sold out around Christmas-I suspect this will be a popular gift. Yeah, this is a must-buy in terms of playability, huge size, and huge number of new parts. Well worth the $100. (Yes, I'm in the US.)
Awesome review and great pictures as always. If I buy only one set from the TLM theme it will be this for sure. "Kids this is kinda like what I had when I was your age..."
Regarding the police ship not looking "classic", I think that is entirely by design. It's meant to fit stylistically with the other TLM vehicles like 70815, 70802, and 70808. If it were a classic theme, it wouldn't make any sense IMO.
Great review Huw, but one thing to consider, you mentioned the robo pilot's craft not being very Classic Space looking. It shouldn't look like a classic space craft, the robot's are using Modern Octan instruction according to the movie, so if it did look like something from the Classic Space era it wouldn't make sense...unless Benny got carried away and built an extra little spaceship that the Robot took and used :-P
Like the colours and like the fact that it is LL929.
Was it possible to fit 3 in the cockpit of 928?
Cool ship.
I was detemined I didn't need this set (saving my money for other sets), but the more I see, the more I like.
As for the bulkiness under the wings to enable the wing extension, that play feature is shown in the movie--not prominently, but if you look closely, there is a scene where the engine retracts and the wings pop out. It would have been a shame to have omitted that feature.
FYI, Huw: you've got the right engine (looking from the back) rotated 90 degrees from what it should be.
Kinda wish they had done something more with the underside though. At least add some matching blue pieces with some sloped sides to aerodynamically round out the bottom. The abrupt "stop" in flow is noticeable. At a minimum, maybe take the matching approach that was used on Pre Vizla's Mandalorian Fighter (9525).
Great review Huw, and I agree with pretty much all your thoughts too!
The enemy fighter may not have had any reason to be classic space from the film's plot, but a red cockpit canopy would have a been a nice little nod even so, and the main canopy in trans-yellow is a new colour so it was clearly deemed worth it once in this set.
The wing undersides look clumsy to me too, but I love the sliding wings so it's worth the trade off, and sloped/curved pieces to smooth it out would just make it all bigger and self defeating.
But the detail I love most is the control area under Uni-Kitty's slot. It looks like exactly the sort of thing 8 year old me would have wanted in a spaceship but never had the parts to do. Seeing it awakens something almost primal in me... I may not be able to resist getting this set... and if I don't, that's the detail that swung it for me!
Great review of a modern Space set with clear origins to the 80's Space theme. I like the head up display in the detachable crafts. Four space craft in one set. Amazing playability.
This is one of TLM sets which does not look like a MOC.
The one design change is that none of the original Space cruisers had green starboard navigation lights. All the wing tip markers were red. This SPACESHIP has two green lights on the starboard steering nozzle. I wonder if this an oversight in the design.
I would really like this set but would probably need to wait until Christmas.
^flagsnz
LL-918 ( 918 ) and LL-924 ( 924 ) had green 1x1 plates.
I'm with lego613master - I think it looks great from the side - bulky yet streamlined. If anything it's the nose that I think could do with fattening up slightly. If I could go back and visit my 1979 self, I'd definitely take this (along with a PS4 to really blow my mind).
I can't wait to grab to grab this, though once again we'll pay a premium for it in Oz, probably around $140-150AUD!
Wow. Everything I see about this set makes me want it more--and I wanted it from the moment the first photos were leaked. I confess I skimmed your review as I don't want to spoil the experience, but this just looks like a dream come true for those of us who grew up in the era.
Design-wise, I don't like the canards, but being Lego, that's easily fixed. :) It'll be just like modding the ol' FX Star Patroller all over again!
Great review--fantastic ship!
Thank you for the great review, Huw--it hasn't changed my mind about skipping this set as a consequence of having already bought the Sea Cow, but it certainly makes me admire Benny's masterpiece enormously! (I'm sorry, but missing the Pirate theme is my great Dark-Ages-related regret, so the Sea Cow really was bound to demand my somewhat limited cash.)
I think this set has a great mixture of display and play features and only wish I had money and space for it as well!
Ah, this brings me back! Playing with my cousin's Space sets (he had Space, my brother and I had the city / town sets). Love the "used" look of Benny too. Maybe this set will be the Father's Day ask :).
I thought / hoped Green Lantern would show up somewhere in the three summer Lego Movie sets, oh well.
I'm another AFOL that was a kid at just right time for the rollout of classic space. I've loved this set since the first pics surfaced. My family are getting it for me for my birthday later this year... they just don't know it yet.
And fulcrumbop, I shared your hope. We really deserve a Green Lantern minifig that isn't part of some ridiculously limited run
As omnium pointed out, they did come with trans-green 1x1 plates. I always built mine with red on port and green on starboard:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=463296
It's not what the instructions or box art showed, but it made more sense to me.
Wow great review.. reminds me of my early years.. need to have this set. Thanks!
Did anyone else get 3 badly molded technic wheel pieces in Bag 4?
This is the Light Bluish Gray Wheel 43.2mm D. x 26mm Technic Racing Small, 6 Pin Holes. It wasn't even damaged from pressure or force (weight from shipping, someone stepping on it) - the inside plus-shaped groove is warped and effectively rotated 45 degrees, for what all evidence suggests is a bad plastic mold. In 20 years of Lego building I have never seen a Lego piece come from a bad-plastic mold, but that's what it looks like. This looks like something I would see in another unnamed Lego competitor.
On the other hand, I agree with someone else that this is a strong contender for set of the decade (of the 2010's so far.) The plastic quality of this set, and all the Lego Movie sets seems better than some or themes that have come out this year.