@TheOtherMike said:
" @BabuBrick said:
"It's Benny!

SPACESHIP!!!!!!

(1986 is, indeed, 1980-something)"

No, this is a GROUNDSHIP!"

Indeed!

Not sure why it has a windscreen. It won't be airtight anyway with those big side gaps that have hoses running into them.

Man...wish they (LUG) made that printed-wedge at the front in classic/bright blue..oh, well..:)

@gearwheel said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"Just gonna point out that these original Bennies never once shipped with the "traditional" Classic Space color scheme. It was always grey stuff like this, or white stuff, but never grey/blue/trans-yellow."

True, and that "traditional" Classic Space color scheme wasn't THE Classic Space color scheme anyway. Predominantly grey (very common on smaller vehicles, especially early in Classic Space), blue/trans yellow (no or very little grey, very common on early bases), grey/white (probably the least common color scheme, but was used several times early in Classic Space), blue/white/trans blue (mostly replaced blue/grey/trans yellow in later Classic Space), and grey/black/trans green (like this set, also a late Classic Space color scheme used quite a bit) all got enough use that the "traditional" scheme wasn't close to the majority.

My headcanon is that space suit colors were intentionally kept unmatched to the set color schemes so that hapless spacemen doing maintenance didn't blend in with the ships they were working on and end up hanging on to the outside of the ships as they took off or drove away. Of course every rule has an exception, and this one has 6980."

Can someone refresh my memory on the theory about what the suit colors are supposed to mean? IIRC it was broken down into scientists, pilots, maintenance… I don’t remember where I read it or who suggested it (was it a LEGO designer?) but it at least kind of made sense. (Back in the day, there was basically no fiction or lore available— some catalogs would have little descriptions, and as far as I know, that was *it*. But somehow everyone knew Blacktron were the villains.)

And Blacktron is just misunderstood! They only want stuff that doesn’t currently belong to them. How hard is this to understand?

@Lance_McCormick said:
" @gearwheel said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"Just gonna point out that these original Bennies never once shipped with the "traditional" Classic Space color scheme. It was always grey stuff like this, or white stuff, but never grey/blue/trans-yellow."

True, and that "traditional" Classic Space color scheme wasn't THE Classic Space color scheme anyway. Predominantly grey (very common on smaller vehicles, especially early in Classic Space), blue/trans yellow (no or very little grey, very common on early bases), grey/white (probably the least common color scheme, but was used several times early in Classic Space), blue/white/trans blue (mostly replaced blue/grey/trans yellow in later Classic Space), and grey/black/trans green (like this set, also a late Classic Space color scheme used quite a bit) all got enough use that the "traditional" scheme wasn't close to the majority.

My headcanon is that space suit colors were intentionally kept unmatched to the set color schemes so that hapless spacemen doing maintenance didn't blend in with the ships they were working on and end up hanging on to the outside of the ships as they took off or drove away. Of course every rule has an exception, and this one has 6980."

Can someone refresh my memory on the theory about what the suit colors are supposed to mean? IIRC it was broken down into scientists, pilots, maintenance… I don’t remember where I read it or who suggested it (was it a LEGO designer?) but it at least kind of made sense. (Back in the day, there was basically no fiction or lore available— some catalogs would have little descriptions, and as far as I know, that was *it*. But somehow everyone knew Blacktron were the villains.)

"
Weren’t there comic adds in magasins about them being the villains? Or maybe tv adds suggesting that?

Always wanted that Alien Moon-stalker from this line.

@gearwheel said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"Just gonna point out that these original Bennies never once shipped with the "traditional" Classic Space color scheme. It was always grey stuff like this, or white stuff, but never grey/blue/trans-yellow."

True, and that "traditional" Classic Space color scheme wasn't THE Classic Space color scheme anyway. Predominantly grey (very common on smaller vehicles, especially early in Classic Space), blue/trans yellow (no or very little grey, very common on early bases), grey/white (probably the least common color scheme, but was used several times early in Classic Space), blue/white/trans blue (mostly replaced blue/grey/trans yellow in later Classic Space), and grey/black/trans green (like this set, also a late Classic Space color scheme used quite a bit) all got enough use that the "traditional" scheme wasn't close to the majority.

My headcanon is that space suit colors were intentionally kept unmatched to the set color schemes so that hapless spacemen doing maintenance didn't blend in with the ships they were working on and end up hanging on to the outside of the ships as they took off or drove away. Of course every rule has an exception, and this one has 6980."

It is true that the gray/blue/trans-yellow scheme was not used in many sets, but they were the three main colors in the first wave of classic space. Ground vehicles and small ships were mostly grey and bases were mostly blue and trans-yellow while all three colors were used for larger space ships 918, 924 and 928. Only four later sets I can think of that used all three colors in significant quantities are 6970, 6950, 6872 and 6882.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Lance_McCormick said:
"Can someone refresh my memory on the theory about what the suit colors are supposed to mean? IIRC it was broken down into scientists, pilots, maintenance… I don’t remember where I read it or who suggested it (was it a LEGO designer?) but it at least kind of made sense. (Back in the day, there was basically no fiction or lore available— some catalogs would have little descriptions, and as far as I know, that was *it*. But somehow everyone knew Blacktron were the villains.)"

Here’s the source of one set:

https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/4314aa28-9ce8-445a-9ee0-72bf1e5088a4:~:text=Mark%20told%20us%20that%20each%20of%20the%20original,scientists%2C%20blue%20for%20commanders%20and%20black%20for%20spies.

In this, they are:
White - pilots
Red - soldiers/explorers
Yellow - scientists
Blue - commanders (isn’t that a scary thought)
Black - spies

To which they added:
Green - mech pilot

Right off the bat, they’re saying none of the other colors fit as “mech pilot”, when the first color on the list is…”pilot”. And they had two piloted mecha during the Classic Space run, but no green Spacemen. Plus, red was assigned two jobs, which makes it feel like this was a misremembered list, possibly with bleedthrough from someone’s personal color-coding system.

And this is the second source:

https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/29w5q7/exo_suit_side_by_side_original_submission_vs/

This time, you get the legacy two-color arrangement:

White - Astronaut
Red - Cosmonaut

But you also get a different set of color-coded jobs:

White - explorers
Red - pilots
Yellow - scientists
Blue - security/soldiers
Black - spies

And again:
Green - mech pilot

And again, there’s _already_ a pilot in this set, but it’s a different color than before. Now Blue gets two jobs, but security/soldier seems more similar than soldiers/explorers.

I favor the second list, but assigning Green to salvage (which still works with the Exo-suit reveal video). Then I figured Orange for cooks, Pink for HR, Brown for daycare, and Dark-Purple for entertainment. Then there’s light-bley, which has to be either cadets or a generic off-duty uniform, since there’s no matching helmet or air tanks. Dark-blue could split off the soldiers task (which fits with the CMF Space Marine), leaving Blue with just security."

Maybe green is assigned to mech pilot bc that’s the only official green space guy’s job?

Thanks, that’s probably what I partly remembered. My guess is that there was some internal ideas on the colors, just for a reasonably consistent framework, but it wasn’t rigidly adhered to, and wasn’t ever published or made official. (Maybe the designers disagreed, or bent the rules on occasion. But there’s enough consistency to guess at it.)

As for magazines, maybe! I have a dim memory— maybe just an impression— that Europe got some lore that the USA didn’t, and market-exclusive magazines would be one of the few ways to even establish that outside of catalogs. (No TV shows, no trading cards, no Internet…) The set boxes sure didn’t help, which was intentional, of course. They really tried for the bare minimum, fiction-wise. Great for imaginations, not great for discussions decades later. (And not just Space— I’m curious about Classic Castle lore too.)

I've always thought:

Black - Commanders, because so few of them,
Blue - Recon, because they always use smaller planes and vehicles,
Red - Pilots, because they fly my favortite ships (6890, 6929),
White - Explorers, more so in 70's sets.
Yellow - Drivers / Land base vehicle operators, because I mostly saw them in tanks

I generally like Classic Space, but this one I can live without.

@CCC said:
"Pink, orange, grey, green, purple all have the roles of cash generators.
"

Cynic ;->

The front printed slope 3297pr0019 is very rare as also only used for the spaceship in 6970.

@paulvdb said:
" @gearwheel said:
" @PurpleDave said:
"Just gonna point out that these original Bennies never once shipped with the "traditional" Classic Space color scheme. It was always grey stuff like this, or white stuff, but never grey/blue/trans-yellow."

True, and that "traditional" Classic Space color scheme wasn't THE Classic Space color scheme anyway. Predominantly grey (very common on smaller vehicles, especially early in Classic Space), blue/trans yellow (no or very little grey, very common on early bases), grey/white (probably the least common color scheme, but was used several times early in Classic Space), blue/white/trans blue (mostly replaced blue/grey/trans yellow in later Classic Space), and grey/black/trans green (like this set, also a late Classic Space color scheme used quite a bit) all got enough use that the "traditional" scheme wasn't close to the majority.

My headcanon is that space suit colors were intentionally kept unmatched to the set color schemes so that hapless spacemen doing maintenance didn't blend in with the ships they were working on and end up hanging on to the outside of the ships as they took off or drove away. Of course every rule has an exception, and this one has 6980."

It is true that the gray/blue/trans-yellow scheme was not used in many sets, but they were the three main colors in the first wave of classic space. Ground vehicles and small ships were mostly grey and bases were mostly blue and trans-yellow while all three colors were used for larger space ships 918, 924 and 928. Only four later sets I can think of that used all three colors in significant quantities are 6970, 6950, 6872 and 6882."

I'd say 6971-1 also counts, and that DOES have a blue space person, though its piloting a white ship.

How specialised do you have to be to be just a Lunar Scout? No planets, no asteroids, -only- moons

Neat little Classic Space set.

This wasn't in most (or any?) catalogues of it's time and has a typical "limited release" set number. Anyone got some further info on where and how it was available?

EDIT:
Ah... Already said in the set info :P
Anyways, was this exclusive to that promotion?

Thus began the StyleCounselor Dark Ages.

Ahh, the smell of girls and arcades was too much for me to care about toys any longer.

The set is ok. Looks like Classic Space trying too hard.

@Zander said:
" @gearwheel said:
"My headcanon is that space suit colors were intentionally kept unmatched to the set color schemes so that hapless spacemen doing maintenance didn't blend in with the ships they were working on and end up hanging on to the outside of the ships as they took off or drove away. Of course every rule has an exception, and this one has 6980 ."
I reckon the mismatching was indeed deliberate but not for in-universe safety reasons. There was a more prosaic commercial motive. In depictions of a set - box art, instructions, marketing images etc - it helped to differentiate the minifigure, a selling point of the set. That was especially important from the inception of minifigures in the late ‘70s through to the early-to-mid ‘80s when minifigures were still establishing themselves in the toy market."

That makes perfect sense, and Dave's comment can still be true. The minifig just came out, so they wanted to promote them and a clashing or striking color would be best for that. I doubt they thought much at the time about colors and roles.

@PurpleDave said:
" @Lance_McCormick said:
"Can someone refresh my memory on the theory about what the suit colors are supposed to mean? IIRC it was broken down into scientists, pilots, maintenance… I don’t remember where I read it or who suggested it (was it a LEGO designer?) but it at least kind of made sense. (Back in the day, there was basically no fiction or lore available— some catalogs would have little descriptions, and as far as I know, that was *it*. But somehow everyone knew Blacktron were the villains.)"

Here’s the source of one set:

https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/4314aa28-9ce8-445a-9ee0-72bf1e5088a4:~:text=Mark%20told%20us%20that%20each%20of%20the%20original,scientists%2C%20blue%20for%20commanders%20and%20black%20for%20spies.

In this, they are:
White - pilots
Red - soldiers/explorers
Yellow - scientists
Blue - commanders (isn’t that a scary thought)
Black - spies

To which they added:
Green - mech pilot

Right off the bat, they’re saying none of the other colors fit as “mech pilot”, when the first color on the list is…”pilot”. And they had two piloted mecha during the Classic Space run, but no green Spacemen. Plus, red was assigned two jobs, which makes it feel like this was a misremembered list, possibly with bleedthrough from someone’s personal color-coding system.

And this is the second source:

https://www.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/29w5q7/exo_suit_side_by_side_original_submission_vs/

This time, you get the legacy two-color arrangement:

White - Astronaut
Red - Cosmonaut

But you also get a different set of color-coded jobs:

White - explorers
Red - pilots
Yellow - scientists
Blue - security/soldiers
Black - spies

And again:
Green - mech pilot

And again, there’s _already_ a pilot in this set, but it’s a different color than before. Now Blue gets two jobs, but security/soldier seems more similar than soldiers/explorers.

I favor the second list, but assigning Green to salvage (which still works with the Exo-suit reveal video). Then I figured Orange for cooks, Pink for HR, Brown for daycare, and Dark-Purple for entertainment. Then there’s light-bley, which has to be either cadets or a generic off-duty uniform, since there’s no matching helmet or air tanks. Dark-blue could split off the soldiers task (which fits with the CMF Space Marine), leaving Blue with just security."

Thanks for sharing that. I think I prefer the second or @Lego_lord 's but didn't think about it much.

@Lego_lord said:
"I've always thought:

Black - Commanders, because so few of them,
Blue - Recon, because they always use smaller planes and vehicles,
Red - Pilots, because they fly my favortite ships (6890, 6929),
White - Explorers, more so in 70's sets.
Yellow - Drivers / Land base vehicle operators, because I mostly saw them in tanks

I generally like Classic Space, but this one I can live without."

" Black - commanders " is how I thought of the original forestmen. 6066 he was on the horse with the black feather and a basket. You don't get much more OP than that in classic castle (body armor, full face helm, or horse barding wasn't a thing for forestmen, but he could have taken the big plume).
Everyone else seems to label the black spacemen as spies, but maybe commander is more appropriate, so I like the thought.

Sorry for multiple comments.

to @PurpleDave and @TheotherMike on the RMFOTD dp117: yes, both good ... terrible finds. I now remember how horrible the Lashina minidoll looked when it first came out and it looks the same today. It just looks horrible.
for the vampires, although I don't like sparkle vampires, I do want those head... crystals? Especially Balthazar's. I'm going to go with head crystals. It seems most appropriate.

What’s the point of VSotW if the RSotD is a vintage set as well?

Am I over-thinking this but does anyone wonder how he is able to find rare ruby colored circular gems with a metal detector? Also the back part is held on by a pin, is this meant to detach as a mini-lab?

@tmtomh said:
"2 hoses in a rare color"

Misread as "horses"

@BlackFalconBirdman said:
" @Lego_lord said:
"I've always thought:

Black - Commanders, because so few of them,
Blue - Recon, because they always use smaller planes and vehicles,
Red - Pilots, because they fly my favortite ships (6890, 6929),
White - Explorers, more so in 70's sets.
Yellow - Drivers / Land base vehicle operators, because I mostly saw them in tanks

I generally like Classic Space, but this one I can live without."

" Black - commanders " is how I thought of the original forestmen. 6066 he was on the horse with the black feather and a basket. You don't get much more OP than that in classic castle (body armor, full face helm, or horse barding wasn't a thing for forestmen, but he could have taken the big plume).
Everyone else seems to label the black spacemen as spies, but maybe commander is more appropriate, so I like the thought."

The color black almost always represents strong presence or authority. One example is Vader, of course. For a spy, the color grey is more suitable I think. Since Lego didn't give us one, I had to build it myself, which took years to complete :))

@tne328 said:
"Planets (except Mercury, which is too hot to scout on anyways) have atmospheres, asteroids don't have gravity. Moons are the only places where air tanks are necessary and wheels still work."

*coughMarscough*

@PurpleDave said:
" @tne328 said:
"Planets (except Mercury, which is too hot to scout on anyways) have atmospheres, asteroids don't have gravity. Moons are the only places where air tanks are necessary and wheels still work."

*coughMarscough*"

Okay, maybe he was born on the moon, or maybe this vehicle is manufactured there?

@Lance_McCormick said:
"Regarding Blacktron as the villains— A) that doesn’t necessarily mean “evil.” Maybe “antagonist” would be better, and 2. the bad guys tend to get the coolest vehcles and best outfits."

OP misspelled "misunderstood freedom fighters"!

@paulvdb said:
"Only four later sets I can think of that used all three colors in significant quantities are 6970, 6950, 6872 and 6882."

6928 and 6951 are more blue than gray, but they do feature the classic color trifecta.

@TheOtherMike said:
"And another Classic Space set goes on my wanted list because it got picked for RSotD.

@Maxbricks14 said:"Those tires are so goofy."

I love those tires, because I have fond memories of two sets with them: 6812 (the only set I have with that jetpack element) and 6833 (my first M-Tron set).

@BabuBrick said:
"It's Benny!

SPACESHIP!!!!!!

(1986 is, indeed, 1980-something)"

No, this is a GROUNDSHIP!"

I love those tires as well and have them in the exact same two sets as you :)
love the M-Tron/Blacktron2 colors and sets.

Pump this nostalgia straight into my veins.

It's such an odd little set with the open aspects under the canopy

That said, I rebuilt it a couple months ago and it's sitting on the shelf

@Eichinger said:
" @TheOtherMike said:
"And another Classic Space set goes on my wanted list because it got picked for RSotD.

@Maxbricks14 said:"Those tires are so goofy."

I love those tires, because I have fond memories of two sets with them: 6812 (the only set I have with that jetpack element) and 6833 (my first M-Tron set).

@BabuBrick said:
"It's Benny!

SPACESHIP!!!!!!

(1986 is, indeed, 1980-something)"

No, this is a GROUNDSHIP!"

I love those tires as well and have them in the exact same two sets as you :)
love the M-Tron/Blacktron2 colors and sets. "

I love them too, I never said I disliked them.

@Zander said:
" @gearwheel said:
"My headcanon is that space suit colors were intentionally kept unmatched to the set color schemes so that hapless spacemen doing maintenance didn't blend in with the ships they were working on and end up hanging on to the outside of the ships as they took off or drove away. Of course every rule has an exception, and this one has 6980 ."
I reckon the mismatching was indeed deliberate but not for in-universe safety reasons. There was a more prosaic commercial motive. In depictions of a set - box art, instructions, marketing images etc - it helped to differentiate the minifigure, a selling point of the set. That was especially important from the inception of minifigures in the late ‘70s through to the early-to-mid ‘80s when minifigures were still establishing themselves in the toy market."

My headcanon was mostly a joke, and I agree with you about the real reason.

@paulvdb said:
"It is true that the gray/blue/trans-yellow scheme was not used in many sets, but they were the three main colors in the first wave of classic space. Ground vehicles and small ships were mostly grey and bases were mostly blue and trans-yellow while all three colors were used for larger space ships 918, 924 and 928. Only four later sets I can think of that used all three colors in significant quantities are 6970, 6950, 6872 and 6882."

I just think it's weird that 918/924/928 are viewed as the "true" classic space, when there was another eight years of classic space after them, with varied color schemes.

6970 is an interesting one, color-wise. The base is almost pure blue/trans yellow, while the vehicles are either grey/black or grey/black/white. It's only when you look at the set's inventory of parts that you get something close to the "classic" color mix.

@PurpleDave said:
" @tne328 said:
"Planets (except Mercury, which is too hot to scout on anyways) have atmospheres, asteroids don't have gravity. Moons are the only places where air tanks are necessary and wheels still work."

*coughMarscough*"

And the opposite of that, Titan

@Brickalili said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @tne328 said:
"Planets (except Mercury, which is too hot to scout on anyways) have atmospheres, asteroids don't have gravity. Moons are the only places where air tanks are necessary and wheels still work."

*coughMarscough*"

And the opposite of that, Titan"

Titan is more of a planet than Mercury has ever been! It's only that Saturn pushes it around that astronomers think so little of it.

https://xkcd.com/3063/

@tne328 said:
" @Brickalili said:
" @PurpleDave said:
" @tne328 said:
"Planets (except Mercury, which is too hot to scout on anyways) have atmospheres, asteroids don't have gravity. Moons are the only places where air tanks are necessary and wheels still work."

*coughMarscough*"

And the opposite of that, Titan"

Titan is more of a planet than Mercury has ever been! It's only that Saturn pushes it around that astronomers think so little of it.

https://xkcd.com/3063/"

The justification that people who study stars gave for demoting Pluto is that it doesn’t clear its orbit. And these people have apparently never looked at Pluto’s orbit from the side, where it has the most empty orbit of any planet in the Sol system. And the people who study planets just think the star people should stay in their lane and let geologists determine what is and isn’t a planet.

I remember seeing this as a kid, conotes perfectly the 80s space vibe at the time too!