Featured set of the day: Hovercraft
Posted by Huw,
Today's set has been selected by myth:
This little spacecraft, 6875 Hovercraft, was my first ever set. From what little I remember from that time, as I was 5 or 6 years old, I immediately fell in love with LEGO and the whole space theme. Wings from the Hovercraft can be detached and form two small spacecrafts, or one bigger if you combine them. Little me had countless hours of fun playing with the modular spaceship!
Interestingly enough, my second set about a year later was Fabuland's 3680 Caravan and Rowboat. The "proper order" should have been other way round. But this was just around the time when the Berlin wall fell, so my parents were very lucky to find any LEGO to buy at all.
I received it at Christmas, while my cousin got another Futuron set, 6893 Orion II Hyperspace. I remember thinking "Wait a minute, this looks very similar to my spacecraft. I'd like to have that!" She preferred my Fabuland set, so we would have liked to have swapped but, alas, after the Christmas we parted with our gifts as given to us by our parents.
I spent time playing with the spacecraft, both in its original form or building my own creations. Many times I tried to build alternative models as presented on the backside of the box, mostly failing. There was always some detail I failed to build. As years went by both the instructions and the box became lost.
I was left only with a little picture of it in a catalogue. When I wanted to play with it in its original form I had to build from my memory, the only guidance was a tiny picture. When I came back from the dark ages one of the first things was to rebuild this set. Then I located scan of instructions on the Internet and discovered that I was getting it mostly right building from my memory, only small detail about the back exhaust was wrong!
When compared with today's sets 6875 Hovercraft is very simple. But I think it is one of its advantages, even when instruction got lost a kid could rebuild it from a memory. Where this set shines is playability - spacecraft's canopy opens on hinges and when closed can be locked in place by a "visor" on another set of hinges, and while this set has only 93 pieces you can split it into 3 smaller spaceships and recombine it different ways. It could use another minifig for those extra spaceships though. (Read: when little me played another minifig was sorely missed.)
While I had only this one Futuron set I fell in love with whole Futuron theme by looking at catalogue pictures. Hard to say which factor(s) made this my most favourite LEGO theme. A combination of being space theme, modularity, and trans dark blue and white colour scheme surely played its part. And then there was the box, night sky in a laser grid. After coming back from dark ages I slowly collected whole Futuron theme.
I enjoy many of today's sets, especially NASA themed sets from Creator Expert and Ideas lines, I still consider Futuron the best theme LEGO ever produced. Sure, some of its 18 sets have problems, but overall they offer amazing playability and spark child's imagination. They are beautiful to look at. Once in a while I rotate sets I have on display, but some Futuron sets always stay displayed. And one of them is always this one.
This little spaceship is single-handedly responsible for my LEGO hobby and my interest in space and all things space related. The best gift my parents ever gave me.
PS: Writing this article gave me a reason to play with the Hovercraft a little. The swooshing factor is still there :)
Thank you myth! Would you like to write about a set that's special to you? Get in touch!
111 likes
24 comments on this article
Great job, and I agree, the swoosh factor is still there!
Aw, yeah! That was a great read, @myth !
I've always loved seeing write-ups like these in the comments here, so it's wonderful to see fans being able to put their own thoughts into an official article!
Can't wait to see what other articles the fans come up with!
Thanks guys, I was happy to contribute! And can't wait to see what other members have to say about their favourite sets.
@Huw - thanks for including the image of the back of the box! You can guess what I'm doing right now :-))
Thanks for sharing!
I just love the alternative builds they would show on the back of the box, back in the day! nostalgia
Wow, great article, and good idea whoever suggested guest / archive sets. It sounds like I am i little older but "space" was my first theme and not so much Dark Ages but I moved out of my Family home when I was 25 and had "The Internet" at My house. I quickly discovered people had scanned copies of instructions I had lost or for sets I never owned. Ebay allowed me to buy some sets I could now afford (at 25) that I could not at 5/10/15. I was very interested in the "back of the box" and scandalously asked people for scans with no intention of buying just to get the alternative builds. I have hundreds of such alt builds which I took great pleasure, and a little frustration, of reverse engineering. It really was a great idea to post ideas on the back. Thankyou Lego from the 80's and 90's and thankyou myth.
Beautiful set. It just had a great chunk and weight to it. I might go and re-build mine.
@myth, where were you living when the wall came down?
So after reading this I went and looked over the Futuron line here on Brickset, and I gotta admit, those sets had some creative names! 6953 Cosmic Laser Launcher and 6848 Strategic Pursuer stand out especially. Great article!
I loved all the alt builds on the boxes, thanks for featuring that art. I am not anywhere near Space complete, but I do have several Futuron--this one I acquired recently in the form of parts from Bricklink. Great theme, real classic!
Thank you Myth for a very heartfelt review. My thanks to Brickset too for brightening up my day.
@Huw in Czechoslovakia
@namekuji don’t wait, just rebuild it :)
Marvellous @myth, that was very well written!
Is there a site with the scans of the boxes? There are several with scans of the instructions...
Well done, @myth! I don't have any Futuron sets, but I wish I did! My oldest Space sets are from the first Blacktron wave, specifically Message-Intercept Base from 1988. Those guys need some antagonists, even if it is just a little guy in a white and blue speeder!
Those little sets sometimes provide the biggest sparks of imagination! My first set was even smaller than this one, and I can't tell you how many times I labored over reconstructing the main model and the alternate models from memory.
@biffuz it's not strictly the box, but there is Back of the Box Builds: https://www.backoftheboxbuilds.com/set-6875/
I remember Futuron coming out when I was about 9 years old with the visors and two tone torsos and it was like the next generation of classic space. A step change that 90s sets could never replicate! Had this set and reconstituted it from my big box after my return from the dark ages! (Along with all my other space sets). Great choice!
I didn't know this set. I have only 1 futuron set and it's the small space craft with detachable engines that are also small droids.
Looking at this set I immediately see the same simple enginuity of that set and your memories tell the same story.
It's a simple set, but it goes for function over form. Very nice
@paulminson thank you! Now I can build all these alternatives!
Also: nooooo! Now I have to build all these alternatives!
I have zero Futron dudes, and I am very sad about missing the entire series. There's something special about them that harkens back to Classic Space and almost bridges into Star Trek, especially the uniforms. I wish they'd come back.
Lovely story. A single Lego set could mean so much to a child, in this case in the context of a society coming out of communism.
I love this article. Makes me wish I could write as I'd love to express my joy at getting Galaxy Explorer for Christmas.
I have this set, too. It is not particularly a pretty set but it is unique. I'm quite fond of it because it was my first Futuron set. Back in the day I was kind of bent on getting one set from each theme.
@A__Khan I may have gotten the set even before the fall of the wall, I don’t remember. It was possible to buy LEGO in communist Czechoslovakia, just the supply was limited. Many people wanted to buy it for their kids; when the government didn’t have enough foreign currency they resorted to bartering with Denmark, LEGO for honey. At least that’s the story I heard, no clue how true it is :)
I too enjoy this set and will likely play with it when I get home!