Random set of the day: Solar Explorer
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7315 Solar Explorer, released in 2001. It's one of 24 Space sets produced that year. It contains 242 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$35/£24.99.
It's owned by 1731 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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If you look real closely you can just spot Elon Musk’s Martian colony in the background of the box art...
Also... that looks like a golf ball holder right there. Miss lines like these though. We need a real original space theme again.
Probably the best thing about this set is the 2x2 Vitruvian Minifigure Round Tile.
I mean, yeah, there's a lot of neat stuff about it, it's modular, there's cool rarish parts, but that tile, one of the coolest.
Unique:
30485 6x8x3 canopy with frame print in trans black x1
30526 1x2 brick with two technic pins in white x9
14x14 vinyl cover with hexagonal solar panel print x1
Rare:
30535 2x4x4 engine brick in dark grey x2
30293 4x4 boulder top in trans neon orange x1
30596 2x2 rock shrine in orange x1
4150 2x2 round tile with Vitruvian print in white x1
I owned all the human Life on Mars sets along with some of the Martian sets. It was my dream space theme and I had tons of fun with it. Especially swooshing this around the house, even though looking back the build of the Explorer itself does seem rather lacking (particularly compared to Ogel's rocket ship in 6776 which I got the same year). But hey, it can split into three modules, which is cool! And it came with a little buggy and some Biodium to harvest and research.
The dearth of proper LEGO Space sets was taking its toll on me. After Insectoids in 1998, the lackluster, juniorized mess that was Space Command in 1999, and absolutely nothing in 2000, I felt like LEGO had lost its way. With all my Star Wars goodwill spent on the UCS TIE Interceptor I got for my birthday in 2000, I was supremely hard-pressed to see anything on the horizon from LEGO that really grabbed my attention.
With the run-up to Christmas, however, small hints were thrown my way to stop the onset of the Dark Ages. The first was a massive pull-out poster included in the November-December Lego MANIA magazine. On it was the enigmatic, reflective helmet of an astronaut with a Hydronaut chrome life support system. In the reflection, however, were the intriguing faces of some strangely-shaped LEGO creatures. Martians, I presumed, since the only text present was "LIFE ON MARS". Mars! The Red Planet had been at the fore of my astronomical research and obsession since Sojourner started roving the red sands in 1997 and news that microbial fossils found in a Martian meteorite were extraterrestrial in origin. Obviously, that last bit of news didn't hold under scrutiny, but all the same, I was all into anything about Mars. A LEGO theme taking place there seemed like a perfect fit!
I didn't have to wait long for more details, because in December of 2000, I started seeing some of the sets on Wal-mart shelves. Most prominent were the mechs, such as the Red Planet Protector, and the astronaut vehicles, including the T-3 Trike and this set, the Solar Explorer. I knew I had to have them. Plus, the new pieces looked like must-haves for my collection. With Christmas fast approaching, the RP Protector and T-3 Trike became my first gifts. With the dawn of the new year, however, I was able to snag the Solar Explorer at Target before going back to school.
Even at the age of 12, my impressions were wholly good. I love the chrome Hydronaut gear repurposed as space suits. I love the named characters printed on the top of the box ("Mac", "BB", and "Doc") and was glad to have the three of them in the set. The modular nature of the ship made it fun, and as simple as the design was, it left enough to my imagination to conceive all manner of Martian explorations. Looking back, I'm surprised I wasn't more critical of the middle section lacking a floor. But I really liked how one could store the ground rover and probe along with Doc inside what I termed "the lab". As big as they were, I also was amazed by the pieces for the engine exhausts and the cockpit. Come to think of it, my only real criticism of the set back then was the exposed studs on the nose of the craft. I thought it needed a black 2x2 cone brick to cover it up, and may have attempted this with a spare piece from my collection. However, it didn't last, and I came to appreciate the ship as LEGO designed it.
Interestingly enough, as much as I enjoyed the Solar Explorer and the entire Life on Mars theme, its time in the sun was brief. For you see, in the catalogs included with the sets, another new theme for 2001 was shown off, one that baffled, yet intrigued me. Even as the spring of 2001 rolled around exactly 20 years ago this month, and I continued to play merrily with my Martians and human visitors, I awaited the delivery of a special order from the LEGO Mania magazine that contained a new type of hero from a world that made Mars seem positively boring.
I remember wanting this set as a kid.
I really liked that theme and I remember it was featured in short-lived LEGO Adventures Magazine (which was localized to my country). I have never had a single set but they had a really cool vibe.
This set looked cool to me as a kid, but I had a friend who actually got it and I remember being very disappointed by the vinyl sheet used for the fuselage. I much prefer brick built solutions, not flimsy cardboard like stock.
Life on Mars's strongest side was always the alien sets. Say it with me, sand purple!
Some very useful parts for Blacktron. Lots of white and a good amount of black. A little lackluster in the Neon Green department, though.
I never had this. Kind of wanted it. I have most all the Martian sets at this point, and they are varying levels of cool. I was never into Life on Mars when it first came out, was much over shadowed by Bionicle, but I thought the Martian Minifigs were so cool. Still do.
I mean, I generally liked Life on Mars (certainly it beat the pants off Mars Mission, especially when it came to the Martians themselves), but I was supremely disappointed to find out that half of this ship was a tarp covering a hole. I still _REALLY_ wish they'd produced the necessary parts for my plan to make a Life on Mars Martian Manhunter...
@ElephantKnight:
I saw a Camaro that reminded me of you. It was white, with a black ragtop, and lime racing stripes down the center. It looked like the sort of thing you'd send out as a decoy so you could slip past unchallenged with your much cooler looking black vehicles with yellow pinstripes...
I loved this set! The whole Life on Mars theme was fantastic... great times. I wish I hadn't parted with some of the parts, but at least I have the memories.
Strap yourselves in for some la-la-la-loreeeee!
An intrepid astronaut crew consisting of Doc the doctor, Mac the pilot, BB a contest winning kid, and an unnamed Assistant took the stars in this very ship to be the first humans from Earth to land on the surface of Mars. However, their trip did not go as planned, and their ship crash landed on the red planet!
Hope was not lost for the crew, as they soon discovered the world's native populous of Martians. Their leader Riegel welcomed the humans with open arms and his people helped rebuild their ship for the trip home, sharing the secrets of Mars' powerful energy crystals in the process.
Several years later resources were dwindling on earth. Seeking new sources of power minifigures took to the stars in droves. Among them was a Mission to Mars (likely headed by the same company behind Classic Space and the foundation of Futuron.) These humans expected to meet up with the Martians on the red planet, only to find the world overrun with mysterious hives. The war hungry race of Crystaliens had arrived on Mars, and either kidnapped or killed all native Martians in order to harvest the planet's energy crystals. Full on war broke out between the Humans and Crystaliens over the red planet, and what happened to Riegel and his crew is unknown.
Can’t say it has aged well, but a decent spaceship for the time.
Love this subtheme, actually the last space theme, all about cooperation.
I think this set is overall the weakest of the main line though, just because of that big bendy sheet.
I think of the 2001 Life on Mars sets as unofficial tie-ins to the two Mars movies that were released in 2001, "Red Planet" and "Mission to Mars". Google the spaceships for those movies and you'll see some resemblance, especially for the second movie. Also the very successful 2001 Mars Odyssey Orbiter arrived at Mars in 2001, and the Discovery 1 ship from "2001: A Space Odyssey" was enjoying a revival in mass media because of the titular year finally arriving. That made the time right for Lego to release their most realistic near-future sci-fi spaceship yet. The realism of the human sets was offset by the presence of giant alien robots, but then the two films in theaters had aliens and killer robots too.
I wanted this set as a kid but didn't get it until a few years ago. It's a very mediocre build, long and floppy with a lot of specialized parts and big bricks, but it still has all the essential features of a Space flagship set: seating for two or more minifigs in the cockpit, a cargo bay that can carry a small rover, a small ground station. Like many other Lego spaceships of the era, the center section can be removed to make a smaller, lighter ship from the cockpit and engine modules. The printed plastic cover looks good, even though it covers a very basic Technic framework. The simple build makes it good for play, quick to put together and easy to fix when it breaks. On the whole, I'm quite fond of this ship. It makes a very believable precursor to Classic Space, as minifigure-kind's first, fragile, step into deep space long before the development of the mighty Galaxy Explorer.
Always really like the sort of near future vibe this set has; similar looking to our current space shuttle models but with several futuristic looking bits. I liked how the central base worked too, disconnected the sections holding the solar panel sheet so it could be folded up into a roof and the rover inside revealed
It's Lego Racers 2 for me. Most of my memories with '90s/'00s Lego come from games as my parents were too poor to buy me anything other than the smallest of sets.
The only spaceship in the 2001 Life on Mars series (apart from the small scout scooters) came with a very large triangular base plate and curved panels and plastic sheet? So there was not much else you could build with these pieces. Guessing it didn't do well as nothing appeared until 2007 Mars Mission when TLG rediscovered how to design cool spaceships and space vehicles again.
A very underrated theme with soild story and models.
Mars mission was so bad compared to it. (besides amazing pieces)
I don't have much to say about the human side of Life on Mars, but I was ALL about the Martian characters when I was a kid. My favourite Lego Space theme by far... though *perhaps* affected by it being the only one that occurred during my childhood Lego phase - I only just caught the tail end of Insectoids, and by the time Mars Mission came around my 'dark age' was starting to creep up on me. Life on Mars, in contrast, was THE Space theme of my childhood.
...and yet, I only got one tiny set from the theme, at the time. In large part, I think, due to the fact that 2001 marked the year I first started seriously getting interested in Star Wars, so much of my pocket money was going towards the substantial amount of left-over Phantom Menace merchandise that was still hanging around from two years prior! Oh, and collecting the main heroes of this obscure little thing called Bionicle, too...
I was pleased, however, to pick up a big lot of used Lego about eight years later that included an almost-complete 7316 Excavation Searcher; I've since completed it via Bricklink, and it's one of my favourite pieces of my modest Lego collection ^^
I low-key hope, someday, to pick up 7317 Aero Tube Hangar, too; but I feel like I'm incredibly unlikely to find that for anything resembling a reasonable price twenty years later...
On another note, this reminds me: I keep meaning to go back and read the Life on Mars story segments to get greater context for this theme... they were on the Lego website back in the day, I missed them at the time but I know somewhere they were preserved even after that part of the site was taken down. I just... keep not actually doing that thing.
Life of Mars was neat for its time, but it doesn't compare with Mars Mission IMO. Sure, its nice that for once they did a theme that driven by peace rather than conflict, and the aliens and sand purple color is neat, but I personally don't find most of the actual builds that interesting. I don't think it sold very well either, as it was the last original space theme we got for over 6 years.
The return of original space in 2007 with Mars Mission sure was a glorious one. Everyone in here who says Mars Mission is bad compared to this theme should take off their nostalgia goggles.
I didn't mind the plastic sheet and thought it was an innovative and economical solution at the time. I quite liked the look of the whole ship with that unique canopy; must dig out the pieces and rebuild it! I regret not buying the "aerotube" sets when I had the chance but it seemed a bit gimmicky to me back then. Most of all, I loved the Martian red colour scheme on the boxes!
@LegoDavid said:
"Life of Mars was neat for its time, but it doesn't compare with Mars Mission IMO. Sure, its nice that for once they did a theme that driven by peace rather than conflict, and the aliens and sand purple color is neat, but I personally don't find most of the actual builds that interesting. I don't think it sold very well either, as it was the last original space theme we got for over 6 years.
The return of original space in 2007 with Mars Mission sure was a glorious one. Everyone in here who says Mars Mission is bad compared to this theme should take off their nostalgia goggles. "
Seconded! Mars Mission was a fantastic Space theme, with a more sleek look and unified color scheme and, I would argue, more interesting builds. But the sandiness of Life on Mars can't be denied, it's got a classic charm.
I looked back at some of those other sets with aliens...
O boy, nightmares tonight.
Despite the hollowness of the middle, I quite enjoyed this set. It was modular, as all the best Space sets are, it looked like real-world concept images of what things might look like when we go to Mars, it had that cool Vitruvian Man tile, and the middle section could be combined with 7312 T-3 Trike to make a stretch trike. So all in all, lots of fun to be had.
Life On Mars is by far my favorite space subtheme of all time. Mars Mission definitely doesn't compare. I didn't have most of the sets from LoM as a kid, but a few years ago I bought every set that I was missing, including this one. Great set, incredible theme.