Random set of the day: Lunar Rover
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6463 Lunar Rover, released in 1999. It's one of 63 Town sets produced that year. It contains 36 pieces and 1 minifig, and its retail price was US$4.
It's owned by 2486 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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33 comments on this article
What Lunar is that? Where's the red spot of the Moon? And the atmosphere?
Bold of him to ride around in an extraterrestrial environment with his face exposed like that
@MCLegoboy said:
"What Lunar is that? Where's the red spot of the Moon? And the atmosphere?"
You’re worried about that?? I’m just worried the dude forgot to shut his helmet...
@mr__thrawn
You’re right! He needs his face mask he could catch the covid. Or spread it to those poor martians
I had this set, loved the gold and even the holographic sticker at the time, but the 1x4 plate with the antenna kept falling off on my set.
@MCLegoboy said:
"What Lunar is that? Where's the red spot of the Moon? And the atmosphere?"
Are you actually aware that America has (had?) its own marketing department that occasionally made up completely nonsensical set names?
So...he drives around on a little rover with a math problem on the front, and any alien who stops what it's doing to help him out with the answer is judged to be friendly? What does he do if they attack him, instead?
@Mr__Thrawn:
@Your_Future_President:
The spacesuits used by NASA for the lunar missions had a flip-up visor that had a reflective mirror surface on the outside. They also had a permanent clear viewport. To be 100% accurate, these helmets would need to be dual-molded with a clear viewport that's not removable, and also have the flip-up gold-chrome visor. The visor was there to act like super-sunglasses (since they couldn't just slip on a pair of aviators as needed). There's no atmosphere on the moon, or around the ISS, so there's nothing to filter out any of the UV light. Turn to face sunward, and even if you don't look directly at it, you'd still burn out your retinas pretty quick without the visor. But a flip-up visor won't help much when it comes to keeping your suit pressurized.
@jkb:
There's no MSRP listed except for USD, and there's no European equivalent set number. Was this ever sold outside of the US?
I got this one at K-Mart probably in late 1999 or early 2000 as the dust settled from all the Star Wars collecting. It was really a draw for the parts in gold chrome, but I found it fun to play with since I lacked any "real world" astronauts from sets or spare parts (recall I missed out on Launch Command mostly back in 1995). Indeed, the 1x4 plate holding the antenna was flimsy and as I rocked the rover over my carpet, it was all to easy to break off by accident. I liked the foil stick as well, but like other late 90s foil stickers, it seemed to peel off very easily. Or maybe it was just my application.
Lunar Disco Ball.
A+ set.
Not a bad little rover for a fairly juniorised space theme.
@MCLegoboy said:
"What Lunar is that? Where's the red spot of the Moon? And the atmosphere?"
Since most of the other Space Port sets are ground based, I'd say it's pre-launch testing in the desert. The astronaut has over heated and needed some fresh air. No danger of decompression.
@PurpleDave said:
"So...he drives around on a little rover with a math problem on the front, and any alien who stops what it's doing to help him out with the answer is judged to be friendly? What does he do if they attack him, instead?
@Mr__Thrawn:
@Your_Future_President:
The spacesuits used by NASA for the lunar missions had a flip-up visor that had a reflective mirror surface on the outside. They also had a permanent clear viewport. To be 100% accurate, these helmets would need to be dual-molded with a clear viewport that's not removable, and also have the flip-up gold-chrome visor. The visor was there to act like super-sunglasses (since they couldn't just slip on a pair of aviators as needed). There's no atmosphere on the moon, or around the ISS, so there's nothing to filter out any of the UV light. Turn to face sunward, and even if you don't look directly at it, you'd still burn out your retinas pretty quick without the visor. But a flip-up visor won't help much when it comes to keeping your suit pressurized.
@jkb:
There's no MSRP listed except for USD, and there's no European equivalent set number. Was this ever sold outside of the US?"
https://images.brickset.com/library/view/?f=catalogues/c99uk&p=12
Here's a hot secret: LEGO is a Danish company, but don't tell anybody! The world might not be ready for this!
The deal with the helmets is, they are dual molded, but the transparent piece is so optically perfect that you can't see it. That's why all those Classic Space astronauts didn't die. If you say, "But I can feel that there's no visor there," it's because over time, they all popped out and were lost. They're effectively invisible, you see. (Or don't see.)
@PurpleDave said:
"So...he drives around on a little rover with a math problem on the front, and any alien who stops what it's doing to help him out with the answer is judged to be friendly? What does he do if they attack him, instead? "
It's like how the Voyager space thing has some information about humans on it for aliens to read or something. This guy has a math problem on the sign on his buggy for the same purpose.
@jkb :
"6463 Space Po unar Rover"
Judging by the rest of that page, it should read "Space Port Lunar Rover". But I see that this catalog uses the "Slizers" name, which indicates that it's not a US catalog (looks like it might be UK, by the URL). You previously suggested that this name was created by US marketing, and have now clearly proven that's not the case. Not only was it sold elsewhere, but it appears that "Lunar Rover" was the default name, meaning it had to have come from Denmark. I've got another hot secret for you: Denmark is not part of the US! I mean, yeah, we tried to buy an island off them, but I don't think anyone seriously expected that to go anywhere.
@brickengineeringdude:
Hopefully the first aliens to come across Voyager don't mistake that for a menu. Or try to save the whales...
Looks more like a space set to me
Man I miss proper chrome... Don't even remember how I ended up with this one, probably a stocking stuffer when I was already "far too old" to be collecting Lego.
@jkb said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"What Lunar is that? Where's the red spot of the Moon? And the atmosphere?"
Are you actually aware that America has (had?) its own marketing department that occasionally made up completely nonsensical set names?"
That had been an eye-opener for me too one day when I found out that American versions of LEGO sets either had names at all (when ours didn't) or that many of these names were either completely different from what we had and/or didn't make much sense when one thought about it.
As for this set, I would have called it "Operation Chrome Dome" ;-)
@PurpleDave said:
"I mean, yeah, we tried to buy an island off them, but I don't think anyone seriously expected that to go anywhere."
I too heard there was a far-fetched idea for the US to purchase the Danish West Indies! Crazy times we live in.
@Mr__Thrawn said:
"Bold of him to ride around in an extraterrestrial environment with his face exposed like that"
Looking at the background art, that looks like the moon in the sky so I suspect this guy is taking the rover out for a test drive in a desert somewhere
Not a bad set, Huwbot, not a bad set.
I think we have all seen the movie and know that dish on the back is really an alien egg waiting to hatch once he returns to the space base, where all that gold was just to attract any greedy humanoid passing by.
@BovineBrick:
That’s not the island so was thinking of. Thing bigger. Much...bigger. And also non-imaginary.
@NotProfessorWhymzi:
I don’t think that’s physically possible. Any “moon of a moon” would probably eventually surrender to the gravity of the planet and simply become a regular moon.
@PurpleDave said:
" @NotProfessorWhymzi:
I don’t think that’s physically possible. Any “moon of a moon” would probably eventually surrender to the gravity of the planet and simply become a regular moon."
We're not going to let science get in the way of a good plot twist!
I have this in storage at my parents' house. They didn't spend very much on Lego for me when I was a child so this was generally the size of set I was allowed.
@560heliport said:
"The deal with the helmets is, they are dual molded, but the transparent piece is so optically perfect that you can't see it. That's why all those Classic Space astronauts didn't die. If you say, "But I can feel that there's no visor there," it's because over time, they all popped out and were lost. They're effectively invisible, you see. (Or don't see.)"
The super transparent material is called Imagination ;~)
@PurpleDave said:
"There's no MSRP listed except for USD, and there's no European equivalent set number. Was this ever sold outside of the US?"
It was; I got this set here in the UK, back in the day ^^ But a lot of the pre-2000s sets only have USD prices listed here on Brickset; I guess possibly there are just no reliable sources for prices of older sets outside of America; as in the one linked in an above comment, many UK catalogues, for example, didn't display prices... possibly to give retailers a bit more freedom in establishing what they wanted to charge for them? I dunno.
I quite liked this set... mostly, granted, for the chrome pieces and the cool helmet. I got it after seeing a Space Port comic in the UK Lego Adventures magazine (which I was subscribed to, and was the main motivator for many of my Lego purchases in 1999 - 2001!); the subtheme had been around for about half a year by then, I think, but I'd missed the earlier issue that also featured it.
The rover didn't do very well, in those comics... *both* Space Port comics featured it getting crashed while on the moon, under varying circumstances. Different drivers each time, though, so Captain Walker here wasn't responsible for the crash on more than one occasion...
@PurpleDave said:
"So...he drives around on a little rover with a math problem on the front, and any alien who stops what it's doing to help him out with the answer is judged to be friendly? What does he do if they attack him, instead?
If aliens attack, he just fries them with the chrome dome."
“You know how you were talking about driving on the autobon? I remember that time I was driving around in the sea of tranquility in my, LUnar ROvar.”
I’m sorry, but the only thing I could think of when I saw this rsotd was Brian Regan’s stand up routine “I Walked On the Moon” ima go passive aggressively eat a chip.
I had this, what a fun little set. I was a simple kid, if it had shiny elements I thought it was awesome.
@PurpleDave said:
"a flip-up visor won't help much when it comes to keeping your suit pressurized."
Why would it? Wouldn't the visor be external anyway, like a windshield wiper as opposed to the windshield?
@Norikins:
The premise is that this visor would be the only thing sealing up the front of the helmet, and that any leaks in that seal would cause mildly persistent cases of death.
This set confuses me to no end. A lunar rover, on a red surface, with the visor up, with two control levers for skid steering wheels (?), some rare holographic sticker on the front and a giant metal golf ball cut in half on the back. I also love it to no end.
Some day, this little guy will grow up to be a Blacktron-
Wait, hold done...
That's the same face used for Scum Police 2. All forces attack!!!
I had this set as a kid. Like others said, the 1x4 plate came off a lot. The antenna came off a lot too, when it wasn't missing.