Um.

What actually is it?

What the heck is even this??

Blade Runner: Technic Edition?

My favorite set, background art.

Ah, the renown invisible set. Truly one for the ages.

LEGO made Blade Runner sets? Why am I only hearing of this now?!!

It was a Mindstorms style set. Build things and control them with your PC. Came with a Technic figure, a CD-ROM and a carry case. Details here: https://en.brickimedia.org/wiki/8483_CyberMaster

I admire the tenacity it took to recreate all of Blade Runner with just 894 pieces.

Did I miss the set in this picture? Or did some graphic artist not do their job and forget to upload the set into the foreground...

Looking at the inventory, this may well have been the set that pushed TLG to the edge. Rare parts bonanza!

I looked up the set, it seems it’s pictured right below the technic logo on top of the round building.

Is this like Dumbledore’s chocolate frog card, where there was actually something to see for the first few seconds, before whatever it was wandered off to do something else?

@L_Gomez426 said:
"I looked up the set, it seems it’s pictured right below the technic logo on top of the round building."

Looks like the graphic designers got some new software or something and got a bit carried away!

Say what you will about the set or the box art, but I think that LEGO HQ building is pretty sweet. If that is what it is supposed to be, I would work there.

Can’t say the same about that humpback whale building across the way though.

This was actually a Competition/Cyber Slam set, despite the fact Lego wasn't entirely sure if they wanted to advertise it as such. One of the models did in fact use the same fold out puncher like 8257/8266! There even was an add-on set in 1999 (8450 Cyber Master: The Mission).

Cyber Master was sort of a precursor to Mindstorms, as Mindstorms wasn't internationally available in 1998 yet. It also could be seen as a successor to 1997's 8479 Barcode Control Truck, which was also somewhat focused on simple 'robot programming'.

All however derive from the older Technic Control Center sets and of cause the Dacta sets of the '80s that started the whole Lego robotics craze that really fell out of focus during the big restructuring of the company following the 2003/2004 crisis.

Like some other Mindstorms sets, Cyber Master sets didn't come with physical instructions, but rather a CD-ROM that contained them alongside the actual programming software. An image of the CD can easily be found online - however you'll have a hard time getting anything out of it without a Windows 98 computer...

This set contained many unique and specialised pieces amongst the many teal and black parts, most notably the control unit and remote tower as well as a 'fold-it-together' container for one of the models to pick up. Oh and did I mention the Technic figure?^^

On top of all of it this set was available in 2 versions - 8482 in a cardboard suitcase style box and 8483 in a special aluminium suitcase box. Both versions had an inner sorting tray as well.

Last thing: there was a special promo CD in mid 1998 called LEGO Technic CyberLab '98 that heavily advertised this set alongside a few other Technic sets of the time. The set also contained a couple of minigames that were probably available on Lego.com during that time.

EDIT:
There actually was a bit of a background lore regarding the shown city (called Technic City).
You were shown around the city by 'Taxi Jim', a Technic figure with a red base cap and black fullbeard, that was never released in physical form (he can be prominently seen on the cover for some catalogues of 1998/1999).
His best friend was called Joe, the owner of Joe's Garage, where you find the instructions for the models. Joe's helper are the 2 robots Bop and Beep, one of which is actually a Technic Pneumatic Cylinder on wheels with big eyes on the shaft's end! (He actually looks quite funny, try find an image of him somewhere^^)
The large tower with the Lego logos is well... the Lego Tower, it was basically a catalogue of 1997/1998 Technic sets. Area 15 (not sure if visible in the image) was the testing ground for the bull-dozer like model (I can't find the name atm, but I'm sure it had one). The Colosseum was for fights between the two models Crusher (big robot monster, kind of the A-Model of the set) and Stinger (a wasp like thing, with the Cyber Slam arm).

I wonder what the “XXX” building signifies.

This seems like one of those sets that could use an updated picture for the brickset database. The one on the brickimedia link above seems like a much better representation of the actual set and its contents.

Probably the only LEGO set ever without the pic of the actual set in the cover :D So mysterious. Even finding the actual instructions online, at least for the Mission expansion, is tricky, because they were electronic. To fully enjoy this set you also need to find an ancient pc from the 90s!

The Hidden Side approach to box design way ahead of its time.

@Trigger_ said:
"I wonder what the “XXX” building signifies."
It’s a club for adults only. An 18+ set before there were 18+ sets :~P

@Atuin said:
"Like some other Mindstorms sets, Cyber Master sets didn't come with physical instructions, but rather a CD-ROM that contained them alongside the actual programming software. An image of the CD can easily be found online - however you'll have a hard time getting anything out of it without a Windows 98 computer..."

More than 20 years and LEGO is repeating the same mistake with Control+.

Actually, Control+ is even worse because at least in the 90s you had a physical copy of the software. But now, whenever the app disappears from the market....

10/10 box art