Oh yes!

It’s cool, and I love the box art, but something about the asymmetry (single cabin up front, the other side looks unfinished!) bothers me.
I like it, but there’s other classic space flagship sets I’d prefer to own, and I prefer other colour schemes - eg Ice Planet!

I love the modularity of this thing. Attach the cockpit module to the cargo module and an engine module for a nice small spaceship (you can see this configuration below the set picture on the first page of the instructions as well as on the back of the box with other configurations). If you manage to build several cargo modules, you could further stack them for a decent long cargo ship (you can also do this with 6894 - unfortunately 6894 is not very modular with 6954 - the pin system is reversed and the base heights of the modules differ). The yellow 2x2 tiles decorated with black stripes are unique to this set.

6941 was the only Blacktron I set that I owned. It was my last big set before my first dark age (of 2). I saw this and 6987 and wished I could have had them too...but I was also entering high school, so I shouldn't be playing with "toys", right?

This set is 17 years older than me (twice my age!) so I don't have much to add, Blacktron was kind of before my era. Heck, I didn't even know what their logo was until about two years ago when I mistook it for an upside-down Triforce. That being said, this looks like a pretty cool model for the time and I'll try not to call it a Triforce again :P. It would've been cool if they had a Blacktron astronaut in the Benny's Space Squad (is that the name?) set, maybe in place of the pink one since they hadn't done astronauts in that color before IIRC.

Red alert, space cops! Go get em!

One of the greats!

The big baddie ship for Blacktron I, either me or my brother got this for Christmas one year and loved it!! Rebuilt it after my dark ages. Got another copy of this set and got my brother ours back.. Just amazing, 2 Blacktron I guys and a 'modular' ship.. really great set!

My brother and I accidentally received two copies (my parents and grandparents miscommunicated, I guess) of this set on Christmas '88 . As the true lover of Lego among us, I was really disappointed by the presents' quality that year...

Blacktron was truly a revolution back then.

I got it when I was 6...I remember constantly looking at it in mom's cart. Back in the day of amazing yellow packaging with the flip up lid. I now have a fleet of 3. Amazing the size of ship with so few pieces. Fantastique.

Blacktron is hands down my favorite classic theme. I asked for this for Christmas, but I ended up getting the Battrax instead. Nice, but not quite the same thing. I also got the Invader, but can’t remember when or how I got that in relation to this, other than I know I didn’t get them on the same day.

Funny thing is, one of the guys in my LUG just set up his Blacktron base for Brickworld Detroit this weekend, and he’s got a copy of this in the layout.

Now that's what you call a spaceship! Really wish Lego would release new Blacktron sets :)

The greatest. Among my most favorite sets. Al these years later, and it still looks just so cool.

Good colour scheme. Really waiting till Lego releases more Classic Space. I know, it's not quite possible, given the fact that they have now 20+ years of Star Wars and a City Space theme every +/- 4 years, but a man can dream.

Is it just the box art that makes it look oddly flat?

I like how the cargo container looks rather small but the spaceship had a dropped floor in order to fit the buggy inside a far larger container . Worth checking out the last page of the instructions as provide photos of bigger ships when combined with either or both 6894 and 6941 , although I think I could be more ambitious.

@GSR_MataNui said:
"I've mentioned here before how much I'd love a line like Ninjago Legacy but for all other LEGO themes, and this set was always my top pick for the Blacktron rep."
If not for the SW licences, I can imagine a Ninjago setting in space with ships like this one. Couldn’t call the bad guys Blacktron though.

@Brickalili:
No, it has a very small target profile from four sides. And if you come at it from above or below, it can separate into a bunch of smaller components, making it even harder to score a direct hit.

Old Space Sets Weekend - I like it :) Lack of symmetry makes this ship stand out from the other bigger vessels. Somehow, it reminds me of 7672 Rogue Shadow.

@MeisterDad said:
"Not even Batman would go up against this guy."

Maybe he could infiltrate them instead of fighting them directly. He's certainly wearing the right colors for it.

Ah, my white whale!

Already expensive when I discovered the secondary market, I had to settle for an Alienator. I couldn’t even afford an Invader at the time! And those were the two I owned as a kid.

I spit my last breath at thee!

@TheOtherMike said:
" @MeisterDad said:
"Not even Batman would go up against this guy."

Maybe he could infiltrate them instead of fighting them directly. He's certainly wearing the right colors for it. "

He did! Obviously, 6941 Batttax is the Batmobile in disguise.

Definitely needs more Blacktron.

Oh wait...

D'uh.

OK then. No goats?

;-)

@ambr said:
"I like how the cargo container looks rather small but the spaceship had a dropped floor in order to fit the buggy inside a far larger container . Worth checking out the last page of the instructions as provide photos of bigger ships when combined with either or both 6894 and 6941 , although I think I could be more ambitious. "

Unfortunately, the inter-set modularity of the Blacktron 1 sets left something to be desired (the intra-set modularity on the other hand tended to be great). You would think that 6954 and 6894 make an obvious pairing but since the pin connections are reversed for 6894 (which has a male connector on cockpit module vs the female connector on every other modular Blacktron 1 set), its cockpit can only attach to the rear of 6954 (or 6941). In addition, as you pointed out, the dropped floor means that the module heights differ between the two sets so that even if you did change the pin connection points for 6894 to match the other sets, the resulting combinations with 6954 do not particularly look good as the bases of the modules differ in height. The presence of wings on both cockpit modules also slightly interfere if the cockpits are arranged side by side on 6954's base. 6941 is a better companion, as its module combinations with 6954 look better although the long front cockpit module of 6941 looks unusual next to the cockpit of 6954 if one were to make a twin cockpit craft. Strangely enough, 6876 and 6954 as work well together, as swapping the sensor module on 6954 with 6876's cockpit module (I did modify mine to have the control scheme of 6987's small craft so the pilot looks less exposed) looks fairly good on both vehicles (you then get a dual cockpit 6954 and a remote operated walker transport).

A shining moment in LEGO design history. Lots of fun to swoosh, display, and admire. And we'll never see a color scheme again that works so well for the theme...Blacktron might not be evil, but they sure look the part! (And those aftermarket prices sure are evil, even if the theme isn't...)

Although I’m firmly Futuron supporter, I can’t deny excellence of this set. Amazing ship, modularity allows for so many swooshable configurations. One little issue though: there’s cockpit space only for one minifig. The other one has to sit exposed to the space.

Since it was NA only release it’s quite a pain to get a hold of in Europe

My childhood copy didn’t survive completely unscathed, and I had to replace a small handful of parts. Not too bad, but one of them was part 4596 in yellow (Plate, Modified 1 x 2 with Long Stud Receptacle (Space Wing)). Anybody ever look that one up on Bricklink? It’s an expensive part!!!
...luckily I stumbled upon an EBay lot of random parts from the 1980s that also happened to contain TWO of those parts for about $20. If I ever sell the other one, I’ll make my money back! :)

I never had this as a kid. I liked Blacktron, but I was more of a Blacktron 2 fan since that was when I was coming up. But as an AFOL I learned to appreciate the earlier stuff. I found this on sale for $30ish on ebay a few years ago. I was pleasantly surprised.

I do like the asymmetry aspect. I love symmetry, but there is something about asymmetry standing out a bit more. I've since tried doing less symmetrical builds because of it.

This mess manages to look very cool.

Woah... so many exposed studs... Of course that older "under construction" look is part of the charm, and might encourage customization!

@sir_vasco said:
"Woah... so many exposed studs... Of course that older "under construction" look is part of the charm, and might encourage customization!"

Exposed studs? On a lego set!? WHAAAAT?!

To be fair, the way this was photographed isn't very flattering. I own the three smallest Blacktron I sets and they all look way better and darker in real life than on their images. In reality it will look so black you will have to squint to even see the studs. Old sets were great in that sense. You didn't need to cover up everything. It's the shapes that matter, not their texture.

Man, I wish I was able to get this set. I found one for sale for a decent price once but without most of the printed bricks. I looked it up and getting those from Bricklink at the time was horrendously expensive as I would have had to import from at least three different stores from the US with one part each with those tiny parts themselves costing several euros.

That was in 2013 or 2014.
I'm afraid that was probably my only reasonable chance to ever own one :(

Only thing I'm not crazy about with this is: the neck...that connecting 'boom' looks really vulnerable, if it had twice as thick, or better 'brick-thick' (hmm...like this term:)) it would look/feel better, possible even more 'realistic'...:)

Plus, it kinda' looks like something outta either 'Galaxian' or a 'Galaga' game...

Forgot to mention. This was the only year (aside from later bonus paks) where there were issued sets each from Classic, Futuron and Blacktron at the same time as 1987 was Classic Space’s last year of production. Good times.