10497 Galaxy Explorer Make-under
Posted by Huw,
This article has been contributed by Zander:
Classic Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP Galaxy Explorer. Its 43-year mission: to explore strange new moulds. To delight new AFOLs and old generations. To boldly go where no LEGO Space set has gone before!
Like Star Trek, LEGO Classic Space has fans of every possible variation of the theme from die-hard purists wedded to its earliest incarnation through to those who embrace its most modern variations.
As you might expect of a member of LEGO’s design team, Mike Psiaki, designer of 10497 Galaxy Explorer, veers towards the latter. Fortunately for oldies like me who had 497 Galaxy Explorer back in the day, his modernising impulses were reined in when it came to the new Galaxy Explorer. Its up-to-date SNOT building techniques and sleek lines are cleverly combined with enough exposed studwork and nods to the design language of the late ‘70s to keep a fuddy-duddy like me grinning like a Classic Spaceman... or almost.
While I am thrilled that LEGO has released a new edition of the Galaxy Explorer and by Mike Psiaki’s re-imagining of it, its aesthetics are a tad too modern for my liking, so I gave it a retro make-under. My modifications have been made across three main sections of the ship: its nose, cockpit and engines — with a few tweaks elsewhere. The changes are mostly superficial, so if you want to copy what I have done, the pictures show you how. Where they do not, I have mentioned in the text below what parts you will need and where you will need them.
Nose
Despite LEGO’s prohibition in the 1970s against representing future weaponry, Classic Space’s designers managed to sneak 3839a Plate Special 1 x 2 with Handles to the tip of every winged vessel knowing full well that kids would treat the handles as laser cannons. And that nose-piece became emblematic of the line.
Regardless of a craft’s size – from the smallest to the largest – if it had wings, it had 3839 up front. 10497 has sought to replicate the part at a larger scale using Technic pieces, but the assembly does not do 3839 justice. 3839 deserves to take the lead, so I performed plastic surgery on my new Galaxy Explorer and gave her a nose job.
While I was there, I also simplified the decorative elements between the cockpit and the nose. The peekaboos of yellow and black beneath the light bley hull bothered me, so I replaced the offending plates at steps 132 (page 84 of the instructions) and 137 (page 87) with light bley ones.
Cockpit
As an adult with more grey hairs than I like to admit to, I am far too mature to swoosh my new Galaxy Explorer. I would never do that, of course not. In the same way, I do not imagine myself as the captain of the ship, the only person in charge of the vessel, the man who is going to save the day with his unsurpassed skills and courage. I would never do that either. So I really cannot explain why there should only be one pilot, one minifigure, one hero in control. But there is. I reconfigured the front seat, steering column, consoles and screens for a single minifig. To centralise the steering wheel, I replaced the white POOP at step 47 (page 38) with a brick and a couple of plates.
Engines
When Mike Psiaki was designing the new Galaxy Explorer, he made it 1.5 times the original’s size to capture the same awe among adults that kids in the 1970s experienced; adults being about 50 per cent taller than kids in 497’s target demographic. Scaling up the ship’s engines though was always going to be tricky because there is no cone (or even a half cone) that is half again as large as the 4x4x2 used at the back of the engines of 497.
The solution in the current set was to use an octagonal bar frame combined with a large half barrel. For me, that assembly – and the engines overall – look too modern, more like something from The LEGO Movie franchise. I set about simplifying them and did so with some holed cones, various round plates and a couple of round tiles.
To ensure the robustness of my engines, I ran an Axle 8L with Stop down their length. My engines are strong enough that the ones on the rear can be used as handles to open the cargo bay doors (even without the need for a bush at the other end of the axle, which I put anyway just because they came with the set as part of the nose assembly). The 8L axle is not available in light bley, only dark. But a bit of dark bley does not bother me. I dispensed with the parts used to create the red engine glow. My engines are entirely grey, like the original’s.
Final tweaks and thoughts
There are a few other changes to 10497’s design, all of them minor: just a bit of de-greebling here and there. Perhaps the most obvious alteration was paring back the number of tail fin supports from 10 to four. I suspect 10 were used to give it strength, but four work just as well for display and light play, and are more in keeping with 497. I also repurposed one of the 1 x 2 grille tiles to help keep the cargo bay doors shut in a similar way to how a 1 x 2 plate was used in 497.
Could I have made 10497 even truer to the look of the first Classic Space sets? Perhaps, but it would have involved a major structural redesign of the fuselage and I am not convinced it would have been an improvement. Conversely, could I have brought it up to date with all the latest greebling techniques? Sure, but that is not my cup of tea. I will leave that challenge to others. After all, I am an original series Star Trek kind of guy.
154 likes
45 comments on this article
Your engines are nice but your nose looks too small.
Awesome on every level
I'd love to see more Classic Spaceships in 1.5 scale. I'm surprised I haven't been able to find any MOCs. There have been MOCs inspired by sets even before they release, but even after 10497 being common knowledge and on shelves, I can't find any fanmade versions of other ships.
Interesting Idea, so is this 'De-Neo-ized' Modern Classic Space? :D
Removing the oddly colored innards always improves a model. However I am Not that keen on using 3839 for the Same purpose at such a scale. It already felt a bit to small on the original 928 when compared to the smaller 'ships' like 885, where it looked much more menacing.
Removing the Fabuland Barrels is something I would Like to at this scale as Well because the Wood Texture Just feels out of place to me on a futuristic Space ship, even as greebling. I can ignore it on the original UCS ISD because of It's more unusual scale, but at minifig scale this Looks to steampunk-esque I'd say. However the geometry that this enables makes for a much more accurate shape, which I would prefer...
I had the sets as a kid and I have two of these already and did the alt builds. Talk about a take back to the past. This mod you did makes me want lego to do a straight rerelease of the originals, no updates… that would be a straight up case of “Lego, take my money!!”
It's a bit janky, but you should check out the photos of the old 2x scale Galaxy Explorer display model on bricklink under the item ID "explorerdisplay" - if you really wanna a make a true to period model, there you have it.
That being said, I dig the aesthetic touches you have this one.
Very cool! In a lot of ways, this is perhaps the perfect LEGO set - including that it can be easily modified to please the preferences of pretty much any audience.
As for myself, I was intent on figuring out how to build the small and medium models simultaneously with spare parts from my collection; replacing the solid bulkhead of the medium model with an opening between the cockpit and cargo bay; tweaking the nose of the small model to use 2x4 roof slopes (from 70821) to look more streamlined and allow the simultaneous builds; and cutting out enough of the undercarriage of the small model to make space for 2x2 landing gear using 3x0.5 technic beams.
Love it!
Not so much the redesign*
Don't care about the tribute set
Couldn't care less for the original
But the article is great.
Just the thing I'd like to read here;
interesting content,
overflowing with fun
and on top of that: well written.
Just an opinion.
* don't get me wrong: I appreciate the work that has gone into it;
just that the subject matter isn't my cup of tea and therefor the modification of it isn't either, but it was an interesting read nonetheless!
Nah. Mike’s didn’t need any tweaks. It’s an interpretation after all not a re-release or copy of the original. I’ll be leaving mine as intended
When this popped up I was half expecting it to be someone redoing the new set entirely in old grey.
@Atuin: Your comment about the engines looking "steampunk-esque" reminds me of some of the complaining about the smaller barrels used in 21109's arms. It doesn't bother me, because barrels used in space sets goes at least as far back as 1682, which used the smaller barrels as the shuttle's rocket engines.
@Brent007: Considering that 497 used a bunch of molds that Lego doesn't use any more, and in fact may well not even still have, that'd be a large undertaking.
@JGAForPresident: Another large undertaking, considering how many molds in 10497 were introduced after the retirement of the old gray.
This is Bureaucracy Planet speaking! Are these modifications actually legal? Looks suspiciously like Blacktron work! Space Police, do you guys still have the List Of Legal Upgrades? Space Police...!?
Very cool modifications! but I'd probably leave it how it is just because I can't be bothered to mod my sets.
I feel like I might be the only one sometimes but I genuinely never saw those as lasers. The Classic Space folk were peaceful explorers and miners in my mind.
Great article - well-documented and so much fun to read! These mods are not my cup of tea - I'm more in line with Psiaki's approach, as I have the original 497 for the true original look and I love the updated look of the new 10497.
But I totally understand the reasoning for your changes, and respect and appreciate why you made them. I have to agree with others than the 3839 at the nose just doesn't look right to me (too small, and you can see into the hollow round openings of the pieces right behind the 3839). I will agree that the bucket pieces that make up part of the new engines don't look 100% right, but for me they're close enough.
For me your most intriguing change was reducing the number of tail fin supports. IMHO going down to 4 is a bit much because this new model is 1.5x the size of the original. But I have thought about removing 2 of the 5 supports on each side, leaving the two outside ones and the middle one on each side. It would be simple to replace the removed ones with 1x4 blue tiles on the top-rear of the ship. That would open up that dense support area and with 6 supports would mirror the 1.5x ratio of the overall model.
At any rate, always love to see folks tweak and mod the official sets - thanks!
The only real complaint I have is that the rear is entirely squared off. The original has inverted slopes to give it a little snazz.
Well I guess two complaints. The original also has the 1x2 brick with the CS logo on both sides of the fuselage. I really like all the printed parts we did get.
I just wish we had access to more beautiful CS logos.
good article.. you have a penchant for words. I am a star wars fan but I appreciate the trekkies :) Live long and prosper.. II_II_i
Excellent story, although, since I don't have any nostalgia for the original, I'll stick with the update.
However, if an updated 315-3 had been released I might have considered giving it a make-under!
@MisterBrickster: If I'm remembering right, for me it depended on the set. Sometimes they read as lasers to me, sometimes as sensor or scanner probes.
I wish this article had side-by-side photos of the original and the modified versions taken from the same angles.
The tail fin struts are the only thing that immediately stood out to me as wrong in this new version. Fully intend on making the same mod myself. Other than that, though, very happy with what they did to modernize the ship.
This was a fun read and I totally get trying to go for the original look and feel, although I’ll be leaving mine as is. Since I’m a Star Wars fan we will simply have to agree to disagree.
Excellent article @Huw , really like most of the...downgrades?? Let's just call it "retroing"
My thoughts:
Nose: Agreed, need the 'handlebar' front-end...really like your line: "...so I performed plastic surgery on my new Galaxy Explorer and gave her a nose job...":D
Cockpit: Hmmm...this one I kind still like their/Lego's version...yes, a pilot/co-pilot configuration isn't 'normal' with the Lego-Space fleet, but theirs' isn't bad...
Engines: Not bad, but for mine; I'm gonna 'bump-up' the size of the front cones on the side-wing rockets. I'm thinking the 3x3 one should do it...
Only other thing I can think of "Tweak wise" is: on my ships and crafts "in the past", I reconfigured to having more naval/nautical nav. display/lighting (red on the ship 'right', and green on its left), and I'll be doing that with mine...keeping 'tradition' :D
Interesting article. Funny that, in my childish innocence I would never have imagined that they were anything other than guns ...
Love the fin mod, to me makes more visual sense in context of the original sets. I bought 10497 last week at Leicester Square to get the Lego Van GWP but still cant bring myself to open the box - it's such a beautiful set and right on the mark for AFOLs in their forties ?? Definitely one to savour, maybe next week...
@Agathon: As a Lego fan in his forties, I can confirm that this is right on the mark.
I think that this article could've done with some comparison pictures.
@Norikins said:
"I'd love to see more Classic Spaceships in 1.5 scale. I'm surprised I haven't been able to find any MOCs. There have been MOCs inspired by sets even before they release, but even after 10497 being common knowledge and on shelves, I can't find any fanmade versions of other ships."
There's this one: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-115215/ky-e%20bricks/starfleet-voyager/
Mike Psiaki gave it a shout out in one of the interviews he gave when 10497 was first released.
I, for one, appreciate exposed studs as brand-iconic statements that this *IS* Lego. They symbolize the extensibility and flexibility of any Lego model. So as for this "make under," I wonder what this ship would look like with all the edge tiles replaced with proper studded plates?
Very cool. But I'd love to see a side-by-side picture to fully appreciate the changes.
Thank you so much for your “underbuild” design. I am a very long-term Lego builder, over 50, and did have the original smallest space. Lego ship when I was 10 or so. I am new to all the terms and names for all the different building techniques that have come along since, example, snotting, but I am beginning to embrace them.
I just wanted to say that when I was younger, much younger, it was pocket money that bought my Lego, and I also had pass me downs from my two elder brothers, though I did take it to a whole new level back, then and build some absolutely way out stuff, which humorously disturbed my parents. Space Lego was my favourite. In fact, I used to try to re-purpose everything so it could be used for space - Lego even trees on the moon in a dome (of sorts).
After seeing your “underbuild” I am inspired to (after finding some old family photographs (with said aussie “youngling”) holding up now, usually with two hands, incredible creations that I had spent hours behind close doors in my bedroom building on my own.
I am going to, after your inspiration, try to “shrinkdown?” , using the parts that came with the New Galaxy Explorer set (which is in itself quite an awesome feat).
One thing I must say with this new return, from the original, is that I don’t remember ANY technical Lego being part of the original design whatsoever?? It used to scare me back then in the 70’s! LOL!
Based on your inspiration and outcome, I’m going to attempt to make the smallest of the spaceships that I remember very clearly as close to with no original parts on hand from the 70’s
I can remember I had a multi cratered “moon” base plate for it, which would go well with the new Galaxy Explorer. I mean all spaceships take off from the Moon… RIGHT? >GRIN<
From memory I couldn’t afford (on pocket money), the larger of the space Lego sets back then, but would really like to revisit the original design of the single man “shuttle?” With the one engine and the one pilot. BTW one of the things I do you love about your “underbuild” is that there is one pilot at the literal steering wheel “One Captain!”
I’ve only just discovered brickset.com so I am quite excited to discover this community and look forward to being involved as I go forward.
I will try and convince my elderly parents to part temporarily with a couple of the quite old snapshots from the 70s of me to Proudly holding up spaceship designs, much to my father’s dismay about my future. LOL.
I did become a production designer in Theatre Film and TV in the end, and quite honestly think that, that successful career path came from these early days of LEGO
Thank you again.
As much I like Psiaki whole design, i will rip those ugly side engines. They ruin whole cool sleekness
@cobberboy: Welcome to Brickset!
@cobberboy said:
"Thank you again."
Thank you for joining us and for your story.
Thanks for sharing, I like what you did there! The official set looks over-inflated to me, a bit cartoonish like the LEGO Movie spaceship; your changes help quiet down the look. I think the smaller B models look best.
Oh, one more: Is there anything 'under'/on 'the belly' of the ship? If not, I'm adding a round plate or plates in Lt. Stone Grey for a vertical take-off/landing thrusters. The original had 'cones', but I figure plates would be fine as:
-my single engine set had one cylinder brick for the function, and
-having them 'flat' would represent the advancement of technology, without changing/effecting the 'swooshabilty':D...plus I could use 3 either 2x2s or 4x4s and center a 6x6...
@rebelpilot
Cool, thank you! Still kind of strange it's the only one.
@MisterBrickster said:
"I feel like I might be the only one sometimes but I genuinely never saw those as lasers. The Classic Space folk were peaceful explorers and miners in my mind."
Laser cannons could actually have a mining use in breaking up asteroids (as in the arcade game) which could then be easily collected and processed to extract minerals.
All the commentary about the nose reminds me of SP1, where 6886 and 6781 have nearly identical front ends and then the front end of 6986 has a similar shape but much larger.
One could call this version Paleo-Modern Classic Space ^_^
@Atuin said:
"Interesting Idea, so is this 'De-Neo-ized' Modern Classic Space? :D"
Perhaps something like this fits the bill:
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-1865/wolf.leews/ll928-comes-home-spaceship
@Padmewan said:
"I, for one, appreciate exposed studs as brand-iconic statements that this *IS* Lego. They symbolize the extensibility and flexibility of any Lego model. So as for this "make under," I wonder what this ship would look like with all the edge tiles replaced with proper studded plates?"
Fantastic read. I dig that you still “play” LEGO with your LEGO. Go OG Star Trek!
This set you really need to see it in person to understand it's value.
For it's price I was surprised to see it in person that is is HUGE.
Heck, the 10305 Knights castle when placed beside it makes the castle look a tat small.
If, and we know it's a big if, they are to do a 1.5x bigger again I'd like to see 6929 or 6985.
@brick_r said:
"Oh, one more: Is there anything 'under'/on 'the belly' of the ship? If not, I'm adding a round plate or plates in Lt. Stone Grey for a vertical take-off/landing thrusters. The original had 'cones', but I figure plates would be fine as:
-my single engine set had one cylinder brick for the function, and
-having them 'flat' would represent the advancement of technology, without changing/effecting the 'swooshabilty':D...plus I could use 3 either 2x2s or 4x4s and center a 6x6..."
There are two 4x4 radar dishes on the bottom, mounted flush so that the entire bottom of the ship is smooth when you retract the landing gear. Very handy for putting it in a box for transport!
Now we need another "battle pack" With 5 figures included. Red, White, Black, Blue and new light bluish grey Space figs. That would be just the best. Also throw in some spare tanks of each color to boot.