I like the use of part 428502. I must never have seen this set, because I probably would have gotten it, for that if nothing else.

@MCLegoboy: I'm pretty sure LoM was supposed to be set before the Space Police came along, timeline-wise, so no?

@MeisterDad said:
"Clearly they are having a friendly chat, or the visor would be down. Probably making plans to go and have a drink somewhere, though the alien does look a bit nonplussed."

Clearly he's unimpressed with Earthman pick-up lines.

I actually have two of these. My first one was either a gift or a freebie from buying enough cereal boxes. My second one was from participating in a LEGO event at a library. I got to choose a small set to take home, with some of my other choices being 4712 and 7113, and I strangely ended up choosing a set I already had. I don't exactly recall why, but it must've appealed to me the most for some reason. In hindsight, I wish I grabbed 4712 for the faucet and the jack-o-lantern. On the plus side, I have 4 old light gray rover wheels.

I remember this being advertised on Quaker Oats boxes.

I feel this could be a meme:
Kid: "Mom, can we have Tron???"
Mom: "We have Tron at home..."
At home ^^^:)

Bizarrely, this polybag is available for sale online at my local LEGO Certified Store, for $15 (or about 10 USD). I've kinda considered picking it up...

The controls are connected to the spacecraft with an alien arm. Must be symbiotic technology. The lines blur between alien and ship.

@iwybs said:
"In the USA, this was a promotional set with Quaker Oats. You could get it for free if you sent in the mail a certain number of Quaker Oatmeal proof-of-purchase tags. My mom bought the oatmeal, but I was pretty sick of it by the time I had enough tags to send in. Too sweet! (Today I usually eat a bowl of plain rolled oats in milk for breakfast, sometimes but not usually with a spoonful of brown sugar mixed in.)

This was my only Space astronaut minifigure for several years. I thought it was a cute little rover and a cute little flyer, but at the time I thought it was pretty cheap for Lego to reuse the battle droid torso and arms for the Life on Mars alien minifigs. I really wanted the 7315 Solar Explorer, but my mom wouldn't get that one for me. Still, the Life on Mars line really appealed to the budding space buff in little kid me as a semi-realistic, mostly peaceful, near-future contrast to the (in the USA) conflict-driven premise and far-out neon colors of UFO and Insectoids, or the incomprehensible fragile shapes and ghastly neon background art of Exploriens.

A few years ago I finally got myself the 7315 Solar Explorer. It's far from the best Spaceship that Lego has ever made, but I like it. It's simple and unpretentious, easy to build and easy to fix when you wreck it in a crash. Poor Solar Explorer! Even the box art only shows it crashing, not flying. It only appears in the Lego Island 2 computer game as a crashed wreck.

Besides the 7315 , is there any other Lego spaceship (including licensed models and airplanes, spaceships, air vehicles, and flying machines of all kinds) where it's never shown to actually fly right, only to crash?"

Not exactly, but 75178 's only function is that the engines fall off to recreate its onscreen explosion

It’s nice to see the first Tobogganing Championship of Mars going so smoothly

I have this one. The vehicles are simple and the hovercraft is fragile, but Life on Mars has huge sentimental value to me.

Fun fact: this is the only set fromthe theme that depicts both the martians and astronaunts in the set!

I have this set. Super nostalgic. It's very simple, but both designs are super creative. One is a platorm with a giant fan behind it. The other is a 2-wheeler with the wheels held by an S shape. The seat actually moves a bit but is held in place by 1x2 plates with side bars. Add the adjustable side camera (gun?) And we have a unique vehicle that did the best it could with its contemporary parts for its size!
A shame he has no chrome visor. But Vega only comes in the two biggest sets (and the random martian polybag) so their inclusion is welcome.

@Robot99 said:
""Throw the CHEEEEEEESE!!""

Love this reference!!!!

I remember getting this, and strangely enough it was the only Life on Mars set I ever got. But I think it was the only LEGO I ever got from cereal / oatmeal promotions, haha.

Had to bricklink it, then surprisingly found a "local" store for the instructions - thought the set was US & NL only

Did anyone else but me think, for some reason, that Vega - the martian in this set - was a girl?

I don't know where I got that idea from. I never got around to reading the online story entries, or they probably would have corrected me. That meant that the only story material I had was the comics from Lego World Club and Lego Adventures UK magazine, which only ever featured a specific four of the martian characters (Antares - although Adventures got his design mixed up with Pollux's for the first few issues -, Cassiopeia, Altair and Rigel), so I had no frame of reference for who any of the other characters were.

As a result, I somehow decided that Vega and Arcturus were also girls, instead of Cassiopeia canonically being the only female martian we met. I've no idea where I got that from, but even though I know it's not canon, I have trouble shaking the idea because it's been established in my mind for so long now.

In any case, I've always loved these little martians! They've got such cool designs ^^

As far as lore goes, the reason Assistant, the human, is driving around on Mars with his visor open and surviving the experience is that, in a gesture of friendship, the martians set up energy fields containing oxygen to allow the astronauts to breathe.

@iwbs: So that's why I never got it! I've never liked oatmeal. Although I do like some of Quaker Oats' cereals. Maybe I just didn't think it was worth trying for...

@Iceranger22:
7198 ejects the wings of the German fighter plane to recreate the tunnel scene from Last Crusade.

@ThatBionicleGuy:
Nope. No eyelashes.

The only Life on Mars set I ever got was this one. A shame too.

Must be in that rare region of Mars with a breathable atmosphere, seeing as how his helmet's up and he's got bare hands. Or are his gloves yellow?

@iwybs said:
"A few years ago I finally got myself the 7315 Solar Explorer. It's far from the best Spaceship that Lego has ever made, but I like it. It's simple and unpretentious, easy to build and easy to fix when you wreck it in a crash. Poor Solar Explorer! Even the box art only shows it crashing, not flying. It only appears in the Lego Island 2 computer game as a crashed wreck. "

I can't believe I never saw that before!

@ThatBionicleGuy, @Drzhivago138
The LOM lore is apparently that the martians mine a substance called biodium to make areas breathable for themselves. This is also breathable for humans.

My headcanon is that this is also why Classic Space helmets are the way they are ;)

LOM actually has a surviving story section from the website written in log entries that came alone with (long gone) online mini-games. Look it up, it's fascinating.
Apparently martians think that hair on heads is a sign of a lack of intelligence. Because it would keep the head too warm for a brain to be under it or something. Poor Altair... (the lime green one, the only one with hair)

Kermit on mars, blue?

@iwybs said:
"Still, the Life on Mars line really appealed to the budding space buff in little kid me as a semi-realistic, mostly peaceful, near-future contrast to the (in the USA) conflict-driven premise and far-out neon colors of UFO and Insectoids, or the incomprehensible fragile shapes and ghastly neon background art of Exploriens. "

Yeah, I hated the noticeably darker image of the late Space sets. I was also saddened to read that peaceful LoM was followed by the conflict based Mars Mission.

Lately, I included an Insectoids craft and figure as a friend in my Classic Space display. I now like the design, and I don't think they are necessarily bad.