Futuron 6925

Today's entry is 6925 Interplanetary Rover, an odd amalgamation of good ideas, cool spacey design and badly juniorized/mismatched construction.  I'm not sure what I think of this one offhand, so without further ado, I shall dig into the quirks that constitute this toy.

Up front I need to say that I love every idea that went into this toy; but having made with the niceties, I think the final product is a troubled example of excellent function over hobbled aesthetic.  The central problem of Interplanetary Rover derives from its chassis and a pair of half baked homages.

In the function department The plates work perfectly for keeping the truck from twisting too far to the right or left,   The wheels shift over rough terrain very well, and the garage fits the scooter with exacting precision, leaving no wiggle room.  There is nothing bad to be said about how this toy does what it does.  If play value is all you need from a set, then Interplanetary Rover can perform near the top of the heap in its price category.

Despite my adoration for nostalgic nods to the past I think Interplanetary Rover's design is too much a victim of classic space nostalgia without developing its own clear identity.  The upright cockpit is a nice nod to Walking Astro Grappler and, I believe, the last set that uses its canopy in this straight up position.  The suspension and the metal detectors with dishes recall to mind the Uranium Search Vehicle, an interesting rover from Classic Space that managed to look cool and odd all at the same time.  Interplanetary Rover failed to be as clever and interesting as either set.  It doesn't bring the homages together in a meaningful way. 

In a desperate bid to give the model the appearance of unity the designers chucked some uninteresting matching brick assemblies underneath and slapped four matching metal detectors with dishes at every corner.  More needed to be done with the chassis, and something needed to happen in the middle that didn't.  My best guess is is that the designers saw a good handhold here.  Too bad it didn't help the look.

Visually the model is the sort that needs to look heavy and truck-like, but instead it looks thin as a sheet.  There's plenty of room for the wheels to swing free and traverse lunar terrain, but somewhere along the way the desired function and allotted budget conspired to restrain the full potential of this set.  It could have been shorter and bulkier, or heftier; instead it got spindly and overextended.   The overall construction looks confused and unhinged.  The back is a garage, the front is a cabin, neither half uses the full plate it's on in an effective, visually arresting manner.   The two halves are mismatched and far too white to captivate the eye.  Between the main cockpit, and scooter garage there's a lot of empty stud and tube space doing nothing.  Underneath the plates; the bricks holding the wheels blend badly with the plates and feel disjunct and underdeveloped.  In my opinion more should be going on with the chassis structure.

The only portion of Interplanetary Rover that feels new and unique is the fence headlight cluster, which again lifts a visual aesthetic from Tri Star Voyager, and Star Patrol Launcher, but manages to make it look different by doubling up and changing out some parts.

As Futuron's largest ground based vehicle Interplanetary Rover pales by comparison with Battrax, Multi Core Magnetizer, Spectral Starguider, Solar Snooper, and even the comparatively puny Ice Sat V, and Spy Trak 1

Despite the poor mishmash of wildly divergent looks and bland stretches of white, the final model is a fun truck to play with.  The suspension works very well, the snug garage is a fun play feature which houses its small vehicle quite well; and is a major feature in all of the bigger Futuron sets.  The Interplanetary Rover carries an airborne scooter in keeping with the theme standard.  Ground transports carry scooters, while the space ships carry a tiny car.

Like the Space Patroller; Interplanetary Rover has two robots mounted on the back of the driver's cabin; they're cute bug eyed droids that help to break up the monotonous white tones of the model by being solid black.  Unlike the Space Patroller the robots do not serve a dual purpose.

Compared to the rest of the Futuron line this truck looks unedited.  For a theme with sets as beautiful as Stardefender 200 and Monorail Transport Base it's a disappointment.  The sets in Futuron pushed trends forward with new designs of good and odd quality, but Interplanetary Rover got saddled with the past and struggled for an identity.  Whether it's Futuron's worst set is something I will have to revisit in the final retrospective.  I can say only giving it the super ubiquitous yellow spacemen certainly did it no favors, a red spaceman, black spaceman, or even a blue one would have been a nice touch.

Whatever my thoughts on the model, the question remains, how good are the parts.
My favorite metric is of course, what's unique, or rare? 
Here's the unique part.
That's right, Interplanetary Rover has a unique variant of the downward arrow print on a 1x2 brick.  It is one of only two sets with the print, the other version is black and there is only one of each.  The black variant appears in Blacktron's Invader.  As a fan of older printed parts, I have a soft spot for the function alert arrows.  Lego was always inviting the minds of inquiring children to ponder the workings of the set from the box art, and like a laser, these arrows got right to the point.

Next up is a selection of Futuron unique parts, that is pieces which are perhaps not rare, nor unique, but are within Futuron, only available here.

These corner walls were commonly available in a sizeable selection of sets, Lego doesn't make them the same as they used to, but the part concept does continue to live on in an altered form.
They are of course white, much like most of the parts available in Futuron.  If you were to collect some classic space sets you could accumulate quite a few more in white, but otherwise, the two you get here are it.

The plates, aargh!  These plates, which don't help to bring out the Interplanetary Rover's better side are unique to the Futuron theme, but they are by no means rare.

These fins are unique in any color to Futuron, and they are once again white.  The color variant is not rare within the space theme, but if all you want is Futuron, well, there's two of them.

While there are plenty of these in white, Interplanetary Rover has the Futuron color lockdown on black.  You get two.  Outside the theme the supply is massive.

And again with the unique to Futuron, but not rare.  You get four of these in white.   Within space you can get an equal number between two of the Mars Mission sets, and they're plentiful in some Nasa space shuttles, but they're much more common outside of the space theme.

The Futuron theme contains six of this piece in total, but only two of them are black, and it being an awful piece to only get one of is about all you need to know to convince you why this set has both of them.

 Lastly, this light is fairly common in classic space and pretty much a given in many town and model team sets, even easy to get in quantity within the pirates theme, but it is unique to Interplanetary Rover within Futuron.  In an interesting side note, this is the only set in the Futuron line to contain trans yellow parts.  There are four of them and they go on the robots.

All told there are 19 pieces within Futuron that only come in 6925, one of those parts is a unique printed color variant.  Many of the parts come in quantity's of 2/4/6/8, and provide a sizeable selection of like pieces, but there is also a fair selection of individual parts.  Not bad, the Interplanetary Rover gets an approving nod from me for what it brings to Futuron Purist constructions.

Now we must get down to the brass tax, how well does 6925 do for an alternative option?

Here you can see my dandy little transport truck and trailer carrying, you guessed it, a scooter.  I had a few false starts, I kept trying to use those corner wall pieces, but they just wouldn't take. 
Once I got that grille on the model began to take shape, of course the limitations of the canopy hinge held me up for a moment, but once I got used to it, I was home free just having fun.  Fortunately the set had enough parts to assemble a workaround for the studs forward approach I was forced to take.
Drop a spare tire in the back and the trailer for a space hoverscooter, and there you have it.

I just love making the scooters fly :)

Final Decision: B
Pros: Secondary market prices, excellent parts selection, Unique part, fun play features
Cons: Mediocre Aesthetic, Ubiquitous Yellow Spaceman