6830 Space Patroller Alternate 3

Wow, time sure flies, I've been unnable to post for the past, what is it, almost three weeks to the day? But here's the kicker.  You have all been taking the pageviews to new heights despite my absence, not because of my efforts...is this the tipping point?

And so we come to today's post.  Nothing groundbreaking, just the last 6830 Space Patroller alternate.

This was the hardest one, the challenge was figuring out what the design behind the trans blue canopy was.  I think my new landlord and I figured it out.  We tried three or four ideas before it smacked us in the noggins that we were making much ado over a little thing.

The design pushes the envelope in small ways to train kids on ways to use the parts, and to judge depth perception.  Here we have studs tipped at a 90 degree angle, creating a wide windscreen.  It's a simple, but effective example of SNOT (Studs Not On Top).  I like this ship's eyestalk lasers...it's a nifty hover platform, and a sizeable reconstruction of the model.

The console makes a handy spaceship tail and gives the rear some character.  Underneath the robot arms add a simple smidgen of greebling for some technical flavor in the landing gear.

From the top you can see the oval shape, it's very exposed and open, but the use of parts is exceptional, given what we have to work with.  Not a bad set, this one.  The engines are humble, and most important...recognizable.

In this image you can see the tube pressed down between the studs.  The spacing of the window requires the offset, otherwise the shape is uneven.  It's not a common feature in official sets, but clearly the designers wanted to demonstrate methods available by which one could push the envelope of possi-build-ities.

All that said this was more interesting to look at than the Alternate image suggested.  I hope you enjoyed this 3 part study of 6830's back of the box.

Sincerely, The Cure-all Pill