Today's unit is 6831 Message Decoder!
This is a very small Space Police cruiser equipped with radar. The front logo says Police, and represents the first word based emblem for a space theme. The Officer livery continues the Futuron fashion print from the black spaceman with a color change for the hand component.
Of course, what would a police cruiser be if it weren't performing routine traffic stops,
weuweu!
Screeeeeeeech!
and dealing with your run of the mill astronauts going medieval sort of thing.
Desist from your 1980-something beamsword battle in the name of the law!
But officer, those are collector edtion 1980-something beamswords!
Well ya should've thought about that before you disturbed the peace and quiet around here.
Collector edition 1980-something beamswords not included in main model
Man oh man, 2 confiscated 1980-something beamswords! I'm on a roll today!
I held up on reviewing this set for months, and the entire Space Police lineup as well... because my copy came with part substitutions, I want to bring you the best most accurate photographs so I tracked down the real element somewhere on planet Zenda and brought the wheel well imposter to justice! Prison cell and wheel well plate not included in actual set nor is the crater plate.
There's very little to say about this rover. It rolls on classic space era metal spindle wheels and is one of only two space sets to sport the red rims with a black plate.
Viewed from above Message Decoder is classically thin, 2 studs across at its narrowest points. The overall spread of the sensor array gives the model much of its apparent girth.
The self same sensor array is Message Decoder's main moving element which can adjust to refine any static into a clear message; kind of like Mom or Dad turning the tv antenna in the 1980's to see if the weather could be made out amidst all those ants on the screen. These days it's better to reference a person with a cellphone getting a dropped call, then watching them stumble into three bars.
The set contains five elements which don't appear in the rest of Space Police. One of them was the missing element I had to acquire after buying the set.
This angled wheel well has been around since the advent of Classic Space. Outside of Classic Space's first two years it didn't get much play in the Space theme. Then the theme era began: Black-Tron received 2 in black, natchly, and Space Police received a pair as well. This was the last outing for the low use component in space. It's been out of production for a while, but parts have reappeared before, so we may yet see it again.
Message Decoder was the last appearance of the metal spindle rolling stock in Space. The part would live on into the early nineties, but as its fortunes fell to basic play buckets and the themes switched to the plastic hub and spoke method it appeared less and less until it was gone. Shame, they rolled quite well when they weren't choked with my sisters hair. I'm betting this component is gone for good.
This blue component was a semi regular Classic Space element from '85 on, Space Police has a reasonable selection in black, but Message Decoder has the only blue version. Incidentally, this is one of the pieces needed for the 260 robot build (Which I will get round to eventually). These days the design has notches in the angled edge to allow closer fitting with studs. It kills the fine edge and can make a mess of some designs, but for fitting curves into stud heavy areas the new version can really come in handy. I say both should be in your collection.
Message Decoder's box contains a small selection of alternates to choose from.
The small size of the set does limit the ideas somewhat, but these are attractive looking examples for what's inside.
And with that, here is my own interpretation of the pieces.
First up is this hover kite.
The rear design conceit is for an electrostatically simulated antigrav mechanism. The rear tilts upward and propels the small scooter forward via static discharge. The result is gentle forward repelled movement based on generating an inverted dipole charge, interactive with, the lunar surface. If any real physics majors want to make hash of my pseudo science explanation... have at with it.
This model is a ground scooter. It has a simple landing gear and scoots forward with small laser jets. You know, nothing fancy, just an astronaut and his low tech scooter cruising around on a jovian moon.
That's all I have for today, but I hope to start the Space Police series with a vengeance now that a new school year is upon us.
Sincerely, Cure-all Pill
Final Score: B-
Pros: Quick introduction to the theme, wheelwells are a nice touch
Cons: Lacks the theme's defining characteristics, thin on parts
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