I remember opening up Lugnet in 2004, scrolling through the Space Police stuff, and thinking wait! There was a bigger one?
I of course only knew about SP-Striker and Galactic Peacekeeper... which sort of blended together in my mind over the highschool years. They do have the same front and rear after all; mostly. On the other hand, Mission Commander sports the beefcake stylings of an XB70 Valkyrie after consuming a few too many protein shakes.
Don't see it? Let me tip the back wings up and make the box go away. OK, so that's more of a cargo lock, but the general idea is the same, and less streamlined
The Space Police craft were all modeled after a template. The front nose is always sharp and angular, the ships have canards, the wings sweep back and have a pointed forward attachment, and an octagon is fitted in there somewhere. On this ship the octagon portion is removable.
Overall the design template led to some beautiful shaping, but they forgot engines; unless you count the dinky guns on the wing edge, or the two remove-able scooters' combined 4 rear propulsion dishes. Which begs the question... can this thing fly if the scooters are off doing their thing? This ship seems woefully under powered for interstellar travel.
Compared to other space sets of the time this particular model feels a smidge overbuilt, like a scrawny kid who adds on football gear or wears a too big leather coat to hide their real size (guilty). I'm particularly bothered by this open air mess up here at the front.
and these wing pauldrons at the midrear portion of the model.
One thing they didn't overdo? The designers didn't overkill the logos as they would eventually do in Galactic Mediator... there are the same number of logos in both motherships, but the inclusion is more subtle here.
The spacecraft favors form and function over facility, in keeping with the era it sprang forth from. And as functions go, this one keeps the fun intact.
What's the coolest trick gimmicking up the works? Well... there's a car in there. And a gear system which all the theme flagship models possessed from 1987-90. (The best years) in my biased opinion.
The prior most recent Mothership Cosmic Fleet Voyager was an unqualified success at creating a full walkable spaceship interior nose to tail, This was a facility; the functions were mostly in service to interior access. It also carried a rover in its belly.
So of course we'd expect Mission Commander to sport a grand corridor as well because it looks the look, but for this rover release gimmick it doesn't leave enough corridor to walk the walk. The corridor holds the gear system... the gear system takes all the space in the corridor.
The end result is instead more synonymous to a tow-truck for prison pods in a detachable prison pod cargo hold. It looks like Cosmic Fleet Voyager in form, but feels more like Galaxy Commander in play.
The cockpit's more questionable aesthetics are the cost of having an amazing function (The Gimmick).
Halloo, anyone home? The interior of the ship head has a uvula... that uvula brick catches the square gap in the flat bed of the car and either pulls the car in, or pushes it out, which gives the car's prison toting bed design a secondary function... cool design planning.
In a really quirky decision there are no computer tiles anywhere in this ship, which is reason for deep sadness. Instead the model implies that the car is the primary fly by wire system for the ship; it's a cool premise in theory but leaves a bit to be desired in execution. If I buy the biggest spaceship in a collection I want a computer.
The pauldrons on the other hand are another kind of trade-off entirely. The parts are amazing, I love getting this window in trans red, but I don't think this was the best place for its use. It keeps the color balance looking even and properly spaced, but it's a scooter cover, and has no real need to be transparent other than to advertise on the box that something's under there. Another black or blue corner wall would have fit in better, I would have suggested placing the red corner walls on the cargo hold instead and doubled up on the trans-red walls because 2 are hardly sufficient. On the plus side, the trans red corner windows exist, and I'll take them in an odd design over never getting them in the first place.
The scooters are small and agile looking, perfect for those crafty getaways Blacktrons' been planning.
The rear of the ship is very rounded and big, it benefits heavily from the use of 10 space prefab walls in three styles. It's prefab wallapalooza if you like these parts and I do... Oh yes... even more exciting, all these colors on the back unit are specific to this one model. It's kind of crazy how many unique prefab wall colors were made just for this one spaceship.
And as it turns out that big rear end is actually a removable compartment as I alluded to earlier when I brought up Galactic Commander.
Bring up the engine guns.
Slide out the back flaps and pull against the technic pin. The whole box is secured by one technic pin. The prison cells are pressed in by the wings locked back by the engine guns, and the tiles on plate hold it level, but it's just that one technic pin locking the two big parts together. It's pretty impressive. Technically the whole thing will stay together without the technic pin as my seller accidentally put a 4x4 block in and it stayed secure and locked in.
The box has a space to allow room for the rack to fit inside it. Yes, that rack which makes the car come out takes so much space it has to be given room in the back structure to fit. The radar dish is a nice touch, I hope there are controls for it inside.
Now, you may not have have noticed yet, but the design has a lot of gaps... Ahoy Mr. Officer sir, whatcha doin in thar? Reading the radar array info???
Nope. Nothing to see here, guess I'll just pace about. Yep, these cells are locked in tight. It's an empty space... The radar's just to make Blacktron think we're not underfunded.
A computer would have been nice in the back to simulate the lab technician tapping buttons to lock in the prisoners and keep tabs on their vitals. Also, a coffee machine would have been excellent. All of my childhood mothership MOCs had one, since I liked to riff on the coffeemaker from my first big set the 6389 Fire Control Center.
Recursive prison cell review for the uninitiated begins... old timers scroll along.
While jails aren't by their nature something to be lauded, TLG really nailed this design out of the park. It's immediately apparent what this is, the colors are striking and despite the tight build, its pedestal feet, police print, cell lights, and red translucent laser bars give it a heavily detailed and compact design which would have been at home in a late 80's sci fi movie.
The prison cell was presented as is within the Lego idea book 260, and it has basically burned itself into my brain as a concept. However, I didn't know the hooks were back there until I started acquiring the sets two years ago. Those hooks are what keep the prison cells secured to the vehicles.
But wait! There are two hidden in that building.
It would have been nice to get an extra blacktron figure with the ship to fill the empty pod, but instead we're given reason to go pick up more sets to fill in the gaps. A parental worst nightmare... the classic buy in gimmick. Oh look, you need more to really get the most out of this toy. It's like the classic case of 6 hotdogs and 8 hotdog buns.
No roommate... pfft, I'm outta here.
Get back here scoundrel, a roommate's not in the lease agreement.
I would have gotten away with it too if you kept up with your maintenance!
The prison cells dock aboard the octagonal pod and can be toted around by the small car, which is like a ground based sibling to the tiny transport scooter in Space Lock-Up Isolation Base.
In the golden era this was the mothership; it clocked in at well over 400 pieces, and quite a lot of the parts were big.. Blacktron's renegade crested 300 parts, a worthy number, but somehow just short of the magic number to look the part. None of the other spacecraft in Black-tron, Futuron, Space Police, or M:Tron came close.
Of course there's also a very important question that must be asked, which I don't usually discuss. The ease of flight play. I've got doubts about the swooshability of this set. It's got big handholds which may challenge smaller children. Older folks you can pick up this and an Invader if you really want to lark about the house. It just requires some careful planning to get them situated without dropping Mission Commander, which I can only imagine would go down badly. It would be more fun for two kids to grab the spaceships and race about the house like banshees, careening around corners threatening to burst their spaceships into hundreds of pieces should an error in judgment occur. This area in the below image offers the best handhold, and the wing placement strategically makes the handhold accessible. It's like the designers planned for it. I like to hold it like a crossbow with the mid back resting across the carpometacarpal of my hand.
Just an aside, this may be the weakest complete mothership of all those released between '79 and '93... the golden era (260 era) was certainly great, but not for Motherships. This era was more notable for moonbases, moving parts, and high concept designs like the assymetrical Renegade, the podtastic Stardefender 200 and M:tron's, space helicopter, Particle Ionizer. What this set lacks in interior it makes up for in sheer playability. New ideas were on the rise and the Lego group was trying new ways to wring functionality out of their products. There is a lack of space tools and weapons, a dearth of computers, and very little interior, but there are 4 vehicles, a removeable cell processing center, 2 cells, a bad guy, and two officers.
As a Mothership it comes up short, but on the technical level it's leaps and bounds ahead of the old Classic Space.
Now the special parts that give this set its special zing.
Unique colors
2 trans red corner prefab walls. The corner walls were introduced in 1988 as part of the angled plate phenomenon which began in late 1986. These are very nice window parts to have.
4 black corner prefab walls. Mission Commander has a matte black version of the printed element from Galactic Peacekeeper.
4 Blue inside corner prefab wall. This less common '88 component allows the prefab walls to go in different directions while closing the gaps and keeping a clean edge. It's the largest prefab wall element.
4 The most common prefab wall element was heavily popularized by Blacktron Future Generation, so by the time I was getting into building toys it seemed like a staple of the product, not a recent innovation. This solid blue color never appeared elsewhere.
We're already 14 pieces deep
These parts are restricted to Mission Commander in the Space Police Theme.
Mission Commander has a lot of common elements which were kept out of the other Space Police sets, I'll post the part count and if the part is special in some way I'll give it a shoutout.
2 This blue panel is the rarest solid stud solid color 1x2x3 panel. 7 were spread out over four sets. A later hollow stud variant and side support variant were produced, but neither version released any solid blue panel 1x2x3 elements.
4 black 1x2x3 panel. This was the second most common color behind white.
1 black 2x16. Ordinary
1 4x4 blue plate
1 blue 4x10 plate
1 black 6x12
1 Wing notched 4x3 black: left and right
1 black 3x4 stud hinge plate.
1 black 2x2 brick with technic pin
1 blue 2x2 brick
1 blue 1x2 plate with 2 extended sidebars
1 black snowplow plate/radar array. This is one of the eye catch pieces in Mission Commander. I would have liked to see a print on it, similar to Multi Core Magnetizers. It's the most common color of this element, but still very rare. The only color currently in production is dark bluish grey, and it's getting released in across several themes in quick succession, which could prime black for a second place finish.
1 black airplane wing classic: Left and Right. When I was a kid it seemed like this wing style was everywhere. But when you start to look at the total spread you'll find that the element was only sort of common across all colors. Cut away the white and grey and you quickly discover that these elements were very thinly spread out. Black received 6 of each side.
1 blue inverted 45 degree 2x2 slope.
1 Blue notched and mirrored 8x6 wing cut out indented 2 and 3x4. This is version 1 of the cutout wing. Mission Commander was the only set to borrow this piece outside the classic space run. 4 blue elements were released across 4 sets. The second gen had the exact same spread of blue...
1 Black 1x6 Technic brick
2 Blue 1x3 bricks
2 Blue 2x2 cylinder brick
2 Blue 1x2-1x4 bracket.
2 Black 2x2 dish
2 Blue slope brick 75 degree 2x1x3.
2 Blue Inverted Slope 33 degree 3x1.
2 Black Plate 2x2 with mirrored axle
3 Black Plate 4x12
3 Blue 2x6 Plate
3 Blue Space Chair/Bracket. This is another Classic Space color which got one more go round in Mission Commander before a 13 year gap. The Chair reappeared in Star Wars: Clone Wars AT-RT.
Additionally, it has recently appeared in some Jurrassic World sets and Benny's Spaceship^3, because an awesome nostalgia set requires awesome nostalgia parts. Nexo Knights has also released a rolling space age castle with the part. What can I say... The Classics are classics because they endure the passage of time.
3 Black 2x2 Plate with technic hole
4 Cylinder 1x1 Black. Extremely common
4 White rims
4 Black Rubber tyres: small
4 Black 4x1x3 Tails
5 Blue Plate 1x10
13 Black Rocket Booster/space stand. There are a metric ton of these in Mission Commander. It's a favorite of mine which still appears in modern sets.
1 Black 2x2 Cylinder Brick
1 Black 2x4 wheelwell plate. This black element has a decent spread, but the only one in space is right here. Classic Space had 7 grey across 3 of the earliest range... but in many ways this element was designed for town cars and there are a lot of them.
2 Black engine with internal axle holders and 1x2 plate extension. OMG! Rocket! Yeah Space Police lacks rockets in bulk, but here are a pair for desperate builders.
2 Black Modified brick... I like to call it the camcorder brick... it also makes great robot bodies and small engines. This is a pretty common element which was introduced exclusively to Classic Space in 1985. The first use outside the space theme was as a movie camera in 1987... in 6381 Motor Speedway. This is one of the parts that delineate where my classic space favoritism falls. I'm partial to the late middle era of Classic Space.
2 Black tubes. My fire-station above introduced me to these little twisties, and depite their temperamental fragility, penchant to stick in whatever shape they take, and fussy grip I've been enthusiastic about them ever since. They're worth the fuss you have to put up with. This was the original variant with removable end tabs... which allowed customization, if not being a good idea for part longevity... kinda like busting arms off Lego minifigures and dealing with loose limbs and hands as the torsos and arms develop hairline cracks.
2 Black 1x4 bricks. We end this part list with an ordinary black brick... The fact that a part like this is an uncommon and special piece in the space themes circa mid '87-'90 is a key to my frustration with this era of space. The brick is such an integral part of the system that this kind of element should be easy to come by. But there are only 13 of this part color between 6 sets in Blacktron (5), Futuron (6), and Space Police (2) to say nothing about the complete absence of the black variant of this element in M:Tron, and for the most part, they're all in big sets, which locks out the pocket change kid.
Perhaps the charm of this era was its ability to generate sleek and edgy forms by emphasizing platefuls of weird and exotic radar dishes over starchy meat and potato bricks.
And my favorite part of the review, the alternates. Licorice red everywhere... it looks so exciting.
The sheer size of this model is apparent in all the models which imply how many can be built at once. 3 in the bottom right corner, the obligatory giant robot, 2 in the bottom left corner, the big ship top right, and the base, car and ship in the top left. The base is what gets me really excited. I like how the spaceship that pairs with it looks like a bulkier wingless Galactic Peacekeeper.
Let's see what I can come up with.
I have created the Space Police Central Command tower and a super spaceship.
The Spaceship has a removeable cell on the front and reverse scissor doors. The base has multiple communication arrays to keep in contact with officers, and Blacktron can be brought in for questioning.
The base is heavily made up of prefab walls and sizeable elements. Most of these are very textured pieces and despite the low piece count they all come together very nicely.
The top of the tower is offset to make it look more exciting, and the rack and pinion makes a very good mounting point for the radar array. The 4 inside corner prefab walls make nice octagonal spaces for reaching inside.
It looks sleek from the rear, I reversed the basic design of the spaceships. and made the cockpit the octagonal portion.
The prison cell is the same as the main model, I think its placement here looks insect like with the feet as mandibles, and the lights pointed forward. The ship looks cute and gnarly all at once, but there are no apparent armaments.
The doors go up like a supercar, and the 360 degree view allows for a great filed of vision.
Final thoughts
Mission Commander is a technically excellent design study with a lot of well thought out functions which eliminated the interior and gave it less of a mothership feel than the size should imply. The model owes much of its girth to the prefab walls as it's actually pretty skeletal, hollow, and laden with plates. There are lots of epic space components strewn throughout the model, yet it lacks some of the most basic staples like rockets, tools, and computers. There are zero space tools, even built into the design, and more grievous, not one computer tile despite multiple places where such a component would be appropriate. Worse still, the lack of engine parts makes for very curious design questions, and requires a lot of tinkering to find a suitable substitute among the parts for alternates. Of all the Motherships this is the most ingenious, but it trades out everything we've come to expect from a ship so called in exchange; it's the epitome of a mixed bag of goods.
Final Score: Technical: A+, Whole Package B
Pros: Prefab walls parts pack, double prison cell, lots of unique colors, slick functions,
Cons: Zero accessories, short one Black-Tron, zero computer tiles, empty/inaccessible interior
Until next time,
The Cure-all Pill
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