Arrested Development

Space Police ended the era of strong multiyear theme support in Space... It lasted 1 year for 1989 and received a 1991 minifigure release in Space Minifigures.

The sudden burst of new elements from 87-88 began to taper off and in some ways Space Police was mere distillation of the prior two years.  Space Police offered refinement whereas Futuron redefined the ground rules of leg godt.

In many ways Space Police was merely a continuation of Blacktron and Futuron's eternal fracas, a justice force assembled by the Super Sentai Futuron to handle the incessant destruction and deception wrought upon them by the erstwhile borgmind collective that is Blacktron.

Blacktron: A force for nefarious schemes, far more fearsome than any assemblage of putty patrollers, shooting truer than the best Stormtrooper marksman... the final boss after you finish the game.

These guys.

It all stands to reason: to fight Blacktron, you must enlist your best forces.  Space Police are those forces; they are the elites of Futuron.

I doth ramble...

All assemble.

The Most obvious big deal of '89 was this tranparent red window-

The Classic Space Window served in good stead from 1983 til 1989, In 6990 the hinged classic spaceship window was at its zenith, but in 89, Space Police debuted a reinvention of the window... transparent red, a color which would remain unique to the Space Police, stylish and sharply angled, sweeping out farther forward than its forbears

  

-And the reinvention of the Wheel.  Prior to this component all wheels were made of a soft pliable rubber or plastic.  This hard plastic tyre was wider, and almost as tall as three of the biggest wheels in classic space laid on top of eachother.  The hard tyre was soon to be just the beginning of a new phase in Crater Crawlery.

Beyond the forward thinking pair of components the 86/7 9V lighting system received a few light covers designed with greater impact in mind.  

This computer light cover in particular has remained a unique component of Space Police and as it stands now, always will.  Its chances of appearing elsewhere weren't helped by the set specific print in it.

Slightly better distribution was afforded to this light distributor bar.  It appeared in a Construction set alongside Space Police and made it through to '93 before ceasing distribution.  

Wow... short list... I told you they were distilling down the existing flavors... I meant it.

But a theme needs prints, and Space Police gave a much better showing than Futuron on that front.

These elements were new prints conceived for Space Police.

We begin with the almost ubiquitous slope: distribution 8.  It features in 5 of the 6 Space Police sets.  To the best of my knowledge it did not appear in any service packs which is rare for a printed slope from the '80's.

This part appeared in the same era as Classic Space, but you wouldn't know it... Futuron made good use of it in Cosmic Laser Launcher, Blacktron utilized it in Message Intercept Base, but Space Police left their mark and made the part one of its own: Distribution 6 each.  Each variant appeared side by side in 5 of the Space Police sets and no service packs.

These 2 prints were applied to the 1 year old convex corner space walls.  Left and right side prints, I appreciate the attention to detail, and the fact that these aren't stickers.  These appear in the one set lacking a slope print, a worthy trade-off I think. Distribution 1 each.  Of the SP prints these are my favorite.  But its the same print?!?  Yeah I know, but that wall though.

Last but not well, yeah actually, least... the longways red arrow with silver border: distribution 3.  This is one of the era's famous indicator prints... action, pull here for the wow factor.  This print appears in the hard to come by SP-Striker and the U.S. distribution Space Lock-Up Isolation Base.  Not the rarest arrow print, I'm sure Interplanetary Rover and Invader can attest to that, even so the designers sure weren't giving them away... this was also never released in any service packs.

New recolors, these existing pieces expanded their pallette for new theme options.

The recent electronic 9V system got a blackbox.  perfect for those light up blacktron visions of grandeur you'd been envisioning in '87 and '88.

The 9V system also received two black recolors of the existing circuit plates.
This 1x2 black element would remain unique.

While the 2x4 version would see a slightly more plentiful release

It's a hard world out there pursuing justice. so Space Police were afforded rose colored glasses to help them see the galaxy in a more positive light.  The color went dormant after the 91 Space minifigure pack vanished and only reappeared for Space Police 3 as part of wave 2 circa 2010.  This was the only truly new component for a spaceminifigure in 1989.

Classic Space's transparent yellow 1x6 tubeless brick was treated to a transparent red rendition.  This element also appeared in a parts pack before quickly fading into the out of production category.

Once again, an exclusive theme specific canopy extender found its way into the theme's lineup.  Every 260 theme had a color variant of this, it came to be a defining component of the '87-'90 period.

The 1988 Blizzard Blazer snowplow relinquished its yellow plow to the distant reaches of space for new purposes.

The radar rectangle array was born.  Later appearances of the part in space would sport a print upon them.

Alongside the printed versions, this '85 element, 3 tall 2 wide hollow brick, debuted in black yet again.  Blue narrowly missed out being a new addition, appearing in one town set the year prior.

Helicopters and Airplanes first sported this inverted slope element in '85 on their rears.

  Space Police spun the element right round to go down beneath fine and elongated chins.  The inverted black and blue wedge variants were all new for '89.  This part heralded the red canopy's coming shape half a decade before its arrival.

The blue variant is rarer than black, sporting only a third of the release spread afforded to black.  A redesigned version of the element has appeared, but hasn't released either of these colors with the new reinforcement in the three hollow studs.

A new color appeared for this wing element that had appeared in 1972.  Oldschool.  It was black of course.  This component was phased out by 2004 in favor of the 1999 X-wing wing which was more user friendly for building, but had less character to its trailing edge.... since then an even larger double wing element has superseded some use of the star wars wing in larger scale airplanes notably the period from 2006-2010 before receiving an update of its own in 2013.

This young 2x12 plate appeared in '87 in yellow for one fabuland set called Lucy Lamb's Bedroom.

Space Police received its own blue version circa '89.

The 1987 quarter octagon plate went blue.

Likewise, the 1987 sideways 3 fingered hinge plate turned out a blue variant.

The '88 prefab walls exploded forth from within Mission Commander.  Multiple new colors were launched.  This blue wall remained unique to Mission Commander, and sported a spread of 4.

The Transparent red wall variant had a great supply in a very tight spread.  12 parts across 2 sets.  Prefab wall focused moonbase building was no sweat if you tracked down the two largest space police models.

The '88 corner prefab wall appeared in transparent red and got a minuscule run of 2, this is a really attractive color for the part,  It was an exclusive for the Mission Commander.

Additionally, Mission Commander held exclusive rights for the black corner prefabricated wall.  This is the same element as the printed version from the print section.  there were four black unprinted corner walls in the theme.

Finally, Mission Commander delivered yet another exclusive color in the prefab wall line up.  Blue inside corner.  4 supplied.  Suffice to say, compared to Futuron's cheaper availability and slimmer selection of prefab walls, Space Police offered a bonanza, but only to the deepest pockets.

There were a few modification to existing minfigure components.

The Blackshirt from Futuron swapped in white hands, 

The black hips sported white legs.  These pants became the defacto space pants from 1989-1991 and then appeared again on the blacktron Future Generation spacemen in Space Police 2.  Space Police 1ended single tone pants use in space.  after their arrival, every space theme had two-tone pants excepting some Blacktron stragglers that slipped their clutches into '91.

In 1999 the Space Police pants became the official pants of most brickbuilt scouttroopers, stormtroopers, and clonetroopers in Star Wars through 2013, after which point the leg printing foreshadowed in 2005's Imperial Inspection took over.  

I hope you've enjoyed this inspection of Space Police's specific contributions and unique additions. I'll see you soon with something that isn't Space Police or Blacktron.

Sincerely, The Cure-all Pill

SpacePolice: 6886 Galactic Peacekeeper

It's a monochrome theme it's a monchrome world so be obedient to the law, stick em up and don't argue... 

This is Galactic Peacekeeper, the Crown Vic spaceship of Space Police.  It contains a standard layout, driver up front, prisoner in back.  It is the second smallest Space Police model, and the tiniest example with the, then brand new, 10 stud tapered canopy and the beautiful ergonomic jailcell capsule.  It may be the cheapest finished model to ever provide the 10 stud canopy in a set.

One could be forgiven for thinking this is a big set, but it's actually quite small and compact.  The whole of it clocks in at just over 100 components.

The pilot sits at his controls in an airtight cabin.  We're treated to a Classic Space console unchanged from the first wave of Classic Space.  Nice!

Excuse me while I drool over that prison cell design.  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 basic concept for the helicopter landing gear over flag poles was shared in another prison transport which appeared a year later.

Dungeon Hunters

If it was good enough for medievals it's good enough for us.

-----Attributed to an unknown Space Police Officer

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.  I'll elaborate on them shortly.

Of course, nice as a holding cell can be, our Blacktron spaceman has decided to try his luck in that great white nothingness that stretches as far as the edge of the page.

And now, back to the spaceship!

The central fuselage is a tubular chassis with nose canards, obscuring the gaze of those little laser eyes.

Burly shoulders hide the peacekeepers not so peaceful laser cannon wings.  The design is one part cute... and equal parts muscular.

The Space Police spacecraft share a design language among themselves which holds true across the board.  I present... the template.  To my eyes the octagon body is the most distinctive element among these spacecraft.  None of the ground vehicles contain that particular attribute.

Peacekeeping...

Give me 5 seconds...k?

Incidentally, the jail cell has two different prints for police so it can always be built with the lettering right side up... I realized after wrapping up photography, that this jail cell had 2 of the 2x3 right side pattern panels and resolved that by inspecting the other five jail cells... somehow, the sellers all sent me the proper prints, but some of the jail cells were sporting two rights, or two lefts.  Just something to keep in mind if you're particular about such things.

Game over pal!  Hey!  Where'd he go???

Now, there is one design gripe I have to level at the Peacekeeper, and which I will be frequently fussing over as we see more of these Space Police ships.

It sure looks nice with the jail cell on doesn't it?

But when you open up that back end the rear design just vanishes into nothingness.  The front starts to look unbalanced and the whole sculpted thing of beauty is gone.

While we're on this aesthetics business, check out those slats.  They aren't there for looks, so what gives?

The rear of the cell capsule has elbow pin plates with a 6 mm horizontal reach.   These pins reach just far enough to slide between the top tile and the underside stud with a well fitted grip.

Warning!!!  there's no guarantee the elbow pin plates in your collection can achieve this result as a 5 millimeter length elbow pin plate has been released within the last decade which can't quite reach the distance of a plate... You will stress the pin and possibly break it.  

Of course, if you're engineering whizzes with your bricks, knowing the two options of elbow plate should be useful knowledge for all you exacting builders out there.  How come I found out about it? Well one of my ebay acquired prison cells wouldn't slide on properly... and I went to Peeron's parts database to find out why.  I made the switch with existing parts from my collection where I wouldn't miss the extra millimeter of wiggle room.

Impress your friends with useless knowledge and build the trick to show them why it matters.  Or hide all the long elbow pins and watch their frustration mount as they attempt to copy your amazing construction technique.  Have fun and play well.

All told Galactic Peacekeeper comes with a Ship, jailcell, officer, and Blacktron spaceman.  There are no accessories to be had.  For the period it's an attractive set with enough here to get the storytelling and space pursuits started.  Personally I think it's a great set by the standards of any year.  26 years have passed and I still feel like blogging about it... that's staying power.  What do you think... are my nostalgia goggles filtering out obvious flaws?

We'll be moving on to bigger and 'gooder',-(a verbose explanation would be needed if you incorrectly surmised that I added a grammatical flaw in error... it was intentional, there the joke is ruined if you read this, but if it was Blacktron it would be bigger and badder.), Space Police vehicles in the near future, but I'll say it now, this one is my favorite; Galactic Peacekeeper has the most balanced looks and the least wallet crushing impact for your Space Police construction toy hobby.

Galactic Peacekeeper has an excellent spread of parts.  Notably, these printed bits are unique.

1 Shoulder left print

1 Shoulder right print.  These prefab walls are a big piece of my enthusiasm for older Legoland space sets.  Also, printed elements for the win, I can't stand stickers.

The straight black corner panel will appear in another Space Police set further up the line.

These more prevalent components are unique in theme.

2 black brick 1x1 with studs all around.  This part has gotten so much use in the last ten years that one could be forgiven for thinking it was always common.  But back in my day it was a needle in a haystack bit.  and it's so darn useful.

1 blue hinge plate 1x4.  I'm surprised to see this one here, given the preponderance of blue across the theme.  Clickhinges have replaced these old style hinges for the better in terms of rigidness, and long term wear and tear, but I do miss the streamlined edge and silent gliding motion offered here.

4 1x2 panel black.  I also thought this would show up more.  I'll have to check Black-tron's inventory, but between M-Tron and Space Police there aren't a lot of these.

2 black 3 finger hinge plate.  Yet another surprisingly low use component.  The 2 prong has 3 times the spread across the same 3 themes: Futuron, M:Tron, Space Police.  I'll have to look through Black-Tron's inventory to see if there are any more in black.

11 parts, not bad at all.

Alternate box image via the plastic brick.  Also, holy spumoni... only 9 bucks, I would have loved to get Galactic Peacekeeper for that price.

My own MOC attempts to give Blacktron an appropriately colored vehicle while leaving something for his pursuer to give chase in.  The result is one whale of a tale.  High speed pursuit through the vast ocean of space, don't get caught on the asteroid reef, or this chase will end with a sinking feeling that Blacktron fought the law and the law won.

The other item I built is this winged spacecraft.  It pushed the limits of available parts, and resulted in a decently nice looking ship.

The wings are very 3D, and give some nice contours to the slender tube chassis.

Overall I'm quite pleased with this set, the inclusion of a torch, megaphone, or walkie talkie would have delivered the final winning addition, but as is there's no reason to fault the design.  The components add up to an attractive pile of parts.  For an introduction to Space Police, there's nothing better.

See ya later, The Cure-all Pill

Final Score: A
Pros: Attractive Design, good entry point into the theme, jail cell, attractive specialty part selection
Cons: Lots of plates, no accessories,