Auxilliary Patroller + Orion II Hyperspace = Tri-Orbital Transporter

Today's post is a combo effort.  Ive chosen two models: a 1987 Futuron set, and a 1989 Futuron set.

Galactic Starship; also known as, Roboprobe Transporter; also known as, Orion II Hyperspace













Auxiliary Patroller

As previously mentioned, Futuron is an outlier theme in that of the Golden Era Space Lego themes it was the only theme which had a strong continuous presence over the course of three years.  Over this period of time the Lego system's part selection continued expanding; allowing for Futuron's design scheme to evolve with the parts available.

The only other Space themes to exceed this 3 year spread were Classic Space and Star Wars..

Recent Space themes e.g. Galaxy Squad, Space Police III, and Mars Mission have managed to replicate/exceed the size of Futuron's theme over two year or two wave releases, but none of them have as yet managed to match the three year/wave pattern.

All that aside here's the thoughts behind my construction; and results of my mashing these two sets together.

The design is reminiscent of Blacktron: Future Generation in the reverse.


I placed a pod at the back; developed to approximate said bubble cockpits from that toy range.  After that I already had a general idea of the window at the front, and so I just had to develop the middle pod to bring the model together.

I really got underway once I decided to utilize the Octagon window frames.


I attached wings and engines to the door to fill out the middle pod design and gave it the old school aircraft running lights in the Classic town colors.

The car was assembled from available parts and snuggled inside the bubble.  The robot was inspired heavily by the 6885 Crater Crawler robot.  Though looking at it now I can see that the new result was actually quite removed from its source material.

And so I have created a space craft which could be described outside of Lego terms as three spherical pods attached end to end.  I find the result to be quite pleasing, and I consider this to be my best Futuron alternate built to date.  I've derived the name Tri-Orbital Transporter from a twist on the Latin translation for three spheres.

Overall I suspected that 6893 and 6850 would synergize well, but I'm actually blown away.  They have proven to be a very compatible pair of sets.

While it is to the side, I have recently gotten a new camera...could you tell?  I'm taking one or two pictures of each shot now, as opposed to fifteen.  The old camera was lower resolution and exceedingly finicky with slight movements...which was frustrating.  I hope you like the clearer images going forward...I certainly appreciate the reduced time needed to photograph and adjust the pictures.  We're talking magnitudes of work flow improvement.  I've probably cut two to three hours of work per blog post with the removal of reshoots, digging through gobs of pictures trying to find a useable image, editing said image, and then jotting down notes about which filenames to use.  This should hopefully result in more consistent updates; since I've removed an evening's worth of work from my posts.

I don't even want to think about how much time I spent on 6990's pictures.

Until Next Time~CureAllPill

Lego 6850

Well, the snow finally abated allowing me to trek across the country back to my own stomping grounds.  So now I'm back with a review of Auxiliary Patroller

 Auxiliary Patroller is an almost round saucer shaped ship with swing out wings to give it that quintessential Futuron Play element.  This time the wings carry laser guns that stow inside the canopy.  Make no mistake, this cute puppy is a thinly disguised fighter built for dealing with Black-Tron interlopers. 

The cockpit of  Auxiliary Patroller is the meat and potatoes of this set, it commands its admirer's attention.  I was going to write about how uninspiring the model was, but all my mean-spirited words melted away when I took it out of the dark storage bin where it's been hiding.

The top of the model was carefully sculpted to give a good sense of roundness; no mean feat when every piece used has an angle.  The back almost loses points for plainness, but for the two wing tips that jut past; giving the ship's rear some sharp character. 

The swing wing guns help the model's look when out, but the laser guns are iffy due to being very blocky and stubby; by necessity for a close fit when internalized.  Little wing nubs poke out when closed up and the design is almost completely covered by the cockpit when stowed, save for the forward mounted laser.

The handle on the cockpit nose gets some nice use, it's actually got some grip to it, I'll need to keep that technique in mind with my own builds, as it works well.

The chassis of the model is not as sleek as the top portion might have you expect.  It starts flat face, and looks very square from the side.  From a head on perspective it doesn't look quite right; though the wider footprint in the back works well enough given the topsides squared off hinges. It contains the lions share of black bricks.

All I see is a clown's nose...

There are no extras of any kind for the spaceman to use, all he gets is a computer tile, which is standard issue for much of the Futuron line, and a personal favorite of mine. 

Given that I have the mindset of a 90's child I think this set would have been number 1 on my pocket change shortlist.  It isn't that the pieces are especially good for parts monkey's, nor that the set has some great unique minifigure...as we get, yet another yellow spaceman.  No; The primary draw of Auxiliary Patroller was its price point, coupled with these two corner windows.



You see, through the 90's, the cheapest way to get these windows never went south of forty dollars, and Auxillary Patroller had them in a set for less than seven dollars.  When I learned about this set, I was enthused about it for little more than...its canopy.  Sadly, the set is no longer inexpensive, but at an average price of twenty dollars it is still the cheapest source for these corner windows; short of buying them piecemeal at Bricklink.  Those 80's kids had it good where this part is concerned.

The only set that came remotely close to having these corner parts for a cheap price was Space Police's 6886 Galactic Peacekeeper, which sported similar swing wing mounted laser cannons.
However, the roughly ten dollar set had a flaw compared to Auxiliary Patroller.  It had a sideways Police print on solid black parts; severely hampering other legitimate uses for the piece.  I'm not one for Brasso and damaging prints, and these days, I think most collectors would blanch if someone went around bragging about vandalizing these pieces... but, that is a very annoying print the way it's placed.  Needless to say; Don't let that be an encouragement. 

It turns out that Auxiliary Patroller and Galactic Peacekeeper came out the same year, so their similarities had a lot to do with side by side product development.  Sadly, after 1989, some marketing guru must've sidelined these corner canopies exclusively for the big sets, and thus did I have a chip in my shoulder from an early age.

Fortunately, that is all done and past, because I grew up and moved on...er...well, sort of.

Okay, no, not really.

Overall Auxilliary Patroller continues the austere, elegant, simplicity that characterizes the good looks and play features of the Futuron lineup.  It's a little weird, in large part, because its copycats used different parts that lack the visual punch achieved with this canopy.  Here for example is Saucer Scout to illustrate my point; this one taken from Spyrius. 

Saucer Scout's Octagon window is smaller, but achieves the same shape overall.  It is also far more common, which managed to dilute the part's long term appeal; for me at least.

The only other example of a small saucer that I can think of is in this giant set.  See it, right bottom, with the clear round dome.  It's truly sleek, and achieves a smoothness unheard of in the old days.  By Hollywood standards it nails the look of a tiny saucer UFO.  It's a qualified success. 

So there you have it, three ways to achieve a saucer dome, and while Auxiliary Patroller may not have done it best, the designers managed to give it a distinct appearance that is just as attention grabbing now, as it was then.

Now then, enough prattling; if you are strictly collecting Futuron sets, Auxiliary Patroller does have more to it than Corner canopies for cheap. 

Here are the Futuron Unique Parts available for your building pleasure.

2 inverted 1x3 slopes in black

 

2 inverted 1x2 slopes in black



1 chassis assembly in black



This wall panel's inclusion is not totally legitimate, since it is shared with Futuron Dacta; in which it is very common.  But aside from that educational toy, it can't otherwise be acquired.  You get 1.



It's not a smorgasbord of cool special pieces, but it's not bad either.

Now I will do my best to bring you an alternate of my own devising.

After skeptically dismantling a dubiously made space craft I started to think the 'good' build possibilities for this set are few in number.  Somehow I settled on a small radar station.

Not to be defeated, I attempted another spacecraft design, and was contented with it.  

So, that concludes my conversation about 6850 Auxilliary Patroller

Final Grade: B
Pros: Canopy parts, attractive design
Cons: Limiting part selection, no minifig tools