COLLECTING CLASSIC SPACE

INSECTOIDS

Last month it was aliens in flying saucers; this month, it’s bugs. Insectoids represents the last home-grown Space theme before LEGO Star Wars licenced sets began to appear.

Words: Jeremy Williams Photography: ©The LEGO Group

The protagonists of Insectoids are cybernetic colonists called Zotaxians, according to the accompanying adventure book Insectoids Invasion. They have crash-landed on a hostile planet and are forced to live underground, in proximity to alien beasties called Bilgen Bugs. The Zotaxian colonists adapt their vehicles to mimic the large bugs and collect Voltstones, batteries that provide power to the colony.

MINIFIGURES

The cybernetic minifigures follow on from earlier themes, such as UFO, in printing onto the heads in silver and black, including various mechanical designs. Torsos also bore silver and coloured printing. Some of the minifigures are decked out in black and dark green, including distinctive transparent green ‘bubble’ helmets; others are in grey and blue with transparent neon green helmets. A couple have leg printing but to my eyes, the overall minifigure design isn’t nearly as striking as their UFO counterparts.

COLOURS AND ELEMENTS

The colour scheme of vehicles in the range revolves around blue, grey and black with transparent neon green accents – not the most distinguished colours together but the designs (on the larger sets particularly) make up for this with clear and memorable silhouettes.

In terms of elements, it’s largely the usual story; that the sets make creative use of existing or old elements rather than introducing a slew of new ones. However, the distinctive insectile shape required some special parts, notably the support legs (30211 and 30212), eyes (30208) and wing-tips (30231).

One neat element, the Voltstone crystalline triangular element, is notable because it comes with a heavy sticker that is ferrous, so it can be picked up with magnets. The LEGO Group were really imaginative in using interactive stickers around this time; we’ve already encountered thermal ink printing and now magnetic stickers join the line-up, with excellent results.

The most complex element is the Light and Sound module (71603) that offers three different sounds and flashing lights within a slender ‘insect tail’ shape. The module appeared in four sets and provided a huge amount of fun (or irritation, depending on your mood).

PART 13

STANDOUT SETS

money sets, the smallest halfdozen or so of which are fairly nondescript and not particularly insect-like at all. Things warm up a bit with 6817 Beta Buzzer (the smallest set to use the wing-tips) and 2964 Space Spider (the smallest set in the range to use the leg supports) and get more and more interesting as the sets grow in size. 6907 Sonic Stinger is the first set with around 100 pieces and it looks fantastic – a fly with two hemispherical eyes, a proboscis comprised of two needle-thin neon aerials, those wing-tips and legs and of course, the Light and Sound module. 6919 Planetary Prowler is less insect-like in outline but broadly resembles a cricket. The main 6977 Arachnoid Star Base

feature is the large pair of wheeled legs with independent suspension, with Technic shock absorbers, as well as a removable power block incorporating a Voltstone and a tiny floating rover. 6969 Celestial Stinger is not particularly insect-like; more a fairly standard spaceship. It’s got some nice features – a couple of detachable shuttles and a pod containing a Voltstone – but compared to the other big sets, it’s not imaginative enough. 6977 Arachnoid Star Base more than makes up for this shortcoming. It’s a big, bulbous spider-shaped vehicle, on large rugged wheels, whose abdomen is built from the quarter-dish pieces so central to the UFO sets last month. There’s a profusion of legs which either assist in stabilising the vehicle or contain sensors to sweep the terrain. From its transparent green mandibles to the cool control tower that sits alongside it, this is a great-looking set. It divides into two vehicles for even more playability.

THE LEGACY

Insectoids has fans but little in the way of a direct following (no ‘Neo-Insectoid’ swarm). However there are plenty of people (such as Lino Martins, see facing page) building space vehicles that are insect-like in form, though whether or not these owe a direct debt to Insectoids isn’t always clear.

While Insectoids isn’t the final LEGO Space theme, it marks a turning point as the LEGO Group began to focus on licensed sets and many see it as the last of the ‘classic’ Space range.

INSECTOIDS CASE STUDY: LINO MARTINS

Lino Martins has built a number of alien vehicles based on eerily-accurate models of insects. For example, check out this stag beetle (flic.kr/p/6PffyC/) and its dragonfly dropship (flic.kr/p/6PffgJ)