Random set of the day: Inter-Galactic Command Base
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6971 Inter-Galactic Command Base, released during 1984. It's one of 9 Space sets produced that year. It contains 328 pieces and 3 minifigs.
It's owned by 2,324 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $1,990.90, or eBay.
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44 comments on this article
This is one sweet set I'd like to have (but at $1990 it is not going to happen). By 1984 I had fully migrated to Technic so I probably did not even see this at the time.
I own this great old set. It's really fascinating, how 328 pieces can have a real presence, not least because of the two crater baseplates it is build on.
Look out, behind you blue spaceman!
I wanted this set so bad. But I could never find it in stores, and neither could my intrepid mother.
It was a sad year for SPACE at Outpost Morris Alpha-3.
Oh I have this! In particular I enjoy the yellow spaceman doing what appears to be crater surfing.
Ooooo I have this one! I spent last summer restoring all of the pieces and put it all back together. It was my only big Classic Space set and it’s always been a treasure.
How great, I got this one almost exactly one year ago as a birthday present and now it appears in the RSotD just three days before my birthday!
Since then I got 6970 and 6972 too, this one is the best of all three bases but the other two are definitely amazing as well.
Well, this was just what we needed to wash the taste of today's RMotD out of our collective mouth...
I never really understood the idea of the craft the yellow dude is piloting with nozzles on the bottom.
I remember spending hours and hours looking at the catalogue and dreaming about this set (and many others) .
Even though my parents had money only for the small sets, l had a great and happy childhood.
Never had the pleasure to own a space base. Not the best base, but i like it
And this is what you get nowadays with similar number of parts 76917 ...
Weird that what looks like an ICBM needs emergency ejection boosters. Weirder still that they weren't installed correctly.
That was way before my time but somehow seeing this makes me nostalgic.
Now THIS is Lego.
So I’m not the only one getting strong Among Us vibes, right? Especially the way the spaceman in black is acting pretty sus pointing that device at blue…
I think this is the only LEGO space base where the backside can also be the front side, which increases play value.
I remember as a child seeing this in catalogues and being fascinated by the little spaceship the yellow spaceman is flying. Many years later I pieced a couple together. The rest of the base didn't strike a chord with me, and it's one of the classic space sets I've never owned or seen built.
Certainly one of the great ones! One of the sets I as a kid could only dream of. And considering the current prices, I'll better just keep dreaming...
It's a nice base for having so much space and housing a missle silo, but if you ask me it's a bit overrated. Later bases either did more with less or did more on the whole. Sure, if you're really nostalgic about Classic Space itself it's the biggest and baddest ground based set. But Message Intercept base from Blacktron alone kind of makes this look like a backwater location that just happens to be built larger than the rest.
Compared to 926 and 6970 this look like being put together by a 4-year-old. Still today I'm somewhat torn apart when I have decide which is uglier: this or 6951. LEGO never managed to get back to the sleak lines of the first wave of '79.
Will today’s releases be held so fondly in fans hearts 40 years from now? LEGO could do a lot worse than undertaking a thorough review of what makes this stuff so appealing, and how to create the same sense of ownership and aspiration four decades after release. I don’t think it’s all to do with nostalgia. The sets of the 80s were so appealing at the time, and that sense of wonder seems somehow to have been lost. I have my own views on what has chipped away at this, but think an internal audit would reach better conclusions. Anyone who thinks that competing with video games today is difficult shows a lack of appreciation for the sheer tidal wave that was the 1980s home computer game boom. And LEGO stood up to that challenge well, only losing its way in the mid 90s (Jack Stone, anyone?)
@lluisgib said:
"And this is what you get nowadays with similar number of parts 76917 ..."
Wow -- that is a very interesting comparison!
According to this 1984 Argos catalogue, https://issuu.com/retromash/docs/argos-no22-1984-autumnwinter, page 253, it cost £15.95 which according to the bank of England inflation calcualtor is £50 in today's money. 76917 is half that price but 1/10 of the physical size.
@Holly_Wood said:
"Compared to 926 and 6970 this look like being put together by a 4-year-old. Still today I'm somewhat torn apart when I have decide which is uglier: this or 6951. LEGO never managed to get back to the sleak lines of the first wave of '79."
See how views can be the total opposite? To me 926 and 6970 are the ones that look very simple while this one has a more techy look to it.
LEGO should bring back raised baseplates. There are plenty of other pieces that help this set look big, but having just that little bit of atmosphere from the craters adds a lot.
This is THE SET of my youth. Some of it remains (including the baseplates) in the tub of lego bricks at my parents house that come out for grandparenting as required. I remember thinking the trans red/green pieces were like little jewels, and of course there weren't many of them...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jwqyTB_MUNg&pp=ygUZaW50ZXJnYWxhY3RpYyBiZWFzdGllIGJveQ%3D%3D
One of the best. The era of well-designed boxes. The inner box had a beautiful inner box lid with a vacuum form relief of the classic space logo. Super impressive.
"All your base are belong to us"
I had this as a kid. Got it as the main present on my 7th birthday. My god was I happy.
One of only eight sets to feature the Classic Spaceman in black (and one of those eight was purely a minifig pack). Just noticed while going through that list that I have four out of those eight sets. Wow, I would not have thought so.
I believe this is actually the only set that has both the blue+gray+trans-yellow color scheme and a blue spaceman. Say hi to Benny, everyone.
"where new ones sell for around $1,990.90"
Yikes! I think this was one of the other Space sets my parents bought for my brother. I got 6824 & 6804 I think.
Oh, and 8040 - but that was completely out of leftfield...
@HOBBES said:
"This is one sweet set I'd like to have (but at $1990 it is not going to happen). By 1984 I had fully migrated to Technic so I probably did not even see this at the time."
That price is brand new in box.
Used prices (with no box or instructions) start at around £100
Ah, so this is where Buzz Lightyear works!
@Pitmonster said:
" @HOBBES said:
"This is one sweet set I'd like to have (but at $1990 it is not going to happen). By 1984 I had fully migrated to Technic so I probably did not even see this at the time."
That price is brand new in box.
Used prices (with no box or instructions) start at around £100"
That is the way I buy my Lego sets (brand new in the box). I also buy 99.9% of my parts directly from Lego.
The reason is quite simple. To me, 'good condition' means: no scratch, no blemish, no dent, no dirt and pretty much still shiny. For other people, it seems that 'good condition' means: the part is still somehow usable, it has been chewed by myself, my kids and all my dogs, it once fell in a molasses bowl and then spent a whole summer in the sand box but I somehow scratched off some of the sand and the moulds and it is now in 'good condition'.
Some people have: excellent, very good, good, used, and bad conditions. This is too much interpretation and everyone have their own views on what it means. Either a piece is good, i.e. pretty much new or it is used: visible marks on it. That is a much simpler model and removes most if not all subjectivity.
But no biggie, since the release of 10497, it seems that my interest for older sets has greatly diminished. I recently created a bunch of 'remakes' (452, 462, 885, 6841 and a few originals) with the new scale and modern style - I must say, I am quite pleased with the results!
(And because it did not come with one, I created a 48x72 studs landing pad for my 10497 and other crafts - completely covered in tiles and plates, this pad cost more than the crafts that land on it.)
@Maxbricks14 said:
"Look out, behind you blue spaceman!"
Denny the Black astronaut's got a laser pointer! Quick, get him before he downs Benny's plane, or worse, summons Meowthra!
@Captain_Eugene said:
"One of the best. The era of well-designed boxes. The inner box had a beautiful inner box lid with a vacuum form relief of the classic space logo. Super impressive."
Ah, yes, the "thievin' trays", so called because they encourage the act, with the ease of access.
@Andrusi:
Classic Space can be divided roughly into quarters. One quarter is the original blue/light-grey/trans-yellow, one quarter proto-Futuron with white/trans-blue, and one quarter in light-grey/trans-green. This falls into the fourth quarter, with mixed or other color schemes. The base may fit the original colors, but the blue and yellow Spacemen are piloting vehicles that don't neatly fit into any color scheme. They're closest to the proto-Futuron, though.
Why does an "Inter-Galactic Command Base" have its 'dishes' (RADAR/communication/other) pointed AT THE GROUND?!?!...:|
Also @Maxbricks14: You mean "Benny...Benny...BENNY!!!"...it'll be ok, the other guts just aiming a camera...I think...I hope:D
I had it as a boy and got it back (with the box and instruction!) a couple of years ago.
I was given this by my (much) older bother when I was around 7 years old, after I managed to remove the top of my little finger in a random farm-related accident whilst helping him. I was delighted with the deal at the time, and 40+ years later it still seems to be fair exchange – I absolutely loved this set, it’s just stunning!
It wasn't easy to find the set you want back in the day, especially the larger sets like this one. I don't know how she pulled it off but my mother got me one for my 12th birthday, two years after the sets release. I still have it to this day, with a few missing parts. It's okey though, because it's an amazing set.
@StyleCounselor said:
"I never really understood the idea of the craft the yellow dude is piloting with nozzles on the bottom. "
It’s never good when you have nozzles on your bottom :~P
@Holly_Wood said:
"Compared to 926 and 6970 this look like being put together by a 4-year-old. Still today I'm somewhat torn apart when I have decide which is uglier: this or 6951 . LEGO never managed to get back to the sleak lines of the first wave of '79."
I got given this as a surprise gift from my Dad coming back from a long business trip in Germany,
And I can tell you, to a 9/10 year old it was certainly NOT ugly.
I'd only had classic space vehicles until then, and this was the ultimate base for them to all hang out at.
Found it in a shop a decade later the release, and bought with my teenage money. My friends were all busy thinking about girls and scooters, can you imagine?
@Lobot said:
"I was given this by my (much) older bother when I was around 7 years old, after I managed to remove the top of my little finger in a random farm-related accident whilst helping him. I was delighted with the deal at the time, and 40+ years later it still seems to be fair exchange – I absolutely loved this set, it’s just stunning!"
Not a bad deal for the time. Now the set costs an arm and a leg, but I guess that is just inflation. I shudder to think of what body parts it'll cost in another 30 years! :))
PS. I took the top of the knuckle on my little finger off in a farm-related accident about 10 years ago but all I got were stitches. Of course I was 45 at the time and should have known better!