It's not going to raid very well if all it can manage is a half-hearted Petey Shuffle.

The earlier Lego mechs.

Great set, played with this one a ton when I was a kid. The legs had limited movements, but the arms were great.

Does... Does it have... nipples?

I had this as a kid, loved the theme!

@Elcascador said:
"Does... Does it have... nipples?"

Can't unsee that, now, especially as they're trans neon-orange.

To me Classic Space ended a year before with the Exploriens. Nothing further appealed to me untill the Space Police III, which was a great theme.

Oh yes, a Robo Raider, the previously missing evolutionary link between Robo Riders and Rock Raiders.

This set is one of my favorite sets from my childhood. It was also one of my first space sets that I received back when it came out in 1997. It may look very outdated now, but back when it first came out, it was amazing for its time.

It's never been clear to my why two of the sets had orange as the main color and two had yellow. I guess it's similar to what they did with red and blue in the Divers sets that year. (Not to mention Galaxy Squad much later.)

Yes! I loved this set as a kid, but it was my only experience with RoboForce until I got my hands on 2154 a few months ago.

I have a lot of respect and admiration for Classic Space, but being born at the start of the 90's, I grew up with the Space of the latter half of that decade. I still have a soft spot for all of them, though Exploriens sits at the top. RoboForce mostly sat mystifyingly on the pages of the catalogues and box inserts.

Good times, even if others may disagree.

Mine is currently stuck in customs =(

@Atuin 6882 already used that technique

So does that make the pilot one of the first robo riders? :P
https://brickset.com/sets/subtheme-Robo-Riders

Absolutely looks like someone trying to rip off 6949. Maybe that’s even the excuse in-universe, these guys are Raiders after all

I tracked down a couple of Roboforce sets, a couple of years ago. They were never available in Australia, so they weren't exactly easy to find, but I think they're brilliant.

Man, why did they have to make this US exclusive? Sure, it's not the greatest thing in the world. But it's one of the few Space mechs! And this one specifically might be the nicest because the legs actually move (the other, Robo-Raptor, doesn't have a detachable flyer for a head).

I grew up with Classic Space. This "thing" was right at the beginning of my dark ages.
Seeing it again now just reaffirms why I lost interest in LEGO at the time.

I am fascinated that adults today can look back fondly at something this. It looks like it was cobbled together by some kid from parts it had lying around, yet it was designed by an official LEGO designer who got paid for it.
I feel really sorry for kids who grew up during that time and had to make do with crap like this, while we (and kids from around 2005 onwards) got the awesome stuff. This was really an in-between period for LEGO. So glad they got over it eventually.

This to me is LEGO design at its worst, from a period when the company was at the beginning of a path towards bankruptcy.

@StyleCounselor said:
" @Elcascador said:
"Does... Does it have... nipples?"

Can't unsee that, now, especially as they're trans neon-orange."

Great - Thanks for putting THAT image in my head.... I agree, the trans-neon-orange does not help matters. If you need me, I'm going to go bleach my mind.

Why do the earlier Spyrius mechs look better? Nostalgia?

The head looks like a respectable space... scooter, in and of itself.

I don't get these helmets though. Were these designed to give the Space Police a sporting chance? "Well, we couldn't see any distinguishing features of the face, but the ears... it was Jug-Ears Johnson, I know it! I'd recognise those lobes anywhere!"

I had the two trans neon green sets from this theme, they're...ok, but honestly, the big one is a great parts pack for building the much better Blacktron 2 theme. It's a very tippy set, the little plane is pretty neat, and I love the enclosed command center, but the theme overall is a miss. Definitely echo a lot of other 90s kids where this was the end for me. UFO and Exploriens were much better, and Spyrius and everything before that even more so.

It raided warehouses in Europe so good, it never got to stores to be sold there.

Other then that, transparent neon orange, blue, and either white, grey, or black seems to be popular with LEGO as seen with Ice Planet, Aquasharks, this, and Nexo Knights.

@jkb said:
"Mine is currently stuck in customs =(

@Atuin 6882 already used that technique"

The technique yes, but not the exact parts (Technic half-beams). 6886 and 6887 also used the plate and turntable style mechanism.

@Binnekamp: funny, I had none of the four sets you mentioned, but seeing them and putting them visually next to this one they still look miles better to me. Better overall coherence, better colour schemes, and better minifigs anyway.
Especially 6951 seems to be a fan favourite - weird design notwithstanding. Just look at the crazy aftermarket prices for that one. Of course it helps that it's at the very least an awesome parts pack for rare and sought after CS pieces (and minifigs - black Classic Space astronaut anyone?)

Sure tastes are subjective, but it's a fact that this was the beginning of a dark period for LEGO economically, and I for one can understand why.

@phi13 said:
"It's never been clear to my why two of the sets had orange as the main color and two had yellow. I guess it's similar to what they did with red and blue in the Divers sets that year. (Not to mention Galaxy Squad much later.)"

I blame Galaxy Squad on Lion Voltron, and other similar IPs.

@MCLegoboy:
Classic Space actually had a couple giant robots. 1498 didn’t come with any minifigs, so technically nobody rode it, but a year earlier 6750 had two detachable seats, and two years before that 6951 came with three minifigs and what appears to be a spacious lounge inside. And none of these came with green Spacemen, so that effectively kills the theory that mech pilots wear green.

@AustinPowers:
Come on, now. 6951 is hands down the horkiest mech they’ve ever produced. Even Galidor snickers when it hovers by, because it doesn’t even have moving legs, and it has to take it really slow so it won’t overbalance and faceplant.

@AustinPowers said:
"I grew up with Classic Space. This "thing" was right at the beginning of my dark ages.
Seeing it again now just reaffirms why I lost interest in LEGO at the time.

I am fascinated that adults today can look back fondly at something this. It looks like it was cobbled together by some kid from parts it had lying around, yet it was designed by an official LEGO designer who got paid for it.
I feel really sorry for kids who grew up during that time and had to make do with crap like this, while we (and kids from around 2005 onwards) got the awesome stuff. This was really an in-between period for LEGO. So glad they got over it eventually.

This to me is LEGO design at its worst, from a period when the company was at the beginning of a path towards bankruptcy. "

Same. Except that I lost interest in Lego retail sets at the time, not Lego.

I put the end of classic Space a little earlier than @Lego_lord. Spyrius was the last theme that I qualify. Unitron and Exploriens still had echos of the aesthetic, but the quality just wasn't there. That was especially true for Unitron, which had truly terrible builds and play features compared to Spyrius immediately before it, to say nothing of even better themes in the past. Insectoids and UFO had a cohesive design language, but I found them unapproachable, ugly, and full of big parts that were obvious precursors to full juniorization. And then came Robo Raiders, and it was just a mess. It really felt like Lego Space had run out of gas (er, plasma? antimatter? artificial quantum singularities?), and indeed, it had. I'm still sad and disappointed.

@PurpleDave said:
" @phi13 said:
"It's never been clear to my why two of the sets had orange as the main color and two had yellow. I guess it's similar to what they did with red and blue in the Divers sets that year. (Not to mention Galaxy Squad much later.)"

I blame Galaxy Squad on Lion Voltron, and other similar IPs.

@MCLegoboy:
Classic Space actually had a couple giant robots. 1498 didn’t come with any minifigs, so technically nobody rode it, but a year earlier 6750 had two detachable seats, and two years before that 6951 came with three minifigs and what appears to be a spacious lounge inside. And none of these came with green Spacemen, so that effectively kills the theory that mech pilots wear green.

@AustinPowers:
Come on, now. 6951 is hands down the horkiest mech they’ve ever produced. Even Galidor snickers when it hovers by, because it doesn’t even have moving legs, and it has to take it really slow so it won’t overbalance and faceplant."

6951 was all time and absolutely one of my favorite sets as a kid. Since it was a science station rather than a combat mech, the slow and wonky propulsion system worked just fine. Explaining the physics was half the fun.

@PurpleDave: to be fair, 6951 was called "Sonnenobservatorium" in the German catalogue, which translates as "solar observatory". No mention at all of this being a robot, mech or anything similar. The set description also didn't mention anything about a robot or mech - or even that it was supposed to be able to move. Makes much more sense that way.

Sets at the time had completely different names over here than in English speaking countries, but funnily enough it appears that names in the UK tended to be different from those in the US too.

@AustinPowers said:
"The set description also didn't mention anything about a robot or mech - or even that it was supposed to be able to move. Makes much more sense that way."

But if it's not supposed to move, what are those jet things at the bottom of the legs?

And if it is supposed to move, why are there jet things on the bottom of the legs?

I don't think it makes sense either way. Maybe that's why it's so great.

I've had one of these since I was a kid. Not the greatest design, but this was peak Power Rangers Megazord era design (for better and worse!) so it was fun to play with though it was kind of weird.

Do you even work in the tech industry if you don't have the "ROBO" logo on your clothes?!? :)

Did he just raid another robo’s wallet for that robodollar in his manipulator?

@AustinPowers:
It’s shaped like Hippocampus from Krapopolis, it has grabby claws, and it has obviously-rockets for feet.

@AllenSmith:
It was clearly influenced by their arch-enemies, in a subtle act of sabotage.

@MutoidMan:
It’s obviously his membership verification card, to prove that he’s a legitimate robot, and not just some kid’s science fair project.

@AllenSmith:
"... Insectoids and UFO had a cohesive design language, but I found them unapproachable, ugly, and full of big parts that were obvious precursors to full juniorization... "

I totally agree with you on Insectoids and UFO...

@PurpleDave : to me as a kid it always looked more like a building than a vehicle, and LEGO themselves called it a building over here, plus I had never seen a "mech" back then anyway (the closest being the Tripods from the British Scifi show of the same name). So to me this was always some kind of groovily designed space station.

My brother had this set--our lone Roboforce set--so it's squarely in the nostalgia zone for me (which, for Space sets, runs roughly Blacktron II through Roboforce). I think I have more sympathy for the view "well, it's not my nostalgia, so I don't get it" than the similar, but quite different "...and it's objectively worse than 80s Space."

As someone who had no older siblings/friends/cousins with 80s LEGO, I didn't come to know any of it at all until the age of the Internet, and while I've come to enjoy parts of it for reasons of simplicity or "wow, this feels like time travel to an era I only had glimpses of," I still think it looks quite primitive next to what I think of as "normal": i.e. the good bits of the mid- to late- 90s. So, Town until 96, Castle until 96, Pirates, Aquazone, Space through 97, Adventurers and Ninja in 98 and 99. Am I biased? Absolutely--my brain weeds out all the crappy parts and rates higher things in the muddled middle that are more familiar. But I'm sort of aware of it.

All of which is to say that if LEGO brings back trans-neon orange and makes a $200 Icons set that uses this shuffle motion with redone versions of these figs--well, let's just say I want that.