Random set of the day: Mars Exploration Rover
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 7471 Mars Exploration Rover, released during 2003. It's one of 6 Discovery sets produced that year. It contains 870 pieces, and its retail price was US$90/£69.99.
It's owned by 1,234 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 $229.20, or eBay.
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21 comments on this article
Pretty sure the actual rover this is based off of is dead, but I think it's the one that lasted like 10 years longer than anyone could have hoped.
@MCLegoboy said:
"Pretty sure the actual rover this is based off of is dead, but I think it's the one that lasted like 10 years longer than anyone could have hoped."
Opportunity right? I've got a song about them that's stayed on my playlist for the last... 5 years!? Oh my... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SumgbxvEV04
Just two more of these left.
I really regret not buying this. I completely missed the two minutes that the Ideas set was available to buy, but this one I just let slip through my fingers.
@MCLegoboy said:
"Pretty sure the actual rover this is based off of is dead, but I think it's the one that lasted like 10 years longer than anyone could have hoped."
Designed to last 90 sols (Earth days), so about three months. Spirit managed to last 2208 sols, while Opportunity clocked in at 5111 sols. That's an extra 14 years, 47 days back on Earth.
It might be about to discover the martians from the life on mars theme!
It's not a very good boxart pic is it? something closer to the ground or maybe it rolling off a slight hill and some under side view would be better. This just has a lot of blue in it huh.
Like @PurpleDave, I'm sorry I didn't pick this one up. although I am glad I found 30682 the other day, and am definitely planning to pick up its big brother, 42158. And since @GSR_MataNui linked to a tribute, so will I, although mine's a bit different: https://www.deviantart.com/dishwasher1910/art/A-missed-opportunity-786955289
I got this as a child as a gift from my parents after I had a surgery. I want to buy it again and display it :)
All the Discovery sets were pretty cool; this one has plastic sheets for solar panels. In many cases I think LEGO using plastic sheets is kind of cheating. I mean it’s already a plastic toy, and this monochrome doesn’t add any level of detail unlike other plastic sheet parts they’ve made (waterfalls, dragon wings, and such) so I think because of that, this set is overrated.
The functions are that the dish and the camera array rotate, the drilling arm thing comes out, and the wheels are steerable. The solar panels also fold upward.
My son got this for Christmas from the grandparents, I build it too at one point.
Kinda' ironic...I just got the Technics polybag of the current rover "Perseverance" (30682) just yesterday/Friday...kinda' thinking of building it, and putting it with the current SPACE (sorry...but, you have to say/write it like that) stuff...a mega-rover if you will.:)
@PurpleDave said:
"I really regret not buying this. I completely missed the two minutes that the Ideas set was available to buy, but this one I just let slip through my fingers."
So you’re saying you…missed the Opportunity?
@PurpleDave said:
"I really regret not buying this. I completely missed the two minutes that the Ideas set was available to buy, but this one I just let slip through my fingers."
Get 42158 to make up for it!
There's something incredibly special to me about those two rovers. More than any other Mars rovers, if we ever establish a lasting presence on Mars, I hope we find them with old mission data and leave a monument where they each rest.
A 90 day mission... Spirit, crippled in '06 by a non-functional wheel, kept soldiering on until 2010. Opportunity at last went silent in 2018, after 15 years.
Geez, it still gets to me.
Edit: Heh, I guess @PurpleDave beat me to the details. Sorry for missing that.
It's a pretty big and slightly flimsy thing for display but put a couple of Classic Space Astronauts on it and it makes a great giant mech (or Mek-Quake for old school 2000AD readers)
@NotProfessorWhymzi said:
" also, has anyone reviewed this thing? i can't shake the feeling it might not be as good as we remember..."
There are four reviews on the set page.
I got 7469: Mission To Mars back in the day as a gift. When I was younger I kind of missed playability for it and it didn't feel as iconic or monumental as some of the other Discovery sets. To me it didn't help that those three models seemed to be at different scales (at least the rocket is), so it didn't really work with anything including itself. Looking back, it was a significant moment in space exploration on its own. I just found out I'm not really a static display model or licensed real-world model guy.
Still got that one again a few years ago though, out of nostalgia.
This set always reminds me of that set because that was my introduction to real-world space exploration and especially this specific rover. From what I could see in the instructions it has some nice technic functions, although at the end of the day it's a robotic rover, so the amount of stuff that moves is still limited by practicality of design,
@AllenSmith said:
"The functions are that the dish and the camera array rotate, the drilling arm thing comes out, and the wheels are steerable. The solar panels also fold upward."
Even better the solar panels are spring loaded with rubber band, and will bounce out when released.
@MLF said:
" @AllenSmith said:
"The functions are that the dish and the camera array rotate, the drilling arm thing comes out, and the wheels are steerable. The solar panels also fold upward."
Even better the solar panels are spring loaded with rubber band, and will bounce out when released."
Substitute "will" for "used to". My rubber bands all deteriorated and broke.
@Binnekamp:
Years ago, Hot Wheels did a JPL Soujurner Mars Rover Action Pack. It came with three models. One was the heat shield capsule that was used for reentry, and you could remove the conical part to find a tiny lander that would fold out. There was a second lander, the same size as the capsule, and if you folded the panels down on that, it had a tiny Sojourner rover inside. And the third model was a rover the size of the other two. So this showed the three stages to touchdown and having the first operable rover on the surface of another planet. The scale differences of both the Mars and Apollo microscale sets didn’t bother me one bit.