SPACE

Normally avoid vehicles in Lego Worlds in favour of my gorilla but for Classic Space cars being able to blast craters wherever I go... YES

I like the ghostly image of the rocket in it's other positions. I don't think there were many, if not at all, such box arts

I had this set. I still have some of the pieces. Not enough to recreate it though. Well, I'll always have the memories...

(I'm biased here, having just barely missed being alive in the '70s)

It's Space, and it's classic, but a mere prototype for a set with truly lovely launching tactility: 6881

What a beautiful set, simply and creative.
The proof that LEGO didn't need to copy more and more SCI-FICTION movies to realize good space stuff. I really miss those days.

Hey Lego, I would buy this.

I have two of 897, the European version of this set. Funny that most of the Classic Space sets had specific names in the US, whereas in Europe there was no such thing. All we got was the set numbers ;-)
Even more funny that the name TLG gave this set was just a basic description of what you saw on the box: "Rocket launcher". Very creative :-))

And come to think of it, the brand-new Rocket Transport 60229 kind of seems like the spiritual great-great-grandson of this set.

aaah yes, this was a core part of my Space collection as a kid

@Minifg Jez just beat me to it, just wondering if the other people with comments had realised the flaw in the design, which as you say was in order to be able to carry the Rocket it had to be attached to the launcher. In 1978 Lego didn't seem to mind that meaning you had to take it apart to launch.... and neither did we...... except I seem to remember it falling off a lot, maybe the cluth strength wasn't the same then.

I think this was the first space set I got.

Like many others here, this was my first Space set waaay back in 1978. An amazing find in my local toyshop, as I'd not seen any adverts for it, and was completely unaware of the existence of the range. Much play and further spending resulted. Ah, happy days!

Had I had this set I would have definitely just took the bracket with the rocket and pretended it was some kind of solar panel or computer interface :D

We had this back in the day. Lots of good memories of course! But what always bothered me as a kid (and still does) is that you cannot really launch the rocket. You need to take off front and back, since there's this bracket in-between, reassemble the rocket, and then it can go flying. Not that great for playability... https://brickset.com/sets/6881-1/ does a much better job here (which we also had), but of course it came several years later, in the 'blue' phase of classic space.

Wow, I'm pretty sure this was one of my childhood sets. I really enjoyed the Space theme. I just spent some time perusing the Brickset database to see what else I recognise.

This set I have loved from my childhood.
Great memories, therefore I should have this at least three times by now. One for play, one for the gallery and one boxed.

@MinifigJez I had completely forgotten about that frustration until I read your comment. Wow, add me to the list.

This too was my first space/LEGO set. My 4 year old daughter dug this out of box the other day and built her own version of a rocket launcher. Very proud papa to see her creation!

That proto-SNOT build. So simple but so cool.

For me the frustrating part of this set was that I didn't have two. Since it comes with 1 black 2x2x2 cone and 1 white cone, you can't make something symmetric with multiple engines with only one set.

Back in those days, this set had a lot of "special" parts: computer screen, 32 dia. radar dish, 1x1 round transparent green brick, large plate hinge, small brick hinge, and pretty much every piece on the rocket itself. For people with a decent-sized "general" collection of bricks and plates, sets like this one made creating space ships possible. They also led to endless hours sifting through a pile of parts to find that one special one you needed for an engine, a laser cannon, or a wing.

@Minifig Jet, Exactly the same sentiment. While I loved this set - as I did all my Classic Space - I always thought that was an annoying design flaw.

My very first Classic Space set, I can probably still build it from memory w/o instructions...lots of fun sending the two minifigs on their satellite-launching adventures on some far-off moon...plenty of playability packed into such a small set.

Ahh the red wheels and the dark green transparent parts. Love em.

Awesome set.

The only downside was the way that those older big hinges could be rather fragile for kids play.

Wow. This was my very first LEGO set! I remember wishing the 2x8 hinge was 2x4 and I actually cut off the extra bits. Adult me is horrified by child me. :)

I always wanted this one as a kid because I wanted to know how the rocket stayed on the launcher. I knew that gray piece was involved, but needed to know how.

Wow! I loved this set. So many great childhood memories of my Space guys discovering far flung places like, the wardrobe floor, under the bed and the bathroom tiles. :D I miss those days so much.