Box/Instructions

The front image of the box looks a little cluttered, and I'm not a fan of the photoshopping of the buggy on top of the rocks.

Parts

A variety of nice pieces here. I'm always grateful for cameras and the printed computer tiles. I can't get enough of the transparent blue cylinders either. This is also my first encounter with the dark sand rock detail, which is nice.

Minifigures

Obviously the spaceman and the female scientist are the standouts here. I love that the scientist has glasses - not nearly enough minifigs have them IMO. The other heads are all very basic, although naturally the spaceman's is hidden. My only complaint about the spaceman is the accessory stuck to the packpack, I just feel they could have done something a tiny bit more interesting.

The build

There are 4 sub-builds, none of which are taxing nor involve anything other than the most basic of techniques. It takes 5 minutes tops.

The completed model

Most of the mini-builds are decent little things. In particular the bank of scientific equipment is great. I'm not a fan of the buggy, but that is more down to the fact that I have a lot of similar ones from the City line. At least in this case, this type of buggy is justified. The rock detailing is a bit strange to me. I feel it would have made more sense to either use 2 of the detailed pieces, or none. This would make the design a little more consistant.

Overall opinion

A great set with a lot of playability due to the various separate builds. The minifigures are great too.

When the 2015 City Spaceport sets were revealed, this is the one that caught my eye. I already have 3367 and 3368 (the Space Shuttle and Space Centre, respectively) from the 2011 line and am not looking to add more large spacecraft, but I am always interested in picking up more astronauts and "tech accessories" for my personal space program.

Box/Instructions

The box is probably a bit bigger than necessary (about 5x6 inches) and the booklet feels thick for such a small set, but I suppose that the latter speaks to the quality and user-friendliness of the instructions.

Parts

A very good variety of small parts in various colors, without too much redundancy. These 107 pieces really count. Three printed pieces are included--a 2x2 monitor screen, a 1x2 keyboard and a 1x2 "blinking light panel." No stickers.

Minifigures

The two astronauts are identical except for their faces (one has a smirk) and a single blue hat that they can't both wear. The combined helmet-backpacks seem to be the same as those in the 2011 sets, and offer great functionality with the ability to stand upright securely on a studded surface, and the small over-the-shoulder "side lamp" construct on one of them is superb looking in its clean simplicity. The front/back torso printing is very attractive with prominent metallic silver and red/blue accents. I really like the City Spaceport logo, which also appears on the back of the female scientist's lab coat. The fourth figure, the engineer, looks as though he could be in any construction or industrial set, but is solid nonetheless. The legs are the only things disappointing about these minifigures, as none of them have any printing.

The Build

The buggy/rover vehicle is very small and simple, but still an enjoyable build. I find the color scheme to be extremely attractive, the white, grey, red and blue very crisp and clean, with some transparent light blue and a single gold cone. It looks good coming together. There are plenty of small playability features and places to attach accessories. An excellent small design. The rest of the construction is similarly simple, straightforward and easy.

The Completed Model

Again, the buggy is very sharp. The small science/computer station also looks great, and has some synergy with the laboratory-esque Ideas sets that have been very popular recently. There is an attached "rock formation" for lack of a better way to describe it, which seems to function as a small off-road simulation zone for the buggy. It reminds me of an artificial hill in the parking lot of a Land Rover dealership. Kind of an unexpected detail in a set of this scale, but I like it. The final two items, a camera and a light array on separate 4x4 plates, are very minimalist but make perfect sense in this context.

Overall Opinion

Brick-for-brick, this may be the single most rewarding set that I have come across. At 107 pieces and $10 in the US, it is very small and inexpensive, but there are no wasted parts or uninspired details. Whether one sees it as equipment used in a testing facility on Earth, or in the field on another planet or moon, the playability potential is utterly fantastic, and it doesn't look bad for display purposes either. A great way to pick up some gold-visored astronauts, for sure, but a great supplement as a whole for any space or science-themed repertoire. Maximum value, maximum recommendation.

I've not bought any Space-type sets since the Discovery series of 2003, not because I don't want to but mainly because the recent sets look too juniorised and just not too appealling to me. I feel that all the recent Space Shuttle and space sets in general have an over-sized baby-toy feel to them.

Anyway, I bought this one to test the waters of the new Space series and also for some of the special parts available relatively cheaply in a small set.

Box/Instructions

The box doesn't really scream out "Space" to me. The background as well as the mini-fig in the white hardhat looks like he accidentally walked out of a Town construction set. Without reading the description on Lego's website, it doesn't immediately jump out at you that this is supposed to be a space testing lab.

Parts

A few nice parts; the female scientist minifig; also the computer screen & keyboard which you would usually need to buy a much larger town set to obtain. The handrail in white colour (which I usually associate with old 9V train sets in black colour) is quite rare and nice to have and can be used for other lab-type creations. Too bad there's not 2 of them. The special "mars terrain" piece is found in only a few sets but it's a bit superfluous; only one number doesn't really make much of a test terrain for the mars rover. It would have been nicer to have a slightly larger baseplate and use more standard parts to create the terrian for the rover to really drive across.

Minifigures

Nice to be able to get the Female Scientist without buying the big Spaceport set 60080.

The "Engineer" in the white hardhat and construction clothes looks out of place. Something like a lab coat or jumpsuit would have been nicer.

The Spacemen are okay and the little camera/light on the side of the visor is a nice touch, but the un-flippable golden visor is a great annoyance that makes the spacemen "emotionless". Even if the visor can't move, I'd prefer it to be transparent. It would be nice if the jetpack didn't need to be gripped by both hands all the time. I also don't like that the huge headpiece covers up most of the torso spacesuit printing.

And the new Space Logo is weird; why is the little shuttle pointing downward!? It should be going across and up, right!?

The build

Simple as you would expect in a Starter set.

The completed model

The playability is very limited in my opinion.

The Mars Rover is disappointing; it looks like a beach buggy. I wish they would have given it a robotic arm for collecting soil samples. And a solar panel and upward pivoting antenna/transmitter would have improved it vastly. The ground scanner could have extended out further from the buggy. And maybe 6 wheels instead of 4 to emphasize the rover aspect.

As I mentioned the testing terrain is way too small. If you try to drive the rover over it, you end up pushing the whole testing station away!

The totem mounted lights and camera are nice little touches.

Overall opinion

Okay it's a Starter Set and I really like that Lego have started putting out these small affordable sets again (when I was a kid in the 70's and early 80's, tiny sets were all that I could afford to buy with my pocket money) but I feel a few changes could have improved this set vastly. The testing and exploration aspects could have been much better, especially the rover vehicle. Good only for a few parts.