This set is one of my favourite small spacecrafts form the blacktron future generation wave, the set does its job well and uses unique techniques to apply certain pieces to the set which i think is a clever decision. The minifigure is the same as the rest of the blacktron minifigures, but has an accessory representing a laser gun. The cockpit is not fully enclosed, but it doesn't create too much contrast. I like the cargo bay holding a printed flat 1x2 tile while being connected to the engine. The wings can fold in and out. I think it is 100% worth the money and makes a nice display piece.

As an AFOL, I was interested to see what the oldest set in my collection is. I was putting together random bricks the other day and noticed that I had a minifigure with a B on his torso. I had no idea what that stood for, so I came to Brickset to find out. Lo and behold, some of those "random pieces" were in fact the Super Nova II and the guy with a B on his chest was the pilot! I could not find instruction to put it back together, but using the picture and an odd piece here and there, I put it (mostly) back together. I don't even remember playing with this set as a kid, but as an adult I can say this is a fun little set. The minifig is pretty generic, but the ship is great, and the parts are very playable. I do remember using the little box on the back on the ship for anything but this ship. The wings are versatile and a good addition to any builders' stock. Overall, this is a great set, both because it is a good ship to play with, and because the individual parts can easily be incorporated into a myriad of building projects.

This little set distils what the Blacktron's were all about; hit-and-run raids and fighting it out with the Space Police if they had to.

The Vehicle

Like so many of the smaller Space sets they look simple but have some nice touches. The cockpit is spacious and the canopy opens to the rear, the 1x2 handle brick is ingeniously used as a lock. The 2397 horse hitching brick is cleverly used to form the sides of the cockpit to prevent the pilot falling out. The nose has two neon green cone lasers and the controls consist of a stolen M-Tron computer panel brick (there is another to put inside the container). The four small wings are hinged so they can be moved up and down and are reasonably sturdy even with heavy handling and being single pieces are easy to repair after battle damage. The rear of the craft uses a bracket brick to carry the container (perfect for storing loot) and the rocket nozzle which has a neon dish attached to represent the exhaust. For some reason Lego insisted on giving all the pilots of small craft hand-held objects but never anywhere to store them without having to fly single-handed.

The Minifigure

A standard Blacktron minifigure with airtanks and a hand-held torch/laser thingy.

Personal Developments

I beefed up the lasers adding some spare neon dishes behind the cones and later fitted bigger 4x4 wing bricks to the front wings to match those at the back. It was a shame the cockpit was just too small to fit two figures in. I had many happy hours flying dogfights with this fighter.

We've just rebuilt this little spaceship, mainly because I have two of them and with now two young children of my own having two identical sets to hand out is good preventive action if you don't care much for cries like 'I want to play with this now!', 'Give it back!', etc.

Box/Instructions

This is what, ~40 pieces so the instructions are just a very small folding sheet. The build is over in nine steps or about four-five parts per step. Nothing complicated, but the position of the white 2 x 2 - 2 x 2 bracket was harder to get right for the young builders.

Parts

It may be only 40 pieces but there is a very nice selection nonetheless: a big black rocket engine, two 4 x 4 wings and two 3 x 3 wedge plates (all include separate hinges), two 1 x 2 control panels, a trans neon green 3 x 2 x 6 panel, a black horse hitching (now that's an unexpected part in a spaceship) and this was also the smallest set to contain the Blacktron II container.

Minifigures

One Blacktron II spaceman with tool/laser gun/scanner/you name it. As another reviewer mentioned, there's no clip or storage space for it so he flies around with this thing in his hand, maybe it's an extension of the main controls? Sure, you can set it down inside somewhere but that just looks messy.

The build

Even for my young boys this wasn't very difficult, except the position of the white bracket for some reason? And the rear wings were a bit harder to get right too. That aside, it was a nice build for them, and the way the horse hitching is integrated is very clean. It matches almost perfectly with the 1 x 2 plate with handles so it looks like the blasters are getting their juice from way back in the craft. It is a bit weird how the big engine sits right on the container but that's easily overlooked.

The completed model

Swooshable and sturdy, it will normally survive being dropped. The canopy is firmly attached, in fact it can be a bit difficult to open without it coming off entirely. The four wings can be adjusted independently and are always a source of (slow-motion) fun: swoosh *adjust wings* turn *adjust wings* accelerate *adjust wings* and so on and so forth. The only downside is the small control panel (stolen data?) that tends to drop out of the container after so many loopings.

Overall opinion

For such a small set this is actually very good, and it is the smallest spaceship we had that actually had the pilot not completely exposed to the vacuum of space (although #6850 Auxiliary Patroller is hardly bigger and does even better in that regard)!

Boy how I'd like ten more of these! This ships design is simple yet complex if you look at it with a child's imagination. The two cones in front serve as a decent laser system, the booster is not too big, the controls aren't over complicated with hinges and levers, thecockpit closes firmly, and the box in the back is cool! The folding wings could allow the ship to fly at different speeds, or in different environments. The only cons are that the cockpit window is a little too simple (a side door would be nice), and that when the ship flys the tile in the box rattles too much, and tends to fall out when the ship flips upside-down.