The Theme was phased out and succeeded by LEGO Space's Futuron faction, which utilized updated versions of the classic spacesuits in the same colors, except for white, which was now made a uniform secondary color.
In contemporary times, "Classic Space" has proven to be an iconic part of the brand's history, with a blue astronaut named Benny being a supporting character in The LEGO Movie, the Theme receiving several homages in sets, and new astronaut colors being introduced, such as pink, orange and brown.
Tropes present in the Classic LEGO Space period:
- Absent Aliens: The closest the setting ever came was the appearance of some Non-Human Head aliens in the 6000 ideas book👁 Image
, in what may well have been👁 Image
a dream sequence. - Chest Insignia: On their torsos, all astronauts bear a symbol of a planet with a rocket ship trailing around it in a way that resembles a Saturn-like ring. This logo would eventually come to represent LEGO Space as a whole.
- Color-Coded Castes: 👁 This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.
Word of God on the various space suit colours👁 Image
:[T]he Red and White spacemen started as Cosmonauts and Astronauts. Later they became red pilots and white explorers, yellow were introduced as scientists, blue as security/soldiers, black as spies. - Cybernetic Mythical Beast: A build suggestion from the box art for 6985 shows the spaceship reimagined as a dragon-shaped mecha👁 Image
. - Exty Years from Publication: The Space Command Center (sets 493 / 926), introduced in 1979, has a panel reading "LL2079", implying it's set a hundred years in the future.
- Fan Sequel: "Neo-Classic Space" is a popular building trend in the LEGO community, devoted to taking the general bright aesthetic of classic Space and putting a more detailed modern twist on it.
- Humongous Mecha: Set 6951,👁 Image
the Robot Command Center / Cybernaut. - Non-Standard Character Design: Some sets, such as the 👁 This example contains a TRIVIA entry. It should be moved to the TRIVIA tab.
Vintage Minifigure Collection👁 Image
and the Exo Suit👁 Image
feature astronauts using the standard Lego motorcycle helmet piece as their helmet rather than the less rounded helmets the original Classic Space astronauts did. This is particularly noticeable on the Exo Suit as the helmets have visors, which the original astronauts never did. Word of God at the time explained that this was done👁 Image
because the original helmets cracked and would never be used again because of safety and quality concerns. After The LEGO Movie generated interest in the line again, a number of sets such as Benny's Space Squad👁 Image
and Galaxy Explorer👁 Image
have featured more faithful reproductions of the classic astronauts with accurate helmets that are updated to avoid the cracking issue, but still keep the more cylindrical look of the original helmets. - In Space, Everyone Can See Your Face: The astronauts' helmets don't have any form of visor. (The helmets do have attachment points for visors, but the only visors made were for LEGO Castle knights).
- ISO Standard Human Spaceship: Most of the smaller ships are plain grey, angular, and with exposed studs in lieu of rivets. A few larger ships in the mid-1980s have the same aesthetic, with the addition of green windows.
- Space Plane: A good 60% of the sets were either spaceships or small personal flyers.
- Space Station: Fixed buildings tend to be blue, boxy and with yellow windows.
- Space "X": Quite a few sets were simply called things along the lines of "Space X" (eg Space Scooter, Space Buggy, Space Digger). Parodied in The LEGO Movie's ''Behind The Bricks'' Featurette👁 Image
:Benny, the 80s-something space guy: We've got, a space dog, space cat, space chair, space shelves, uh, I think there's some space food, ASTRONAUT ICE CREAM! We have astronaut milk, uh, sh-shelves, did I say shelves? - Tin-Can Robot: Minifigure-scale robots are boxy approximations of the humanoid form made from bricks, with a 'robot arm' element designed to resemble the classic 'flexi-tube with pincers on the end' look.
- Trope Maker: This was the first space-themed LEGO line (though there were a small few space sets before the themes kicked in). It was also one of the first LEGO Themes outside of towns and cities (the first classic LEGO Castle sets also debuted in 1978).
- Walking Tank: 6940,👁 Image
the Alien Moon Stalker / Thunderfoot Launcher. - Zeerust: The overall aesthetic, especially in the astronaut figures, is reminiscent of 1950s science-fiction (although some sets are quite angular and utilitarian as typical of 70's sci-fi - this was one year after Star Wars after all).
