Space
Of the three original LEGOLAND themes released in the late 1970's, none was to cause such excitement among children as LEGOLAND Space. As years passed this became even more evident as LEGO released Space-related themes in much greater proliferation than the other themes. The original LEGOLAND Space theme became known in more recent years as Classic Space as new Space themes were released that each had their own visual styles, functional gimmicks and story concepts.
With the advent of the licencing deal to produce Star Wars(TM) themed LEGO sets, other Space-themed LEGO sets were no longer released. However, in spite of this, and quite possibly as result of it, the online community of Space-themed LEGO enthusiasts grew ever richer. The most talented members of this community were able to in a sense pick up where the LEGO company left off, and create their own LEGO Space themes according to a similar overall design philosophy to that employed for the official themes. There are several of these fan-created themes now, each being a community effort benefiting from contributions by different builders.
For an overview of space themes, see category:space
Fannish lore
Space LEGO creations are usually (but not always) distingushable from Train creations in that they tend to actually take a panoply of interesting and appealing forms, as opposed to being oblong box-shaped vehicles that can't fly. They're almost always distingushable from Castle creations in a similar way, in that they don't resemble gray stone buildings with medieval soldiers perched on top (most of which can't fly either).
It is said: "You can tell a spacer1 ... but you can't tell him much."
There is a friendly rivalry between spacers and trainheads, mainly due to the fact that Trains enthusiasts enjoy an inordinate amount of recognition by a relatively large community of non-LEGO Train hobby enthusiasts for which there is little or no Space equivalent.
Despite the fact that the minifig occupants of many Space creations wear spacesuits with their own air supply, Space builders rigorously adhere to the policy of eliminating any gaps or openings from the canopies of their spacecraft. The motivations for this vary, but the most commonly held view is that the occupants must under all circumstances be protected from "the poisonous space air"2.
Beware the Fleebnork.
External references
- Classic Space community
1 - by the way he yells SPACE! at every opportunity to do so, if anyone else inadvertantly says some phrase containing the word space. See SPACE! in the Category:running jokes
2 - See also: All spaceships must have wings.
