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Over 50 supports!
Hey guys! First off, I want to thank you all for helping me get over 50 supporters! It really does mean a lot to me, as I'm sure it does to a lot of you who put great time and effort into your works and ideas. Second of all, um, perhaps it's too early for me to do this, but I really wanted to share some background info about the inspiration behind my set idea and some additional info!
The Inspiration
As a child, I was of course very obsessed with Lego and the creative possibilities they offered. I remember being so enthralled with themes, such as the old Lego Adventure themes, or the Harry Potter sets and the like. And aside from the superior Bionicle line and the rich stories it offered, my favorite themes were usually the space ones. From the classic space sets, to Blacktron, to Unitron and etc., I have built more space sets than I can count. Something about those glorious themes always were captivating and spectacular to behold. The sense of wonder from gazing into those magnificent spaceships and robots and imagining about a world far out among the stars...it was awfully exciting to say the least, ha ha!
So time went on, and sets got more and more complex, I couldn't help but feel like a little bit of that magic seemed to have faded. I mean don't get me wrong, I love the newer more modern Lego sets and the increased complexity in their design; with newer, more rounder parts and builds. But there was nevertheless some wondrous charm to the older themes that I feel is sort of missing. It's kind of hard to explain, but the older sets with their designs and aesthetics always felt more like models. The newer sets, though are great looking and more complex, tend to feel more like regular toys (I mean, lego IS a toy but regardless).
Conceptualizing The Set
Even before realizing I could make an Ideas account, I had been toying with LDD to design different concepts and builds. Attempting as I worked on these projects to understand how the different parts could interact with each other. I at first started designing some pretty basic spaceship designs, akin to the older Blacktron themes. The next project was designing some small sets with the goal to use mostly older parts and aesthetics. I designed a two legged, bird like walker and some sort of radio stand to go with it, painting in a blue and white color scheme.
It was sometime after those two attempts before hearing wind of Lego Ideas and that I decided to buckle down, get serious, and attempt to make a set that was worthy to be sold. The set itself was originally titled "Retron" (combining the words, "Retro" and the suffix "Tron" from some of the later 80's and early 90's space themes). Fearing that it might alienate people interested in this set, I decided to go for a more basic, "Robot Mining Station" name. The original concept was to have the people of Retron be explorers, constantly being harassed by vicious robots who wanted to impede their progress. But that was ditched, fearing it might have been too complicated and clutter up the set.
The idea to use robots for the main workers was mostly inspired by the unique Insectoid minifigures, along with the robots from the Spyrius line. Originally, they kept the wind up key, having only the stud on the head be the indicator of their identity. However, issues with trying to position them into vehicles made this too difficult to use, so instead a flat colored round tile was used in their place. I feel this worked better to help identify each individual robot.
Building the Set
The first thing constructed was the two legged recon walker. Fairly simple design, utilizing the hinge bricks for the legs and having it stand on two-toed feet. After that, the seconded vehicle was being worked on, and I admittedly had a lot of trouble conceptualizing it. Originally it was to be a multi wheel all terrain explorer, akin to some of the M-Tron sets, but I just couldn't get it to look right. The initial builds were quite clumsy to look at and didn't gel well with the vision I had in mind. I decided to ditch the wheel concept and go for a more futuristic hover cart. Originally the cart held onto special cases that housed the silver crystals inside, but as I continue to develop the set I couldn't make sense of why it would transport that.
The base was arguably the hardest part to design. I must have completely overhauled the design dozens of times, trying to get it to look just right. Constantly I was expanding and shortening it up, until I finally got it to the right size I wanted. There was to be two other module buildings to house the hover cart and walker, but I wisely decided to scrap those to keep the set very focused on the singular mining base. The other module would have been the area where the laser cutter was used on the moon boulders. Instead that's just a small build on it's own baseplate. Actually the cutter was on the same plate as the base, but it looked too cluttered having it so outrageously close to it.
The last part to be constructed was the lunar flyer, which came pretty naturally. The concept for it just practically leapt straight from my mind and I had it build faster than the other two vehicles. The usage of the lighter green against the black parts, along with the translucent green pieces were to give it an alien like feel, and the antennae were to give it the feel of being akin to the older space sets. The interior is somewhat inspired by the incredible modular building sets that Lego produces in terms of details and look. There was the laser scanner to look for impurities, the main computer for comminication back to earth, the lunar surface scanner on the side, as well as the teleporter pad for sending the crystals back to the earth.
Overall, this was a fun build to make, and I'm really glad how much support it has gotten so far! Thank you all for your continued support and words of encouragement!