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Building the Battle
Review by Joe Meno
 | Star Justice Set #: 10191 |
 | Space Skulls Set #: 10192 |
LEGO Factory released two fan-designed space sets. Both are large box sets with a set of vehicles and minifigures to “join the battle” as Star Justice troops or Space Skull troops. Star Justice was designed by Chris Giddens, and Space Skull was designed by Mark Sandlin. Both sets are well-designed, with vehicles and extras for play and construction possibilities.
Each set has over 900 elements, which at their price point is a good buy. With each set is 4 minifigures (enough to pilot all the vehicles in their sets), two instruction books, and a sheet of stickers. The sticker sheets are noteworthy because they have stickers for minifigure uniforms for each set – and they can be applied to other minifigure torsos, so anyone with spare blank torsos in different colors can make different divisions if they want. However, the Star Justice stickers have a minor glitch. The commander torso sticker has a gold star badge on the left breast, while the other officers should have a gray star. In this case, the grey was substituted with a screen of black without an outline, which fades the badge considerably – it’s very hard to see the badge clearly without an outline.
The instructions are clear on both sets – the parts are easily found (the problem of dark grey and black parts being hard to tell apart previously has been solved) and the steps are pretty straightforward.
The big difference between the two sets is that the Star Justice set has two space vehicles, a base and a moon rover. The Space Skulls set has four different vehicles and no base. Because of the this, the Star Justice set seems more complete – it has a base for the ships to land and defend. Two of the Skull ships can use their tentacles to walk on land and grab ships, but there are no dedicated land craft for them. Each set has different purposes, it seems:
 | The models included in the Star Justice set. |
Star Justice has a base, rover for the base, and two ships to patrol. The base has fuel cells it keeps and is something of an outpost. There is a crew of men and robots to maintain and defend the base, which is important because… the Space Skulls want the fuel cells for their own and has a patrol to scout and steal he fuel cells from the Star Justice base.
The sets are successful in creating a design look for each theme. In Star Justice, the colors and rounded cockpits are the defining items of the set style. The white – blue – gray combination of color is used to good effect. The best model in the set is the moon rover because of the functionality – the model has moving suspension and the rear axles steer, thanks to a turntable mounted under the back half. There’s also a level of detail on the models that add another level of coolness.
 | The models included in the Space Skulls set. |
The Space Skull set is even tighter in design style because of the use of the skull in all the models. The color scheme of black – red – white is also a very strong element. The best model in this set is the Skull Fighter, as the triangular wing configuration is a nicely distinctive feature, was well as the landing gear and opening skull cockpit!
Both sets have a lot of play possibilities, with each being a basic starter set for their themes. One thing that would have been nice to place in the instructions would have been some tips to build to the set theme – some inspirational photos, perhaps. Since this is for LEGO factory, the inspiration and tips would have been a great lead-in page to building on LEGO Digital Designer custom space sets. The parts selection for each is more than adequate to explore building more models – with so many parts in the sets, it’s very easy to think of alternate models.
The only other critical comment on both sets that I have is that the price point takes the sets out of reach (at least momentarily) of many casual builders who would otherwise buy the smaller ships in these sets. I would be buying more than one of the Skullfighters and Star Justice fighters if they were available.
Outside the price of the sets, though, these are an excellent way to jump into space building! I recommend these sets for those who want to “join the battle,” and to those who want a good value in parts and building.
The good: Nice part assortments for both sets, stickers can be used anywhere, good value overall.
The bad: Price point is high for casual builders. $200 USD for both sets is a lot.
The ugly: The wallet after buying both sets:-).
You can order these sets at LEGO Shop-at-Home:
Star Justice
Space Skulls
You can read more about the designers here:
Chris Giddens (designer of Star Justice)
Mark Sandlin (designer of Space Skulls)
The designer have also designed some additional models that can be found here:
Chris Gidden's Additional Star Justice models
Mark Sandlin's Additional Space Skull models
Finally, you can read about the making of these sets in BrickJournal Issue 2, Vol. 2, out soon!
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