recycledbrick

How Do I Straighten These?

You will find that Hose And Soft Axle pieces will have permanent curves and bends. Buying Used ones on Bricklink will probably have a bend to it. Nothing wrong with that unless you want one that is straight.

What you are building you might want it curved but sometimes these pieces are bent in ways that they are probably unseeable. I have started an experiment on how to get these straight.

For both types of pieces I used Technic bricks. This one is for the Soft Axles.

This one is for this type of Ribbed Hose. Both fit in the holes of the Technic bricks. As you see, I have a lot that are bent. This type of Ribbed Hose seems like it is going to straighten faster than the Soft Axle. The Soft Axle is going to take a long time. I slid them all in yesterday. I will update this page when I am done with this experiment.

UPDATE: The Ribbed Hose after 14 days are now fairly straight. The ribs make the piece more flexible. The Soft Axle aren’t even close yet.

UPDATE 2: Over a month on the Soft Axles and most are very straight. There are two different materials where one is more rigid than the other. These are useable now. Longer would make them even better.

Why Did My Pieces Break?

Most pieces take a fair amount of pressure to snap. They usually will get stress marks first and if pressure is continued might finally break. There are some pieces that snap with little effort. Just connecting them to another piece or trying to get them apart will cause the disaster of the picture above.

The 2×4 brick on the left is normal Blue. The one on the right is Brittle Blue. Of the colors that are prone to breaking, Blue is one where there is a noticeable color difference. It looks a little yellower than normal blue though this could also be due to age as well. The easiest way to tell if you can easily break it. So far I have found Brittle Blue, Reddish Brown, Dark Red and recently Green. The color difference in the brittle vs regular colors is not as noticeable as Blue. I just went through a lot of used pieces that at the Brittle Reddish Brown. 50% of those pieces were brittle. It is more than just Bricks and Plates. Minifig torsos and arms easily break if these are brittle colors. A torso will split on the side anyway but the brittle torsos crack everywhere.

As a seller, I try to catch these as much as possible but some could make into buyers hands. I didn’t know about Green being a brittle color until recently. If you open an older sealed set, that set could have these pieces. The Boeing Dreamliner was a set that had a lot of Brittle Blue. As a buyer if you get brittle pieces from any seller, it wasn’t intentional. A lot of sellers probably aren’t aware of this problem unless one breaks on you. These can get separated without them breaking. Most sellers will probably make it right for the buyer but in cases like the brittle colors not everything is the fault of the seller.

Classic Space: The Brick Frontier

Everyone will have their favorite theme but this one is mine. Being able to take the minifigs into deep space on adventures seemed a lot more fun than a town or a castle. The brightly colored uniforms with helmets with no visor to keep the oxygen in. The iconic moon logo that rubs off and broken chinstraps. The LEGO Movie got this right with Benny.

I don’t remember my first Classic Space set but the 497 Galaxy Explorer is the one that I remember first. 318 pieces with 4 minifigs, 2 red and 2 white, on 2 baseplates. A small outpost and a vehicle that fits in the back. The spaceship I rebuilt and took apart so many times. I wondered about the LL928 that is printed on the 1×4 bricks. The set number was 497 but found out later that 928 was the number for this set for the rest of the world. The first release of the Classic Space sets in the United States the numbers were changed. The number makes more sense now.

I might have had 10 Classic Space sets. The Galaxy Explorer was the biggest one that I had. As the pictures show, I have a lot more minifigs that came with those sets that I did keep all these years. I am rebuilding the sets that I did have and have found a few pieces missing. That is what Bricklink is for. I am also building the sets that I didn’t have like the Galaxy Commander. When I am done I will post about it here.

It was nice to see Classic Space in the LEGO Movie. I wish it was a theme that they could expand with and keep going. It was great to see the familiar Classic Space logo and I have the 70816 Benny’s Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! displayed with the original Classic Space sets. Everything doesn’t have to be Star Wars.

6880: Surface Explorer

There are lots of reviews out there of recent and current LEGO sets. I am going to review mostly Classic Space. It is going to be hard to pick these up at a store but you can find them on Bricklink or you can build them from scratch. This set came out in 1982 and contains 82 pieces including one yellow minifig. Until this year there were only red and white astronauts but this year was the first for the yellow astronauts.

It has seating for two but only comes with one minifig which is good because there are other astronauts from sets that don’t have much to do. These balloon tires were my favorite from this era. They seemed much more futuristic than the other tires that came from town sets.

Having two steering wheels so that it could be operated in either direction was unique from the other Classic Space vehicles. The articulation arms with a bucket on one side and a jaw on the other so you can dig and pick up.

Exclusive Pieces To Build This Set:

Besides that the old light gray pieces are no longer in modern sets those arm pieces are the hardest to find. Not that they are rare. Some were used in later sets but finding unbroken ones or ones that won’t soon break. I test every one of these pieces before I sell them in my store to see if they are cracked or might be soon. Even then they can just break from age being assembled on the model. The printed pieces were in a lot of the Classic Space sets.

To Build Or Not To Build:

Yes. This one is a must for me for my Classic Space collection. It has interesting pieces and design. First year of the yellow astronaut and it has balloon tires. Can’t go wrong with that. I am a Classic Space collector and have a lot of favorites but not all the sets are great so these review aren’t all going to be a yes.

6890: Cosmic Cruiser

This was a set I never owned when it came out in 1982. It is a set I “Bricklinked.” Bricklinked: To buy all the parts for a set from Bricklink. I bought 115 pieces for the set from Bricklink which includes one red astronaut. I always did want this set. I enjoy when there is a vehicle in a vehicle.

I had the Galaxy Explorer and the Starfleet Voyager. I wanted a smaller and better ship than the ones that I had. At least I have it now. It has a Transparent Blue 4213 Plate Hinge for the astronaut to be able to get inside. The best feature is in the back.

A small vehicle comes out the back. There is a lock that has a printed 1×2 Brick on it which is flipped up at the moment. I guess that it is a surface vehicle. It reminds me of the 6842 Shuttle Craft set which I thought of it as a surface speeder that also flies. This is a great feature for a fairly small set.

Exclusive Pieces To Build This Set:

There are other printed pieces that are in other sets. The printed piece with the logo has a smaller logo than some other sets. This smaller logo piece was only available in this set. The other pieces are available elsewhere but aren’t used in current sets. The transparent pieces from the Classic Space era will crack. The Blue and Light Gray will be yellowed. Using a new Blue brick next to the one with the logo will look wrong. You will need to find older pieces to make sure it matches.

To Build Or Not To Build:

Yes. It is an interesting set. I like the vehicle that comes out of another vehicle. For the most part the pieces are available in other Classic Space sets. Classic Space doesn’t have many small ships that are actually good. This one is great. Go out and say that you Bricklinked this set today.