Galaxy Explorer 928

This is possibly the king of the Classic Space sets. This is the set that as a kid I yearned for painfully but never ever got. It was simply too expensive and way out of my parent’s price range – even for a Christmas present. They had three kids to provide for so I don’t blame them in the slightest. Instead over two consecutive Christmases I received the two smaller models of the fleet, the 918 One Man Space Ship and 924 Space Transporter, both of which I will no doubt review at a later date.

Released in 1979 these first Space sets designed in Minifgure scale heralded a whole new theme for Lego and the new elements created for these sets eventually bled into the Town sets of the time and enhanced building techniques and the overall aesthetic design – very much a win-win situation. I fell in love with this new theme immediately and would spend hours poring over Lego catalogues and leaflets imagining what it would be like to own such amazing Lego for real. The Christmases I received sets 918 and 924 were good ones – by then I’d amassed enough of the smaller pocket-money models to have quite a space fleet at my command – these new additions were the icing on the cake.

But 928 was the one that got away.

Hence when I restarted collecting Lego again in my 30’s 928 was one of the first sets that I set my heart on acquiring. When the set was first released I think it went for something like £25 – which was a helluva lot of money for a toy in 1979. In the mid 2000’s it was being sold on eBay for upwards of £50. Lego, for those of you who have a mind to make money, is a wise investment; it holds its value and in a lot of cases increases it. I managed to buy a complete model complete with instructions and box for about £55 in 2004 and considered it a bargain. At last the secrets of the model’s interior was mine!

It’s a great set – featuring a roomy cockpit and a compartment at the back accessed via a pair of swing doors that contains a modest surface vehicle. Finally owning it brought the memory of those Christmases back to me and I felt that I had at last realized a long held boyhood dream.

The fact that I now own two (as you can see from the photos) merely augments my enjoyment of this set all the more. I didn’t set out to buy two but one came up on eBay a couple of years ago, incomplete and in a very poorly condition. I managed to get it for a mere £25 and then spent a good deal of time sourcing replacement parts of the right age with which to renovate it. It was an enjoyable project and, checking out recent prices on eBay, a lucrative one as the model – complete – can now sell for anything up to £150. Not a bad investment.

And yes, I now own two 918’s and 924’s too – purely to balance the fleet, you understand. One has to be even handed after all.