6956 - Stellar Recon Voyager

Rating:
Pros: Nice design (without car); nice function; good pieces
Cons: Silly Car; no windows in cargo bay frames; empty cockpit
Contents: 221 pieces including 2 mini-figs
Price: Discontinued
Reviewed: 21-Jun-1997
Reviewed by: Sam Siew

In a blinding flash of light, the Stellar Recon Voyager emerged from the mottled sky of hyperspace. Then, without hesitation, it headed onward to the grey green sphere of planet Pegasus Alez. "Alez control to Stellar Recon Voyager X5, what is your cargo?" inquired the starport crew as the Voyager entered the atmostsphere of the planet.
"Ubotanium from Alpha Non. Vital in building of the Alez space station," came the reply, distorted by static.
"You may proceed." The control anknowledged. The Voyager broke through the cloud layer and continued on.
Only a few hundred meters away, hidden by a storm cloud, was a Blacktron Arial Intruder, Grand Admirald Cobot seated inside. Slowly, the Voyager met the crosshairs on the Intruder's screen. And the Admirald smiled...

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The Stellar Recon Voyager was my only unopened set in my entire Lego collection...until now. I had bought it back in 1990, and was just about to open it when someone gave me a Galaxy Explorer they bought from an auction. I was so excited, I tucked the box away in a drawer and opened my Galaxy Explorer. I forgot all about the poor Voyager until now!
Anyway, the Voyager is a nice set, save the silly, hateful car in the front. It seems to be a light freighter carrying 1x1 flourescent yellow pegs (what I refer to as Ubotainium.) The large wings of the ship is raised up by slanted frame columns.
The front of the ship has two antenna lasers and the main drawback of the entire set...the car. The car is a simple 4 wheeled vehicle, with a 1x2 place for the driver to stand. It has a magnet on the front that connects with a magnet on the nose of the ship. This is just spoils the entire design, with silly car hanging from the nose of the ship as it flys through space. I'm tempted to give this set 2 stars all because of the car. Luckily, the car's removable.
The cockpit has a flourescent yellow canopy with a hinged extension. I've only seen this extension on the Shark's Crystal Cave in flourescent orange. I've never seen it in flourescent yellow. The canopy attaches to the extension and allows the canopy to raise while the back of the cockpit is still covered by the extension.
The inside of the cockpit is basically an empty space with a control panel and a driving wheel. I feel a driving wheel is just too primitive, this is supposed to be 2045! The cockpit seats 2 people with their air tanks on, although the other mini-fig doesn't have any control surfaces to man.
On the sides of the cockpit, there are magnets which can hold 2 boxes of Ubotanium. There are lasers on each side. The back of the ship is a large cargo area with 4 red half-diamond frames for walls. Too bad there aren't any windows on the frames; that would look really cool. On each side of the frontal section of the cargo bay, there are huge, octahedron quarters which have depressions in them that are supposed to be engines.
Inside the cargo bay, there's a magnetic crane (a tilting red slanted frame piece with a magnet) that can pick up a large M-Tron cargo box (the ones with the hinged sides) and hoist it in the cargo bay.
At the top of the bay are the large wings and some sensor equipment. This set has a some good function and the design looks great for a freighter if you remove the car. The ship would look so much cooler if there were windows in the frames in the cargo bay. The interior of the cockpit needs improvement, it's basically an empty space. I liked recieving the 4 frames for the cargo bay, the canopy extension in flourescent yellow, the large engines, and the large wings.
This set makes a great addition to the M-Tron sub-theme, I always saw the M-Trons as miners. It's a set to pick up at an auction, 'cause there ain't much space freighters around these days.