Situated on an asteroid in deep space, the Explorien outpost Beta Omega was designed to be able to stand on its own. It is only defended by a small ground vehicle with a large laser. Weary explorers feel safe within the giant dome of the outpost while their space ships are repaired.
The outpost, operated by an android staff, is also home to some frontier researchers. Many different new life forms are examined here. Through this research, come advances in knowledge and understanding. Already, three medical cures have been discovered at this outpost alone.
JOSEPH: I wasn't real crazy about the android base at first sight, but I recently got into available surface stations so I took the plunge and picked one up. I am quite satisfied with this most current station.
PATRICK: The Unitron Space Station Zenon was my first base in over 5 years. I wasn't too thrilled with it since it's just a quarter dome and some stupid rock pieces. When I found this Explorien base on sale, I snagged it.
JOSEPH: The station is pretty complete with one land vehicle, one v-wing type flight craft, and the mostly-enclosed station with large transparent doors that close snugly around the mobile unit. Just outside the main base there is a storage/inspection area to hold those amazing coded alien-egg tiles.
PATRICK: Well, I don't know if I'd call them "amazing"...
JOSEPH: Right you are, silly and overrated sums them up better for me (though they could be cooler if the alien image were hidden within the background and visible only through a viewer).
Inside the closing domes there are a few computers along with one of the Exploriens 4x4 plate hologram sticker. All in all, a cozy, complete surface station. It's a BIG improvement over the last Spyrius station, and bit more complete-looking than the Unitron station (although that is still a favorite of mine).
PATRICK: I love how the doors open and how everything fits together so nicely, but I was horribly surprised to discover that the set only came on half of a base plate. I had expected to find a full-size one. However, the set does cover almost all of the baseplate.
JOSEPH: I forgot it was on only half a baseplate but now that you mention it, I remember similar shock when I first got the set. It is nice that they cover most of the plate and there would probably be less complaints about sparseness if they would fill out similarly based sets as well. My favorite construction of this set is the wheeled vehicle with gun mounted on it.
PATRICK: Actually, I love the flying vehicle. I've discovered that the magnet on the front can support the weight of the craft. I've hung that ship all over my home. The bathroom, the kitchen, a metal lamp in the living room. Right now it's on the fridge.
JOSEPH: Cool, I'm going to try that. The crew of two astronauts and an android here make it secure as a station and I really liked the option of having stickers for the big white wall panels that sit on each side of the opening doors.
PATRICK: I normally don't put stickers on pieces (especially ones that large), but I love the look of the Exploriens logo. It reminds me of the classic Space logo. Since it didn't cover more than one piece, I decided to stick it on.
JOSEPH: Three mini-figs include two Exploriens astronauts and one android. Unique pieces I noticed were the ball and socket Technic pieces used in the top of the opening door. Opaque wall panels were also nice to receive.
PATRICK: Yeah, I liked getting the opaque white walls instead of more translucent blue walls. It's a good change. My only complaints with this set (other than the smaller base plate) are that other Exploriens vehicles can't use the base in the same way the ground vehicle can. The air vehicle which comes with it doesn't even have a place to go. Also, the price of the set seems a little high for the number of pieces. This is probably due to the large walls.
JOSEPH: It seems that most surface stations rarely accomodate all the vehicles that come with them, though I hadn't thought of that before. Price wise, I didn't mind paying the almost $40.00 for the set since it was such a definite improvement over the Spyrius station and comes with a lot of bricks. This would be a very tasty set if you caught it on sale for $20.00 or less!
PATRICK: The large opening in the rear drives me nuts. It feels like the set was cut in half. One thing I would like to do at some point is find one on sale and build a mirror-image base to place behind it so that it looks more complete.
JOSEPH: I've thought of doing that very thing. I even went as far as buying a second set (which I don't often do) but ended up doing something else with the two sets.
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