6939 - Saucer Centurion

Rating:
Pros: Excellent design; cool black and red color combination
Cons: Antennas are cool but fall off too easily
Contents: 211 pieces including 2 mini-figs
Price: $25.99 (Discontinued)
Reviewed: 7-Oct-1996
Reviewed by: Joseph Gonzalez

It was simple enough to duck the scanner field, blind the standing optical-probes and finally fly vertically through narrow zigzagging canyons that would make the finest auto-navigator blow all fuses, that's exactly why the company chose Max, for his incredible piloting skills. Now he slows the craft just enough to drop the droid and crawler unit outside the Unitron Space/ Environment Laboratories and Equilateral Science Station perimeters. It'll be a matter of minutes to pickup, then back to base for a hefty bounty before Unitron guards even know what hit them. The company's so ransacked of what was once top technology, it will be a miracle if they stay in business another year! But dreams of the mega-industry's demise are cut short by the sound of alarms, a com warning from the returning droid, and the sight of three Star Hawk units lifting off of a nearby landing pad.
Max fires the gel injectors and radios back to the droid. Outrunning those Hawks will be simple enough, but the tricky thing is gonna be swinging around to pick up the droid and crawler. Sure, Max could leave them behind and have the new ESSA-Laser outlines relayed electronically, but it's a matter of pride, and besides, he's grown attached to that droid. As the Saucer Centurion raises silently off the ground to fly into the face of the oncoming Star Hawk ships, Max spits out his trademark battle cry, "Cloaking is for sissies!"

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This set gave me a lot to get excited about. After two dark ages and swearing off any space sets since 1985 because they started getting repetitive, the Saucer Centurion caught my eye. For all around design, color combination, and inclusion of a droid, this set is a winner and needless to say, it has started me buying space again and looking back to see what I may have missed over the past couple of years.
The design is definitely unique to the space theme although I can see where it may be a design that will be copied (Star Hawk II is somewhat similar). A saucer with double cockpits is what we have here and the interesting characteristics include the extending pincer-arm and split-section feature of the saucer which allows one to pull the saucer halves slightly apart to release the 8-wheeled vehicle, then to close the halves back with or without the car in place.
The craft is piloted by a Spyrius astronaut and/or the minifig droid (worth it to note that 1994 was the first year for droids). I'd like to comment quickly that I prefer the clear helmets for the Spyrius droids rather than the simple 1x1 round flats that Explorien droids get (try a hair piece on either droid from a town set for fun).
Distinctive pieces included with the set are 2x2x1 round bricks and nose cones in red, the extending-arm brick and 16-long sheath, and the odd shaped 10x10 quarter-octagon plates in red and black although these plates are not too uncommon in space sets these days. I also like the 2x4x2 triple tube-faced bricks in red, these multi-face bricks are mega-cool!
One teeny complaint here: there are two antennas/lasers on the left-hand side of the ship, but they're mounted in such a way that whenever they fall off (that's often in a dog fight) they are difficult to put back on. I usually end up just leaving them off for up-close and personal confrontations.
This is an excellent medium-sized ship that doesn't cost too much but makes a great addition to your space collection. With any luck the ship will be continued by the Lego Company through 1997 (for those of you that just can't make up your mind whether to buy it or not) and hopefully Lego will come up with a couple more Spyrius designs before discontinuing the sub-theme.