6930 - Space Supply Station

Rating:
Pros: Four vehicles makes for an active standalone set; inclusion of crater plate
Cons: Station is kind of unprotected if its out on its own. Situate it next to another small outpost or any spacecraft to fortify the two.
Contents: 200 pieces including 4 mini-figs
Price: Discontinued
Reviewed: 13-Jun-1997
Reviewed by: Joseph Gonzalez and William

The Earth Confederation has been placed on the brink of war due to the recent alien invasion. For the men stationed at old outpost Delta Beta, the threat seems light years away. It is...or so they thought.
The blips appeared on long range scanners at 1400 hours. Nobody had thought that this 14 year-old supply station would be threatened. Even though it provides ammunition and other necessities to starships on patrol in the area, experts at Space Fleet Intelligence were betting that the UFO fleet would be heading towards more strategic targets. They were wrong.
Now, the four-man staff of this small supply station must prepare to defend itself for the first time since the Blacktron invasion. Hopefully, they'll survive.

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JOSEPH: The 6930-Space Supply Station (from 1983) sits between the 6970-Beta-1 Command Base (1980) and 1985's positively giant 6971-Intergalactic Command Base (chronologically speaking) which makes it appear quite skimpy compared to both of those larger sets but viewing it as a simple stop-off on a lonely moon base somewhere, it isn't a bad little station.
The station is a one-level structure, raised above the crater plate surface by slanting struts. There is a small control booth on the station (not completely enclosed) with landing pads for two one-man saucers. There are also two balloon-tire surface vehicles for gathering stuff.

BILL: The color scheme here is identical to that of 6980-Galaxy Command and 6090-Cosmic Cruiser, excepting the gray. The small balloon-tired vehicles included remind me a lot of 6823-Surface Transport. While the station is small in comparison to other Classic Space surface stations, I agree it looks as though it could stand alone quite well on a barren planet or moon. The fact that it includes four vehicles is a big plus, and makes it even more of a stand-alone set. The name doesn't make much sense, I don't see any cargo or supply storage areas.

JOSEPH: Yeah, strange how some sets seem to have had their name pulled out of a hat. The two land vehicles are simple storage type vehicles, but the double-scoop car is kind of cute and the 6823-ish car is also useful. (balloon tires make almost anything look somewhat cool). Two flying saucer pods look like grand daddies to the current Exploriens Hovertron.

BILL: Under the hovering vehicles, the double-scoop truck is best. It would have been a little better if it included a shovel or some other tool instead of an axe. An axe? In this age of lasers, phasers, blasters, and ray-guns? Oh well. On the balloon tires, I think that if I saw a balloon-tired vehicle next to a 886-Moon Buggy in a store I'd probably buy the latter.

JOSEPH: It wouldn't take much to flesh the station out a little more (maybe one package of grey bricks), including a dumping chute in place of one of the landing platforms (to dump in cars passing beneath).

BILL: I would not agree with the dump chute idea, as it seems the dumper is an independent soil-collecting vehicle, with its own metal detector, axe, etc. The most notable change could have been replacing that pesky 1x8 Technic beam with a normal brick to help seal in the control center.Also in the control center, I really miss the old 1x4 plates with a transparent 60-degree slanted brick as the seat back, but there wasn't enough room inside to fit the chairs I guess.

JOSEPH: Good point on the chute idea, it would then also be necessary to build up one of the cars to receive any kind of load. Two yellow and red astronauts might have been different colors if the set were released only a year later (with the release of blue and black astronauts).

BILL: Still, one of the astronauts could have (and most certainly should have) been white, as they were released in 1978, along with the reds. I'm not overly fond of yellow spacemen.

JOSEPH: Number of bricks here could probably be built up into a cool ship on their own.

BILL: Especially with the two spaceship windshields included.

JOSEPH: I wonder if there's enough bricks for two solid ships (since there are two windshields). I saw no particularly unique pieces here, but I think the Lego group was still kind of finding its way with space constructions at the time.

BILL: It looks like two nearly identical ships could be made here, with the two cockpits, four gray radar dishes, eight slanting struts, sixteen 2x2 cylinders, and some other interesting pieces for alternate models.
To me, 493-Space Command Center, 483-Alpha-1 Rocket Base, and 6970-Beta-1 Command Base are all really exemplary sets, as were most of the sets that accompanied them. This set (much like Blacktron's 6894-Invader) is good by itself but its splendor drastically diminishes when set next to the other, possibly better, sets in that theme.