25 Years of Lego M:TRON

    The Lego Space theme M:TRON was first released in 1990, 25 years ago.
    1990 must have been an interesting year for kids who had been playing with space sets for a while. The previous year had seen the introduction of the first Space Police, ready to rule the galaxy in their surprisingly dark ships with don't-mess-with-me transparent red cockpits. M:TRON took on a lighter, softer brand of cool. The heavy use of bright red mixed with the new transparent neon elements green gave the M:TRON ships an audacious "radness" that I really enjoyed. The neon green would be used again, arguably even more effectively with black and white in the Blacktron Future Generation ships the following year.
    However, the main feature of M:TRON was the use of magnets. Yes, actual magnetic Lego pieces would allow cool space cranes to lift cool space boxes and cool space buggies into cool space trunks. The advertisements and toy boxes proudly proclaimed "M:TRON: The Power of Magnets" as if it was the coolest thing ever.... which it was.


    My first Lego Space set was the Pulsar Charger. It was small and had no magnets, but it was a swooshable little ship, which meant it had endless play value for a 5 year old.

   

(Digital Model by zpaolo)
  The largest M:TRON set was the Mega Core Magnetizer, known as the Multi Core Magnetizer in some catalogs. I remember wanting this set so bad that it hurt in my guts. I remember seeing it at an older kid's house once and blurting out "Wow! You've got THE POWER OF MAGNETS!". At one point, I thought the magic of the universe might grant one to me if I sang a ballad alone in my room about how much I wanted one. I did the singing, but didn't get one.


(Digital Model by zpaolo)
    The largest M:TRON set that I actually owned as a kid was the Particle Ionizer. This one gave you a spacebox with magnetic crane, and a need little robot that would help the astronaut, then fold up and go into the side storage compartment. Notice the set doesn't really have a "sleek" look to it. It's got bare hoses spouting out of it, and the compartments are a little wonky. This was clearly a vessel built to do work. These kind of design choices are another thing that makes M:TRON, and the classic Lego Space sets so cool.

So, what do you think of M:TRON? Any other Lego Space topics been on your mind lately? Let me know