70841 Benny’s Space Squad

I’m not a big minifig fan, but grabbed this Lego Movie 2 set thinking “Oh – classic spacemen!”

Classic Space is a theme LEGO enthusiasts have a lot of nostalgia for, so it was a no-brainer to include it in the original Lego Movie. To really pay appropriate homage, Benny’s Classic Space logo was scuffed and his helmet was broken (mirroring the experience of many owners of these old sets).

White, blue and yellow Classic Space minifigs were in the original (pre-1987) sets, but pink is a new addition from The Lego Movie 2.  In Jay’s excellent review of this set (with much better pictures) he says that the movie creators were inspired for a pink astronaut from Kylie Minogue. Well maybe. In any case, shout out to them for subverting gender stereotypes by naming him Lenny instead of Penny.

It’s worth mentioning part 4598, commonly referred to as the “space seat”, that you can see in the top photo where Lenny is sitting in it. Space minifigs are usually carrying some sort of life support system on their backs, so their seats need to accommodate this. Below is a Mecabricks render of part of a 1984 set “6971 Inter-Galactic Command Base” showing a good side view.