Thank you! Excited to see you here. 😁 And hopefully they'll at least re-use the name at some point, "Starthropods" is too good to pass up. Greg Mote deserves some Zotaxian crystals for that one.
the way the Insectoids lore starts and ends is insane While the idea of most of the themes taking place on a single earth is interesting. the idea of the themes taking place on other planets is also quite interesting.
Agreed on both counts! I was surprised to find the Bricks 'n Pieces magazine that placed a UFO droid at the beginning and end of the Insectoids story, I was not expecting that. I do enjoy a linear history of LEGO themes but there's room for all possibilities in the LEGO multiverse. :)
@@Maniac4Bricks Some games suggest islands, sort of like every GTA map is on a island but some games like LEGO Universe basically does what you said, each theme is a separate planet, even dimention. Basically you start in space. For some things you need to use a vessel but for some places you go through portals.
Wow, just wow. The depth of research in media materials astonishes me, and having most of it work together is a level of LEGO lore I've never seen or created on TH-cam before. I'm so glad I was recommended this video, and I'll be happy to share the channel with others seeking LEGO lore content!
I've heard people mention how the helmet-designs remind them of Predator. When the Predator took off his mask in the movie it was a memorable moment. It's funny how Zotaxian lore suggests a similar shock-factor when Alpha Draconis sees his own face. The lego faces were a nice surprise, they look VERY....alien The brain-like structures on the helmet intrigued me a lot. The Zotaxians seem well adept at combining tecnology with biology. It also makes me wonder if the orange faces on their ships are not just logo's but actual heads.The fact there is a tube attaching to the head from outside makes this more convincing. Perhaps this is a specialized Zotaxian mutant who serves as a biological supercomputer. Possibly inspired by the Navigators from Dune.
Oooh, I hadn't thought about the Predator connection, I like it! I've gotten a hint of Alien vibes from them, especially in how they might look if they weren't somewhat squat minifigures. I've also thought they looked like the Vorlon from Babylon 5, though I'm pretty sure I started watching that show first. Love the idea that there could be larger mutants connected directly to the ship; as a kid I always figured their technology had a biological component to it.
@@loreescape47 I looked up the Vorlorn and see the connection. Especially the huge shoulder/chest piece. Apparently their outfits are encounter suits designed to hide their appearance intentionally I was not aware of Babylon until today!
@@hab0272 I'm glad to spread some awareness there! :) It was a pretty big deal to 90s sci-fi aficionados (even baby ones like myself, lol) and I'd like to get back into it one day--I missed the first season and the spin-offs that have happened since the main series ended.
@@loreescape47 many of the kids watched things they didn't suppose to, X Files was a adult show but amazing to my child brain but watching it now as a adult it's quite cringe worthy rather cant imagine watching any of it, same goes for many stuff, speaking of early SciFi the 1st thing I actually watched as a 4 year old was Star Trek and yeah same story I cant watch any of it today, its too bad ... I can imagine kids in the future will cringe at the stuff they watch today too XD
Your videos are so underrated. Where do you recommend people such as myself with slightly more than average Lego lore knowledge start on the journey to becoming a lore master such as yourself?
Thank you so much! I try to include links to the major sources in the video description to help in this respect. Brickipedia is actually fast becoming a great resource for LEGO lore, I believe thanks largely to the efforts of @VezonWireless. I think checking out the pages of the themes you're interested in should lead you to some good links. One of the main resources I use are the LEGO club magazine archives at miniland.nl, most of which have also been backed up at the Internet Archive (archive.org/search?query=subject%3A%22LEGO+Club%22) along with other scans. And of course, can't forget the Emily Internet Zone (emilyinternet.zone/realm/), which has a huge amount of archived Time Cruisers, Space, and Pirates lore.
Thank you! I hope folks are seeking those out or remembering when they encountered them back in the day--there's so many fun LEGO sources out there, and many people have put a lot of work into preserving them for all to enjoy.
I've been hyperfixating on Zotaxians lately, I've never known other Lego Lore Nerds also exist! You earned my sub! Notice how at 31:55 Danny Longlegs is holding what appears to be a reassembly wand similar to Chamon's.
This was fantastic. Truly incredible work. The way you were able to one, find all these facts, references and other sources, and two, organize them into a concise story, is amazing. Thank you so much for blessing us once more!
These aliens have always been so mysterious to me. I always wonder why there were two species sharing the same planet and armor. I remember UFO being presented in TV ad together with the Frightknights. Them encountering a medieval society makes them feel even more scifi/alien/mysterious by contrast. Funny how Roboforce was only released in America. I've heard alien abductions are more common there, maybe the needed some protectors.. By the way love the whole style/editing of this video. Feels like a genuine report or documentary!
Thank you so much, that's exactly what I was going for! :) I hadn't thought of it that way, but that makes a lot of sense! The mystery of these aliens definitely appealed to me; there aren't many toy lines out there that hinted at a whole strange world like this. One of the things I like about the assembled lore here is that even though there's a lot out there in terms of the world and characters, it still feels like we've barely scratch the surface.
@@loreescape47 i wasn't even aware of the sheer amount of lore! This channel is a treasure-chest! I only knew Draconis from the lego racers game. I love how their interdimensional spacetravels interconnect with other themes (kind of like timecruisers). I just noticed that Chamon's re-assembly staff looks similar to the bat-staff that Basil wields. Perhaps a gift from Chamon? Basil is also seen wielding this staff while riding a dragon. His powers might be matching Willa's at this point.
This is one of those connections that seems incredibly silly on the face of it, but becomes more fun the more seriously you take it. Wait'll we get to Pharaoh's Quest.
Another fantastic video, well done! Reconciling the heroic and villainous depictions of UFO certainly paints their history in a tragic light, especially Andy Droid being interpreted as willingly joining the Zotaxians only to be forcibly reprogrammed when his saviors turned into conquerors. Though I definitely got a laugh out of seeing one-off gags (such as the ending of the commercial) being treated as dead-serious lore! I'm curious about one aspect of this video. The Exploriens and RoboForce segments are described preceding or alongside storylines set in modern day with the LEGO Mania Magazine comics, such as RoboForce failing to stop the UFOs' invasion of Earth. Since your timeline puts most Space themes in the far future, how does this work? Are the UFOs jumping back and forth across time? Are they hopping between different universes? Are Exploriens and RoboForce consisting of aliens that just happen to resemble humans? Or does far-future Earth coincidentally look just like Earth in 1997? Also glad to see legible transcriptions of X-Commander's card at 7:20 and 25:31, since the only scan on the internet is BrickLink's tiny compressed image. Do you have a full transcript of the card and the other LEGO Builder's Club cards from that series?
Thank you so much, I always look forward to hearing from you and I'm glad you enjoyed the video. :) In those dead-serious moments I crack myself up sometimes; most of the channel's humor is in this vein. (See also suggesting that the humorless aliens getting into the spirit of the holidays was what finally kicked off the rebellion against the Emperor; things get wacky when you take all the sources with equal weight.) As far as the Mania Magazine lore goes, that's almost dealer's choice. Unless it was dealing directly with Time Cruisers, the magazine didn't usually make a distinction between present and future time periods, and that's equally valid as an approach to LEGO lore IMO. As you know, I prefer a more linear perspective that is also a part of plenty of LEGO storytelling, but when you're trying to present all the sources together, there are going to be some leaps in logic no matter which approach you take. There's a further wrinkle in that the alien's origin in another universe was not part of the Mania Magazine backstory, so that had to be finessed as well. Basically, the four approaches to the UFO aliens across all stories was A. a friendly exploratory force that sometimes fights evil, B. a completely alien society with unknown motives that could threaten life on Earth, C. an enormous alien fleet that is actively invading Earth and battling against contemporary Space factions, and D. a small group of rebels fleeing from a conflict on their homeworld. I knew I had to end at D because that's where Insectoids picks up, and I wanted to allow for C to have already happened at that point because the Chamon and Alpha Draconis figures appear throughout all of the storylines, and while obviously they can represent other aliens, it's possible that some rediscovered or future source would identify them more conclusively. What I tried to hint at was that the UFOs are moving backward and forward through time, and that it is the black hole they use as their conduit to Earth's universe that allows them to do this. The ability of the UFOs to appear in any time was suggested by the Shop-at-Home Catalog, and Christian Faber's own approach to these kinds of gateways also allows for time travel. (Though Faber envisions this as a one-way trip in his model and also conflates it with passing through universes, but that's a whole other video.) This was preferable to having the aliens be so long-lived that were just hanging around in the galaxy for thousands upon thousands of years from Castle to late Space, though I did consider that as well. So all that is to say, from the perspective of the video, the UFOs are able to travel back and forth in time, probably using the black hole for this purpose. Their far-future war with Explorien and RoboForce was interspersed with reconnaissance missions back to the 20th century to observe/frighten Earthlings. The Exploriens were eventually able to travel to the Zotaxian dimension themselves as indicated by the European catalogs (though with disastrous results for them), and it is probably from this vantage point that the RoboForce would have seen the aliens departing their homeworld to invade in the 20th century, as per the Mania Magazine comics. But aside from a few suggestions I opted to be ambiguous about what happened when to avoid potential conflicts with as-yet-undiscovered sources and to keep from interjecting my own interpretations more than I already have. All that being said, while I was making the video Faber dropped the Big Idea sketch of the original plan for Chamon to travel to a universe where all time periods are happening on different planets, which seems to be what they ultimately went with, as it matches the Let the Games Begin commercial and what little has been revealed of the Insectoids bible. (This does seem to contradict the UFO booklet, which states that the black hole leads to Earth's solar system, but I was able to use this in the video to help make room for stories A-C.) If I'd had more time to take the story apart and put it back together again, this universe is potentially more friendly to having the space factions and contemporary town in the same time and place. So there are a lot of possibilities out there. I'll put the transcribed text from the card in another comment. I'm afraid that I don't have a secret source for this; it's just me zooming in really close on the Bricklink image and squinting for dear life.
X-Commander "Attack! Attack! X-Commander the fearsome free wheeling space alien runs rings around Saturn and can send rockets spinning into outer space. He and his army of alien invaders can appear as any life form they choose. The bad news is that they have just boarded their galactic destroyer and set a course towards earth!"
The inter-connectivity of themes in those comics was something else, I definitely played with them that way and coincidentally made Willa the Witch one of the most powerful characters in my lil head-canon as a kid (and to this day). Hate to shake my cane around but you can’t get that today, it would end up looking like that Elsagate stuff with all these unrelated IPs interacting.
The Time Cruisers comics do a great job of hitting that sweet spot in terms of theme connectivity. Willa the Witch is a fascinating character, looking forward to covering her more in a Fright Knights video at some point. I think the biggest difference between then and now is that during the 90s the emphasis was on making distinctive looking characters like Willa, Flatfoot Thompson, and Alpha Draconis that can be slotted into relatively generic settings like Castle, Western, and Space and inspire storytelling in kids. This combination led kids like myself to crave every bit of lore that was created for these characters and worlds. Today it's different because worlds like Ninjago and Dreamzz are so specific that you're led much more directly to the TV shows they launch with. I think there's merit to both approaches, but that time period between the late 80s to early 00s has a particular draw to me.
I appreciate this interconnectivity. It makes for imaginative stories. It's fun exploring how a medieval crusader would view an alien from outer space. Maybe they see them as angels? Willa was a fun character. On one side she is insanely evil and powerful, but she's also a cat-person who likes a warm fireplace.
Was not expecting Basil the Bat Lord to come off so... Team Rocket level villain? They tend to play him up as a vampire warlord in wikis... and my imagination.
You’ve got to fight one of these four alien races: which one do you choose? Zotaxians (UFO/Insectoids) Crystaliens (Mars Mission) Invaders (Alien Conquest) Bugoids (Galaxy Squad)
Hold on! The time well is actually a thing? Christian Faber's favorite meta narrative tool that he used to connect all Lego themes appeared in UFO? Edit: oh, it's speculation based off Faber. That makes sense
Yep, precisely. The black hole connecting universes and the crystals (though completely absent in the sets themselves, unusual for a LEGO theme) are both in the UFO booklet backstory though, making what I think is a pretty strong connection that doesn't seem coincidental. Weird that UFO was left out from Faber's video on the subject entirely given how closely it fits (maybe even closer than any other system theme), but I figured it was worth mentioning. I *tried* to find a tangible Bionicle connection for y'all, but as much as that was hinted at in the DuckBricks video, I couldn't find anything.
@@loreescape47 I think that the Bionicle well of time was a bit different (or at least, the same but another version mostly connected just to Bionicle G1, G2 and HFac), and would have been utilized in Faber's "ideal" Bionicle G2 and a speculative G3 from what I understand from watching his videos and the Duckbricks collab. He has loosely mentioned that it was a physical thing on Spherus Magna and presented some concept art of miners mining a material similar to Quaza or Protodermis from it. So nothing substantially canon but yeah. Very cool to see here!
@@AlVainactual the concept seems flexible enough to allow for multiple Wells of Time to exist throughout the LEGO Multiverse. I went into Faber's video on the subject just looking for cool easter egg connections but was pleasantly surprised to find some really interesting philosophical ideas.
Something I noticed about the Insectoids characters: The gray-skinned Zotaxians seem to be the ones driving the ground vehicles, while the blue ones appear to be the ones piloting the aircrafts.
@@loreescape47 The blue ones also always come with neon green helmets and the gray ones with dark green, and the two races never came in a set together. I'm actually a little surprised the gray and the blue Zotaxians have never been depicted as rivaling factions, with how varied their portrayals are. But hey, at least it's nice to know that for all their faults, the Zotaxians aren't racist.
@@loreescape47I'm glad to hear it as nobody puts in as much effort and detail into your videos so I would expect much work goes into them, I wanted you to know that your endeavours on TH-cam are much appreciated or at least they are by me.
One thing I’ve always loved to theorize (and, still sticking to it) is that Willa the Witch attempted to obtain the Re-Gou Ruby in pursuit for eternal life which is why we see her scrolls, chalices, along with the stacked red and green translucent jars left behind on the alters of Sobek in set 5988 Temple of Anubis / Pharaoh’s Forbidden Ruins. Whatever happened is the mystery. Perhaps it wasn’t her destiny to acquire it. All we know is that in set 10273 Haunted House: Manor Von Barron, we see what might be the possible Re-Gou Ruby, or a prop with the hint how Baron acquired it which was by choosing one of the red translucent jars 👌 My theory goes much deeper but, that’s just a story for another time 😅
Thank you so much! I hope this was worth the wait. As you can see while these have been taking me a long time to make, I don't sit on them once they're done. ;)
Correct! There are some accidental incorrect visual citations in the video, though this one is just unclear rather than a slip up on my part. I typically only cite the visual source of an image/book enough times to establish what it is and where it came from, but I do try to include which source I'm using for the content itself throughout the video. In this case the Hungarian version of the UFO booklet is the only one in good quality online. But each translation of this booklet actually had unique lore information; in the German version's case it was a completely alternate comic story, using the same artwork but with a rescue mission for the Zotaxians rather than the aftermath of a failed rebellion. So it's the German story, but I mainly used the Hungarian scans because they were the clearest versions available. (You can see the German version on Brickipedia, but it's just pictures rather than scans so the quality isn't as good.)
Thank you so much! I don't have a lot of graphic design skills so a lot of it is layers of stock elements. For the intro I tried to mash together elements inspired by the X-Files and Alien intros while giving it its own spin. One technique I used a lot is to sandwich a cutout of the model in between the background on the lowest layer and a copy of the same background on the topmost layer, but with the opacity set very low--it makes it look more like it's in the actual shot without getting too fussy about the compositing. (I popped a picture of the Cyber Saucer on stock footage of a jet, and after blurring it up I think it looks pretty good in the stills here.) For the Explorien UI I figured out which elements I wanted to use (some of them are based on the actual elements, some of them are inspired by the Explorien UI seen in LEGO Racers) and dropped them into Photoshop, then used them as reference and used the Shape tool to draw over them. (The good thing about LEGO Space design is that it's simplistic enough that this works pretty well.) Then I imported it into Premiere as layers so I could have some of the buttons "light up" by fading them in and out individually. I had to imagine what some of these might do--for example, the little triangles on top of the big Explorien hologram sticker ended up becoming Star Trek viewscreen-like running lights. I also put a few stock animations on for good measure, and included a stock video of scan lines for extra 80s sci-fi goodness. When I was happy with the sequence I copied it out for several minutes and nested the whole sequence into my main timeline. (I learned my lesson from the Blacktron UI I'd made for a previous video--on that one I actually had all the little individual layers for the buttons in the main timeline for the video and it was a huge mess.) It was probably a solid day's worth of work on the UI and intro each, so I'm really happy you enjoyed them!
@@loreescape47 Oh wow, I didn't expect you to go into such detail, but I am all the more thankful for it! In any case, keep making great video as always!
There's a lot of common elements with all of them, for sure! Good observation. I leaned more into the Borg/Species 8472 angle when I was playing with them as a kid because the NJO was still a couple years away. These sets were released in the US in July of 1997, right smack in the middle of Voyager's big "Scorpion" two parter, and I started getting the sets in the Fall when the second part aired, so the three sided Borg/8472/Starfleet conflict from those episodes were a huge influence in my Explorien/UFO play. (Even more so when Insectoids appeared as a third player the next year!) (BTW I was so excited about the Borg coming to Voyager that I recorded Scorpion Part 1 on a *tape cassette* so I could listen to it in my room.)
so zotaxians were just like vitubers and pngtubers they also dont like their own appearance or are paranoid bunch so they tend to alter their looks for the public viewing ... but yeah back in a day I obtained some of the sets from these lines, I never knew anything about their lore or functions or relevance all I knew they were cool designs and had electronic parts, in my canon they clashed with humans causing all sorts of conflicts and all that was enough for me "planet Fabuland and Ice Planet became lifeless" that is quite morbid and way too dark for a kids story, what were they thinking ... XD
![BigFireBird Build Titanic Legion One [Brimstone, Moutain Crasher, Swift Shadow] Model Kit](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ttDwWl0puxw/mqdefault.jpg)
Fascinating stuff! That proposed Insectoids sequel also sounded fun! 😊
Thank you! Excited to see you here. 😁 And hopefully they'll at least re-use the name at some point, "Starthropods" is too good to pass up. Greg Mote deserves some Zotaxian crystals for that one.
the way the Insectoids lore starts and ends is insane
While the idea of most of the themes taking place on a single earth is interesting. the idea of the themes taking place on other planets is also quite interesting.
Agreed on both counts! I was surprised to find the Bricks 'n Pieces magazine that placed a UFO droid at the beginning and end of the Insectoids story, I was not expecting that. I do enjoy a linear history of LEGO themes but there's room for all possibilities in the LEGO multiverse. :)
The Adventures of Clutch Powers is a modern example of themes having their own planet, with a Castle planet of its own.
@@Maniac4Bricks I didn't realize they went to a different planet to get to the Wizard. I assumed they just went back to Earth
@@plushiesdx Yup, the movie describes Ashlar as a medieval planet.
@@Maniac4Bricks Some games suggest islands, sort of like every GTA map is on a island but some games like LEGO Universe basically does what you said, each theme is a separate planet, even dimention. Basically you start in space. For some things you need to use a vessel but for some places you go through portals.
Wow, just wow. The depth of research in media materials astonishes me, and having most of it work together is a level of LEGO lore I've never seen or created on TH-cam before. I'm so glad I was recommended this video, and I'll be happy to share the channel with others seeking LEGO lore content!
Thank you so much, that's fantastic! I really appreciate any likes and shares from folks who enjoy the channel!
I ADORE how much creativity we can see in recent years from Lego fans!
My favorite Lego Space designs. I cannot believe all this stuff was connected in the lore and I never knew! Thanks!
You're welcome! It's my favorite as well. :D Thank you so much for watching!
I've heard people mention how the helmet-designs remind them of Predator. When the Predator took off his mask in the movie it was a memorable moment.
It's funny how Zotaxian lore suggests a similar shock-factor when Alpha Draconis sees his own face. The lego faces were a nice surprise, they look VERY....alien
The brain-like structures on the helmet intrigued me a lot. The Zotaxians seem well adept at combining tecnology with biology. It also makes me wonder if the orange faces on their ships are not just logo's but actual heads.The fact there is a tube attaching to the head from outside makes this more convincing.
Perhaps this is a specialized Zotaxian mutant who serves as a biological supercomputer. Possibly inspired by the Navigators from Dune.
Oooh, I hadn't thought about the Predator connection, I like it! I've gotten a hint of Alien vibes from them, especially in how they might look if they weren't somewhat squat minifigures. I've also thought they looked like the Vorlon from Babylon 5, though I'm pretty sure I started watching that show first.
Love the idea that there could be larger mutants connected directly to the ship; as a kid I always figured their technology had a biological component to it.
@@loreescape47 I looked up the Vorlorn and see the connection. Especially the huge shoulder/chest piece. Apparently their outfits are encounter suits designed to hide their appearance intentionally
I was not aware of Babylon until today!
@@hab0272 I'm glad to spread some awareness there! :) It was a pretty big deal to 90s sci-fi aficionados (even baby ones like myself, lol) and I'd like to get back into it one day--I missed the first season and the spin-offs that have happened since the main series ended.
@@loreescape47 many of the kids watched things they didn't suppose to, X Files was a adult show but amazing to my child brain but watching it now as a adult it's quite cringe worthy rather cant imagine watching any of it, same goes for many stuff, speaking of early SciFi the 1st thing I actually watched as a 4 year old was Star Trek and yeah same story I cant watch any of it today, its too bad ...
I can imagine kids in the future will cringe at the stuff they watch today too XD
Some of the best Lego lore videos out there, well done 🎉
Thank you! I love that this is even a sub-sub-sub-genre in TH-cam. :)
Your videos are so underrated. Where do you recommend people such as myself with slightly more than average Lego lore knowledge start on the journey to becoming a lore master such as yourself?
Thank you so much! I try to include links to the major sources in the video description to help in this respect. Brickipedia is actually fast becoming a great resource for LEGO lore, I believe thanks largely to the efforts of @VezonWireless. I think checking out the pages of the themes you're interested in should lead you to some good links. One of the main resources I use are the LEGO club magazine archives at miniland.nl, most of which have also been backed up at the Internet Archive (archive.org/search?query=subject%3A%22LEGO+Club%22) along with other scans. And of course, can't forget the Emily Internet Zone (emilyinternet.zone/realm/), which has a huge amount of archived Time Cruisers, Space, and Pirates lore.
I really appreciate how you list all your sources.
Thank you! I hope folks are seeking those out or remembering when they encountered them back in the day--there's so many fun LEGO sources out there, and many people have put a lot of work into preserving them for all to enjoy.
Building the Warp wing fighter right now listening to your video !
Fantastic! That's an awesome set; I got it for my birthday many many years ago. :) Glad to be providing something to build by.
I've been hyperfixating on Zotaxians lately, I've never known other Lego Lore Nerds also exist! You earned my sub!
Notice how at 31:55 Danny Longlegs is holding what appears to be a reassembly wand similar to Chamon's.
Ah ha, nice catch! I didn't even make the connection. :) And thank you so much!
This was fantastic. Truly incredible work. The way you were able to one, find all these facts, references and other sources, and two, organize them into a concise story, is amazing. Thank you so much for blessing us once more!
I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thank you so much for the shoutout, haven't missed any of your pirate videos! :)
These aliens have always been so mysterious to me. I always wonder why there were two species sharing the same planet and armor. I remember UFO being presented in TV ad together with the Frightknights. Them encountering a medieval society makes them feel even more scifi/alien/mysterious by contrast.
Funny how Roboforce was only released in America. I've heard alien abductions are more common there, maybe the needed some protectors..
By the way love the whole style/editing of this video. Feels like a genuine report or documentary!
Thank you so much, that's exactly what I was going for! :)
I hadn't thought of it that way, but that makes a lot of sense! The mystery of these aliens definitely appealed to me; there aren't many toy lines out there that hinted at a whole strange world like this. One of the things I like about the assembled lore here is that even though there's a lot out there in terms of the world and characters, it still feels like we've barely scratch the surface.
@@loreescape47 i wasn't even aware of the sheer amount of lore! This channel is a treasure-chest! I only knew Draconis from the lego racers game. I love how their interdimensional spacetravels interconnect with other themes (kind of like timecruisers).
I just noticed that Chamon's re-assembly staff looks similar to the bat-staff that Basil wields. Perhaps a gift from Chamon? Basil is also seen wielding this staff while riding a dragon. His powers might be matching Willa's at this point.
The Lego Insectoids story bible refers to the UFO Aliens teaming up with Basil the Bat Lord, so yes, it's canon.
First thing i learned from this was that 90s castle did the ancient-aliens thing before the History Channel did lol
This is one of those connections that seems incredibly silly on the face of it, but becomes more fun the more seriously you take it. Wait'll we get to Pharaoh's Quest.
@@loreescape47 👀
Another fantastic video, well done! Reconciling the heroic and villainous depictions of UFO certainly paints their history in a tragic light, especially Andy Droid being interpreted as willingly joining the Zotaxians only to be forcibly reprogrammed when his saviors turned into conquerors. Though I definitely got a laugh out of seeing one-off gags (such as the ending of the commercial) being treated as dead-serious lore!
I'm curious about one aspect of this video. The Exploriens and RoboForce segments are described preceding or alongside storylines set in modern day with the LEGO Mania Magazine comics, such as RoboForce failing to stop the UFOs' invasion of Earth. Since your timeline puts most Space themes in the far future, how does this work? Are the UFOs jumping back and forth across time? Are they hopping between different universes? Are Exploriens and RoboForce consisting of aliens that just happen to resemble humans? Or does far-future Earth coincidentally look just like Earth in 1997?
Also glad to see legible transcriptions of X-Commander's card at 7:20 and 25:31, since the only scan on the internet is BrickLink's tiny compressed image. Do you have a full transcript of the card and the other LEGO Builder's Club cards from that series?
Thank you so much, I always look forward to hearing from you and I'm glad you enjoyed the video. :) In those dead-serious moments I crack myself up sometimes; most of the channel's humor is in this vein. (See also suggesting that the humorless aliens getting into the spirit of the holidays was what finally kicked off the rebellion against the Emperor; things get wacky when you take all the sources with equal weight.)
As far as the Mania Magazine lore goes, that's almost dealer's choice. Unless it was dealing directly with Time Cruisers, the magazine didn't usually make a distinction between present and future time periods, and that's equally valid as an approach to LEGO lore IMO. As you know, I prefer a more linear perspective that is also a part of plenty of LEGO storytelling, but when you're trying to present all the sources together, there are going to be some leaps in logic no matter which approach you take. There's a further wrinkle in that the alien's origin in another universe was not part of the Mania Magazine backstory, so that had to be finessed as well.
Basically, the four approaches to the UFO aliens across all stories was A. a friendly exploratory force that sometimes fights evil, B. a completely alien society with unknown motives that could threaten life on Earth, C. an enormous alien fleet that is actively invading Earth and battling against contemporary Space factions, and D. a small group of rebels fleeing from a conflict on their homeworld. I knew I had to end at D because that's where Insectoids picks up, and I wanted to allow for C to have already happened at that point because the Chamon and Alpha Draconis figures appear throughout all of the storylines, and while obviously they can represent other aliens, it's possible that some rediscovered or future source would identify them more conclusively.
What I tried to hint at was that the UFOs are moving backward and forward through time, and that it is the black hole they use as their conduit to Earth's universe that allows them to do this. The ability of the UFOs to appear in any time was suggested by the Shop-at-Home Catalog, and Christian Faber's own approach to these kinds of gateways also allows for time travel. (Though Faber envisions this as a one-way trip in his model and also conflates it with passing through universes, but that's a whole other video.) This was preferable to having the aliens be so long-lived that were just hanging around in the galaxy for thousands upon thousands of years from Castle to late Space, though I did consider that as well.
So all that is to say, from the perspective of the video, the UFOs are able to travel back and forth in time, probably using the black hole for this purpose. Their far-future war with Explorien and RoboForce was interspersed with reconnaissance missions back to the 20th century to observe/frighten Earthlings. The Exploriens were eventually able to travel to the Zotaxian dimension themselves as indicated by the European catalogs (though with disastrous results for them), and it is probably from this vantage point that the RoboForce would have seen the aliens departing their homeworld to invade in the 20th century, as per the Mania Magazine comics. But aside from a few suggestions I opted to be ambiguous about what happened when to avoid potential conflicts with as-yet-undiscovered sources and to keep from interjecting my own interpretations more than I already have.
All that being said, while I was making the video Faber dropped the Big Idea sketch of the original plan for Chamon to travel to a universe where all time periods are happening on different planets, which seems to be what they ultimately went with, as it matches the Let the Games Begin commercial and what little has been revealed of the Insectoids bible. (This does seem to contradict the UFO booklet, which states that the black hole leads to Earth's solar system, but I was able to use this in the video to help make room for stories A-C.) If I'd had more time to take the story apart and put it back together again, this universe is potentially more friendly to having the space factions and contemporary town in the same time and place. So there are a lot of possibilities out there.
I'll put the transcribed text from the card in another comment. I'm afraid that I don't have a secret source for this; it's just me zooming in really close on the Bricklink image and squinting for dear life.
X-Commander "Attack! Attack! X-Commander the fearsome free wheeling space alien runs rings around Saturn and can send rockets spinning into outer space. He and his army of alien invaders can appear as any life form they choose. The bad news is that they have just boarded their galactic destroyer and set a course towards earth!"
The inter-connectivity of themes in those comics was something else, I definitely played with them that way and coincidentally made Willa the Witch one of the most powerful characters in my lil head-canon as a kid (and to this day). Hate to shake my cane around but you can’t get that today, it would end up looking like that Elsagate stuff with all these unrelated IPs interacting.
The Time Cruisers comics do a great job of hitting that sweet spot in terms of theme connectivity. Willa the Witch is a fascinating character, looking forward to covering her more in a Fright Knights video at some point.
I think the biggest difference between then and now is that during the 90s the emphasis was on making distinctive looking characters like Willa, Flatfoot Thompson, and Alpha Draconis that can be slotted into relatively generic settings like Castle, Western, and Space and inspire storytelling in kids. This combination led kids like myself to crave every bit of lore that was created for these characters and worlds.
Today it's different because worlds like Ninjago and Dreamzz are so specific that you're led much more directly to the TV shows they launch with. I think there's merit to both approaches, but that time period between the late 80s to early 00s has a particular draw to me.
I appreciate this interconnectivity. It makes for imaginative stories. It's fun exploring how a medieval crusader would view an alien from outer space. Maybe they see them as angels?
Willa was a fun character. On one side she is insanely evil and powerful, but she's also a cat-person who likes a warm fireplace.
Was not expecting Basil the Bat Lord to come off so... Team Rocket level villain?
They tend to play him up as a vampire warlord in wikis... and my imagination.
Old Basil had quite the journey to becoming the vampire warlord we all know and fear, IMO we're catching him early on in his career here. ;)
You’ve got to fight one of these four alien races: which one do you choose?
Zotaxians (UFO/Insectoids)
Crystaliens (Mars Mission)
Invaders (Alien Conquest)
Bugoids (Galaxy Squad)
I think I'd probably choose the Crystaliens, they're very nearly 'armless. ;)
Hold on! The time well is actually a thing? Christian Faber's favorite meta narrative tool that he used to connect all Lego themes appeared in UFO?
Edit: oh, it's speculation based off Faber. That makes sense
Yep, precisely. The black hole connecting universes and the crystals (though completely absent in the sets themselves, unusual for a LEGO theme) are both in the UFO booklet backstory though, making what I think is a pretty strong connection that doesn't seem coincidental. Weird that UFO was left out from Faber's video on the subject entirely given how closely it fits (maybe even closer than any other system theme), but I figured it was worth mentioning.
I *tried* to find a tangible Bionicle connection for y'all, but as much as that was hinted at in the DuckBricks video, I couldn't find anything.
@@loreescape47 I think that the Bionicle well of time was a bit different (or at least, the same but another version mostly connected just to Bionicle G1, G2 and HFac), and would have been utilized in Faber's "ideal" Bionicle G2 and a speculative G3 from what I understand from watching his videos and the Duckbricks collab. He has loosely mentioned that it was a physical thing on Spherus Magna and presented some concept art of miners mining a material similar to Quaza or Protodermis from it. So nothing substantially canon but yeah. Very cool to see here!
@@AlVainactual the concept seems flexible enough to allow for multiple Wells of Time to exist throughout the LEGO Multiverse. I went into Faber's video on the subject just looking for cool easter egg connections but was pleasantly surprised to find some really interesting philosophical ideas.
Something I noticed about the Insectoids characters: The gray-skinned Zotaxians seem to be the ones driving the ground vehicles, while the blue ones appear to be the ones piloting the aircrafts.
Good observation!
@@loreescape47 The blue ones also always come with neon green helmets and the gray ones with dark green, and the two races never came in a set together. I'm actually a little surprised the gray and the blue Zotaxians have never been depicted as rivaling factions, with how varied their portrayals are. But hey, at least it's nice to know that for all their faults, the Zotaxians aren't racist.
Great video, before I even finished it I purchased one of those awesome Minifigures online.
They truly are some of the greatest minifigures ever produced, IMO. Which one did you get?
@@loreescape47 Commander X
This is such a well made video, I love how you source everything and link all these different sources into one narrative.
Thank you so much! Glad to see the Zotaxians are popular on Andoria too. ;)
I love hearing the larger story beyond the tidbits I came across as a kid. Well done!
Thank you! That's the mission statement of this channel. :)
That makes sense, great video comrade!
Thank you!
I love the UFO theme, my favorite space lego theme after Star Wars. Your video is a real pleasure to watch, thank you.
Thank you so much! It's such a cool and unique theme.
Your Lego lore videos are as outstanding as they are fascinating, always leaves me wanting more👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Thank you so much! There's much more where this came from! :)
@@loreescape47I'm glad to hear it as nobody puts in as much effort and detail into your videos so I would expect much work goes into them, I wanted you to know that your endeavours on TH-cam are much appreciated or at least they are by me.
One thing I’ve always loved to theorize (and, still sticking to it) is that Willa the Witch attempted to obtain the Re-Gou Ruby in pursuit for eternal life which is why we see her scrolls, chalices, along with the stacked red and green translucent jars left behind on the alters of Sobek in set 5988 Temple of Anubis / Pharaoh’s Forbidden Ruins.
Whatever happened is the mystery. Perhaps it wasn’t her destiny to acquire it. All we know is that in set 10273 Haunted House: Manor Von Barron, we see what might be the possible Re-Gou Ruby, or a prop with the hint how Baron acquired it which was by choosing one of the red translucent jars 👌
My theory goes much deeper but, that’s just a story for another time 😅
Love it! I believe the Baron has a Fright Knights coat of arms on display as well. :D
Thank you so much for this video, been trying to find lore on these guys for ages
You're welcome! Did you have any of these sets growing up?
I have been waiting for more in depth videos on some of my favorite themes & subthemes!
Can't believe this was posted just 3 minutes ago!!
Thank you so much! I hope this was worth the wait. As you can see while these have been taking me a long time to make, I don't sit on them once they're done. ;)
8:33 the book is in hungarian
Correct! There are some accidental incorrect visual citations in the video, though this one is just unclear rather than a slip up on my part. I typically only cite the visual source of an image/book enough times to establish what it is and where it came from, but I do try to include which source I'm using for the content itself throughout the video.
In this case the Hungarian version of the UFO booklet is the only one in good quality online. But each translation of this booklet actually had unique lore information; in the German version's case it was a completely alternate comic story, using the same artwork but with a rescue mission for the Zotaxians rather than the aftermath of a failed rebellion.
So it's the German story, but I mainly used the Hungarian scans because they were the clearest versions available. (You can see the German version on Brickipedia, but it's just pictures rather than scans so the quality isn't as good.)
Lol when watching this, I literally got a ad to about extraterrestrial and I never got an ad like that before
This would be clever modern because of the times marketing if it were official lego made ! Something tells me this is passionate genius.
Dear Lego, hire this man as your historian. That is all.
Let's hope Billund is listening! ;)
My favorite theme.
No shade toward Insectoids, but this was peak coolness for LEGO Space, IMO.
The UI design and visuals for the intro were absolutely sick! How did you make them?
Thank you so much! I don't have a lot of graphic design skills so a lot of it is layers of stock elements. For the intro I tried to mash together elements inspired by the X-Files and Alien intros while giving it its own spin. One technique I used a lot is to sandwich a cutout of the model in between the background on the lowest layer and a copy of the same background on the topmost layer, but with the opacity set very low--it makes it look more like it's in the actual shot without getting too fussy about the compositing. (I popped a picture of the Cyber Saucer on stock footage of a jet, and after blurring it up I think it looks pretty good in the stills here.)
For the Explorien UI I figured out which elements I wanted to use (some of them are based on the actual elements, some of them are inspired by the Explorien UI seen in LEGO Racers) and dropped them into Photoshop, then used them as reference and used the Shape tool to draw over them. (The good thing about LEGO Space design is that it's simplistic enough that this works pretty well.) Then I imported it into Premiere as layers so I could have some of the buttons "light up" by fading them in and out individually. I had to imagine what some of these might do--for example, the little triangles on top of the big Explorien hologram sticker ended up becoming Star Trek viewscreen-like running lights. I also put a few stock animations on for good measure, and included a stock video of scan lines for extra 80s sci-fi goodness. When I was happy with the sequence I copied it out for several minutes and nested the whole sequence into my main timeline. (I learned my lesson from the Blacktron UI I'd made for a previous video--on that one I actually had all the little individual layers for the buttons in the main timeline for the video and it was a huge mess.)
It was probably a solid day's worth of work on the UI and intro each, so I'm really happy you enjoyed them!
@@loreescape47 Oh wow, I didn't expect you to go into such detail, but I am all the more thankful for it! In any case, keep making great video as always!
Awesome!! 🤩 Do more!!
More are on the way! :)
@@loreescape47 😎😎
The return of the king!!!
Y'all are the real royalty here. 😁
He's back, baby!
It's great to be back!
ufo my beloved
I love it! It's really unique not just among the LEGO Space themes, but LEGO and toys in general.
So basically the Vong mixed with Species 8472?
And Borg?
There's a lot of common elements with all of them, for sure! Good observation. I leaned more into the Borg/Species 8472 angle when I was playing with them as a kid because the NJO was still a couple years away. These sets were released in the US in July of 1997, right smack in the middle of Voyager's big "Scorpion" two parter, and I started getting the sets in the Fall when the second part aired, so the three sided Borg/8472/Starfleet conflict from those episodes were a huge influence in my Explorien/UFO play. (Even more so when Insectoids appeared as a third player the next year!)
(BTW I was so excited about the Borg coming to Voyager that I recorded Scorpion Part 1 on a *tape cassette* so I could listen to it in my room.)
👍
so zotaxians were just like vitubers and pngtubers they also dont like their own appearance or are paranoid bunch so they tend to alter their looks for the public viewing ...
but yeah back in a day I obtained some of the sets from these lines, I never knew anything about their lore or functions or relevance all I knew they were cool designs and had electronic parts, in my canon they clashed with humans causing all sorts of conflicts and all that was enough for me
"planet Fabuland and Ice Planet became lifeless" that is quite morbid and way too dark for a kids story, what were they thinking ... XD
I mean, with Ice Planet, it could just be that the human settlers left the planet, but Fabuland...yeah, that's really dark.