The new Space theme (cross-theme?) goes from strength to strength with this set. This design harnesses the modular system introduced last year and takes it into deep space. The result is an impressively sized craft able to take on a myriad of space exploration tasks.

The overall ship design is sound and very sturdy, yet able to be recombined into a number of different modules. The large 'hab' module in particular is very well detailed with bunk, kitchen including a pizza ("Hope you like the smell of marinara folks, coz you're going to be smelling it for the rest of this four-year mission"), lab and conservatory.

The minifigure selection is quite generous for the set's size and one of the great things about the current Space range is the variety of minifig colours, helmets and equipment. One of the minifigs in particular comes equipped with an impressive manoeuvring pack. All also have their own hairpieces which increases play value.

There's also an intriguing alien in their own Lego Space gear. Presumably, this is intended to represent a Federation-like harmonious bond between species following first contact in last year's sets, but I'm not so sure. Lego astronauts have had an at-best questionable relationship with indigenous species over the years, a particular nadir being the Mars Mission subtheme which saw astronauts plugging hoses into the bodies of Martians seemingly to power equipment. So, fast forward to the present day, and I'm not so sure that little alien is there by choice. After all, they clearly need to wear a space suit and helmet to survive the atmosphere inside the spaceship. What looks like a smiling face to human eyes might actually be a scream of terror.

But I digress.

The set's not without a couple of small flaws. The finish around the sides of the cockpit is poor with a gap at the edge of the canopy. Curved plates should have been used to give a better finish. Likewise the large clear 'hab' roof has a couple of annoying gaps where it joins the walls. But these don't really detract much from the set overall and are quite easy to MOC if it really bothers you.

Similarly to the original Classic Space sets, the ship and its occupants are woefully underarmed, so should prove easy pickings for the new Blacktron Renegade as soon as I've built it. Perhaps a Space Police 4 subtheme is just around the corner...

Overall a strong set with great play value.

A few months ago, I purchased the 60433 modular space station. While that set is also great, the build did get repetitive with a third of the build being 4 capsules, all built almost identically. While the rest of the space sets are certainly plenty of fun, their element of modularity is slightly lacking, as all you can do is either switch around capsules or stack them. With that being said, this set fixes all of that. With this set alone you can do so much more. You can have a medium spaceship and a ground-based laboratory or a really long spaceship connecting the laboratory to the spaceship and a capsule. You can have the wings attached in the front, middle or back. It manages to be more versatile in its modularity while also having a great deal of variation in its build. While the building experience is nothing out of the ordinary, as it is still meant for younger children to build, it doesn't fall into the trap that 60433 does, where it becomes tedious. For anyone looking for a large spaceship, this is easily the best one Lego has on the market right now. While it's a bit overpriced (I would ideally like to see it at 70 dollars), when i consider that it is only 10 dollars more than the arc 170, I cannot really complain about the value.