I almost entirely love this theme and set. I understand it wasn't that popular in the day. That is sad. It's got Classic Space written all over it which I love. But on to my substantive review.

The Building experience - There are some fun mechanisms in this build. There is a nice variation on the flick fire missile. In this case, in air defence battery form. The launcher for the fighter also is fun, raising the the launch angle in a way that harks back to the old Alpha Base and the Intergalactic Command Base. There are numerous flip open door ways and hatchs, some just allow entry and exit. Others flip out search lights / radar dishes.

Parts - Lots of blocky styles and small portals. The parts are very similar to the the blue, yellow and grey bricks available. There are few detail parts. I would love to have yellow transparency parts. I love the big chunky wheels.

Playability - Muchly!!!!!! You have a medium sized and very swooshable fightercraft on the roof. A buggy to transport a sick soldier infect by the head alien. An alien containment capsule. Scientist with a lab possibly for dissecting the alien. The forward truck has two guns on and can separate from the rear two thirds of the vehicle or just extend and articulate. The little UFO is fun. It's a nice sized little fighter and tangles nicely with the Alien Defence Unit Fighter. The buggy, lab and alien containment capsule mixed with the UFO gives bags of fun. Perhaps the little green head alien takes over a soldier by mind control or maybe the UFO crashes and the ADU turn up to capture and experiment on them. It's great. In addition, if you have Lego City sets, the ADU can be brought in to fight off an Alien invasion! This set makes a great mobile base for the ADU and would look amazing trundling through open fields to find a downed UFO or racing through a city to fend of an alien invasion. Perhaps the ADU are the baddies and have brought marshal law to a city that didn't need it for their own conspiratal purposes.

Value for money. This set came out in my own Lego Dark Age. Consequently I only acquired one a couple of years back. I would love to see what lego had planned for the 2nd wave if sales had worked out. As it is, I think this set is great value and has hours of potential. Every city should have an ADU.

In conclusion, I love this set, so should other AFOLs who remember classic space and any budding neo-classic space builder should too just for the parts.

What a great set. Possibly the best ground vehicle Lego has ever released in their Space line. Just so much to do while still looking so so good. Classic Space fans will love it as its the best collection of classic blue parts to be released in forever. Kids with love it because it is packed with m ore detail and more play features per brick than virtually any other Space set. Perhaps the only one to challenge it in this regard is the new Benny's ssS LL929 ship.

Older fans will get a distinctly "Gerry Anderson" feel from this set. You can almost hear the themes to UFO, Space 1999 and Captain Scarlet as you play with it. The main set is a large articulated 10 wheeled truck. A wonderful "Vic Viper" Space fighter. A small utility buggy and medical trailer. an alien capture pod and a very nice smaller alien saucer. Probably my absolute favorite of the alien ships.

The figs are great they include the Earth Defense Sargeant (old grizzled mustached guy), a female fighter pilot, and Earth Defense Scientist, an Alien Trooper and an Alien Cyborg Commander. Oh and lets not forget the alien head sucker brain slug thingy. The Scientist, Female Pilot and Cyborg are unique to this set.

The lead portion of the truck is heavily armed with lasers, canons and 2 quad rocket launchers. The cockpit is a dream seating 2 figs side by side. Behind the cockpit you have the compartment for the alien containment pod with fold out ramps on both sides so you can drive it in and out with the buggy. Behind that is a glass partition to the scientists control area.

The mechanism connecting the cab and trailer is brilliant. It can be easily locked between separated vehicles, an articulated cab and trailer mode or locked together as a single solid long multi axle vehicle.

The front of the trailer is a medical bay with a detailed very good looking medical scanner. Behind it is equipment storage and crew areas. The rear of the trailer has a large ramp that allows the buggy and trailer to drive right inside and remain there. Atop the rear is the rather substantial space fighter on a turntable launch rail. Turn the knob and it elevates to launch position.

The space fighter itself is a work of art. It is a not so subtle homage to AFOLs and the Lego fan community. An honest to god official Lego Vic Viper design. Wonderfully realized. The fighter alone is on par with many of the smaller Star Wars sets. It is that good.

Play features are just to numerous to mention. the set simply does not stop.

This set was designed by Mark Stafford, one of Lego's more recognizable modern designers with a flair for Space and Robots and Mecha. This set is one of his best works. Nothing about this set is bad. Nothing about it has any negatives. It is as close to perfection in Lego form as we are prone to get. The only minor quibble. It could have used 1 more minifig. And you will probably want at least one of the Alien Conquest Battle Packs to fully populate it.

One of the best if not the all time best Lego set I've ever owned.

Box/Instructions

The box is very big and like all Lego sets the instructions are very easy to read

Parts

Comes with a cool laptop piece, a missile firing system that fires 4 missiles at once, an adjustable launch pad for the jet, a research/medical trailer, a stasis chamber for the alien android and a lot of other stuff.

Minifigures

Two troopers, a scientist, an alien trooper and an alien android that's really cool. (Oh. and an alien brain-sucking clinger that goes on the human's heads.)

The build

A very sturdy build that takes a while but with be worth the long build once completed

The completed model

The completed model is overall an amazing set.

Overall opinion

OH MY GOSH GET THIS SET. An interesting fact though is that it's the only Lego vehicle (I think) to be able to sit 2 minifigures in the front seat

This set is amazing! The minifigs are cool and unique and the HQ is very detailed. The features are amazing and the set goes together quite nicely. But just for a tip this set will be at it's best if you have other space-themed sets.

Pros: Minifigs, the android is very cool(the best minifig in the set)

Details, this set has a little alien scanner, a boatload of missles that fire great, two side doors, a database room, and a fighter and little car. The set also comes with a UFO.

Cons: Needs more A.D.U figures

I drooled over pics of this set for some time before finally deciding to cough up the cash to buy it. While it is one of the most expensive sets I've ever purchased, it was well worth it and it has become my favorite Lego set of all time.

Minifigures

My only complaint about this set is the number of minifigures (which seems to be par for the course in the Alien Conquest theme). I do wish they had included a civilian or at least another ADU trooper. That being said, there are some nice figs in the set.

The male ADU trooper is the same figure as the one in the UFO Abduction set (#7052) but you can always swap the head if you don't want identical looking troopers. The female ADU trooper is unique to this set and is wearing the pilot version of the ADU jumpsuit.

The Toxic Cleanup Scientist is a great looking and distinctive figure that is also unique to this set. His torso is decorated on the front and back and he also has decorated legs. His white suit is a nice departure from the dark azure of the rest of the ADU figures. If you add a white space helmet (like the one from the astronaut figure in the first series of the collectible minifigures) the scientist can join the troopers in more dangerous settings. The one negative point about this figure is that his head is only printed on one side unlike the rest of the human figures in this series.

You get two aliens and a little clinger in the set as well. One is a standard Alien Trooper available in many of the AC sets. The other is the set exclusive Alien Android. The Android shares the same head mold as the Commander from the Alien Mothership set (#7065) but has different printed detail. He has a robotic arm and leg on the right side of his body. This prevents him from holding anything with his right arm (unless you swap the little tentacle for a claw) and also makes it impossible to seat him securely as the peg leg isn't useful in a sitting position. He is a very neat little figure that looks very different from the others in the series.

The build

The set contains several vehicles which made for an interesting build. It took about 2 hours in all and I really had fun making everything. There are stickers in this set and those on the curved pieces could be tricky to place especially if you want the stickers on the UFO to be relatively even with each other.

The completed model

When everything is built you end up with, in my opinion, one of the most jam-packed and interesting Lego sets ever. The main truck is composed of two parts and the variable connection means the two can be tightly connected giving the appearance of one large vehicle, more loosely connected like a truck pulling a trailer, or completely separated. The whole thing rolls along on 10 big rubber tires and it looks very rugged and impressive.

There's quite a bit going on in the front half of the truck. The main cabin seats two and the roof is hinged to allow easy access. I find the hinge system on this and everything else in the set to be quite secure. Further back there is a pair of doors (one on each side) which are hinged at the bottom and serve as ramps when they are fully opened. There's plenty of space inside this area for more troops or the alien containment pod. At the rear is a little computer lab with computer terminals and a chair on a swivel. The lab is separated from the rest of the vehicle by a wall containing some large windows.

On the outside of the front half of the truck you have rotatable sets of headlights, ball and socket mounted guns, large spotlights on the roof and a large missile launcher. The eight missiles are grouped in two pods of four and can be launched four at a time with a plunger type system that works pretty well. There is a seat between the pods for a minifigure. The launcher system can rotate but it does not elevate. The section of roof that the missile launcher is mounted on is easily removed for access to the computer lab.

The back half of the vehicle is dedicated to a nifty little medical lab. The rear of the vehicle is a fold-down ramp that allows access for minifigs as well as the included little support vehicle and trailer. This simple little vehicle is a neat addition to the set and the trailer can be fitted with either the alien containment pod or a stretcher. With the stretcher in place, the vehicle can back into the med lab and put the victim (or alien) on the stretcher right underneath the scanning machine (which looks similar to an MRI machine). In this position, the vehicle also fits perfectly inside allowing the ramp to close up again. I think the Haz-Mat collectible minifig makes a great driver for this little vehicle. Inside the lab there are clips for tools (like syringes or a walkie-talkie) or guns. There is also a cabinet (with a laptop computer stowed inside) and a pair of drawers for holding more tools. There are panels on each side of the vehicle which flip down and allow little scanning dishes to be deployed. These scanning dishes are the only really unstable part of the entire set as they pop off almost every time I try to deploy them.

The launching rack for the Interceptor shuttle is mounted to the roof of the med lab. This section of roof is also easily removed. The launching rack is a rather complicated build using lots of Technic elements and can rotate and elevate. The Interceptor shuttle itself is a great, solid starfighter with lots of laser guns and a hinged canopy.

In addition to the main truck, little support vehicle and Interceptor shuttle, you also get a small alien UFO. While it's nothing spectacular and it's vastly outgunned, the UFO is a solid build and a nice addition to the alien armada.

Summary

There is just so much going on with this set that I'm still awed by it even now, months after I bought and built it. There's so much playability that it's really a playset as much as it is a vehicle. You get a lot with this set and there is also a lot you could add or customize if you're interested. I'd definitely recommend this set at full MSRP and say it's an absolute can't miss if you see it on sale.