An Underwhelming Building Experience | Independent Review of the Blacktron Renegade (Set 10355)

I was super excited when Lego announced the new Blacktron Renegade (set 10355). I didn't have the original version as a kid, but I did have some Blacktron sets and figures. For all of that excitement, why was this set a disappointment? It all came down to the building experience. It's a quality set in many other ways, but not compared to how much fun it was to build other sets.

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[klausM]

Interestingly, I found the conventional brick-building without a lot of brackets and SNOT techniques rather refreshing and especially fitting for the nostalgia aspect. I also liked that this less delicate building technique adds to the impression of a military-grade badass faction where you rarely interrupt a reinforcment in the fuselage just to add another reinforcment.

[logansmith]

The 18+ rating argument is very silly to me. That rating has very clearly NEVER been representative of anything besides the intended market.

[laustpeternielsen-norman]

I loved your live stream. The good tone in the conversation, and your responses to it. I'm still gonna get 2 of the set next time we get double points, I want to do both builds

[ryandoyle]

The original came out when I was 8, and the only Blacktron set I had then was the invader but I thought the layouts they had in the little booklets looked so awesome, as an adult now I’ve managed to get all the Blacktron sets except ironically the Renegade, so this set was a must for me, building it made me feel like I was 8 again! I honestly didn’t stop smiling the entire time, I think it’s kinda sad when we judge a set on complex building techniques, and forget how much fun it was to build all those old simple sets, I am personally very glad this was more of a simple build

[MrHangman]

I think this set is great, i hope they do an updated version of one of the moon base sets that were in the original theme for both the regular spacemen and the blacktron faction so we can get more figures, maybe even a few blue and yellow spacemen instead

[GutMuncherZero]

I love your reviews - very thorough and thoughtful.

[natbarmore]

3:02 heh: the fact that round 1x1 tiles are too modern completely slipped by me when building the droid. Because I was focused on the anachronistic brick used for the torso — that’s almost 2 decades too new, and should either be a 1x1 with studs on 4 sides or, like the original, a pair of headlight bricks.

And, funnily enough, I’m not a fan of black (in Lego or in fashion/decor generally), but Blacktron is among my favorite themes of all time. Normally, I avoid black in my builds when I can (if I need a neutral it’s light gray, white, dark gray, light bluish gray, or dark bluish gray, in that order), but when I build Blacktron, it’s all black, with a splash of yellow. My only knock on the new Renegade is that I think it has slightly too much visible yellow, and the power canisters should’ve been black and yellow and trans-red, not red and light bluish gray and trans-red.

[natbarmore]

9:17 the only part of the yellow I dislike is outlining the cockpit in yellow. The trans-yellow would pop more if it were against black.

But it _is_ “too much” yellow. And red. Piece count isn’t a perfect measure under any circumstances, but in this case I think the proportions of visible vs buried parts and the sizes of the various parts is pretty comparable across the Blacktron sets, so it works as an approximation.

The original Blacktron line ranged from 19% yellow (Alienator) to 10% yellow (Battrax), with the Renegade sitting at 14% yellow. And none of them had anything but black, yellow, trans-red, trans-yellow, or light gray.

In the second wave, the Message Intercept Base was 12% yellow parts, but given the size of the big black panels and the size and number of trans-yellow panels and plates, and a pair of light gray baseplates, if anything this overestimates the amount of yellow on the set.

The Alienator is the yellowest of the original Blacktron sets, at 19%, but that’s mostly an artifact of it being a really small set: it’s a grand total of 16 yellow parts, with the 6 turntables for the walking mechanism being a third of those. Factor in the entire back section being mostly 2 big black wall panels and the feet being one big black piece each, and this is the one set where I feel like a raw piece count overestimates the yellowness of the end result.

Even the Blacktron Cruiser, despite introducing a whole bunch of dark bluish gray parts (mostly internal structure) is still only 11% yellow, right in line with the classic Blacktron sets.

But the Blacktron Renegade is almost 22% yellow parts, plus a bunch of dark bluish gray (mostly hidden structural elements), _plus_ another 8% red, most of them visible parts. While the classic Blacktron sets are all 70-80% black, with the Renegade being the blackest of them (by part count), the Blacktron Renegade is less than 55% black.

So, yeah, it’s a _lot_ more yellow, and even more yellow+red.

Not that I don’t like the overall look (other than the fuel cells and the cockpit outline), but saying it’s “too yellow” or “not black enough” is an accurate complaint.

[deang]

I love these classic space sets. A bit hard to compare this spaceship to a modular building.

[maddadbricks]

Great review - only thing is that it's a LEGO Exclusive, so isn't on Amazon etc and won't be on sale, unless it doesn't sell well.

[GiovanRosario]

It may disappointed you but it's the best thing after all the crap Lego has give to us since 2007

[Qoonutz]

I love your review. I think you have one of the harshest comments on this set. However, you offer an alternate voice. The vast majority of other Youtubers are just praising Lego (probably because Lego gave them an early copy). Keep up the independency.

[maxey]

I really wanted them to do what they did with the galaxy explorer, Keep it the same but up date the pieces. If you want to change it, then go towards the new direction of the mutated Blacktron CMF. This hybrid inbetween lets alot of us down.

[BDD_Builds]

I appreciate the honest opinion. I have not yet picked one up, as I am holding out for a potential sale like what we saw with the Galaxy Explorer.

[neilrusling-jezo]

How does it compare to the Galaxy Explorer? If it is as good as or better than it then I will rush to get it as I loved Galaxy Explorer, if you gave Galaxy Ex- a 9 or 10 bricks though and this just an 8...mmmnn, I will leave it as I have had a couple of disappointing builds lately, in particular Santas Postoffice went down like a lead zeppelin. After the past few years utter masterpiece Christmas sets the post office was a real let down, I probably should have bought the Christmas tram set again instead, you can never have too many Christmas 8wide trams. In fact I will see if I can get another Christmas tram set instead of Blacktron, plenty of time to get Blacktron.
Merry New Year and have fun building.

[eldraque]

I had the original, made sense to have a new faction

[franciscolagrifa]

I was also extremely excited when this came out because the gift with purchase was awesome... but this one it seems just big. I'm defintely more excited about the Creator 3 in 1 dragon

[VersatileFunDesigns]

For me the key selling point of the set is the amazing drop ship mechanism! I also appreciated its modularity. Since the build was not too complex, I was able to build it without the instructions!

[joe-bowling]

Age ratings other than 18+ might mean something in other themes, but 18+ just seems to mean who LEGO hopes will buy it. It would be nice to see some separation between sets like this one, the Winter Village sets, Sesame Street, etc. and true advanced builds like modulars and 1:8 scale Technic cars.

[Blake_Stone]

Hot take: removing my nostalgia goggles, Blacktron was cool but a little rudimentary, an awkward step between classic Space and M-Tron/Blacktron 2 etc.

I really like what some MOC designers have done with the Blacktron aesthetic and modern building techniques - these homage sets are trying to ape the original construction (kind of) so they aren't able to REALLY reimagine the original sets in a way that might make for a cool truly modern iteration of "Blacktron".