Britains Space
Posted: Wed May 13, 2020 2:34 pm
Hi all,
1st generation Star Fleet fans may remember the early to mid 80s Britains Space line of plastic figures and modular space craft, guns and platforms.
I actually remember collecting empty KP Space Invader crisp packets at the time in order to get a couple of free mail away alien raider figures. I quite liked these and so decided to buy a couple of the good guy yellow stargard chaps at my local toy shop. Of course I then found out that these figures were part of a modular construction system in a similar, but far more limited, fashion to LEGO.
While I liked the gyroscopic space ship, I always found the modular system itself to be a bit poor with the cover art depicting rather odd looking and less than stellar configurations. As these cost a lot more than the figures as well I decided that my Britains Space collection would go no further and I'd end up spending my pocket money on Star Wars and Action Force figures instead.
Well, nearly 40 years later I started thinking about Britains Space again after watching a youtube video and wondered what I could build if I had the modular pieces at my disposal today. Could I make something that was a bit better than the box art suggestions, something cool, like a mech or similar?
Well, after building up a bit of a collection and having some time on my hands I've given it a go.
I'm quite happy with it as it was hugely challenging from an engineering point of view - The gyroscopic spaceship head makes the mech very top heavy and the joints can be on the loose side. I can see now that kids would have needed a fair few sets to make something out of the ordinary and unlike LEGO you are fairly limited to what you can construct.
I do quite like it though and may consider displaying it this way.
1st generation Star Fleet fans may remember the early to mid 80s Britains Space line of plastic figures and modular space craft, guns and platforms.
I actually remember collecting empty KP Space Invader crisp packets at the time in order to get a couple of free mail away alien raider figures. I quite liked these and so decided to buy a couple of the good guy yellow stargard chaps at my local toy shop. Of course I then found out that these figures were part of a modular construction system in a similar, but far more limited, fashion to LEGO.
While I liked the gyroscopic space ship, I always found the modular system itself to be a bit poor with the cover art depicting rather odd looking and less than stellar configurations. As these cost a lot more than the figures as well I decided that my Britains Space collection would go no further and I'd end up spending my pocket money on Star Wars and Action Force figures instead.
Well, nearly 40 years later I started thinking about Britains Space again after watching a youtube video and wondered what I could build if I had the modular pieces at my disposal today. Could I make something that was a bit better than the box art suggestions, something cool, like a mech or similar?
Well, after building up a bit of a collection and having some time on my hands I've given it a go.
I'm quite happy with it as it was hugely challenging from an engineering point of view - The gyroscopic spaceship head makes the mech very top heavy and the joints can be on the loose side. I can see now that kids would have needed a fair few sets to make something out of the ordinary and unlike LEGO you are fairly limited to what you can construct.
I do quite like it though and may consider displaying it this way.