LEGO is bringing back a classic with the new 10497 Galaxy Explorer set, a remake of the 497 Galaxy Explorer set initially introduced in 1979.
10497 Galaxy Explorer was announced during this year’s LEGO CON in celebration of LEGO’s 90 Years of Play as an homage to LEGO’s earliest spaceship sets and the period they were created. This period was acknowledged mainly in the LEGO movie with some characters such as Benny and the 70816 Benny’s Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! Sets.
Back then, the classic 497 Galaxy Explorer set was a big hit. It is still much loved today, especially by LEGO fans from when it was released.
LEGO is bringing back that magic with the 10497 sets, and while it retains the style from the period the 497 sets were designed, it has incorporated some modern features in this new set. For example, 10497 has more sophisticated wings, and buckets have been used to replace the pre-moulded features, e.g., the set’s loudspeaker, as is now done with modern LEGO models.
The remade set also features two wide yellow windshields transparent enough to see the ship’s insides and its riders. Unlike with the 70816 Benny’s Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP!, the windshields are more firmly put in place and do not fall out when moved around too often. This makes it an ideal set to either put up for display or play with.
It is rather convenient that this set has enough space to hold four different minifigures and several pieces of equipments for operating the ship. The set comes with four space astronaut minifigures, two colored white and two colored red, a tiny robot with an older design, and a moon buggy. Although, we can’t say yet if the ship has enough space to fit in all the minifigures.
The 10497 Galaxy Explorer set will be available on the 1st of August, but the pre-order option is open on LEGO.com. It will go at a retail price of £89.99 / $99.99 / €99.99.
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