Last January, Lego promised its 90th anniversary would be one to remember. The company agreed to revive one of its classic Lego themes with a new, adult-grade Lego set.

Lego is releasing the Galaxy Explorer, a $ 100 upscaled version of the iconic Lego spaceship. The lion Knights’ castle, at $ 400 and 4,514 pieces, is the most intricate and impressive castle playset the company’s ever produced.

I’ve been pouring over the high-resolution photos of each set you’ll find below. I also got to speak to their lead designers Mike psiaki and Milan madge. The 44-year veteran co-created Lego pirates and forestmen and worked on many classic space themes.

With the Galaxy Explorer, psiaki, the goal was to trigger nostalgia by building the ship you think you remember – not the one that actually existed. Most people have only ever seen photos of the original 1979 set, and even those kids who’ve held one are n’t kids anymore.

Adults generally remember Lego kits of their childhood to be much more impressive and immersive than they really are. Our big bet that we’ve come up with is it’s about how big they are.

Psiaki realized he was 50 percent taller than his seven-year-old son. The new 1,246-piece Galaxy Explorer is roughly 50 percent larger in every dimension.

In 1979, the Galaxy Explorer’s airframe was largely constructed of thin, flat grey plates. The new one’s also 20.5 inches, or 52 centimeters long.

In the end, the Galaxy Explorer mostly became an upscaled version of the original. It was kept sharp and angular, with as few newfangled arched pieces as they could manage.

Psiaki says the Galaxy Explorer was n’t always going to be that way. But that was abandoned after they found themselves building another space shuttle discovery. psiaki:’how would this actually work as a spacecraft?’.

Some of the original printed Lego computer bricks have returned – but as flat tiles now instead of sloped monitors, making them look less like CRTs and allowing more of them to fit in the cockpit.

You can flip the new set’s landing gear right up into the frame. The original only had a handful of stationary detachable columns to serve as landing gear.

The new cockpit fits four minifigs simultaneously. It does n’t have the retro feel of the original’s flat-top lifter.

Jens nygaard Knudsen, who created the original LEGO minifigure, died in 2020 at the age of 78. Niels Milan Pedersen says he sees a lot of Jens’ personality shining through.