Space is the Place: Building LEGO’s Upscaled Blue Astronaut
/Today’s guest article comes from Richard Dryden, a builder, DJ and sneakerhead who takes a closer look at LEGO 40921 Up-Scaled Blue Astronaut Minifigure and reflects on why Classic Space still means so much to him.
Growing Up with LEGO Space
My most beloved symbols of outer space are LEGO astronaut minifigures and their spacecraft. Classic Space is one of the themes that kickstarted my LEGO obsession as a kid. I was lucky enough to recover most of my collection after my cousin outgrew the sets I gave him. Now they are family heirlooms that I hope my son passes down to his kids someday.
So when LEGO released 40921 Up-Scaled Blue Astronaut Minifigure, I was curious to see how the new set would bring one of those childhood icons to life at a much larger scale.
My son will have fond memories of the blue astronaut minifigure, just as I did of Futuron and M-Tron minifigures, in part because of Benny from The LEGO Movie. Set 40921, the LEGO Group’s biggest version of its blue-hued space explorer, is a 793-piece brick-built statue from its Classic Space theme, standing over 10 inches (26 cm) tall.
Since 2021, LEGO’s upscaled minifigures have gone big in both size and aesthetic. Although the blue astronaut is the most monochromatic of all the upscaled LEGO minifigures, its suit doesn’t have the variety of colors found in the Octan set (40819 Racing Driver) or the outfit details of Captain Redbeard (40504 A Minifigure Tribute). But despite its relatively simple appearance, it still honors almost half a century of LEGO design.
Like most LEGO sets, Classic Space speaks directly to the LEGO Group’s first brand value, Imagination. “Playfulness asks WHAT IF and imagines how the ordinary becomes extraordinary, fantasy or fiction. Dreaming it is a first step towards doing it,” as it states on the brand’s About Us webpage.
Humanity’s fascination with the cosmos pushes our imagination to envision some of the greatest stories ever told: Dune, Star Trek, Star Wars. Space is the Place is a deep cut in sci-fi filmography, written by Joshua Smith and jazz legend Sun Ra, that recently took me on a radical joyride to another dimension. One of Sun Ra’s superpowers in the film was his ability to use sound as a mode of transport, mainly for Black people to find a planet where they are accepted and celebrated beyond Earth.
Comprehensive reference material LEGO Space: 1978-1992 by Tim Johnson
We’ve actually seen this advanced theory of sound and space play out before. I can’t help but notice how the LEGO Group’s unveiling of the Smart Brick is vaguely familiar to the integration of light and sound into Classic Space circa 1986.
When the LEGO Group introduced Space as one of three subthemes in 1978, it was the same year the minifigure launched. The subtheme reflected the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. The blue astronaut joined the red-and-white space-themed minifigures in 1986. The blue minifigure became so popular in the brand’s catalog that it eventually developed an identity as Benny in 2014’s The LEGO Movie. He was a wacky, spaceship-obsessed member of Emmet’s team, much like Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster, who is also blue and famously fixated on cookies.
Before 40921 was announced as an official set, I spotted upscaled spacemen MOCs by DeRa. LEGO also caught on to the wave of upscaled space adventurers by releasing the red space baby as a gift with purchase. I started building my own collection of astronauts with the M-Tron theme (by penguin_bobo), followed by the red Futuron minifigure. The blue astronaut now completes the trifecta.
Caption: From left to right: M-Tron MOC by penguin_bobo via Rebrickable, set 40921, and Futuron Upscale Minifigure recolor by Richard Dryden.
The Build Process
The instruction booklet for the set opens with a page paying homage to five sets from the mid-1980s. If you haven’t picked up the LEGO Space anthology, this page is a sliver of what’s covered in the book. The images include the first appearance of the blue astronaut, showing how far we’ve journeyed with the theme as it approaches fifty years.
Cover and nostalgia snapshots of Classic Space from 40921’s building instructions.
The first 28 pages of building 40921 follow a standard process for these models that starts with the torso. The outside framework achieves the familiar angles of an upscaled minifigure torso by stacking Slope 75 2 x 1 x 3 - Open Stud elements on top of a rectangular 6 x 12 base.
This is now the third upscaled minifigure I’ve built. Last year, I purchased sets 40819 and 40649 so I could create two of my other favorite explorers from M-Tron and Futuron. The M-Tron MOC uses an intricate design of plates and tiles to replicate the “M” logo, but it’s like playing Operation to replace each piece in the chest if anything slips out of place.
By comparison, the blue astronaut’s printed 1 x 6 x 5 panel with the Classic Space logo gleams with nostalgia for the theme. Both the race car driver and the blue astronaut use printed graphics. I also had to borrow the 2 x 4 red Classic Space tile from the buildable baby astronaut GWP to create the accent piece for my red Futuron MOC.
Using Technic to shape the angles of upscaled minifigure torsos bends bricks with symmetry.
The two modules that interlock inside use a medley of Technic bricks, tooth gears and plates, plus inverted and curved slope bricks that are consistent across all of the upscaled minifigures, including 2025’s 40820 Santa.
One of the main structural differences that sets the blue astronaut apart from its predecessors is that it doesn’t use ball joints to attach the legs. Instead, a Technic Rotation Joint Disk is anchored to the interior of each leg. When posing the model, the legs click and lock into place.
The Octan leg construction using Technic plates on the left; the blue astronaut’s Technic Rotation Joint Disk construction on the right. The blue has a leg up on red.
The Technic connectivity is a major upgrade from the ball joints. The blue astronaut can be posed in a walking position, whereas there is too much friction from the ball joints to pose the earlier models in a similar style.
The back of our space explorer has Technic pin holes to attach the air tank.
A Love Letter to Classic Space
There is an everlasting nostalgia for Classic Space among AFOLs. The LEGO Group knows this and continued to prioritize Space in its brand portfolio in 2024. The Year of LEGO Space featured space-themed sets across City, Creator 3-in-1, DREAMZzz, DUPLO and Friends. Pharrell Williams’s “Over the Moon” set was another major highlight.
Set 40921 tells the story of Classic Space in a way any true fan can appreciate. The primary colors of red, yellow and white are a nod to the original colors of the space explorers from the early 1980s. Throughout the interior build, from head to toe, the color palette honors the collection originally designed by Jens Nygaard Knudsen.
Another nod to a Classic Spacecraft.
When assembling the helmet, two wedge plate elements come together to form the wings of a crude spaceship, complete with translucent elements reminiscent of the LL 924 Space Cruiser. The robot inside the head is also a twist on the bots from the 1986 Minifigure Pack 6702, pictured in Classic LEGO Space, 1978–1987.
Building all of these little references into 40921 reminded me why I've held onto my own LEGO Space collection for so long. This past February, I was given a hoard of loose LEGO parts and vintage sets from a neighbor in my apartment building. I felt like I struck gold when I got my hands on a bunch of parts for a project I was working on. Then the previous owner told me he had gotten rid of even more the previous December through the LEGO Group’s recycling program, including a “ton” of space stuff. Imagine my face when I heard those words.
Aside from some of the vintage LEGO I salvaged, the handful of M-Tron parts buried in the pile are remnants of what could have been. Classic Space and its contemporaries, from M-Tron and Space Police to Blacktron, will always hold a special place in my heart.
The upscaled astronaut is the statue that represents all of the sets my mom bought me and all of the white whale sets that I’m still chasing to this day.
Space is my place.
What LEGO set has taught you something new about another culture? Let us know in the comments below!
Do you want to help BrickNerd continue publishing articles like this one? Become a top patron like Paige Mueller, Rob Klingberg from Brickstuff, John & Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick, Megan Lum, Andy Price, Lukas Kurth from StoneWars, Wayne Tyler, Dan Church, Roxanne Baxter, and Marci Hollingsworth to show your support, get early access, exclusive swag and more.
