Guide SP-3: Space Police 2 (1992)

 -Space Police 2 (1992)-

In 1991 LEGO went and reskinned its previous “Blacktron” space theme as “Blacktron Future Generation” or “Blacktron 2”. It recolored the ships and gave the originally mono-color flight suits an only slightly more colorful upgrade. Of course, if you are going to upgrade the badguys, you also got to upgrade the good guys. And so, in 1992, LEGO revised the galaxy’s keepers of peace and justice, the Space Police. “Space Police 2” saw the original black, blue and translucent red aesthetic replaced by gray, red, and translucent green. The original red minifigure visors were replaced a translucent green to match their ship cockpits, and even their uniforms got an overhaul. Originally a simple black-and-white uniform in the same pattern as the ones worn by the “Futuron” faction, the new uniforms were more brightly colored in white-and-green instead. The torsos featured more complexity in their prints, now depicting bits of tech and the words “Space Police”. The original theme just saw one minifigure released, but “Space Police 2” contained two new individual characters. One was a standard Space Police Officer, while the other was named “Captain Magenta” and featured red pauldrons that befit his rank. 

If people thought the new color scheme and torso prints were exciting, the new prints on the character faces were even more ground-breaking. The “Space Police 2” heads featured reddish hair, and a comm device with a microphone that ran from the supposed location of their right ear to their mouths. While other themes had begun to see more detailed faces on their figures, this was the first time the LEGO Space theme had received the facelift. These new faces would be seen in future Space themes as well, most notably the Exploriens theme. 

Unlike the “Blacktron Future Generation” theme which was essentially just recolored versions of the previous “Blacktron” theme, “Space Police 2” got a new selection of ships and vehicles. The theme was lacking, however, a faction base or HQ (such as the original theme’s #6955 “Space Lock-Up Isolation Base”). Also, the previous jail module that was universally interchangeable between ships was barely present and only compatible with a few of the sets. The sets that did include the jail pod, however, did include an updated “Blacktron 2” character, similar to the original theme.

Despite its shortcomings, the gray/red and translucent green motif of “Space Police 2” is oftentimes the more easily recognized of the three “Space Police” generations. 

The “Space Police” theme was revisited in 1992 as “Space Police II” and again in 2009 as “Space Police III”, but none with the same success as the original theme. The theme was echoed as well in the 2021 Series 21 Collectible Minifigure Series figure; “Space Police Guy.”