For several years after the end of Life on Mars in 2001, Lego did not attempt an original space theme. Waves upon waves of Star Wars sets filled that niche and then some, with a few officially licensed NASA sets mopping up the mundane end of the space spectrum.

But in 2007, long after the Prequel trilogy was done but before the Clone Wars show had yet started, ideas for the Star Wars license began to dry up. There was room on shelves again for Lego to come up with its own spaceships. Still not wanting to step on Star Wars’ space opera toes, they went with the familiar, near-future concept of landing on Mars, just like they had in 2001. This time, however, the Martians were fighting back. This was Mars Mission.

Color schemes and aesthetics were locked in tight: sleek orange and white near-future paramilitary vessels for the rapacious heroic human colonizers explorers, contrasted with sinister organic black and lime green forms for the wicked Martians, who had been reduced into subhuman two-piece transparent constructions that kind of looked like gummi bears. The pneumatic tube gimmick from Life On Mars returned, but now instead of benign Martian mass transit, it was a way for the humans to launch missiles or even transport the vivisected(?) corpses(?) of their alien foes in their quest to find some sort of weakness.

The extent to which Lego had embraced the “conflict in a box” play format they had previously eschewed in Space sets cannot be overstated. Gone was any pretense of pacifism or cooperation. Every set contained both factions to a greater or lesser extent, so that children could enact their martial fantasies immediately. The modular human mothership in 7644 MX-81 Hypersonic Operations Aircraft alone is bristling with over two dozen explicitly identified laser guns, more than probably any previous Space theme had ever had combined across its entire lineup.

The other salient storyline feature beyond the constant bombardments of lasers and missiles was that the human faction wanted to mine radioactive energy crystals out of the Martian crust and were willing to blow up anyone who stood in their way. I don’t think Lego intended this entire theme as a brutal Verhoeven-esque satire of contemporary Bush-era foreign policy, but it’s hard to read it as anything but that nowadays. (As an 11 year old I just thought it was cool as hell).

The other major change between Mars Mission and Life on Mars is how polished and sophisticated the designs became in the intervening five years. Designers had stepped up their game on Star Wars and other licensed themes. The Lego Company itself now exercised greater quality control and a more thoughtful design philosophy, focusing on manufacturing new families of useful parts that could find creative uses in multiple contexts rather than running off custom production runs willy-nilly. The designs in Mars Mission use all sorts of creative SNOT (fan speak for sideways or upside down building – Studs Not On Top) and Technic techniques to achieve aesthetics and play features that leave Life on Mars’ sophomoric designs in the dust.

Mars Mission ran for two years, with a major second wave in 2008, when the reign of the Space-neocons ended. Lego Space still had a bit of a reactionary streak to get out of its system, though.