In 2013, after a one year gap, Lego released its final original Space theme (thus far). The action once again returned to the outer wilds of the cosmos, where a race of “bugoids” is assimilating world after world, and only the heroic Galaxy Squad stands between them and Earth with all the guns the planet can muster. That’s right, it’s Baby’s First Starship Troopers.

The human vehicles, while all sharing a white base livery, are divided into four of the eponymous “squads” according to their accent colors. All four look pretty snazzy, with smart designs that make extensive use of SNOT. Equally impressive are the Bugoid ships, in their engagingly alien lime green, dark red, and transparent pink and purple color scheme.

For my money, the coolest set in the line was 70708 Hive Crawler, the largest Bugoid vehicle. Using a simple Technic mechanism and hidden wheels, it actually appeared to ‘walk’ with its six spindly legs, a motion that was almost unsettling in its realism in action. The designers had come a long, long way from the Insectoids 15 years prior.

While it wasn’t known at the time the sets were designed that this was the end of the road for Lego Space, Galaxy Squad almost seems to intentionally synthesize many of the Lego Space themes that had come before: There were sleek white vehicles like everything from Futuron to Space Police III, azure-uniformed troops like Alien Conquest, giant bug spaceships like Insectoids, mechs like Roboforce and Life on Mars, an extraplanetary turf war like Mars Mission, android companions like UFO and Spyrius, etc. It makes a decent capstone for the 35 years that Lego Space was a going concern.

Galaxy Squad would end up being the last time that Lego created a full range of original Space sets. So ends the 35 year journey of Lego Space, not with a bang but with a bug.

At least, as far as kids are concerned. But that nostalgic streak introduced in Space Police 3 was only getting wider…