Product Description

Human astronauts have landed on Mars in their futuristic space shuttle in their quest to find energy crystals, but they have awakened evil aliens who want the crystals for themselves. The astronauts must defend their Martian base using the air-powered defense system. Turn the air pump to the right and transfer the aliens and energy crystals through the tunnels. Turn the air pump to the left and slam the pump to launch the foam missiles in defense. Includes command base, alien attack ship, futuristic space shuttle, air pump system, foam missiles, four astronaut minifigures and four alien minifigures that glow-in-the-dark. 763 pieces. Box measures 15.12"H x 25.67"W x 4.49"D.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32021 in Toys & Games
• Brand: LEGO
• Model: 4498649
• Released on: 2007-08-01
• Dimensions: 25.50" h x 15.00" w x 4.60" l, 5.10 pounds

Features

• Human astronauts have landed on Mars in their futuristic space shuttle in their quest to find energy crystals, but they have awakened evil aliens who want the crystals for themselves!
• The astronauts must defend their Martian base using the air-powered defense system. Turn the air pump to the left and slam the pump to launch the foam missiles in defense.
• Additional features: Human astronaut base with air locked system for transport of energy crystals & aliens, A shuttle with two storage tanks for aliens & crystal energy - ready to launch. The pump shoots aliens through tubes!
• Includes command base, alien transport pods, alien attack ship, futuristic space shuttle, air pump system, foam missiles, 4 astronaut minifigures and 4 alien minifigures that glow-in-the dark.
• 763 Pieces

From the Manufacturer
LEGO® Mars Mission MB-01 Command Base (7690) - Defend the Mars base from alien attack! Aliens are attacking the MB-01 Eagle Command Base on Mars! Fight back with air-powered missiles, then turn the air pump to transfer captured aliens and energy crystals through the base’s tubes. Launch the high-tech shuttle to battle the alien ship! Complete base set includes alien transport pods, alien attack ship, futuristic space shuttle and air pump system! Includes 4 foam missiles that are safe for play! Includes 4 astronaut minifigures and 4 glow-in-the-dark alien minifigures! Space shuttle stands 15" (38cm) high! Examine captured aliens on the command base!

Customer Reviews

Disappointed
We had fun putting together Mars mission but after it was together you really cant play with it because it falls apart. Make sure you have a place to display this after being built because you cant move it from room to room without it falling apart. My son was disappointed after we spent hours assembling to find you cant really play with it. If you just want something to build, which was fun, this is great but if you want action keep looking.

Mars Mission - A wrong step for Mankind
We got my son the Lego Mars Mission Base for his 8th birthday. First the positives. He thinks it's cool to look at and it became the centerpiece of a major Mars battle involving all kinds of other Lego constructions. Overall, it is typical of any Lego set you ever got or will get, though Lego does seem to be moving toward exaggerated packaging. There are two real negatives with this set: 1) The pumping action is very weak. The missiles are hard to launch and the whole pneumatic tube system is ineffective and frustrating to use. 2)What's with the story here? Lego explorers go to a populated planet, start harvesting minerals and go to war when the locals resist. Not only that, the explorers use the locals for experimentation and haul them around as cargo. Pardon me, but this is not what Lego's or toys for 8 year olds should be about. The upside is that my son and I have had some good conversations about this. However, be warned, the teaching impact of a cool toy is a lot stronger than Socratic dialog with a freaked out Dad. I don't think I'm being overly sensitive here, but I say the Mars Missions are a bad trip.

Eagle Command Base
My six-year-old son purchased this LEGO set after saving up for it for about 7 months. He was extremely excited to receive it and open it up and begin playing with it. My son being only six years old, it fell to me to assemble the majority of this set. I don't mind doing this, as I have always like LEGO toys and still own over 100 sets - most with the original boxes and instructions still intact. Compared to other LEGO sets that my family owns, here's what I think of this set:

Positives:

This set looks really cool when it is all put together. It is the largest Mars Mission LEGO set and is the base of operations for the Mars astronauts. The base set offers some pneumatic functionality that is intended to both launch soft foam darts, transport alien test subjects through a tube system, and load the alien prisoners into the main spaceship's prison cells/energy cells. There is a small labrotary area at the top of the base that is for experimentation on the alien test subjects.

Negatives:

Getting the aliens to slide through the tubes is a challenge for me, so for my six-year-old it's pretty much impossible. Getting the aliens to slide through the tubes and actually load into the ship has proved impossible for both of us. At least the foam darts launched OK.

The base is pretty unstable, structurally, as I knew it would be just by looking at it on the packaging. Forget about building this set and leaving it on a carpeted surface. It really neeeds to be kept on a table. Better yet, assemble it and stick it onto two LEGO 15 x 15-inch Building Plates and THEN put it on a table top, shelf, or dresser. I bought a couple of these ahead of time as I knew we'd need them. Also, by doing this, I stuck a few of the small, spare pieces onto the base plate so my son could see exactly where to put the tail end of the large spaceship so that it wouldlink up well to the base. So far, with gentle play, the base has remained pretty much in one piece by assembling it in this manner. Still, it is not transportable, so you'd better assemble it in the room you want to keep it in, because if you try to move it, you'll break it.

The spaceship's canopy is difficult to open which means my son usually has to have help when he wants to put an astronaut into it. Not fun for parents! The spaceship is constructed with a "handle" that sticks out from the bottom of it. In my opinion, this "handle" is entirely unnecessary. It makes the ship no easier to hold, more time-consuming to construct, and reduces the asthetic value of the toy. Generally speaking, I've never found that having a "handle" piece on any LEGO toy is a good idea.

Overall, the toy is a nice addition and any completist will want it for their Mars Mission collection, but you need to know that this set has some major flaws to it and is not a real good buy compared to some of the other Mars Mission sets.