"LEGO Space Police" is a term referring to three separate-yet-related LEGO themes which, much as the title suggests, are about Space Police organizations.
The first version
of three Space Police themes, unofficially known as "Space Police I" among fans, made its debut in 1989. Their uniforms are nearly identical to Futuron, but stick strictly to black and white suits with red visors. Their ships also have a distinct color scheme of black and blue with red windshields. Space Police set the standard for their mechanical designs and the practice of carrying interchangeable cells aboard all but their smallest vessels. Space Police I emerged during the transition from Blacktron to Blacktron Future Generation and dealt with both in their respective periods of activity. A handful of Space Police sets contained Blacktron characters for the police to pursue and apprehend.
Its successor, colloquially called "Space Police II" ran from 1992 to 1993, save for a single promotional in 1998. Markedly more regimented than in their previous appearance, the second run of Space Police features a police force that finally has its own distinct uniform and new-yet-familiar updates of older vessel designs in a new color scheme. They've been seen in opposition to their fellow second-generation faction Blacktron Future Generation, but they've also sought out Spyrius agents late in their cycle.
After a sizable Sequel Gap, Space Police was revived in 2009 and ran until 2010, and this revival is commonly called "Space Police III." The reboot was a seismic shift in design aesthetic, both for the police and their targets; the line now played host to a wide variety of alien criminals and their vehicles.
As far as LEGO themes go, Space Police as a whole has always been one of the more popular ones; you could practically hear the entire fanbase cheering over the 2009 revival.
Tropes used in this toyline:
- Aliens Are Bastards: The aliens in the Space Police sets are always villains, although civilian aliens are plentiful in the online animations.
- All Bikers are Hells Angels: The Space Bikers.
- Big Bad: Brick Daddy is the leader of the Black Hole Gang in III.
- Continuity Nod: Space Police 3 was no exception to LEGO's recent love for nodding to their lengthy past.
- The most prominent was one set containing a statue of a Classic LEGO Space minifigure... which was being stolen by aliens.
- During the briefing scene of the Space Police: Log 04: H.Q. Briefing short, there are two statues wearing uniforms from the previous two incarnations of the theme.
- Creepy Twins: The Skull Twins in III, a mysterious pair of alien doppelganger criminals who wear skull-like masks. Since they look identical and so little is known about them, it's ambiguous whether or not they are actually twins or if there are more of them.
- Dirty Cop: The Ice Planet 2002 set Space Station Odyssey mentions that their secret research is coveted by renegades within the Space Police.
- Dumb Muscle: Jawson, Brick Daddy's henchman from III, is very strong but not very bright.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: 2010 saw the introduction of the Space Police Commandos. While wearing the same armoured spacesuit as everyone else, the Commandos dropped the repurposed leather aviator crash-helmet from the Adventurers theme that the regular officers got in favour of new heavily-armoured, fully-enclosed battle helmets with intimidating red visors.
- Everything Is An I Pod In The Future: The designs of the Space Police III craft sort of veer into this territory.
- Extra Eyes: Snake appears to be a Cyclops at first glance, but he actually has small spider-like eyes surrounding the larger one on his face, along with a huge eye on his chest.
- Fish People: Jawson is a fish-like alien resembling the Barracuda Guardians from the Atlantis line (but isn't the same mold).
- Generation Xerox: Design philosophy didn't changed much between the first and second generations, most notably retaining the double-decker cockpit wedge on larger craft.
- He Who Must Not Be Seen: The Galactic Council, the lawmaking body of the setting who the Space Police II answer to (and who are mentioned all of once in a brief flavor write-up in the pack-in catalogs).
- Instant Militia: Not confirmed in canon, but the sudden emergence of the original Space Police I (not to mention some uniform similarities) makes it seem as though they immediately sprung from the Futuron ranks fully trained and equipped to fight space crime.
- Institutional Apparel: Jawson dresses in an orange jumpsuitnote with a file in one pocket, giving a hint as to how he escaped.
- ISO Standard Human Spaceship: Not so much in design as in color; the later Space Police II ships replace the red/black/blue balance motif with mostly gray and black punctuated by small red highlights and green windows.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Frenzy, a four-armed alien, who is described with the trope name in a log video.
- Non-Fatal Explosions: In the third Space Police Log video, Kranxx, disguised as a waiter, throws a bomb on the table where a bunch of officers are sitting. It blows the diner to pieces, but he and the officers are left completely unharmed, despite being right next to it when it exploded.
- Palette Swap:
- The uniforms of the Space Police I cops share the Futuron design but change to more distinct colors evocative of modern police uniforms and squad cars.
- Rench looks like a lime-green version of Kranxx. This is explained by them being cousins.
- Craniac wears the same helmet as the Skull Twins, but in crimson.
- Pimp Duds: Brick Daddy may be a mob boss, but he aesthetically resembles a pimp.
- Prison Ship: A staple occurrence across all three runs. With the exception of small personal transports, each Space Police I craft carries at least one removable cell for prisoner storage and transport.
- Red Shoulders of Leadership: Captain Magenta wears a striking red pair of naval-style epaulets over his spacesuit.
- Robot Dog: III has the K-9 Bot, the Space Police equivalent to a police dog.
- Sealed Evil in a Cell: Any set including a cell also had at least one enemy minifigure - Blacktron for the first two runs, an alien for the third - to fill it with. In the original run, they were more like "normal" prison cells, but the other two provided cells similar in appearance to stasis pods.
- Space Base: The largest sets for Space Police I and III are space police stations, and several of the aliens' sets in III fell into this.
- Space Police: The entire premise of this series. A Space Police 3 set is currently pictured on the trope page.
- Transforming Vehicle: The Undercover Cruiser can transform into an ordinary civilian "Space Freighter" with no visible police insignias into a sleek police ship.
