This set is great I like the way it "decodes" the to plates on its wings. If you put the Dinosaur panel Rapidly through both of the blue and red thingson the front and continue moving it it looks like the dino is biting the bone. With the other panel you only do the rapid thing once or looks stupid, wheen you do it right it looks like an alien devoping inside a transparent egg.

Now for the Cool/Not Cool Features
Cool Parts(+1)
Decoding Feature(+2)
Minifigure(+1)
Looks Cool(+1)

So The Grand Total Is... 5/5 Awesome set
Buy this if you can get it for cheap enough.

ok, so its not the best design but its got a lot of good pieces. i think its cool how the telescope rests on the back of the ship. it also comes with a lot of discs. black ones, a blue one, a red one and a light green one. also the 2 blue half circle parts are awesome. though it could of used a couple of leavers on the side.

Classic Space timeline 1996...
After two generations of Blacktron conflicts and the era of Spyrius espionage, intrepid explorers in their new Exploriens-class vehicles have finally found evidence of past extraterrestrial life! Meanwhile, a mysterious wormhole (as shown in the box art) has emerged! Can the Exploriens unravel the secrets of the wormhole with their sophisticated sensors before it collapses? Are the alien fossils and the wormhole related to each other? Little do the Exploriens know that these startling discoveries foreshadow the arrival of intelligent alien lifeforms to the Lego Space universe -- UFOs in 1997 and Insectiods in 1998!

Building experience: A straightforward and simple build. Interesting to find out that the fossilized remains tiles can be transported by snapping them onto the criss-cross section of the wings. Comes with fossil and silver hologram-like stickers -- I prefer printed pieces.

Parts: A huge collection of versatile black, white and transparent "space" parts, which are useful for any space builds.

Playability: Its main feature is a huge telescope-like instrument which can be folded and tucked away between the craft's tail fins when not in use. The tiles with stickers depicting what appear to be fossilized remains, show different images when viewed under the red and blue transparent dishes respectively. As seen in other Exploriens sets, the stickered tiles can be picked up by magnets. A magnet piece should have been included for more play value.

Minifig: I like the colour scheme and the simple design of the uniform which seem to shout "exploration". The Exploriens logo remind me of the Star Trek badge.

Value for money: Average, back in 1996.

Overall: An above-average set. If you're looking for 80's and 90's space parts and building experience, this set is for you.

I entered by Lego dark age just before the great expansion of the Classic Space theme, so I missed this the first time around. That said, this is exactly the kind of thing I wanted to build as a kid.

The Exploriens are one of my favorite sub-themes of Space. I can conceive of them like a civilian research and exploration company of the far future - it makes them more believable than a lot of the wackier subthemes such as Exo-Force. On the other hand, there are lots of variations possible -- after all, who said that big thing on the back's a telescope? It could be a giant space laser for all we know.

Box/Instructions

I got this from Bricklink, without the box. The instructions are well-done, with a couple of caveats I'll mention later.

Parts

This set contains several really neat parts. The wing/grill pieces are nicely-made, and the tiles fit into their designated grill spaces well, staying in there even with vigorous shaking. The blue semi-circular tube-halves are cool-looking, which is probably why they made a resurgence during the Space Police II/III era. You get several translucent disks in three colors, as well as two black ones -- these could make any Space MOC snazzier with a dash of color.

The set uses stickers, a big turn-off for those who remember when Lego only made printed bricks, but I agree with the reviewer who said that making them color-coded was good, and then making them magnetic pushes it over the top to greatness. Unlike several other Exploriens sets, you don't get a magnet in this one and you don't really get color panels to see the images on the stickers; they have a little photo on the back of the instructions that's supposed to make that point, but I find it odd that they couldn't fit that into the instructions.

Minifigures

The set comes with one Explorien explorer with air tanks and visored helmet. A small ship like this doesn't really need more than one figure anyway. He has one real accessory, a space sensor which the instructions have you put a trans-neon green disk on; I suppose it's supposed to be his hand-held planetary scanner, and it has its own holder clip on the ship.

The build

Overall, the build for this is straight-forward. The ship's a little clunky-looking, and that's reflected in the build process, where the model is mostly unbalanced until near the end. The telescope's a little tricky, though; the wings are not that sturdy, so attaching the telescope without breaking the ship apart could be difficult for younger builders.

The completed model

The ship looks like it's primarily designed for research. It's not sleek and fast like the Space Police or Blacktron vessels. With the huge, bulky telescope on the back, it looks like it has trouble maneuvering at any speed, really. Still, it has the sort of utilitarian look you see in real spacecraft. That gives it a believability that you don't always find in LEGO Space sets.

Variations

Much like many LEGO sets back in the day, the back of the instructions show a couple of variations you can build with the same parts. One is a sleeker-looking spaceship, which suffers from the fact that there's no proper windscreen included. The other's a giant space antenna, which looks like a decent variant I might try.

Summary

Overall, I give this a solid 4 for value, maybe a 5 if you're a Space nut like myself. Nowadays, LEGO would sell a kitlike this for maybe 8.99 or 10.99. If you can find it at that price, it's definitely a good value.

Now how does this guy steer? It is a pretty good model after you add a lever or two. It comes with those tiles with stickers that change appearance somewhat when you slide them under a blue or red piece (dark green works like blue does, light green doesn't do anything. I got two, and used them as escorts for a ship using some pieces of 6815 Hovertron, a lot from the 6899 Nebula Outpost, and some other white and black parts.