LEGO UFO was a Space theme that ran from 1996 to 1998, between Exploriens and Insectoids. UFO was the first LEGO Space theme to introduce non-human looking alien minifigures. According to the limited back-story, the UFO Aliens’ general desire is to take over the galaxy (lock up your minifigs!).

The UFO droids share a biocybernetic style marked by a swathe of high-tech detail from head to toe. The two figures share identical leg assemblies printed with yellow-gold, silver, black, and orange elements. The red android (“Andy”) has a black-base torso, red arms, black hands and red-base head. The unnamed blue android has a grey-base torso, black hands, blue-base head and arms. Neither figures have back printing.

Andy the Red Droid

RED DROID “ANDY” (SP044)

Andy’s torso design is mostly silver, covered in orange and yellow elliptical shapes of varying sizes, orientations and colours. He has a yellow cooling fan of sorts on the middle right-hand side of the torso.

The UFO logo is printed in black and silver and set against a silver diamond in the upper left hand corner of the torso.

Andy’s ‘face’ is silver, blue and red. He has a long, thin blue visor with red diagonal stripes, surrounded by a silver mask. His mouth is house-shaped pentagon with vertical black stripes.

GOOD

Incredibly detailed torso and head with micro-sized detailing. The visor and mouth design give him an appropriately menacing look. The fan / gear gives the torso a little depth but what the design lacks in depth is somewhat mitigated by the design’s complexity.

BAD

These figures predate back printing so I won’t hold that against them. It is a bit odd that the designers went to a lot of trouble to design unique torso and head but gave them identical leg prints. Perhaps this could be explained away as both figures coming off the same fictional assembly line.

Blue Droid

BLUE DROID (SP043)

The blue droid’s torso design is yellow and silver in equal measure. He has silver chest plates with the UFO logo on the right-hand side and a circular button on the left.

There is something resembling a spine centered vertically down the torso. On either side of the ‘spine’ is an array of orange and black wires against a gold-yellow background, with several silver or orange circles connecting some wires.

The blue android’s face is silver with broad fly-like visors and small orange details. Unlike Andy, the blue android doesn’t have a visible mouth…to speak of.

GOOD

The chest-plates and spine give the torso a layered feel. The use of fore, mid and background layers give an incredible sense of depth; like one is looking ‘through’ the torso. The dark blue stripes on the visors give it them a pseudo-reflective look. The fly-like visor shapes and absent mouth give this figure a different personality to the red android which is a cool, subtle difference.

BAD

The grey-base torso might have been better in black.

RATING

These two very unique figures are my favourite ‘droids’ that I have come across so far. C3PO would be proud. Added to the Hall of Minifigures.