Lego reveals retro 90th anniversary sets including a modern spin on the epic 1979 Galaxy Explorer

Lego has revealed two special sets to celebrate its 90th anniversary, both inspired by classic sets from Lego’s past. Lego fans previously voted on their favourite themes to resurrect and space and castle came out top of the list (understandably!).

We’ve seen both of these sets in the flesh and they are nicely detailed. The wonderful Galaxy Explorer 10497 is a faithful recreation of 1979’s 497 Galaxy Explorer with modern Lego bricks whereas the 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle is more what you would do if you wanted to create the perfect version of an old-style Lego Castle.

That’s because it has a lot more to it than one of the classic castle sets like the Lego Castle yellow from the 1970s yellow castle or the 1984 6080 King’s Castle (which this set is loosely based upon) – it folds out as you would expect and there’s so much detail. It’s almost a complete medieval settlement and a lot of people will be excited about it. Again the designers have used as many modern Lego pieces as they can to huge effect.

It’s worth noting that the Galaxy Explorer has been scaled up so that adult hands don’t feel that it’s too small. This might be a bit of a controversial move because both of these sets are no longer aimed at children – both have 18 plus on the box which is a bit of a shame because unlike many sets from the former Creator Expert series there’s no reason why they couldn’t be played with and no reason why young builders couldn’t actually put them together given a bit of time.

Both sets will be out on 1 August to celebrate Lego’s big anniversary. There have been rumours that Lego will also introduce a forestmen set this year to resurrect another classic theme – the suggestion is that this could sit alongside the castle set as forestmen is more of a sub-theme of Castle.

We were lucky enough to go out to Lego HQ in Billund recently to hear about Lego’s strategy for the months and years ahead and also to look back at the company’s successes over the last nine decades. Although we saw the above sets, we weren’t able to take close up pictures! We’ll be bringing you more coverage on this over the coming days.