Lego’s educational space sets are a stellar way to teach kids about the basic physics of collisions and impacts

Considering it’s ostensibly a children’s toy company, Lego sure has been targeting the grown-up market for the past few years. And who can blame them? Targeting the wallets of millennials has been a roaring success for Lego, whether it’s mining their sci-fi nostalgia with the Lego USS Enterprise and Lego Star Wars sets, or the moon rovers and NASA Space Launch System.

But thankfully, Lego hasn’t forgotten about the kids, as we can see from the suite of four new Education sets that it recently added to its line-up: Mars Mission Science Kit, Moon Mission Science Kit, Arctic Animals Science Kit, and Antarctic Animals Science Kit. You’re reading this article on a space website, so I’ll bet you can guess which two we picked up?

Out of the box, these are standard Lego sets: you get a bunch of numbered bags and some instructional books to help you build the kit. So far, so classic Lego, but there are some key differences once you start building.

For one thing, the sets have their own defined visual style, using a limited and unique color palette of teal, blue, white and pink. It’s a small thing, but we like that the sets have their own visual identity.

Each instructional book is split into three stages: Build, Solve, Invent. The first stage features detailed instructions — a step-by-step guide, really — on how to assemble the vehicle or structure in question, but the latter two are delightfully vague. For these latter sections, you’re given a rough suggestion of what to build and the pieces necessary to do it, and left to your own devices.

Now, as a 30-something man who long since had the creativity sapped out of him by life, this was mildly frustrating at first. I buy Lego sets because I appreciate the soothing satisfaction of following instructions to build something beautiful. But after a brief sulk, I remembered that I’m not the target audience for these sets; they’re aimed at kids.

That created a problem for me, because I don’t have a child. Fortunately, I was able to enlist the assistance of a friend’s son at the cost of one babysitting session. For his privacy, we’ll just call him Human Child One.

Human Child One and I had a great time building a couple of the experiments in the Mars Mission set. The first of these was a centrifuge, like those that astronauts use to simulate the high-gravity conditions of a rocket launch. Once the core structure was built, it was disappointingly lopsided, leaving our intrepid astronaut scraping along the ground.

That’s where stage two of the build came in: Solve! This section gives you a bunch of bricks, and the instructions give you a vague idea of what you’re trying to do, but stop short of actually telling you how to do it.

In this case, we were given a bunch of bricks and asked to balance out the spinner. Despite the lack of guidance, it’s remarkable how intuitive this task was for the youngster, and it wasn’t long before he’d restored balance to our spinner.

The final stage is called Invent, and the clue is in the name. You’re shown a vague concept of something — a soccer goal, a radar station, or in this case, a spaceship for our spinning astronaut to sit in — and have to build it from an assortment of pieces. As a final wrinkle, we also had to rebalance the counterweight once our craft was completed. It’s basically the Solve stage again, but with an object in mind rather than a mechanical process.

Each experiment within these sets is different, but they all follow the general pattern. Build a thing, then modify it to achieve a couple extra goals. I really like this concept. It gives some direction and context while still allowing your child’s creativity to flourish.

Alongside the spinner, the Mars Mission set also contains a huge crane that drops supplies, a small base that must be protected from asteroid strikes by building an energy shield, and a Mars rover that can clear debris with a satisfying kick.

There’s something very tactile, dynamic and even slapstick about a lot of these sets. There is always an interactive element to get the kids engaged. Between the catapults, slides and cranes, there are plenty of opportunities for the kind of crash-and-bang fun that young kids love. At the same time, this isn’t chaos and destruction for the sake of it — each experiment comes with a mission for your youngster to solve.

The Moon Missions set isn’t quite as flashy, containing only two experiments (and a moon house you can build). There is a rocket launch pad that uses a pivoting, spinning lever mechanism to simulate a blastoff from Earth to the moon.

It’s kinda neat, and my nephew had a great time playing with it, but I suspect a 9-year-old would get bored with it quicker than the more dynamic sets. The other experiment is a moon base that requires a slide to transfer materials between zones. Again, it’s neat, but it falls behind the Mars Mission set in terms of wow factor.

All of the sets in the range are recommended for kids aged 9+, but that might be a little cautious. I’m sure your 7- or 8-year-old will manage, especially if you build alongside them, but below that, they’ll struggle. Still, while they might not be able to build the sets, younger kids can still enjoy playing with them. My 4-year-old nephew (Human Child Two), came over and was immediately enamored with the pivoting rocket launcher when he spotted it, and spent the rest of his visit bouncing the rocket between Earth and the moon.

So, mission success? Yeah, I think so. Lego’s educational sets successfully blend the fun of building a regular Lego set with the experimentation and creativity of freeform Lego building, while also getting kids excited about science. They’re not going to hold adults’ attention, nor should they — we’ve got a $1,000 Death Star to spend our time and money on.