Classic

Creative Space Planets

A tub of bricks that turns into a whole solar system, and asks a kid to figure out how.

Brick Rated Score

4.0/5

Set 11037 · 2024

Pieces450

Minifigsn/a

Year2024

Set number11037

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The verdict

What sold me on this one is how little it holds your hand.

You get a rocket, an alien, an astronaut, and a little Mars, Earth, Saturn, and Sun, and almost none of it comes as a finished shape. It's built from Classic-style basic bricks, plates, and a few glow in the dark pieces, and the instructions nudge a kid toward swapping colors, faces, and poses instead of just following steps to one fixed result. I'd hand this to a five to eight year old who already likes space or who just likes taking a pile of bricks and making something weird out of it, not a kid who wants a display piece to leave untouched on a shelf.

Best for: Space-loving kids aged 5 to 8 who want to build their own scenes, not follow a single fixed design

The full review

What it is

This is a LEGO Classic set wearing a space costume, and once I understood that, I liked it a lot more. Instead of one locked model, you get a rocket ship, an alien, an astronaut, and a compact three or four planet solar system with Mars, Earth, the Sun, and Saturn's rings, all built from ordinary bricks, plates, and a scattering of glow in the dark pieces. The instructions actively suggest swapping colors, changing the alien's face, and mounting models on a little rotating stand so a kid ends up with their own version, not an exact copy of the box art.

The catch

I'll be honest about where it falls short. There are no minifigures at all, so if your kid is expecting a little astronaut figure to walk around afterward, that's not what this is, the astronaut is a blocky brick sculpture instead. A few builders also noted the finished models feel a bit loose next to a fully molded playset, since so much of it is basic brick construction rather than specialized pieces. And the box teases a full eight-planet solar system as a bonus build, but you don't actually get enough parts or the right colors to build all eight without raiding another set.

Who it's for

I'd put this in the hands of a kid who already gets excited about space and likes tinkering, the kind who'd rather invent their own purple three-eyed alien than build the one on the instructions exactly. It's a nice bridge between a basic brick tub and a real licensed space set. If your kid wants a polished astronaut minifig and a spaceship they can fly around without rebuilding it first, look toward LEGO City or Creator 3-in-1 space sets instead.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

Building this feels more like an open art project than a normal LEGO set. You're not snapping together big preformed panels, you're stacking basic bricks and plates into a rocket nose cone, an alien's lumpy head, and ringed planets, which means younger builders get real practice with fundamental techniques like offsetting bricks and building round shapes out of square pieces. It moves quickly since there's no minifigure assembly or sticker sheet to fuss over, and the instructions actively encourage stopping partway through to change a color or a face before finishing.

The glow in the dark bricks are the most memorable part of the box, used on the planets and parts of the rocket so the whole scene lights up after dark, which is exactly the kind of detail that makes a kid want to keep the set together instead of dumping it back in the bin. At 450 pieces for a Classic-tier set, you're mostly getting standard bricks, plates, and a handful of curved and round elements rather than rare printed parts, but that's the point, this box is meant to feed a kid's general parts collection as much as it is meant to build one specific scene.

Fun facts

01The set includes no minifigures, its alien and astronaut characters are built entirely from bricks rather than standard minifig parts.
02It comes with glow in the dark bricks used across the planets and rocket, meant to be admired after lights out.
03The box suggests an alternate build of a full eight-planet solar system, though the parts and colors provided only really support a Mars, Earth, Sun and Saturn arrangement.
04Released in January 2024 at a retail price of 29.99 dollars, it was later flagged as retiring soon on LEGO's own shop listings.