Lego Classic Build: 6973 Deep Freeze Defender

Ladies and Gentleman, I have it!

Or something else along those lines.  But the bottomline is, after 25 odd years I finally have the set I wanted to posess when being still a youngling.

Hailing from 1993, the Ice Planet 2002 range has always been my favorite Space setting.  Was it those special looking trans-neo visors that where really new back then?  The fact everyone else liked Blacktron and Space Police?  No idea, but I always loved the dual cockpit vessel and the theme as a whole.

But I only had the smaller sets... until now.  Digging thorugh Vincent`s old collection of Lego he was parting with, we came along this set, with box and instructions, and though it might lack a small piece left or right, I have enough elements to compensate and so sat down and build the beast.

The set comes with three ice miners, including what was back then one of the first female space figures, and printed facedetail figures in all.

The vessel itself is sompletely modular, containing of no less then half a dozen `detach - attach` vessels, and the first one is the simple drone.

We commence build with the small auxiliary vessel, a sort of glider sled that can be used to transport the missile stowed in the ship.

This missile is transported by a magnetic lock piece, which was the centerpiece of the M-Tron range.

Nothing to fancy actually, this is probably the weakest link within the whole set.

Next up is said missile, a long tubular rocket with a magnetic connector at it`s center for the sled to attach to.

But then we start the building on the real vessel.  Both the cockpits are actually two small vessels that can detach from the main body for speedy action.

They come with snowshoes for the pilots, and are build up around a large blue inverted canopy piece.

While the docking pin is visible, the backside of the vessel gets build up.  We then attach a front wingplate for making it look speedy and sleek, while engines and tools are added to the back.

Closing of the canopy with the typical Trans Orange cockpits and putting the ski`s on the bottom to have them race and land over icy surfaces, the small vessel is completed, whom we will be building twice to get the dual cockpit ready.

The midsection of the vessel is what houses the missile from earlier.  This is build upon a set of black plates, to whom technic bricks are added to allow the docking of the smaller vessels.

The sides are build up together with a pair of large wings.

On the underbelly, we`re adding the skiffs to allow it to stand on snowy landscapes.

Another set of big wings is then attached, as this is the main flight section of the combined vessel.

Next, we continue building up the missile bay of the vessel.  Using a leverage system, the bay can turn upwards revealing the rocket and putting it in a horizontal launch position.

The whole middle section is then completed by adding some upward fins and some details, and we can move on to the next part of the vessel.

That one is the storage bay.  In this large and bulky place, the snow sled will be stored.

This is done by a lift system, that when the sliding roof opens, the sled is automatically put in a 60 degree launch angle.

We keep building it`s sides upwards, adding more wings to the vessel.

The trans-orange and white sliding roof is then added inside the `rail` bricks that guide it downwards.

The back is covered by using more of the orange cockpit pieces, making up a large part of the typical IP2002 look.

Skiffs are added to the underside as well to have this part stand free from the rest.

Finally, additional engine pieces and some fins are added on top, and the final part of the vessel is ready as well.

The whole set disconneted from each other:

And in it`s great looking combined modus:

So that leaves us with one final question.  Is the Deep Freeze Defender swooshable?

The answer?