Cutout from LEGO box showing three alternative builds for the Message Decoder: a small 4-wheeled vehicle with a standing minifigure, a small flying spaceship with a sitting minifigure & a minifigure operating some kind of 4-wheeled ground-to-space gun.

Three alternative builds of #6831 Message Decoder

I was looking through my old pile of LEGO box cutouts, and I actually found one from a set recently built here on the blog, the Space Police Message Decoder! So you’re in for an extra treat, let’s have a look at all three alternative builds from the back side of the box!

The LEGO pieces for the Message Decoder laid out for building on a classic spaceport baseplate
The 23 pieces available for alternative builds.

The first alternative build is a super-tiny 4-wheeled vehicle, it’s not even big enough for the poor minifigure to sit while driving!

Perhaps the first thing that strikes you when studying the image from the packaging is that the front wheels of this build are not properly attached… Did the builder and photographer not have enough time to at least put the pieces properly together?

A tiny 4-wheeled LEGO space police vehicle with a standing minifigure operating the vehicle using two levers.
The first alternative build, a tiny 4-wheeler.

Anyhow, I think the resulting build is a good one. I improvised a little and put the two round red lights in the back beneath the mudguards, to fill out a gap that can’t be seen from the angle of the inspirational image. I’m pretty sure the designer also put them there, at least if there had been enough time during the photo shoot!

So what is it for? As the minifigure has to stand up driving it, it certainly can’t be used for any long distance missions. Perhaps this is your friendly neighbourhood space police patrolling the boardwalk of some recreational space resort colony on a warm and sunny planet?

The second alternative build is a small flying spaceship—or perhaps a landspeeder…

A small flying LEGO space police vehicle with a sitting minifigure operating the vehicle using two levers.
The second alternative build, a small spaceship.

The mudguards mounted on the sides look really nice and contribute to my thinking this is actually a landspeeder, but unfortunately their mounting on the bar-piece is a little flimsy, reducing the swooshability somewhat.

The third alternative build looks more like a heavy weapon mounted on wheels than a vehicle for transportation.

A 4-wheeled LEGO space police vehicle with a standing minifigure operating it’s twin mounted energy weapons.
The third alternative build, some kind of anti-spaceship gun on 4 wheels.

This build actually uses every single one of the pieces available in the set, and again the mudguards are innovatively used mounted sideways. My only complaint is that the blue slope on the back is only attached on two studs, so it easily comes off. I would have placed it one stud further in for stability.

All three builds use the hinge-brick for tilting the weapon systems along the length of the vehicles. I can’t help thinking it would be nice to have one of the builds tilt something sideways for some intriguing asymmetry, or tilt one pair of wheels somehow (like Rebrickable user biodreamer did in their alternative build) just to do something out of the ordinary. I might give that a go later!

I can’t remember building any of these alternative builds as a kid, and as all three are rather good I’m happy I got the opportunity to do it now as an adult. I must say that’s good value in a toy, to provide an extra burst of joy some 30 years later. Hopefully I’ll keep writing posts with alternative builds on this blog, whenever I find the right piece of cardboard in that pile…