I got the mobile lab set as my first space lego set. Honestly I never like the look of the set but I loved the spacemen vs townpeople..they just looked so official on a mission to explore something in space. I just always thought the set looked like a top heavy elephant.
...by just stacking the 6 you had an instant cool lookout stand although no where was there a place for hands to actually climb up it!. Even the alternative builds on back of box showed the stack of 6 making a tower.
The other thing I liked was the tile 2x1 in gray.
At the time I was delighted to have the gray 2x2 tiles for baseplate driveway 555 hospital set but now the smaller tiles could add more detail. Now days 1x2 tiles are just a given in most sets as a keyboard or phone but at the time of the mobile lab, 1x2 and 1x1 tiles were rare. Now the minifigs could carry something other than the wrench and walkie talkie that almost every minifig came with (really compare the blank gray 2x2 tile then with how advanced the female minifig is in the detective office set of 2027...that tile shows an addressed letter and red wax seal as detail...lego liked the idea of minifigs holding the tile...I was 38 years ahead of my time
