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SHIPtember: Best Pop Culture SHIPs

Welcome to a Week of Wonders, highlighting some of the best SHIPs (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts) that were built during SHIPtember. We have some special prizes lined up so stay tuned to the end of the week!

For those that might be unfamiliar and might be asking: What is SHIPtember? Well it is a challenge to build a very large space ship that is at least 100 studs in any orientation, from start to finish within the month of September, or as we’ve now lovingly dubbed it: SHIPtember.

This year we have over 120 astounding ships created by builders. These ships range from complete figment of the builder’s imagination, recreating concept art, taking design cues from existing themes, to recreating familiar ships.

But today, let’s focus on the fine art of recreating ships based off existing properties.

John Boozer (JediKnight219) (yes, that’s his real last name) has been a long time SHIPtember builder, focusing on recreating some of the best pop culture ships from his Transformer’s ARK Ship and last year’s minifigure scale Guardian of the Galaxy’s Milano.

This year, John is back with a vengeance with this incredible take on the Superman Villain: Brainiac’s Skull Ship:

This one was particularly fun to watch watch being built in the last month as it was originally quite hard to decipher what John was working on.

Kevin J. Walter (SkyWalter), who actually won the best IP based build last year with his Goa’uld Mothership from Stargate SG-1 is back this year with the Nazara / “Sovereign” from the Mass Effect game:
Nazara / "Sovereign"
I’ve always been a big fan of Kevin’s love of building in black, a very hard to photograph colour, especially given the amount of details he manages to put into his builds.

Not to be outdone, Pico van Grootveld (Brixnspace) built another creature-ish SHIP this year with the EVE online’s custom Scorpion battleship:
EVE online's custom Scorpion battleship | SHIPtember 2015
While we’re used to many ships being really big, this is really big. Which is extremely impressive given the size and and shaping of the lowered section – it’s quite the LEGO-engineering feat!

And one more for the Pop Culture round up, another Video Game based ship, by Mel F. (Melan-E) with her build from Destiny: The Queen’s Emissary:
The Queen's Emissary
Which ironically is the most ship-like of all the ship’s in this post, but none the less a beautiful recreation of the original source that is instantly recognizable due to Mel being able to recreate those distinctive angles.

Lifesized LEGO Tesla Supercharger

Chris’ recent Tesla post reminded me of one of the more impressive sculptures I saw this year. Robert Turner (rt_bricks)‘s (almost) life sized Tesla Supercharger. Standing at over a one meter (42.5 inches) tall, and taking over three months to build, this is a deceptively large build due to Robert’s fantastic shaping:

You might be thinking: “well it’s not that big…”
Which is why he actually put it beside an actual Tesla Model S to show off the size:


That Tesla incidentally is Adrian Drake’s, who had his own Tesla build to contribute to the display.

You can check out Robert’s interview about this creation, courtesy of our friends from Beyond the Brick:

NCS Aries-K – SHIPtember – SHIP in a day

There’s been a lot of large spaceships or SHIPs (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts) building this month as part of SHIPtember – the build a 100 stud SHIP in a month contest. Some people feel that a month is slightly more time than necessary, and there have been several SHIP in a day builds over the years – with varying results.

So I wasn’t surprised to see someone attempt this again this year, but I was surprised to see FOUR master builders: Jason Allemann, Michael Gale, Kristal Dubois, Lucie Filteau join together in an amazing 24 hour build (or does this really make it a 96 hour man build?)

I don’t care, cause the end result makes my own personal month long SHIP build kind of small, and lacking in coolness…

NCS Aries-K (24 hour SHIP) Abstract Detail

Not only does this clock in at the bigger side of the SHIPs built this month, the multiple functions and delightful spinning mechanisms makes this stellar build, regardless of the time spent:

24 hour SHIP - hour 21 - rotating rings and ion impulse drive!

Oh, and yes, there’s a time lapse:

Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus

Sometimes there isn’t a need to reinvent the wheel, just change about half of it and give it a fresh paint job. That’s exactly what Zach (zachmoe) did with his amazing micro-scaled ship:

Epimetheus

This ship might look slightly familiar, it’s based on Rob (dasnewten)’s Prometheus which we’ve featured before. Zach made it his own by upgrading to a quad engine arrangement, and adding the delightful little dock on the side. And if you’re wanting to try to build your own version, Rob has graciously provided some breakdown so that even us non Titans of Space can build one.

Spinput GBC

Great Ball Contraptions (GBCs) are a staple of most LEGO conventions, the idea is simple create: a mechanical device to move balls from point A to point B, with a certain set standard. Then sit back and watch a) balls go flying b) kids be mesmerized for hours. It’s a challenging feet of engineering to create a mechanism that can withstand hours of continuous operation, typically the most prized honour for a GBC builder is the ‘Most Reliable’ award (or some variant). Unlike a lot of LEGO builds we see on The Brothers Bricks, aesthetics is not primary goal.

But sometimes, someone steps forward and combines all the above, and makes it beautiful, just cause. For example, Benjamin Corey (Bricktech) built this gorgeous GBC at BFVA this year:

Spinput
You can watch it in action here:

You can also check out the whole GBC video from our friends at Beyond the Brick.

Claptrap’s New Robot Revolution

Hello minions! Claptrap, everyone’s favorite/most hated robot from the Borderlands game is back again. We’ve featured some fantastic renditions of this iconic character before, from Medium scale to stupidly large-life scale, but I think this build by Davyn (Rifflestein) is my favorite version yet, in adorable minifig scale:
Claptrap's New Robot Revolution
What most readers don’t know is I actually built a minifig scale version of Claptrap, and while there has been times people have based work off of my builds, it’s rare someone like Davyn comes along and basically goes: “I can do way better.”

Which he did!

What resulted was an incredibly well thought out build, using the lamp holder as the wheel, and minifig hands as the entire arm is just perfect. It was also really cool how he presented his build in the same unique cel shading of the game …

… I think I have to go build me a set of these now.

Classic Space Tri-Fighters

I’m a sucker for starfighter spaceships, and this beauty by Mitch (Gamma Raay) is simply amazing:
LL971

You might recognize the Mitch’s name, but probably not associated with Space ships. Mitch usually builds bionicle, which we’ve featured multiple times. This time Mitch has integrated Bionicle pieces seamlessly into this wonderful build. I love how everything just comes together at very unusual angles for a LEGO build, and his attention to shaping and using pieces seemingly designed just for the purpose makes this a thoroughly well throughout and executed build.

And like all good starfighters, it looks great an any angle, including the top:
LL971

Count down to SHIPtember

It’s almost time for one of the craziest build theme months: SHIPtember.
SHIPtember 2015

Starting September 1st, builders have exactly one month to build a S.H.I.P or Seriously Huge Investment in Parts (or Time for some of the people with larger collections). Each SHIP build must be 100 studs or more (in any orientation). Though for people with school or other ‘real life matters’ there’s PRE-SHIPtember which allows you to start earlier, but you’re bound to the same one month rule.

Last year there were over 100 SHIPs that were built:
SHIPtember 2014 Poster

So start clearing off your social calenders, clean up your build areas, make those bricklink orders (or don’t if you’re confident) and get ready for some SHIPs!

… Though in previous years, there’s quite the anxious bunch that want to get started and have to wait weeks before September rolls around … feel free to take a stab at the Brick Separator challenge:
Separator Anxiety
Rules are simple, just build something with those pesky brick separators! I know that’ll keep me busy till SHIPtember….

Avro Arrow

The Avro Arrow is steeped in Canadian History as it was once the leader in advanced aviation, and to this day is still regarded with special heart in many Canadians. So today as we were setting up for Canada’s largest LEGO convention, Brickfete, I spotted this amazing recreation of this fabled fighter by Bill Kernohan (CapitalBricks):

Usually known for his Starwars MaxiFigs, Bill’s use of stickers for both cockpit as well as the details on the wings shows that he can build just as well at minifig scale.

If you’re in Toronto this weekend, you can check out Bill’s MaxiFigs and his Avro Arrow, and a host of other builds this Saturday and Sunday at Brickfete.

Around the World in 80 Days

One of the great joys of Brickworld is to see the massive collaborations that take place, and this year’s most ambitious and massive feat of LEGO engineering was VirtuaLUG’s Around the World in 80 Days:

Around the World in 80 Days - VirtuaLUG

Based off the movie and book, written by Jules Verne, it tells the story of the misadventures of Mr. Phileas Fogg, his manservant Passepartout and Inspector Fixx. Much like the Fogg, the tale of this group build stretches all around the world, with 25 contributors, bricks were sent from all over the United States, Canada, Belgium and even New Zealand to complete this masterpiece.
VirtuaLUG's Around the World in 80 Days

This build was an amazing 10 feet by 20 feet in size and a whole year of planning, organizing and building, not just LEGO bricks, but custom table and supports for the series of mosaics chronicling the 80 day adventure. It is made up of of 224x 32×32 stud baseplates littered with both minifgure-scale and micro-scale builds, several operating trains, and one big world – with spinning sign.

Our friends at Beyond the Brick take us through an in depth interview with the Project Leader Heath Flor about this layout:

You can see more details photos of this display in the Flickr Group

Cienasis 5 – An Oasis in the Oceans

I’ve always loved how builders would create a completely new world out of their imagination (including their own Technobabble) and realize them in bricks. Daniel Church created this Sci-Fi oceanic world of floating trading hubs, to serve as rest points for ocean going travelers:

Cienasis 5

The main barge is just chock full of details, from the wonderful solar panel and a fully built out trading bazaar on the deck.

Like many other builds at Brickworld, this particular layout is lit for the ‘World of Lights’:
Cienasis 5: World of Lights
Dan was also nominated for the ‘Best Sea Vessel’ for the Cienasis 5.

X-Men: Days of Bricks Past

Builder Tim Lydy has a long history of building comic book creations, specifically Batman, including winning the 75th Batman Anniversary Contest last year at BrickWorld. This year Tim decided to jump over to the Marvel side after watching last year’s movie and build the Mutants’ most terrifying foe, the Sentinel:

But fear not Mutants! The X-men are on the case to protect Mutants everywhere! Here we see Storm with a functional spinning tornado and lightning blasts.

There’s also Nightcrawler who is teleporting around the Sentinel:

There are a few other X-Men floating around the scene – see if you can spot them!
There’s a more in-depth write up by Tim on Eurobricks.

And Tim also raised a good chunk of money at the Charity Auction and took home the Best Mecha Award for his amazingly articulated and lit Sentinel.