Tag Archives: SHIPtember

Gentle Giant SHIP swims to a new Horizon

Concept artist Pierre E Fieschi is a SHIP legend, having created dozens of large-scale LEGO space vehicles over nearly 20 years. It’s been a while since we’ve seen new MOCs from Pierre (outside of his work on LEGO video games), so it was a joy to see his return this SHIPtember with a model inspired by the machine designs from the Horizon video games. As a fan of the franchise, I can’t help but look for weak points for Aloy to chip away at. Those power cells look tempting and are brilliantly designed using Technic link treads. The head, cleverly using black tubes to achieve the shape of a baleen whale, seems lacking in firepower. True to its name though, this Gentle Giant is closer to a peaceful Tallneck than a Thunderjaw, so maybe we shouldn’t try to blow this one up.

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Botanical Cruiser carries Earth’s plastic plants across the cosmos

While back-to-school sales, falling leaves, and pumpkin spice lattes might be the more recognized signs of autumn’s arrival, among LEGO fans, it’s the sudden appearance of massive spaceships in our feeds that we look for. SHIPtember is when builders race to complete a spaceship of at least 100 studs in length, aka a SHIP (Seriously Huge Investment of Parts). Space Kook is no stranger to the tradition, having participated for at least four years, even creating five SHIPs in a single month. This year, Space Kook presents the LSS Kew, a Botanical Cruiser adorned with domes to transport Earth biomes to distant colonies.

Click to explore Space Kook’s impressive cruiser from other angles!

Treasure Planet’s Legacy celebrated in LEGO

Treasure Planet features some of the best action and artistry to ever come from the House of the Mouse, and in a just world would have been proudly featured in one of the many LEGO collabs of last year. Alas, it’s mostly remembered as the studio’s biggest box office misfire with nary a collectible Minifig to remember it by. For Daniel Church, the film’s mix of nautical adventure and cosmic spectacle remains a wellspring of inspiration. After many years of building sci-fi sails and futuristic ports, he took on his dream project: recreating Treasure Planet’s signature ship, the RLS Legacy, in LEGO. Standing 40″ tall and 39″ long and assembled from over 3000 pieces, the results are a stunning display of LEGO craftsmanship and a fitting tribute to an amazing design.

Sail on to appreciate the Legacy from other angles !

Guns make great LEGO ships, but so do daggers

Many LEGO shipbuilders take inspiration from video games like Halo, and Star Wars. But if you are into spaceships that take their design inspirations from naval vessels, then the upcoming game Fallen Frontier would be a good place to start. Ryan Olsen has found his inspiration for this SHIPtember (a month-long build challenge to create a large spaceship) from the concept art of this real-time strategy game, and it looks stunning.

There are so many great details in this build, like the bank of missile launchers along each side, and the braking engines at the front of the lower rear section. One of my favorite details is the small craft at the rear, with the black and yellow stripes marking the rear cargo door.

SHIPtember comes around sooner every year... In, er, August?!

Now see here, ktorrek. We’ve seen your latest Seriously Huge Investment in Parts (SHIP), and we’re seriously impressed. Even more so to hear that it’s your 17th (!) such LEGO build; heck, we even featured one of the first ones some 11 years ago. But your calendar is a month out! SHIPtember – the annual build-a-spaceship-longer-than-100-studs challenge – doesn’t start for another week and a half yet. We were still mentally preparing ourselves for brick-built behemoth season! TBB Towers has been thrown into disarray by that clean colour-blocking and those awesome triple fins! Let’s file this one under SHIPtember: Early Access…

In all seriousness, we always look forward to SHIP season here at TBB – and ktorrek’s build is a great way to start. If you’re looking forward to it too, why not see what we’ve featured from previous editions of SHIPtember?

Massive LEGO spaceship is over 5 feet long

Canadian LEGO builder Jean-Philippe Leroux has built a massive LEGO spaceship with a suitably impressive name! The Empress took over 24,000 parts to build and weighs over 43 pounds. If you like sci-fi bits and bobs, The Empress has it in spades; so let’s look at the engines back to front. For sports fans its got minifig skis and snowboards. For the handy-folk there’s saws. After the robot arms, there’s stud shooters and the old 1×8 bar. Finally, towards the front, there are robot binoculars and zipline handles. And that’s just the engines!

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This space cruiser was built in a ZNAP!

Even though it’s not September, we can still enjoy a LEGO SHIP when we have the space-time! This LEGO model by space_e has nostalgia built into its bones, with the skeleton of this behemoth built out of LEGO ZNAP parts. There really is a lot of nostalgia packed into this massive space ship; the windscreens are two different styles in trans-dark blue – including one with an Alpha Team logo! There’s also a few of that old type of Technic panel used on the main body, helping to round out the star cruiser. So climb aboard, and lets blast off into the retro-future!

Here’s a different angle to help show how incredibly massive this beast is! And be sure to hit up space_e’s Flickr page for some WIP pictures and zoom-ins on the details.

Giddy-up! It’s time for a ride on this LEGO Iron Horse

Clocking in at 105 studs long, this Seriously Huge Investment in Parts (SHIP) by Scott Wilhelm may not have made the SHIPtember deadline of Sept. 30th, but it’s still a masterful work of interstellar spaceship-ery. The hints of red stick out brilliantly on this carrier, adding a pop of color to shades of tan and gray. The detail work is simple but well-accomplished, and I adore the tiny turrets lining the top of each “wing.” But my favorite bit has got to be the cavernous docking bay on top of the SHIP, lined with some great technical texturing. If you’d like to see more of the B212 Iron Horse, or the rest of the Alliance fleet made to commemorate 10 years of SHIPtember, be sure to check out Scott’s Flickr album.

SHIPtember’s never over, we just get SHIPtober

Although they call it SHIPtember, the nature of the beast means we often get enormous LEGO spaceships popping up well into October. Building one is one thing, photographing such large creations is a whole challenge unto itself! SweStar has risen to both challenges in admirable fashion. I love the muted colours on this freighter; the sand green and blue coupled with those pops of yellow and orange looks really good. I really love the fact that they’ve expanded the scene beyond just the Seriously Huge Investment in Parts (SHIP) too. The containers, ground crew, and that adorable orange loader all add a charming extra touch.

Welcome to the Lone Star Trek State

As a San Antonian born and bred, I can say with absolute certainty that some Texans would absolutely make their state pride their identity, even in deep space. And Umbra-Manis has brilliantly captured that sense of pride with this SHIPtember digital creation, the RTSS Chiltepin. This ship would be worthy of our attention even without the Texas flags. Look at all the interesting textures, from the use of Artoo legs and hinge-less hinge bricks along the upper portion of the hull to the use of the underside of jumper plates on the cargo containers. And those recessed circular portions along the top are fantastic. But the inclusion of the flags, and the space-based Republic of Texas backstory, does so much storytelling that makes this a next-level creation. It’s easy to imagine a crew mess stocked with Big Red, Blue Bell ice cream, and Whataburger. I wonder how it refuels, though. Are there Buc-ee’s in space?

a SHIP not of this world

SHIPtember is officially over with but that doesn’t stop us from enjoying these seriously huge LEGO ships that we’ve seen lately. Take Maxx Davidson’s Aeronautilus, for example. The rules laid out by the LEGO Gods a millennia ago state that a Seriously Huge Investment in Parts must have at least 100 studs on one side but it says nothing about which side. This otherworldly SHIP is 104 studs high and 108 studs on the diagonal plane. Its construct is so alien in appearance, that one can barely imagine the beings that may have constructed it. Maxx, as far as I know, is an Earthly being but you get what I mean. My favorite part, besides its odd color scheme, is the smaller ships being launched from strange hatches throughout the hull. I imagine this is how a botfly works. Kinda gives you the warm and fuzzies, doesn’t it?

The latest in interstellar LEGO tech-quila

LEGO builder Pico van Grootveld toasts the end of SHIPtember (a month of creating spacecraft that are 100 studs or longer) with an agave-inspired hauler clad in an appropriate shade of green. Including features like a warp drive, anti-asteroid lasers, and fuel extension vats, this 139-stud starship is the preferred method for hauling limes, salt, and spirits from one side of the solar system to the other. The shaping here is beautiful, with well-crafted stabilizing fins along the sides and a technical-looking front hatch for quick loading and unloading. It’s just the thing for those late night runs to the triple sec nebula!