Packing LEGO creations for a convention can be a tricky proposition. Some builders construct custom-made crates out of wood and foam, while others carefully wrap their masterworks in clothing in their carry-on. I cram 50 or 60 model cars into cardboard boxes and hope for the best and “the best” often involves hours of re-building and frustration. Chris Yu says hogwash to all of that with this brilliant LEGO creation that packs itself. It is impressive enough in suitcase mode with its outer shell outfitted in a Classic Space motif and made to resemble a piece of carry-on luggage.
However, the brilliance of the design is revealed when the entire structure unfolds into a moonbase playset. This graphic illustrates step-by-step how the luggage unfolds to become a moonbase complete with vehicles and spaceships.
Rummaging through Chris’ other content is highly recommended as he clearly is a builder of many diverse talents. If Classic Space moonbases unfolding out of luggage is totally your bag, then you may be thrilled to learn that this isn’t Chris’ first go-around at baggage claim.
This reminds me of all the foldable Micro Machines carrying bag sets produced throughout the late 80’s and early 90’s…
Somehow I feel like this would need even _more_ robust containment to arrive intact.
Most of what I build tends to be fairly small, so I buy metal tool cases. They work spectacularly for my cars, which rarely lose any parts, and most of the time when they do it’s just a sideview mirror. I’ve got a rolling crate for baseplate stock, as it’s large enough to fit one of those cloth drawers you can find everywhere for dorm rooms. Some come in 12″ sizes that are way too large, but usually you can find them with an internal cavity that measures about 10.25″x 10.25″. This allows you to stack baseplates horizontally, but also leaves you enough room that you can slip bare baseplates down each side (studs facing out) to act as a bit of rigid protection for anything you stack inside, and an emergency supply of plain baseplates if you find you need some. My LEGO Store fills two 32’s, and I was able to find a black tub with a yellow lid that had a non-radiused bottom and was slightly larger than I needed to fit the MOC. I built a puck out of LEGO parts that fills the base out to the edge and has a divot that’s exactly the right size to fit the MOC. It’s worth noting that all of these containers, and the MOCs inside them, survived almost 100% intact during an accident that totaled the car that was carrying them (I had a few plates fall off of the picture window frames on the LEGO Store, but I’ve since reinforced the frames to help prevent that from happening again). They’ll all also handle a bit of rain, where users of cardboard may end up having to find emergency boxes at the last minute (this happened to us at one show in a small airport hanger, where the entire building was flooded with probably no more than 1/2″ of water during a monsoon, but it was enough that _EVERY_ cardboard box stored beneath the layout was a total loss). And some of our LUG members will bring in large buildings with no containers of any sort, partly because they pack smaller without them than with.
But my solutions do, admittedly, work best for small MOCs and/or stuff that you plan to keep displaying for years to come. If you’re the type who builds one massive MOC every year, takes it to an AFOL convention or two, and scraps it to reclaim the parts for future MOCs, there really is no perfect solution for your travel needs. What works one year might never work again. Buying expensive plastic tubs to transport stuff will not only get expensive without any repeat benefit, but you’ll end up needing a place to store a bunch of empty tubs that you keep replacing every year. At that point, cardboard probably makes the most sense since you can simply recycle it when you decide you don’t want it anymore, or you can break it down to store flat so it uses minimal space until such time as you might find it’s just the right size for something else down the road. Wooden crates really only start to make sense when you plan to display the same large MOC for years, and you want to be able to pack it up like traditional model railroaders do with sections the size of banquet tables.