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.

Space Kook works with a Neo-Classic Space color palette, supplementing the blue and grey base with yellow gantries, white fuel tanks, and dark grey engines.  The domes are created from the transparent shell element used in a few recent Friends sets, including, appropriately enough, the botanical gardens. We see a mix of microscale biomes, including forest, desert, tundra, and agricultural domes.

As if creating a ship at this scale in just 3 weeks wasn’t challenging enough, Space Kook excels with their presentation, lighting the Kew beautifully and cleanly compositing against a digital backdrop. I especially like the ship in profile as it orbits planet Gliese 180b.

The domes and gantries remind me of the sci-fi classic Silent Running. I just hope the crew of the Kew do a better job tending to biomes in their care.