From the 1960s to the early 80s, the aquatic expeditions of Jacques Cousteau brought the deep sea into millions of homes. I fell under the Frenchman’s ocean spell watching reruns on public television as a kid, and a big part of that enchantment was thanks to the aptly named Calypso, the British minesweeper boat adapted for scientific use. Fellow 80s kid turned LEGO legend Alex “Orion Pax” Jones also fell in love with Cousteau’s undersea world and decades after trying to build the Calypso as a child, he returns with a masterful LEGO rendition built at 1/50 scale.
Alex includes a functioning version of the crane used to lift the Denise mini-sub, as well as a midi-scale helicopter on the rear deck landing pad.
What I appreciate most is how Alex manages to include so much detail at this compact scale while keeping the model so clean and well-shaped.
Here is the real-life Calypso in its prime for comparison. Even if you didn’t grow up watching the boat on TV, you might recognize it as the inspiration for Steve Zissou’s boat, the Belafonte, in The Life Aquatic (which we’ve also featured in LEGO).
“Orion Pax” is a legend in these parts, a regularly featured on The Brothers Brick for his pop culture builds that captured 80s entertainment in LEGO long before official Icons and Ideas sets took over. He also modeled digital LEGO creations for Traveler’s Tales games. Recently, he created official sets for Snoop Dogg and Condor Aircraft for other building systems. For a sense of how prolific the builder has been, here is his LEGO “buildography” in full:
