Tag Archives: Blade Runner

Introducing the 2049 Chevy Corvette

The original Blade Runner movie (which was set in 2019) introduced us to flying cars known as Spinners. Obviously, here in 2022, our cars are still grounded, but Sérgio Batista gives us a glimpse of what could be if modern automobiles had such technology. Using the Chevrolet Corvette C8.R from set 76903 as a starting point, Sérgio has created a perfect blend of modern automotive styling and futuristic hover technology. Sure would be nice if we could take this bad boy for a spin. But, who knows, maybe by the Blade Runner sequel date of 2049…

Corvette V8.R Spinner 2049

2049 Chevrolet Stingray Spinner

I love writing about other builders’ models, but it’s nice to remind our faithful readers that we’re builders too. Inspired by the iconic Spinners from Blade Runner, I decided to dismantle my Speed Champions Stingray and upgrade it with more futuristic elements. Retaining the color theme was a must, as I had to use the Stingray logo stickers. Thankfully I have a mess of dark red pieces to spare. The biggest challenges I had were building a sleek, swooshable body as well as finding a canopy structure that worked.

Click to read more about the Spinner Stingray

Wake up, time to hide

The tag-team effort of Brickleas and Si-MOCs produced a scene to give science fiction fans a double take. They created a two-tier MOC of an intergalactic manhunt. Topside, a space police officer is in pursuit of an outlaw, meanwhile below, the suspect lurks through the sewer. The collaboration was a standout submission for this September’s Rogue Bricks contest. Teams of two picked either side of a “space gangster” or “space sheriff” to depict their story.

Intergalactic Hide and Seek

In a strange turn of events, Brickleas and Si-MOCs teamed up at the last minute after their original partners dropped out of the contest because their parts were unfinished. The result worked out with Simon Liu (Si-MOCs) building his version of a Spinner from Blade Runner, and a space police minifigure outfitted in Barbara Gordon‘s ceremonial uniform from The LEGO Batman Movie CMF (Series 1) and the LEGO Star Wars Wedge Antilles helmet. Elias Hübner’s (Brickleas) contribution looks as dark and desolate as any subterranean waterway with an underground tunnel as the escape. Check out a photo of the Si-MOCs’ take on the Spinner below.

Intergalactic Space Police

A brick celebration of sci-fi designer Syd Mead 1933-2019

Syd Mead, the designer behind the iconic look of Blade Runner amongst other movies, has died aged 86. Chances are, if you’re into sci-fi and LEGO then you’ll have tried to recreate one of his famous designs — The USS Sulaco from Aliens, the light-cycles from Tron, Johnny 5 from Short Circuit, or this, the famous Police Spinner from Blade Runner.

Blade Runner Spinner

Click to see a selection of LEGO models inspired by Syd Mead’s work

Spinner from Blade Runner takes off in a blast of steam

The gritty vision of a major metropolitan city after a mass-migration off-world is just one of the stunning visual elements in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. What is left behind is a world filled with the poor and downtrodden remnants of humanity struggling to eke out a living among crumbling infrastructures, lawlessness and an everyone-for-themselves dystopia. But at least they have flying cars, as depicted in this wonderfully detailed LEGO scene built by Keiichi Kamei. Keiichi’s scene features the classic flying car more commonly referred to as the Spinner, which is how the few police that are still around get a bird’s eye view of the city. It’s also perfect for dropping in and out of potentially dangerous situations.

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The builder uses custom stickers to give the police vehicle it’s signature details, and I love the brick-and-slope-built steam clouds that really give the scene a dynamic aesthetic.

Police_Spinner_new01

Search for replicants in style with this spinner from Blade Runner [Instructions]

The iconic Blade Runner police vehicle, better known as the “spinner,” is one of those vehicles that went down in history books as being so popular and such a part of pop culture that you can find it in the Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, Washington. Now you can build your very own with LEGO bricks thanks to hachiroku24.

Police Spinner from Blade Runner

Click to see video instructions and a full parts list

Bladerunner spinner scours the skies for skinjobs

One of the most interesting concepts to emerge in Ridley Scott’s noir-style dystopic Bladerunner would have to be the police hovercar, also known as a spinner, which we first see descending through the rain on clouds of steam. Meticulously re-created by Davdup at larger than mini-fig scale. Aside from the most excellent sculpting of this unique profile, the inclusion of several custom stickers perfectly captures the details of its onscreen inspiration. The only thing that could improve the overall effect would be some white steam clouds.

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And just in case you are wondering if it also drives on the ground, the answer is yes. Both of the doors open as well.

Blade Runner Spinner - landed mode

Take your own Blade Runner 2049 car for a spin [Instructions]

The spinner car from the original 1982 movie Blade Runner had an upgrade for the sequel, Blade Runner 2049. While the upgrade involved more than a lick of light bluish grey paint, those curved front prongs are more than a nod to the original design. GolPlaysWithLEGO has designed a lego version of the car Ryan Gosling’s character K drives in 2049, and has kindly shared instructions to allow other fans to build the model.

Spinner 2049

Click here to see the instructions

Future LA has never looked cuter

“Cute” isn’t a word you’d normally associate with the dystopian cyberpunk future envisioned in Blade Runner. However, that’s what comes to mind with automaton120‘s futuristic microscale LEGO street scene. The backdrop nicely evokes the neon-soaked architecture of cyberpunk-LA, but the stars of the show here are the vehicles. That police spinner is a cracking little model, and the others really capture the feel of the cars and trucks in the movie. The presentation of the model could have been better, maybe clipping the ugly sheet backdrop out of the image, and some image processing could have added lens flare to the signage and vehicle lights etc. But not every builder likes to add post-production effects, so that’s nit-picking at an otherwise cool LEGO creation.

Microscale Blade Runner - A Dangerous Diorama

Regular readers will know we like us a LEGO Police Spinner here on TBB. Syd Mead’s classic design is a rite-of-passage build for any self-respecting sci-fi builder. We’ve featured a few brilliant examples in our time — including this stunning rain-soaked Blade Runner scene from Tyler — but we don’t see a lot of microscale versions, so this creation was too cute to pass up.

Do androids dream of spinning bricks?

Blade Runner 2049 received a mixed reception, performing poorly at the box office, but getting plaudits from the critics. Regardless, it will surely pick up the same cult status as the original, particularly with its breathtaking visuals. The updated Spinner vehicle is a great new take on a classic sci-fi design. This LEGO version by Carter Baldwin is excellent — it even comes with the drone and functional gull wing doors! Whilst I can only dream that one day LEGO will create a Blade Runner theme, for now we’ll just have to make to do with excellent fan inspired models.

2049 Spinner

Click to see more of the spinner’s details

“What happened to your lights? and...blueness?” “I’m too cool for those now”

While I haven’t seen it yet, the new movie Blade Runner 2049 does look quite awesome. However, I will admit I was a bit disappointed when I saw the new spinner sans all blueness and police lights, to me there’s nothing cooler than a white and black (or blue in this case) speeding down the road lights flashing, sirens blaring. Nonetheless, Marius Herrmann has done an amazing job building the new spinner in LEGO form. I love the unusual use of cut fiber optic cable as lights on the front nacelles.

Spinner (from "Blade Runner 2049")

The builder also managed to take a scene from the trailer, and using Photoshop, remove the real spinner and person from the scene, replacing it with his own. The result looks fantastic and could easily be mistaken for a real life setup.

Spinner (from "Blade Runner 2049")

Blade Runner 1849

We’ve seen excellent LEGO versions of the Blade Runner Police Spinner in the past, but as soon as I saw the title of the new movie I’ve been waiting for an 1849 steampunk remix. Jonas Kramm is happy to oblige with this clanky update (back-date?) of the classic sci-fi vehicle. The black piping makes for a pleasant change from the grey or gold steampunk builders tend to use for greebly details, and those brown whips uncurled against the dark blue panelling look excellent. The lanterns are a nice touch too.

Steampunk Blade Runner

Now to properly combine cyber and steam, what this really needs is a massive Neo-Victorian Neo-Tokyo diorama setting. Come on Jonas, what’s stopping you?