Tag Archives: Classic Space

Jumping puddles in Classic Space

Do they have puddles in space? I sure hope so, because that looks to be right where this little puddle jumper of a spaceship belongs. LEGO builder Inthert needed a tiny spacecraft to fill out a larger diorama by Simonmocs, and thus the Classic Space Cargo Jumper was born. What I love most about this vessel is that it eschews the typical spaceship design and goes for a split canopy with VTOL-like engines.

And of course, we have to see it in situ with Simonmocs gorgeous spaceport diorama, too, where you can see the little spaceship being serviced.

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OK, Jack – let’s get this baby off the ground

It was only a matter of time before the space baby from Series 24 of the Collectible Minifigure line cropped up in a LEGO creation. Albert Lee is first through the gate with this cute lunar outpost. It’s a classic example of classic space, but the slightly odd scale brings its own challenges for parts choice. What parts might have passed for tiny greebled details before now have to be used more judiciously. Ditto for the signature yellow canopies. The ones used here may have been too small for some minifigure scale ships, even the control tower viewport. But with the babies, they suddenly become huge windows into space. Fascinating! I’m sure this won’t be the last we see of these babies, and it’s certainly not the first time seeing their civilian counterparts either. Perhaps we should make baby-scale its own thing!

Like a phoenix rising from the ashes of Classic Space

No, this isn’t Twitter’s new logo. Not that we know of anyway. Actually, we’re not really sure what’s going on with that. What we are sure of is this is a neat LEGO robot bird built by Filbrick. First glance may say blue jay, further inspection may say robotic blue jay but one detail, the black and yellow stripe along the wings, plucks the old nostalgia strings and harkens back to the Classic Space sets of yore. If you missed out on the Classic Space heyday of the 70s and 80s then check out our Galaxy Explorer set review from a few months back.

The planet Duplovia processes water so you don’t have to

What’s happening on the planet Duplovia? According to Wami Delthorn they process water there. It’s fun to just (ahem) soak in all the details. It has enough Classic Space LEGO goodness and playability to quench the thirst of any diehard fan. I’m particularly loving the communications tower, spaceship landing pad and the space train that traverses the entire build. The LED lights are also a neat touch. With all this expensive and important science-y space stuff I hope they utilize this water processing plant for something useful, intelligent and practical; like fueling the galaxy’s largest and most epic Slip ‘N Slide!

Driving the wedge into Classic Space

Classic Space and flying grey wedge shapes—name a more iconic duo! This LEGO ship by Sylvain Daunais may be pretty small as far as spaceships going, being just a single-seater, but it’s got all the right stuff for a Neo-Classic Space look, with clean lines, a transparent yellow cockpit, cool engine intakes, and red/green lights on the wingtips.

My favorite bit can only be seen from the back, though, where Sylvain has use the macaroni pieces to make some intertwined piping around the thruster. It’s a super simple bit of detailing that takes this ship up a few notches.

A fresh take on classic space

The recent release of LEGO’s revamped Galaxy Explorer has put a lot of builders in a Neo Classic Space frame of mind. This creation from Titolian combines that classic color scheme with a healthy dose of angles and curves. The result is an insectoid-style craft that leaves us itching to own one ourselves. If you dig this, make sure to check out more of Titolian’s clever characters and spectacular spacecraft in our archives.

The ship is the knife and outer space is the butter

I always knew LEGO could be sharp (underfoot), but this ship from Tim Goddard really shows off how sharp! There’s not a curve to be seen, outside of the canopy, on this interceptor, giving it the intended sharp-edged appearance. The ship looks like to could cut through anything as it speeds along on its mission. It possesses the style choices of the classic LEGO Space theme–always a welcome sight! Even the canopy is in the color scheme of the theme, but that’s not where it comes from… The canopy is the only curve in the build, and it comes from that most excellent Lightyear 76832 XL-15 Spaceship set. It’s the perfect canopy for this build, lending itself well to that tapering wedge of the nose. I also really appreciate the sloping where the wings join the body. The use of wedge slopes with hinges isn’t a new technique, but it’s one that works really well for filling and adding definition.

Taking a look beneath the ship reveals the full arrowhead-like shape of the interceptor. It also reveals some cool detailing, like the laser cannons mounted under the wings, done with brackets, round plates, and lightsaber hilts. However, my favorite detail on the underside are those brackets running down the midsection of the nose. They create a neat effect I just can’t get over, especially when paired with the other textures around them. Not to mention, these no doubt add some dynamism and choice when it comes to a display stand. They offer plenty of connection points for an angled display scene.

Who needs a sleek starship when you have an enormous engine?

Everyone builds at their own pace. Some builders crank out builds every day, others will go months or sometimes years between creations – which, to be clear, is completely fine! In the case of Drew Hamilton (Wami Delthorn), it’s been over a year since he last posted one of his spectacular spaceship designs. It’s been worth the wait though, as he has reinvented one of his older Classic Space designs into this LL-528 Rapier MkII. It has all the hallmarks of what is now known as Neo Classic Space: clean lines of blue and light grey, with plenty of texturing and the signature black-and-yellow bumblebee stripes.

The design itself is very cool. With starships, it’s often tempting to make them sleek, speedy-looking machines. And with a name like Rapier, you’d be forgiven for thinking this would look the same. But I love how bulky it is! The rear of the vessel is dominated by that great hulking thruster, which blends nicely into the stubby wings thanks to some neat use of angles. It’s all broken up with subtle asymmetric panel detailing to give it quite a realistic feel.

The only thing I would question is the choice of co-pilot. Surely a control panel full of flashing lights is a poor mix with a space-going cat…

“Incoming message on the viewscreen, Captain”

Builder Paul Hetherington is totally feeling some classic sci-fi vibes with this bridge scene. Given the four spooky spacemen on the viewscreen, the crew of this intrepid starship must be shaking in their space boots! As is typical with his designs, I’m in love with Paul’s use of repeated patterns throughout the ship’s command center. It’s just trapezoids for days along the walls and in the ceiling! And all of them in pearl metallic gray, contrasting well with the blue, light gray, and yellow throughout the rest of the scene. My mind immediately goes to a mash-up of classic Star Trek and LEGO Classic Space, which I’m sure is the intent. And right in the center is a beautiful LEGO-inspired art piece by Robin Thompson, depicting the long forgotten crew returned for revenge!

From this angle, you can get a better view of all the switches and dials available to the starship’s crew. I particularly enjoy the use this two-wide windscreen, my favorite LEGO part! And the lighting along the floors and pillars fits right in with the sci-fi aesthetic.

A blockbuster Classic Space ship

It all comes full circle. Builder Dana Knudson pays homage to the Classic Space theme with this recolored adaptation of the XL-15 Spaceship from Disney-Pixar’s Lightyear. Director Angus MacLane is an ecstatic fan of LEGO and, like many AFOLs, falls into the space-nerd camp. In fact while working on the designs and story of Lightyear he frequently turned to his bricks to sketch out the concepts, even choosing to make the canopies for all the ships yellow just so LEGO would be forced to make a new yellow canopy again. So it was destined that we would eventually see the ships from that film adapted with Classic Space regalia as Dana Knudson has done here. Much of the ship is practically the same as the XL-15 but Dana did have to come up with a SNOT brick and cheese slope solution near the pilot’s seat. Since the roof tiles used in the original design aren’t (yet) available in blue, Dana had to come up with a different way to mimic their structure.

Not a technically new design but a satisfying homage worth celebrating none the less, I know we can expect more space-themed redesigns of this iconic ship.

LEGO reveals 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle and 10497 Galaxy Explorer as throwback sets for 90th anniversary [News]

Today LEGO has revealed two brand new sets that pay tribute to classic themes from yesteryear. 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle is a 4,514-piece stronghold featuring a working drawbridge, a dungeon, secret passages, and more. The 22 included minifigures pit the Lion Knights against Black Falcons and Forestmen factions. It will retail for US $399.99 | CAN $449.99 | UK £344.99 when it debuts on August 8 (but VIP Early Access members can pick it up on August 3). Leaping into the future, 10497 Galaxy Explorer gives us a modern take on the fan-favorite spaceship that originally debuted in 1979. Keeping the classic space color scheme, this 1,254-piece set includes four classic spacemen, a robot, and classic play features like a rover than can deploy from the rear of the craft. It will retail for US $99.99 | CAN $129.99 | UK £89.99 and drops August 1.

See more images of the two sets below, and also check out more LEGO News on TBB.

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Classic Space isn’t just for, well, space, anymore!

LEGO’s iconic Classic Space style has been reinterpreted in many forms over the years, typically rounded up in what fans call Neo-Classic Space (NCS) and we’ve seen everything from spaceships to tanks wearing that beloved blue, grey, and transparent-yellow color scheme. But there’s always room for breaking the mold a bit more while still adhering to the basic style. Enter Rubblemaker and the Manta Ray, an NCS vessel that can go places no Classic Spaceship has gone before: underwater! Bearing a strikingly unique shape and just the perfect amount of greebles, this cool design now has me wanting to do a crossover mashup with Aquazone.

Of course, it can’t really be Classic “Space” unless there’s some space involved, and the Manta Ray is only too happy to oblige, as it’s versatile enough to traverse the cold depths of outer space as easily as the ocean.