Tag Archives: David Roberts

The Ridgeback Racer is ready to launch!

LEGO phenom David Roberts has mastered the art of building oddball little spaceships, each with baffling complex shapes and striking color schemes. That this Ridgeback, for example. The adjustable stand makes it clear you can launch this ship in a bevy of angles from straight up over the moon to right through your neighbor’s window.

The craft is hard to define from just one angle but this rear view image makes it clear it’s sort of a three-pronged shuttlecock. (Tee hee!) The engine and greebling is pretty sweet.

This short video of the builder disassembling this model is way more captivating than I thought it would be. Hidden deep within the ship’s core is a cockpit. Or should I say -shuttlecockpit? Sorry, I’ll just see myself out. In the meantime, watch the video and check out our David Roberts archives.

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A first-CLAAS future forestry machine

It’s surely only a matter of time before we get walkers everywhere, right? Not the militarised type that you might be familiar with from other LEGO sci-fi builds. I’m talking about the more day-to-day tasks that they would be helpful with – like logging. David Roberts knows what I mean. He’s given us a neat brick-built vision of the future of forestry. Despite its clear futuristic tech, there’s plenty here for us mere present-dwellers to latch on to. There’s the Claas livery, of course, but that arm is also inspired by real-life manipulators (and is a great likeness for them, too). The shaping of the machine is also reminiscent of some modern heavy machinery. You know, apart from the legs.

As Febrovery rolls to a close, it’s time for a final rover roundup! [Feature]

Alas, Febrovery has reached the end of the road. If only February were a few days longer, then we would get more amazing LEGO rovers rolling across distant moons. On the other hand, more days might burn out those hard-working builders creating a new build each day. Let’s celebrate our favorite rovers from the second half of the month. In case you missed it, here is is our mid-month roundup. Tell us in the comments which rover you’d most like to take for a spin!

Two-seater Monowheel Rover by Wynd

We lead with greebles courtesy of this delightful monowheel from builder Wynd. It’s a fresh spin on her rover from last year, maintaining the neo-classic space vibes, but expanding for an extra passenger and bringing in a rubber tire.

Our Febrovery roundup continues with many more amazing space builds

A curious and colorful walker

This cute recreation of the Star Wars BD-1 built by David Roberts is full of character. I love how the “eyes” give it a playful and curious expression. The general configuration of shapes and lines are well done too. But my favorite part is that it’s quite posable and has a knob on the back to create an actual walking motion.

If you like this model, stick around to see some other creations built by David Roberts.

Grab hold of this Toy Story transport

Everyone remembers when the little green aliens stole the show after Buzz Lightyear and Woody found themselves trapped in an arcade claw machine. Now, David Roberts is giving those little aliens a claw they can take outside Pizza Planet with this handy hover machine, suitable for lifting and transporting all manner of items. David has a knack for primary-colored sci-fi vehicles with strong geometric patterns built into them, and that’s a style that suits these little Pixar aliens just right.

It’s all about the angles

When we last featured builder David Roberts, we spotlighted their angular racer – a small, compact build that feels like the seed part used in this new Parallelogram Flying Car. There are several cool building choices to call out here -the unusual (yet successful) decision to split the number four across the angled side panels, the great angles that nestle into that large yellow canopy, and the overall color scheme that feels like a tribute to Classic space, rather than being a part of that world.

From the rear, you can see a great chunky engine, and some hose work that adds a nice touch of mechanical grit to the otherwise sleek and polished vehicle. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to take this one out for a spin!

There’s a whole fleet of great LEGO spaceships in our archives. Why not check them out?

Nothing more than a cockpit with blue wings

Builder David Roberts has got a new LEGO anti-grav racer barreling down the pipe. This boxy blue build is adorable with its four chunky blue wings, awesome red and white checker pattern, and snug cockpit perfect for minimizing drag while still holding a driver. And the bit of yellow pipe that it’s traveling through is great as well, dashed with lines of azure tiles to mark the racer’s path. But my favorite detail has got to be the technic brick and axle pattern in red on the side of each stubby wing. Instead of working around the connection of the wing to the racer’s body, David rolls with it and incorporates the pattern of the axle stuck in the technic hole as a part of the design. The white headlight bricks below the red technic ones bring it all together into a great little space racer!

This ship leaves us feeling flat but in a good way

In the aftermath of SHIPtember, it is actually refreshing to see a few littler LEGO ships in our midst. Here’s one that David Roberts simply calls A Flat Ship but its striking color scheme and interesting shape leave us feeling anything but flat. It has just the right amount of oomph to make it interesting. David has a surprisingly profound thing to say about ships; “Many LEGO spaceships are just abstract sculptures, that happen to have a cockpit and engines added to make them more accessible!” That certainly is a neat way of putting it.

Sunny Spaceship Treks the Cosmic Currents

Space builder David Roberts treats us to another bright pop of LEGO color with his newest starship, the Sun Fish. Hot on the heels of the NEZ racer, David’s been enjoying the ROY side of the spectrum lately. Please forgive the fast food joke, but I’m loving it! Alternating between red and yellow, the Sun Fish sports a beautiful fin, complete with darling markings in light blue. This mohawk of panels contrasts well with the mechanical tubes and thrusters attached at the sides, almost emphasizing the more technical elements and providing a space-ier vibe. My favorite part, though, has got to be the compact cabin. Hanging directly off the front of the ship, there’s no nose separating our pilot from the galactic expanse. They’ve got a unobstructed view of everything back to the Big Bang.

The spaceship that (hopefully) comes with fries

Maybe it’s the color scheme or its simplistic blocky shape but this LEGO spaceship built by David Roberts reminds me of a delicious carton of McDonald’s fries. Other commenters on his Flickr stream state that they are reminded of Buck Rogers while others claim this is reminisant of a Viper from Battlestar Galactica. What does this remind you of? No matter what the answer is, we can all agree that this spaceship looks pretty tasty.

Bending time and space!

This LEGO spaceship is bending space itself! Or maybe that is just the brick bending technique that David Roberts used on this fantastic curvy racer. These massive engines look great with their colorful markings and smooth shaping. Brick bending is a difficult technique to work with at such a small scale and David pulled it off beautifully. I can imagine an entire racing series with this catamaran-styled ship full of high-speed action and incredible maneuverability. Always nice to see an uncommon technique used to great effect! If you want to check out what else can be achieved with brick bending take a look at the creations of Jeff Sanders, the brick bending specialist.

A Classic Space Paraflyer is a fun way to travel

LEGO builder David Roberts tells us the Classic Space Paraflyer is a fun way to travel over planets with any form of atmosphere. I’m inclined to agree, not based on my own experience, but based on the expression of the little space minifigure’s face. I mean, look how happy he is! You can’t be melancholy with a face like that. In fact, every last minifigure produced from 1978 to 1989 had this same exact smiley face. Whether they were robbing banks or laying up in a hospital bed they were damned happy to do it! While we may feature massive spaceships and elaborate castles, sometimes it is the little things that speak to us the most.

David’s fun little builds have spoken to us on several occasions. Here are all the times that we listened.