The LEGO fan community is filled with various builder-driven challenges and monthly themes. One of the most popular challenges for space builders is Novvember, wherein builders use the month to recreate the Vic Viper from Gradius with their own twists. If you’ve been following us here on The Brothers Brick for long, you’ll no doubt have seen a fair handful already. This version by Pascal gives it the Ice Planet makeover, with an opaque windscreen and blocky but studless angles.
LEGO designer Chris Perron recently sat down to build a life-size replica of a LEGO element, and settled on one of his favorite themes, Ice Planet 2002 (a love I share with him). Instead of building a simple upscaled version of the theme’s iconic 1×2 tile, though, Chris reimagined it as a handheld tablet for exploring the frozen world. It’s bulky and rugged so that intrepid ice adventurers can handle it through gloves, and Chris converted all the knobs, lights, and screens to three-dimensional elements. And I couldn’t be more in love with the result. Forget about flower bouquets, this is the life-size stuff I want from LEGO.
And Chris didn’t take the easy route and just make the back a flat, featureless expanse of white. It’s got a rugged pattern that seems exactly like what you’d see on a device made to withstand being dropped onto the ice. The 2002 in the middle is just the icing on the nostalgia cake.
Dutch LEGO builder Koen Zwanenburg takes us back to 2002 (well, 1993, really) with this ice cool Mini Ice Planet 2002 diorama. All the great sets from the pivotal early nineties theme is represented here. We have the Blizzard Baron Ice-Sat V, the Deep Freeze Defender and finally Ice Station Odyssey. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any cooler, the whole shebang is built into a cohesive diorama reminiscant of the theme’s box art. It’s cooler than being cool and ice cold indeed! Here’s all the other times we were smitten by all things Ice Planet 2002.
Theme crossovers are always a delight to see, especially when there’s an absurd amount of Friends animals involved. Case in point, The Deep Freeze Befriender, a stunning SHIP built by Chris Perron’s. This spaceship pays homage to the LEGO Ice Planet 2002 theme, referencing its iconic color scheme and Deep Freeze Defender set. But there’s more to this ship’s unique shape and rad angular windshields. The absolute best feature is on its inside — a decked-out intergalactic penguin resort, complete with a full lounge and bar serving ice slushies with a pool and water slide. Measuring at 144 studs long and 73 studs wide long, this ship’s interior provides ample waddling space for a couple of dozen penguins.
There’s something about seeing these guys playing Go Fish under the neon-lights of the VIP room that has made me let go of all the grudges I’ve held against Friends critters. The penguin lifestyle is nothing short of luxury, especially when there’s unlimited BBQ fish kebabs and ice cream cocktails to consume, all while cruising through space in the chillest of all spaceships.
And remember — you can’t spell friendship without SHIP. Click here to see another penguin Ice Planet 2002 build by Chris from our archives!
Okay, so lately Cecilie Fritzvold has been building cool LEGO stuff using the dynamite bundle element as a key part. We’ve already seen arcade games and undersea adventures, and today we head into the cold wastelands of an ice planet. The explosives take on a few new uses in the Spark BLOR-20, serving as part of the flexible drilling arm and as the center of a sensor array. Oh, and a whole bunch of them combine to form heavy-duty tank treads. It’s an innovative use, but it gets extra points from me because of the tracks left in the snow behind the vehicle. Rows of modified plates create the look; clever part usage indeed.
The exploration of the alien worlds is often tightly connected with military conquests. Italian builder Norton74 takes a rather peaceful approach to the idea and creates a Mobile Research Laboratory inspired by the good old Ice Planet 2002 LEGO space theme from 1993. His design features significantly fewer pieces in white compared to the official LEGO sets, however a heavily armoured vehicle’s body looks absolutely stunning in plain blue. The retro vibe of the build is achieved through a very peculiar choice of pieces; note that there are almost no modern LEGO pieces and absolutely no curved slopes.
Amongst LEGO space themes, Ice Planet 2002 is one of the most unique, and it’s beloved by many nostalgic LEGO fans who grew up in the 90s. What is unique to Ice Planet 2002 is how important the environment is to the build; seeing the iconic ice pillars, blue ice, and orange windows really facilitates the nostalgic feeling in a fan creation, perhaps more so than it would in other similar themes. Chris Perron ticks off most of the boxes with this cheerful build of a penguin transport.
This is not Chris’ first creation in this theme, and we see here what he has learned from the earlier “study”. The balance between colours is perfect and the build style reflects the original theme well. Across the vehicle there are numerous textures that are mostly done in black and just a bit in blue too. The brick-built wheels are well done too. Scenery is always important, and this particular model is a prime example. Wedge slopes represent the snow pillars perfectly, but the translucent blue ice is really the important part — especially the odd “rock” element included adds just a bit of texture to the surface.
There is something special about LEGO’s retro space themes that makes people revisit them time and time again, and it’s probably nostalgia. One of the more popular themes is surely Ice Planet 2002 with its iconic blue-white-black and translucent orange colour scheme, and Tim Goddard has built an excellent microscale spaceship based on the 6973 Deep Freeze Defender, which he’s named Zycon V. It’s also tied closely to a collaborative story recently featured on The Brothers Brick: LEGO Space: ICE Titan.
The spaceship itself has nice shapes and a good balance of details and clean surfaces, as well as following the original’s colour scheme. Though I would have loved to see a bit more translucent orange included, and the curves may not fit into a 90’s inspired creation very well, those are minor points on an otherwise amazing build.
The Seattle in me must be coming out in full force with today’s mid-90s in Orlando, because let me tell you how wonderful this apartment unit situated firmly on Ice Planet looks.
Your ideal mid-summer’s apartment is brought to you by Cecilie Fritzvold (cecilihf). I call dibs. I already put down my deposit.
Luke Mancini (Mr–Jack) posted his artistic interpretation of Ice Planet. Anyone who’s familiar with these iconic minifigs and their transparent orange saws will instantly recognize this awesome drawing.
This gigantic vehicle from the Ice Planet theme by Chris Perron is ready to conquer the frozen terrain with its massive notched wheels and array of scientific equipment. All you have to do is look at the minifigs in the photo to appreciate the scale of the beast. When it comes to fan-built Ice Planet creations, this vehicle is the coolest I’ve seen.
