Tag Archives: Mars Mission

Mars needs tanks — we’re on a mission!

Nostalgia is big this year, with the 90th anniversary of LEGO inspiring lots of fans to build their own tributes to popular themes of yesteryear, and I am loving it. Shannon Sproule built an awesome homage to the Mars Mission theme that debuted in 2007. The signature color scheme of orange and white makes this tank instantly recognizable, and what a tank it is. With dual machine-gun toting manipulator arms, a missile launcher, and a high-powered laser, this bad boy is loaded for Martian bear, which probably has four arms and huge claws.

Mars Mission Klau Tank

Live from Lunar Base One: The Moon Rocks!

Meet The Moon Rocks, the grooviest and most rockin’ band this side of Alpha Centauri! Composed by Julius von Brunk, this LEGO build will knock your socks off with the hard rock jamming coming from this moon base. Check out the station they’re playing at — there are a lot of cool details making up the workings of the space base. The cool bendy tubing on the walls and the rocky foundation are awesome, but take a look at the mosaics. They possess fantastic details despite some plate color limitations. On the left, a window looks at Earth, no doubt experiencing some serious FOMO for the party happening on the moon! On the right is a huge jumbotron screen showcasing the band’s lead singer as they push the speakers to the max.

The Moon Rocks

Check out the concert!

This rover has got us pumped.

In 2007, LEGO released the Mars Mission sub-theme for their Space line. One of the major gimmicks for that line was a series of pneumatic tubes that minifigures could travel through. This was accomplished by propelling them with a blast of air provided by a sub-theme-specific giant pump. Those pumps must now be sitting unused in collections around the world. Surely it’s too specific an item to make use of when you’re not constructing a tube-based travel system. “Not so fast,” says lokiloki29. This is the EOS-BA Discovery Rover, and it makes use of four of those pumps to create a set of over-sized wheels that look ready to tackle numerous alien terrains.

EOS-BA Discovery Rover

Considering the limited connection points that the pumps provide, this vehicle is an out of this world accomplishment. The vehicle contains a fully functioning interior, and even includes a mini vehicle that can deploy to travel through those smaller spaces the larger rover can’t quite handle. And, although it is crewed by a more traditional team of astronauts, I respect that the rover homages the Mars Mission sets with its pops of orange against the largely white color scheme.

EOS-BA Discovery Rover

A canopy as tasty as a canape

These are challenging times. I’m pretty sick of hearing that. Even more, I’m pretty sick of living it. But occasionally…occasionally…challenges can be pretty great, too. I mean, it’s hard to be too grumpy when great LEGO builders challenge each other and we get to look at the sweet, sweet results. One such outcome is the 4-D4 Recon & Fighter Craft built by Inthert. Challenged to build a ship around a specific 10x4x3 canopy in under 48 hours, the resulting ship still looks like it took months of work.

4-D4 Recon & Fighter Craft

The orange version of the canopy is lifted from 2007 Mars Mission theme, but that’s not the only callback. The black, white, and orange color scheme is also a direct tribute, as are those orange wheels. The curve to the front of the ship is the result of some very tricky building, but it’s the triangular bracing at the ends of the arc that makes me smile the most. Or maybe it’s those tank treads. Or the texture and pattern from those grey wedge plates. It’s hard to make a choice. It’s all just so tasty.

Anyone else suddenly hungry for a re-release of Mars Mission?