Tag Archives: SHIPtember

Chill out on this spaceship!

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!

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Set the controls for the heart of the sun

It’s not my fault, really. Our new Brothers Brick contributor, Mansur got us thinking about it and now I can’t see all this LEGO SHIPtember business without hearing Pink Floyd tunes. I can’t even fathom anymore how space travel is even possible without Pulse on continuous loop. While I already have the soundtrack in mind, Marko Petrušić gives us a glimpse of what real interstellar travel could look like. Of all the massive SHIPs we’ve seen lately this one stands apart. The inclusion of solar sails certainly help give this craft a different profile.

Marko calls this creation Daedalus whom, if you recall your Greek mythology, lost a son to wind-surfing or something. If you like nerd data, Marko tells us this measures 177x177x136 studs with the solar sails and 28x28x54 studs without. While this is indeed a computer render, he also tells us this took only a day to create…or about the length of a live version of your average Pink Floyd song. Here’s a closer view of the craft without regard to the solar sails. Check out that amazing detail!

Purple Highlighters...In spaaaaaaace!

As much enjoyment as I get out of microscale builds, I find that it’s the really large LEGO creations that get my blood pumping. That’s why I look forward to SHIPtember – that magical time of year when talented builders like Marin Stipkovic deplete their personal brick stock to create SHIPs aplenty. Reaching the goal of 100+ studs in length is no easy task, but Marin accomplishes it in style with the Phunky. I love the unusual color scheme of the mirrored transparent purple windscreens in the command deck, That, combined with the overall shape, reminds me of a giant purple highlighter. If, you know, stationary was more like space-tionary. No, I will not be explaining that terrible logic jump any more than that. Instead, let’s take a moment and admire the other clever part usage like the new goggle rings from the 75551 Brick-built Minions set along the underside.

From the side you can get a better view of the Phunky’s rail gun and beam cannons, as well as the sweet color gradient along the hull. (For those of you wondering, the Phunky was already at 107 studs long before the guns and thruster burst were added.)

Don’t think Marin is limited to just building giant markers…I mean spaceships. Check out their other featured builds!

TBB Cover Photo for October 2020: Bang Bang Goes the Spaceship

This month’s social media cover photo, from LEGO builder Isaac Snyder, is straight from SHIPtember. Isaac’s SHIP was built over the course of 2 weeks and is 105 studs long. After taking a look at this vessel, it doesn’t take long to notice the resemblance. I don’t know about you, but after I realized what the shape was, I went looking for details to confirm my suspicions, and yes indeed, this spacecraft is shaped like a giant, brightly colored sci-fi space rifle.

The aft of the ship houses a semblance of a power generator, which is fun to visualize with its ring shape. The rest of the components are just as fun to admire. The “bullets” in the “magazine” and the “scope” all stand out and make you wonder how these work in space. Thanks for getting us thinking about the real questions, Isaac.

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Pink Floyd space noises intensify

A long journey to colonise distant star systems require long, space-y psychedelic songs made by musicians such as Pink Floyd, Gong, and Brian Bennet. I was listening to Life on Mars by Dexter Wansel, when I saw pictures of The Ark by Ben Smith. One year in the making, it is a massive rotating vessel which resembles something from the television series The Expanse. Inside, tiny nature habitats built by collaborators Tim Goddard and Inthert provide residence for the people voyaging across the stars.

Almost a meter in height, this SHIP hides a custom steel frame to bear the weight of electrical motors, LED lights, batteries, and thousands of LEGO parts. This behemoth of a build is as detailed as it is large, with plenty of greebling to feast the eyes. When taking a closer look, one can marvel at the geometric achievements of circular and conical sections of varying diameters. As for those not as keen for grey space machinery, there is some microscale landscaping by Tim Goddard and Inthert. For there must be life within this cold ship, as the inhabitants yearn to settle down on a distant planet.

See Ben Smith’s flick album documenting the long and arduous build process of The Ark. And put on some Pink Floyd while you’re at it…

LEGO Halo fan spends 5 years designing & building 7-foot UNSC heavy frigate from 25,000 bricks [Exclusive]

For the past several years, my friend Steve Witt has been collecting the necessary LEGO bricks and fiddling with his design to produce a 7-foot-long (2.1 meter) recreation of a Paris-class UNSC heavy frigate from the Halo video game universe that he’s dubbed the Katara. After following his work-in-progress photos on Facebook and Flickr for five years, I’m very pleased to share this closer look at the finished ship, exclusive to The Brothers Brick.

We’ll take a closer look at the details and share some of the build’s history in a moment, but let’s pause and take in just how massive a LEGO ship 7 feet long really is, with this photo of the builder working on it.

See detailed photos and learn more about this massive Halo ship

So many spaceships! It’s heaven for Benny.

If you’ve been following The Brothers Brick lately, you may have seen some sci-fi builds by ZCerberus. He had an awesome entry for SHIPtember, a cool spider walker and, most recently, a Classic Space vehicle. Now he’s back and bigger than ever. In my article on the SHIPtember build, I expressed hope that the fleet would continue to expand, and he has delivered in a delightfully orange way. The one on the far left is the previously-covered SHIP, but the rest are nearly as impressive size-wise and equally as detailed and heavily armed. I love the editing job with the cool space background and all of the ships flying together.

See more details of the fleet

Classic space never looked so..... long

LEGO themes present creative builders with endless opportunities to mash multiple themes together into the ultimate, ultimate LEGO creations, like zombie pirates, zombie army, zombie spaceships, and zombie cowboys. (what is up with this guy and his obsession with zombies? I blame Halloween). Anyways, back to mash-ups, this wonderful SHIP (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts) by Hans Dendauw brings together the fan challenges of SHIPtember and Novvember (an homage to the Vic Viper, one of the racing spaceships from the 1995 video game Gradius, distinguished by a two-pronged fuselage), and does it all in Classic space style. Benny would be proud.

The Disqualifier falls short by a micro-smidgen

According to the Triassic Era LEGO gods who made this stuff up eons ago, a SHIP (Significantly Huge Investment in Parts) must measure at least 100 studs in any one direction. This craft by Filler Brick, aptly named The Disqualifier, measures in at precisely 99.9 studs. Close! So damned close! It would have been easy to take this creation to within specs but I get the hunch this builder liked being the underdog here. As someone who has often fallen short by a smidgen in so many different ways myself, I can relate. (Shut up, you!) Perhaps we could overlook its shortcomings with excellent presentation and the fact that this took thirty-one grueling days to build and somewhere between 3000-5000 pieces. It’s not about the size of the dog in the fight but rather the size of the fight in the dog. Or something. I’m feeling the love here, how about you?

The aliens that built the pyramids probably came in this SHIP

Conspiracy theorists claim that the pyramids of various ancient civilizations were all inspired by aliens coming from outer space. Ancient peoples were clearly not smart enough to figure out engineering, they claim, so they must have had help from elsewhere. Plus, there are strange figures engraved on them, and how do you explain the striking resemblance of one pile of cut stones to another? I mean, compare those Egyptian pyramids to the Babylonian ziggurats and the Mayan temples. Exactly the same. And don’t forget the most conclusive evidence of all, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Well, builder Ivan Martynov provides us with some insight to solving the mystery. He has made an entry into SHIPtember that is both a space ship and an ancient temple.

There are the stairs to reach the summit, a shrine at the top, and what appears to be a six-legged beetle (or is that an alien form, carved crudely?). Then there are thrusters, power cores and other bits of advanced technology. It all makes perfect sense. This ship touched down in several places on Earth, inspired worship and emulation, and then left to visit other worlds. Do you believe the conspiracy theorists yet? Maybe you should.

When tagging along with Hitchhikers, remember to bring a towel.

There are a lot of variation to the giant spaceships created for SHIPtember (SHIP = Significantly Huge Investment in Parts). Many of them draw inspiration from classic LEGO themes, video games, or movies. Sometimes, however, you see something new from this month long building challenge. For instance, Sheo‘s Hitchhikers has some fascinating shapes, unusual colors, and great part usage. One standout detail is the Death Star piece at the core of the Technic construction at the aft of the ship. I also really like how the main body isn’t built with a standard “studs to the ceiling” approach. The angled bricks give the Kirby-esque detailing a very energetic feel.

In a nice recursive touch, the Hitchhiker has some smaller hitchhikers of its own. These four micro ships also have some unique color choices and part usage. I particuarly like the use of a minifigure hat and flower petals on the blue and red model. The roller skates on the red cargo hauler are pretty sweet, too.

What is a SHIP without a fleet?

The challenges of building LEGO spaceships is getting the different parts to work together to create something aesthetically pleasing, quasi-functional, and just plain cool. This difficulty is magnified with larger ships, especially when you enter the realm of a SHIP (Significantly Huge Investment in Parts, a LEGO spaceship 100+ studs in length). Sometimes one spaceship isn’t enough; you need to build a whole fleet, and that is what Ryan Olsen did. Ryan shared with TBB that his fleet has been slowly growing for eight years, with the mid-size one with the prominent white stripe (roughly in the middle of the formation) being his first. He also drew inspiration from Pierre E. Fieschi for the color scheme and the video game Homeworld.

The studs-not-on-top (SNOT) approach to the spaceship in the foreground makes for a sleek design, and the white stripes, including diagonals, are expertly integrated into the hull. The asymmetrical design works wonderfully, too, with the long appendages coming off the side from near the large reactor core. Hinge bricks do a great job of making a smoothly angled bridge. Everything fits so well, and nothing seems out of place. This fleet is cruising the stars in style!