Tag Archives: Space

From giant space carriers to starfighters, moon bases to moon buggies, whether you love LEGO models inspired by real-world space programs or science-fiction, you’re in the right place.

SHIPtember is over; SHIPs abound, get swooshed

As some of you may be aware, a group of fans dubbed the month of September “SHIPtember” and challenged builders around the world to create SHIPs (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts, aka a spaceship over 100 studs in length). We’ve been highlighting a few of the best SHIPs as they’ve come out, and we’ll continue to do so as we see ones that catch our fancy. Some builders, however, decided that mere photographs couldn’t suffice to show the awesomeness of their SHIPs, and just had to swoosh them around. Swooshing is the science of picking up your creation and zooming it around making engine noises. It’s a highly technical and very serious business, and serves the purpose of demonstrating how sturdy your construction is. Laser sound effects are optional. SHIPs, due to their size, require extraordinary engineering to be lifted in such a manner. Check out these great demonstrations by Jacob Unterreiner (4estFeller) and our very own Tromas. You can also browse through the 95 SHIPs built by fans in the last month–a ridiculous number of top-notch models.

(don’t try this at home, kids)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/65992320@N05/10022597675/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tromas/9928883514/

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Bring out the big guns

This futuristic military gunship by Tyler (Legohaulic) is quite an eye-catcher. It has attention-grabbing details in both the complementary colors and the individualized components that feature some uncommonly used parts like tipper beds and hockey shooters. No matter which part your eyes drift to, there’s always something interesting to see.

S20 Vulture

Let’s get some fresh blood in here, the master demands it. As some of you veterans of the hobby know, Brother Becraft is a nosferatu and he’s grown so old that he’s got to feed twice a week to maintain his youthful glow. He claims that new blood is the best blood. Today’s featured victim is newcomer Taylor Walker MaverickDengo who would like to share his “S20 Vulture Starfighter” with you. The model is presented in both digital and brick-built formats for your viewing pleasure.

Thanks to constant reader Jacob for calling in the tip on the request line, it does indeed deserve a bit more exposure.

Lego Curiosity Rover, in Chalk

Apparently, there are some Lego CUUSOO fans in the chalk art world. Check out this amazing rendition of the Curiosity Rover (recently announced to be an upcoming CUUSOO set) on the sidewalk. Thanks to Stephen Pakbaz for the heads up!

“The albatross begins with its vengeance”

Come fly with me, constant reader, before the weekend draws to a close and the Monday factory whistle blows. Our conveyance is provided by the always impressive David Roberts and his “Albatross“, while the soundtrack is provided by Iron Maiden, who I had the great fortune to see recently on tour here in Vegas. Rock on David, way to bring the clean lines, bold colors and snappy presentation. I’ll see the rest of you next Friday at the fights.

Drifting Shield and friends

Anto-nio returns to the Brothership by appealing to my love of all things VTOL, but this time he doesn’t have to share a roundup style posting. Not only is the “Drifting Shield” VTOL quite pleasing to the eye with its broadly sloping surfaces and groovy textures, but the builder has also included a couple of ground vehicles at no extra charge. The jeep is especially nice but the effect of all three is more than the sum of its parts. It almost looks like an entire toy-line based on a summer blockbuster. I would say it looks like an official Lego theme, but there is no incarceration facility or tiny diorama with some kind of trap-door.

Friday Night Fights (Round 21)

Welcome back fight fans, to Sin City Nevada for another heart-stopping edition of Friday Night Fights! Tonight’s bout features two hungry SHIPwrights caught in the digital nets of Simon Liu’s month long challenge known as SHIPtember. Let’s go to the tale of the tape:

Fighting out of the red corner, from Dutch Moonbase Mission Control…”Psycho” sky4walker and his “Proteus“.

And fighting out of the blue corner, from somewhere between heaven and hell…”Dangerous” Disco86 and his “FB 21 – Freighter Class Botany”

As usual, constant reader, you are tasked with deciding the outcome of this pugilistic endeavor by way of comment. On the last edition of Friday Night Fights, the battle of minimalism, David Alexander Smith dispatched his opponent with a score of 4-2. Tune in next week for another action packed edition of Friday Night Fights!

Orange capital SHIP ahoy

I think Guss De Blöd accidentally spilled a little Novvember in his SHIPtember. If that doesn’t make any sense to you, well, don’t worry about it. For several years, the LEGO flickr community has enjoyed doing themed monthly build challenges, and this year they’ve become particularly pervasive, with Marchikoma, SHIPtember, Maktober, and Novvember just off the top of my head. We’re currently in the middle of SHIPtember, and flickr is awash in SHIPs (that’s Super Huge Investment in Parts, aka capital ships). Even if it does seem to get a little bandwagon-y at times, the themes challenge a lot of people to build outside their normal comfort zones, and get some people to just build at all. And so, back to Guss’s orange machine, which appears to be a mash-up of two themed challenges. Regardless of any of that, though, it’s a lovely spacecraft, and the orange highlights are very striking.

The mech from the deep

Indonesian builder Toto Hermanto‘s latest mech is this super cool blue and grey machine. With those split legs, this mech brings a bit of a different aesthetic from many of the mechs I see, which is refreshing, and Toto’s added some great greebles to it.

The helicopter of the future is here

I don’t think I’d want to be on the wrong side of this one. It’s not often that I see a helicopter design that looks original, but this one by flickr user piratesxlovexrum is awesome. It’s aggressive and bold, and looks vaguely Soviet-inspired. And I have to point out that great bit of photography.

Fully functional LEGO crossbow really shoots!

This mind-blowing working compound crossbow is completely LEGO, and made by builders extraordinaire Sean and Steph Mayo (Siercon and Coral). Be sure to check out the video of it in action! Not only does it shoot, even the cables are made from LEGO train electronics wires.

The Brothers Brick snagged a quick interview with Sean and Steph about this awesome creation:

The Brothers Brick: Where did you get your inspiration?
Sean and Steph: We wanted to use LEGO to shoot a projectile, building something other than a catapult or a trebuchet. We’ve seen lots of epic brick built guns online, and thought it would be tons of fun to create a custom Lego compound bow. This quickly evolved into crossbow for extra stability, as the bow is under tons of tension.

TBB: How long did this build take?
S&S: We probably spent a week playing around with the different mechanics. We had a lot to figure out about the flexibility of LEGO pieces under stress, how much the train cables could take, and which pieces would be useful for the cams. Once that was sorted the actual construction in a couple days.

TBB: Why a compound Crossbow, wouldn’t it have been enough to just create a bow?
S&S: A regular bow honestly would probably have been more effective as a lot of the natural flexibility of the LEGO pieces makes them more conducive to a recurve bow rather than a compound bow. But for ages we’ve been fascinated by the cams, idler wheels, and the mechanics of a compound bow, so we wanted to give it a try!

TBB: How many pieces did you use?
S&S: We usually don’t count the pieces we used, and have no clue how some builders do it, but we estimate around 1700 pieces.

TBB: How far can it shoot/how much would it hurt?
S&S: Disregarding the outliers, it can shoot around 40 feet. As a bow without the compound element it could shoot farther, but we couldn’t resist trying to build the cams. As far as how much damage it can deliver, we’re not entirely sure. We have yet to shoot anyone with it, and it is tipped with a flexible rubber lego (both for the competition this was built for and to minimize any accidental injury). It can likely stick into drywall with a sharp enough tip, but not much else.

TBB: What is it designed from? Is this from a video game or something similar?
S&S: This is an original design, but influenced by the Spartan Laser aesthetic from the Halo series. We also wanted to use the green spikes as viper fangs, so we tried to stick with venomous snake inspired highlights. We picture this to be something a Green Arrow vigilante might carry around.

Be sure to check out some of Sean and Steph’s previous insanely awesome creations, like the giant sushi roll and Cortana hologram.

Sci-Fi LEGO that is just plain stylish

If I were to describe the work of Jonas (LEGOLIZE IT MAN) I think the most appropriate word would be ‘stylish’. It is relatively easy to make a LEGO spaceship and take a picture of it. It is another thing altogether to make it look legitimately cool. Perhaps I am biased, but I would tend to think that your average person seeing this (whether being a LEGO fan or not) would say, “Well that looks rad!”

If Jonas were to publish a coffee table book full of prints of his work, I would buy it immediately. I would read it…and then I would be inspired to build cool LEGO sci-fi things.

Un-edited alternate views

I like it when people’s builds make me want a coffee table book full of them.

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