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.

“Yo, I don’t know, turn off the lights and I’ll glow”

I lost big-time in TBB’s high stakes craps-game to decide how to divvy-up the slew of bloggable action from Brickworld 2013. Or did I? While the other Brothers were fighting over Oz, Cyber City and Simon Liu’s spacecraft, I let it all ride on Angles of Light by ROOK.

Pro Tip – next time you find your yourself at a craps table, consider this: “Proposition bets” are settled with a single roll of the dice with the odds located at the center of the craps table. You should avoid this bet because dealers are trained to tempt players into placing Proposition bets because of the overwhelming house advantage.

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The Importance of Stewart Cowley

Few authors have inspired more entertaining science fiction models over the years than Stewart Cowley. Familiar builders like Stafford, nnenn and Ocean have all been influence by his work, including yours truly. Cowley’s short lived series of four illustrated books, the Terran Trade Authority, were published from 1978-1980 and featured inspiring concept art from a number of different sources. The latest microscale model by Dan Efran (Erunaamo) was inspired by a TTA painting called Proximan K13 Sharks by British artist Angus Mckee. The builder effectively captures the spirit of the source material.

I’m also going to throw in a K13 Shark by Shannon Ocean, because weekends were made for Shannon Ocean.

Fashionably Late & Always Stylish

Remember that R-Type Build challenge from way back when? Well Uspez Morbo not being one to follow the herd said to himself, “Pfft…who needs monthly deadlines?!”

And I said to myself, “Am I ever glad that Uspez is a rebellious bugger!”

So without further delay, here is Uspez’s contribution to the R-Type & Beyond build challenge…finally!!

Please peruse the crazy textures and complex detailing within the full photoset.

Also, way to rock the UFO panels…

Brickworld 2013 Wrap-Up

This past weekend was Brickworld 2013 in Schaumberg, Illinois, and Chris and I attended. I attended for the first time; it was fun being a “newbie” for once, despite this being my 11th LEGO convention. This was my first event outside of the Pacific Northwest! Though really, Chicago, the tornados were a bit much. Really. No need for that.

All weather and terrible airline travel aside, the event was a blast. This was the first year in the new location and by all accounts, it was a fabulous decision to move and improved the convention-going experience greatly. Unlike last year, all the creations this year were housed in the same MASSIVE space.

Over the next few days, pictures of some of the amazing creations will pop online. I want to highlight a few of my favorites:

Smaug by Sharon Vance

The Marquis, by Peter Mowry

Area 51 by Brian Williams

This was really fantastic. We’ve blogged the warehouse previously; now he’s added the shooting location for the Moon Landing, a Stargate, and a number of other fantastic references!

Product announcements

There were two bits of news which we already reported: the reveal of 10234 Sydney Opera House and announcing the Curiosity Rover.

For me, the value of any convention comes from the memories; I attend just as much, if not more, for the people as I do the brick. I saw people I haven’t seen in years, met new friends, and made enough memories and paper planes to last a lifetime. Or at least until BrickCon.

The Marquis

I should be writing a BrickWorld report, but frankly, this was so frickin’ awesome that I wanted to blog it first. I saw this beauty at BrickWorld, while everyone held their breath for display. Because this hangs precariously from a tripod of tubing. The effect is totally worth it.

Peter Mowry‘s Marquis stands 56 inches tall, and is simply a sight to behold. According to the backstory he’s given it, this vessel was designed to be part of a fleet geared toward colonization, and was supposed to carry people, machinery, and materials to wherever it needed to go.

Check out his flickr gallery for more ships to accompany the Marquis!

Starfighter Telephone Game

The Starfighter Telephone Game was started over two years ago and now for the first time a round has been completed. The game works just like the grade-school game from which it got it’s name. Someone starts off by building a starfighter and ships it to the next player, they keep it and build a new fighter inspired by the previous. Game carries on until the first player receives the final fighter.

With three rounds underway and dozens of builders spread across the globe, I think it is safe to say that the game is a success (even with a few delays and hiccups along the way).

Mark Stafford just posted the pictures of the final version of the starfighter for his team (which I was lucky enough to be a part of). All I have to say is that Mike Yoder is a lucky boy to end up with this thing.

Mark also did up a quick video showing the progression of the design from start to finish.

Here are links to each version from our round:
#1 by Yoder
#2 by me
#3 by Cole Blaq
#4 by Red Spacecat
#5 by Shamisenfred
#6 by Proudlove
#7 by Bart De Dobbelaer
#8 by Jake
#9 by Mark

Update:

Mike just did up this edit of the linear progression of each version. It is very cool just how much it changes from step to step.

Zornhau

Nick Trotta (tardisblue)makes his second appearance of 2013 on the Brother-Ship with a chunk-tacular spaceship called Zornhau. According to the builder, “Zornhau”, or the “wrathful strike”, is one of five medieval fencing master-cuts. Who knew?

Nick also posted a companion video that highlights his design process, and the nifty trick he uses to space the 1×2 tiles on the engine intakes.

Tiny Teddies!

Perhaps the return of Arrested Development put the idea of a tiny teddy in Karf Oohlu‘s (Reformed Cthulhu) head. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence. Regardless, the teddy bears in space helmets are adorable and funny, and the “Tiny Teddy” name is associated with hilarity in my mind.

LEGO approves Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover CUUSOO project [News]

Stephen Pakbaz‘s MSL Curiosity Rover project on LEGO CUUSOO hit 10,000 supporters 10 months ago, but today LEGO is announcing that Curiosity will become the next new LEGO set through the CUUSOO program.

LEGO CUUSOO Curiosity Rover

(This is Stephen’s project photo. I expect the final product may be slightly different. We’ll share the official product photos when we get them.)

Here’s the official announcement:

Results of the Fall 2012 LEGO® Review

We’re excited to share the results of the Fall LEGO® Review. In September, three LEGO CUUSOO projects entered the second quarterly review period for projects that successfully reach 10,000 supporters. These three projects — the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover, UCS Sandcrawler™, and Thinking with Portals!™ — have been being considered for production by the LEGO Review Board.

21104 Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover – pending final name confirmation

It is with great pleasure we reveal that the next LEGO CUUSOO set will be the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover, based upon the LEGO CUUSOO project by Perijove.

This project rose to popularity in late summer 2012, when the real Mars Curiosity Rover approached and landed on the planet Mars in its historic mission. The model designer, LEGO CUUSOO user Perijove is a Mechanical Engineer who worked on the actual Curiosity rover at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Perijove writes that he built and submitted the rover to further the educational outreach of the Mars Curiosity rover’s incredible mission, and to encourage greater public support for space exploration.

The final product is still in development. Exact pricing and availability is still being determined, so stay tuned for an update on when you can buy your own Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover in the coming months.

Tim Courtney shares the news in this video:

Personally, I couldn’t be more excited. This is easily my favorite LEGO CUUSOO project from the past 18 months, and is one of the best projects that reflects the spirit of CUUSOO. I know many of you out there will be disappointed that the Star Wars and Portal projects weren’t approved, but I hope you can join me in giving Stephen Pakbaz some well-deserved congratulations!

Update: Caylin and Chris are there at BrickWorld, and Caylin got this shot of the model they used to make the announcement there in Chicago:

It looks essentially identical to the one Stephen used for the project itself, so that’s a good sign, though I also expect that it’s still going through the redesign project with LEGO.

Massive Lego model of the Normandy SR2 from Mass Effect

Ben Caukins spent the past 7 months constructing the Normandy SR2 from Mass Effect, proving yet again that he’s not afraid to build large curved ships. The ship measures almost 4 feet long with a wingspan of 19 inches. It will be displayed at Brickworld this weekend in Chicago. You can check out work-in-progress pictures on Flickr.

Red White and Blue Spaceships

I don’t always go in for renderings of LEGO models, as I often find them lacking compared to real photographs of brick-built creations, but these renders by the fantastically-named Awesome O’saurus are terrific. Over the past few months, he’s been slowly churning out some lovely microscale spaceships in the hard sci-fi vein. Here are his latest two, the Sumerset, a patrol ship, and the larger Kettler, a colony ship.

Group hugs are the best hugs!

I know you are all going to say, “Stick a Megablok in your pie hole Tromas!” But I simply must beat this dead horse: Our community is rather fantastic!!

Case in point Simon Liu’s (Si-MOCs) Operation Oscar: Phase 1. Simon built this large scene to honour a few of his favourite builders, those that inspired and influenced him. Simon left it up to us, the viewers, to recognize who those builders are, but it is rather obvious just who the guilty parties are…all of which are TBB regulars; Fedde (Karf), Peter Reid, and of course our own resident DJ, The Goldman (or as I like to affectionately refer to him, Gold Member).

Now it must be pointed out that Gold Member’s influence on Simon’s build is quite prominent, as the general layout of the launch base is straight out of his ‘Gypsy Queens, you are clear to launch’…a hit single that Keith debuted 2 weeks ago. Now if I have learned anything from my time spent kickin’ it with Gold-Member in the TBB club house, it is that despite his epic awesomeness, he is not one to toot his own horn. So I am more than happy to cut into his weekend air time and toot his horn in his stead. So here it, the world debut of ‘Gypsy Queens, you are clear to launch’:

Now, back to the brilliance of the community…not only is Simon’s creation inspired by his favourite builders, but Keith’s build was a direct result of a few more of our regulars, Stijn (Red Spacecat) & Mike Yoder. I’ll just let Keith explain the story in his own words:

Almost two years ago I was fortunate enough to receive the generous gift of a MATSF-5000E Superbanshee II SE from Stijn. To make things all the more strange, the package was sent through middleman Yoder. Although I was stoked to receive such a swooshable fighter, I was a little burned out of building dioramas for starfighters. Over the course of the last couple of years I’ve attempted 3 relatively large scale dioramas, including a cruder version of what you see here. The models failed for various reasons, but mostly because I was struggling with the scale. While I have tried microscale before, it was never on such a large scale and I found it very difficult to grind out the small details that make everything come to life without the trusty minifig to guide me.

The model also includes Stijn’s recent M28-Pig in the pen, as it were, in the lower left hand corner.

So cheers Stijn! I hope it was worth the wait.

So what is the moral of this story you ask?

Don’t think for a second that just because oceans and continents separate us, that we can’t still get together to play LEGO!

Also, please be sure to check out the full set of pictures for both of these brilliant creations, there are simply too many details to pass up:

Simon’s Operation Oscar

Gold Member’s Gypsy Queens