A LEGO builder who goes by the name of Rubblemaker has built a Queen Bee Royal Viper Drone. Let me break that down for you. Queen. Bee. Royal. Viper. Drone. What part of that don’t you understand? Clearly, she’s out to do some badass queen bee stuff like infiltrating the hives of other bees and stealing their plans for honey, pollination, and other bee-related stuff. But no need to explain it any further. You had me at Queen Bee! Check out why we think Rubblemaker is the bee’s knees.
With this brilliant-looking robot, Julius Kanand pays tribute to M-Tron. The black, red, and trans-neon green pieces are all used in perfect proportion to each other to recall the color scheme of LEGO’s old, much-beloved and/or maligned space theme.
There’s some really nice parts usage, too; from the six-sided, rubber-framed dice at the shoulders to the socket wrench-as-antennae. But what I think works best is the minifigure dolly cart used as the shins and feet. The back of the dolly provides a natural vent effect, and the dolly cart is so stable that this robot can stand on one foot! It’s definitely an impressive engineering feet.
Back from a small hiatus, Blake Foster brings us this beautiful LEGO spaceship! Color blocking is on point in this ship, with subtle reds and yellows peaking out of the black, white, and light grey. The dark zzure takes this that much further and ties the whole build together.
I love Iron Builder! It usually means job security for us here at TBB, loads of awesome LEGO entertainment for you, and stress, horror, and depravity for the poor sods who have to build for it. Take this pointy starship built by Joe (jnj_bricks) for example. It’s pretty neat in its own right, but knowing full well you gotta crank out a bunch of quality builds in short order while your competitor does the same gives me heart palpitations just thinking about it. As per the rules of Iron Builder, you gotta cleverly use a seed part or another. We’re supposed to be impressed by Joe’s use of the required hexagonal blabitty-blah but I’m more smitten with the hidden Woody figure from Toy Story. Can you spot it?
From Arrakis comes spice and these LEGO vignettes by builder Bryan Firks, whom you may know from the second season of LEGO Masters. I had the good fortune to chat with Bryan about these scenes and the inspiration behind them. He became a fan of the “Duniverse” after watching the 2021 film Dune, sparking an interest in the original book and the richly detailed world. Soon, the idea to create a series of microscale scenes developed in his mind. He drew inspiration from 2021’s TBB creation of the year, Jan Woźnica’s Tales from the Space Age, for providing atmosphere and color. Equipped with new color palettes, he employs similar techniques with his vignettes. On the left, transparent neon orange antennae represent orbital strikes on the old city of Arrakeen. A spice refinery explodes in the foreground. In the center, we see an ornithopter hovers above a spice harvester with levers as its wings. On the right, there’s one of the legendary sandworms of Arrakis! The worm is captured brilliantly with round bricks interlinked by flex tubing for poseable segments. The sand dunes give a sense of scale to the worm, showing just how massive it really is!
Bryan faced a few challenges rendering these scenes on this scale. Being a Lord of the Rings fan, he wanted to use Uruk-hai swords for the ornithopter wings. Alas, they were too big for this size. The sandworm presented a fun challenge, and using an inverted 2×2 dome for the gaping maw is very cool! The flow of direction, from left to right following the lines of the orbital strike through to the worm’s mouth, is intentional to give the build a sense of motion. Another clever choice is the night-day-night pattern of the backgrounds, giving the vignettes a lovely balance. The mirroring of the dual moons in the night scenes helps to frame and hold the day scene in your attention as you take in the whole. My favorite part of the build, besides the sandworm? It demonstrates how inspiring the LEGO community can be. Anyone can become inspired by another builder’s creation, leading to more beautiful homages and builds!
Meet the Epyft, an alien being created by Mattia Careddu. This LEGO creature brings to mind a hummingbird crossed with a butterfly, as its long mouth reaches down to the bright blooming flower, drinking up all the rich nectar. No doubt the sugar is needed for the energy to stay in the air. The flower and the surrounding foliage feature so many cool parts to create something out of this world! Bionicle masks give the translucent green plants and blue flowers cool shapes and textures. Speaking of Bionicle masks, they’re also used for the creature’s sides, but that’s not the coolest bit of parts usage for this build. The creature’s body is a fun use of a torso piece from the Galidor toy line, produced by LEGO in 2002 for the sci-fi kids show by the same name.
Streaking though the sky comes the latest LEGO creation from French builder F@bz! Clean lines and great parts usage are present throughout this flying ship. The angles on the wings use a wonderful old slope brick with studs on the slope. The splash of purple and yellow really pop and the light blueish gray of the engines give great contrast to the deep black of the wings. I particularly like the use of the large rotor blade running down the center of the fuselage.
Canadian LEGO builder Jason Corlett says that this LEGO Quarian Cruiser from the Mass Effect franchise is the largest ship he’s ever built. And while that’s not hard to believe given the sheer immensity of this vessel, the real skill is how Jason has packed all 68″ with excellent detail and shaping. I look at this ship in its entirety and I see all the small choices made by Jason during construction: the fit of the beveled ring into the other parts of the Cruiser, the pockets of detailed textural work in specific corners, the decision to cover a stud with a tile or leave the stud exposed, even the determination of whether a part should be light or dark gray. All 68 inches of the model feel consistent and deliberate. And, trust me, that’s hard enough to do for even the smallest builds!
See more of this huge LEGO spaceship
Back with another astounding LEGO spaceship, Nick Trotta has proved once again that he is the master of his (space) craft. His latest build, titled Interference 3V is a variation on the classic Vic Viper shaping with a few added flairs to keep it unique. Like all of his spaceships, Nick’s latest build is remarkable from a distance. The complex angles and gorgeous color blocking are defining features.
After an almost five-year hiatus on his Flickr, builder Rob Dasnewten is back with another ship that almost blows the rest out of the sky. He must’ve been traveling the cosmos during that time, because the level of detail he’s returned with seems almost hands-on. Rob, are you actually from the future, or are you just a sentient being from a space-faring species? Yet again resurrecting the green cockpit design from several of his previous builds, he developed a ship that seems like a perfect upgrade to the VO-Eighty we covered back in 2009. Thirteen years is a long time in the LEGO world when you consider the number of new pieces and colors that have entered and forever changed the System. Even though it’s been five years since his last post, it’s clear that Rob hasn’t forgotten a thing and maybe even learned some more. Let’s see what this legend has to teach us.
Community space vehicle building challenge FebRovery 2022 has come and gone but that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to celebrate rovers. Inspired by the Classic Space color scheme and utilizing the seemingly popular Vidiyo cubes, LEGO builder Jan Woznica added a flair of futuristic character to this cargo carrier. Each wheel has working independent suspension, something Jan was rather proud of since he doesn’t really consider himself a “Technic guy.” Each of the cargo pods is also detachable so keep an eye out for any variants he might come up with in the future.
The rover is called the Ant because of the rigging around the drivers’ pod, which resembles the eyes and mouth of the little worker insect. Loaded as it is, there’s still room behind the Ant’s head to hold all the driver might need while out amongst the alien dunes and deserts. I could just see them strumming the guitar atop the blue cargo pod, night stars overhead while the greenhouse pod casts a dull glow on the sand and rock below.
Last year we awarded Jan Woznica with LEGO Creation of the Year for his Tales of the Space Age model series. Here he reminds us that he can build more than just eye-catching microscale displays. I can’t wait to see what else this year holds for him.
This past month we featured a lot of LEGO space rovers because of Febrovery or something. Well, it’s now March but we’re still having plenty of fun with it. Take this awesome rover by Tommy Frost for example. With a couple of VIDIYO Boomboxes, four knobby tires, and some weird plant life, we’re whisked away to another planet, one that Theodore Q. Spacepants is happy to be a part of. You see, Theodore cares deeply about environmental issues and volunteers for the B. Good Foundation’s Spaceplant Conservation Project. he says it wasn’t really a job because he didn’t get paid but, like most things we volunteer for, it was a whole pant-load of fun. That’s pretty much how I describe my time spent here volunteering for The Brothers Brick, a pant-load of fun. Check out why we think Mr. Frost is also a pant-load of fun.
