Sometimes when I’m browsing Flickr a LEGO thumbnail grabs my eye and I love the creation even before I really know what it is. This is the case with Mainman’s Micro moonbase module that features parts from the Power Miners line. I didn’t know at first it was a (micro) moonbase module, let alone a space creation, but I immediately thought it was awesome. Just something about it, with all those cheese slopes and the orange/dark gray color scheme…
Justin Vaughn has recently posted a very interesting spacecraft. When I first saw it, I didn’t think that I liked it. None of the sections seemed to flow with each other, or even belong together. As it turns out, that’s just the effect he was going for. The ship is intended to look like it was cobbled together out of various scrap at a space junkyard. Mission accomplished, Justin.
David McNeely (Blue Star Lego) has been having a bit of fun with minifigs lately.
More specifically, David’s been building specialized troops for the classic Blacktron faction, as well as a corresponding “Whitetron” force.
These remind me of Spy vs. Spy:
Andrew Lee has finally done something that I’ve been hoping someone would do for years. He’s built a space ship inspired by Warhammer 40K’s chaos forces. The Skalathrax features uses repetition of form to achieve a complex surface, especially along the top, which is almost spinal. Although I’d like to see some even crazier stuff – like more spikes – this creation captures the feel of chaos excellently. My favorite thing about this ship, is how Andrew built it modularly, so that it could be easily transported. I hope he makes some more components as well, a fleet of ships with interchangeable sections and weapons would be really cool.
This beautiful Rong Yiren could work equally well in a microscale layout as it does here populated by Rong’s iconic primalbots:
But Rong Yiren’s latest is just an excuse to go back a couple weeks and blog my favorite creation in quite some time — “A Museum in an Alternate Universe”:
See more of Rong Yiren’s creations on Flickr or MOCpages.
The Starfighters group on Flickr is hosting a “Show Us What You Got” Starfighter Contest. The rules are simple: “build an original starfighter, and make it awesome.” The prizes include custom models from Peter Morris, who’s also among the panel of judges. The contest runs until March 31st, so there’s plenty of time to perfect an entry.
Above creation by Nnenn
Jas Nagra has built an exciting new starfighter, which may be for the contest that’s just started over on Flickr. In addition to achieving an interesting shape with some cool angles, I think he’s done some excellent work creating the effect of panel lines. The detailing on what would otherwise be rather bland surfaces is quite nice. I also think that the pink dots add just enough color.
Note: I am a judge in the above-mentioned contest. My posting about this creation does not mean that I have pre-judged the competition. Nor does my failure to blog an entry mean that I don’t like that entry enough for it to win.
But this one is really good. Cole Blaq has created a rendition of a ship from Unreal Tournament 3. I think he’s done a great job of reproducing the shape of the original, while putting his own spin on it. The central section has a chunky heavily armored vibe that I really like.
It looks like Niel’s box fighter, which I just blogged earlier today is already inspiring some imitations. Nathan Proudlove and Mark Sandlin have each already built copies. I always seem to miss out on these new group building trends and memes. I think I’m going to try to get in on the ground floor on this one and head to the LEGO room and whip up one of my own.
Niels Bugge has built a very interesting creation for SciLug’s small starfighter contest. The contest requires the starfighter to fit within a small box when landed. Many entrants tried to deal with this restriction by making a craft with folding wings or a rotating engines, but Niels pushed these techniques to a new level. His craft folds into a box shape which barely fits into the space limitation, but when unfolded, you would never know that it had been a box. This creation is an excellent starfighter, regardless of its ability to fold into a small space. Better, still, Niels has provided some instructions, which can be found on his instructions page, here.
Hi everyone, Dan Rubin here, and I’d like to introduce myself as the newest member of The Brothers Brick team. I’m thirty-ish years old, married, and an attorney. I live in the Washington, D.C. area, where I’ve been helping organize local LEGO conventions for the past several years.
The spacers among you may recognize me as the main admin of the forums at classic-space.com. Others may know me as the creator of the Galactic Inquisition space sub-theme. I’ve been active in the online LEGO community since I joined LUGNet in 2003, which is also the first year that I attended a LEGO Convention.
I’ll mostly be blogging about space and mecha creations, as that’s where my own skills lie, and also what I see the most, because of where I browse online. That doesn’t mean that I don’t appreciate a quality creation in any theme, though. I’ll leave you with a photo of my most recent creation, and a promise to start blogging about cool stuff as soon as possible.
Next up in our series of Admin interviews is a conversation we had with Dan Rubin, one of the Admins at Classic Space Forums.
TBB: How long has Classic Space been in existence?
Dan: The forums on classic-space.com (CSF) were publicly announced on December 19, 2004, so we’re just a couple of months from our Fourth anniversary. The site was founded by Chris Giddens, with help from some other members of the space community. A year or so ago, family and work pressures convinced Chris that he needed to step down, and he handed over CSF to me.
TBB: What is purpose of CSF?
Dan: Simply put, the purpose is the discussion of space and LEGO. It’s a place to hang out, and to discuss MOCs, and get criticism (constructive I hope) from other builders who build in these themes.
TBB: What does classic space include? More specifically, does it exclude Star Wars?
Dan: Classic-space really includes any sort of science fiction. This is not limited to purely space born creations, we also embrace steampunk, mecha, apocalego, and pretty much any other sci-fi genres you can think of. That means that we definitely don’t exclude Star Wars. However, Star Wars can be a bit of a sticky subject, as while it is welcome, it’s not our specialization. Many of the members of CSF have gotten tired of seeing new X-wing mocs, and can be a bit snippy about that, if they don’t see anything special or new about the latest post.
TBB: What is your vision for the future of CS?
Dan: My vision is for CSF to continue to grow and evolve as a place for discussion of scif-fi and sci-fi MOCs. I’m a huge believer in free speech, and I like to think that encourages frank and open exchange of ideas on the forum. Sometimes it also means that people can get carried away, but I like to think that we’re all enriched. The style of MOC critique on CSF is sometimes harsh, and while some people don’t like it when the kid gloves are off, others appreciate hearing a response other than “OMG! That’s awesome!”
TBB: How would you describe your members?
Dan: Our membership is constantly changing. Many of our members have been a part of the online LEGO community for five years or more, but we’re constantly growing. I think that, generally, our members are LEGO fans (be they AHOL or THOL) who are into sci-fi.
TBB: What issues are you dealing with as CS grows?
Dan: We’ve had various growing pains. We’ve had our fair share of flame wars and maturity issues among some of the members. I think this is common for pretty much any online forum, though. We’ve also had bandwidth issues. Steve Runnels hosts the forums and website on his own server, and foots the bill to keep the site online himself. Recently, I moved our concept art gallery – which is used to inspire sci-fi creations, even by LEGO designers – over to flickr.com in order to save some bandwidth.
TBB: What is the biggest reason that people should join CS?
Dan: If you want to see and discuss some great sci-fi MOCs, CSF is the place for you. We also have a lot of user-generated articles to help teach techniques for building sci-fi. It’s a great place to help hone your own space skills.
Thank you, Dan!
(see our interview with Eurobricks admin, Mark Larson, as well)