Scientists from all across the LEGO galaxy have come to United Systems to share their research and make new discoveries. But one of the prototype robots has gone haywire. Could it be sabotage by evil Blacktron and Spyrius agents? Tim Goddard is no stranger to sci-fi themed builds (in fact, he co-wrote the book on it), but this one stands out for how much character and story is brought to the scene. The collection of Space minifigures from across so many eras is great to see. Every figure has some business to attend to, which creates a feel of hustle and bustle within the complex. And the malfunctioning robot makes a great centerpiece. I’m impressed by how posable it is, particularly in the hips, thanks to a combination of round plates with a horizontal bar and the hexagonal piece from a weapons accessory pack.
Tag Archives: Space
A new way to do layered shadowboxes
I have to be honest, I’m pretty jealous I hadn’t thought of this myself. Whenever I go to a comic-con, I always spend a bit of time ogling over the booths with lighted, layered-paper shadowboxes. How did I never think to make one with LEGO?! Well, it looks like filbrick beat me to it! First up is a shadowbox classic: a stag in the woods. I love that the builder chose to go with this color gradient. It does appear that he may have been inspired by the work of talented LEGO artist Grantmasters to complete the top portion of the stag itself.
Next up is an astronaut floating in space. The colors and shapes are both awesome and trippy at the same time! The extra window on the side is a cool touch too. While both builds are renders, and I’m not sure if real-life replicas in these specific colors would be possible, they sure are fascinating!
I’m going to have to test this concept out with some of my own designs! How about you? What images would you create?
Not your thing? That’s okay – we have tons of other art builds for you to check out! We also have all sorts of cool builds by Grantmasters that you won’t want to miss!
SHIPtember starts earlier every year.
It’s that time of year again. The pool toys are being replaced by school supplies. The pumpkin spice cravings are growing more powerful. And the thoughts of LEGO fans are turning to SHIPtember. Every September, LEGO builders across the world create original spaceship builds using a Seriously Huge Investment of Parts. (Hence the ‘SHIP’ in ‘SHIPtember.’) This year, Jason Corlett has begun warming up his seriously huge shipbuilding skills with The Revolt, heavy-duty craft sporting tons of detail and cool play features.
With its twin front pylons and the angled rear section, the Revolt would look at home in any big-budget sci-fi franchise. In addition to the boatloads of tech detailing, the Revolt is packing retractable landing gear, a full interior with a bridge, and two cannons on each side that rotate together with the turn of a dial. Check out the video of everything in action below, and let us know if you’re planning your own SHIPtember crafts this year.
Totally tubular Technic tread tube
In the 23rd century, biker gangs rule the skies on their modified hoverbikes. The most dangerous of these gangs is the Tunnel Snakes, named for their tendency to use broken flux conduits as their primary highway between crime scenes. This futuristic build by David Roberts makes excellent use of Technic tread links, a part most commonly used in official sets on construction equipment or sci-fi vehicles. But here, these treads are the road through which the sci-fi vehicle travels. There are 40 links in each complete circle, a shape that David has made use of before. But this time the staging successfully implies a much larger scale. It’s easy to imagine the broken conduit tube stretching on for miles across a futuristic cityscape.
Something old, something new, something golden, something transparent light blue
Something just clicks in Sundown at Pheron 4Y — an eerie landscape from Bart De Dobbelaer. It might just be the Clikits rings and bracelets in the towers, but I think it’s more about the moody atmosphere and quality building. But there sure are a lot of vintage transparent light-blue Clikits parts in there if you really squint. My favorite usage has to be the Clikits beads in the golden Ninjago-hilt topped spires. Speaking of gold elements, there are a lot of interesting ones there, too. From minifigure weapons to Knights-Kingdom era shoulder armor, Bart has once again shown that imagination is the only limiting factor when it comes to finding ways to incorporate supposedly “single purpose” parts.
This isn’t the first amazing landscape that Bart has shared. Be sure to check out their other featured builds!
75,000 parts and six feet of sand green awesomeness
2021 has been a great year for sand green LEGO brick. But did you know that the celebration started well before the release of the LEGO Ideas 21327 Typewriter? Builder Jordan Morgan had already completed an amazing labor of love in that rare color – a 75,000 part, six-foot-long spaceship sure to leave you impressed. Featuring a fully detailed interior, working lights, and motorized functions, this build really lives up to the “Seriously Huge Investment in Parts” definition of “SHIP”. Keep reading for an in-depth look at this colossal creation!
The Tachyomatic Combine combines complex angles and interstellar build techniques
Well, I’m pretty sure Nick Trotta is from outer space or he’s been sent from the future to kill us all. How else could you explain LEGO build techniques of this caliber? This Tachyomatic Combine combines (how do you explain word association that good?) complex angles, futuristic aerodynamics, and interesting colors and textures. The end result is so cohesive you’d be convinced Nick visited the future. Actually, he’s taken inspiration from artist Weiyi Qin whom I’m pretty sure is also from outer space.
Care to see other angles and the inner workings of this mind-blowing model? I’m pretty much going to speak for you here and say that you do. Go on, click the link! You know you want to!
No seriously, click it. You won’t be disappointed!
Cat squadron, standing by!
Sometimes you and your buddies see something nice that you want to build in LEGO. It could be anything, inspiration is all around us. I (Mansur “Waffles” Soeleman) have a close circle of fellow builders that we like to call “vehicle dudes” and “teal squadron.” Consisting of Caleb Ricks, Gubi, Thomas Jenkins, Pande (Malen Garek), Tim Goddard, Tom Loftus (Inthert) and more, we get on a group call on Friday evenings and build. During this time, we discuss things that happen in the world of LEGO, Star Wars, and everything in between. It is during one of these remote group build sessions that we discovered artist Spacegooose and their colourful starfighter drawings.
It was their similarity to Star Wars ships that drew us into building them. Their varying styles and functions have enough similarity to belong to one group, and so our builds became a small collaboration. With blessings from the artist who eagerly awaits their designs in LEGO form, we decided to include our own artistic spin as well as matching the original artwork.
Click for detailed pictures and descriptions of each spaceship
Do you want tentacle babies? Because that’s how you get tentacle babies!
There was a time when LEGO builder Grant Davis was a regular here at The Brothers Brick but lately he’s been as rare as truck nuts on a Prius. That’s because he’s been away at the university. But that’s all about to change because he is competing in the ever-popular Iron Builder competition against our friend and recent TBB alumni Benjamin Stenlund. Grant calls this one “The Experiment” and, like many sci-fi movies and Florida Man stories, it features toxic goo, tentacles, and a situation that’s about to get calamitous. This is only his first entry in this competition so we can expect to see plenty more from Grant and even Benjamin soon. Iron Builder always means job security for us. Speaking of job security for us, check out the other times we were totally gaga for Grant’s stuff.
Bulked-up Benny
When The LEGO Movie debuted in 2014, the world was introduced to Benny, a Classic LEGO Spaceman with an enthusiastic love of spaceships. In 2019, The LEGO Movie 2 gave Benny an apocalyptic upgrade which found him sporting a clawed robot arm and carrying a toolbox. Now, builder Chris Yee has upgraded Benny yet again, translating Benny’s apocalyptic minifigure look into a larger Bionicle/Hero Factory style figure. I particularly love the Classic Space logo recreated with a pearl gold conical hat and a red minifigure hand and rubber bands. I’m forced to wonder if there’s a spaceship spaceship spaceship! in all the galaxy that’s capable of containing this much awesome.
This anti-gravity Wipeout Racer has a checkered history
You may have heard the humorous adage that if you paint racing stripes on your vehicle it’ll automatically go faster. In the case of this LEGO anti-gravity Wipeout Racer by David Roberts that might actually be true. He tells us that this ship was first in its class partly due to its powerful engine pack and partly due to its color scheme distracting other pilots and causing them to crash. He goes on to explain that this led to a rule change where the team had to paint their ship in a more sober pattern and thus the success of the race sadly and predictably waned. The lesson learned here is that racing fans like crazy stuff and now we can’t have nice things. Speaking of nice things, this would not be David’s first lap with brightly-colored ships and other awesome stuff. Check out our archives to see what I mean.
Classic Star Wars poster comes to life
This creation by Rui Miguel pays tribute to classic Star Wars movie posters. It’s unusual to see Vader in blue but this does allow for his helmet to be viewed in greater detail. The haunting eyes of Vader have been created with black armour pieces. As the helmet seeps into an interstellar cloud, you can see older flower pieces used to represent twinkling stars. Luke and Leia strike some cool poses, their noses are actually hinge pieces and Leia has some nice curved elements in her skirt, providing it with a swaying motion. Throughout this build there is a nice application of bright colours which really brings out the details of the display.