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.

LEGO Metroid: My past is not a memory, it’s a force at my back

Samus Aran is one of Nintendo’s most iconic characters through a decades-long successful series of Metroid platformers and first-person shooters. Thanks to Spanish builder L-Di-Ego, the famed female bounty hunter’s personal spacecraft has made the jump to digital LEGO and has never looked better.

METROID: Samus Aran's Gunship

I’m so impressed with how loaded the ship is–this thing is absolutely packed with play features. The ship is ready to take on the dreaded Space Pirates with firing projectiles, adjustable engine intakes, a removable canopy allowing access to the spacious cockpit plus room for the Metroid containment pod, and my favorite, a functioning loading lift for the Samus Aran minifigure.

METROID: Samus Aran's Gunship

If you’re feeling nostalgic we’ve shared a couple of excellent takes on Samus in the past from builders like Eero Okkenen and Logey Bear.

Rover on a remote realm

When you’re traversing the unstable surface of an alien world, it’s important to have appropriate transportation. Luckily, SweStar has provided us with the rover we need to navigate transparent green rubble. The rear wheels are paired to offer steering control, and toothed for peak propulsory power. The front wheels, on the other hand, are smooth and broad for stability and speed. Riding high above the ground, our exploring hero is safe and sound, confident that the sensing sensors will sense any danger, the grabbing grab arms will grab on to anything that needs grabbing, and the slick hull will ensure that striking alien assailants will slide right away.

Rover ESP-1

Star Citizen Vanguard heads to the front lines

Stephan Niehoff revisits the sci-fi video game universe of Star Citizen, the oft-delayed but undeniably gorgeous space combat simulator.

Vanguard

Like Stephan’s Brutus gunboat we previously highlighted, this craft is a herculean LEGO creation packed with neat details and shaping techniques, and given the appearance of metallic wear with a dusting of chalk. If you look closely you can spot an inventive use of multiple orange flippers (aka Frogman’s feet).

The more I see of the game’s vehicle designs the more I’m reminded of Sky-Fi, a favorite sub-genre of LEGO fan building which features (sometimes illogical) flying vessels that repurpose familiar air- and space-craft design elements. The Vanguard looks to me like a very chunky offspring of the P-38 Lightning.

Out, into the dark, with a precious cargo of plants

If we can find an Earth-like planet within a reasonable distance, or perhaps terraform one of our closer neighbours, then we’re going to need to transport a bunch of plants to its surface. In this LEGO space scene, Sam Malmberg imagines how the interior of a seedling transport ship might look. There’s an impressive variety of plant-life on display, within an equally smart selection of vivarium equipment. The viewport and the wall panelling brings the styling of the Nostromo to mind, but thankfully there are no terrifying aliens threatening the crew. I love the inclusion of a microscale companion vessel, visible through the window, creating the sense of a convoy of intrepid colonists heading out together for a new world.

LEGO colony spaceship seeds

Spaceship begins with B

I’m something of a failure when it comes to building spaceships. I have tried and failed for the past three SHIPtembers to build a massive spaceship, and even my smaller spaceships generally end up on the scrapheap due to a lack of vision for their execution. Balancing the greebles with the smooth parts is a challenge for me, and integrating the cockpit with the rest never seemed to work out well. But then Dave Kaleta announced an alphabet starfighter contest, and I had to give it a go. Finally, I had a coherent plan for the design, a letter of the alphabet. And what better letter to start with than B? After all, my name, Benjamin Stenlund, starts with B, and so does Benny from The LEGO Movie. And since Benny and I are both from the 1980s, I went with a Neo-Classic Space styling, to remove any further difficulty that might have arisen from complicated color choices. I had to start somewhere, you know?

B-Wing Starfighter

I was quite pleased with the way the dual cockpits integrated with the overall shape, and indeed having two of those canopies was a major reason I went with this design, as the curves add to the B shape perfectly. I added as many Classic Space elements as I could, like the triple loudspeaker on the back and the computers in the cockpits, gleaned from the older part of my collection; and then I went greebled like crazy in the gaps. My favorite element in the greebles is the old exhaust pipes from my childhood Town sets. I’m not afraid to mix old and new greys together, so both can be seen in the build; I think it adds a sense of weathering appropriate for a spaceship. I’ve already been commissioned by my 4-year-old to build him a few spaceships, so hopefully, I’ll be able to add to the collection of finished craft soon and spread literacy across the galaxy!

B-Wing Starfighter

A trio of epic mechs

If you were to create mechs based on your favorite LEGO minifigures, which would you chose? For Steven Howard, he’s picked three that would top the lists of many people, especially when they look this cool. And I’ve gotta say, the setting sun backdrop and shadows showcase them well. They look like they stomped straight out of the LEGO Movie. But they’re even better up close…

Time-to-level-up-Howard-01

Click to see these guys individually

This ship raises questions

Recently LEGO builder Dave Kaleta completed his series of Alphabet-shaped ships. Many of us wondered “what’s next?” Well looks like Dave answered that question with a question of his own. Behold the ?-Wing. As impressive as that curved hull is, even more spectacular is that this ship is able to stand upright on it’s own. (Well, okay, partly thanks to two small landing gear strips.) It’s worth clicking through to Dave’s instagram post to see this beauty in action.

?-Wing Starfighter 2020

Like the rest of the fleet, this ship was built in collaboration with Dave’s 4 year old son, Elliot. Interested in joining in on the fun? Dave is running a contest for builders who want to make their own entries into the Alpha-fleet.

Bugs in space

LEGO Spacer Blake Foster only just launched an impressive cargo hauler decked out in Classic Space livery, and now the cargo fleet sees a cute expansion with this smaller craft — a jump shuttle packed with oddball character. There’s an impressive depth of functional-looking greebling packed into the light grey sections of the ship, and I particularly like those front legs — obviously useful in helping push this little spaceship free from gravity’s tethers. The angles on the blue hull section are excellent, and the unusual design is all tied in nicely around the trans-yellow bubble cockpit. Blake calls this the Cargo Critter, because of its bug-like appearance — a perfect nickname for a perfectly-formed spacecraft.

LEGO Classic Space spaceship

As rare as a blue lobster

Sometimes it feels like every spaceship I see out there in the LEGO building community is either a single-seat starfighter or a giant capital ship. Sometimes the fighters are tiny, sometimes they themselves are giant, and some of the capital ships are minifig scale and others are microscale. But wouldn’t it be nice to see something else with more frequency? Like, what about the civilian ships, or even the military support vessels? Someone has to move the supplies from Planet A to Planet B, right? Well, thankfully we have Blake Foster, who has made us a small, minifig scale Neo-Classic Space (NCS) cargo shuttle. Called the Blue Lobster because it grips two containers at a time in its mechanical claws and it’s blue, it is the ship you hire for small jobs, when you don’t want to spend an entire nation’s GDP to move a few crates.

Blue Lobster Cargo Shuttle

The coherent color scheme is perhaps my favorite aspect of NCS ships, and the Blue Lobster does not disappoint, with the obligatory yellow canopy and the blue and grey body. The grey greebles are perfect, using my favorite greeble element, the piston bar, and the Nexo Knights droid torso to great effect around the engines. I also love those crates; each is a work of art in itself, with some fascinating geometry making them work. Now, I need to move in a month or two, and I think my family’s belongings could fit in those crates (if we were minifigures, that is); maybe I should ask Blake if this cosmic crustacean is up for hire.

LEGO mobile radar base on an alien world

Colonizing alien planets is the adventure of a lifetime, but things don’t always go as planned. This LEGO radar outpost by Douglas Hughes supports a group of colonists and space marines in their efforts to tame the wild unknown. The best part about a radar outpost with treads is you can make a not-so-quick getaway when the going gets rough.

SCR-888 Mobile Radar Unit\

Now I know my A B Cs...

…Next time won’t you sing with me? With several toddlers roaming the hardwood, I sing the alphabet song frequently around my house. It’s a classic. That also seems to be what Dave Kaleta is singing with this gorgeous poster shot of all of his alphabet starfighters, built out of LEGO in collaboration with his young son. We have featured several of them on their own, like B and C, among others, but all together they are gorgeous.

Alphabet starfighter group

And while we usually don’t promote contests here at The Brothers Brick, I can’t resist pointing out that Dave really is inviting you to sing the space alphabet song with him by entering your own alphabet starfighter into his contest (clicking the image below will bring you to the rules). It ends May 9th, by the way, so you have time to get some entries in!

See details of a few starfighters not seen before on TBB

On legs of steel through the American southwest

It’s been many many years since we’ve seen any LEGO creations in the fan-created “Tech West” theme. The theme mashes up LEGO space and western, with a dash of steampunk, with a heavy dose of Serenity and Wild Wild West. Although builder captainsmog may label this “Colonial Futurist” but I’m personally transported back to 2004 rather than an alternate 1874. What I love most about the stagecoach is how the detailed robotic legs move just like horse legs. This is no horseless carriage — the horse is just mechanical. Similarly, notice how the front of the speeder bikes ridden by the marauding bandits are shaped like horses’ heads.

Robotic stagecoach