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.

The wonders of space captivates both young and old

Show of hands, who loved all things having to do with outer space as a kid? Also show of hands, who never lost that dream even as an adult? Right? Space captures the imagination and keeps a child-like fascination within us like nothing else can…except maybe dinosaurs. Instagram user architeclego captures this feeling of wonder quite nicely with this LEGO diorama called To the moon. Whether it be the Classic Space t-shirt, the rocket diagram, or even the bunny companion, I can get lost in these details forever. The moon shining through the attic window is a sight to behold. What can I say? I’m a kid all over again!

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A ship designed to bug you

Giant spaceships are cool, but I think we’ve seen the strength of the small one-man fighter to slip in and do some real damage. Blake Foster created the Grumpy Gnat Attack Fighter in under 24 hours…a level of speed this thrust-heavy vehicle understands. Built in Classic Space colors, the transparent-yellow windscreen hails from 2011’s 7985 City of Atlantis, and the blue cowling is sourced from a variety of Bionicle parts. I particularly like the Rahkshi Back Cover along the top and sides. The gap designed for the Rahkshi spines makes a perfect place to have the ship’s fins extend through. And the little touches like the red and green navigational lights just make me smile.

This isn’t Blake’s first foray into new Classic Space vehicles. Not by a long shot! Check our archives for more space-y goodness.

Double the tensegrity, triple the trouble

Over the past few months, LEGO tensegrity sculptures have been all the rage, with their gravity-defying stacking attracting builders of all stripes to try their hands. While most tensegrity structures consist of a single floating element, a few builders have managed to add another floating section to that, which makes the delicate balancing exponentially more difficult. David Roberts makes it look easy, though, with this tower of rings.

Tensegrity sculptures stay aloft thanks to being held in tension with three tethers (chains in this case), but David’s model also adds tension to the rings themselves, which simply comprise Technic tread links joined inside out to make a tensioned circle. It all comes together to create a beautifully simple sculpture.

Now, who wants to try their hand at creating a tensegrity sculpture with three floating levels on top of the base? Any takers?

Want to see more tensegrity sculptures? Check out our LEGO Tensegrity archives for examples from tanks to dragons.

Tread VERY carefully

Okay, so lately Cecilie Fritzvold has been building cool LEGO stuff using the dynamite bundle element as a key part. We’ve already seen arcade games and undersea adventures, and today we head into the cold wastelands of an ice planet. The explosives take on a few new uses in the Spark BLOR-20, serving as part of the flexible drilling arm and as the center of a sensor array. Oh, and a whole bunch of them combine to form heavy-duty tank treads. It’s an innovative use, but it gets extra points from me because of the tracks left in the snow behind the vehicle. Rows of modified plates create the look; clever part usage indeed.

Juggling klowns from outer space!

In space, no one can hear you laugh! Or scream in terror depending on your relationship to clowns. Builder Blake Foster brings some humor to the outer reaches of the universe with this wonderful LEGO juggling clown mech. I’ve just recently begun a fascination with mechs so I’m always excited to see them come up these days. Most mechs are so very intense so it’s always refreshing when they don’t take themselves too seriously. This one balances that seriousness and humor perfectly with its nicely detailed grey skeleton and additional primary color accouterments. I love the rounded fingertips that mimic oversized clown gloves and the little bow tie is a hilarious addition. The 50’s style bubble helmet is the perfect topper, filled to the brim with the curly green clown wig.

But that’s not all! This is just a smaller part of a much larger model.

Read on to see the rest!

The little space rover that could

If you are planning to explore distant planets in search of scientific discoveries, You could find no more stylish way to do it than aboard this little rover by Mountain Hobbit. Not only does it have the latest in long-range communication tech, but you can even grow all your own food in the hydroponics bay, and scan the horizon with a state of the art sensor package. One of my favorite details is the wheels, which show the side usually faced toward the vehicle, with dark green tiles shoved into the spaces in the rubber.

It’s nice to be outside

We’ll all anxious to get out and about again, and LEGO builder Andrew (CRCT Productions) has found a safe way to do that. Well, depending on your definition of “safe.” I suppose there’s a certain amount of risk in getting up to the International Space Station. And more risk deciding to go on a spacewalk from there. But you have to admit the risk of catching COVID-19 at that point is pretty low.

Designed in a scant eight hours, this creation shines with quality greebling. An abundance of grey ski poles, binoculars, and 1×1 round flower plates add texture, complemented by a heavy use of 1×2 cheese tile and curved slope. And it may be an obvious thing, but I also like how the astronauts are posed to be floating rather than attached to the surfaces by their feet. It adds some nice context to the build.

Okay. So this is obviously a depiction of a spacewalk. But did anyone else also think that this was a photo-realistic LEGO camera? Just for a second? I can’t be the only one…

What a great day for a spacewalk

Just because there’s no air in the cold vacuum of space, doesn’t mean there is no style. CheeseyStudios proves this with a space outpost which is not only colorful, but it has a wonderfully eclectic aesthetic, as though a product of many different peoples coming together. The blue and yellow sections are giving me a classic space vibe, while the white top could be right out of Cloud City, and the scaffolding on the right could be NASA surplus. Wherever these disparate parts came from, they certainly come together nicely.

Alien brotherhood is a beautiful thing

If alien life does exist in the universe, it would likely come in forms that we can not even imagine, like this pair of critters taking a break outside their battle tank to stop and smell the methane flowers. This digital scene by Ivan Martynov makes about the best use of the hotdog part that I have seen in quite a while, to attach the crowbar-footed legs to the bulbous underside of this most unearthly “tank”.

What do you get when you have two broken B-wings?

If you have two battle-damaged B-wings in a fight, lug them back to base — put those droids to work and make a C-wing out of them! A couple of years back, I made a list of vehicles that could have been taken out of a page of the Star Wars movies, and I think after a long hunt, this C-wing by Tino Poutiainen would fit right in there up with the rest of them. I love a smooth ship with clean lines and just a hint of LEGO studs spread in the right places. What makes this ship a little unique is its parts usage at the shield generator made up of minifigure legs.

Grab a two-for-one deal at the spaceship yard

The spaceship’s colour scheme would have been enough, but Mansur Soeleman takes it one step further with his latest LEGO model and produces some retro-styled box art to really get the nostalgia pipes flowing. The ship is a greeble-lover’s delight, festooned with a wealth of light grey pipes and grilles, intakes and rockets. I particularly like how tight the blue cabin section is around the trans-yellow canopy, leaving most of the model grey, but enough to make it abundantly clear which LEGO theme has provided the inspiration.

In a brilliant touch, Mansur also built a retro version of his retro-throwback, delivering the same distinctive shaping, but using a more limited old-fashioned brick palette. I admire the building skills in these two models, but also love the extra effort of producing box art and two versions. Fantastic nostalgic fun.

If you’re going to create a portal, make sure you know where you’re going

My favorite LEGO builds are always ones that contain story, humor and lots of color. Builder Victor hits all three of these points perfectly and throws in a little absurdity for good measure. As the story goes, Diogenes Trexler ordered a pizza on his home planet that smelled so delicious it attracted the attention of a giant worm. Plotting his escape, our pizza-loving hero created an ill-advised portal that opened on to the bathroom of one very surprised bather.

The landscaping and colorwork in this piece are gorgeous and there is a minimum of visible studs, giving it a very slick look. The worm really pops with its blue colors and excellent shape. The alien fauna is colorful and appropriately weird and creepy. The portal is nicely rendered with transparent pieces and the change between the two universes is wonderful, going from organic shapes to the clean tiles of a modern bathroom. The surprised bather, caught in mid blow-dry is the perfect punch line with his terrified face and hair blowing toward the ceiling. In my opinion, it’s little touches like these that make the difference between a good model and a great one.

Check out the model from another angle to see all the details