Never underestimate the power of a good color scheme. This gorgeous orange, teal, and white racer by Chris Perron is instantly eye-catching thanks to its bold shades. The car isn’t just all flash, though, as it’s designed as a futuristic mag-lev vehicle around a large rear ball, held in place with a pair of orange basketball hoops. The ball originally hails from Duplo, and it’s one of only a few elements to have successfully made the jump from Duplo to System sets. The use of 3×3 radar dish pairs for front “wheels” also works great (do mag-lev cars need wheels?).
Tag Archives: Space
Incredibly accurate U.S.S. Enterprise built from LEGO
There are many amazing Star Trek LEGO creations out there, as can be seen in our Star Trek archives. One would expect a proportional amount of average creations in the theme, but they seem to be very scarce, as if Star Trek attracts great builders like a magnet. Today’s magnetically charged builder is Kevin J. Walter, whom you might remember as the builder of a certain huge and nearly perfect Klingon Bird of Prey.
The build is stunning, capturing the shape of the iconic starship (especially the saucer!) perfectly, while simultaneously packing a lot of cool details. All the complex angles are done so cleanly, one would imagine the bricks were made for them. There is a moderate amount of photoshop included as well, notably the lit windows and the deflector. And if you want to put it into some context, here is a photo of the Enterprise encountering Kevin’s Bird of Prey.
Classic Space, roved by rovers for 40 years
Brickshelf user (yes, Brickshelf still exists) legofrik has recently built a cute boxy rover in the colours of Classic Space. He says the inspiration was a coincidental discovery that small treads fit around 6×6 dishes to create a unique wheel design.
The build has a very boxy shape, and yet avoids looking rectangular and simple. The colours are not only blocked visually, but also by purpose; blue as the main bulk of the vehicle, gray for radars, hoses and other technical doodads and translucent yellow as the iconic Classic Space window and windscreen colour. The rover also has working suspension and a detailed interior.
Attention all Rock Raiders! This is not a drill!
Twenty years after its inception, the often-overlooked yet undeniably cool LEGO Rock Raiders theme finds its way into fan creations as well. In February we featured a collection of vehicles built in honour of this theme, and now it’s Chris Perron‘s turn to show off his gritty tunneling hovercraft, with all its glorious teal and chrome highlights. Chris notes that this creation is actually a year and a half old, but was inspired by friends to give the tunneler a base and finally upload it.
The base is a convincing cutout of a rock tunnel, dotted with chrome green crystals (these crystals actually come from the Space Port line from the same year–Rock Raiders featured trans-neon green crystals), and it’s perfect place to show off this cute little drilling drone. The drone itself is quite a perfect representation of its theme. The colour combination has all the characteristics of Rock Raiders; teal highlights, black and yellow warning stripes, a brown rollcage and grays as the main colour. What is especially impressive is the complex drilling head in the front, built of various custom chrome elements.
Massive NASA Vehicle Assembly Building gets miniscule LEGO tribute
It’s still the largest single-storey building ever constructed, so what better tribute could there be to NASA’s Vehicle Assembly Building than a teeny-tiny microscale LEGO version? The level of detail packed into Ryan Olsen‘s small model is impressive — the grille bricks providing texture on the sides, the machinery on the roof, and the massive shutter doors. Don’t miss the Saturn V rocket on its way to the launch-pad atop the crawler-transporter, or the perfect shaping of the Launch Control Centre with its sloped windows, jutting at an angle away from the main structure. The only thing I’d challenge on this model is using 1×1 plates for cars — unfortunately they don’t quite fit the scale. The rest of it is bang-on though, making me want to head back to Florida and get a refresher boost to my space-geekery.
Classic Space has never looked as good as with these jaw dropping details!
Benny would not only be thrilled but ecstatic and going bonkers with this upgrade of the Classic Space 928 Galaxy Explorer. Builder Alec Hole did such a great job and so jaw-dropping of an upgrade that it almost looks like it could have come out of a scene in a sci-fi movie. The detailing and greebling in key spots paired with minimal stud exposure give it a very sleek look. Measuring in at almost a meter in length, this is one sweet spaceship that I wish I had in my collection.
Enjoy interstellar exploration in style with this sleek and silver spaceship
Cole Blaq is well-known for his LEGO spaceships, such as this starfighter we shared back in December. We’re pleased to see Cole back again with another slick-looking spacecraft. The color scheme is particularly striking, relying heavily on dark metallic bricks with a dash of tan here and there. This combination feels believably modern.
This singularity engine is a singular sensation
Even though the month-long LEGO ship-building challenge known as SHIPtember may be months behind us, epic models started in or inspired by this ultimate challenge are still showing up, and this late entry by Spencer Hubert really captured our attention. The name suggests that the primary weapon involves heavy gravity, and the ship’s many details combine to make this vessel both elegant and capable. One of my favorite details is the subtle angle built into the sides of the forward fuselage.
The color choices for the top and bottom cones at the front really pop, and the extensive dark gray greebly details throughout are well integrated into the body of the ship. Another great part use is the airplane landing gear used in the recesses on the side mounted engine housings.
Dark red spaceship in the darkness of space
I feel like a little technical backstory will give you a deeper understanding and hopefully respect for Jonathan Walker‘s huge red spaceship. LEGO bricks are moulded with an accuracy in the range of micrometers, but they do not fit together air-tight – that would make construction and deconstruction difficult and even impossible at hot summer temperatures. At a very close look, two basic bricks have a little seam between them when connected to adjacent studs. Many readers may ask themselves what this has to do with this article, and the answer is – everything! This seam between bricks allows for a chain of 1×2 bricks connected in a staggered line to bend and form a very smooth and large circle – a technique quite popular among space builders for large creations.
A few years ago the LEGO part of the internet was flooded with angular spaceships built in gray with a line of colour here and there, and even though the theme of space is more diverse now, ships with this many curves still surprise. And about the gray with strips of colour – Jonathan has completely inverted this, creating a dark red beauty that will make an impression on everyone. Obviously this ship is not the first Jonathan has made. Seeing his latest build made me explore his Flickr photostream and you should do so too. Nearly all of his creations are humongous spaceships with beautiful designs, often including rounded shapes like the Instrument of Sgorbulon featured here. Sadly the builder only shared one clean photo of the build, but zooming into the image might still have you hooked for quite a while.
Fair far worlds
This charming scene of interplanetary science is brought to us by Sad Brick. It’s a simple LEGO scene of an astronaut placing a sensor on a newly discovered world, but it’s charming as can be. The greebly goodness of the sensor encased in a clear canister, with a wire strung to an outboard relay is perfect brick-built technobabble, while the arrays of flora in three colors makes the scene come to life. The use of the Collectible Minifigure Plant Monster helmet for large leaves is something I actually haven’t seen often.
LEGO ASREV from Firefly is gloriously swooshable
In the TV show Firefly, the ASREV (Alliance Short Range Enforcement Vessel) is the preferred spacecraft of the Federal Marshals. This LEGO version by Stefan Johansson manages to beautifully capture the starfighter’s sleek lines and angles with a combination of sloped bricks, wedges, and hinged connections. The model is reminiscent of a futuristic jet fighter — the overall shape looks familiar, and its deadly purpose is immediately clear despite its sci-fi styling. The colour scheme is functional and realistic-looking, with enough variation and texture to stop the model being a big lump of grey. Nice to see a starfighter like this built at minifigure scale too — that double-cockpit up-front is class. I’d love to swoosh this thing around making engine noises and pew-pew blaster sounds.
TBB cover photo for March 2019: Out of bounds
This month for TBB’s social media cover image, we’re going way out of bounds with this sweet team van by Frost. Who knew that space orcs were footballers? (We’re not talking about those orcs or that football, you Blood Bowl fans.) These friendly orcs hail from Mars, and their Martian Minivan just might be cool enough to make us stop buying SUVs and go back to sliding doors and tank treads.
Want to see your own LEGO creation featured across TBB social media for a month? Then read the submission guidelines and send us your photo today. Photos that do not meet the submission guidelines will not be considered, and will be removed from the group.
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