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.

Huge LEGO Daedalus from Stargate: who needs spaceships when another world is right through the gate?

With the immense popularity of the Stargate franchise in its golden age, one would imagine it penetrating deeper into the popular culture and consequently the LEGO fan community. However, it is very rare we see a creation like Rat Dude‘s Stargate SG 1 F304 Daedalus. The spaceship is a product of the later seasons of the Stargate: SG1, when the show matured into a classic sci-fi series instead of the earlier “soldiers versus aliens” approach.

There is a wonderfully military aesthetic to the Daedalus’ design, which Rat Dude has captured perfectly. All sorts of angles still come together in a boxy utilitarian design, captured in LEGO with slopes and wedge plates. Even the numerous studs do not look out of place, adding a texture where most builders would try to hide them. My favourite part is the stripe down the middle-back segment, made out of inverted 1×1 bricks, creating a unique texture.

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A ship of LEGO odds and ends

Anyone who’s been following the adult LEGO builder community for a while knows that one of the things we love best is making novel use of seemingly “useless” pieces. And as far as these clever uses go, the more unusual the element is, the better. Vince Toulouse has dug deep into the bins of useless pieces and come forth with a striking spaceship made almost entirely of these oddities–a tugboat with a rugged utilitarian aesthetic. Vince points out a few of the more unusual elements for us, including the steering compartment made of a Fabuland caravan shell. We also spy a slew of other elements from the quirky Fabuland theme, as well as many other difficult-to-use elements like the skateboard ramp, elephant ear, and even the whole elephant head. See how many more oddities you can spot in Vince’s ship.

The ship isn’t just a vehicle for fun techniques, though. It’s also a great design, and the inside is marvelously detailed.

Click to see more of this ship

Obey the monolith, slave people of Earth!

From the hands of our otherworldly overlord Rat Dude comes a glorious machine to see our every movement and feel our every emotion, so that we can serve our master with utmost efficiency. Love the Monolith. Trust the monolith. Thought of rebellion is punished by immediate execution.

The builder says that the Monolith’s four mechanical legs each think independently and work together to overcome any terrain and its organic tentacles can feel slaves’ emotions. The sharp angle of the main body reminds its followers of the Monolith’s sharp wit and its white colour of the purity of its purpose–justice. Not only does the glorious Rat Dude bring us a sight of the Monolith, but he even graces us with every aspect of its magnificent construction.

A consular ship, on a diplomatic mission

For a spaceship whose screen time is brief, the Tantive IV occupies a special place in the hearts of Star Wars fans — probably because everyone remembers that first moment of A New Hope as the ship thunders overhead, pursued by the formidable heft of an Imperial Star Destroyer. Tino Poutiainen has put together a detailed LEGO version of this famous spaceship, with every signature element in place, from the hammerhead barrel-shaped cockpit through to the red striping and the midship comms array.

The model is half a meter long and apparently separates into two sections for easy transport despite its beefy 2kg. Much of that weight must be in the rear section — an impressive recreation of the corvette’s multiple engines…

I ain’t afraid of no colds!

The exploration of the alien worlds is often tightly connected with military conquests. Italian builder Norton74 takes a rather peaceful approach to the idea and creates a Mobile Research Laboratory inspired by the good old Ice Planet 2002 LEGO space theme from 1993. His design features significantly fewer pieces in white compared to the official LEGO sets, however a heavily armoured vehicle’s body looks absolutely stunning in plain blue. The retro vibe of the build is achieved through a very peculiar choice of pieces; note that there are almost no modern LEGO pieces and absolutely no curved slopes.

The future is alive…

The car hovers but is it also a time machine? This ‘Advocate’ Hovercar by Tammo S. looks like it would fit right in Disney’s 2007 Meet the Robinsons or possibly Futurama. A lot of curved elements are half submerged within the body of the model. Tammo makes use of similarly shaped elements in like colors, such as the 4×4 clear dome, 4×4 plate with 2×2 hole cutout, and 2x4x5 cylinder half. The white wheel arches at the front are at a slight angle with each other to contour with the white 1x3x3 curved elements in front.

Now if only we could see inside, or better yet have Wilbur Robinson crash it so Lewis can rebuild it. Beware the bowler hat guy!

The best Battlestar Galactica built out of LEGO bricks

All of this has happened before and will happen again – While there have been many worthy builders to attempt both the classic, modern, and “inspired-by” incarnations of the famed sci-fi vessel Battlestar Galactica at a variety of scales the latest iteration is a wondrous thing of beauty. Brandon Griffith‘s labor of love is 47 inches (1.2 meters) long and took almost 300 hours to build. It debuted this past weekend at BrickCon 2018 in Seattle.

Fire up your FTL drive and click through for more photos

Dual cockpits on a jewel of a spaceship

Giant LEGO spaceships are often built in microscale, naturally limiting the level of greebly detailing that can be added. Julien Andries takes the more unusual route of building a huge spaceship at minifigure scale, enabling the model to be packed full of functional-looking touches — from support girders, through grilles, valves, and piping, to laser turrets and access hatches. The twin engine nacelles (at least that’s what I’m assuming they are) look lovely — smooth and shiny in comparison with the more heavily-textured rear section. And the double cockpits are a nice touch, one of the few areas where Julien has departed from the John Wallin Liberto concept art he used as inspiration. Beyond this, the model is remarkably faithful to the original art, although the various gauges and pipes perhaps introduce a little whiff of steampunk — and that works for me.

Julien has also shared a couple of photos of the work-in-progress which give some insight into the formidable building techniques employed in getting those large cylindrical sections to looks so good…

Classic Space is all grown up

Neo Classic Space has existed for some time as a modern interpretation of the nostalgic grey and blue theme from the early official LEGO space sets of the late 70s into the 80s. But builder AFOL anon is stepping up the game with the sleek space cruiser. The SHIP (easily clocking in the 100-stud length for a SHIPtember entry) retains the styling of its smaller cousins, with an arrowhead shape, side-mounted blasters, and spoiler, while simultaneously smoothing out the hard edges.

I particularly love the shaping from the rear, where it gives off faint vibes of a Super Star Destroyer in classic space livery.

Our future lies amidst the stars, in a LEGO O’Neill Cylinder

First proposed by the American physicist Gerard O’Neill in the 70s, an O’Neill Cylinder is a large tube, pressurised with an atmosphere, and spinning to create artificial gravity. The hull features alternating strips of “land” and transparent windows, allowing sunlight to be reflected inside from large mirrors. The cylinder has become an iconic design, familiar from a raft of TV, movie, and videogame depictions of mankind’s future. Ralf Langer has built a beautiful LEGO version of an O’Neill-based space colony, using microscale to ensure his space settlement features fields and trees, flowing rivers, and towering cities. The rings supporting the curved land panels have technical-looking greebles, and the entire creation looks much bigger than it really is. This is epic LEGO sci-fi, depicting a future I’d love to see.

Cool spaceship is minty fresh

There’s a special class of LEGO model which always catch the eye — those smaller creations which manage to pack in impressive depth of texture, making them look much bigger than they really are. This smart spaceship by Silmaril_1 looks supercool in its white and green livery, all sleek lines and futuristic curves. But the level of details along the side creates a sense of scale way beyond what you might expect from such a relatively small model. Minifigure hands and textured bricks are used to good effect, and the moulded hollows and ridges on those Technic panels work superbly at this scale as hull detailing. It’s a sharp and clean colour scheme, and the model is presented well — looking crisp and fresh against that black void of a backdrop.

The gelatinous wonder from space

We may sound like broken records here at The Brothers Brick every year when SHIPtember rolls around, but I really do believe that spaceships people build are getting more and more imaginative. Inthert‘s contribution to this year’s event is a prime example of that.

The spaceship looks almost alive, like a mix between a jellyfish, a mushroom and pure mechanical evil. Shapes are nothing LEGO bricks naturally support, but the builder has managed not only to make the dome at the front look good but also to make it open, with a beautiful mechanical interior. General consensus for conservative spaceship colour schemes suggests fewer colours used, carefully separated by clean lines, but somehow Inthert has managed to make his build look great even with multiple grays, black, brown, gold and green used in very intense combinations. The secret here is that each colour has a strongly defined role and makes sense in the build. As far as details go I could not even begin to cover all the ingenious little parts, but my favourite by far is the central section, where mechanical tentacles can be seen through transparent panels.