It can be lonely manning an outpost on a new planet, but this LEGO creation by Sad Brick makes it look downright relaxing. With lots of samples to collect, and equipment to maintain, it’s important to take a moment to look around and remember how crucial your work is to the future of humanity. A helpful robot to lend a hand makes the work go smoothly.
The end of the annual SHIPtember build challenge need not portend the end to excellent large-scale LEGO spaceships. Rat Dude also proves that gray need not be the only utilitarian color for LEGO spaceships with the Yaga Ni’Kurwa in gorgeous blue and brown. The spots of red, orange, and yellow certainly add visual interest, but the designs are actually quite complex — particularly the sheaf of wheat indicating the vessel’s role in interstellar agribusiness.
It’s unfortunate that the builder has only posted this one photo — I want to see the massive engines on the back that power this grain freighter through the stars.
November, more so in the northern hemisphere, is a month of foggy mornings, rainy days and… Vic vipers? Indeed, every year the LEGO community on Flickr celebrates the most popular standardized spaceship format in the LEGO fan circles. While people have different views on what a Vic Viper should be and what they like or dislike about it, we still have dozens of these sleek spaceships swoosh through NoVVember every year. This year does not seem like it will be any different, so expect many more Vic Vipers on The Brothers Brick in the next few weeks.
“Seraph” is one of such aggressive, fast looking spaceships we all love and Sam Malmberg‘s contribution to the 2017 NoVVember project. It uses a very pleasing colour scheme with nice contrast in its front prongs — not only contrasting in colour, but in style too, giving a bare-bone alternative to the otherwise smooth and streamlined areas. The cockpit deserves some attention too; not only has Sam achieved a nice bulbous effect with combining two different windscreen pieces, but the insides contain some neat details too.
Japanese builder KEI ABE isn’t just an expert on the history of early space exploration, but also nails the construction of Russian Soyuz spacecraft in LEGO bricks. He started this amazing set back in March, and now a whole fleet of Soyuz ships is ready for countless space missions.
Recreating classic LEGO sets is a popular theme in fan creations—most notably so in the Classic Space theme, but other space themes see revivals also. This time the set to receive the treatment is Alec Hole‘s rework of the 6956 Rescue Star Cruiser from M-Tron (also known as Stellar Recon Voyager in the USA).
Alec has rebuilt the classic 90s set very faithfully, while keeping his own building style plainly visible. The general shapes and details are there, from the supported black wings to the mesh elements on the sides of the cockpit. My favourite parts are the thrusters, as well as the Nexo Knights shield tile pieces used as texture on the wings. And with M-Tron being short for Magnetron, of course there’s lots of magnets.
This space vessel by Rat Dude is half clean geometric lines, half slimy LEGO tentacles. Which makes complete sense, obviously, because according to the builder, this is a Terran freighter corrupted by an alien species, now used to harvest human souls.
Look closely and you’ll notice a ton of interesting details, such as the dual triangular exhausts, the bright green Technic panel support beams, and the proboscis-like rudder filled with dangling ribbed hosing (presumably, this bit facilitates the soul harvesting).
Sometimes it’s the smallest-scale LEGO building which best illustrates the most epic themes. In this cool little diorama, David Zambito depicts the early phases of humanity’s colonisation of Mars. Well, at least I assume it’s Mars because of the use of all those lovely dark orange pieces. The TIE-Fighter windscreens make perfect domes at this scale, and I like the stacked binoculars as refinery towers. The tiny rovers are cool, and the asymmetrical base adds a heap of character and visual interest. But it’s the use of minifig woollen hats as outlying domed buildings which caught my eye — nice touch.
This year’s season of LEGO shows in the UK saw a massive collaborative moonbase display, from some of the UK’s best-known and most talented builders. The model was absolutely enormous, 2.5m square, featuring a huge tower and multiple compartments. It was built with more than 50,000 bricks…
The moonbase plays host to an impressive collection of landing pads, with Neo-Classic spaceships and rovers of all shapes and sizes…
But below the lunar surface, there is even more action going on, with dozens of cutaway compartments and corridors, stuffed with lighting effects, motorised elements, and cool building techniques…
Brothers Brick caught up with Jason Briscoe, one of the collaboration’s organisers, to find out more…
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While I haven’t seen it yet, the new movie Blade Runner 2049 does look quite awesome. However, I will admit I was a bit disappointed when I saw the new spinner sans all blueness and police lights, to me there’s nothing cooler than a white and black (or blue in this case) speeding down the road lights flashing, sirens blaring. Nonetheless, Marius Herrmann has done an amazing job building the new spinner in LEGO form. I love the unusual use of cut fiber optic cable as lights on the front nacelles.
The builder also managed to take a scene from the trailer, and using Photoshop, remove the real spinner and person from the scene, replacing it with his own. The result looks fantastic and could easily be mistaken for a real life setup.
Back in February, we shared the news that LEGO Ideas chose Maia Weinstock’s Women of NASA project as one of their newest additions to the LEGO family. Today, LEGO is unveiling 21312 Women of NASA, available November 1. The primarily minifigure set has 231 pieces, and will retail for $24.99 USD.
The model, similar to LEGO Ideas 21110 Research Institute, includes four minifigures based on real-life NASA pioneers: astronomer and educator Nancy Grace Roman; computer scientist and entrepreneur Margaret Hamilton; astronaut, physicist, and entrepreneur Sally Ride; and astronaut, physician, and engineer Mae Jemison.
21312 Women of NASA also includes three mini-builds illustrating three areas of science including programming software for the space program, a model of the Hubble Space Telescope and a mini Space Shuttle Challenger with three removable rocket stages
More photos and info about 21312 Women of NASA after the jump
There are times when a LEGO creation is futuristic because it is a spaceship, robot or another sci-fi element. There are other times, when the build itself is futuristic in its construction techniques and concepts. This spaceship by Nick Trotta is one of the cases when these two aspects intersect. LEGO creations keep evolving and advancing with time and this one is at the cutting edge for sure.
From complicated angles to unique solutions for round shapes, there is a lot to see on this little spacecraft. The best and most progressive parts, though, are the technical details like hoses and gears, carefully enclosed by surrounding panels. So many different colours would not look good in most cases, but Nick has balanced them into a pleasing colour scheme.
For more inquiring readers, the builder has a video showcasing his creation in detail.
Freighters are a not uncommon amongst LEGO spacecraft, but still notably less frequent than fighters – that is why they are always a welcome change from the usual militarized space genre. This time we can thank James Zhan for the refreshment, although the guns mounted at the side still hint at a somewhat violent universe.
The cargo crate’s shape and texture contrasts nicely with the core of the spacecraft, but I do wish James contrasted the colour too. As far as the freighter itself goes, it has a lot going for it. The rounded shape, while simply constructed, is pleasing to the eye and the body is filled with different doodads and details to break it up without making it look too chaotic and scattered. The careful little hints of orange make an otherwise utilitarian colour scheme quite a treat too.