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.

Remember the Cant

Fans of the TV show The Expanse will recognize this sleek vessel. Named by James Holden after Don Quixote’s horse, described in the book as a “stubby black wedge of metal” and visualized in the show as a lean, mean fighting machine, the Rocinante is a former MCRN Corvette Class ship previously known as the Tachi. Julie vanderMeulen had been mulling over building a LEGO version since seeing the show earlier this year. She decided to go with 2/3 minifig-scale to make it a nice, even 100 studs long.

As a proof of concept, she built the drive cone and then shelved it for a while. When she finally decided to give it a go, it just so happened to be the same day SHIPtember 2017 was announced, so she ended up speed building the whole model — and it is gorgeous! Julie has captured the Roci in all her glory, heavily armored and heavily armed — every detail has been stunningly sculpted in LEGO.

In the words of James Holden, “As long as we’re living and breathing, there’s more we can do. We just have to be strong enough.”

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Bigger, bolder, rougher, and stripier

It’s always good when LEGO fans build bigger and better versions of their favourite sets. Here, Tim Goddard shows off his latest version of 6973 Deep Freeze Defender. This is Space building at its absolute finest — great shaping, functional-looking greeble details, and beautiful colour blocking. The white stripes around the predominantly blue body make this model pop off the screen — a fantastic effect, and much harder to build than it looks!

One of Tim’s previous versions of this spacecraft features in Ice Titan — the free-to-download LEGO-illustrated sci-fi adventure.

A perfect pod for those who travel light across the universe

According to a popular “scientific” theory mentioned by Mark Russell, the rings of Saturn are composed entirely of lost airline luggage. So why travel heavily laden with suitcases when all you need is the second set of underwear and an interstellar road map? Inthert has built a lovely compact spacecraft — what a perfect pod for carefree travellers!

Bonus shot comes directly from the maintenance bay. Under the outer cover of the ship hides a couple of small neat ion engines:

In the blink of an eye

Travel through space in speedy style with WormHole Inc. This unusual LEGO spacecraft from Sheo brings the far-future of space travel to life — wormholes opened by “portal ships” allowing instantaneous travel between distant regions of the galaxy. The detail and texture built into the ship’s central ring is beautiful, adding a real sense of scale to the creation.

The close-up shot with the arriving craft is excellent, but I also loved the image of the portal ship in orbit around an alien world.

LEGO shuttle from Star Trek: The Next Generation [Instructions]

We’re probably gonna see more Trek builds than usual this year, it being the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Such as this minifig scale Type 6 shuttle designed by Jerry builds LEGO, which captures the lines of this iconic vessel perfectly, thanks to deft use of some canopies probably from a Star Wars set (I’m not even gonna check, I assume it’s a Star Wars set, since there’s not exactly a shortage of those to choose from).

As an added treat, Mr Builds With LEGO has even put together this neat instructional video, showing you how to build one of these for yourself. I like the format of this video, in which each step is shown being built so you can easily follow along. The video doesn’t show which sets you’ll have to rip apart to get those lovely canopies, or how far you’ll have to search to find matching STNG minifigs — that’s an exercise left for the viewer.

Of course in the Star Trek universe, transporters are method of choice for getting from point A to point B. But if you think really hard about it they’re actually just giant death machines and the entire franchise is just the story of hoards of people (and their subsequent clones) willingly stepping into oblivion. So it’s no wonder there a few characters in the show actually opt to travel exclusively by shuttle craft. Slower, and more tedious, but at least it gets to you your destination without being bloody vaporized.

Put down on the ice for essential maintenance

Most LEGO builders would look at the snowflakes printed across the Christmas Ornament piece and think “useless part”. Not Tammo S. who took inspiration from the snow-spattered dome and turned it into a vehicle windscreen in this appropriately chilly scene. The red-to-yellow colour gradient on this baby really makes it pop against the backdrop.

I like the curve of the vehicle’s nose, and the iceberg setting is nicely-done, but it’s the use of the two red canoes at the rear which caught my eye. Never seen that before. It lends a cool 50s car vibe to the model — there’s more than a little Greased Lightning going on here.

And don’t miss the cockpit. Always nice to see this level of attention to detail…

Yeah, uh huh, you know what it is... Black and yellow, black and yellow

Serbian builder Milan Sekiz recently unveiled this amazing collection of vehicles inspired by the classic range of LEGO space sets known as Blacktron. Each one is a stylish example of stud-free “neo classic” design, wrapped in that gorgeous Blacktron color palette that just screams “I’m more dangerous than a wasp with a migraine!”.

Click here for more Blacktron porn

Last rest stop before Tatooine

Spaceport’s hollowed from the cores of asteroids are a staple of science fiction, but Spaceport Sphaera-Petram Iota by Casey McCoy is the first time I’ve seen one created in LEGO. Despite being microscale, the build packs plenty of detail thanks to some interesting parts usage and just the right amount of stickering.

And while the busy and colorful front side of this model succeeds in conveying the sense of an inviting waystation for weary space travelers, the rear – which represents the leftover shell of the asteroid – is also worth pointing out, being constructed from three sides of a Bram sphere:

Space explorers looking for a hug

The Prometheus movie wasn’t to everyone’s taste, but that doesn’t stop it providing inspiration for good LEGO models. Grant Masters has created a wonderfully eerie scene of curious astronauts about to get themselves into a whole world of trouble. The build itself is relatively simple (although I do like that backdrop of arch pieces), however the use of dry ice and LED lighting, coupled with good photography, creates a striking image.

When generations intersect in a weird theme mash-up

I didn’t grow up with the classic space sets, so naturally I was never overly inspired to build in the colour scheme and building style. I did, however, grow up with classic Bionicle sets. Having built a 1:1 Toa Onua replica a while ago, I contemplated the comparison between the two themes as core nostalgic focal points of LEGO fans from different ages, which gives this casual looking MOC some surprising symbolic depth. Toa Enstau wasn’t started with an intention to be a Classic-Space/Bionicle mashup, but since I had borrowed a blue Hau kanohi mask and light gray is the easiest colour to build robotic details in, Classic Space turned out as the only logical choice.

The build is based on my experience from my earlier system-style bionicle, but since it is a completely original creation, I had less restrictions in recreating details and shapes. I realize the solar pannels don’t fit very much in either of the stlyes, but I still decided to use them, as it makes for a more unique character and I personally like them. The figure is well articulated, but fragile. There are more pictures of other angles and poses in my Bricksafe folder.

This space dragon evolved with ferocity

We highlighted BobDeQuatre’s amazingly cool white space dragon ship back in 2014, and it struck us as a highly unique concept executed remarkably well. In the intervening years, we haven’t seen much of the space dragons theme, but now Bob is back with an overhaul of the Whitefang. Now bigger and badder, the ship retains its basic structure and curved shaped based on the dragons of Eastern mythology, but loses the obvious cockpit in favor of a more organic look.

Because even after we’ve traveled to distant planets, trains will still be cool

I adore futuristic LEGO trains, but sadly it’s a very small niche that we rarely see. Fortunately builder Frost has broken tradition and created a wonderfully futuristic planetary express, complete with trans-green accents and lots of mechanical detailing. The model looks like it would be right at home jetting across the surface of a distant planet.

The builder has even incorporated power functions to propel the train and power 16 working LEDs.