Stu Pace wanted to try something different when he built his LBA-10 Long Range Heavy Fighter and I think he succeeded. While the physical design of the ship has the same strong ‘alien’ feel as many of his previous spacecraft, the unconventional color blocking really takes things to the next level, emphasizing interesting features of the ship’ that might have gone unnoticed under a more monochromatic color scheme. It’s a bold move but I think it works!
LEGO and NASA have announced an official partnership, inviting you to explore space with Mission to Space! This new, interactive program comes after the recently announced Apollo 11 LEGO Ideas set and marks a new chapter in LEGO’s ongoing relationship with NASA.
A good solid door. On any space station, it’s the only thing standing between you and the dark, dangerous, cold of hard vacuum. Sad Brick‘s latest model focuses in on this essential part of any space facility — and this door certainly looks like it can take the pressure.
The vehicle and the little droid are cool, and I like the details and texture on the walls. But the door itself is the undoubted star of this show, with huge hinges and the use of slope bricks suggesting an appropriate heft. This is clearly a serious portal — not for casual opening.
Justin Winn‘s spacemen have been tirelessly going about their day-to-day jobs and even studying for advanced space degrees. So it’s good to see these hard-working minifigs take down their hair and have fun from time to time. Justin spacified Set 10196: The Grand Carousel and his new version is awesome. It has a ton of spacey details but my favorite bits are those custom printed space logo sails that form the carousel roof. They’d look pretty sweet on a space ship too, right?
Despite being named after the ship where it all began, much of the action in hit British sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf actually takes place on the much smaller scout ship Starbug (in fact two entire seasons take place on board the cramped green spacecraft, while the show’s incompetent heroes try to figure out how they misplaced their original mothership). So it makes perfect sense that total smeghead Patrick Gregory would choose to recreate Starbug rather than Red Dwarf in LEGO, despite it’s more challenging spherical features.
But not only did Patrick model the ship’s exterior, he also built in a fully playable interior, spread over three decks, featuring many locations and props from the show! If you study the closeup pictures you’ll see the flight deck, medical bay, AR computer room, cargo bay and even a scutter or two.
Click here to order your portable walrus polishing kit and see more photos
Tyler Clites does it again. One of our favourite builders’ latest model is a fantastic scene of a Soviet moon lander. The spacecraft itself is pretty smart, with some lovely believable-looking greebles around the legs, and tiny details like the attitude thrusters up top. But the photo-editing is something else, with the addition of a subtle grain effect to create a real old-school space feel. All-round retro lunar goodness.
ZCerberus will make Benny The Spaceman very happy with this huge star-base built in Classic Space colors. The model was created for Brickworld to play host to the builder’s spaceship display.
The base is very smart, with nice landing pad details and good rockwork. But take a closer look at some of the spaceships themselves…
Click to see more images of this fabulous display
Hot on the heels of an impressive Classic Space creation, Michał Kaźmierczak brings us this chunky beauty of a spaceship — the military transport Hercules.
There’s some lovely color blocking and striping on display here, but it’s the jagged recessed area filled with dark gray greebles which steals the show. Nice work on the tiny trans-yellow windows up front too — done with regular 1×2 plates “split” with some gray tape.
As well as the great build itself, Michał has deployed some good photo-editing skills to launch the ship up into space where it belongs…
Chris McVeigh is on target with his latest build of NASA’s space probe Juno. Just as the actual space probe enters Jubiter’s orbit this week after a five-year cruise, Chris releases his own version of the famous space probe built from LEGO. This LEGO version is a great representation of Juno, with accurate shaping and colouring although a much smaller price tag.
In a lovely twist, Juno has carried three aluminium LEGO minifigures with her on the journey to Jupiter. Our original post about the launch of Juno and her minifigure passengers was back in 2011 so it’s great to hear of the successful mission.
It seems Jeremy Williams paid attention to our unsubtle hints when we covered his fabulous Ares 7 Martian Rover model — he’s produced a video of the rover in action. Take a look — you can see the vehicle’s independent suspension and four-wheel steering make short work of the terrain.
To top it all, this video was shot on the Martian scenery layout at the UK’s National Space Centre in Leicester. The authorities there let Jeremy sneak in to do his shoot before regular opening hours — a very cool filming location for an excellent model.
This great little scene by Sad Brick depicts two speeders racing amongst unusual terrain and alien life-forms. The builder nods to a Neo Classic space theme with the choice of classic space minifigures and the classic space colouring on the lead speeder. These speeders are lovely vehicles, but the parts that I really love are the worm-like animals in the bottom right of the scene.
The builder has created a great unique terrain for his speeders with the peaked structures and the occasional eerie looking tendrils to keep you on edge. This is alien terrain so keep your eyes peeled for the unexpected.
In 1971, the lunar rover was delivered to the moon as part of the Apollo 15 mission, and used on all subsequent missions. As I have a fond appreciation for “real” space ships, I am delighted to share with you Luis Peña‘s absolutely beautiful lunar lander module, Apollo capsule, and the ever-adorable and oh so fun lunar rover.
The Apollo capsule is instantly recognizable. The curves convey the shape wonderfully, and I love the properly cramped interior that Luis is able to show. The rover’s colors are so vibrant!
And if you like LEGO Apollo models, remember that LEGO is currently working on an Apollo 11 set, so you’ll be able to buy your own in the near future.