I’ve never seen a working gyroscope made out of LEGO, and I didn’t think I’d see one on an awesome SHIP to boot. Sheo has made one of the most unique SHIPs I’ve seen, with a working gyroscope as the centerpiece. Even though the creation in the photo below is a render, some parts of the model have been built already. Unfortunately we won’t get to see the actual model since the builder has scrapped plans to finish it. Nevertheless it is still a masterpiece.
We’d only just covered one fabulous LEGO spaceship which reminded us of the work of Chris Foss when up pops another. This cool Military Shuttle craft from Gamabomb is clearly inspired by the influential illustrator. It’s got all the signature Foss elements — bold color schemes, chunky striping, chequered patterns, and a wonderful greebly realism in its surface texture. Great stuff.
As one of the most popular LEGO themes ever, Classic Space continues to be a source of inspiration for builders even to this day. This all-terrain vehicle (ATV) and various accoutrements is a lovely space scene created by SweStar. The ATV is quirky and utilises a more unusual part for the trans-yellow cockpit windshield, the x-pod barrel. Although I love the vehicle, my favourite part of the build are those little crates stacked on the left hand side. I wonder if they are for the collection of alien life-form specimens?
A closer look at the ATV confirms that it is definitely a more unconventional vehicle with its use of technic rotation joints for suspension and ingenious brick-built wheels.
Some of you might feel that there are contributors at The Brothers Brick who have an unhealthy and self-indulgent obsession with nostalgia for 70s and 80s pop culture. And that those should contributors be stopped. And you would be absolutely right, on both counts.
Unfortunately we cannot be stopped, so please enjoy this latest LEGO-themed slice of retro goodness from SPARKART, who put together this microscale collection of ships from the Glen Larson TV shows Buck Rogers and Battlestar Galactica. These look totally swooshable, and each one is instantly recognizable as I peer at it over the rims of my half-moon spectacles.
What a magnificent view the pilots of this stellar craft must get as they soar among the stars! Builder aido k says the spaceship was inspired by the sweeping curved windscreen from the UCS Slave I, and the wings from the Creator Blue Power Jet, but the marriage of the two brings forth this a sports car for the next century—a luxurious vehicle for the elite.
It’s hard enough to live in space, thanks to cosmic radiation and lack of atmosphere. Why make things even tougher by leaving toxic waste laying around? Horcik Designs has a new vehicle called the HMT4 to handle all your hazardous material handling needs. It has treads aplenty to handle the roughest terrain, and it is adorned in the colors of Neo-Classic Space. The impressive density of details is only enhanced by some carefully chosen custom stickers. So cool!
We see a lot of original spaceship designs from the LEGO community, and a lot of LEGO pieces being used in clever new ways. But I’m still always impressed by those builders who boldly integrate unusual pieces and pull it off with panache. One such builder is Curtis Collins with the Seraph. It’s a gorgeous design that uses bright red LEGO canoes for the engine cowlings, despite a plethora of black greebling on the struts—and miraculously, it works. Keen-eyed readers will also spot that the cockpit glass is a LEGO Christmas ornament.
This dangerous looking spaceship is filled with clever techniques and interesting parts. The extensive use of Technic gear racks is especially menacing, but the real standout here is the innovative sticker usage. They weren’t custom printed. Rather, Adrian chopped up a bunch of the yellow stickers from set 75053 The Ghost (from Star Wars Rebels) and placed them on the model in an interesting pattern. The stickers were already printed to be scruffy-looking, but the builder wanted them to be even scruffier. So he abraded the stickers by rubbing the model back and forth on a wooden table. The stickers aren’t shiny and smooth any more, but the result is definitely worth it.
Great creations are those that are able to stirs emotions — joy, amazement, compassion or even uneasiness. Somehow Sheo. has developed such an unusual building style, that almost each of his works looks a little bit disturbing to me — of course, in the best sense of the word.
When you hear the word “starfighter” you prepare yourself to see an awesome cockpit, some huge engines and a couple of powerful laser guns. But not this time. I can distinguish engines on the back and at least a dozen of gun barrels on the front, but the overall appearance gives me shivers as I can’t tell what these silver wings or round golden tiles are for…it’s convincingly alien. And don’t even tell me there will be Mark III!
The LEGO Ideas team has announced the winners of the third 2015 LEGO Ideas Review. Nine sets were up for consideration, and two were selected. These projects will now proceed through a design phase, where LEGO designers will tweak the designs. They will then become available as official LEGO sets.
UPDATE: 21306 LEGO Beatles Yellow Submarine is out now!
The Beatles Yellow Submarine by Kevin Szeto
Apollo 11 Saturn V by saabfan and whatsuptoday
We’ll update you on official pictures and pricing once those become available.
The next round are currently in review, and we expect to hear on those in Fall 2016!
NASA Engineer and LEGO fan Nicholas Mastramico has brought us a most excellent follow up to the shuttle, launch pad, and SLS rocket we featured last week. Nicholas’s microscale version is eye-catching with the great detail he’s packed into such a small model. What makes his version particularly special is his relationship with the rocket: Nicholas is a structural design engineer for NASA, and is currently working on the real SLS rocket.
This means his micro-SLS has a unique opportunity to stand in the shadows of its ancestors, like the Saturn V rocket pictured here.
Nicholas says he’s always been a huge sci-fi fan – but it was the early pictures of Mars from Sojourner that truly hooked him on space travel. He decided then he would build rockets for NASA one day, and that goal guided him through school to where he is now. He was recently involved in a test with a weather balloon, for which he provided a passenger. The experiment took the minifig up to 120,000 feet!
There are more shots of some of the features of the mobile launch platform and payload capsules, as well as an itty-bitty adorable crawler!
Michał Kaźmierczak has built a stunning spaceship — the Spectre. Whilst the model is decked out in Classic Space blue and gray, it’s anything but a retro throwback, making use of new parts and modern building techniques to deliver a creation so packed full of detail it’s a delight to zoom in on the photo and look around. Kudos for the opening hatches and the packed interior — excellent stuff.
And if the model itself isn’t cool enough for you, Michał has used his photo-editing skills to fantastic effect on this hero-shot of the Spectre touching down on an asteroid. Cracking photography and editing show off the ship in all its glory. I’m getting a total Chris Foss vibe off this picture, and that’s about the highest praise I can offer on a creation like this. Beautiful.
