Far from the present, at the Futuron base
A small ship alit on the platform with grace
No ruckus was raised, no alarm began screaming
But the alleys have ears, and data was streaming
A blue and white robot did power itself on
And began to creep silently through the cold dawn
Fly, little ship, you’ve got nothing to prove!
Strategic Pursuer 1 is on the move…
Model by Andrew Lee.
.Tromas is particularly talented at designing compact minifig-scale starships. He’s back again with an awesome model of YB-81 bomber. Its main weapon might not look to impressive, but don’t be fooled. In fact, this small craft is packed with all kinds of gun barrels and bombs. There are dual laser cannons, a bomb bay, a modular concussion missile pod… you name it.
The bomber’s rear also deserves your appreciation. Those nozzles and the spot-on use of irregular pieces here and there make this starfighter into a lovely model.
South Korean professional building team Olive Seon specialize in creating huge layouts for retail stores to showcase official LEGO sets (like this epic UCS-scale Star Wars trench run or a true minifig-scale Stay Puft marshmallow man terrorizing the city). Though the official sets are the focus, the team are masters at integrating them into beautiful custom backdrops, and I never tire of seeing the official sets nestled into dioramas like the LEGO catalogs from the 80s and 90s. Olive Seon’s latest diorama is worth it just for the epic shuttle launch they’ve portrayed. Never has the 60080 Spaceport shuttle looked so good.
This year we celebrate 55 years since the first human spaceflight in history. Tyler takes on the role of a Soviet space program chief designer and commemorates the event in a stunning couple of spacecraft — Vostok-1 and Soyuz — classic craft from the early days of putting cosmonauts into orbit.
Take a moment to notice the choice of pieces. Pretty unpretentious, yet with ordinary slopes and wedges Tyler magically creates curved shapes of various diameters, which look fascinating even in plain grey colors. The aerials and dishes are especially heartwarming as they resemble the style of the legendary Discovery sets from 2003. What is so outstanding about the Soyuz model is the use of studs of various colors under trans-blue tiles — a simple and amazingly effective solution. These solar panels look even cooler than stickers from the said Discovery sets.
There are a lot of neat play features packed into this tiny space exploration vehicle. But it’s the ambiguous scale that tickles me. Is it a remote-controlled rover, barely larger than a cat? Or a mammoth-sized truck, so tall you could walk under it without ducking? It could hold fifty people — or less than five. Only Shannon Sproule knows for sure.
I’m not really into video games unless they have the name Zelda in the title. But the kids seem to dig some sci-fi game called Destiny, and there are a lot of great LEGO models based on its concept art. This FOTC Hawk from Jake Mundy is the latest example, and there are a heap of nifty techniques in this angular contraption. Check out the full gallery for some inspirational detail and cutaway pictures.
justin_m_winn brings us a vision of a clean-energy future with this scene of a Fuel Cell facility running a test. There’s a good mixture of spacey greebling and robots with more ordinary minifigs. This creates a strong sense of everyday activity in a sci-fi setting.
Justin has other images of maintenance and day-to-day work at the facility. They all display the same combination of good near-future design and excellent photography…
We are discovering new things about Saturn regularly thanks to the NASA-ESA collaboration, Cassini-Huygens. And thanks to Stefan Schindler, we can view his gorgeous model of the spacecraft whenever we’d like. The model uses a few custom-gold pieces to emulate the craft’s special thermal shielding. The spacecraft is made up of the Cassini orbiter, named for Italian-French astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, and the Huygens prob, named for Dutch astronomer, mathematician and physicist Christiaan Huygens.
Cassini has contributed to many scientific discoveries and regularly sends back some of the most stunning imagery of Saturn, its rings, and its moons. Its mission started upon launch on October 15, 1997, and is still going strong nearly 20 years later.
Christopher Bassett‘s walker tank/rover looks to suit the needs of Futuron explorers. I enjoy treaded quadrupeds, especially this one where the exposed mechanical bits in the treads complement the slick cabin and body. While I myself am not nostalgic for many space themes pre-Exploriens, as they were before my time, Christopher’s rover is a great build to carry the Futuron colors.
Christopher has many more fascinating sci-fi builds (including more walker tanks!) on his Flickr.
Although Jon Blackford calls this creation an Eco Rover, its unusual fuel source raises doubts regarding its environmental credentials. Genetically modified cows? Kept in a hermetically sealed dome and encouraged to produce methane? Doesn’t sound very green to me!
However, regardless of ethical and environmental issues, it’s a lovely model. I can imagine herds of these pottering about an airless planet’s surface, pumping methane out to create a runaway greenhouse effect.
Whilst the star of the show is the cow in the rear, the color scheme and greebly details rock. The rover’s cockpit is pretty cool too — check out that chair…
One of the kings of space corridors, Jeremy Williams has built the most gorgeous reactor I have ever seen. It is cavernous, beautifully lit and full of of enticing details. The lighting of the observation balconies is atmospheric and the choice of white spacemen gives a real ethereal quality.
This is not just a LEGO build, it’s a theatrical performance!
While it’s not the first time an astronaut has flown with LEGO into space, it’s always exciting to LEGO and space travel make the news for the same reason. Back in September, we reported that Denmark’s first astronaut, Andres Mogensen, flew with LEGO up to the International Space Station as part of Expedition 44.
It’s been exciting first week of March for space travel as American Astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth after 340 days in orbit as part of ongoing scientific studies for long-term spaceflight. They left behind minifig doppelgangers of themselves, courtesy of Tim Peak from the European Space Agency.
Picture courtesy of ESA/Tim Peake
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