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.

SHIPtember: Best real world SHIPs

Today on Week of Wonders, we talk about SHIPs that have that real world vibe that were built as a part of last month’s SHIPtember contest.

Most of the time spacers tend to build fantastic ships from far in the future with Warp Engines or Hyper Drives and all sorts of make believe techno-babble inventions. But there’s a certain few who take a more realistic approach to their spaceships, taking inspiration from today’s space technology and pushing it out just a few years…

Tyler H has created this near-future high altitude bomber, the B-5 MANTA:
At just under 100 studs long, and 144 studs wide, this lovely near space ship has a great shape and I just love the integrated lights and the bottom detailing with the combination of studs up and studs down construction.

Going slightly further into the future, Damien Labrousse (legodrome) has created this inter-planetary traveler, the Galactik Bricks:
The dockable shuttles are just a fantastic touch, and I really like the shaping he has put in the front with the spinning habitat section.

And finally, going far into depths of space is Nathan Proudlove (Proudlove) and his Deep Space Explorer Intrepid:
With its radiation shield (required for deep space travel) this 5 foot (or 1.5meter) model is a true interstellar ship. Nathan has thought about what a real world Benny would need on his travels, and has included habitats, science labs, communication array, solar panels, and of course a SPACESHIP! for exploring those far away worlds.

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SHIPtember: Best Unconventional SHIPs

Welcome to the second installment of the Week of Wonders: SHIPtember edition. Today we’ll take a look at some of the more unconventional SHIPs that were built during this year’s SHIPtember contest.

Usually ship builders will base their builds on some existing ships, or designs and influences from movies, games or books. Then there are builders that just go a completely different route and create something truly unique.

Chris Perron (thebrickbin) leads the pack with this unconventional Castle ship, the Astral Voyager:
With a combination of fantastic rockwork, integrated castles and volcano engines, the Wizard Chris has managed to create a believable magical flying rock space ship.

Alysa Kirkpatrick (d2hiriyuu) has built this Dyson Sphere, a spaceship that is wrapped around a sun, which she calls Astra Luminaria:
One of the most interesting parts of this build, besides possibly being the biggest SHIP we’ve seen built to date, was that the entire build is a series of geometric shapes, which means that it was easy for her to calculate that there were exactly 20,012 parts used.

Last but not least, (ska2d2) has this … well I’m not really sure best to describe this… I guess as the name implies, looks a bit like a Dragonfly :

What I really liked about this isn’t just the cool build, and strong colour blocking, but the fact that it was based on a Concept Sketch that he did prior to building.

Rob D’s LEGO photography shows Classic Space in a whole new way

When most of us photograph a new creation, we’re satisfied if the photo has clean lighting and a nice backdrop. Some builders, however, take things to the next level. Over the past several years, we’ve seen a number of builders apply their superb photography skills to our favorite plastic toy, including Vesa Lehtimäki and Joe and Will Merzlak. Rob D. is a new addition to the ranks of those builders taking breathtaking shots of LEGO, and he’s got some great building skills to boot. One of Rob’s latest photos, portraying an underwater scene of the new LEGO Deep Sea theme, is featured in the current edition of Blocks, a LEGO fan magazine, but my favorite has to be the shot of Rob’s LL-962 spacecraft being maintenanced.

LEGO Nexo Knights officially unveiled [News]

Today at the New York Comic Con, LEGO officially pulled the curtain from their newest line, Nexo Knights. A cross between Space and Castle, Nexo Knights features knights in robotic power armor riding mechanical hovering horses and driving giant vehicles. The Nexo Knights theme will be accompanied by a companion app titled Merlok 2.0, as well as a 20-episode television series chronicling the adventures of the knights. It airs in December.

While many of our viewers will no doubt be having flashbacks to Knights Kingdom II right about now, it looks like these sets will at the least feature a lot of new parts great for Space and Mecha builders. We also still haven’t seen the full set lineup, so keep your eyes out for the rest of the sets.

Read the full press release after the jump. Continue reading →

The White Whale in battle

Peter Mowry has expanded his fleet of ships with his lastest, the White Whale. I’ll save you all from a terrible Moby Dick joke and keep that to myself.

I very much enjoy Peter’s ships, and find their shapes and universe fascinating. We’ve previously featured Solacium and The Marquis, so he’s got a proven record of beautiful ships.

MAVEN Satellite brings us closer to Mars

Just in time for Ridley Scott’s film The Martian, Ryan Howerter presents his beautiful model of MAVEN, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission satellite. His model is a commission for the University of Colorado Boulder, for display at the CU Heritage Center. MAVEN recently celebrated its first year in orbit around Mars.

This is the third model he’s built for the University of Colorado; MAVEN joins Voyager 2 and the Apollo 11 Service Module.

Plan your space invasion in style aboard the Decadence Fleet Carrier

This space-faring fleet carrier by Markus Rollbühler is ready to ferry your troops and spacecraft in luxurious style to your next invasion destination vacation. The bright colors and and brilliant blue energy source let your feeble enemies know you’re not just in it for the loot — you’re in it to look good doing it.

It’s good to see more and more space builders branching out from the standard dark-grey-with-light-grey-highlights colorscheme for spaceships. Don’t get me wrong: I love industrial grey as much or more than most builders. But lately, the building community is increasingly branching out to alternative colorschemes, and we’re all better off for the variety that brings.

Space: The final frontier for prospecting

When all the planets’ resources are depleted, mankind must turn to space to harvest even the most common of material: iron. And when that time comes, the Iron Mountain will lead the fleet of prospectors to find new sources of wealth. This awesome space miner by Sam Malmberg rings in at a whopping 162 studs long, and like most other large spacecraft you’ll see around here for awhile, was built as part of the “build a giant spaceship in a month” challenge known as SHIPtember. Sam has beautifully blended an armor-plated hull with large technological greebly appendages, but my absolute favorite part is Sam’s use of LEGO’s short-lived Aero Tubes and even more impressively, its accompanying Air Pump — a piece I can’t recall ever seeing in a fan-creation before. Oddly enough, just a few days ago I rediscovered the Air Pump in my collection, and thought to myself “one day I must find a use for this…”

Sam says he’s bringing the model to Brickcon in Seattle, which begins tomorrow for registered attendees, and is open to the public Saturday and Sunday. So if you want to check out this model in person, or many of the other models we feature, be sure to stop by. A number of us from the Brothers Brick — including myself — will be in attendance as well, so seek us out and say hi!

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle...

…the rabbit jumped over the moon? Maybe the cow was on a break. Last night’s Super Mega Blood Death Moon was preceded by a wave of moon-themed LEGO builds and here is the first of them, from Taiwanese builder James Zhan. I have absolutely no idea as to the significance of the rocket-powered bunnie in this mosaic! Perhaps someone can fill me in?

NCS Aries-K – SHIPtember – SHIP in a day

There’s been a lot of large spaceships or SHIPs (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts) building this month as part of SHIPtember – the build a 100 stud SHIP in a month contest. Some people feel that a month is slightly more time than necessary, and there have been several SHIP in a day builds over the years – with varying results.

So I wasn’t surprised to see someone attempt this again this year, but I was surprised to see FOUR master builders: Jason Allemann, Michael Gale, Kristal Dubois, Lucie Filteau join together in an amazing 24 hour build (or does this really make it a 96 hour man build?)

I don’t care, cause the end result makes my own personal month long SHIP build kind of small, and lacking in coolness…

Not only does this clock in at the bigger side of the SHIPs built this month, the multiple functions and delightful spinning mechanisms makes this stellar build, regardless of the time spent:

Oh, and yes, there’s a time lapse:

25% off LEGO Movie 70816 Benny’s Spaceship, Spaceship, Spaceship! on Amazon

Dear readers, if you love SPACE!, here’s a deal too sweet to pass up. Right now, Benny’s Spaceship, Spaceship, Spaceship! (70816) is on sale on Amazon for almost 25% off the normal $100 price tag, making it a fantastic deal with 980 pieces for $75.99. It’s rare to see large and popular sets like this go on much of a sale, and this set is surely nearing the end of its availability. If you’re still on the fence about this one, take a look at our review of Benny’s Spaceship (spoiler: we love it).

A long time ago in a restroom far, far away

Ok there are probably a dozen directions the title of this post could have gone (let your imagination run wild). And there are probably a dozen ways builder Sad Brick (why so sad?) could have portrayed the brilliant gag of using Imperial Stormtrooper helmets as urinals in a Rebel Alliance base. But I’m glad he went for this very stylish – almost palatial – design.

Given the old joke that we never see people in science fiction going to the bathroom, I think this is the sort of thing that would work great as an easter egg in some future LEGO Star Wars video game!