LEGO has launched Rebuild the Galaxy, and builder lego_m.art has answered the call with a Blacktron version of the Star Wars snow speeder. Classic Space meets classic Star Wars using the new trans-yellow windscreen. The test pilot may look nervous, but the build is solid. I particularly love the classic space substitute for the rear harpoon.
Some space builders love their greebles, others seek lines. Ivan Martynov isn’t one to get pinned down to any particular style, gravitating instead to unconventional parts, colors, and themes to make utterly alien models. Ivan’s latest is a starfighter that is swooshable and vaguely reminiscent of a military jet, only I don’t think I’ve ever seen lavender, light nougat, precious sand purple, and even a splash of aqua used like this before! The aliens are a brainy bunch with a curious configuration of limbs. They seem mostly harmless…
In a flurry of building on the way to Chicago’s Brickworld, Ted Andes delivered a number of great builds to admire. Let’s start with one of Ted’s signature spaceship styles: small, compact, solid colors with straight lines. Here it comes in true Vic Viper form. And the working land gear are a bonus.
We next move to a spaceship made from a pool of parts often used by Ted: Hero Factory. The bubble cockpit surrounded by four blade-wings and exposed engines has a great mechanical feel to it, providing a great contrast to the build above.
LEGO phenom David Roberts has mastered the art of building oddball little spaceships, each with baffling complex shapes and striking color schemes. That this Ridgeback, for example. The adjustable stand makes it clear you can launch this ship in a bevy of angles from straight up over the moon to right through your neighbor’s window.
The craft is hard to define from just one angle but this rear view image makes it clear it’s sort of a three-pronged shuttlecock. (Tee hee!) The engine and greebling is pretty sweet.
This short video of the builder disassembling this model is way more captivating than I thought it would be. Hidden deep within the ship’s core is a cockpit. Or should I say -shuttlecockpit? Sorry, I’ll just see myself out. In the meantime, watch the video and check out our David Roberts archives.
I’m an oldest sibling, so when we played video games growing up, I usually enjoyed Player One privileges. That is, until my siblings got better at the games than I did, and so I would get demoted to being a mere Player Two. I’m not sure which of these two LEGO ships that Brad K has built is which – I think tradition dictates that blue is one and red is two? Either way I don’t think I’d be disappointed with either in this case! There’s very little studs-up building in the ships themselves; it seems to almost all be sideways. In fact the bases seem like the only studs that are the right way up. But they’re a lovely touch too! Which one are you choosing?
I’m continuing to expand my microscale space universe. Last time I checked in with a lunar launch diorama, as my home-brew theme shot into deep space from the moon. Now the Interplanetary Expedition Alliance, or I.E.A., has set up a large mining facility out in the asteroid belt.
The facility consists of a large space station as the hub, and two captured asteroids being mined for their mineral wealth.
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The Nexo Knights theme introduced quite a few new angled slopes and other geometric parts to LEGO, like the famous “Nexagon“, and the sharp-angled slopes used on the sides of this fighter by Inthert. With its many sharp angles, this 6 pointed starfighter is giving me Black Sun vibes (one of the many crime syndicates from Star Wars legends). The color scheme fits well with Nexo Knights as well, with the gun metal gray and bright color accents on a largely blue livery.
Sometimes intergalactic news is so good you have to visit other planets to tell the crocodile-riding tribes about it. What exactly this good news is, LEGO builder Oliver Barrell did not specify but the news delivery system seems to be a sweet spaceship based on a Pterosaur. That’s pretty much the mode of transport I’d pick. It demonstrates the awkward wings-folded gait the Pterosaur likely had when not in the air. Oliver tells us there is no Photoshop trickery here; the model is real, precariously balanced, and fragile. I mean, just look at that ragged, trailing edge of the wings- and the cockpit! That’s brilliant stuff, right there.
When I started building spaceships as a kid and teen, I assumed the only possible angles were the ones found on sloped bricks and wing plates. Seeing the smooth curves that builders like MWBricks can coax out of LEGO is nothing short of miraculous. The builder calls this flying beast the Yelets LOng RangeD Exploder, part of the Goznian Psycho Navy. With a raised cockpit and a recon jet docked and ready, the Yelets owns the unfriendly skies.
MWBricks works with Studio and physical bricks when designing ships like the Yelets. Some of the tricks the builder has come up with to achieve the perfect angle are equal parts impressive and anxiety-inducing, using friction and rubber bands when stud connections aren’t enough. I can’t help but wonder what this ship would look like in cross-section.
With all the talented LEGO builders out there, cool techniques are constantly showing up in our feeds. However, it’s not every day that I’m so intrigued that I bookmark the page. Thanks to Joost van Velzen (MejoliDesign), I have a new trick I have to try! This ship is nice by itself, complete with moving landing gear and ramp, but the real head-turner is the use of 2×3 light bricks and a little bit of centrifugal force. Read on to see how!
Click to see how this awesome technique is achieved!
The latest LEGO spaceship by Theo Bonner is exactly the kind of build that instantly feels familiar. I paused to figure out why—and the answer was right there in the build’s description. Not only is it a Star Wars fighter (specifically from the Teal Squadron), but it’s also inspired by WWII airplanes! And then it hit me: the shape, the proportions (just look at that massive “nose” in front of the cockpit), the engines—it all makes sense.
But it’s the front that steals the show. The intricate, multi-layered design around the engines instantly sells the concept. At this point, the only way to improve it would be some weathering—maybe a few oil stains and a touch of paint chipping for that battle-worn look.
Seven years ago, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi hit theaters worldwide, and the world has never been the same since. Not because it’s a somewhat polarising film among the fanbase – but because it inspired LEGO starship phenom Tom Loftus (AKA Inthert) to create a model of the bulky Resistance Bomber from the opening sequence. And it’s only now that we finally get to see the fruits of that labour! It’s a fantastically detailed model, as per Tom’s usual sky-high standard. It’s some way bigger than the set LEGO made of it too, even though it uses some of the same printed turret dishes.
That LEGO set (75188 Resistance Bomber, if you’re curious) is infamous among enthusiast circles for the late addition of a character named Finch Dallow – a name that strikes terror into the hearts of minifigure collectors. (You can read why here.) And sure enough, he’s present in this model too! He and his crew get a fully decked-out interior. Even the structural elements of the fuselage look to be accurate to the movie. That’s 7 years of hard work well spent, if you ask me!
It’s not like Tom has only been working on this since 2018, though. You can see what else he’s been up to in our Inthert archives.