They say the vast emptiness of space is entirely silent. It must be so in most parts of the universe, but definitely not anywhere near Sheo.‘s bizarre LEGO space police station. The sirens of such creepy police pods must sound totally far out. It doesn’t matter which world’s laws these guys enforce; you’d better slow down swooshing by this station.
How do you make a giant red alien lady laugh? With ten tickles! Ha! Get it? Tentacles… Ok, in all seriousness, I’ve never been into Anime, but the images that come out of it can be awe-inspiring sometimes. The highly stylized art form has a strong visual presence, to say the least. And this LEGO build by Sheo. has a strong visual presence, too, with that red alien lady and a spaceship in the background. The ship is the Sidonia, from the Manga and Anime work called Knights of Sidonia. The red figure is Tsumugi, a genetic hybrid of human and alien, designed to fight off the bad aliens with her giant body and immense powers. I love the use of ten tickles, er, tentacles to create a ragged organic shape, and the pirate hats for breasts is inspired. The end result is something disturbingly close to human, but still very much alien. Does it match the source? I don’t really know, and don’t much care, because as a LEGO build, she’s awesome! As long as she keeps her distance.
I admit it. I love the prequel trilogy of Star Wars movies. It is not for the scintillating dialogue or the powerful acting, though, impressive as those are. No, it is for the cool spaceships and the deeper look at life in the galaxy. There’s more to the thousands of planets than a few military bases and super-weapons, after all. One of those cool spaceships is the Venator-class Star Destroyer, used by the Republic. Fans of LEGO have been clamoring for years for a UCS (Ultimate Collectors Series) model of the ship, and, quite frankly, I’ll be surprised if they ever get it due to an anti-prequel bias. For now, though, they can be content with seeing this microscale version built by Stephan Niehoff. It’s got everything it needs: blasters, thrusters, greebles, and most importantly, the dual bridges and the dark red stripe along the top. Now it’s time to take out some Separatists!
Capturing great details on a spaceship that fits in the palm of your hand is a refreshing surprise from TBB Veteran, Letranger Absurde, and this pair of spaceships, while inspired by Star Wars, stand alone as a lesson in master parts usage. Take the fighter, made from a single LEGO minifigure robot head mold from the Galaxy Squad theme, where the facial visor serves as the cockpit canopy. And the red 1×1 tile on the side of the frigate nose picks up the circle design on the sides of the fighter beautifully.
We see plenty of spaceships here at The Brothers Brick but we rarely see any that are quite as colorful as this one. A LEGO builder who goes by the name of F@bz has conjured up a space tanker that would look right at home in a carnival…parade…fire? Carnival parade fire. I’m seeing some very retro pieces that may have been pilfered from some old Aquazone sets from about 1996 or so. The tanker pieces, or at least the ones with the “AT.02” decal, come from the Exo-Force Mobile Assault Tank from 2006. If ever F@bz gets tired of this colorful model (but who would, really?) it can get pried apart using the two new dark turquoise brick separators included in the design. Now that is totes fabs!
If you hear it buzzing in the sky, it is already too late to escape. This LEGO creation by [VB] is equal parts cutting-edge technology, and nightmares. The array of transparent blue garage door elements evokes a dragonfly’s delicate wings, while the twisted mass of tangled brains under that dome… shudder. Oh, and if you are wondering what that big ridged part forming the main body is from, that is a Throwbot container.
These days it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to spot digital LEGO creations. Renders and 3D modeling have progressed to the point where all the easy “tells” are gone, and you really have to know your subject matter to spot custom colors and parts. (And that’s assuming there are any to look for!) But virtual creations can go so many places that physical models can’t, allowing for builds that can even make you wonder if they’re based on LEGO bricks at all. I mean, look at the A-10 Asimov, created by noblebun. This ship is gorgeous. And also a complete flight of fantasy.
For starters, Noblebun has made great use of the ability to recolor parts. There big pieces like the front quarter-domes, in a I-wish-they-made-that matte dark grey. A minifigure’s police hat cast in light grey becomes part of the engine detailing. And unfortunately the chromed-copper discs sitting under those Technic gears aren’t standard issue, either. Some pieces are completely outside of the released shapes that LEGO offers. The curved pipes include custom nested 90 degree bends that we can currently only dream of. But, wow, do they look fantastic.
More importantly, though, is how these fantasy parts are built into the whole. There are some really great building techniques in play here. Check out how the use of inverted and standard sloped brick combine to create the white band. And how that same combination, built slightly differently, creates the impression of vents in the grey areas.
A rear shot showcases the amazing build in the engines. To me, they’re reminiscent of the jet exhaust on the UCS Batmobile. Just much bigger, more complex, and more awesome in general.
This is the sort of deep fake I can really get behind. Sure, this creation may only live in the realm of pixels and math, but I’m okay with that. It’s an amazing feat of construction and imagination.
Builder Andrew of CRCT Productions gives us one of the lesser-known hero ships of the Star Wars galaxy, the Starhawk-class Battleship. A creation of the New Republic in the final days of the Empire after the events of The Return of the Jedi, the Starhawk was a smorgasbord of cannibalized Star Destroyers and other warships. Three of them fought valiantly in the Battle of Jakku, taking down a Super Star Destroyer with its powerful tractor beam cannons on the nose.
This build is incredible. For having little source material, Andrew did a fantastic job at getting all the known details into his Starhawk. The yellow and blue markings are a nice touch, breaking away from the Imperial grey seen on nearly all the large warships in the Star Wars films. Other features include the smooth surfaces, neat angles and attention to the smallest of details, which give this LEGO creation the illusion that it might not be LEGO at all: it might be the real deal, an actual Starhawk.
It finally happened! This new creation by Angelo Favretti has me at a loss for words. So instead of coming up with the words you can fill them all in Mad Libs style and post them in the comments section.
This (adjective) spaceship is totally the (possessive noun) knees! I like how it is divided into (a number) sections, each more (adjective) than the last. I’m willing to wager my (noun) that this took a metric (unit of measure) of time and LEGO to complete. We’re all (adverb) blown away by the amount of (verb ending in “ing”) greebling this thing has! It’s like a (noun) exploded in (a place) and this is the (adjective) result. I think the gray (plural noun) and the white (plural noun) are (adverb) nice parts usage. (Brothers Brick staff member) says this might be the (adjective ending in “est”) spaceship we’ve seen all year and (famous person) just might agree. Let’s hope for more (adjective) (plural noun) like this in 2020!
As a longtime LEGO space builder, I found I was ready for a bit of a change. After years of building Star Wars and video-game inspired spaceships, I wanted to try my hand at building a spaceship that is, paradoxically, a little more down to earth. Rather than ships bristling with big guns or outfitted with wings, I decided to take my visual cues from movies like Interstellar, The Martian, and of course, NASA’s own designs. Several years ago I built the space shuttle launch system for the theme, and since then I’ve been working on a couple of spacecraft. I’ve displayed them at a number of conventions, but over the holidays this year, I finally polished them up and photographed them. The first ship I built was the Vanguard, part of the fictional Interplanetary Expedition Alliance, mankind’s first attempt at visiting nearby planets and their orbiting bodies.
I built it as a series of discrete modules, and then strung the modules together to create the larger spacecraft. I like this technique because it lets me play with small structures of a few dozen elements at a time, which also results in a look similar to the real International Space Station’s modular design. Continue reading
Every year in November, talented builders turn out spaceships with a very particular style as a friendly themed challenge. Unlike SHIPtember, when the goal is to build a huge spaceship, Novvember is all about the Vic Viper, a style of racing spaceship made popular in several video games. Tino Poutiainen brings a lovely addition to the fleet of Vipers with this clean and elegant model. It is microscale, with some Apollo astronauts at the helm, which is surprising but cool, and I can count all of four visible studs on the whole darn thing. That’s impressive given the angles involved. And the color blocking is perfect. The black stand gives it a display presence that sets it apart from the pack, too.
Looking at the ship, there are two pieces that jump out to me right away. The first is the old Blacktron II jet pack, one of my favorite childhood accessories, tucked seamlessly between the cockpit and the tail. The second is the cockpit itself, a Ninjago spinner dome; that’s a part that I’ve always wanted to use but have yet to find a good way to integrate it. The rest is just so smooth and refined that nothing leaps out. It makes me wonder how it all holds together, which is a great puzzle to have when looking at a build. Novvember might be come and gone, but we can still enjoy spaceships.
Santa is going to give the reindeer the day off this year because his sweet new ride is horse-powered instead! Sylon-tw, an excellent ship builder, decided to use his skills this holiday season to give Santa something slick to deliver presents with. His new sleigh is complete with a sleek body shape, thrusters, and plenty of cargo space. He’s even got his own chauffer, the builder’s sig-fig!
While you’re in the spirit, take a look at a Santa macro-figure as well as this year’s advent calendar!