Tag Archives: UFO

Most weird things can be explained away by swamp gas

According to official government files and weirdo LEGO builder Fedde Barendrecht, the strange phenomenon seen in the ’60s by farmers and other people without degrees has nothing to do with UFOs or hallucinogenic drugs. Yep, it turns out all the eerie lights in the sky, stories of alien probing, and the whole go-go dancing fad can be explained away by swamp gas. I’m loving Fedde’s presentation of this little creation on top of a pretty green geode. Neat! But all the weird flying saucers over Area 51 were definitely swamp gas and nothing more so don’t go thinking otherwise if you know what’s good for you. But still, who knew swamps could be so flatulent?

Swamp Gas

Hide your cows and protect your nether bits, here comes UFOSIX!

If you’re seeing some weirdness over the horizon that might be Fedde Barendrecht. Or rather his LEGO creation called UFOSIX, not Fedde. Although, while I’ve never met him in person, judging from the stuff he builds, I wouldn’t be too surprised if he is a tad weird. There’s nothing wrong with that, really. He seems to be the type of guy I’d love to have a beer with. Or a vacuum bag full of cat hair; whatever weirdness he might be into. Anyway, this snazzy unidentified far-fetched object has an uncanny Alien Conquest feel which, like the Kindle Fire and the end of Charlie Sheen’s career, takes us back to 2011.

UFOSIX

Top Secret: Roswell 1947

Aliens get a bad rap, don’t they? They’re scary, mysterious, and they’re the bane of midwestern farmers and cattle everywhere. They’re also seemingly responsible for a slew of uncanny and sometimes hilarious crop circles and plus they’ve got that whole probing thing which some folks have mixed feelings about. Andreas Lenander calls this LEGO diorama Roswell 1947. The depiction of the UFO scorching the earth does nothing to squelch the alien’s reputation but it is admittedly cool. The large saucer dishes go way back to the X-Pod line from ’04-’05. The light brick built into the landscape gives this piece that extra helping of awesomesauce. You may (ahem) probe deeper into our archives to see just how fascinated we are with Andreas’ stuff and aliens in general.

Roswell 1947...

The first time LEGO returned to visorless spacepersons

When it comes to LEGO space nostalgia, old Classic Space gets the lion’s share of the love. Now, I’m not saying that Benny and his gang don’t deserve the hype, but I was not even born yet by the time the visor made its debut. And the visored spacepersons had some awesome themes, like Blacktron (I and II), Space Police (I, II, and III, even), and the ever-iconic Ice Planet 2002; occasionally these guys get some love from the community, but not like the Classic Spacers do. But then LEGO started some new visorless themes in the mid-late 1990s, like Insectoids and UFOs. When was the last time you saw a custom creation from one of those themes? Well, Koen Zwanenburg is here to supply that lack, with this superb re-imagining of one of my all-time favorite sets, 6915 Warp Wing Fighter, making the crossover we all imagined when seeing it in 1997: an X-wing fighter from Star Wars.

Warp Wing Fighter

This ship has it where it counts, from the giant curved hull panels to the transparent neon-greenish yellow canopy and accessories. More tiles and curved slopes give it an updated look, but it is still immediately recognizable as the old ship I loved so much, ever since finding it under the tree one Christmas morning.

Love Koen’s work? So do we here at The Brothers Brick, so check out our archives.

A Saucerful of Secrets

Mysteries abound in this latest creation by Blake Foster. Turning the Tables features a classic UFO scenario turned on its head. Have the cows had enough? Or is this actually a flashback to how the hostilities between the alien and bovine races began? Either way, there’s a lot to unpack in this vignette. On the building front, check out the clever use of on-the-sprue Harry Potter wands in the fence, the cupcake-tipped under-udder-thrusters, and the perfect use of those 1×1 star plates. The Mixel eyes on the cow-pilot just creep me out, though.

Turning the Tables

We’ve featured a number of Blake’s other Spacy Creations in the past. Could this be the beginning of a new theme of “Cow-Space”? One can only hope.

Ancient Aliens

I’m not saying it was aliens–but it was aliens! Builders Aaron Newman and Tristan Cain teamed up to build a close encounter of the ancient kind. Cleverly named “Parthenonsense,” the scene depicts a microscale Greek-inspired city being visited by a red “chariot of the gods.” The city itself is enjoyable to look at, with curved walls, a bridge, and buildings of varying heights. I particularly enjoy the UFO, which has a self-sustaining habitat under its dome. The beam of light over the lighthouse is a nice touch, almost as if the spacecraft is engaging in oneupmanship with its terrestrial subjects.

First Contact

To learn more about the model, visit Aaron’s personal blog post on “Parthenonsense.”