And so too are the best things in building techniques. Step away from the prescribed use of LEGO bricks and a whole world of fantastic shapes opens up. Exploring this is Rubblemaker, whose Neo-Classic Space ‘Recon Bubblescout’ deploys some mind-bending illegal techniques in the pursuit of the desired form. Head to Flickr via the link above to view something illegal…
Ok, we’ll start out by saying we are absolutely not going to do these two brilliant podracers by Rubblemaker of Flickr justice. Knowing virtually nothing about Star Wars isn’t something we feel the need to correct, but it does make writing about Star Wars more tricky…
What we can say is that Classic Space themes Blacktron and, er… Classic Space look thoroughly awesome as Starwarsy racing thingumies, particularly when kicking up a cloud of brick-built lunar dust.
Rubblemaker’s inventiveness is evident throughout the builds, with Benny’s Classic Space podracer even using Star Wars Death Star pieces for its engine intakes, which we’re immensely pleased with ourselves for noticing.
That’s the limit of our Star Wars knowledge though, so we’ll leave this to the proper blogs at this point. Until they pick this up you can see of Rubblemaker’s brilliant creations on Flickr. Click the link above to pod race in Classic Space.
LEGO’s 928 Galaxy Explorer from 1979 has become something of a legend, being recreated endlessly by countless members of the Lego Community. Here’s another, and it’s done so well we’re forgetting we’re supposed to be a car blog for a bit.
Built by Flickr’s Tim Goddard, this Neo-Classic Space ‘Galactic Explorer’ is a spectacular mesh of superb building techniques, complete with motorised landing gear, a working rear hatch, and a smiling Classic Spaceman at its centre.
There’s more to see of Tim’s brilliant 928 redux at his photostream – click the link above to make the jump to a future version of the future in 1979.
Wheeling across a planet, within Neo-Classic Space
A spaceman’s on a journey, with a smile upon his face
Like a boulder down a mountain, or a supersonic boom
Blasting into space, pointed directly at the moon
Like a clock whose hands are sweeping, in a never-ending race
As the universe expands, at an ever-growing pace
Like the circles that you find, in the windmills of your mind…
One of music’s most mind-meltingly trippy songs, doctored by a TLCB Writer who really should be doing something more useful, to accompany a mind-meltingly trippy vehicle from builder martin.with.bricks. There’s more to see of Martin’s Neo-Classic Space monowheel speeding across a planet at his photostream – click the link above to enter the windmill of your mind.
This TLCB Writer isn’t thinking about pizza (it’d be thin and crispy all the way), but rather pondering the ingenious nature of this ‘Heavy Communications Rover’ by The Brick Artisan. According to Brick, when dust storms or Blacktron agents disrupted satellite transmissions, a fleet of just four Heavy Communications Rovers could be used to communicate ‘seismically through a planet’s interior’, giving the entire surface network coverage. Mrs Mavis’ pot plants are shaking on her windowsill four thousand miles away and she’s convinced they’re taking to her, but it’s a small inconvenience to keep the Federation’s messages flowing. You can pick up the story at The Brick Artisan’s photostream via the link above, whilst this TLCB Writer orders a pizza for some reason.
Simultaneously harmlessly brilliant and magnificently creepy, Flickr’s Blake Foster sure knows how to both delight and terrify in equal measure.
This Neo-Classic Space walking rover features the usual perennially smiling Classic Spaceman, but riding atop a mechanised body of horror.
There’s more to see of Blakes’s ‘AT-CST’ at his photostream; Click the link above to make the jump or alternatively try here for something featuring a bit less dread.
OK, these are a very long way from being cars, but they’re so cunning in their construction it was too hard not to post them. Built by Flickr’s Blake Foster these ‘Critters’ come in Classic Space and M-Tron flavours and there’s more of them to see at Blake’s photostream via the link above!
Astronauts are famed for their cars. Those in the Apollo programme pretty much all had Corvettes, thanks to a Florida GM dealer’s ‘dollar lease’ initiative, whilst a couple of NASA astronauts are the only people to have driven a vehicle outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. Classic Spacemen of course get to drive all sorts of things, and they’re always happy to do so, but when they’re back on Earth it’s nice to know they’re regular petrolheads. At least the owner of this is, a Classic Space hot rod complete with all the hallmarks of their more usual space-based vehicles. It comes from Nuno Taborda and there’s more to see at his photostream – click the link to take a look.
These Classic Spacemen are off to work, doing important jobs holding strange pieces of equipment close to the ground. They must enjoy it too, as you’ll never find a Classic Spaceman who isn’t smiling! Even their ride to work is a happy one, as shown here by Jerac and his simply marvellous Classic Space Bus. An opening door, vintage Technic wheels, and the obligatory satellite dish and giant spacey aerial all feature and you can hop on board (as long as you’re smiling) via the link above!
‘How many greebles would you like your Neo-Classic Spaceship to have sir?… ‘Yes.’ Mansur Soeleman has used all the greebles to create this greeblicious ‘LL-527 Falchion’ spacecraft. Head to Mansur’s greebletastic album on Flickr via the link above for even more greebley goodness.
Uh oh! Space Pirates! You know, pirates… but in space! Flickr’s captainsmog owns the mind that has magnificently merged two of LEGO’s most beloved themes and you can see more of his piratical antics via the link above.
There was a whole extra day in this year’s Febrovery competition, with many builders taking advantage of this to squeeze their creations across the finish line. And some still missed it…
In celebration of those that didn’t quite manage the deadline, which was fittingly extended this year for space-based reasons, here are three of our favourite rovers that might be more Marovery than Febrovery.
First (above) is Scott Willhelm‘s enormous entry, complete with magnificent brick-built wheels fitted to ends of whatever you all those chassis-arm-thingies. Those chassis-arm-thingies are a bit of a theme this year, kinda like full-width light bars appearing on literally every new car design of late, but much like them they do look cool. See more at the link!
Our second fashionably-late Febrovery entry comes (above) from Faber Mandragore, who has also deployed chassis-arm-thingies to great effect. A transparent domed cockpit and an assortment of science fictiony equipment keep the build suitably futuristic and there’s more to see at Faber’s photostream via the link above.
Our final featured Febrovery creation (above) is very possibly our favourite, eschewing cool chassis-arm-thingies for a single slightly tragic looking jockey wheel, reminiscent of those miserable looking tractor tugs you see at the airport.
Spectacularly inappropriate for a surface littered with craters and rocks, and with an exhaust stack that raises unanswerable questions about how an internal combustion engine works without air, ‘Benny’s Space Trike’ is clearly our winner and you can see more courtesy of Blake Foster by clicking here.
Until next year, keep rovin’…
The world could learn something from LEGO’s perennially smiling Classic Spacemen, peacefully conducting whatever research and exploration missions their giant fleshy masters directed them towards.
First featured here over five years ago, TLCB favourite Billyburg has recently updated his 6950 Rocket Launcher redux, and we like it more than ever. Of course this being a Classic Space vehicle the rockets on board Billyburg’s 8×8 transport are not firing Russian implements of death at airliners, rather satellites for, well… we’re not sure, but we bet it’s something wholesome.
There’s more to see of Billyburg’s brilliant 6950 redux at his photostream – click here to head into Classic Space.
We’ve often written about how for a creation to be blogged here it needs high quality images with clean backgrounds and natural light. So here’s a creation with two suns and background made of cosmic rock.
TLCB debutant Purple-Wolf has taken the photoshop* route to present his neat Classic Space ‘LL C12 Transport’ ship, and to stunning effect. Head to, er… wherever this is, via the link to his photostream above.
*Other image editing tools are available.
A few Elves got into the stationary cupboard over the weekend and between them ate four entire glue sticks. The result was some very sticky Elf droppings, and also some fairly trippy Elves, which may explain today’s somewhat spaced-out theme.
These two wonderful Neo-Classic Space builds were built for The Brothers Brick (wut!?), each rebooting LEGO’s ancient ‘Classic Space’ line with the latest parts and a whole lot more detail than the original sets achieved back in the early ’80s.
The first (above) comes from space-building legend Alec Hole, who has taken inspiration from the classic 6970 Beta Command Base set from 1980, with its launch pad, control room, and a funky little monorail thing that moved between the two. Alec’s version uses the same recipe but knocks it up a notch with some incredible attention to detail and enough ‘greebling’ for a model five times its size. We love it, and there’s more to see at Alec’s photostream by clicking here.
Today’s second Neo-Classic Space build (below) forgoes the usual rocket-propulsion system for good old fashioned rotors, creating a spacey helicopter that bears a strong resemblance to any one of a number of irritating drones. With Classic Space’s vintage colour scheme, a trans-yellow cockpit, and a smiling Classic Spaceman at the controls, Tim Goddard’s ‘Dragonfly‘ is much more our bag than annoying people in the park with a remote control helicopter (sorry drone owners). Head to Tim’s photostream via link above to see more, whilst we figure out how to remove some insanely sticky Elf droppings.
