Flickr’s Tim Goddard can stop people questioning your sexual orientation with just one word. Buy your Thundercougarfalconbird via the link above.
One Word; Thundercougarfalconbird
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: sci-fi
Training Day
We all wonder if we’re on the right track from time to time. But perhaps if we put the brakes on a little and slow down, the journey might become more important than the destination.
Even Lego building can be part of this societal boiler room. An endless train of perfectly constructed and beautifully presented creations rolls past our feeds, a procession in which The Lego Car Blog is of course part. The pressure to create something that gets clicks, likes, and positive critique is all too real, and the destination – that perfect Instagramable shot – can often eclipse the enjoyment to be had in creating it.
Railing against this orthodoxy, Linus Bohman has decided to switch it up. Whilst playing with his daughter and bucket of Duplo, he noticed her railway track pieces; large, curved, and seemingly designed for a single purpose. But what journey could they provide if they were used… differently?
With no destination in mind, Linus started working with his daughter’s Duplo tracks, seeing where they would take him. And where they took him was to one of the most original and inventive creations we’ve yet publicised.
LEGO’s vintage blue and grey railway tracks joined their larger Duplo brethren, creating a swooping almost organic neo-classic spacecraft unlike anything we’ve seen before. A single mini-figure pilot drives the ship from a cockpit hung within the centre, whilst a robot co-pilot hides under the opening cover behind.
We think you’ll agree that Linus’ reached a spectacular destination, but we suspect the journey was – for him – better still. If you share his train of thought you can see more of the ship that emerged from it by clicking here, and you can watch a fantastic philosophical brick-based video on its creation by clicking play below.
YouTube Video
Ginormous Interplanetary Spaceship
After bemoaning that most Lego sci-fi builds are ginormous interplanetary spaceships designed for various important space-based assignments, here’s a ginormous interplanetary spaceship designed for an important space-based assignment.
This is an ‘Acclamator-Class Assault Ship’ from ‘Star Wars – Episode II; Attack of the Clones’, and it has been built (and presented) absolutely beautifully by TLCB newcomer FlyInSpace from over 5,100 pieces.
Weighing 3.2kg and 72cm in length, Fly’s brick-built behemoth features detachable landing gear, opening hangar doors, and deployable boarding ramps, and is constructed entirely ‘studs-not-on-top’ to accurately portray the immensely complex geometric shape of the ‘real’ thing, with incredible results.
If you fancy creating a 1:1000 scale ‘Acclamator’ for yourself, building instructions are available and you can find them, plus all of the stunning imagery, at FlyInSpace’s UCCS Acclamator album. Click the link above to get Acclimated.
Future Containment
Most Lego sci-fi builds are ginormous interplanetary spaceships designed for various important space-based assignments.
Which is all very well, but we suspect that – even when we’ve colonised other planets – 99% of both persons and vehicles will still be driving about on a paved surface. After all, mankind has been flying for a hundred years, but only a tiny fraction of us are in the air.
Thus it’s rather refreshing to see a sci-fi builder turn their hand to what will inevitably be the vast majority of future transport; the stuff that looks pretty much the same as it does now.
Cue Flickr’s Shuppiluliumas, here making their TLCB debut, and these two ace sci-fi trucks. Both are packed with details such as tilting cabs, posable steering, and brick-built drivetrains, and each design features just enough futurism to transport the viewer to a time ahead of our own. Plus one of them’s transporting a giant positron cannon, which helps.
There’s more of each truck to see at Shuppiluliumas’ photostream, and you can jump to future normality via the link above.
Support System
Everyone needs some support now and then, even the perennially-smiling spacemen of Classic Space. And what better way to support them than via the perennially-smiling Spaceship Support Team, shown here at the wheel of their tractors, on hand with tools, refuelling, and a lift. Flickr’s David Roberts is the man in charge and you can see more at his photostream via the link above.
Clearing Up
We’re back after a short Easter break, celebrating the story of things seemingly irreparably broken, being eternally fixed.
On to today’s creation, and one part of humanity is always working to tidy up the mess of another. From people chucking their litter out of the car window – because they’re scumbags, to those laying mines that maim children decades later – because they’re scumbags (the mine layers, not the children), there is a perpetual subset of society intent on breaking the world. Likely because their souls, too, are broken, and they need the world to reflect it.
Fortunately given enough people, will, and time, things can always be repaired. Cue recent bloggee Tino Poutiainen, and this magnificent ordinance disposal robot, working to remove the mess of generations past.
With classic printed parts, slender arms, and an array of sensors, there’s more of Tino’s fantastic mech to see at his photostream. Take a closer look via the link above, whilst below are some secret links to a few of the heroes who are, right now, tidying up the mess left behind by others.
Land, Sea, Soul
My Other Truck’s Also in Space
LEGO’s new for 2024 Spacey Technic range is the mash-up we never thought we needed! It also features some superb new parts, which TLCB Master MOCer Nico71 has put to wonderful use though his brilliant 42180 B-Model.
Entitled ‘Space Garbage Truck’, Nico has redeployed the pieces from the official LEGO set to create a vehicle we hope mankind will have surpassed the need for when we’re inhabiting other planets… but seeing as our brightest minds are still creating such catastrophes as the disposable vape, perhaps that hope is misplaced.
Thus should space need clearing of mankind’s crap (It will. Ed.), Nico’s 42180 alternate has the answer. With a clever mechanically operated front-mounted grab, ingenious six-wheel steering, and a winch-based rear compactor mechanism, Nico’s ‘Space Garbage Truck’ is on hand to remove all the space-based detritus that will inevitably follow humanity wherever it goes in the cosmos.
Building instructions are available and there’s much more of Nico’s 42180 B-Model to see via his Brickshelf gallery. Click here to take a closer look, the second link above to check out Nico’s Master MOCer interview here at The Lego Car Blog, and finally you can watch his latest creation in action via the video below.
YouTube Video
Speeding By
TLCB Staff may not know much about sci-fi, speeder bikes, or beautifully built trees, but they can still be enthralled by them despite their ignorance. Cue SweStar‘s gorgeous speeder bike vignette, titled simply ‘Tree’, and featuring a wonderfully constructed contraption hovering over the surface of the water. There’s more of the creation to see at SweStar’s photostream, and you can take a look via the link in the text above, even if you know as little about sci-fi as we do.
Pew! Pew! Kablamo!
Or alternatively – because this is taking place in the vacuum of space – silence… But we suspect even there you’ll still be able to hear appalling George Lucas movie dialogue.
Anyway, this nerdiest-of-all-scenes comes from Flickr’s Tim Goddard, and there’s more to see of his delightfully explody TIE Fighter and the X-Wing wot did it at his photostream. Nerd-out via the link above.
Roving Big
Febrovery, the annual building bandwagon in which ground-based science-fiction vehicles take over Flickr, is complete for another year. Which means it’s complete here too, which is good news for TLCB Team – who are uniformly crap at sci-fi – but not before we have one final rover to showcase. And what a rover it is.
Measuring 117 studs in length and riding on eight enormous tyres from the 42054 Claas Xerion 5000 amongst other Technic sets, Scott Wilhelm’s ‘Ridiculously Oversized Vehicular Element Repository’ features remote control drive and steering (via XL and L Power Functions motors), a working cargo crane, five airlock doors, a retractable solar array, a fully fitted interior, and spectacular internal and external LED lighting.
More pictures are due to follow, but until they do you can check out this one at Scott’s photostream via the link above. Until next year, happy roving!
Moon Meth
Cosmic Crystal. Space Speed. Galactic Gak. Lunar Cookie. It’s absolutely definitely not what is going on inside Thomas of Tortuga‘s exquisitely-rendered ‘Humbert Radar Vehicle’.
Board your Rocket Ship* to join the cook via the link above!
*Yes, we have just Googled slang words for methamphetamine and turned them spacey.
Colour My Rover
TLCB Staff, being curmudgeonly bores, think that Rovers are old British cars of increasing mediocrity. The Online Lego Community however, thinks the word means something far more whimsical.
2024’s ‘Febrovery‘ – wherein dozens of extraordinary planetary exploration vehicles are constructed – is well underway, and we have another two wonderfully diverse rovers-of-the-spacey-type here today.
The first (above) is the delightfully hued ‘Greeble Transport Rover’, built to carry the tiny grey pieces that make up the most science-fictiony parts of spaceships. Ironically needing none itself, the ‘Greeble Transport Rover’ is instead a riot of colour, and there’s more to see courtesy of Febrovery veteran Frost.
Our second rover (below) forgoes the colour of Frost’s machine replacing it with earthy greys. Four sets of tracks and a great many triangles complete the utilitarian look, and there’s more to see of Horcik Designs‘ ‘Rover Expedition Ready’ at his photostream on Flickr.
Click the final two links above to see more of each rover, and the first if you fancy checking out the Febrovery building bonanza in full, where there’s not an old British car to be found anywhere. We promise.
Horse Tracking
The early design philosophy of LEGO’s Classic Space theme was to take an item of mundane earthly equipment, paint it grey, and add a satellite dish. Cue Dump trucks, mini-diggers, floor-buffers, and – in this case – a horse-box and trailer.
Taking LEGO’s 452 ‘Mobile Ground Tracking Station’ (aka Space Horsebox), Flickr’s Frost (aka TFDesigns!) has rebooted the vintage set with parts four decades newer, to marvellous effect.
Opening the rear reveals no horse, but handily there’s an array of delightfully spacey equipment available to track one down.
There’s more of Frost’s fantastic 452 Redux to see at his photostream, and you can join the Classic Space shenanigans via the link above.
Cyber Monday
Febrovery might be raging, but sci-fi builds don’t have to have wheels. Cue previous bloggee Rubblemaker, whose trio of M-Tron spacecraft update the vintage LEGO theme to a new, and frankly rather weird, place.
From left to right there’s the ‘M:OTH‘, designed to chop through vegetation like a giant space salad-maker, the ‘SALAMANDER‘, so called because it looks exactly nothing like a salamander, and the ‘CHOMP‘, which uses the power of crystals to harvest magnetic particles, much like Tina doing yoga in her van.
There’s more to see of each unearthly creation on Flickr, and you can make the jump to space via the links above.
Mega Rover
Febrovery is back for another year, when the Online Lego Community comes together to build various planetary roving vehicles in innumurable styles and themes.
This is spaceruner‘s, a small 6×6 single-occupant articulated pick-up, used to transport various spacey items and/or whatever crystals LEGO have determined are part of the plot this week.
Oh, and it also comes with a gigantic 10×10 mobile command centre.
Yes, spaceruner’s entry for this year’s Febrovery includes a rover (and several other small craft) within its enormity. Manned by a crew of eight, with a vast interior, landing pad, crane, plus a wide assortment of tools, vehicles, and other space-related accompaniments, spaceruner’s astonishing Spyrius ‘CX-1 Basilisk’ is one of the most impressive sci-fi creations we’ve ever seen.
A spectacular array of imagery showcases the creation superbly, and there’s more to see of spaceruner’s rover (and the mobile command centre if that’s what you’re into) on Flickr. Click the link above to make the jump.
