Posted by
Dan
at
11:33 PM
| Name of Model: LGM Flying Saucer |
| Created by: Repoort / Adam Hally |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/repoort/sets/72157625187222592/with/5092238094/ |
Details:  A little green man needs a flying saucer. As far as I know, the little green men from Toy Story don't really have flying saucers, but this design seems like it would be perfect. From above, it looks like a claw picking up the alien, just like in the movie. The skid plates on the rim (not to mention the Robo-Attack cockpit) give this a charming retro-futurist look. Then there's the technique for making this round - although it's just a simple click-hinge approach, this is one of those rare places where that actually looks good. The gaps between the 16 sides add a believable amount of texture to the ship - and the sections actually come close enough together by the cockpit. Since the cockpit appears to actually be closed, it's believable that this could contain an atmosphere for the alien to breathe while he's travelling in space. I know that LEGO doesn't prioritize that in official sets, but it really is a sign of a spaceship designed to travel (open cockpit vessels just can't get you that far - no matter how good your classic space air tanks are).
On a related note, the builder also has compiled a buyer's guide for use in keeping track of set prices and price-per-part. My printout of it comes in handy when browsing in places that sell LEGO sets for above the regular price (yes, I know there's an app for that, but some of us are too cheap for that - and for us, the buyer's guide is a godsend).
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Posted by
Dan
at
6:53 PM
| Name of Model: One for the Road |
| Created by: legoloverman (Peter Reid) |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38509565@N00/5029063347/ |
Details:  Maersk LEGO sets have never been easy to come by. Since a special color of LEGO brick is manufactured for use in these sets, they're highly prized among LEGO hobbyists - the slightly greenish shade of light blue is useful in a variety of settings. On those rare occasions when Maersk-colored parts are available to the public, they're quickly bought up for use in larger creations. The popularity of the bricks leads to extras of the stickers being available. Naturally, the challenge then becomes finding models to use the stickers. Microscale Maersk models have been done before, but this one seems particularly realistic and compelling. The builder has a nearly magic touch when it comes to greebling on very small space vehicles.
See also: the same builder's latest Maersk spaceship.
| | This is Thursday's model of the day |
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Posted by
Dan
at
11:14 PM
| Name of Model: moonbase |
| Created by various people, but today's photos are offered on flickr by: jonpalmer |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bumcrush/sets/72157624888198989/with/5015218913/ |
Details:  LEGO Space fans have a hard time putting together group layouts. They, understandably, used to feel pretty left out when fans of other evergreen themes put together large collaborative set-ups - while there are relatively simple ways to set up town layouts or giant castle battle scenes, it's not terribly easy to create a space layout as a group. The Moonbase standard is an attempt at creating a standard for a large, planet-based space station so that LEGO conventions can include a cohesive giant Space display. Inevitably, there are still more spaceships than will really fit on the layout, but it's still the best way for space-loving builders to work together and create something enormous.
While the popularity of moonbase has waxed and waned over the years (primarily as a result of the moonbase website being available on a less-than-consistent basis), it retains a presence at seemingly every convention of adult fans of LEGO (or "AFOLs"). Now, the photos explaining how to build in this standard are saved in the flickr set I'm featuring today. If you're registered for an upcoming LEGO convention, you no longer have "I can't find the standard!" as an excuse for not joining in the space-y fun. |
| This is Sunday's model of the day |
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Posted by
Dan
at
12:39 AM
| Name of Model: Containment - Rebuilt |
| Created by: Tyler Clites (Legohaulic) |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/legohaulic/4951850724/ |
Details:  Remember the Containment layout that was unveiled at this year's BrickWorld? It's been re-done at a smaller scale. This was necessary in order to make that giant two-person layout fit comfortably on one person's shelf. Sadly, this meant removing some of the features - no lights, sound, or movement in this microscale version (yes - we seem to have found an application that would require a still smaller iPod ). In spite of that, though, a surprising amount of detail was able to be squeezed back in, and the layout is fairly recognizable. | | This is Saturday's model of the day |
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Posted by
Dan
at
4:51 PM
| Name of Model: Classic Space Mosaic |
| Created by yours truly, photo by: Joe Meno |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/brickjournal/4586335406/in/photostream/ |
Details:  Earlier this year, I finished stocking up on transparent and translucent Pick-A-Brick elements well enough to actually build something. Noticing the large amount of trans-red and trans-yellow I'd amassed, I decided to build a mosaic of the LEGO Classic Space logo. LEGO used the classic logo for the space line from 1978 to 1989, but it also appears in some newer sets as an "easter egg" for fans of the original line. The transparent and translucent parts allow it to catch the light. I'm not entirely sure I'm happy with the design of the little ship I used here, but hey - it's LEGO, I can always change it.
This model will be on display at BrickFair 2010.
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Posted by
Dan
at
4:21 PM
| Name of Model: Containment |
| Created by: Tyler Clites (Legohaulic) and Nannan Zhang (Nannan Z.) |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1407088@N25/pool/ |
Details:  This epic model was built for Brickworld, which is going on right now and continues tomorrow in Chicago, Illinois. I'm afraid I've taken too long to post this for anyone to head over there during public hours today, but this (and hundreds of other fantastic LEGO models) will also be on display tomorrow (Sunday) from 10 AM to 3 PM. This model includes many interesting features, any one of which would have qualified as a blog-worthy on their own. Sand green soccer field plates are used sideways to create the walls of the buildings in the complex. One corner features a spectacular crashed spaceship diorama, curved nicely (probably with click hinges) and surrounded by a crater. An obscene amount of bricks with grooves on them make up- most of the track for a motorized monorail. Inside a few of the towers, there's a simple ball contraption - one tower brings Bionicle Zamor spheres up an elevator, and ramps bring the spheres back and forth. A carefully assembled scrap pile sits in front of a conveyor belt that looks like it's unloading pieces onto the pile (the belt is motorized, but the pieces are stuck to the belt). The buildings features large dark tan roadways connecting them, and elsewhere we see a Bionicle canister lid and two Pick-a-Brick cups used as part of the building. They also made up a storyline for the minifigures in this diorama, which is hinted at in "teaser" photos. There's also a video where you can see some of the motorized bits in action and hear the music from the iPod built into the base. Oh, did I even mention that this thing is in sand green and dark tan? |
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Posted by
Dan
at
4:00 AM
| Name of Model: LL1005-31 Tortoon |
| Created by: T.Oechsner |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toechsner/tags/ncs/ |
Details:  The world of neo-Classic Space is alive and well, and people are still building new spaceships for it on a regular basis. Believe it or not, people are still coming up with original ideas to work with the limited amount of trans-yellow cockpits out there. This model in particular makes great use of greebling techniques. The "wings" are another fairly unusual feature - they're not solid, and are built entirely out of hinges and greebling. The overall effect is an imposing presence even with a fairly small body to the spacecraft itself. The links above include a larger gallery of 140+ photos of various neo-classic space models in addition to the four photos of today's model. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
11:30 PM
| Name of Model: Blacktron Intelligence Agency |
| Created by: bdarrow |
Details: 
Note that I skipped the "Found At" links in the section I usually fill in above. That's because this model is so huge, it requires its own round-up style post. This very large layout is only ever seen at LEGO fan conventions - it cannot be assembled in its creators own home. As it grew over the years, it became a legend on it's own. Known as the Blacktron Intelligence Agency (BIA for short), it's the ultimate in fully assembled cities for official LEGO themes (this is based on the original 1987 Blacktron line).
Here are some Brickshelf galleries by the builder showing how it grew over time:
BIA circa 2004
BIA circa 2005
BIA circa 2005 July
BIA circa 2006
BIA circa 2007
BIA circa 2008
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Posted by
Dan
at
2:34 AM
| Name of Model: Project Europa |
| Created by: Doctor Sinister |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorsinister/sets/72157622572985744/ |
Details:  This is a SHIP. Contrary to popular opinion, the term "SHIP" does not refer to the fact that this is a spaceship. See, SHIP is really an acronym - it stands for Seriously Huge Investment in Parts, as in, "building this out of LEGO will require a Seriously Huge Investment in Parts". With a large old grey hull, this spaceship definitely qualifies. There is no messing with this level of dedication to the classic space theme. Naturally, photographing a SHIP this large also requires a ton of photos - sorry if the 223 in this flickr set are a bit much for one day. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
4:00 AM
| Name of Model: Tomakon starfighter |
| Created by: thire5 |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thire5/4390479608/ , http://www.flickr.com/photos/thire5/4390479660/in/photostream/ , and http://www.flickr.com/photos/thire5/4390479726/in/photostream/ |
Details:
 There are plenty of fairly rare colors that seem to be all-too-common in pieces that aren't terribly useful. Sure, we all find uses for various strange parts once in a while, but it seems like there are always some parts that you can't find uses for. People who don't like buying new kits with lots of difficult parts (like the Bionicle theme is for most of us) just don't try these things out. Then there's thire5, who used some dark green and dark bluish grey Bionicle parts from a Toa Mahri Kongu to build this awesome spaceship. Single-seating fighters are a popular subject of LEGO creations, and many of them strain to properly fit a minifigure ("fits a fig!" is a common cry among "spacers"). This model cleverly uses various wedge plates with cutouts (it's a strange part to describe, here's an example of it) to make the edges of the cockpit and leave enough space for the minifigure's arms. Between the really little Space Police II cockpit (I can't recall an official set that used it for an enclosed cockpit that fit a 'fig) and the well-used Bionicle detailing, this is easily the most innovative original spaceship I've seen in some time. Did I mention it uses the fairly rare and difficult to use color of dark green?
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Posted by
Dan
at
11:38 PM
| Name of Model: Akkada 5 Ground Base |
| Created by: KryptonHeidt |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kryptonheidt/4477469008/ |
Details:
 Some people, believe it or not, have a hard time using DUPLO parts in their creations. Even though LEGO intentionally makes DUPLO parts to work with the smaller standard size parts, many people are either unaware of this or uninterested in taking advantage of it. On the other hand, though, there are people who are willing to take the most outrageous DUPLO pieces and find ways to use them. In one particularly dark time for the DUPLO line, LEGO tried to rebrand it as "LEGO Explore". When parents and grandparents who aren't familiar with LEGO got confused and stopped buying LEGO as a result, LEGO quickly changed back to calling it DUPLO on the box art (the writing on top of the studs still says "LEGO" instead of "DUPLO" though - that part of the change stuck). The Explore theme had some particularly unusual subthemes: Explore Logic brought us simple programmable toys, Explore Together brought us playsets designed for multiple people, Explore Being Me brought us (apparently) educational kits and a reissue of Primo, and Explore Imagination brought us both more "normal" DUPLO sets and a series of music-making kits. Needless to say, this last subtheme is where most of the fun was. The music-making kits seem to be one of those rare items that won't really connect to "normal" parts (you build onto the music-making kits by using plugs and cartridges specially designed for them). The controls for the music-makers could be a bit annoying - the Music Twister (used in this model) in particular only allow you to "twist" a tone while a pre-programmed song plays. Some people complain that this makes the Music Twister parts "useless" (or obnoxious, especially in the hands of a real toddler), but they are wrong - see, you can use it to build an awesome space colony! Just add silos, radar dishes, a spaceman, and greebling. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
4:00 AM
| Name of Model: Duplospace |
| Created by: L.D.M. |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ltdemartinet/4402701434/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/ltdemartinet/4401946159/in/photostream/ |
Details:
 Here's an unusual way of building with DUPLO - building a small frame out of the smaller ordinary pieces, and using a Technic band to hold a layer of DUPLO on top without really attaching the pieces. The effect comes off surprisingly well. That small surprise is what makes this "spiff" style spaceship work well, but more traditional combinations of DUPLO parts and smaller LEGO parts show up here as well, such as taps inside of studs, and 'normal' bricks attached to studs on DUPLO bricks (yes - DUPLO was designed to do that all along, you should stop calling them "baby blocks" now). The curved DUPLO parts can be a bit more difficult to mix into creations, but I'd say this one pulled it off. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
4:00 AM
| Name of Model: LIU - Napu Art Museum |
| Created by: Emperor Ludgonious |
| Found at: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/186983 |
Details:
 There are quite a few interesting challenges one can take when constructing a large building out of LEGO parts. You could try making it in Space with unusual size, with certain types of artwork or architectural details...the possibilities are endless. In this case, we have a large, well-designed art museum in Space. Naturally, there are plenty of interior photos showing the various pieces of "artwork" that have been carefully constructed with little LEGO pieces. You can guess from the photos how to assemble the various works, but most of them aren't terribly sturdy - they're just laid into place to get the right image to appear. There are some other interesting techniques to pick up here as well - get a look at the front railings, the picture lights, the sideways floors (in most of the photos you can see smooth floors that are actually the sides of bricks) with benches built into them, and the zany sculptures. |
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Posted by
Dan
at
4:00 AM
| Name of Model: Schirra Colony, Mars |
| Created by: -Mainman- |
| Found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mainman/tags/microspace/ |
Details:
 Did you catch that the new Buzz Lightyear kit (7592 Construct-a-Buzz ) comes with a new, rounder clear dome element? It turns out that this new element makes a pretty nice biosphere, handy for all your 8-stud by 9-stud microscale space colony needs (two of the outer section, anyway - the inner section isn't used here and is designed to move upward in the set). That trick, a few nifty buildings, some gorgeous landscaping in dark orange, and a clever 12-tooth-gear-on-levers satellite dish are all it takes to make a surprisingly powerful Martian scene. I've previously enjoyed this builder's work even though I have not featured him before - you can see additional spectacular microscale space creations under the same flickr tag. |
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Posted by
Lego Model of the Day
at
6:14 PM
| Name of Model: Blacktron Falcon | | Created by: Mark Stafford | | Found at: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/131533 | Details:
 I've previously mentioned my feelings about the changing Space Police saga, and many longtime LEGO fans have similar complaints about the lack of Blacktron in the current line. Longtime-fan-turned-company-set-designer Mark Stafford has been occasionally sharing with the public some of his designs recast to fit better with more traditional (and in some cases, more realistic) designs and themes that are less kid-oriented. Not that there's anything wrong with LEGO making kits that are aimed towards kids, but it always helps a set to look attractive if it has great parts and a clever design in addition to play value. Personally, I was thrilled to see that the set designers behind the current Space Police line incorporated graffiti in a way that brought continuity with other LEGO lines (Look closely at some of the ships for stickers that say "Blacktron!" and "I love Insectoids"). This particular model takes the vehicle driven by the "Skull twins" in the current series and replaces them with a Blacktron operative (and enhances the colors and look of the ship appropriately).
Some of my complaints about Blacktron being swapped out for aliens have been rectified in the 2010 line - one new set that's finding its way into stores now features an alien with a torso that cleverly combines classic Blacktron torso designs in the sort of print quality we've gotten used to seeing in kits in recent years (double-sided torsos and slightly heavier printing than when I was little).
Mark Stafford was interviewed not too long ago on The Brothers Brick.
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It was probably inevitable that we'd see Space and steampunk combined eventually. Perhaps the ultimate in retrofuturism, the style of this minifig-scale spacecraft brings to mind a few different eras of sci-fi all while keeping the greebling realistic. The use of color here is surprisingly effective - particularly on the Martian surface. Don't miss the little black ladder either. 
