Happy FebRovery!

We are nearly three quarters of the way through the fine LEGO month of FebRovery. For those unaware the month of FebRovery was added to the LEGO calendar in 2012, and is a month long celebration of the humble space rover. Real life rovers helped us explore the Moon and Mars, I miss the long lived Opportunity Mars rover already. LEGO rovers have helped us explore the wide realms of imagination since the early days of Classic Space. Rovers built for the FebRovery event, fall roughly into three categories, homages to classic LEGO sets, hard sci-fi delights, and my favorite the wonderfully weird, wacky, and whimsical. Instead of a single focus like most BrickNerd post I’m going to share several of these unique build.

First up is Tim Henderson’s 0031TY.  This one is a bit of a tongue in cheek alt build from a rather famous light freighter. The tallness of the model makes me smile, likely because it reminds me of something that would be on the cover of a 50’s or 60’s era sci-fi short story collection

Next is David Roberts’ rather interesting take on a 4 wheeled vehicle. A unicycle with a revolving three wheeled stabilizing set up. Check out his flickr feed he’s taken FebRovery as a daily challenge. 

Space Sharks need a way to get around too. The Fishtron ATR the Watertower is a swank tripod style rover, that would definitely five some Wells’ style Martians a run for their money.  Built by Frost’s who is also attempting a daily rover build approach.

The final rover is massive, Benny's Monorail Manufacturing Modular Mobile Moonbase or Benny’s Mmmmm .  While not posted to the FebRovery group this build by Blair Archer definitely shares the weird and wacky rover feel I like.  It’s tall and gangly, with a great crane arm and bins for monorail parts.

So often we take our subjects too seriously and forget that sometimes a little whimsy can go a long way. Whimsy plus a well-executed build can bring a lot of joy to this world and one of the reasons I love our hobby.

Truc9

I see sci-fi vehicles pretty much every day (and mechs, so many mechs) so it takes something special to stand out. The color combination and unusual shape of this otherworldly vehicle by builder VolumeX caught my eye. And unless this thing is exploring an especially yellow planet, it’s going to stand out wherever it goes.

Rover

I don't know what I love more, this excellent little rover diorama from builder Tigmon74, or the fact that his title and description is "Intergalactic, Planetary... Planetary, Intergalactic. ~Beastie Boys". I don't remember a rover being in that video, but I appreciate it replacing that damn song from Godspell stuck in my head this morning. Another dimension, another dimension...

MCU Rover

Space is a dangerous place. Let's face it, without a significant amount of technology humans would simply be frozen meatsicles floating around the void. Luckily we're reasonably clever, and in the future we can look forward to tooling around distant planet surfaces in machines like this awesome behemoth by hhcBrick. I don't know what they're collecting and I don't care, I just want to go for a ride.

Lunar Meetup

Builder dvdliu proposes an interesting scenario. What if two lunar explorers were to meet up for a friendly vehicle exchange? We have a classic Apollo type lunar rover, and a very retro spaceship, personally speaking I think the ship is probably more fun, but I'd have a blast taking either for a spin.

NCS "Sobriety"

Yes, Febrovary is here, time to explore other planets. And when it's time to hit the craters, Benny likes to do it in style. In this beauty by Priovit70 he can do that, and keep superior traction with it's four independent tracks. Not only that, but according to the specs this thing has a whopping 5000 horses! I think it's a good thing sound doesn't travel in a vacuum.

Mega Core Vehicle Platform

FebRovary is here, and builder ZCerberus is back with an ultra-flexible and humungous neo classic space offering. This is the M.C.V.P, or Mego Core Vehicle Platform, a multi-use, reconfigurable lunar vehicle with a multitude of variants. Here you see it in a couple of configurations, including a BrickNerd exclusive double ion cannon and twin phased pulse rail gun mode. Check out more configurations and the whole story on Eurobricks.

Warthog

There's a whole lotta NPU going on in this new little gem from Karf Oohlu. The first thing that grabbed my attention was the use of the saddle as a cockpit, that's some inspired thinking. Then I started looking all over the vehicle, the wheel configuration, the use of the handcuffs, the color scheme. It's a unique and compelling vehicle, in a surprisingly small package.

Lunar Rover

If you're going to go roving on the lunar surface, you're gonna need a few things. Oxygen, or it's going to be a short trip. Insulation, there's a 200º difference between light and shadow there. Power, likely from batteries but certainly not from a gas engine. And traction, the surface is like that clumpy ash that forms in the bottom of your BBQ. That last part will be no problem for this brilliant classic space rover MOC by The Solitary Dark. Inspired by the tires of his Tamiya Boomerang RC car, the wheels of this rover are the standout feature. and should have plenty of grip trekking over the craters.

Proteus Rover

FebRovery is almost over, but cool spacefaring rovers are still coming in, like this way cool dual driver model from builder TrapleS. There's a realistic quality to this rover, while still looking very slick. It reminds me of the rover in The Martian, which was based on proper research and consultation with NASA and JPL (with an added touch of Hollywood design of course).

Two Builders Enter...

That's right brick fans, another Iron Builder is here. This one pits One More Brick against Jonas and it's going to be a good one. This round the seed part is the silver Technic connector, which is a super versatile part so I'm guessing we're all in for a heck of a competition. Grab some popcorn and sit back, let the battle begin!

Rover

We see a lot of rovers in the AFOL community and on Flickr. I can understand why, space is a classic theme, and everyone loves a fun space build. But with all those rovers being made it's hard to stand out, so I tend to overlook them quite often. Then I see this awesome rover by TrapleS. It does sorta look like the mars rover got busy with a light bulb, but that's what I love about it.

LL26 Seeker

I grew up with Classic Space, so I've been enjoying the almost daily re-imagined versions of the original sets.  But what's really nifty are the completely new designs, like this rover by Chris Perron.  First thing I noticed were those tires.  They look like the multiple airbag wheels actually used by the various space agencies.  Plus it looks wicked fast! 

Crystal Voyager

Now this is the way to rove. Imagine the unobstructed 360º view as you traverse an alien world in this bubble rover from Karf Oohlu. Although, after seeing some of the mischief LA drivers get up to, I'm not certain unobstructed views are necessarily a good thing.

LL-931

Lego Junkie is no stranger to this blog, but he is somewhat of a stranger to neo classic space. But for the Interstellar Outpost Contest on Flickr, he has gone NCS, and the results speak for themselves. The off-center cockpit is actually a contest rule, and should make for some very interesting entries. It's done to perfection in this little fighter.

Out For A Spin In The Federation Rover

One of the peculiarities lunar astronauts experienced while visiting our moon was a lack of scale and distance while on the surface. Without classic depth cues like atmosphere they had some difficulty gauging distance and size of objects. Well premiere space builder and all around swell guy Pete Reid's latest MOC is capable if a similar peculiarity. At first glance it looks like a cute, classic rover with trailers. That is until you start looking closer and recognize some of the parts. That's actually a flashlight fig piloting that rover, and that lovely base is actually two studs deep. The whole thing is far bigger than you first expected huh? Brilliant.