What happens when a lifelong Trekkie, AFOL and professional toy designer finally gets an official LEGO Star Trek playset? Samuel Hatmaker explores the new Enterprise bridge and shows why playing Star Trek matters as much as displaying it.
Read MoreLEGO Star Trek: the final frontier. These are the stories of Samuel Hatmaker. Their mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out and create community wherever they go, to boldly go where no builder has gone before.
Read More“To Boldly Go Where No One Has Gone Before!” (Except nebulae, because they really mess with the equipment). With four, yes, four, warp nacelles, Ben Smith’s USS Jefferies can navigate the nastiest nebula. Since transporters can be a bit dicey in there, too, he’s got the Mary-Ann landing ship which slips snugly onto the dorsal hull just above the shuttle bay. Well, Ben, that’s some serious three-dimensional thinking!
Builder Ben Smith is back with another stellar Starfleet build. Welcome aboard NCC 1503, The USS Fontana. Seeing this ship, especially these well crafted composite shots of it, immediately puts me in a Star Trek mood. I can hear the music, sound effects. I can see the motion in my imagination, they’re right out of a movie, and I want to be in a darkened theater right now watching it.
Every good story needs a good villain, and the Klingons have always been pretty good villains. While the Federation may be only interested in exploring strange new worlds (and hooking up with the local babes, let’s face it), the Klingon Empire is having none of that. Just try to enter the neutral zone and you’ll be staring down a few of these bad boys. This is the Klingon Battle Cruiser, by builder Ben "Spaceship!" Smith, it’s here to blow you up. Qapla'!
Where Star Trek shines is in how Gene Roddenberry reflected humanity back through the other races: Vulcans and pure logic, the conflict driven Klingons, the military industrial complex of the Romulans, the greed of the Ferengi, the techno hive zombies that are the Borg. So many good philosophical questions are explored with each race, but I especially enjoy the Borg. Some Borg themes I see are the meaning of individuality, the good of the many vs the few, the cost of war, and the need for hope. Martin Latta captures a Borg vs the Enterprise D encounter in a small vignette. The shape of Federation vessels is challenging to capture at any scale, but he nails the NCC-1701-D and the repetitive use of grille plates, jumpers, and single studs captures the super greebled Borg cube exterior without overdoing it at this scale. Well done, Mr. Latta, set course for Wolf 359 warp 9. Engage.
While on your five year mission to explore strange new worlds and seek out new life and new civilizations, occasionally you're going to have to make an away trip. The shuttle, like this one from builder stephann001, is the perfect craft for this. It's your transportation, your shelter and your communications center all in one. We must caution you on jersey color selection though, we highly recommend NOT wearing red.
Since I haven't seen the new Star Trek series (because CBS sucks and only has it on their own awful online service) I have to admit I didn't know if this was an official design when I first saw it. After reading Ben "Spaceship!" Smith's description I see it's an entirely original design, but the fact that I couldn't tell just says how good this is. The presentation is stellar too (see what I did there?).
To celebrate the upcoming 30th anniversary of Star Trek The Next Generation (gawd I'm old, I was in high school when it premiered) TBB's own Ochre Jelly decided to take us to the holodeck, where things never went horribly wrong. Like that time that infamous character builder got trapped in there and his doppleganger got out and started building with minifigs (yeah, pretty far fetched).
The moment I saw this I heard those familiar four chimes of the start of the Star Trek theme. Don't bother trying to figure out what film or series this is from, it's fan designed, but that doesn't mean it's not 100% Trek. Builder threeDadventures based this design on concept art by Ryan Denning, and it looks right out of one of the movies. Beautifully designed, expertly built and eminently swooshable.
For those who don't already know, that's Klingon for "Success!" And that's what my pal Kevin J. Walter must have exclaimed when he finally finished this awesome Bird of Prey. It's his all-time favorite spaceship, and the project took him six years to complete. The goal was to have it finished by the end of the year for the Star Trek 50th Anniversary. Just in the nick of time, Kevin, you old Targ!
Fifty years ago the intrepid crew of the starship Enterprise embarked on a five year mission, and have been going strong ever since. I was a late bloomer to Star Trek fandom, although I did watch occasionally when I was a kid, it wasn't until I was 18 when my roommate and I had a nightly routine of watching that I became a fan. And I'm certainly not alone, as you can see by this small collection of MOCs from over the years. This is just the tip of the iceberg, do yourself a favor and boldly go Google "LEGO Star Trek", it's totally worth it. Live long and prosper Star Trek!
For Brickworld 2016, VLUG opted to scale things back a bit from previous years, and focus more on individual creativity. What better way to accomplish that goal than to build our own Mini-Land Plus Putt-Putt golf course! Fearless leader Dave Kaleta took the helm again. But unlike the Wizard of Oz collaboration which required very specific scenes and exacting standards, this year's concept left a lot up to the individual builders. As long as you had your tee box and a path, you were good to go. So from Cthulhu to Gamma Trianguli VI, the VLUG crew certainly didn't disappoint!
Photos in the slideshow courtesy of Dave Kaleta, and one by Mrs. Barto of the Sand Castle scene. There's also a nice Beyond the Brick tour with Dave. He highlights each builder and their themes, plus you can see the mechanical action featured in several of the holes.
One of the real crowd pleasers at BrickWorld Chicago was VirtuaLUG's Miniland Putt Putt collaboration, and one of the contributors was BrickNerd's own El Barto. This is his Star Trek inspired segment of the course, inspired by the episode The Apple. I haven't played miniature golf in ages, but if the courses where more like this, I think I'd be more inclined to go...because Vaal calls to me. Let us go to him. He hungers...for balls.
I always love it when someone builds a good life-size movie prop, and this original Star Trek phaser by buriedbybricks is a great example. Although I wasn't around when the original Star Trek TV show and movies were showing, I still quite like it at times. Sure, the effects are a little old and the cardboard sets are wobbly, but it was a huge step in science fiction entertainment and was sometimes quite impressive. Similarly, this model is old (the builder says he built it in 2010) but excellent. The shaping is splendid and there's lots of great detail.
When I was fresh out of high school an old buddy of mine and I moved into his parent's rental house here in town. We had no furniture, no money and no clue, but we were pretty happy. Our nightly ritual at 11pm was to grab a Klondike bar, plop down on our crappy couch, and watch a classic episode of Star Trek. It was really the first time I watched it on a regular basis, and I became a fan. Now whenever I see images from the classic series, like this wonderful pair of mini ships from derjoe, I can't help but think back to those simpler days.
What fun is a starship without an enemy to fight? Builder Riskjockey thought the same thing apparently, and has paired up a classic Klingon Battlecruiser to go with his excellent Enterprise he completed last year. The scale of these is so appealing, they're just begging to be swooshed.
Generally speaking I don't blog a builder twice in one day, or even the next day for that matter. Then Legopard had to go and whip this baby out. One of my favorite foods being sold out of a cart themed after one of my favorite franchises built out of my favorite toy to enter a contest for one of my favorite websites run by some of my favorite people on the planet. How could I not?
Builder SPARKART is here to help us transition out of our recent Star Wars-centric programming with this this mashup. Piloted by Captain James T. Solo and Spockbacca, the Millennium Enterprise is on a five year mission in a galaxy far, far away. Boldly going where no man has gone before in less than 12 parsecs.
Star Trek: The Next Generation had some pretty cool tech in it. I'll admit at first I hated these phasers, but over the years they've grown on me (and I have a toy one in the attic). This prop replica by eldeeem isn't quite the right scale according to the builder, but you can't tell from the photograph, it looks spot on and quite cool.
September has arrived with a fresh selection of LEGO contests and challenges. Don’t miss your chance to build a MOC and maybe even win some awesome LEGO prizes. With SHIPtember, the Brick Train Awards, and the return of the BrickLink Designer Program, there’s plenty of inspiration to start building!
Why is this small, shiny LEGO chrome cup so expensive? And why is it so beloved (and hoarded) by builders of GBC modules? Today, we explore the legend of the chrome cup.
LEGO waterfalls are magical because they are both a memorizing moment frozen in time and also incredibly varied in how to build them. Here are some LEGO waterfall techniques from around the AFOL community, but be warned, you might get wet!
Ever wonder what goes into the design of LEGO set packaging? BrickNerd has you covered as we dive into the rules, standards and design sensibilities that go into creating an appealing product for store shelves.
What happens when a lifelong Trekkie, AFOL and professional toy designer finally gets an official LEGO Star Trek playset? Samuel Hatmaker explores the new Enterprise bridge and shows why playing Star Trek matters as much as displaying it.
We spoke with several Autistic AFOLs who shared their experiences with LEGO regarding coping, community, collecting and catharsis. And we found that Autism can be both a challenge and a superpower when it comes to LEGO.
What do you do when a LEGO Pokémon set doesn’t quite hit the mark? Take it apart and create an alternate build using only the pieces from the original set! But how do you level up a character as recognizable as Pikachu?
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