Sci-fi builders, do you prefer angles or curves

[Aanchir]

Like it's been said, comes down to PT vs OT for me. (Everything seems to lead there... )

Well, it depends on the feel the theme is trying to bring. If it's alien kinda stuff, curves, if human, angled. SPIII kinda went the opposite way, but I prefer the former.

When I think of it, I think of it more in good vs. evil terms. "Good" spaceships tend to be sleek and shiny, whereas "evil" ones are jagged and muscular. This was the case in many sets from the first year of Exo Force. But then again, TLG has demonstrated now with Alien Conquest that organizing it based on the origin of the spaceships also works.

In general, though, angular vehicles lend themselves to a grittier, more realistic look, while sleek ones speak to a pure and idealized view of advanced technology in the future. Whether you want your bad guys to have the ideal technology-- and thus, appear more threatening-- or have your good guys have the ideal technology as a reflection of their sense of beauty and virtue is up to the designer and/or storyteller.

I personally feel that Exo-Force made sense with sleek human vehicles and clunky robot vehicles was a great way of showing how the humans have strong ideals and values while the robots have base and practical instincts. Also, with robots as the foes, it made sense that the more organic faction would have more organic shapes to their designs.

Likewise, Space Police III's use of sleeker vehicles for the humans seemed appropriate to me-- the Space Police have long been established as having the fastest ships in the galaxy, and furthermore I liked how the police vehicles had the same sort of sleek design as a Ford Crown Victoria police interceptor while the bad guys had the angular designs of muscle cars. Which isn't to say that people with muscle cars are all bad guys, of course.

Alien Conquest's reversal of this may be more realistic than those two themes, but at the same time it appeals to me less on an emotional level. That's just my perspective, though.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

It all depends. Sometimes, I like the classic looks of angles. This if I want a more classic look, maybe even reminiscent of old sci-fi films. Other times, however, it is nice to see curves because they look more futuristic. I guess I like both, but depending on the kind of model, I can prefer one over the other.

[Rook]

I think don’t limit yourself.

[CP5670]

I like both but tend to use mostly angles in my own builds. I think an angular style generally fits in better with the studded look of Lego, but occasional curves do create a nice contrast from the angles.

True.I think this whole question stemmed from my dislike of the round bubble canopies.

Silly, I know.

I'm not a big fan of those either. The top side often doesn't interface with the rest of the Lego system and they don't combine well in multiples as the old angular ones did, like on the SP2 sets.

Edited September 9, 2011 by CP5670

[fr33manator]

I'm not a big fan of those either. The top side often doesn't interface with the rest of the Lego system and they don't combine well in multiples as the old angular ones did, like on the SP2 sets.

Right, once you have a bubble canopy, that's it. I absolutely love the old octagonal canopies with the studs on top. so many great possibilities. I had to go buy a bunch off Bricklink for the faction I am working on.

[Aanchir]

I disagree about bubble canopies. In the case of the ones used in Atlantis, they all have a semi-circular cross section around the midpoint, meaning a typical LEGO arch piece can be used over top of them. I used this technique in my D2C contest entry.

They might not have studs on them, but neither did a lot of traditional windscreens such as 4474, 2507, or 2483, the third of which was pretty bubbly itself. And some of today's bubble windscreens are arguably more System-compatible than these in that they attach by studs or by common clip-and-handle hinges, rather than by the rather limited hinge styles of some older hinged windscreens

The octagonal studded canopies were indeed excellent, and I love how they were used in Blacktron II to create circular "bubble cockpits". I have tried to replicate this with more modern windscreen pieces for Blacktron III MOCs, to little avail. But saying that older cockpits interfaced better with the rest of the LEGO system seems to be a big generalization. At best, their bottom surfaces tended to be easier to match due to usually being based on common wedge elements, and even this didn't apply to all windscreen pieces in themes like Aquazone.

Now, with that said, I think TLG would be doing fans in general a great favor if they were to introduce concave curved slopes to go over parts like this and this. This could allow for very interesting spacecraft shapes, as well as making curved windscreens based on those sorts of curves more versatile.

[Brickdoctor]

Now, with that said, I think TLG would be doing fans in general a great favor if they were to introduce concave curved slopes to go over parts like this and this. This could allow for very interesting spacecraft shapes, as well as making curved windscreens based on those sorts of curves more versatile.

Not to mention making new SNOT patterns possible.