[BSBA Cat A] [NOT AN ENTRY!!!] Interceptor

[icm]

The contest "Benny's Spaceship Building Academy" sounds like a lot of fun, but I don't have any good ideas for it right now.  As I interpret the prompt, it's basically this: put yourself in the shoes of a kid who gets a set that's really pretty good in its own right, but who really just wants a zippy shoot-em-up spaceship.  Pretend you're that kid and turn that set into the kind of spaceship you wanted, instead of the set you got.  When I was a kid, I got the 7470 Space Shuttle Discovery set.  It was a great model of a Space Shuttle, but it wasn't very swooshable for play and it wasn't built for minifigures, so it was only with difficulty that I could fit the astronaut minifigure I begged off a friend behind the windshield.  For a while, I had the Shuttle carry a little speeder inside the cargo bay and deploy the speeder to chase bad guys, but after a while that grew so cumbersome that I just tore down the set and rebuilt it into a starfighter (with a few extra parts from other sets).  This real-life backstory fits the spirit of the Benny contest, and I'm still pretty proud of the build, so I'm posting it here for your comments and criticism without actually entering the contest.  Is that OK?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Archived content below from April 7, 2018, about a spaceship built from spare parts.

Quote

[April 7, 2018]
 

Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to build something of my own design inspired by Classic Space, but I never felt like I had the right parts - never the right windshields, never the right gray wedge plates, etc.  Lately I've been trying to build something I like digitally, but it's hard to refine that enough to feel like ordering parts is worthwhile.  So last night I decided to just build something out of the parts I had anyway.  This spaceship is loosely inspired by #6931 FX Star Patroller from 1985, adapted to my leftover loose parts from childhood.  It's nothing special, but for the biggest physical MOC I've built since I was 13 I think it turned out pretty well.

Thanks for looking - comments, questions, criticism, and advice are welcomed!

Entire ship in flight mode

Mini-ship in flight mode (all the best turn-of-the-century Lego spaceships split up like this, see 7315, 6776, 6456)

'

Robot and pallet of power cores in cargo bay

Rover, garage, and rear landing gear

[ARCHIVED CONTENT IN QUOTES BELOW]

The quote below contains content posted on June 19, 2017 about a space skiff and a 928 redux.

Quote

Neither of these builds are anything special, but I thought somebody might like to see them.  They're all in two topics to avoid cluttering the forum.  Comments, criticism, and links to similar builds by other people are welcome.

Skiff

A friend has been writing a space adventure novella for his kid.  I thought it would be fun to give the boy a custom Lego kit based on a spaceship in the novella, so I built this in Stud.io a few weeks ago and rendered it with the integrated POV-Ray plugin.  Unfortunately, it's way too expensive for me to actually order the parts and give it to him, so I need to think of another plan for his birthday.  The ship features sprung retractable three-point landing gear, adapted from 10213; variable-geometry wings inspired by SpaceShipTwo, with an actuating mechanism adapted from 9493; movable rudders and elevons for atmospheric flight; black coils under the fuselage for hovering; wing construction inspired by 31309; large gimballed rocket engines with movable flaps above and below; landing gear fairings and a wasp-waisted fuselage; a retractable boarding ramp; an underfloor maintenance area; removable roofs over the cabin and mechanical area; a custom registration number; and 2x2 fully glassed seating for the boy's in-story persona and family, including a big bumbling dog and two evil guinea pigs.  The color scheme, as required by the story, is maroon, gold, and black, with yellow-tinted windows.  All parts are in real colors, so it could be built in the brick if it wasn't so expensive - 1100 parts, mostly in rare colors!  It's probably extremely tail-heavy.

(Front quarter view)

(Rear quarter view)

(Cabin view)

 

Galaxy Explorer redux

Ever since I saw a picture of 928 in Dorling Kindersley's 1998 piece of propaganda The Ultimate Lego Book, I wanted it, but of course I couldn't ask my parents for it.  Last December I thought I could build an improved version using modern pieces more cost-effectively than I could order a used copy from Bricklink, so I build this in Stud.io.  The minifigs, yellow glass, and base plates alone turned out to be so expensive that it ended up being no more expensive to buy the set itself, so I ended up doing that.  It was really 928 I wanted anyway, not this.  But the model isn't half-bad for what it is, I think.  "Improvements" from 928 include two swiveling seats in the cabin, an airlock with two storage compartments, simple three-point retractable landing gear, less prominent and sturdier landing jets on the underside, and a hinged roof for the rover garage so that you don't have to take off a tile and put it back on every time you open and close the garage.  The hardest part was finding a good solution for the wing engines and the tail surfaces, since the fins used in 928 aren't produced anymore.  I think the hanging wing engines turned out pretty well.

(Base cabin)

(Front quarter view)

(Rear quarter view)

(Cabin)

(Garage)

The quote below contains content posted on February 13, 2018 about a concept for another Galaxy Explorer homage.

Quote

Hello, all - I've had my eye on 75186 The Arrowhead for quite some time, but couldn't convince myself to buy it until this idea came to mind.  All the thoughts and pictures behind it are hidden in quotes, so they don't clutter the thread.  The picture quotes come first.

Recently there's been a lot of discussion on this forum about the future of Castle, Space, and Sci-Fi/Action themes, given the dominance of Star Wars and Ninjago and the failure of Castle 2013 and Nexo Knights to capture the interest of many forum members.  To repeat what I said in another thread some time ago, the Freemaker Adventures look to me like TLG's roundabout way of maintaining an in-house Space theme despite the constraints of Star Wars.  Certainly 75186 resembles many large spaceship sets of the past, with its wedge-shaped profile, large rear engine cluster, large aft cargo bay (here holding crystals), and large centered cockpit with tandem seating for several minifigures.  In fact, I've been thinking of it as 2017's equivalent of the famous 928 Galaxy Explorer.  I've been itching to get it, but resisting because a 90-minute build session for a $90 set is awfully expensive entertainment when the kit will just go right in the closet, and it doesn't really satisfy a man's creative impulses.

The Classic Space theme, or those Space sets that were released before the advent of named Space factions, is often seen as oriented towards peaceful exploration, without antagonists of any kind.  The most prominent modern theme without antagonists of any kind is the exploration sub-category of City.  This has featured Arctic explorers, deep sea explorers, space explorers, volcano explorers, and jungle explorers.  Common attributes of these themes include:

• Skilled, cheerful professionals in a hostile environment  
• Main challenges are scientific exploration, pursuit of buried treasure, wild animals
•  Many ground-based and aerial utility vehicles of various sizes 
• Largest sets in the line have either a research base, a large aerial vehicle with a large cargo capacity, or both 
• Design language has clean, simple lines

Many of these characteristics are shared by Classic Space and some succeeding lines like Ice Planet, M-Tron, and Spyrius.  Certainly Classic Space has many ground-based and aerial utility vehicles of all sizes, and most of the big ships have a large cargo bay of some kind.

A common complaint on these forums is that modern themes are too story-driven and too conflict-based.  Sci-fi exploration themes of various styles and settings are often proposed in comments, and many AFOLs dream of a Classic Space revival.  However, if we're honest with ourselves, even a splendidly executed Classic Space revival with well-designed grey/blue/yellow wedge ships at low prices would probably alienate a third of the adult fans for being too similar to the original (rehashes!) and alienate another third for being too different.  Besides, the aesthetic design language of Classic Space is less relevant now than it was then.  It seems to be influenced in more or less equal parts by Star Wars (1977), in the big grey wedge ships of the first wave; by Kubrick & Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in the setting of peaceful exploration of airless, barren moons; and by the generally prevailing aesthetic of 1970s science fiction television shows and movies, in the emphasis on grey greebling.  None of these are strong pillars on which to base the design of a Classic Space-inspired theme today: Star Wars is just as relevant forty years later, but it has its own wildly successful theme which any Neo-Classic Space theme must avoid; modern concepts of near-future space exploration are primarily shaped by the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, which are not the drab, grey, greebled masses imagined in the 1970s; and spacecraft in modern science fiction television and movies are also often sleeker and more colorful.  So, despite my respect for the many talented Neo-Classic Space builders who work in grey greebles with yellow windows and blue hulls, I don't think I'd like to see that in a modern peaceful sci-fi space exploration theme.

Nevertheless, it seems appropriate to use 75186 as the base for a MOC in the style of the kind of Neo-Classic Space theme I'd like to see, since it's a big TLG original spaceship with clear Star Wars influence, released 39 years after the first big TLG original spaceship with clear Star Wars influence, which ship was the largest set of the original Space line.  It seems more appropriate to use 75186 than to use 70816 Benny's Spaceship despite the latter's obvious homage to 928, because that gives the new line more creative freedom to be its own theme and respond to the times, rather than simply imitating the past.  Besides, 75186 is sleek and polished like 928; the messy greebles on 70816 are an homage to Classic Space ships from several years later.  The landing pad and base are built from several copies of 75171 Battle on Scarif, and the concept owes equal parts to 928 Space Cruiser and Moonbase and 60162 Jungle Air Drop Helicopter.  For lack of the means to print custom minifigures, I use three CMF Series 15 astronauts for the spaceship crew and staff the base with minifigures from the Volcano Starter Set, as they give me the best impression of complex, but not overly complex, sci-fi work clothing.  The idea is "City Desert Explorers meets Space," so the staff at the exploration base should mostly be wearing normal desert clothing with a slight but not overly action-oriented sci-fi twist.  However, I'm not quite sure what to do about those minifigures.  Perhaps some satisfactory minifigures could be assembled from Pharoah's Quest, Indiana Jones, or Dino (2012) parts.

Think of this MOC as a concept for a set at the $160 price point.  This is significantly higher than the top price point for past Space themes, but is not unreasonably high for a top-of-the-line playset.  The 60162 Jungle Air Drop Helicopter and 60125 Volcano Heavy Lift Helicopter are priced at $150 for similar features and size.  In Star Wars, the 75190 First Order Star Destroyer, 10198 Tantive IV, 75105 Millennium Falcon, and 75189 First Order Heavy Assault Walker feature price points of $160, $150, $150, and $150, respectively.  The general concept for the theme is as "The Next Generation" to Classic Space's "Original Series," if you'll forgive the Star Trek analogy.  The colors and settings may be different and the lines may be a little cleaner, but the raison d'etre of the explorers is the same and their ships have the same general configuration.  If the Classic Spacers were limited to exploring barren, airless moons close to Earth, the Next Generation has now established outposts on habitable worlds with breathable air; however, they have not yet encountered sentient aliens or begun to face the problems of running a galactic empire.  Think of the landscapes in Forbidden Planet (1957) or Lost in Space (1967), and the ship interiors of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994).

With that long-winded introduction aside, here's a set description:

Eridani Supply Base (~1550 pieces, $159.99 US)

Travel to Epsilon Eridani with the sleek new Galaxy Explorer, featuring a powerful engine cluster and crystal-fueled fusion reactor for fast interstellar expeditions.   Defend your valuable cargo with twin spring-loaded shooters and home in on Epsilon Eridani with a powerful extensible antenna.  Once you arrive, extend the retractable landing gear and touch down on the landing pad.  Use the service cart to refuel the Galaxy Explorer and reload with new ammunition and extra power crystals.  Test power crystals for defects using the microscope in the laboratory and beam your discoveries to Earth using the powerful communications antenna outside the base.  Chart the locations of sandstorms in the control center and keep in touch with the scientists on their 4x4 rover.  Don't forget to put on your oxygen masks and close the blast doors when the storms get too close!  But don't worry - there's a fully-equipped medical bay in case you get caught in the storm or get bitten by the sand worms lurking outside.

Includes 8 minifigures: commander, pilot, and navigator for the Galaxy Explorer, maintenance technician, doctor, base commander, and two scientists/explorers

Galaxy Explorer features a lift-off cockpit canopy with space for 3 minifigures, a transparent opening dome with removable crystal power source element, 2 spring-loaded shooters, retractable landing gear, and a flip-out antenna. 

Maintenance cart features a flexible fuel line, fuel tank, boarding ladder, and clips for tools and spare ammunition

Exploration 4x4 seats two scientists and features drill rig and clips for tools

Base features sliding blast doors, solar panels, computer, microscope, holographic display element, sick bay, and coffee machine

Crack the boulder outside the base or flip over the palm trees to find extra power crystals.

Sand worm build measures over 2" long

Galaxy Explorer measures over 2” (7cm) high, 20” (51cm) long and 9” (24cm) wide.

Includes two 32x32 sand baseplates 

Exploration base and landing pad measure 16" long and 8" wide.

The quote below contains a February 21, 2018 concept for the landing pad for the Galaxy Explorer redux described in the previous quote.

Quote

This is a landing pad concept for a 928 redux that uses an unmodified 75186 as the new Galaxy Explorer.  Instead of a barren moon, this next-generation starship lands on a tropical island on some distant planet, inspired by the Scarif landing pad in 75171.  The idea is not to build something in the Neo-Classic Space style of Classic Space revival, but instead to build something in what I think of as a Next Generation style of Classic Space revival.  This may be compared to how Star Trek: The Next Generation was a revival of Star Trek that established a deliberately different design language while maintaining the spirit of the original series. 

Since TLG has not made landing pads for years, it is a challenge to build a landing pad large enough to accommodate the 75186 Arrowhead while staying small and simple enough that it might fit in a large playset.  If the overall "Eridani Supply Base" is built to a $150 price point and the ship itself costs $80 ($90 RRP for 775 parts - $10 license tax), this 111-piece landing pad might cost $20, when the high cost of the baseplate and the 6x6 tiles is accounted for.  That leaves $50 for the base, minifigures, and support vehicles.  In order to fit the price point, it appears the landing pad should be deleted and replaced by an unadorned baseplate, or the base and vehicle features described in my previous post must be drastically reduced.

 

The quote below contains a February 22, 2018 concept for the same landing pad.

Quote

  

The quote below contains content posted on 18 March 2018 about a Mega Bloks space base.

Quote

[18 March 2018]

Perhaps my fondness for Classic Space comes from the very first Lego set (speaking colloquially) that I ever got.  Some of its parts remain in my best childhood creation, which was continually refined until I (temporarily) grew out of Lego.  This simple little space base is impossible to find on the secondary market because it slipped under the radar of every collector in its release year (for good reason), so last night I built the best approximation I could in Stud.io to see if I really wanted to have that kit in my life again.  It turns out to be a bit too simple for my AFOL tastes now, even accounting for different building standards way back when, so I won't order any parts from Bricklink to build it.  I post it here only as a historical curiosity, to see if anyone else had something similar.  Without further ado, here is 9515 Space Bucket - Classic Space from the Black Lagoon, tamed into genuine (digital) Lego!

 

  

 

Edited March 17, 2019 by icm
Changed title to reflect new content in bump post and added bump content to first post.

[Digger of Bricks]

Both of these are quite nice! I really like the "maroon" starcraft's wingtip tailfins, they give the ship a almost 1930s retro vibe, something I look for in space creations. Also, the Galaxy Explorer redux is very simple but effective. The rear spoiler has an effectively subtle sleekness compared to the original, and the add-on of the three two-stud wide windshield pieces to the rear is also another nice addition.  

Might I suggest, the Galaxy Explorer could perhaps use the replacement of the two front windshield pieces with this new part from TLBM's 70905 The Batmobile (part no. 28782 pictured below). As I've mentioned in other threads before, the part's dimensions are perfect for it!

[VaderFan2187]

I really like that Skiff!

[Roshisan]

Well done.  I like your Galaxy Explorer remake.

[icm]

[BUMP] [WIP] [MOC/MOD] Yet Another 928 Redux / Neo-Classic Space Base

This is a description for a MOC I hope to make, but I haven't ordered any parts yet.  To do first things first, I am writing this post to plan it out and get the idea on paper before I forget it; my apologies if that's not proper forum protocol.  Anyone who reads this post is welcome to take the idea and run with it; just please reply to this thread with a link to anything you may do with it.  I will edit this post once I start to build this idea in the brick.  For brevity, everything is hidden in quotes.

Quote

Hello, all - I've had my eye on 75186 The Arrowhead for quite some time, but couldn't convince myself to buy it until this idea came to mind.  All the thoughts and pictures behind it are hidden in quotes, so they don't clutter the thread.  The picture quotes come first.

Recently there's been a lot of discussion on this forum about the future of Castle, Space, and Sci-Fi/Action themes, given the dominance of Star Wars and Ninjago and the failure of Castle 2013 and Nexo Knights to capture the interest of many forum members.  To repeat what I said in another thread some time ago, the Freemaker Adventures look to me like TLG's roundabout way of maintaining an in-house Space theme despite the constraints of Star Wars.  Certainly 75186 resembles many large spaceship sets of the past, with its wedge-shaped profile, large rear engine cluster, large aft cargo bay (here holding crystals), and large centered cockpit with tandem seating for several minifigures.  In fact, I've been thinking of it as 2017's equivalent of the famous 928 Galaxy Explorer.  I've been itching to get it, but resisting because a 90-minute build session for a $90 set is awfully expensive entertainment when the kit will just go right in the closet, and it doesn't really satisfy a man's creative impulses.

The Classic Space theme, or those Space sets that were released before the advent of named Space factions, is often seen as oriented towards peaceful exploration, without antagonists of any kind.  The most prominent modern theme without antagonists of any kind is the exploration sub-category of City.  This has featured Arctic explorers, deep sea explorers, space explorers, volcano explorers, and jungle explorers.  Common attributes of these themes include:

• Skilled, cheerful professionals in a hostile environment  
• Main challenges are scientific exploration, pursuit of buried treasure, wild animals
•  Many ground-based and aerial utility vehicles of various sizes 
• Largest sets in the line have either a research base, a large aerial vehicle with a large cargo capacity, or both 
• Design language has clean, simple lines

Many of these characteristics are shared by Classic Space and some succeeding lines like Ice Planet, M-Tron, and Spyrius.  Certainly Classic Space has many ground-based and aerial utility vehicles of all sizes, and most of the big ships have a large cargo bay of some kind.

A common complaint on these forums is that modern themes are too story-driven and too conflict-based.  Sci-fi exploration themes of various styles and settings are often proposed in comments, and many AFOLs dream of a Classic Space revival.  However, if we're honest with ourselves, even a splendidly executed Classic Space revival with well-designed grey/blue/yellow wedge ships at low prices would probably alienate a third of the adult fans for being too similar to the original (rehashes!) and alienate another third for being too different.  Besides, the aesthetic design language of Classic Space is less relevant now than it was then.  It seems to be influenced in more or less equal parts by Star Wars (1977), in the big grey wedge ships of the first wave; by Kubrick & Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) in the setting of peaceful exploration of airless, barren moons; and by the generally prevailing aesthetic of 1970s science fiction television shows and movies, in the emphasis on grey greebling.  None of these are strong pillars on which to base the design of a Classic Space-inspired theme today: Star Wars is just as relevant forty years later, but it has its own wildly successful theme which any Neo-Classic Space theme must avoid; modern concepts of near-future space exploration are primarily shaped by the Space Shuttle and International Space Station, which are not the drab, grey, greebled masses imagined in the 1970s; and spacecraft in modern science fiction television and movies are also often sleeker and more colorful.  So, despite my respect for the many talented Neo-Classic Space builders who work in grey greebles with yellow windows and blue hulls, I don't think I'd like to see that in a modern peaceful sci-fi space exploration theme.

Nevertheless, it seems appropriate to use 75186 as the base for a MOC in the style of the kind of Neo-Classic Space theme I'd like to see, since it's a big TLG original spaceship with clear Star Wars influence, released 39 years after the first big TLG original spaceship with clear Star Wars influence, which ship was the largest set of the original Space line.  It seems more appropriate to use 75186 than to use 70816 Benny's Spaceship despite the latter's obvious homage to 928, because that gives the new line more creative freedom to be its own theme and respond to the times, rather than simply imitating the past.  Besides, 75186 is sleek and polished like 928; the messy greebles on 70816 are an homage to Classic Space ships from several years later.  The landing pad and base are built from several copies of 75171 Battle on Scarif, and the concept owes equal parts to 928 Space Cruiser and Moonbase and 60162 Jungle Air Drop Helicopter.  For lack of the means to print custom minifigures, I use three CMF Series 15 astronauts for the spaceship crew and staff the base with minifigures from the Volcano Starter Set, as they give me the best impression of complex, but not overly complex, sci-fi work clothing.  The idea is "City Desert Explorers meets Space," so the staff at the exploration base should mostly be wearing normal desert clothing with a slight but not overly action-oriented sci-fi twist.  However, I'm not quite sure what to do about those minifigures.  Perhaps some satisfactory minifigures could be assembled from Pharoah's Quest, Indiana Jones, or Dino (2012) parts.

Think of this MOC as a concept for a set at the $160 price point.  This is significantly higher than the top price point for past Space themes, but is not unreasonably high for a top-of-the-line playset.  The 60162 Jungle Air Drop Helicopter and 60125 Volcano Heavy Lift Helicopter are priced at $150 for similar features and size.  In Star Wars, the 75190 First Order Star Destroyer, 10198 Tantive IV, 75105 Millennium Falcon, and 75189 First Order Heavy Assault Walker feature price points of $160, $150, $150, and $150, respectively.  The general concept for the theme is as "The Next Generation" to Classic Space's "Original Series," if you'll forgive the Star Trek analogy.  The colors and settings may be different and the lines may be a little cleaner, but the raison d'etre of the explorers is the same and their ships have the same general configuration.  If the Classic Spacers were limited to exploring barren, airless moons close to Earth, the Next Generation has now established outposts on habitable worlds with breathable air; however, they have not yet encountered sentient aliens or begun to face the problems of running a galactic empire.  Think of the landscapes in Forbidden Planet (1957) or Lost in Space (1967), and the ship interiors of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994).

With that long-winded introduction aside, here's a set description:

Eridani Supply Base (~1550 pieces, $159.99 US)

Travel to Epsilon Eridani with the sleek new Galaxy Explorer, featuring a powerful engine cluster and crystal-fueled fusion reactor for fast interstellar expeditions.   Defend your valuable cargo with twin spring-loaded shooters and home in on Epsilon Eridani with a powerful extensible antenna.  Once you arrive, extend the retractable landing gear and touch down on the landing pad.  Use the service cart to refuel the Galaxy Explorer and reload with new ammunition and extra power crystals.  Test power crystals for defects using the microscope in the laboratory and beam your discoveries to Earth using the powerful communications antenna outside the base.  Chart the locations of sandstorms in the control center and keep in touch with the scientists on their 4x4 rover.  Don't forget to put on your oxygen masks and close the blast doors when the storms get too close!  But don't worry - there's a fully-equipped medical bay in case you get caught in the storm or get bitten by the sand worms lurking outside.

Includes 8 minifigures: commander, pilot, and navigator for the Galaxy Explorer, maintenance technician, doctor, base commander, and two scientists/explorers

Galaxy Explorer features a lift-off cockpit canopy with space for 3 minifigures, a transparent opening dome with removable crystal power source element, 2 spring-loaded shooters, retractable landing gear, and a flip-out antenna. 

Maintenance cart features a flexible fuel line, fuel tank, boarding ladder, and clips for tools and spare ammunition

Exploration 4x4 seats two scientists and features drill rig and clips for tools

Base features sliding blast doors, solar panels, computer, microscope, holographic display element, sick bay, and coffee machine

Crack the boulder outside the base or flip over the palm trees to find extra power crystals.

Sand worm build measures over 2" long

Galaxy Explorer measures over 2” (7cm) high, 20” (51cm) long and 9” (24cm) wide.

Includes two 32x32 sand baseplates 

Exploration base and landing pad measure 16" long and 8" wide.

Thanks for reading.

[HeraldicBanner]

Those look really cool; especially the skiff!  However, I would suggest making the tops of both a little more interesting; they're a tad bland at the moment.

Edited February 15, 2018 by HeraldicBanner

[TechnicRCRacer]

14 hours ago, HeraldicBanner said:

Those look really cool; especially the skiff!  However, I would suggest making the tops of both a little more interesting; they're a tad bland at the moment.

The second spaceship is based off a set, so it is supposed to be flat.

Awesome models, I like the skiff very much! Hope to see more models by you soon!

[icm]

This is a landing pad concept for a 928 redux that uses an unmodified 75186 as the new Galaxy Explorer.  Instead of a barren moon, this next-generation starship lands on a tropical island on some distant planet, inspired by the Scarif landing pad in 75171.  The idea is not to build something in the Neo-Classic Space style of Classic Space revival, but instead to build something in what I think of as a Next Generation style of Classic Space revival.  This may be compared to how Star Trek: The Next Generation was a revival of Star Trek that established a deliberately different design language while maintaining the spirit of the original series. 

Since TLG has not made landing pads for years, it is a challenge to build a landing pad large enough to accommodate the 75186 Arrowhead while staying small and simple enough that it might fit in a large playset.  If the overall "Eridani Supply Base" is built to a $150 price point and the ship itself costs $80 ($90 RRP for 775 parts - $10 license tax), this 111-piece landing pad might cost $20, when the high cost of the baseplate and the 6x6 tiles is accounted for.  That leaves $50 for the base, minifigures, and support vehicles.  In order to fit the price point, it appears the landing pad should be deleted and replaced by an unadorned baseplate, or the base and vehicle features described in my previous post must be drastically reduced.

The picture is enclosed in a quote, for brevity.

Quote

  

 

[icm]

Here's another landing pad concept.  I think I like this one better, but it might be more expensive.

Quote

 

 

[icm]

First post updated with archived content and a historical curiosity.

[icm]

Last night I took a break from my usual pastime of persuading myself not to buy the 70816 Benny spaceship to build a different kind of Classic Space redux, based on 6931 FX Star Patroller instead of 928 Space Cruiser and Moon Base.  Comments, criticism, and advice of all kinds are welcome!  (The pictures are in the first post.)

[icm]

Editing the first post to archive old content is becoming quite a bother, so I changed the topic title to something generic and I'll go back to posting new content in new replies.  Over the past few days I've been refining my Galaxy Explorer remake some more.  Every Classic Space fan has to try out a modern interpretation of the Galaxy Explorer, right?  I made the following changes compared to the previous version in this thread:

• Structure is entirely rebuilt
• Deleted upturned wingtips
• Added stud shooters
• Refined roof, ramp, rear hatches, cockpit, rear wing and struts
• Replaced airlock compartment with extended garage and more cargo space
• Base is now inspired by 926 Command Base instead of the little box in 928

The goal is to bring the base and ship in at about 900-1100 parts, for an "RRP" of $120, which is about what the inflation-adjusted RRP of the original 928 was, while using only modern parts (within Stud.io availability, to be amended in a Bricklink order) and keeping the ship as close to the size and shape of the original as possible.  Currently the build uses about 750 parts.  I'm not sure how to make the base walls visually interesting instead of boring blue slabs without ruining the clean, simple look of the 1978-1979 Space wave.  (I'm deliberately avoiding the heavily greebled look of most Neo-Classic Space builds.)

Please, reply with any comments or criticism you may have.  I'll do my best to incorporate any suggestions you may have into the build, as long as they make sense to me and seem to fit.

Ship

Quote

 

Hatches open

Quote

 

Underneath

Quote

 

Base

Quote

 

Walls open

Quote

 

 

[icm]

Here's some more refinements on my Galaxy Explorer, which is inspired by pretty much every Galaxy Explorer redux ever made but especially by "LL928 Comes Home" on Ideas and this topic on Eurobricks.  The base is mostly inspired by 926 and 6970.  The ship is intended to use stickers from 70816 for decoration, and miscellaneous other stickers and decorated parts that aren't available in Stud.io, and the flag on the moonscape is intended to come from here.  The rover is supposed to be able to park inside the base and also to fit in the front half of the spaceship's cargo bay while two crates occupy the rear half, but I haven't worked out that loading scheme in detail yet, and the rear fuselage may need to be reworked because of that.  The outbuilding that supports the antenna is intended to be an electric rover charging station, among other things.  The main challenge now is to build low-elevation rockwork for the moonscape that evokes the original crater plates, is fairly large, is fairly simple with a low parts count, and also has fun play features like panels that blow off, boulders that can be launched out of craters, or something like that.  The intent is to keep it around 1100-1300 parts for an imaginary price point of $120 (consistent with the inflation-adjusted RRP of 928) or $150 (consistent with today's most expensive Star Wars and City playsets).  Please comment, question, criticize!  How can this be a better playset?  How can it better evoke the original while staying consistent with today's design ethos or the style of today's flagship playsets?  What's to be done about the rockwork?  (About that I don't have much of a clue myself, right now.)

Also see some bonus pictures of a quick and easy space scooter modeled after 885.

Pictures in quotes for brevity.

Quote

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking!

Flickr album

Edited June 15, 2018 by icm
Added picture of incomplete physical build.

[Digger of Bricks]

1 hour ago, icm said:

Here's some more refinements on my Galaxy Explorer, which is inspired by pretty much every Galaxy Explorer redux ever made but especially by "LL928 Comes Home" on Ideas and this topic on Eurobricks.  The base is mostly inspired by 926 and 6970.  

A very clean looking improvement all around! The incorporation of the newer windshield part from The Lego Batman Movie Batmobile in place of the older Trans-Yellow windshields works quite nicely!  

[icm]

Thanks for commenting.  Do you have any suggestions for the rock work, or for how to improve the base?

[Digger of Bricks]

23 hours ago, icm said:

Do you have any suggestions for the rock work, or for how to improve the base?

Well, as far as the rock work goes, perhaps you could use larger bow/slope parts such as 41749/41750 for a smoother, sandbar-esque look, if you know what I mean. 

[icm]

@Digger of Bricks: Thanks for your suggestion.  I found another solution that satisfies me, but I don't have pictures of it yet.  In the meantime, here's a 918 redux that will be built physically as soon as I can figure out how to make Bricklinked parts affordable.  I'd have preferred to build it in blue with a yellow canopy, but the wedge bricks in the rear fuselage aren't available in blue.  The main goal is simplicity, but it has a few play features: room to store a few accessories behind the seat, a removable engine module, and a hinged flap on the underside just in front of the rocket engine.

 

 

 

 

[danth]

Wow! Your designs are getting better and better! Loving the last few iterations especially.

[Digger of Bricks]

20 hours ago, icm said:

In the meantime, here's a 918 redux that will be built physically as soon as I can figure out how to make Bricklinked parts affordable.  I'd have preferred to build it in blue with a yellow canopy, but the wedge bricks in the rear fuselage aren't available in blue. 

Nonetheless, I rather like the color scheme, as it looks somewhat rustic in a way.  

[icm]

Rustic?  More like rusty! :) Besides the availability of parts, the purpose of the dark red with black highlights and trans-clear glass is to echo the color scheme of set 75186, which I've previously mentioned as a next-generation Galaxy Explorer.  I haven't yet figured out how to translate into bricks my idea for a base to go with 75186, so this is just something small to fill the time.

Here are the rocks I settled on for my 928 redux moon base.  I decided it was more important to keep things simple than to reproduce the vintage crater plate or include an exploding function.  The spacemen will just have to dig the top off the hill by hand if they want to get at the crystals.  The flagpole should have the CMF series 16 astronaut's flag.

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Edited September 4, 2018 by icm
Spelling errors.

[icm]

I built a makeshift version of kit 6872 ("Lunar Patrol Craft" or "Xenon X-Craft") from spare parts and thought it was really fun and swooshable, but the set as released has some problems.  The color scheme is ugly, the rocket is set so comically high that the ship would spin like a top, and the robot has nothing to do.  So I changed the colors, moved the engine lower, and gave the robot a little bay so he can ride along and pretend he's R2-D2.  This can't go toe-to-toe with my 1980s-style X-wing and TIE fighter any more than 70701 Space Swarmer can go toe-to-toe with the latest X-wing and TIE fighter, but at least it lets the astronauts at Moonbase Alpha blast any bug aliens out of the sky before they get too close.  But those Classic Spacemen always have such big smiles on their faces - they'd just invite the bug aliens in for a cup of tea and they'd all be best buddies in no time.

Edited September 23, 2018 by icm
Spelling error

[icm]

Here's another revision of my updated Galaxy Explorer.  There are three main goals: preserve the wing and cabin dimensions of the original, keep the lines clean and the build simple, and fit as much cargo as possible.  The interior features a set of folding gates between the cockpit and the front cargo area, another set of gates between the front cargo area and the rear cargo area, removable racks in the rear cargo area from which to hang tools, and a door on either side of the front cargo area to allow access to the cargo from the wing without having to open any of the four large rear hatches (top, bottom, left, right).  Fully loaded, the ship can hold four 3x4 crates and six 2x2 crates, or two rovers, or a rover and a light trailer loaded with one 3x4 crate, or a rover and a heavy trailer loaded with two 3x4 crates.  I've got a lot of ideas for builds to go with this, but of course there's not enough time to bring them all to fruition.  Please comment and critique.  As always, more pictures are on Flickr. 

 

[leafan]

On 6/20/2017 at 12:50 AM, icm said:

[April 7, 2018]

Ever since I was a little kid, I wanted to build something of my own design inspired by Classic Space, but I never felt like I had the right parts - never the right windshields, never the right gray wedge plates, etc.  Lately I've been trying to build something I like digitally, but it's hard to refine that enough to feel like ordering parts is worthwhile.  So last night I decided to just build something out of the parts I had anyway.  This spaceship is loosely inspired by #6931 FX Star Patroller from 1985, adapted to my leftover loose parts from childhood.  It's nothing special, but for the biggest physical MOC I've built since I was 13 I think it turned out pretty well.

Thanks for looking - comments, questions, criticism, and advice are welcomed!

I mean... I'd buy it, so I'd say you did well.

[icm]

Thanks!  But are you referring to the ship in the first post based on 6931, or to the Galaxy Explorer I posted a few minutes ago?

[leafan]

3 minutes ago, icm said:

Thanks!  But are you referring to the ship in the first post based on 6931, or to the Galaxy Explorer I posted a few minutes ago?

The first ship that you built from parts you already had. It appeals to me because A) It looks good, B) I relate to your story about mocing and having the pieces etc and C) It's simple in it's design, like most Classic Space was. It looks like I could build this set if I wanted to, which isn't something I could say about the latest Peter Reid spaceship, spectacular as that is.