Issue 83 • January/February 2024
Goes to Space!
Space Build Challenges:
SHIPtember FebROVERy NoVVember
Dana Knudsen’s Baby Space!
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Issue 83 • January/February 2024
Contents
From the Editor....................................................2
People Jason Wolfson’s Eagle Transporter............................................3 Joe Chamber’s Battle of Endor..................................................6 Dana Knudson’s Classic Baby Space.......................................14
Building
You Can Build It Baby X-1 Patrol Craft...................................19 442-B Space Shuttle....................................22 Is FebROVERy the Best Month of the Year?......................................................24 SHIPtember Going BIG, or... ...............................................30
NoVVember Vic Viper Month.............................................40 Brian Williams: How to Light a Fire — Without Rubbing Two Bricks Together...................................44 Minifigure Customization 101: The Return of the Ocelotl..........................48 BrickNerd Instructions: MINI Vic Viper.................................................52 MINI Space Rovers........................................57 You Can Build It MINI Crimson Firehawk.............................58
Community
Bantha Bricks: Corey Schaaf’s Kintan Strider Speeder Bike...................................................62
Sneak Peek: Avatar’s Pandora by ILUG..........................70 Community Ads...............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 Next Issue............................................................80
From the Editor:
January/February 2024 Issue 83
In space no one can hear you scream. I say that because this issue was a tough one. I would have thought that a spacethemed issue would have been easy to do—there’s a lot of space builders online and off.
Publisher John Morrow
Editor in Chief Joe Meno BrickNerd and Assistant Editor Dave Schefcik Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow
Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan West Coast Editors Ashley Glennon
Bantha Bricks Correspondent David Strenzler Contributors: Jared Burks, Joe Chambers, Christopher Deck, Shawn Denowh, Greg Fastabend, Dana Knudson, Andreas Lenander, Corey Schaaf, Brian Williams, Jason Wolfson, the contributors to SHIPtember and NoVVember, and Greg Hyland.
But... ...other circumstances made things a bit more complicated. Most are my fault, but there were just enough setbacks for me to want to scream. It happens. But oftentimes, when it happens, plowing forward creates new opportunities and ideas to try, and some make the magazine better. And I can’t scream at that. There’s some neat stuff in this issue. Hope you enjoy it! Joe Meno P.S. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at brickjournal@gmail.com. I’m open to suggestions and comments and will do my best to reply. P.P.S... Yes, BrickJournal has a website — www.brickjournal.com! Twitter? Yep, there too — http://twitter.com/brickjournal. Facebook? Yup — http://www.facebook.com/group. php?gid=58728699914&ref=mf. Or you can scan the bottom codes with a QR reader!
Website
Subscriptions
Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal:
www.LUGNET.com, www.Brickshelf.com www.peeron.com, www.brickmodder.net www.rustyclank.com
About the Cover: Dana Knudson shows one of his Baby Space models. Photo by Dana Knudson. About the Contents Page: More of Baby Space. Photo by Dana Knudson.
Glossary: AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) AFFOL (Adult Female Fan of LEGO) TFFOL (Teen Female Fan of LEGO) NLSO (Non-LEGO Significant Other) MOC (My Own Creation) TLG (The LEGO Group) BURP (Big Ugly Rock Piece) LURP (Little Ugly Rock Piece) POOP (Pieces—that can be or should be made—Of Other Pieces) SNOT (Studs Not on Top)
GREEBLING (adding small parts to a surface to create visual interest) LUG (LEGO Users Group) LTC (LEGO Train Club) MECHA (a large armored robot on legs, typically controlled by a pilot seated inside) MECH (a large piloted combat robot) DARK AGES (usually teen years, when you drift away from building) STUDS OUT (building where the studs on bricks face the viewer)
BrickJournalTM issue 83, January/February 2024 (ISSN 1941-2347) is published bi-monthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BrickJournal, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Joe Meno, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. BrickJournal Editorial Offices: 6701 Coachman Drive, Springfield, VA 22152, USA. E-mail: admin@brickjournal.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Six-issue subscriptions: $73 US, $111 Elsewhere, $29 Digital Only, and can be purchased at twomorrows.com. LEGO ®, TECHNIC, MINDSTORMS, Belville, Scala, BIONICLE, ExoForce, Mars Mission, World City, and other LEGO theme lines are trademarks of the LEGO Group of companies. Star Wars, The Mandalorian TM & © Lucasfilm. All articles, photos, and art © BrickJournal Media, LLC, TwoMorrows Publishing and the respective writers, photographers, and artists. All rights reserved. All trademarked items are the property of their respective owners and licensees. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.
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BrickJournal and its staff would like to thank the LDraw community for the software it makes available to the community, which we use for making all of the instructions and renderings in this magazine. We would especially like to thank Kevin Clague for his continued upgrades of the LPub tool that is a part of the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.
Building
Jason Wolfson’s
Eagle Transporter Article and Photography by Jason Wolfson, PhD
Jason’s Eagle cockpit.
As a young kid, I was always into science-fiction and fantasy. In the mid-’70s, the show Space: 1999 hit TV screens, and I was hooked. Essentially there is an international base on the moon and the adventures of the crew. I didn’t fully grasp the concept of the show until I was older and watched it again: September 13, 1999, there is an explosion on the moon, the moon gets torn out of Earth’s orbit, and hurtles into deep space. The one thing about the show that many people remember is their iconic spacecraft, the Eagle. The design of this ship, to me, is realistic, practical, and above all, really cool looking. I have always wanted to build this out of LEGO bricks, and in order to do it justice, models had to be extremely large to capture the amazing details of this spacecraft. However, at the beginning of this year (2023), I was looking at the various new LEGO pieces available, and that, coupled with being invited to Doctoberfest 2023 (primarily a Doctor Who convention) to display and talk about my Doctor Who LEGO creations, I decided that I would build the Eagle (the show promoter loves Space: 1999 Eagles!). First thing I worked on was the cockpit of the ship. Like most things I work on, I concentrate my efforts on the part of the model that draws you in, like the face of Gonzo or the head of the Jabberwock, two models that are some of my favorite MOCs I have built in the past. For reference, I used a small die-cast model of the Eagle to gauge the proportions of the model and make sure what I built matched well. I also had Space: 1999 episodes playing in the background for more inspiration. Following the construction of the cockpit, I worked on the main body of the ship. Using the model as reference, I figured out how many studs long and wide I needed to build the main body of the craft. The Technic connector pieces were the perfect pieces to use to match the pipe-like support structure that gives the Eagle its iconic look. My first iteration of this was very weak structurally, so inside I reinforced it with several of the newer Technic modified frame (11 x 15) inside to keep it stable and more easily transportable. It is very stable when I hold it in the center there. Many people have asked me if the center part of the ship can be swapped out for other modules (like in the TV show). Unfortunately, the answer is no at this time. To do this would make 3
Building
Joe Chambers:
Battle of Endor Article and Photography by Joe Chambers 6
The blast from the Death Star’s super-laser vaporized another Mon Calamari Cruiser. The Death Star wasn’t supposed to be operational. Of immediate concern, though, was the full Imperial Navy battle formation sprawled out before General Lando Calrissian as he maneuvered the Millennium Falcon through a flurry of blaster fire. “…Yes, I said closer!” he yelled. “Move as close as you can, and engage those Star Destroyers at point-blank range!” Admiral Akbar recoiled at the thought. A single one of those kilometer-long Imperial-II class Star Destroyers had almost twice the firepower of any ship within the Alliance fleet. “At that close range, we won’t last long against those Star Destroyers.” As true as that was, they desperately needed to buy time. “We’ll last longer than we will against that Death Star,” Lando replied, “and we might just take a few of them with us!”
I’ll readily admit that I’m a sucker for space-battles. Of all the ones from film and TV that I have consumed, the battle of Endor, and specifically this moment from Return of the Jedi, is hands-down my favorite. It’s the “all is lost” moment of the climax of the original trilogy. And the Alliance fleet, in the end, proved to be more than a match for the Empire.
Joe’s multifaceted creation.
This MOC that I title “…And we might just take a few of them with us!” is something I have wanted to create for the better part of my life, and is the second iteration of it, being a full two years in the making. I had the pleasure of displaying this 60,000 piece mid-life crisis at Brick Slopes in Sandy, Utah in late August of 2023, and it’s my pleasure to share some of it with you. My name, by the way, is Joe Chambers, the mind behind Skylab Bricks. While normally I do space history and NASA MOCs, I have recently ventured into another love of mine with Star Wars spacecraft. So, let’s listen to me ramble incoherently on about this creation, shall we?
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Building
A selection of Knudson’s builds.
Dana Knudson:
Classic Baby Space!
Article and Photography by Dana Knudson 14
Classic Space is one of a few LEGO themes that is a touchstone to many LEGO builders. Recognized by its color scheme of blue and gray, the sets were simple spacecraft piloted by minifigure spacemen. 74 sets were produced under the theme, which became the inspiration for Dana Knudson’s Space Baby models. Dana Knudson is a builder and LEGO ambassador for PeachLUG, a LEGO users group based in Georgia. He was a child of the ’70s, and grew up during the golden age of toys: Star Wars, GI Joe, Transformers, and LEGO. Most of Dana’s childhood toys ended up in resale shops or sold on Yahoo Auctions when he needed money in his twenties, but he always kept his LEGO space sets. At that time, he had only seven Classic Space sets and one Futuron set. As with most kids, Dana went into a Dark Age, but every so often, he would pull his sets out of storage to rebuild them. He was able to build most of the old sets from memory. When LEGO started releasing Star Wars sets, Dana couldn’t help himself from getting the Slave 1 (Boba Fett’s spaceship) and a couple of other sets. For him, it was like someone got chocolate in his peanut butter; they were fun sets, but he had other interests at the time, so he didn’t get any more sets. However,
The Ross County Courthouse.
every few years, he would find himself in the LEGO aisle and end up getting something: a Millennium Falcon one year or another Slave 1... oh look, an AT-AT! Buying was just casual—nothing crazy. It was Spring of 2014 that Dana found The LEGO Movie. Benny the Spaceman was the man! When LEGO announced the release of 70816: Benny’s Spaceship Spaceship SPACESHIP!, he pre-ordered it immediately. Dana’s love of Classic Space was reignited, and with it, his joy of LEGO building. He became a regular at his local LEGO store, where one of the employees introduced him to the local LUG. His Dark Age officially over, Dana started gathering parts for building his own creations. He also started picking up the Classic Space sets he didn’t have in childhood. His AFOL life was awakened. LEGO building became his artistic outlet, as Dana works in Information Technology. Most of his day is composed of very analytical problem solving and not so much creativity or art. Building lets him step away from problem solving and do something to relax.
6927B All-Terrain Vehicle.
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6750-B Sonic Robot.
6950-B Mobile Rocket Transport.
6972-B Polaris 1 Space Lab.
metal detectors for 6928 and using bucket handles for control levers. He used 1 x 1 bracket plates and 1 x 1 hollow round plates by the handful. He thanks the company for making 1 x 2 x 2 windows in blue again—in a Friends set, of all places. Dana found so many uses for 1 x 5 plates. Many builds would not have been possible without the use of one of his all-time favorite elements, the 1 x 2 hinge brick. For the most part, Dana tried only using parts and elements currently in production, but unfortunately, he had to use some retired elements in a few places, such as in 6985: he used 2 x 2 inverted corner slopes in blue, which were only released in two sets, including the original 6985. The end result is a whimsical version of Classic Space, where babies explore the final frontier. The 74 Classic Space sets have been adapted to Baby Space, so Dana is done here. But there’s so much more to build.
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You Can Build It
Baby X-1 Patrol Craft Design and Instructions by Dana Knudson
There are other iconic sets that come to people’s minds when they think of Classic Space, but the X-1 Patrol Craft was Dana’s first Classic Space set when he was a kid and holds a special place in his childhood. Naturally, it was the first of the Baby Space builds he made. For him, the original set was a perfect build. Simple enough to build from memory, swooshable, and with great parts to build something from your own imagination. He didn’t realize it at the time, but when he built it, he was essentially setting the scale for the rest of his builds and his own fan theme: Baby Space.
Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color) Qty Color 1 Black 1 Trans Green 2 Trans Red 2 Trans Red 6 Lt Bluish Grey 1 Lt Bluish Grey 2 Lt Bluish Grey 1 Lt Bluish Grey 1 Lt Bluish Grey 1 Lt Bluish Grey 6 Lt Bluish Grey 4 2 2 2 2 2 2
Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey
17 4 1 2
Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey Lt Bluish Grey
Part 98138.dat 3070b.dat 3070b.dat 6141.dat 2420.dat 2431.dat 3020.dat 3023.dat 3040b.dat 3710.dat 3794b.dat
Description Tile 1 x 1 Round with Groove Tile 1 x 1 with Groove Tile 1 x 1 with Groove Plate 1 x 1 Round Plate 2 x 2 Corner Tile 1 x 4 with Groove Plate 2 x 4 Plate 1 x 2 Slope Brick 45 2 x 1 Plate 1 x 4 Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud 4070.dat Brick 1 x 1 with Headlight 15712.dat Tile 1 x 1 with Clip (Thick C-Clip) 32828.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round with Bar 43722.dat Wing 2 x 3 Right 43723.dat Wing 2 x 3 Left 59900.dat Cone 1 x 1 with Stop 73587p02.dat Hinge Control Stick Base with Control Stick 85861.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round with Open Stud 87994.dat Bar 3L 92946.dat Slope Plate 45.73 2 x 1 98100.dat Cone 2 x 2 Truncated
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The short and simple answer is… yes! FebRovrey is clearly the best month of the year, and let me tell you why. Now, before you go crazy and start making arguments for SHIPtember (yes Simon, it’s awesome as well) or NoVVember (that is actually a pretty awesome month too, by the way), let me explain why I love FebROVERy so much that I decided to build an army of rovers and write an article about it.
Building
Origins of FebROVERy
The legend of FebROVERy can be traced back to sometime in 2011 where the person behind this whole thing, Crimso Giger, first wrote this on Flickr: “I’ve created a new group called ‘LEGO Classic Space Rovers,’ dedicated to... well, Classic Space Rovers! You know, those silly little ground vehicles which were so common in the ’80s to mid-’90s Space themes. The purpose of the group is to have fun!” Some of Andreas’ rover builds: OCS-82.
Is FebROVERy the Best Month of the Year? Article by Andreas Lenander of BrickNerd.com
HA-2M.
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2011 seems to have been the official starting point, meaning that we are over a decade into marking this magnificent theme-month—which makes it even more fitting to write this article now! However, in 2011 the group was still called “LEGO Classic Space Rovers,” so we need to jump forward a year before the first mention of the term FebROVERy appears. That was the first year people started inviting other builders to join the group and share in the fun that is now synonymous with FebROVERy. Since then, the number of rovers in that group has reached some seriously impressive proportions, with around 3500 photos!
When I first got into the AFOL community, I was pretty quickly fascinated with all the different thememonths. (Come on, slightly changing the name of the month to match it with a specific LEGO challenge? That’s pure comedy gold right there!) Like most “new” AFOLs, my collection was fairly limited at that time, and FebROVERy was the perfect MCR-44. “gateway drug” to really get into the community, as it doesn’t require a large number of pieces. Another aspect is that it has never really been a contest. Don’t get me wrong, contests are a lot of fun (I mean, did you see all the fun stuff submitted to Nerdly Strikes Back?!) and a great way to sharpen your skills as a builder, but sometimes you just want to kick back and build a silly little rover. In 2021, in honor of the 10th anniversary of FebROVERy, I built more than ten rovers.
It’s All About the Wheels So what the heck is FebROVERy? Well, if you’ve read this far, I assume you want some more insight. So let’s get into it. To me, the most important aspect of FebROVERy is having a lot of fun (a very controversial stand, I know). Aside from that, FebROVERy is all about the wheels! LEGO has produced a lot of wheels over the years, so there’s no shortage of options to choose from. However, what’s become sort of a hallmark of this challenge is to make brick-built wheels (or tracks if that’s more your thing). After going through some of the pictures in the group, it is truly mindblowing how many ways there are to build wheels out of LEGO. This year, I built quite a few rovers, and I decided early on that I wanted to focus on that particular aspect when building them. I did “cheat” a few times as I found some cool older wheels that I just had to use, but I have to admit that making brick-built wheels is a lot more fun.
Q-21-R.
Fair warning: making a round shape out of LEGO is not for the faint of heart. There is a really good chance that you may experience some slight frustration when you build with illegal connections… or so I’ve heard from other people…. not me… okay, it was me.
The Original Rover So let’s jump back a bit and have a deeper look at the history of FebROVERy as we celebrate the month! I reached out to some of the more prolific contributors in the FebROVERy group on Flickr and got a lot of great responses. So let’s start with Crimso Giger, aka the man, the myth, the legend. “Well first off, thanks for this great project! I’m not sure I’m the mastermind of FebROVERy, I’ve just started the thing in a really improvised and simple way. And if people didn’t follow so brilliantly, it wouldn’t have gone very far. Today, it’s mostly builders like you, or Frost, or David Roberts (amongst others) that make the show, and it’s quite cool for me as I don’t have to run everywhere like I used to do some years ago with my big production.
CDX-21.
Another of Andreas’ rovers.
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Building NoVVember:
Vic Viper Month
Article and Photography by the builders of NoVVember November is the month for another build challenge for Space builders. This time, the objective is to make a Vic Viper, which is a fighter craft used in the classic video game Gradius. Dozens of builders participate, and here is a sample of their work!
donuts_ftw • Y-22 Tunnel Viper I’ve been participating in NoVVember for a few years now. I’m mainly a space/sci-fi builder, so building spaceships is something I’d be doing anyway. To me, the fun part of NoVVember is taking the design pattern (two prongs, two wings, a cockpit, and a tail), and seeing what kind of different things you can do within those limits. Sometimes, constraints force you to be more creative! Plus, it’s less of a commitment than SHIPtember... I was initially inspired by the Hero Factory shells that make the engine cowlings. I also wanted to use the “maxaroni” pieces for thick cables/hoses, and the most of any color I had available at the time was teal. These two things gave me Rock Raiders vibes, so I decided to lean into that, by adding some yellow and silver details, and a open roll cage-like cockpit in brown. Add in a rocky brown base with some trans-neon green crystals, and the Tunnel Viper was complete!
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BricksandBoosters • LSS Beagle I found out about the LEGO online community around 2007 from a co-worker, who turned me on to the LEGO group on Flickr, and The Brothers Brick. Since the VV group on Flickr started in September of 2008, and Nnenn was a regular subject of TBB, I was likely familiar with it from early on. From 2006–2014 I was living away from the bulk of my collection and didn’t have enough bricks with me to build much until 2012, when I joined Flickr (as BricksandBoosters) and started my occasional posting. I’ve built at least one Viper every year since 2012 excepting 2014, when I moved cross-country in November, but that led to the unification of my collection. I tend to gravitate towards Blacktron-themed Vipers, but have built a variety of themes, including chickens! I like the creativity that the constraints of the specific VicViper platform inspire, and that it isn’t a contest. My Red-Tron VV I built in 2022 was largely inspired by my “The Lost Themes of LEGO: Sets That Could Have Been” article for BrickNerd (I write as Michael J—see it at bricknerd.com/home/the-lost-themes-of-lego-sets-that-could-havebeen-7-8-22). The article collects pictures and thoughts on themes that were conceptualized at LEGO but not released, although some did come out in different forms. A lot of the article is based on what Mark Stafford wrote in his BrickJournal #6 article in 2009 on Space themes that weren’t produced. I gravitated towards the theme I called Red-Tron in the article for last year’s VicViper. The aggressive, industrial feel of that theme felt right for a Viper. That’s likely why several of my previous VV’s have been Blacktron. I think the nature of a VicViper lends itself to an aggressive story, especially when looking at the Gradius games, that doesn’t work as well for Classic Space and some other themes. That being said, I have built less aggressive VV’s, but I like them the best when, like my Red-Tron VV, they have a “give no quarter” appearance.
AL13N163NA • Gradius Benny VV 02 I decided to participate in as many NoVVembers as I could because one of the first people I started following on Flickr was nnenn. I was fascinated by his clean way of building and his incredible designs. As I investigated, I discovered the whole story behind the myth. and I decided that I needed to participate in this tribute. My first participations in NoVVember were not very well received, either because they didn’t look like Vic Vipers or because I always have an interest in using pieces that are difficult to connect or juniorized to be able to use them in another way, but this time I wanted to return to the path of the purist and design a Vic Viper based on the classics, like the 1985 Konami game Gradious and Benny from the Lego Movie, good tandem....
One and Only Mr R • Viridian Veilstrom I’ve been a sci-fi builder since I first joined the online LEGO community in 2009, so a spaceship building theme like NoVVember was perfect for me. The early years of NoVVember saw participation from so many builders, and the annual NoVVember “map” was always a great source of inspiration—and after two years of seeing others build amazing space ships, in 2011 I finally participated myself. I’ve sadly missed a lot of years of NoVVember, only participating in five out of 11 years since 2011, but if I do build something in November, it’s gotta be a Vic Viper! The Vic Viper that I built for NoVVember 2022 was the Viridian Veilstrom. It follows my typical spaceship design philosophy of a gray base and some flashy accent color, this time being lime. The amazing works of Nick Trotta introduced me to using panels to create smooth angles, and that technique is on display again on this spaceship, and is the main technique that allows the lime striping around the whole ship. Almost all of my Vic Vipers that I’ve built for NoVVember include a rubber band holder “Nnenn brick,” in honor of the late Nnenn who founded NoVVember and inspired many builders with his creations. Typically I leave the grill side of the brick out, but I wanted to try something different and used the edge for the intakes of this ship. Overall I’m very happy with how this one turned out, and am looking forward to building more Vic Vipers for this year’s NoVVember.
Gregory Brick • Vic Viper 2022 I had been posting MOCs to Flickr for several years but hadn’t participated in NoVVember until 2021. I had always liked building spaceships generally, and the non-competitive challenge of working within the Vic Viper requirements appealed to me, so I posted my build to the Flickr pool. The specific design constraints don’t seem to be limiting; I see great new ideas and new builds from participants every year. There’s a real positive enthusiasm about what everyone comes up with. In 2022, I put together a larger build with a few distinctive characteristics. I like all my LEGO creations to be things you can handle and play with. You could pick up this ship by the wings or the tip of either prong without any issue at all. I’m proud of those forward prongs in particular, as there’s some careful inversion going on in order to make the tips symmetrical on top and bottom. I don’t shy away from visible studs, with the dark grey studded parts ‘emerging’ from the smooth medium grey sections. I also put some effort into arranging the cockpit’s transparent elements, centred on a large neon flag from a Nexo Knights set.
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Ladies and gentlemen, we just received a new bulletin a moment ago. The Government Meteorological Bureau has requested the large observatories of the world to keep an astronomical watch on any further disturbances occurring in our atmosphere. Due to the unusual nature of this occurrence, we have arranged an interview with noted astronomer Professor Smith, who will give us their views on the event. We take you to the SIGGI Observatorio in Guatemala where Jared Burks will interview Professor Beatrice Francis Smith, famous astronomer. We take you now to San Miquel Duenas, Guatemala.
Minifigure Customization 101:
Article and Photography by Jared Burks Professor Smith and Correspondent Jared Burks.
JARED BURKS: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. This is Jared Burks, speaking to you from the observatory in Guatemala. I am standing in a large semi-circular room, pitch black except for an oblong split in the ceiling. Through this opening I can see a sprinkling of stars that cast a kind of frosty glow over the intricate mechanism of the huge telescope. The ticking sound you hear is the vibration of the clockwork. Professor Smith stands directly above me on a small platform, peering through a giant lens. I ask you to be patient, ladies and gentlemen, during any delay that may arise during our interview. Besides her ceaseless watch of the heavens, Professor Smith may be interrupted by telephone or other communications. During this period, she is in constant touch with the astronomical centers of the world... Professor, may I begin our questions? PROFESSOR SMITH: At any time, Mr. Burks. BURKS: Professor, would you please tell our audience exactly what you see as you observe the atmospheric disturbances through your telescope? SMITH: Nothing unusual at the moment, Mr. Burks. A red disk swimming in a black sea. Transverse deep purple stripes across the disk are unique, but not bothersome. Quite distinct now because the object seems to be entering the Earth’s atmosphere. BURKS: In your opinion, what do these transverse stripes signify, Professor Smith?
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SMITH: Not canals, I can assure you, Mr. Burks, although that’s the popular conjecture of those who imagine this object originated from an inhabited planet, stating they can’t be random. From a scientific viewpoint, the stripes are merely the result of atmospheric conditions peculiar to the object.
(OFF MIKE) Thank you. (PAUSE) BURKS: Just a moment, ladies and gentlemen, someone has just handed Professor Smith a message. While she reads it, let me remind you that we are speaking to you from the observatory in San Miquel Duenas, Guatemala, where we are interviewing the world-famous astronomer, Professor Smith... One moment, please. Professor Smith has passed me a message which she has just received... Professor, may I read the message to the listening audience? The interview continues...
BURKS: Then you’re quite convinced as a scientist that living intelligence as we know it does not exist on other planets? SMITH: I’d say the chances against it are a thousand to one. BURKS: And yet how do you account for those gas eruptions occurring on the surface of the object at regular intervals? SMITH: Mr. Burks, I cannot account for it. BURKS: By the way, Professor, for the benefit of our listeners, how far is the object from entering the Earth’s lower atmosphere? SMITH: Approximately four thousand miles. BURKS: Well, that seems a safe enough distance.
SMITH: Certainly, Mr. Burks. BURKS: Ladies and gentlemen, I shall read you a wire addressed to Professor Smith from Dr. Red of the National History Museum, New York. “9:15 P.M. eastern standard time. Seismograph registered shock of almost earthquake intensity occurring within a radius of twenty miles of Tikal, Guatemala. Please investigate. Signed, Sam Red, Chief of Astronomical Division”... Professor Smith, could this occurrence possibly have something to do with the object you were tracking? SMITH: Hardly, Mr. Burks. This is probably a meteorite of unusual size and its arrival at this particular time is merely a coincidence. However, we shall conduct a search, as soon as daylight permits. BURKS: Thank you, Professor. Ladies and gentlemen, for the past ten minutes we’ve been speaking to you from the observatory in Guatemala, bringing you a special interview with Professor Smith, noted astronomer. This is Jared Burks speaking. We are returning you now to our New York studio.
Ladies and gentlemen, here is the latest bulletin from the Intercontinental Radio News. Toronto, Canada: Professor Morse of McGill University reports observing a total of three explosions in the country of Guatemala this evening, between the hours of 7:45 P.M. and 9:20 P.M., eastern standard time. This confirms earlier reports received from American news media. Also comes a special announcement from Guatemala City, Guatemala. It is reported that at 8:50 P.M., a huge, flaming object, believed to be a meteorite, fell on a farm in the neighborhood of Canalitos, Guatemala, twentytwo miles from Tikal. The flash in the sky was visible within a radius of several hundred miles, and the noise of the impact was heard as far north as Chinautla. We have dispatched a special mobile unit to the scene, and will have our commentator, Jared Burks, give you a word description as soon as he can reach there from Guatemala. (To be continued …)
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You Can Build It MINI Build
MINI Crimson Firehawk Design and Instructions by Christopher Deck
Hello everybody, and welcome to another building session in BrickJournal! Today we want to build the Crimson Firehawk, a brand new starship design of the very latest Star Wars animated television series: Young Jedi Adventures. The series is for the younger Star Wars fans and is set during the so-called High Republic era, reaching from ca. 500 to 100 years before Episode 4: A New Hope. There is not much known yet about the Crimson Firehawk as the series has just begun this year. It’s obviously a space transport with a red and white color scheme typical for the Republic eras. It has a crescent shape with an interesting rear section, featuring a broad entry ramp. To realize this shape in bricks, the entire rear and bottom section is built studs-down due to the inverted use of the modified 1x2 tile with bar handle (part number 2432). Another tricky point of the transport ship is that the engine cylinders are embedded in the flat wing structure. Fortunately there are the relatively new 1x2 plates with pin hole on top (part number 11458) which can be assembled in a way that there is a 1x1 plate leftover on each side of the engine tube by fixing them with a friction pin. Another nice greebly detail is the inverted turntable on top of the ship. This came in handy as we already had a studsdown section as part of the construction. I hope you will enjoy building this very recently released starship!
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Parts List (Parts can be ordered from Bricklink.com by searching by part number and color)
Qty Color Part 2 Dk-Bluish-Gray 99780.dat 2 White 26604.dat 4 1 1
Dk-Bluish-Gray White Lt-Bluish-Gray
2 2 3 1
White Dk-Bluish-Gray White Dk-Bluish-Gray
1
White
1 1 4 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 2
Dk-Bluish-Gray Lt-Bluish-Gray Dk-Bluish-Gray White White Red Lt-Bluish-Gray White Lt-Bluish-Gray White Red
2
White
1 2 2
White White Red
2
Red
1 2 2 2 2 1 2 1 1
Trans-White Lt-Bluish-Gray Red Dk-Bluish-Gray Red Lt-Bluish-Gray Dk-Bluish-Gray White White
1 1
Lt-Bluish-Gray Lt-Bluish-Gray
Description Bracket 1 x 2 - 1 x 2 Up Brick 1 x 1 with Studs on Two Adjacent Sides 59900.dat Cone 1 x 1 with Stop 98100.dat Cone 2 x 2 Truncated 30162.dat Minifig Binoculars with Round Eyepiece 3024.dat Plate 1 x 1 6141.dat Plate 1 x 1 Round 3023.dat Plate 1 x 2 60470b.dat Plate 1 x 2 with 2 Clips Horizontal (Thick C-Clips) 3794b.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Groove with 1 Centre Stud 48336.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Handle Type 2 3839b.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Handles Type 2 11458.dat Plate 1 x 2 with Offset Peghole 3623.dat Plate 1 x 3 3022.dat Plate 2 x 2 26601.dat Plate 2 x 2 without Corner 3021.dat Plate 2 x 3 3021.dat Plate 2 x 3 3176.dat Plate 3 x 2 with Hole 30565.dat Plate 4 x 4 Corner Round 28192.dat Slope Brick 45 2 x 1 with Cutout and without Stud 28192.dat Slope Brick 45 2 x 1 with Cutout and without Stud 4861.dat Slope Brick 45 3 x 4 Double / 33 11477.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 29120.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Left 29119.dat Slope Brick Curved 2 x 1 with Cutout Right 30602.dat Slope Brick Curved Top 2 x 2 x 1 32054.dat Technic Pin Long with Stop Bush 25269.dat Tile 1 x 1 Corner Round 2412b.dat Tile 1 x 2 Grille with Groove 3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove 3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove 3069b.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Groove 2432.dat Tile 1 x 2 with Handle 3680c01.dat Turntable 2 x 2 Plate with Light Grey Top 65429.dat Wing 2 x 4 Left with Truncated Tip 65426.dat Wing 2 x 4 Right with Truncated Tip
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kintan strider speeder bike 62
Corey Schaaf’s
Kintan Strider Speeder Bike Article by David Strenzler, Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars Photography by Corey Schaaf
Galactic greetings! We are Bantha Bricks: Fans of LEGO Star Wars. As administrators of the best LEGO Star Wars-themed group on Facebook, David Strenzler, Frank Averstegge, and Eloi Parizeau witness amazingly creative builds by Star Wars fans worldwide on a nearly daily basis. Corey Schaaf is a very active member of our community and devoted moderator of the Bantha Bricks Admin team, as well as a passionate MOC builder. Some of you might recall that BrickJournal #73 featured an interview with Corey that was focused on his Resistance Troop Transport Ship. It was our pleasure to speak to Corey once more to learn about his latest design: a Kintan Strider Speeder Bike, as seen in The Book of Boba Fett.
problem solving. From the initial idea to the creation of instructions, my background in design meshes well with the entire lifecycle of my LEGO projects. Does Star Wars remain your favorite theme, or have others recently surfaced? My answer has not changed since the last time you asked. Star Wars is still my favorite. It’s an exciting time to be a fan because of the recent announcement of the three new Star Wars movies in addition to the already popular live action series, such as The Mandalorian, Andor, The Book of Boba Fett, and the upcoming Ahsoka series. However, while I’ve always loved designing vehicles from the Star Wars universe, I’m really starting to dig some of the LEGO dioramas from independent creators like Anthony Bill (@billsbrickz) and Hauke Jürgensen (@codyaner.bricks). It’s a perfect way to capture memorable moments from Star Wars while also being able to display a few of the minifigs in my collection. Why do you choose the LEGO brick as your medium of self-expression? What makes LEGO so special for you? I have been creative since my childhood. I always gravitated towards the fine arts, such as drawing, painting, or performing music. My parents recognized this interest and helped to nurture it. Some of my earliest memories as a child involve me playing with large tubs of LEGO with my older brother. We were always building bases for our G.I. Joe and Cobra battles out of Lincoln Logs and, of course, LEGO bricks.
Data File: Kintan Strider Speeder Bike The Speeder Bikes of the Kintan Striders Gang are overpowered repulsorcraft that are as dangerous as the Niktos often found riding them. With many of the comforts and safety features of civilian models stripped away, the speeders are crafted for maximum speed and marked by the skeletal gang symbol.
As I grew older, my love for creating things continued even when my LEGO hobby was on pause. I got into woodworking when I moved into my first home because I enjoyed being able to create things.
Source: StarWars.com
Bantha Bricks: How is it going, Corey? The LEGO Star Wars community has known you for some time through the Bantha Bricks Facebook group, where you amazed us with your skilled Star Wars-inspired designs. Could you please introduce yourself and what you do? Corey Schaaf: You’re too kind! I’m happily married to the love of my life, Erica. I’m also the father to two amazing children; Lincoln (8) and Lillie (6). When I’m not spending time with them, I’m usually visiting my locally owned Minifig Shop, sorting LEGO, or enjoying some St. Louis Cardinal baseball. Professionally, I’m a Design Manager with a focus on user experience and user interface design. Similarly to my day job, designing my own creations (MOCs) involves a lot of
A rearward view with the speeder hood open.
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