Futuron of my Youth: 2021

I posted this ship on the site years ago now... at this point I do feel like Futuron of My Youth is years ago too though.

So I made a Blacktron version of my last non Legoland Spaceship I ever made. This Dark navy blue spaceship has a canopy design my brother showed me that he had done... So... I happened to like it and have come back to do it a second time. The rest of the Spaceship design is all me.

The main shaping element of all that triangle work is the humble classic hinge plate times 3 spaced 6 studs wide in the front and folded with the third one under the Galaxy Explorer windows in the back creating some weird shapes to handle in an era better known for 90 degree straight edges Image via Bricklink

I used to be able to modify the link name... sorry about the ugly link text. Point is...

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=2429c01&name=Hinge%20Plate%201%20x%204%20Swivel%20(2429%20/%202430)&category=%5BHinge%5D#T=C&C=11

Hinge Plate 1 x 4 Swivel (2429 / 2430)

This is the workhorse doing all the geometry shenanigans for this design. I attach the elements on a 6 wide structure at the front; the windows and rear hinge float over tiles and open gaps to the rear.

The wings are attached beneath the windows and the attachment points aren't terribly strong, so I kept the armaments light while attempting to give them a 'heavy' look.

There is no attachment point for the cockpit, so I create a nice shape that can lock into place and just let it rest in the desired position... This spaceship is more sculpture than toy since it can't fly upside down.

I tried the undercairage engines with available black and yellow elements and couldn't see the defined seperateness between cockpit frame and engines... it took away from the design I wanted you all to see. and... Invader has a puny 2x2 cylinder rocket... So I gave this railgun looking ship some really big thruster capabilities. Gotta keep flying forward when you fire the rail you know.

The Triforce Logo placement sets off against the rakish swept back wing design with geometric perfection. I'm really proud of it. Good Job old Lego triforce print... you're doin great work Triforce <--(Now I remember why I thought this seemed funny. It's my David Lynch playing with a Lego brick impression "You're doin great work brick!"). I feel like I'm looking at a Space Invader, but not a Blacktron Space Invader perse

The snout has a crosshair for aiming down the sight, that was part of my first design and I didn't think I'd be able to replicate it with the older Lego parts... I tried a wrench but it's lopsided and... it was too tall. Then... I'd given up mostly and all of a sudden I remembered the Classic Space robot arm... specifically the clip end. It was close enough in height that I went for it. And I used a control lever as the reticle instead of a Dragon fang/frill/animal claw element. Slightly older and lumpier instruments but... that's progress I guess. Blacktron didn't mind... they're all about the warning shots... that's why so many Space Police have Blacktron prisoners and not mounting insurance claims for lost Mission Commanders.

I'm remembering that I had a bit of fun writing up these old blog posts... I hope you enjoy the written portions too.

Bonus build with less commentary. I built this ship this past summer and haven't written about it here as of yet.

This design was based on the Bad Batch Shuttle. But only the cockpit... and only as a loosely interpreted inspiration... and no... I haven't watched the Bad Batch yet, given that I haven't watched Clone Wars I'm not sure if or when I will.

This Model is Futuron based and I spent as much time on the front canopy as I did the rest of the model.

You might say it was a desperate salvage effort to make use of that arcane window shaping... which is why the rest of the ship design is sort of Classic Space box standard. I tried some mouting tricks for the sail using fences, technic beams, and the 260 era rack and gearbox elements... But that was very easy compared to the cockpit. My only complaint is that the sail design means the vehicle barely fits so I can't have a crew quarters in the back like I wanted. The engines on either side are attached via a Technic beam running through the center fuselage and locked in with careful brick placement. I put the Lego down for a while after this one except for checking out some small Ninjago and Frozen II Princess Book Lego sets.