Neo Classic Space

Another builder who has kept busy this month, DARKspawn has produced some fantastic tributes to classic sets.

Pace Scooter (above) and Radar Truck (below).

And rocket sled:

Finally an original space ship: "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast."

It's funny how one day a small prospecting outpost can suddenly hit a rare mineral, and before you know it a busy mining settlement has sprung up. That certainly seems to be the case with Alexander Schranz's Blue Haven.

What's particularly impressivbe is the time he built it in - everything has been built since the beginning of March.

Alex has produced a fantastic collection of ships, vehicles, buildings, and even a monorail. Many of the components would be very worthy of individual mention, and as a collection they are doubly impressive. We also really love his brick-built Classic Space logo.

Keep up the great work, Alex!

Small fighters have proved invaluable for deploying from carriers, and Mark Sandlin's mini-fighter is no exception.

We really love the double canopy, and the "ring of fire" parts are fantastic for this ship's engines. Mark has even managed to cram in a great little set of landing gear.

A brave Space Marine Cyborg stands guard, blocking the way against the first of what will surely be a horde of Ugokin warriors, hoping his modified body will be strong enough to give his squad enough time to escape. Death may be certain for him, but at least if his buddies survive, he will be remembered as a hero.

Pete Reid's Cyborg is truly an awesome piece of work, demonstrating many incredible ways of connecting bricks together. like all of his amazing robots.

Today we catch up with the military arm of the Federation, and one of their "big guns", Mark Stafford's LL-077 Solar Enforcer.

The LL-077 was one of the most heavily armed ships of it's era. Capable of decimating ground targets and maneuverable enough to more then hold it's own in a dog fight with the emerging threat of Blacktron. It's only drawback was it's own firepower, if all guns were fired at a target straight ahead the ship it would stop it's own forward momentum after only 5 seconds of firing, and early test pilot often found themselves in negative spins.

Mark says: Face it, whatever the classic space ship looked like, to a kid of the 70's they looked something like this in our heads, bristling with guns and ready for action! Just like in that Star Wars movie or Battle Beyond the Stars! Hope you all like it!

A small, fast, heavily armed starfighter, Peter L Morris's LL-562 looks very swooshable indeed.

Peter says: So, this is more along the lines of what was going through my mind when I was asked to do a MOC for NCS month. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I went with the Seraph, but it's not exactly swoosh friendly. It can be swooshed, but the wings get in the way and tend to bump into things. Plus it's a pain to just set somewhere, as something ends up getting bent out of whack. This is more my speed. Simple landing gear, relatively tough, and not too terrible to look at.

Keeping the vending machines in Federation space stations well stocked is a constant struggle, but Max Braun's LL-651 is up for the challenge.

The Mesa is the Pick-up truck of space. The Mesa most likely will not be romanticized or immortalized but its role cannot be dismissed. The Mesa can be found performing general light duty work or transporting small loads of cargo and personnel. The rugged and versatile Mesa helps fill a vital support role that keeps us in space.

We love the cockpit solution, giving the pilot a wide visibility, useful for those tricky space station dockings (they always send the service craft to the older docking rings which aren't as spacious as the modern ones), and the wedges for the large bumblebee stripe.

And we especially like the ramp at the back and the cutest little rover...

Another great bonus at Miniland scale from Jason Railton.

"Hey there, space cats - Ulala here coming at you live on Classic Space Channel 5. I'm right here on Starbase 059 where the Ugokin have just boarded the station and seized control!"

"I'm waiting for my translator to relay their demands. They're telling everyone to get down... get... get on down! People - I think they want to DANCE!"

Another amazing bonus from Nnenn, the LL-009, a slightly out dated model, but still a work-

Without various upgrades and additions, the ancient LL-009 would be completely dilapidated. Differences in ground crew over the years have kept any two ships from looking identical. And though an embarrassment to most pilots, at least Synths will fly them.

Next in our whistle-stop tour of the Federation is Dan Rubin's Robot Command Centre, another vehicle designed to overcome the limitations of wheeled transport.

The Robot Command Center fills a role in the fleet that was left lacking for some time.  Although we have mobile rocket-launching vehicles, we had no capability to maintain control once a rocket passed over the horizon, unless a ship was in the system.  Now, we’re able to establish a command and control presence on a new world simply by depositing one or more of these babies on a planet.  They are able to quickly establish a network of control, using the standard satellite rocket launched from the back.  The Robot Command Centers also allow us to move our ground staff out of the way of alien weather systems.