The month of September is one of the busiest for LEGO Space fans. In fact, they refer to the month as SHIPtember, dedicated to building spaceships. But not just any kind of spaceship would qualify as a SHIPtember creations. They have to be big… bigger the better… but at least 100 studs long. According to this discussion at LUGnet from 2002, the S.H.I.P. acronym was first proposed by LEGO fan James Brown and stood for “Seriously Huge Interstellar Plastic”. This was changed by another LEGO fan, Jon Palmer, “to Seriously Huge Investment in Parts”, and the definition stuck. 🙂
As I really like LEGO spaceships, I have been keeping an eye on projects that were created for SHIPtember 2016. These large ships are built by some of the well-known veterans of LEGO spaceship building, and there are also newcomers every year who surprise us with their amazing creations. Below I will show you some of my favorites.
➡ LEGO SPACESHIP HOATZIN INFILTRATOR BY ROOK: This stunning spaceship that looks like a bird of prey is 137 studs long and 155 studs wide. And yes, those orange bits are LEGO Brick Separators. Now you know what you can do when you have too many! You can see more pictures at ROOK’s flickr gallery.
➡ LEGO PROTOSS CARRIER BY TIM SCHWALFENBERG: The massive Protoss Carriers serve as both command centers and devastating weapons of war. Heavily armored and shielded, the Protoss Carrier mounts no weaponry, but instead, manufactures and launches flights of robotic interceptors at vital enemy targets. The computer-controlled interceptors are capable of quickly tearing apart even the largest of vessels with their relentless strafing runs. Don’t be fooled by the delicate lines of this spaceship. It is actually 100 studs long and quite sturdy. Tim shares that it took him six days to build, which is a feat in itself. You can see more pictures at Tim’s flickr gallery.
➡ LEGO SPACESHIP KULICIDAE BY LEGOHAULIC: This organic looking spaceship definitely looks like the creation of an alien civilization. The three round domes (two at the sides and one at the bottom) are motorized, and can rotate as the ship travels through deep space. Check out LEGOhaulic’s flickr gallery for a video demonstration of how it works.
➡ LEGO SPACESHIP TITAN BY I SCREAM CLONE: The Titan measures over 115 studs long, 40 studs wide and 50 studs high. The dark-blue and gray color-scheme with the purple glow is a fantastic combination. Also notice the small fighters and other crafts flying around the big mothership. You can see a lot of detailed pictures at I Scream Clone’s flickr gallery.
➡ LEGO SPACESHIP OASIS BY CESAR SOARES: The first OASIS class explorer ship was commissioned in the year 2077. Its primary objective is to seek out new planets suitable for colonization. Fitted with the latest warp technology available during that period, it is capable of reaching Alpha Centauri in a matter of days. It was named OASIS due to being equipped with a Hydroponics Bay – an artificial ecosystem that not only provided food and air but also R&R for the crews – offering a way to make long interstellar travel bearable. The OASIS class was capable of performing multiple non-combat roles. The science module can be replaced with a cargo module and refitted into a cargo transport. Minimal combat capability is ensured with only 7 anti-fighter turrets. Further defense is enhanced by drones. For planetary exploration the scientists can land using the surveyor, which is equipped with utilities for onsite experiments. This ship is 132 studs in length. See more at Cesar Soares’ flickr gallery.
➡ LEGO BATTLESTAR CHELONE BY EL BARTO: Following the discovery of the Galactica orbiting within the Sol system’s asteroid belt, designs for a new fleet of warships began. The result is the Battlestar Chelone – Greek for turtle. Significantly more armored that her Colonial counterpart, the Chelone-Class Battlestar is built to withstand multiple nuclear missile strikes. Visit El Barto’s flickr gallery for more.
➡ LEGO SPACESHIP ZEA’X DAUPHIZ BY CECILIE FRITZVOLD: An exploration vessel made by the Tuor’arc, on a peaceful mission to explore space and search for other species, hoping they are not alone in the universe. This is another beautiful alien looking ship. The color combination is so striking! See more at Cecilie’s flickr gallery.
➡ LEGO SPACESHIP ENIGMA BY SWESTAR: This cleanly designed carrier is SweStar’s first attempt to build a S.H.I.P. It is 115 studs long, and comes with a carefully chosen color combination. You can see more pictures at SweStar’s flickr gallery.
➡ LEGO SPACESHIP EFS ASIMOV BY SUNDER_59: The Asimov Ore Processor is not your ordinary spaceship. Do you see those claws and arms at the bottom? Now they are empty, but when Asimov sees some good asteroid full of iron nearby, she can crush and eat it. Swarms of mining drones and transport ships are delivering ore to Asimov’s hangars. The whole thing looks like giant steel hive. See those spinning things? They are ore mills, crushing pieces of rock into dust. Then ore is separated from waste, enriched, and prepared in other ways to become high-quality steel. You can see more pictures and read more about the ship at Sunder_59’s flickr gallery.
➡ LEGO SPACESHIP USS VIKING BY ANDREAS LENANDER: Designed and manufactured during the mining wars, the USS Viking was the largest ship in the EAA (Earth Alliance Armada). Its primary objective was to provide protection for the less heavily armored transport ships in the mining fleet. Produced over a period of 28 years, the JYL-class destroyers are by far the longest running ship type ever to be manufactured, and was crucial in securing resources for the EAAs continued dominance throughout the galaxy. This was also a first attempt at S.H.I.P. building by a very talented LEGO fan. Andreas says that despite its large size (130 studs long), the swooshability of this ship is excellent. I also like the bright of the red contrasted by the dark-gray greeblings. You can see more pictures at Andreas’ flickr gallery.
As you can see, spaceships come in all shapes and sizes, but one thing they all have in common; they are very impressive. I also find it pretty remarkable that most of these ships were built in just a few days. When I built spaceships, even much smaller ones, I tend to tinker with them for weeks!
While SHIPtember 2016 is now over, if you would like to participate next year, it is worth starting to plan early, especially if this is your first time. SHIPtember is not a contest, so it’s not like there are winners and loosers, or any prices. It is just a fun thing to participate in, and a way to build up your S.H.I.P. engineering reputation. If you are not sure where to start, you can begin by modifying one of the LEGO Star Wars sets, or other sets that come with a spaceship type vehicle. This will give you some basics on how to build sturdy, strong and large ships.
So what do you think? How do you like these LEGO spaceships? Have you been following SHIPtember activities? Do you have a favorite starship built for the event that I haven’t covered here? Feel free to share in the comment section below! 😉
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Wow! These are fantastic! I don’t even know which one is my favorite. Love them all! But I would say probably the one with the brick separators is the most creative. And also the one with the rotating domes.
Amazing! Especially since some are first time builds! It gives me hope that I can build one too. If only I would have that much Lego..
Seriously cool builds. All different, but very cool. That’s probably the greatest thing about spaceships, that there is really no limit on their size and shape.
Very cool projects! I love building spaceships, but these are beyond anything I’ve ever built. Then again, I don’t have tons of parts like these…. 😕 Anyways, I really like the first one and the Battlestar Chelone, but the Zea’x and the one with the spinning domes are also pretty cool. Impossible to pick a favorite. 😀 Do LDD projects count in SHIPtember, or is it real builds only?
Also, the next Ideas sets has been announced: http://brickset.com/article/23872/and-the-result-is A little surprising, but I suppose they may downsize it somewhat, or delete some details. We’ll see… in about 11 months. 😉
Yeah, that was a surprising result, but I’m very happy with it. 🙂
Nice…
If I’d manage to integrate time and space, I could attempt something like that…
And buy up on some parts…
The building techniques often makes it hard to actually grasp their size, though… Sometimes it would benefit with a minifig nearby to illustrate proportional size…
I agree about the size. It is hard to judge without something for scale. I have included the length in studs wherever the creator shared it, but they are at least 100 studs long as that is the requirement for SHIPtember. So that’s a bit longer than three modular buildings next to each other. 🙂
Hope you’re well on your way to a much safer place and that you’ll return to find your home ready to welcome you.
Be safe and know that we appreciate what you share with us even if you won’t be able to for a while.
Sorry? What’s this about? The Matthew hurricane?
Oh, yes… I’m not great on US geography, but apparently it’s been projected to strike Florida, and large areas are to be evacuated…
Yeah, this is predicted to be the worst hurricane in Florida’s recorded history, and we go through a lot already almost every year. So we are all veterans in stocking stuff, and securing out homes, but this is predicted to be on a whole other level. I’m more inland, so we are not getting hit by the eye directly, but winds are still going to be very severe. If you never lived through a hurricane it is hard to imagine. I will try to take pictures when it is safe to go outside and post them on my Facebook page.
Thank you. Really appreciate it. Our county is not under mandatory evacuation as we are more inland, so we are staying put. We have water, food, flashlights, batteries, gas, etc. That’s what has been advised four our area. I’m closely monitoring the local news. We will most likely loose power (and definitely internet) sometime tomorrow, so if you guys don’t hear from me for a while that’s probably the reason. I already wrote an article for tomorrow though, to keep my mind away from the impending doom. 😉
It is already raining, but the heavy stuff will start tomorrow at 8 AM. Worst will be 2PM to 10 PM with 70 mph+ winds. We have lived through this magnitude of storm once before (Frances in 2004) and a number of smaller ones, and I’m not looking forward to it. The SOUND… that’s the scariest about hurricanes… the relentless, horribly howling wind, and everything crashing around you. I have talked with our trees today to please stay strong…. my heart goes out to people living at the coastline. I know those areas very well as I have been going to the beach every weekend. They will get the worst of it… 🙁
On the positive side, we have a brand new roof, because we already had two huge trees crash through it this year due to previous storms. So our weakest trees are already gone, and our new roof is up to the latest code. But yeah, not looking forward to it…
These are all really cool! I wish I could build something like those.
Why not give it a try! I’m sure you can! 😉
Sure I have a favorite you didn’t mention here! y own ;P . Haha. Anyway, I do think there were one or two epic ones you missed, but with so many great SHIPs it be hard not to miss cool ones 😉 .