Getting the Veinhart Soul Engine and Swarm Core ready for the Michigan State Fair next week.

LEGENDS is back for Volume 5.

This time we’re jumping between three very different flavours of sci-fi comedy: a pristine exploratory starship, a barely roadworthy delivery vessel, and a ship crewed by actors who really weren’t expecting any of this to be real.

As ever, each build combines an iconic vehicle, a recognisable scene from its world and a full set of Character Studdies™.
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THE ORVILLE: USS Orville

First up, the USS Orville.

At this scale, the big challenge was getting those three engine rings, the layered hull and the very particular silhouette of the ship to still read properly without turning the whole thing into something enormous.
Below it is the bridge as it appears in New Horizons, with the updated shinier interior, central command area and the crew assembled across the front.

Character Studdies™ include Ed Mercer, Kelly Grayson, Bortus, Claire Finn, Alara Kitan, Gordon Malloy, John LaMarr, Isaac and Yaphit.
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FUTURAMA: Planet Express Ship

Good news, everyone!

The Planet Express Ship - Old Bessie herself - gets probably the most colourful LEGENDS display yet. The scene is the Planet Express headquarters on 72nd Street in New New York, complete with the city skyline behind it and that huge, unmistakable Futurama starburst filling the background.

There’s also a little hidden extra: pop the side of the building off and you’ll find Hermes, Zapp Brannigan and Kif tucked away inside.

Out front are Character Studdies™ of Fry, Leela, Professor Farnsworth, Bender, Amy and Dr. Zoidberg.
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GALAXY QUEST: NSEA Protector

Never give up. Never surrender.

The NSEA Protector sits above Epsilon Gorniar II, where things have gone somewhat less smoothly for Commander Peter Quincy Taggart. The scene recreates the wonderfully stupid rock monster chase, with Gorignak lumbering after Taggart across the planet surface.

And because this is Galaxy Quest, there is also an extra tan piece included for anyone who feels the scene is more authentic with Taggart inexplicably topless. Though they weren't on the planet, I've included a cutaway to the ship with Mathesar and Laliari watching over the events. 'HaaAAAaaAA-aaa-aa-aaaa...' indeed.

Character Studdies™ include Commander Peter Quincy Taggart, Lt. Tawny Madison, Dr. Lazarus, Tech Sgt. Chen, Crewman #6, Lt. Laredo, Mathesar and Laliari.

NB: Due to a few crazy expensive pieces, I've slightly adjusted the rock monster design.
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Three more little worlds squeezed into the LEGENDS format.

The Orville. Planet Express. NSEA Protector.

What should be in Volume 6?

Made this mini Mech suit today, enjoy

I love transformable robots/mecha. I also love LEGO. LEGO's Cargo theme is one that resonates with me, and for a number of years I tried in vain to MOC a transformable VTOL cargo plane where the cargo compartment and its load would remain intact throughout the transformation process. In 2013, LEGO released set 60021 Cargo Heliplane to my extreme delight, as I'm an aviation buff, and a fan of tiltrotor and VTOL aircraft in particular. Too, the new specially molded cockpit parts provided a nexus around which I found my ideas for the transforming concept to begin taking shape. In 2015, I finished my Variable VTOL Series one, or VV-1. Since Hercules was already taken by the Lockheed C-130, I chose the Biblical strongman, Samson, as its working name. Samson is fully transformable without removing/replacing any parts, the cargo compartment remains intact throughout or can be compacted on his back when empty, he's fully articulated, with retractable landing gear and working nose wheel steering. He also has a built-in winch in the ceiling of his cargo compartment for lifting objects while in plane mode. His engines can swivel 360 degrees for omnidirectional control inflight. Big Hero 6's Baymax served not only as visual inspiration (lots of rounded edges), but also inspired my idea that he'd be a friendly A.I. driven companion to his human pilots, assisting them with carrying out their logistics missions both on the ground and in the air. Hope you like.

Classic Space hooked its claws into me irrevocably when it came about in the late '70s. It remains my favorite of all LEGO themes and I wish fervently that sci-fi Space was an evergreen theme like City or Ninjago. For this build, I paired my love of CS with my passion for Macross with its pantheon of transformable fighters and spaceships. The original Monster, which featured in Super Dimensional Fortress: Macross, was a huge non-transforming artillery mech. In 1999, Shoji Kawamori redesigned it to feature a three-mode conversion much like the variable fighters that feature so prevalently in the various Macross series. To my eyes, it's a beautiful design, one I wished very much to capture in a MOC. This model is actually my second attempt. It skews much closer to Kawamori's art than my previous version, which was larger and more complex, but ultimately too heavy for the available joints at the time. I wanted to build this in dark tan with red and dark grey accents, but many of the parts I needed didn't exist in those colors at the time. I had a lot of blue and grey, however, and i thought CS livery would look pretty cool on this mech. See if you agree.

My 3rd massive horror themed moc using a box of random childhood Legos. One or two pieces are new. I was going for bee hive/ant farm vibes

LEGENDS returns for Volume 4.

Three ships. Three very different corners of science fiction. And probably the most technically awkward trio I’ve tried to squeeze into this scale so far.

As always, each ship is paired with a tiny scene from its world and a set of Character Studdies™.
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PROJECT HAIL MARY: The Hail Mary

Amaze amaze amaze!

The Hail Mary is built to display in both of its configurations: its standard flight mode, or opened out into centrifuge gravity mode, with the two ends of the ship extended around the central axis.

The scene recreates Grace and Rocky’s first proper meeting, separated by that transparent wall of xenonite in the connecting tunnel. There’s also a tiny display showing the Petrova Line running between Tau Ceti and Adrian - the green planet where Grace and Rocky eventually make their rather important discovery. Its made with transparent red pieces which would look very cool lit up...

Character Studdies™ include Ryland Grace, Rocky, Eva Stratt, Boyce and, of course, Armando.
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FIREFLY: Serenity

Serenity was ridiculously difficult at this size.

There are barely any straight lines on the thing. Getting all of those angles, curves, engine shapes and organic bits of detailing to read as Serenity without making the model substantially larger took a lot of messing around.

The accompanying scene is the classic Train Job, with a blurred high-speed landscape rushing past behind Mal, Zoe and Jayne as they secure the cargo.

Character Studdies™ include Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Kaylee, River, Wash and Inara, complete with one of her classic elegant sheer outfits.
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BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: Galactica

And finally, Galactica.

This one might be my favourite bit of micro-engineering in the collection. There is a lot going on in the shape of this ship, and somehow it all had to fit into a tiny footprint.

There are some really fun SNOT techniques, reversed stud directions and slightly ridiculous connections buried inside to get the armour, flight pods and layered hull details where they need to be. I think the result is crazy accurate for the scale.

The scene is the Galactica hangar deck, featuring a super cute version of Starbuck’s red-and-white, three-engined Viper Mk II. It even has a movable access ladder, and the Viper itself lifts straight out when it inevitably needs to be swooshed around the room.

Character Studdies™ are William Adama, Laura Roslin, Kara “Starbuck” Thrace, Lee “Apollo” Adama, Saul Tigh, Gaius Baltar and Number Six.
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Three more ships added to the LEGENDS fleet.

Hail Mary. Serenity. Galactica.

What should be in Volume 5?

Crab is a superior form not only in nature: turns out it is efficient in combat as well.

Callinectes, nicknamed "siege crab" by NMC personnel, is heavy-armored all-terrain walker with two main purposes.

First - to clear the way of rubble for advancing troops, dig trenches and make other defensive structures.

Second - to provide those troops with artillery fire with its 155mm howitzer.

Six main legs provide substantial mobility to Callinectes on difficult terrain.

Two giant manipulators resembling crab claws not only can lift, cut and tear heavy debris, but also act as movable shields for covering the chassis - or personnel on the ground.

Two hands at the back are used to dig and plow, above them are separate set of optic and other sensors. That makes moving back almost equivalent to moving forward for Callinectes.

Other than heavy armor the Siege crab has only one machine gun turret and active defense systems - it mostly relies on ground troops and light vehicles for protecting it in close combat.

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Heard about carcinisation? I bet you did. Time for Crab is all about it.

I pretty much thought about making something like this since the first time I saw this event. This time I take part in it myself. Enjoy!

Also it is sort of a spiritual successor to Mudcrab - check that out if you haven't.

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So I decided to try posting my stuff here on Reddit. Usually I post only on my Flickr page but it feels like it is slowly dying. We'll see how it goes. May post my previous builds.

I'm bummed that I didn't get to take more pictures of the builds from the other places we went. However, I feel these builds are great with the backdrops.