Lego Masters Create Amazing Space Sets
This article is more than 2 years old
Forget Gravity — the only way to truly express the awesomeness of space is through Legos.
I remember when I was a little kid and my older brother had an extensive collection of Legos, including space Legos. Turned out those were first manufactured the year I was born, so I take that to be a sign. That’s when Legos turned gray. Playing Legos when I was little was the first time I ever contemplated what it would be like to land on the moon. If only we’d been more ambitious (and had a lot more Legos), we could have contemplated a whole lot more than that.
Peter Reid and Tim Goddard, both from the UK, are the biggest Lego nerds you’ve never met. They bought dozens of Lego space sets (and there are now hundreds to choose from) and started building. Their new book LEGO Space: Building the Future features futurist scenarios and mechanical devices constructed entirely from the colorful plastic bricks. Their vision of the future includes robots, spaceships, and alien worlds, as well as space pirates. Yep. What could be cooler than space pirates? Well, space ninjas, I guess. Those will be in the sequel.
Reid and Goddard both contributed to the Lego Play Book and Goddard also contributed to the Lego Ideas Book. Reid designed a Lego Exo suit featured in the Lego Play Book, which received over 10,000 votes on Lego Cuusoo, which is kind of like the Kickstarter of Lego (without the donation requests). Fans can use Lego Cuusoo to suggest and support the manufacture of individual projects by Lego.
As if the Lego models aren’t cool enough, Reid and Goddard attempt to create a narrative in their book. Using the Lego sets as a universe in which to set their stories, they try to appeal to younger readers who are just getting into Space Lego, as well as to older readers who like me feel a sense of happy nostalgia when looking at the photos.
I don’t really know what else there is to say. Just look at these. And then go buy some Legos and get building. If you’re lucky, they might find themselves on the way to space, flying in the footsteps of the lucky Legos inside the Juno spacecraft.
