The X-Bomber from the Star Fleet TV Series

Backstory

In the year 2999, the solar system is at peace, patrolled by the Earth Defence Force's (EDF) Star Fleet. Without warning, an immense alien battle cruiser engages and eliminates an EDF patrol ship on the outskirts of the solar system.  As Earth loses contact with its forward base on Pluto, it is decided that Earth's prototype starship, the X-Bomber, should be launched to try and counter the threat.

The Idea

This, my first Ideas project, tries to bring the X-Bomber from the Star Fleet TV series of the early 80s back to life in Lego. My son encouraged me to build this, and kindly donated some of his collection to get it off the ground (so to speak) - he'll be taking possession of it shortly!  When he first started building with Lego it was all incredibly familiar to me, being a fan of old, but modern parts offered me far more scope to try and make a pretty faithful reproduction than anything I had at his age; I could also see just what was possible as I came across this site.

I was conscious that for this to work as an Idea, it had to be more than a model, it had to be a toy too. So the main body is tough, just like the X-Bomber. It can be held underneath on the landing strut and from behind and flown. If its wings come off, or its neck drops off, they can click back into place.

In tribute to the real thing, X-Bomber's neck can hinge up to reveal twin missile launchers to substitute for the original's main laser cannons. These can be fired using an adaptation of the original turret lasers on the top of the ship.  The missiles can't fly out without the neck being up, so accidentally hitting the launch button in play won't cause injury.

For additional fun, I've added detachable Dai-X fighters to the model. In the series, these three fighters could combine to form the mighty Dai-X mecha, but at this scale I can't make that work!  The upper wings also feature some variable geometry that wasn't in the original series, and I've added a folding landing foot into the central landing strut so the ship can land without relying on the neck.  The original also featured laser torpedoes firing from the wing tips and the mighty X-Impulse blast from the wings - those you'll need to use your imagination for, but I've added some places they could come from!

I hope this ship triggers something from your childhood, whilst also being something your own children might have fun with. Please support it if this is the case!  If you're not familiar with the show, please see the links below - I started a website on it some 15 years ago (!) and many others create works around the show even now. Enjoy!

http://www.sfxb.co.uk

http://www.xbomber.co.uk