Antares, Neo Classic Space 3in1

Mech scouts have just found a nest of Ascidians near Legonit deposits. The Galaxy Dropship with a highly specialized lab in its cargo bay has been deployed from nearby space center Antares. Some probes are needed for researching these peculiar creatures called "Ascidia ignis" or just Ascidians. The dropship is escorted by an Eta space fighter as Blacktrons have been sighted in the area.

The space center "Antares" is on a moon orbiting a "smaller" gas giant which in turn orbits Proxima Centauri in its habitable zone. As Proxima is a red dwarf, everything looks reddish even on high noon, like a never ending dawn. Recurring solar flares burst high amount of energy which tear helium from the gas giant forming a sort of nebulae in space between the planet and the moon. This gas gradually "falls" on the moon and is retrieved by the astronauts for their fusion generators.

The Ascidians are weird life forms. The adult males are huge wormlike creatures, predators that protect and feed their nests. Their nests are formed by big egg-like beings, the females. These spawn gaseous-like fog containing eggs which form new females. If an egg gets in touch with a mature female Ascidian, they become pregnant with a male Ascidian and start glowing from the inside. As soon as the male worm is born in a burst of light, the female dies and serves as food. Nothing is "wasted" on this strange moon.

The pic is a composite of real world pics and the Lego world. I took the real photographs throughout the years. If you are interested in the pictures the composite is made of and the making of, check it out at the standalone set proposal "Galaxy Dropship" here:

 

I hope you like the composite and the concept and support the project.

Thanks a lot!

Hi,

now you can rotate the mechas and the mech vehicle at Bricklinks Studio gallery.

You may pan/rotate and zoom in and check the details.

Here s the link, have fun:

By changing limbs and wings and cockpits you may change the look of the bot. In the link there are some samples.

Thank you for the continuous support. Here is another closeup of the bots:

I know fans of space themes are quite split up into different factions. I hope we still see each other as ONE Lego Space Theme when it comes to supporting. I do not know who likes what more, so Classic Space was my first choice as it was the first one which appeared in the late 70ies and happens to be the one I like the most (which by no means mean I do not like the other ones). This does not have to be true for everyone.

Therefore I chose to include every 500 supporters a version in another theme. Not with Antares (as a 3in1 it would be too much "work" for me). But I have uploaded the Galaxy Dropship as an own set proposal. As it resembles the Antares version of the Galaxy Dropship this set proposal is best for the job.

Check out the updates there and compare the classic space theme to other themes. Note that the themes do vary a bit. For example the mechanic vehicle of the M:Tron has more M:tron look. Wait till you see the Space Police version... LINK TO update Galaxy Dropship

Soon the Galaxy Dropship may reach 1000 supporters which will trigger the next theme. Check it out!

Thx for supporting Antares and the Galaxy Dropship no matter what faction you belong to.

One of the alternate builds is the Mining Outpost. Main theme here is mining the Legonit which is done by the Legonit Mining Rig. The rig has a plattform for the container, dumper or the lab.

Each of those three may be transported by the Legonit Search Vehicle or docked to the industrial zone (see animated gif).

Next to the docks (container, lab, dumper) is the entrance to the habitat.

The habitat's roof opens up. Two beds and a table with two chairs are located here.

On the right of the habitat is the industrial zone for the Legonit processing (trans blue tank opens up for the Legonit. The bridge connects habitat, industrial zone and vehicle repair bay with two cranes that may swivel and rotate into position.

The ramp of the repair bay may move in and out (and snaps for stability) as may be seen in the animated video (link in the description). The repair platform features a lifting platform. By putting in the radar antenna from the industrial zone and turning it the platform (with a buggy, dumper, trailer or what ever) may be lifted (please bear with me as I have not animated the turning radar antenna).

Check out the docking zone for lab, dumper or container in the animated gif.

I hope you like the Mining Outpost and tell your friends to support "Antares". In case you haven't seen the standalone proposal of the Galaxy Dropship (with an altered hangar and maintenance vehicle check it out here: Proposal Galaxy Dropship. Make sure you see the M:Tron version in the updates there.

Hopefully we can manage to bring back classic space.

Thanks to you all!

The Antares 3in1 set proposal might not be the biggest LegoIdeas set up to date (if it became a set), but it has to be considered big. As the Galaxy Dropship is one of my favorite models in this set proposal I wanted to have a set proposal concentrating on this spaceship only.

I rebuilt the hangar. The space lab should be a stand alone control centre similar to the Galaxy Explorer. At the same time it should slide in the cargo bay reminding of the Galaxy Commander. There is an animated gif there which shows how the space lab docks to the dropship..

Furthermore I have built a maintenance vehicle for this set. The set "Galaxy Dropshi"p is a set proposal on its own, meaning you cannot build evferything with the bricks of Antares.

If you like it, please support it here: Galaxy Dropship proposal

Thx!

The mechanic vehicle is up to the work in the field. Either a bot stranded behind the next crater or a spacecraft crashed into the desert, the mechanic vehicle is equipped with everything needed.

Before opening the windshield the lights have to be moved. Inside there is a head-up binocular for search missions.

In the back each side features a panel grid that opens up for fast and easy access to all utensils. For easier work the whole toolbox slides out and stands on a hinged foot with a control unit.

 

On top of the vehicle a rotating gripping arm moves in every direction and assists the mechanic in grabbing stuff.

Hope you like the mechanic vehicle which is part of the Repair Bay scenario.

Thx for all the support.

With the bricks of the set you may build 2 Blacktron robots.

You may build the first one, the Assault Bot, with the leftovers from the Galaxy Dropship. Legs and arms move in every direction, the windshield opens up to reveal the Blacktron astronaut. The missiles on top may swivel.

Blacktron Assault Bot

The second robot is the Light Reconnaissance Bot which you may built with the leftovers of all three scenarios. The legs and arms of this bot move in every direction and the windscreen also opens up revealing the pilot. The two missiles may swivel in a similar way as the Assault Bot.

Blacktron Light Bot

As an additional gimmick, the windshields of both bots may be swapped.

Hope you like them and thx for your support.

First of all let me thank you for supporting my Antares project at Legoideas and making it possible to reach the 1000 mark! That is awesome!

As a means of showing my gratitude I am uploading these newly rendered pictures featuring the Blacktron dropship and some examples of what it is able to do.

Blacktrons are a real pain in... Not only do they assault the hard working astronauts at Antares, but they are masters of spying and sabotaging. Almost all of their advances in space technology are not based on their own research. But Blacktrons also have spare time. While others chill and just hang out, what do Blacktrons do in their spare time? They steal stuff.

Since they steal anything from anywhere they have no compatible docking systems, but rely mostly on gripping arms. This way everybody is completely vulnerable to their raids.

For example they can steal the container filled with the precious Legonit:

Or they ambush a convoy and steal the trailer with either the fuel tank or the plasma tank. Quite painful to Antares austronauts as they rely on those tanks to transport fuel to the hangars:

Or they get mean and steal the truck, so the trailer with the tanks become useless:

Blacktrons can get really mean in another way and steal the space buggy. Antares astronauts now have a problem to search, retrieve and transport the Legonit.

Finally Blacktrons may even steal the Legonit Lab.

Now is that all the Blacktron dropship may steal? We shall wait for Antares to become a product to find out. Safe and guaranteed are endless hours of good playing.

Please tell your friends about Antares in order for this project to stand a chance to become a real set.

Thx

Giorgio

You may build the Blacktron spaceship using the leftover bricks from the Mining Outpost scenario. It is part of this scenario. It features 4 rotating thrusters and 2 retractable landing feet. In the front you may change the cockpits' position (there are many positions possible). You may thus get a more aggressive look.

But the Blacktron spaceship is not only a spaceship. The Galaxy Dropship scenario of Antares proposal (2nd alternate build) allows you to build a Blacktron cargo bay which you may dock to the Blacktron spaceship converting it into a dropship. Of course this is only possible if you have the set two times.

The Blacktron Dropship may not only carry any Blacktron objects, but also other neo classic space units as well. At the end Blacktrons are spies and thiefs! I will post this versatile concept in another update.

For now I thank you all for supporting Antares. I hope we may reach the 1000 mark soon.

Thx

Giorgio

The fuel truck is included in the Galaxy Dropship build. It consists of the space truck itself, a trailer and two possible docking units, either the fuel tank or the plasma tank.

Please fogive me for not showing the hydraulic hoses in these renders (fuel and plasma tank have each two hoses on each side. Check an update for a real pic). Bending hydraulic hoses in Studio is currently not possible and I am not that acquainted with LDD yet.

Since there is "only" one trailer included and two docking units, where do you put the second one?

Both fuel tanks may be docked to the hangar as well. I may do another update about the hangar. In the meantime here an animated gif of the fuel truck.

I thank you all for supporting Lego Antares. Please tell your friends about it to help Lego Antares get to the next milestone.

Thx

Giorgio

PS: For all of you who want more pics, check out my Flickr and my Pinterest account.