Help your fellow builder by leaving your feedback based on these three criteria:
- Originality: How original is this - never seen before?
- Building Techniques: How much skill do you think the creator of this MOC has, in terms of building technique?
- Details: Express how much you like the details of the build.
Your feedback is only shown to the creator as well as yourself. It is not available for other users to see. The creator won't see your user name.
I am happy to present to you my spaceship, the ‘Patchy Goat’. After 2 years of on and off work, countless experiments, and a serious amount of play-time research with my 4-6 year old daughter, I finished it!
The spaceship had to be sturdy enough to survive the hands of a small child, my daughter is a very thorough tester! Her playing and smashing revealed many weak spots and I had to reinforce and redesign it many times. The end result is really ‘swoosh-able’ and satisfying. You can grab the spaceship with 2 different grip points and play your heart out. If shaken from the grip points, the ‘Patchy Goat’ will not fall apart.
Building-wise, I find that the most satisfying part is the tail. It’s stable enough to be picked up and swooshed around, has interesting angles, and provides access to the interior.
I also wanted it to be interesting for an experienced builder. Various building techniques allow interesting angles, curves, and shapes. The second most satisfying part, building-wise, is the brick-built cockpit. It allows the minifigs to have a quite broad view of the space around them, it has curves and has no gaps!
I went for a worn-out look, inspired by several popular sci-fi movies which captured my imagination when growing up. The worn texture of the exterior is created exclusively with interesting LEGO part usage and color variations. I used no stickers and only 2 printed tiles, which can easily be replaced by stickers or non-printed tiles.
The interior consists of the tail section and the living quarters. It’s accessible by removing the top of the main spaceship, lifting the tail’s top and lowering its ramp door. It’s fully playable with many details.
The tail section is the spaceship’s loading bay. A ramp allows easy loading/unloading and the top lifts for additional access and playability. It has plenty of room for storage, minifig tools for repairs, and 2 space suits with helmets.
The living quarters feature a full-blown cockpit with adjustable height controls, a kitchen with a coffee/tea machine, beds (the top bed detaches to access the one below), and a bathroom with a door that closes and opens. I printed many (maybe far too many 😅) stickers for interior details. I went for a retro-tech look, so all the computer and cockpit stickers are based on computers and cockpits of the US & Soviet space programs of the 60’s and 70’s.
The landing gear is functional, very stable, and supports the weight of the spaceship. It also stays nicely hidden when folded up. The underside didn’t get the attention that other surfaces received; “nice” was good enough.
Thanks to the designers of the LEGO sets:
- Set 10283 NASA Space Shuttle Discovery: For inspiration on the amazing detail of the 4 taps (4599b) and 1 round tile on top.
- Set 75331 The Razor Crest: For inspiration on how to angle surfaces in both interesting and stable ways, as well as a cockpit chair design.
- Set 21312 Women of NASA: that inspired me to build a spaceship for my daughter.
The greeble details were possible because I studied countless talented LEGO builders from many online communities. Thanks, folks!
Model's LEGO Studio information (excluding minifigs)
- Total parts: 1665
- Parts cost in bricklink (2024 January 24th): 178 USD
- Weight: 1470g / 51.7oz
- Dimensions (ramp open): centimeters: W 28.0 - L 50.4 - H 9.4 / inches: W 11.0 - L 19.8 - H 3.7
Thank you for checking it out and I appreciate your support! If you have questions, feel free to leave them in the comments!
Thank you,
Vangelis
By
BrickOdyssey
Help your fellow builder by leaving your feedback based on these three criteria:
- Originality: How original is this - never seen before?
- Building Techniques: How much skill do you think the creator of this MOC has, in terms of building technique?
- Details: Express how much you like the details of the build.
Your feedback is only shown to the creator as well as yourself. It is not available for other users to see. The creator won't see your user name.