Dynamic Subspace

Tag: MOC

  • DIY LEGO Display Stands for Kenner’s 1979 Millennium Falcon and 1981 Slave I Vehicles in Flight

    I wanted to display my Kenner Millennium Falcon, which I’ve had for awhile, and my recently acquired Slave I on a shelf above my desk at home. While I liked seeing them on the shelf above my desk–Falcon with gear down and Slave I resting on its base–I thought displaying them in flight would look a lot cooler. There are aftermarket displays, including some nice ones that are clear acrylic, but since I have so much LEGO on-hand, I figured I should use what I have instead of purchasing something new. Below, I’m including detailed photos of each stand in case you are interested in building your own.

    LEGO Flight Display Stand for Kenner Millennium Falcon (1979)

    The Falcon display stand presented an interesting problem. Due to its asymmetrical design (with cockpit stuck off on its forward right quadrant), getting it to balance from the center gunner platform was difficult. Also, I didn’t want to build the stand with a wider width so that I could avoid putting any weight on the fragile loading ramp piece. A very simple solution presented itself when I ran out of single-stud wide tires. Putting a two-stud wide tire on the front support arm in the direction of the cockpit substantially balanced the Falcon so that it doesn’t wobble or move on the stand at all even while I’m typing on my keyboard below it on my desk.

    LEGO Flight Display Stand for Kenner Slave I (1981)

    Slave I’s unique design presented its own unique challenges for building an in-flight display stand. It is designed to be in flight mode by someone grasping the handle on the back of its base. The straight forward approach would be to build a long arm with a hook or some assemblage to “grasp” around the handle. When I was testing this out, I didn’t have enough long black 1 x n Technic bricks to construct a stable and supported arm (needing at least a sandwich of Technic bricks over and under a 2 x n plate).

    I opted to build a shorter support arm that would contact with Slave I in three places–hook around the bottom of the handle for stability, 4 x Technic, Axle Connector Double – Flexible Rubber holding the weight under the two bottom engine exhausts, and two 1-stud wide tires under the screw assembly that holds the base at the loading ramp together.

    Due to its center of gravity, I angled the arm back a couple of degrees and built the display stand’s base wide, short in the back, and long in the front.

  • Weezer Performance Stage at Key Arena Nov. 2001 LEGO MOC

    In Fall 2001, I flew out to Seattle to visit friends and go to two shows–Tori Amos at the Paramount and Weezer at Key Arena.

    After I returned home, I built this LEGO MOC (my own creation) of the Weezer stage. At that point, I only had some Star Wars LEGO sets, so I had to pick up some additional bricks and minifigures to create this model. Notably, I purchased the cheapest Harry Potter set (for the bespectacled Rivers Cuomo) and a large brick assortment set for the stage base and back.

    I based the stage arrangement on Weezer’s stage design at the Key Arena performance. They had a backdrop covered with equally distant squares. Lights behind the black squares illuminated and played lights on the backdrop. In front of the stage back was a large stylized “W” that descended from above when the band began playing.

    To mount the stage back at 90 degrees to the stage base, I used stub-and-fork friction joint bricks.

    For the backdrop lights, I used battery-powered Christmas lights.

    For the stylized “W,” I cut it out from card stock.

    Also, I used card sock to cut out guitar and bass shapes that I taped to rods that the minifigures held.

    Apologies for the quality of the photos. I took the photos with my second digital camera. The first was a Sony Mavica with 3.5″ floppy disk. I sold it and purchased a Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-P3 (I think). I’m lucky to have these photos as I think I took them more to experiment with the camera than to memorialize the LEGO model!

  • LEGO Mashup MOC of Gandalf 30213 and Fierce Flyer 31004

    Back in 2013, I built a small LEGO MOC scene depicting Gandolf (from The Hobbit 30213 polybag set) riding on one of the great eagles (LEGO Creator Fierce Flyer 31004). The scene shows a miniature river flanked by mountainsides. I used one of the mountains to anchor a Technic support that buoyed the eagle carrying Gandolf on an important Middle Earth mission. Positioned correctly, the support isn’t seen and the eagle appears to be in midflight.

  • Iron Man’s Three-Level Hall of Armor and Workshop LEGO MOC

    I built this gargantuan three-level Stark Tower LEGO MOC (my own creation) to bring together three concept spaces: Iron Man’s Hall of Armor, Tony Stark’s Workshop, and an X-Men Danger Room-like testing area. Also, it was a model that didn’t take up too much desk space, so I got the enjoyment of seeing it while working without it monopolizing my desk. I wasn’t going for accuracy to something canon-established. Instead, I was mashing up some different ideas into a single model with a high degree of built-in playability. Eventually, I disassembled it and used many of its bricks to create the taller Avengers Tower MOC that I built and wrote about here.

    Two-Level Origin

    The first iteration of the mode was only two-levels tall and focused on the Hall of Armor and Workshop.

    Top Level: Hall of Armor

    Armor Display

    Trap Door

    Ant-Man Hides in the Shadows

    Bottom Level: Workshop

    The Slab with Rotator Knob

    Industrial Robot on Slider

    Three-Level Expansion

    But, I thought adding a high ceiling level for testing and training, kind of like The X-Men’s Danger Room, would be cool. So, the build grew in height to enclose the Hulkbuster Armor facing off against Loki, the Winter Soldier, the Mandarin, Ultron, and an Extremis soldier.

    Hall of Armor Updates

    Workshop Updates

    Danger Room

    The knobs at the bottom center move the armatures forward and back for Ultron and one of his familiars.

  • LEGO 75212 Kessel Run Millennium Falcon on Custom Display Stand

    LEGO Kessel Run Millennium Falcon on display stand.

    This is a lightweight custom display stand for a stock LEGO 75212 Kessel Run Millennium Falcon from the underrated Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). Like the stand that I built for my heavier modified Falcon discussed here, it provides an angle upward and a swoop to the left. The landing gear lock into place on the stand and are held in place by gravity.

    I hope there will be more Han Solo and Lando Calrissian adventures with Alden Ehrenreich and Donald Glover. I don’t think he and the rest of the cast of Solo got a fair shake due to the behind-the-scenes production turmoil. Let’s keep the dream alive!