Hey! Here's the first pictures of my Kre-O/LEGO Space Bridge. Basically right at the moment it's still only the teleportation arch. Recommended reading: Space bridge - Transformers Wiki My space bridge is a massive playset and display unit. It's modular. More on that in a later post. The attachments to this post are not illustrative of the overall build -- they just show my current mail thumbnail for the thread.
So... the thing of this build was to design it so that I could work on just a small piece of the space bridge at a time. I made it completely modular -- so all the parts can come apart. Many of them are currently interchangeable, but as I build more design features onto them they become less interchangeable -- I'll explain that more in later posts. For now, check out image 001 to see a partial shot of how the Space Bridge breaks up into pieces. You can see now how it's made up of removeable box rooms. If you look at image 002 you can see a much bigger piece -- the crossbeam of the bridge. This part of the bridge (Which will have play features later) is a single large piece because it basically holds the bridge arch straight. It was quite a thing to build. If you look at image 003 you can see the bridge taken apart nearly completely -- you can see all 23 room boxes. 23 and not 24, because one of them is two-storeys. This is because it's a smelting pit! The final picture is the base of the bridge. It's actually in two parts -- but I didn't bother to pull it apart for these photos (IE: I forgot). I think it'll be the second part I show in detail. --Andrew S.
Most impressive. Do you plan on creating a space bridge effect, like when it is activated, i.e. TFP-like?
I'm planning on putting a light in the arch, to simulate the teleportation effect. Though actually that's inaccurate -- in the comic book Space Bridge, the bridge literally spans through hyperspace, with one end on Cybertron and the other end on the destination point -- and you can actually see Hyperspace on either side of the bridge. But... it's also inconsistent about that. So a light in the arch should do the job. --Andrew S. (Thanks for reminding me. I'll probably build that light in tonight.)
You could print a high res picture (or go to a place where they print posters and stuff) of Cybertron or whatever you want the destination to be, and then stick it/hang it behind it.
The first part of the bridge I'll show in detail is the Matrix Flame chamber. So what is the Matrix Flame? Here, check out the wiki entry: Matrix Flame - Transformers Wiki It's a really obscure little piece of Transformers emphera, which has only appeared like twice ever -- but it has really always stayed with me. Basically, the Matrix Flame allows the Autobots to access the power of the Matrix without having the Matrix right there. I've always liked it because of what it represents -- the idea that on Cybertron the world is bigger. Sure, on Earth the only way you can create life is with the Matrix -- but on Cybertron it's a bigger world, with various more complex and interesting ways for things to work. Because of that I wanted to include it. This room of the bridge only has one play feature at the moment -- and no door -- you can push down on a control on the back to make the Matrix Flame go out! --Andrew S.
So let's take a look at the base I built for this thing. It currently sits on two of the extra-large LEGO base plates. These can be split apart. Then you have the covers for the base section which form a floor, underneath the bridge arch. The whole thing is very solid and sturdy, and can actually take a bit of force to put the covers back in place. The covers hide storage space, which I've designed to hold my Kreons. It doesn't hold ANY Kreon -- if they have a really big backpack they're probably not going to fit properly. --Andrew S.
Okay. Let's look at one of the more finished rooms on the Space Bridge. The point of this room is for it to be based on Fire in the Sky from the Transformers cartoon. The whole point here is that each of the rooms in the Space Bridge will represent a Transformers set piece -- a place from TF history that you can theoretically visit through the Space Bridge. So the Fire in the Sky room... well... first of all, let's look at the mechanics of how one of these rooms works. Because I designed this not as a display exactly but as a playset, each room has to have play features. So the photos below are of the door, not the room interior. The idea is that each door for a room will open out, lock into place and then the door can act as a play space! The locking mechanism for the doors is something I'm quite proud of -- it took a lot of work to perfect. This door has a little gunnery platform with space for three Kreons and a little missile launcher, which can rotate. In one picture you can also see where I've added reverse slopes to the side of the wall in anticipation of building a platform or something on the side of the Space Bridge. This is an example of my attempts at foresight with the project. --Andrew S.
Okay. So let's look at the Fire In the SKy room's interior. The reason it's called that is because it's based on this episode of the cartoon show: Fire in the Sky - Transformers Wiki The features of the episode included are the large green crystal that's the macguffin of the episode -- Skyfire buried under the ice (you can push down on a lever to explode the ice and free him), and the energy-draining device used in the episode. There's light-piping in the back of the thing that allows you to create a green glow throughout the room (I just used a torch/flashlight behind the thing to make the light -- I would have liked to use a brick light, and build in the feature, but all the lights I have are coloured and they ruin the green effect). I also took some photos showing the underneath base of the space bridge -- with figure and weapon storage. --Andrew S.
WOW! Loving the Fire in the Sky room! Keep up the good work Andrew! (Official Kre-o set that does not include all the kreons but maybe one exclusive one? Do it Kre-o. Do it.)
So this is a relatively simple one. It's a door design (there's no finished room to go with it) that is meant to emphasise that this is a playset. The door doesn't lock into place yet -- but when it opens out you can make it into a med station and a helipad. Helipads are damn important to playsets!
You're probably going to need a bit of history to understand this next one. So check out these links: The Autobot Smasher! - Transformers Wiki Obscure TF Books The big gun in the door is from Built to Rule. One of my goals with the Space Bridge is to use the largest variety of bricks possible. There's already Kre-O, LEGO, Mega Blocks, Built to Rule, Lite Brix and Character Building pieces in there. Which is nearly my entire range of bricks -- but I'll cram some Tenkai Knights stuff in there too eventually. The smasher itself is designed based on something from a colouring book! So I had to make up the colour scheme myself. --Andrew S.
So actually that's all the photos I have for now. So please give me suggestions for ideas for little playset rooms to build! I'm going back to building!! --Andrew S.
