Space + Myth - LEGO MOC

Rocket science and mythology, together at last!

This month's LUG prompt was for the concepts of "Space" and "Mythology." I took inspiration from my collection of vintage Space themed minifigures:

I also wanted to make use of the space-themed CMF Series 26. I was originally going to use the Dollar Store 6-flower box (as used in my Pirate Stories MOC), but the process of building led me to take a different approach. The 6-flower box is great for a larger setting, but I found a 3-spot acrylic storage box (also from the Dollar Tree) that allowed for a more vertical approach.

This also allowed me to divide the build into three separate builds.

First, we have Mission Control on the lower level. These trays are perfect for such a small build, allowing me to collect the parts I think I'll need, organizing them a little bit so I can see what I have and what I still need. In the photo below you can see the baseplates I cut to fit: the 5x8 is for the bottom of the container in the vertical orientation I'm using it in in this build, the 4x7 was for when I was using the container horizontally

I decided that the wise mythical figure of Chiron would be perfect as a Mission Control worker, but that centaur body takes up a lot of space. With minifigures (even mythical ones) the trick to giving a sense of life to a build is adding angles. To that end, I tried several different ways to secure his hooves at an angle while still allowing for the structure to be built up around him, as you can see in the following picture. Note: it's only secured on the left forehoof, with the right hindhoof resting against the jumper plate's stud; for a self-contained little build like this that's secure enough, but it might not stand up to repeated jostling.

In pawing through my collection of minifigs and animals, I also came across the Cornish pixies from various Harry Potter sets. This I thought, would be a perfect little gremlin (more in the Roald Dahl, Disney, and Bugs Bunny sense, than in the 1984 movie's sense) to hide somewhere. I ended up putting it on a little SNOT bracket, then built an enclosure to hide it behind the rocket plans tile (from CMF Series 20's Space Fan). The round 1x2 plates give just enough extra space for the pixie's little arm to tuck in underneath.

For the next segment, I wanted to show the rocket that Chiron was launching, and in the research I did I found that there is such a thing as a Centaur booster rocket. So I wanted to have a gradient sky behind a rocket ship, which would also bridge the gap between the pristine white of Mission Control and the inky blackness of space. You can see that I was comparing the various blues I had in brick form, and ultimately went with medium azure, dark azure, blue, and dark blue.

To build the rockets, I used pneumatic T-joint and fire hose nozzle pieces that I could slot into SNOT bricks for an angled floating effect. After watching the Artemis II launch recently, I wanted my build to have a similar feel, looking like the two Centaur boosters had just disengaged from the main rocket in a sky full of clouds. There was a bit of trial and error with the various fire pieces I had, but ultimately I opted for the big classic-style flame piece, and two feather plumes for the smoke coming from the spent boosters (I also made them with pearl gold 1x1 barrels and the 1x1x2/3 satin dome from CMF 28's Frog Costume Fan so they stood out as the main focus of this section).

 

I also added some brick- and plate-built clouds to give depth to the scene, as well as to tie to the other two segments (each one having decreasing amounts of white elements):

For the final section, I made use of many bricks in black, including some textured ones, with white 1x1 flower pieces to stand in for stars. The Orion minifigure from CMF Series 26 is the focus here, but like with the pixie/gremlin in the first section, I decided to give him a little friend in the wishing star from Wish. In combing my collection of printed plates and bricks to decorate the first build, I also found a little 1x1 alien tile (from the Dots Series 8 - Glitter & Shine pack) that I added as well.

The final test with these builds is making sure everything actually fits in the display container, but there's also the question of if all three fit together almost like a three-panel comic strip: 

I think it turned out great, and will definitely have a home among my other "keeper" MOCs.

Any eagle-eyed readers might have noticed the final detail I added: namely proof that Chiron enjoys Space-themed LEGO sets too!