2025 Build Contests!
Today we are sharing our Febrovery build contests. Check out some behind the studs secrets about our favorite builds!
For those new to build contests these are designed to spark some new creativity, play around with a new technique, and collaborate with our fellow I LUG NY members to make something big in a short time period. I LUG NY members bring their builds in person to monthly meetings where we do a quick show and tell and then vote on our favorite builds. This month was FebROVERy and I LUG NY members were tasked with making a rover to traverse the unknowns of the cosmic universe. We had 12 fun and enchanting builds. Thank you to all the members that participated! If you’re in the Long Island area you can see our rovers at the Lake Grove Lego Store.
Top from Left to Right: Eyal, Keith J, Bill M
Bottom from Left to Right: Alex H, David B, Marielle, Brian W, Jason P, Eric S, Jeremy O, Keith J
We ended up with a top 4 this month and I asked each builder 3 questions to get some insights into their creations.
(Tied 2nd) Mike B: Blacktron 2 Rover
What inspired you to create this month’s Rover?
My inspiration for this year’s rover MOC was the classic space set 6950 Mobile Rocket Transport. In my opinion the best Lego rover ever made. I wanted to create the rover in the Blacktron II color scheme. Identifying parts I wanted to include in black, white and trans neon green were my first priority. Then finding wheels to use was next.
Parts I wanted to include in the build
Did you run into any challenges during the build?
We all run into building-problems as I like to refer to them. I am constantly rebuilding and re-configuring my builds in an attempt to solve structural and aesthetic problems. This MOC was full of them, and I only had 7 days to complete it, posing one more, really big problem.
What’s your favorite technique, piece, or nice part usage of the design?
My favorite parts usage was mounting the 2 black Aircraft Rocket Engines (#4746) horizontally beneath the cockpits. It was one of the parts I initially identified as wanting to include in this build. The cockpits separate from the rover body (an element I wanted to include from many Blacktron II set designs) and they fit really nicely.
The bottom of the cockpit with the two engines on full display.
I was also really satisfied with the way I combined the two radar arrays into one unit that can traverse and elevate.
(Tied 2nd) Tyson -MiddleBrick: Classic Space SHERP
Checkout MiddleBrick’s Flickr album
What inspired you to create this month’s Rover?
Every once in a while, I’ll see a vehicle design that makes me think, “Huh, that would be cool to try to build.” I was watching Alien Romulus, and in a few second-long scenes, this strange squat truck drove by, and that was where the inspiration started. After doing a quick search to find other angles for a reference I discovered the truck is an actual vehicle called a Sherp. So there was plenty of reference material to build from.
Did you run into any challenges during the build?
The hardest part was definitely the front end. The real vehicle has compound angles tapering down to the windscreen, sloping in on vertical and horizontal axes. This was super hard to try to build. Originally, I tried various solutions with wedge plates, but I just couldn’t get the angles to work at this scale, so I ended up compromising with a series of wedge and slope bricks. It’s different than the actual truck, but I’m fairly happy with the result.
What’s your favorite technique, piece, or nice part usage of the design?
I’m quite pleased with how seamlessly I was able to integrate the windscreen. It sits at a very steep angle thanks to clip and bars attachments, and I had to fit the 4-stud wide windscreen into the 7-stud wide chassis 92583 (to get the sides of the truck flush with the tires) with diagonally fixed tiles. It’s not perfect, but I was pretty pleased with the final look.
Anything else you want to add!
As someone with multiple half-finished builds on my shelf, it was really fun to use the excuse of Febrovery to grab onto some inspiration and follow it through to a finished build in a limited time frame. Sure, I could probably try to get things more polished or closer to the source material, but it’s not really about that for me. It’s a little bit about not letting perfect be the enemy of good and also having the motivation to see a build through to the end, which these days, with increasing work and family responsibilities is more challenging than ever.
(Tied 1st) Jeremy O: Bertha the Tree Rover
What inspired you to create this month’s Rover?
My inspiration started with the minifigure Tree trunk part (35827) I saw in my fellow builder Brian W’s Botanical Garden MOC (Check it out here in 2023). I thought space is always portrayed with so many rocks, what if there was a planet that had lots of fantastical colors and a bit of magic. I took inspiration from Dungeons and Dragon’s Eberron lore where they have a Warforged race combining metal, nature, and magic. I had so much fun building on the “What If” questions and seeing how many zig-zags I could take with this rover.
Did you run into any challenges during the build?
Off the bat I found it challenging to build from the minifigure costume (35827). The costume has four studs on top, two asymmetrical bars for branches, and one anti-stud with width for a head. What it did not have was a great way to build a frame for four wheels or an easy way to build on top of the tree face with the costume curving up or wider than 2 studs in all directions. I ended up using a combination of 1×1 round plates and the relatively new D-snot modified round brick 3386 with a bar clip (3484) to make it through the tree hole opening and to build out the rover control panel and a branch to cover the technique. To build the rest of the frame I used some snot 1×1 bricks and two 1×3 round plates to keep all my 1×1 bricks in place that fit snug where the minifigure arms would go. This is where Bertha’s extra budding flowers and claw arm were able to be made as well as the antenna control sticks for our driver.
What’s your favorite technique, piece, or nice part usage of the design?
Outside of spending an enormous amount of time on the tree trunk costume frame, I had a lot of fun modifying a technique I saw from reddit user NicePartsUsage using two of the CMF mushroom girl’s hats to make a baby Mario piranha plant. This extremely hungry and adorable face never left my head when thinking of alien flowers. I used their trick to get the mouth and then used a hot dog piece with some three leaves plant pieces 32607 slid through the hot dog to give Bertha some curvy neck feathers.
(Tied 1st) Brian W: Blacktron Rover
Flickr with more photos!
What inspired you to create this month’s Rover?
I was inspired by the new Blacktron Renegade set (10355). I’ve built several Blacktron MOCs this year already as a result of this amazing throwback of a set that LEGO released on January 1st. The colorway of black, yellow, trans red and trans yellow for Blacktron is one of the best color combos in all of LEGO Space.
Did you run into any challenges during the build?
I ran into some challenges when creating this Blacktron Rover for our build challenge. I wanted to design rover-y wheels. I’ve seen other amazing builders through the years build eye grabbing rovers and many times, what grabs my attention are intricately designed wheels. I couldn’t figure out how to combine the yellow radar dishes with the wheels I wanted to build with. I ended up using pneumatic hose elements that are 4L (26445 the same size as lightsaber blades 28697) to insert through the radar dish, the wheel and into a technic pin to secure these elements. While these wheels aren’t as intricate or parts intensive as others, I am pleased that I learned a new technique for adding details to wheels. I had an idea, struggled big time with it but made it work in the end.
What’s your favorite technique, piece, or nice part usage of the design?
Like nearly all of the classic Blacktron sets, I wanted to have a detachable vehicle as part of this rover. I managed to do so and the Detachable Utility Ship in the back just barely accommodates a Blacktron minifigure. I also knew that a friend and ILUGNY member Brian G would press me on whether part of the Rover detached so I didn’t want to disappoint!
Thank you again to everyone who participated and shared their insights. See you next month!
