Related Sections: Art & Design Galleries Space Video
Insane 65,000-brick LEGO space shuttle may as well be the real thing
I'm almost a little embarrassed to admit that I first thought this was a photo of a real space shuttle. Two Japanese LEGOsmiths used a whopping 65,000 bricks and 1,590 man hours to complete the stunning diorama, which even simulates a launch with flashing lights under the boosters and a vocal countdown. The only thing it doesn't do is lift off.
Part of the "Nasu Space Center," it appeared as a scene in Nasu Highland Park, an amusement park in Japan.
The duo who assembled it are said to be participating in an event to top the tallest LEGO tower ever built, an accolade which is currently held by LEGO enthusiasts in Vienna, who constructed a tower over 96 feet tall. (The space shuttle is a separate project. In the video, there are LEGO men standing dangerously close to the launch pad, so it can't be more than a few feet tall.)
Check out the gallery below for more of Nasu Space Center, or click Continue to see a video of the simulated launch.
 |  |
|
Kirainet, via Gizmo Watch
By Tom Black at 3:47 PM ON 04/02/09
Looks great but it sure would be nice to include info on how big this thing is. Even a photo with a person for scale would be enough but to mention the exact height of the tallest lego tower in the article without mentioning the height of this creation is strange. I also wonder how much something like this costs, man-hours excluded.
By Kevin Hall at 4:27 PM ON 04/02/09
@Tom Black
I updated the article with some more info for you.
The space shuttle is actually a separate project. Looking at the LEGO men in the video, this thing isn't all that tall, just complex.
Thanks for reading.
By BetterNotMessWithMajorTom at 4:40 PM ON 04/02/09
This is what people do for hobbies in their spare time, yet the ACTUAL space program is going back to the old Apollo tin-can paradigm with Orion, instead of using modern tech and engineering to make something better, and moving the state of the art forward...
yeah. Great. Good job on the Legos, though.
By Gumbercules at 5:48 PM ON 04/02/09
My god. It's full of stars.
By JiNgLe_via_iGlOo at 12:42 PM ON 04/03/09
You can get an idea of the scale from cameraman taking the video, however, I agree, specs would've been nice. Great job, though.
@BETTERNOTMESSWITHMAJORTOM
I agree... It doesn't make a lot of sense to stick with something that archaic. Budget cuts, perhaps.
By Mayor West at 12:58 PM ON 04/03/09
My god. I'm a tomato.
By Ryan at 1:12 PM ON 04/03/09
ok u retards imagine flying a 'shuttle' to the moon - its wasteful and stupid. Why go fo a whole bew redesign when you have proven technology that can reliably get you to the moon. Why worry about the trip when one of their stated goals is to develop a moon base
By wikiBuddha at 1:56 PM ON 04/03/09
What would have really put it over the top would have been a stop-motion video of the construction process. Otherwise, me thinks somebody had too much time on their hands. I'm jealous!
By King at 2:06 PM ON 04/03/09
This is really amazing!
By FuZVulf at 6:22 PM ON 04/03/09
Well done. As for establishing a moon base... The moon's gravity is what? 1/6th that of earth? Why not just boost all of the spent rocket casings which normally get jettisoned in the upper atmosphere and burn up, on out with robotic or remote control and land them. One of the major expenses is getting the stuff out of the earth's gravity anyway right? With those, a large portion of the work has already been done and we just waste it.
By Anonymous at 2:36 PM ON 04/05/09
The crawler transporter looks like the tracsks are about the same height as a lego man. On the real crawler they are almost twice as tall. So I guess we could say the whole setup is around half scale to the lego men scale?
It's a nice looking model. Would be nice to get some closeups of the tracks, gantry, and other detailed areas to see what parts they used.
By pixelstuff at 2:37 PM ON 04/05/09
The crawler transporter looks like the tracsks are about the same height as a lego man. On the real crawler they are almost twice as tall. So I guess we could say the whole setup is around half scale to the lego men scale?
It's a nice looking model. Would be nice to get some closeups of the tracks, gantry, and other detailed areas to see what parts they used.
By Chris at 3:38 PM ON 04/05/09
Going back to the capsule design is not a backwards thing to do, at least not in a bad way. The shuttle was a neat idea, but ultimately and inefficient, ineffective one. There's nothing wrong with abandoning a bad design for a better one. It just means you made a mistake, and now you're correcting in.
The shuttle was overburdened with features and requirements related to reusability that are spurious to the main mission: space exploration. It's how the craft functions up there that matters, not how many times you use it or how it touches down.
By PK at 7:11 AM ON 04/06/09
now where's the lego space-bat ?
By Wheelybin at 9:37 AM ON 04/09/09
I think this is a prime example of NASA taking cost cutting just a little too far! Surely the Lego bricks will melt on re-entry?
By jamesh39 at 9:00 AM ON 10/22/09
The bricks will melt upon re-entry? I guess that's what Columbia was made from. Sad. Budget cutting kept the shuttle from being what it could've been.
on your cellphone!
Text DVICE to 72434
editor@dvice.com
jamesh39:
The bricks will melt upon re-entry? I guess that's what Columbia was made from. Sad. Budget cutting kept the shu...More »