Hi all, as is common for many folks around here, I am getting back into LEGO bricks as an adult. In particular, exploring the world of MOCs has been amazing. 

One thing that has puzzled me is the relitive lack of Star Trek MOCs (at least as far as I can find). Now, I understand that the LEGO group doesn’t have the rights to make official Star Trek sets, but it seems as if that lack carries over somewhat to the MOC building community.

I have searched here at Eurobricks, rebrickabke, BrickLink, and a few other sites, and while I have found a few Star Trek MOCs, many of them are snall or unimpressive, and most of the nice ones seem to be of the starship enterprise or some other star fleet ship. 

What I am interested in is instructions or LDD files for high quality (UCS level of design, with a high part count, and lots of attention to detail) MOCs of the “bad guy’s” ships (aren’t they always more fun?). I would love to find MOCs of the Klingon bird of prey, the Klingon battle cruisers from the original series and TNG, Romulan bird of prey, the borg cube (the thought of all that black greebling in LEGO form makes me a bit giddy, I must admit!), and other ships along those lines. 

I found a pretty nice Klingon bird of prey on the site, “MOC Pages” that can give an idea of the sort of thing I was hoping to find;

http://www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/417698

Unfortunately, it seems like this site is mostly for showing off pictures of MOCs, with little ability to share instructions or LDD files.

Can anyone share any good MOCs they have found/made along the lines I have mentioned? Are there sites for high quality MOCs that might provide some good results?

I really appreciate any help you can provide. Nice to be a part of such a supportive community. Happy building.

 

Hi, welcome to Eurobricks!  As you've seen for yourself, there aren't a lot of Star Trek MOCs out there and there are even fewer high-quality large ones.  As you've said, TLG doesn't have the rights to make them, and of course that lack of a license makes it less inviting for AFOLs to build their own.  However, one reason (aside from fan preferences and license disparities) that you don't see a lot of good Star Trek MOCs, whether large or small, is that Star Trek ships (especially Federation ships) depend on smooth curves a lot more than Star Wars ships, which are mostly blocky and angular.  It can be really hard to build a nice smooth circular or oval Federation starship saucer section in Lego on a large scale without making it look pixelated and flat.  Also, Star Trek ships use struts to hold major structural components more often than Star Wars ships, which are mostly single modules.  It can be really hard to get a sturdy load-bearing strut on a large scale, and equally hard on a small scale - plus, on a small scale, the linkages and proportions are harder to master, too.  I've never tried.

That said, there are quite a few good Star Trek MOCs out there!  Most of them are shuttlecraft, because those can be blocky, angular single modules, but there are a few good starships, too.  The Mega Construx Enterprise is an amazing build, apart from a few large specialized parts used for finish detail and the single-piece warp nacelle struts.  A nice 100% Lego Enterprise was recently posted in this thread - you could ask @BrickMonkeyMOCs for a list of the builds he consulted for inspiration when designing his model.  I don't recall seeing any "bad guy" Star Trek starships recently, though.

USS Voyager by Jerry Builds Bricks, on Flickr

This is a builder I follow who has done some 1:1000 scale style models.  I think he posts instructions online but I've never investigated.

I suspect fan preference is the biggest factor over the technical challenges.  Even though the classic space guys, with their primary colored uniforms, should be a shoo-in for Federation officers, the release of Star Wars in the same time frame probably cemented a cultural relationship that is only further reinforced today.

On 7/11/2018 at 11:56 PM, NightmanCometh said:

I would love to find MOCs of the Klingon bird of prey, the Klingon battle cruisers from the original series and TNG, Romulan bird of prey, the borg cube (the thought of all that black greebling in LEGO form makes me a bit giddy, I must admit!), and other ships along those lines. 

Perhaps you're already aware of this guy's Bird of Prey?

Flickr - Klingon Bird of Prey (redux) 

 

Have a look here:

https://m2mmbp.github.io/bricktopia-planitia/

and here:

https://github.com/m2mmbp/bricktopia-planitia/tree/master/Models

Edited July 29, 20186 yr by M2m

On 7/14/2018 at 2:57 PM, Digger of Bricks said:

Perhaps you're already aware of this guy's Bird of Prey?

Flickr - Klingon Bird of Prey (redux) 

 

 

That is a thing of beauty