[CaTC] Mission: Lazarus

[paupadros]

Upon the inevitability of an uninhabitable Earth, many years ago Mission: Lazarus was given the green light. Lazarus were a series of missions which were sent to planets similar to the Earth to set a base and examine the conditions for future humans to inhabit. The heroic humans were given the name of “lazarites”, to mark their titanic effort to save humanity. In this first wave, we see the adventures of mission Lazarus 1. Lazarus 1 was a mission to the distant desert moon of Ashtar. Whilst not a paradise, Ashtar showed much promise as it seemed to have structures built by intelligent species….

 

The two sets I've designed for the contest are...

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The Gates of Ashtar City

845 pieces

$89.99 / 64.99€

 

What had seemed like abandoned ruins from observations before the launch of Lazarus 1, turned out to be an almost-intact walled city. With one eerie twist: it was completely empty, as if it had been abandoned recently and hastily. Not long after inhabiting the city, the lazarites hear a distant noise. Someone seems to want Ashtar back…

This model pictures the stunning ancient entrance of Ashtar City and the walls built by lazarites to defend in case of invasion. The moon of Ashtar is packed with purple gemstones. These are highly explosive and are being used as ammunition by the lazarites. The moment here represented is key to the history of Ashtar, as it marks the first encounter with the native Naggyy and their trusty cyborgs.

 

Minifigures:

2x Lazarite Astronauts  ·  1x Dr. Antonoff  ·  1x Naggyy Official (with Ashtar horse)  ·  1x Cyborg

As for the build itself, it is heavily inspired by the Ishtar Gate of Babylon, currently preserved in Berlin. In fact, "Ashtar" is another name that goddess "Ishtar" received. The proportions are exaggerated to achieve more vertical presence and the details are tweaked here and there to make a better Lego model. The side walls employ a neat triangular footprint that gives some extra dyamism to the build.

 

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Dr. Antonoff’s Secret

65 pieces + 3 minifigures (+1 horse)

$12.99 12.99€

 

When Dr. Antonoff, head of mission, goes missing, the legitimacy of the mission is put in question. In fact, Ashtar was not the most promising of planets out of the ones in contention, but Dr. Antonoff’s persuasion convinced officials that it was the right call to send the first Lazarus mission there.

Analysis of the planet led Dr. Antonoff to believe that there was a strong source of energy found on this planet. He was surprised to discover that the source of energy was hidden within the purple crystals.The crystals are highly volatile, but under controlled processes, Dr. Antonoff deemed them a possible infinite source of power.

The native Naggyy realised that their new inhabitants were tinkering with the mythical crystals and decided to intervene. To avoid certain death and the failure of the mission, Dr. Antonoff showed them how to solidify the liquid gold that runs under Ashtar. Gold is the thing that the Naggyy lose their minds for. They spend their days bathing in liquid golden rivers and waterfalls. Antonoff to them was a magician. Antonoff is taken hostage every so often to make more of the solid gold. This way, Antonoff can buy time to examine the crystals in further detail.

In the set, Dr. Antonoff shows a Naggyy official the location of the solid gold, under the wrecks of one of the ships that the lazarites used to reach Ashtar.

Minifigures:

1x Dr. Antonoff  ·  1x Naggyy Official (with Ashtar horse)  ·  1x Cyborg

This being such a small set, I had to get creative for a little hideout for the solid gold. I decided upon using the wreck of a spaceship and convert it into a hidden spot.

 

One of the unique parts of the theme is that whilst the story of Lazarus 1 is in the moon of Ashtar, Wave 2 could center, for example, on the adventures of Lazarus 2 on a rainforest planet, Lazarus 3 on a swampy planet, Lazarus 4 on an icy planet and so on. Each time with new heroes, villains and strange alien species to explore!

Edited September 24, 2022 by paupadros

[CrappyMocMaker]

The gates look super clean! I also like that the story could lend itself well to having subsequent waves covering other Lazarus missions.

[paupadros]

16 hours ago, CrappyMocMaker said:

The gates look super clean! I also like that the story could lend itself well to having subsequent waves covering other Lazarus missions.

Thank you! Some really neat SNOT and upside-down building went into making the gate have the right shape. I'm really pleased with how it turned out :) Exactly, subsequent waves could be based on entirely different planets with completely different villains and challenges, which gives that "where are they going next year?". I've also been thinking that after a while, you could have the crew from Lazarus 1 joining the crew of Lazarus, say, 7 in a new setting, thus giving a sense of progression to the overarching story of the theme 

[Umbra-Manis]

Certainly a very unique concept for a space theme, and I'd like to see more!

[JJ Tong (zfogshooterz)]

Oh man, the builds looks so nice here, love the Gates of Asthar! Combining Babylon designs with space explorations is a really unique idea! Furthermore, this also does feel more of a different but modern take on the Life on Mars concept.

I didn't initially notice that the Naggyy has a giant eye for a face. When the final bigger image revealed that, it gave me a tiny shock :P But I do like that concept for an alien 

[paupadros]

On 9/25/2022 at 4:34 AM, Umbra-Manis said:

Certainly a very unique concept for a space theme, and I'd like to see more!

Thank you so much! I really didn't want to do the usual space theme with spaceships and whatnot. I would even say that whilst it's technically a space theme, it really is a fantasy theme that happens to take place in space.

On 9/26/2022 at 8:04 PM, JJ Tong (zfogshooterz) said:

Oh man, the builds looks so nice here, love the Gates of Asthar! Combining Babylon designs with space explorations is a really unique idea! Furthermore, this also does feel more of a different but modern take on the Life on Mars concept.

I didn't initially notice that the Naggyy has a giant eye for a face. When the final bigger image revealed that, it gave me a tiny shock :P But I do like that concept for an alien 

Thanks you so so much!! I know that if the theme was to be real, the techniques for the Gates of Ashtar would probably need to be simplified (the sensory overload from bricks going in all directions could be too much!), but heck, I was having fun. I saw the real gates right before the pandemic and my instant thought was "Wow! Imagine being an alien and seeing this!". Whilst brainstorming ideas that moment came to mind, but I decided to reverse it to "Wow! Imagine being a human and seeing this on an alien planet!".

I feel like sometimes space is seen as rather bleak or pessimistic. I'm thinking of the movie Interstellar for instance, where there is a similar plot with the exploratory missions. All the planets they encounter are grey, soulless and mildly depressing. Why should the concepts of exploring and finding lost civilisations be confined to Earth? I don't know, just wanted to create a fun space adventure on this fictitious moon of Ashtar. I think it turned out pretty cool :)

Honestly, for the Naggyy, I was just picking the most random pieces that I could find. That's part of the fun of designing aliens too. They can be whatever you imagine. It just needs to be a bit wacky, otherwise it doesn't really come across as an alien. Their name is a complete joke too. I basically closed my eyes and typed randomly. Naggyy is the refined version of the gibberish I typed!