Serenity in LEGO

Let's start off with some glamor shots of the whole ship. I'd like to mention that this is not a kit or pre-designed model. I printed out some big photos of the ship from the television series (most of the photos I found here) and then just did my best to make a smaller version of things. I believe that the technical term is "winging it."

Here's a nice 3/4 view - click on it to open a staggeringly huge version in a new window.

Pretty much the same shot......or is it? Note that the covers on the Firefly drive (far left) are now open. (Again, click for a huge version of this shot.)

Those two photos give you a pretty good idea of the overall conversion. You might be interested in some scale numbers though...

Height 9" (To top of bridge) Length 33" (Nose to tail) Width 21" (Nacelle to Nacelle) Scale 1:55 (The real Serenity is 150' long.)

In the Adult Fan of LEGO (AFoL) community, there is a building standard called SHIP. (Seriously Huge Investment in Parts)

My version of Serenity is a C1 SHIP, at approximately 105 studs long. Sadly, I have no idea on how many individual parts make up the model - one of the disadvantages of making things up as you go along!

Serenity is more than just a bunch of bricks randomly slapped together, though. I spent months making sure that the details matched up with what appeared on the screen.

In this photo you can see the nacelle turned at about a 45° angle. Although too delicate to be a "play feature", each engine can rotate 360°. (This actually revealed a design flaw in the models they use for the show. There's a support strut under each engine that's visible from time to time on the show. The problem is that the strut is supposed to connect the side of the ship to the bottom of the engine - to pull it into the "landed" position. The same strut, if connected, prevents the engine from rotating! If you know about this flaw - and watch the shows very closely - you can see the CGI folks "cheat" where the brace attaches, and even cheat where it emerges from the side of the ship via forced perspectives.)

UPDATE: Now that I own the DVD of the Serenity Movie (and if you don't have your own copy, I advise you to go out and get one!) I can happily report that the Design Team fixed this problem for the feature film! While freeze-framing my way through some scenes, I noticed that the support strut now detaches from the engines when they turn and retacts partly into the hull! There's a new clamp on the end of the arm to brace the engine in normal flight and landing modes as well. Very well done!

Next up - More Detail Fun

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