Minifigs.me

This Friday will be the 45th anniversary of the splashdown landing of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. How best to celebrate the successful return of the crew to Earth after an oxygen tank exploded en route to the moon? Why, a set of custom Lego minifigs, of course.

UK company Minifigs.me has revealed a Collector's Set depicting the three astronauts -- Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise -- and a separate edition for NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz, who oversaw their safe return.


The sets came about when Apollo expert Chris Spain approached the company with the idea of producing something in time for the splashdown anniversary. "Chris sent us a huge amount of research, designs and feedback," Minifigs.me director Nick Savage says in a statement. "His expertise and passion for the subject really is something to behold. We worked together for weeks to get them perfect, discussing everything from the precise placement of the metal tabs on suit valves to the way each astronaut wore their watches. We’ve made something very special as a result."

The resulting figures are based on the actual likenesses of the real-life men, rather than the actors from the 1995 Ron Howard movie, and the level of detail on the sets is spectacular. Crew patches and insignias are accurate, and each member's space suit is subtly different. Each piece is custom printed, right down to the men's names on their ID tags.

The crew set manages to pack in space helmets, a stellar backdrop, and a replica of the CO2 scrubber that helped provide them air enough to make the journey back to Earth. Kranz's set comes with a pair of flight plans -- one completely accurate, the other cleverly referencing the "failure is not an option" tagline used for the movie -- and a backdrop of Nasa Mission Control. Both sets are available in classic Lego yellow or caucasian flesh tones, and the three astronauts can also be ordered separately.

The Apollo 13 crew joins another real-life astronaut, Canadian Chris Hadfield, in getting a Lego tribute. Hadfield's comes with a guitar, in homage to his orbital performance of David Bowie's 'Space Oddity'.