Super Galaxy Explorer

I have to plead guilty to a huge and terrible admission; I'm a monstrously lazy tease! The above photograph was taken by me and posted on Lugnet almost 2 years before I finally got around to taking some decent pictures of the completed MOC and making this page! The fun part is that if you look closely, you can see some of the small ways the design changed in that time. I keep working on an MOC until no amount of tinkering results in any changes. That's when I feel that I am done.

Classic Space has always been my favorite theme as it is the one I remember first. I recall countless hours imagining and building vast empires and enacting epic battles with the first few sets I had. The #928 Galaxy Explorer is the holy grail of Classic Space sets for a variety of reasons, and I wanted to pay homage the theme by making a sort or kitbash/hybrid of that set and the original #487 Space Cruiser.

These grainy pictures will be replaced quite soon. I had a dinosaur of a digital camera, but Photoshop is helped to smooth things a bit. I've made a few changes to the design since these pictures were taken, and I now have a MUCH better camera to work with. Stay tuned!

I spent a LOT of time on getting the landing gear the way I wanted. I know that many Spacers scrutinize this function quite keenly, so I wanted something that I thought would please their high standards. You can see how they fold up in the last picture on this page.

Like the Galaxy Explorer, I wanted to have two separate command consoles, one in front and one in back. The pilot in front has the usual computer layout while the driver in back is seated on his jeep.

The pilot also has a little targeting console as he is responsible for defense.

Why does the ship have multiple ID bricks? In case of an attack by multiple enemies the Super Galaxy Explorer has a special trick up its sleeve, it can separate into two independently controlled ships!

The following montage shows how:

Step 1. Both ships are hard docked.

Step 2. The Special Missions vehicle begins to separate.

Step 3. The Main vehicle doors close to seal the Work Bay.

Once the Special Missions vehicle has moved to a safe distance, both vehicles operate independently, with the driver being able to patch his jeep controls straight into the flight computer.

The Special Missions vehicle needs a hard seal too, so it's rear skylight folds down to become the rear door.

I fiddled with engine designs for a LONG time before I finally settled on these. I wanted a cohesive feel between most of the major assemblies on each ship. For instance, the two small black engines on the wings are 1/4 thrusters while the four on the body are 1/2 thrusters. You can see this repeated on the body of the Main vehicle in the last picture.

I love getting shots that convey what it might be like to actually be inside the MOC. I think this shot does that fairly well. As you can't clearly make out what's inside the Work Bay, the following montage will happily reveal that.

Those are guns underneath the loading ramp so that the SGE is able to swat flies that buzz its tail.

I wanted the Work Bay to be crammed with tools, since the original Galaxy Explorer only had the little jeep and a couple of gray doors. I gathered together one of every Classic Space mini-fig tool that I could think of and mounted them all inside.

I don't design ground vehicles that much since I'm always dreaming of spacecraft, but I'm just lovin' how the new 1x1 angled brick makes curved detail possible at a very small level.

Another interior shot looking through the Work Bay all the way to the pilot at the controls of the Special Missions vehicle. When both ships are hard docked, an adept spaceman can walk from one end of the ship to the other without a helmet!

Here's where my thruster design on the Main vehicle echoes the Special Missions vehicle. The wing tips have pairs of 1/4 thrusters with pairs of 1/2 thrusters further in. The Main vehicle need 4 full thrusters to land safely with the extra weight of the Special Missions vehicle.

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