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Since it’s come up recently, I think it’s a good idea for Moonbase to have its own discussion thread.
A Flickr album with good pics of the standard can be found here:
The ILUGNY expanded Moonbase standard can be found here, although their pics and explanations leave a lot to be desired:
Moonbase is a darned good standard.
As long as you realize that it’s about connecting the “airlocks” in between collaborative sections, and remind yourself that it’s okay to free up everything else from Classic Space.
So in the other thread, Tim asked about what ever happened to Moonbase. The short answer is that it’s still around, but in a very limited capacity, and that as far as I can tell, its heyday was more than 15 years ago. By the time I first went to convention in August of 2010, it was already in serious decline to the point of being almost nonexistent. I was super into the Moonbase idea in the mid-2000s, and I found lots of relevant pics, especially on Brickshelf. When my nephew was seven, I showed him the standard, and we each built one and then connected them together, and it was super fun. But we never did it again, and I never built another Moonbase. I’m part of two Moonbase groups on Flickr. The main one is older and I think if you go back through it, there’s a lot of good stuff in it, but it’s another group that is no longer moderated and so the more recent the photo, the more likely it’s not actually appropriate to the group, and so you have to wade through a lot of crap to get to the good stuff. Because of that, somebody created a newer group, but there’s hardly any photos in it right now. I have plenty of Moonbase pics faved in my Flickr account, so I’ll be posting some good ones here in subsequent posts.
The advantage of Moonbase is the same as for all collaboratives – it lets you be part of a display much bigger than you could ever hope to do by yourself while giving you a high degree of flexibility in how much or little you want to contribute, and there’s a social aspect to it that makes it fun as well. The drawbacks are also the same – you may have a collection of builds of varying quality or that are pushed together despite the fact that they may feel like they don’t go together, and the organization of the layout often has a very systematic and artless feel to it. Additionally, it only works if you have enough like-minded people to pull of an adequately-sized display, and so it’s often similar to GBC, where the layout is dominated by a very small group of people. It also makes it extremely difficult to do anything but the most basic landscaping, since each baseplate has to line up with the next one.
For me, an additional deterrent has been the standard itself. I’ve MILSed 32×32 baseplates for various displays, and I’ve found that it’s easy to find plastic storage containers, by Sterilite or others, that easily hold a 32×32 baseplate resting comfortably on the bottom, with room for padding. I’ve never found a plastic storage container that holds a 48×48 baseplate where the baseplate can sit on the bottom of the container and not be bent or warped in some way. That means finding alternate container solutions, or designing the module so that it can be removed from the baseplate and the baseplate is then stored sideways in a plastic container. I’ve found neither to be appealing.
At some point ILUGNY came up with an expanded standard that can quite easily be summed up as the same Moonbase standard, but on MILSed baseplates instead of naked plates. I am past the days of building on naked plates. But the MILSed standard is a bit problematic for me because it still uses LBG to simulate the moon. LBG plates, especially large ones, are not that easy to get, and they’re valuable for a variety of other uses. In particular, I would rather be using them for space vehicles and space buildings, which is a big part of the reason why I chose tan for my landscaping in the space plants build. And as previously alluded to, landscaping in Moonbase tends to be very flat, so the more I got into landscaping, the less I thought about Moonbase.
I’ve still given thought to trying it, especially as a way to get use out of space buildings that would essentially be prototypes for larger builds. I would certainly be interested in doing a Steel City LUG Moonbase display if one gets organized. Maybe we can become the Moonbase capital of the world, thanks to Walter and Frost, we’re already the Febrovery capital of the world.
I have never seen a truly large Moonbase display in person. In the years I have been going to BrickFairVA and BrickWorld Chicago, the Moonbase displays there have been either small or nonexistent. Some NELUGers have organized a couple of very small displays, one of which was at the NELUG table, but anybody is welcome to join, and some people have. The other one I considered joining is Will Smart’s Moonbase display. He’s in ILUGNY, and he and his colleagues brought the display to BFNE17, BFNJ17, and I think maybe also BFVA18 (all of which I was at). He set up the displays under a small black tent with UV lights arranged at the top over the display, held up by supports coming up through the middle of the display. It looked quite good during World of Lights, especially since they also had a requirement that all the moonbase interiors be lit by some kind of LED lights. I talked to him at length about it back in the day, but I never got anything built. He has a lot of photos of it on Flickr and I’ll post them to the thread in a separate post later.
I know there’s been a couple of large ones at BFAL. From what I’ve seen, Chris Giddens is the primary force behind the displays, I have never talked to him, but I know him from Flickr and as the guy who designed the Star Justice and Space Skulls sets. I have never been to BFAL, but I’ve considered it, and I’ve thought of Moonbase as something to take if I went. I can post some pics of that as well, and I think Hanlon & Hanlon did a video on that one.
Other than that, I don’t know of any of significance in the USA. I’m not sure if it’s still a thing at BrickCon or not (I’ve never been to BrickCon), and when I was at BricksCascade in 2020, there was no Moonbase there. I have a bunch of pics faved in Flickr that are from a display that was in Germany and went to a lot of events and got modified over the years, they have some really cool builds, but I don’t expect to ever be over there. I have one other cool one faved in Flickr, I’ll find it and post it here, I can’t remember if that one’s in Europe also, it might’ve been Bricks by the Bay.
I’ve also seen pics where in addition to the plates and the airlocks, they created a standard for how monorail and train track would connect from module to module if they were included in the display, both by alignment and by height. Those pics are harder to find and I’ll have to see if I can dig them up, but I know they exist cause I’ve seen them.
I think that’s all I got for now, and I’ll have to proofread and post additional links later.
In response to Ben’s thoughts:
* If we decide to try Moonbase, it doesn’t have to be directly related to past efforts, mostly because we probably won’t plan to connect to other LUGs any more than we have done so with City/Town efforts over the years. That said, it sure is nice that the Moonbase standard is built with older bricks that most builders already have.
* As far as worrying about the quality of builds… nah. As a quarterly build challenge, or even in a formal display like the SWR space of past years, a number of styles do work, including a more brutalist and simple style in bleys like the regolith below.
* Established Spacers can more easily build larger spaces and the connections in all cardinal directions and even up and down.
* HOWEVER, this trends toward Moon City rather than Moonbase, which opens up many more possibilities than standard Space, enabling every builder we have to try Space.
* I am totally with Ben in that MILS is a major deterrent for ALL collaborative displays, and to the best of my knowledge, only train track and large hillside landscaping has demanded it. I don’t imagine we should require that for a quarterly build challenge.
* We used tan baseplates and DBG rock walls for the SWR George’s Landing series, so there’s no reason we can’t use them for the collab challenge, or even green for an alien planet with existing greenery. We just need builders to pipe up with which 32 x 32 plates (including landing pad plates) that they may have on hand to figure out a standard. I have a few tan AND LBG 32 x 32s hanging around from SWR and LUGBULK that I would be happy to lend for the effort, as I’m not building large scale Space right now.
* I believe that LBG is just a color in this case, as the towers can be Classic Space blue with yellow-black-yellow details, Neo-Classic Space, Unitron, Spyrius, any faction really. If we treat this idea like a Moon City with a small individual commitment like a ground based 16 x 16 space, or an elevated airlock sized passage, this becomes easy for new Spacers.
* This feels like a full display for ourselves instead of one meant for an audience, and so, builders should be encouraged to have fun with the concepts available and only make sure we can grow the display organically with each other based on whoever could be “next door”. That’s kind of how SWR flowed together, and this idea can work the same way. We just need to communicate and intentionally connect as many ideas to each other as possible. That’s how we combat the systemic, artless vibe. Quite simply, interaction between builders in a fun, relaxed flow is what makes it all work.
* Prototypes for larger builds involve what I call archetypes. Leitmotifs? @timf, you may have some better knowledge about the word I’m trying to use. Basically, we can all show different styles and brick combinations that look Spacey, whether it’s sleek and studless, organic, studly, greebly, hoses and pipes, or inspired by any architecture from Star Wars to Star Trek to Aliens to, well, any favorite film that anyone has seen or has interest in, from the 1950s to now. These small, several brick archetypes, like pillars in architecture, can definitely be expanded and repeated in any larger build and adopted by others.
For example, I like stacking wedges and wedge plates so that the notches on the side walls look like vents.* Rovers are awesome. If a builder isn’t interested in a Space building, well, how about a Space garage that connects to one?
* Finally, if we’re considering a type of big, permanent development in the Space theme, that is a whole different ball of wax, considering that multiple Spacers, including myself, already have well developed factions that are worthy of interaction. That is a MUCH larger discussion, and worthy in its own right. Could this become a Moonbase environment? I’d vote for a nexus portal where our existing, differing factions have all been marooned and have to try to work together. Would WhiteTron dislike BlackTron? Would ALL of the Space factions show up based on the figs we have? How cool would it be for every LEGO Space faction to wind up with a Moonbase tower, including our own custom factions?
This is a case where builder variety might be a LOT cooler than trying to expect many standards, kind of like how SWR worked out.
Due to the length of the prior statements, I ask the Chair for the right to revise and amend my remarks later. :-p
a plastic storage container that holds a 48×48 baseplate where the baseplate can sit on the bottom of the container
Funny you should mention this. When we were packing up Pumpkin Trolley yesterday, I noticed that Laura had 110Q Sterlite binds which (if I saw correctly) could hold two 48×48 baseplates side by side. @laura can you confirm?
Additional comments: Ben, thank you for adding the historical context. Everything you said matches with my limited knowledge of Moonbase and my memory. It is true that the wide open format of the standard (the only commonality necessary is the connection points), it can look a bit haphazard. If we were to do Moonbase for a LUG display, we could come up with additional guidelines (eg. primary color) to try to create a more cohesive display (obviously easier to do with LUG (a group which knows each other) versus random individuals showing up to a convention). But even with some additional guidelines, the creative possibilities for each participant is vast. Like you, I have been watching the Moonbase for close to 20 years with interest but never participated. I am very interested in seeing what our LUG might be able to do with this.
Before I respond to anything else, I want to address this one that Rich put in his last post:
>> As far as worrying about the quality of builds… nah.
Rich is correct, and I may have been too casual in throwing out that comment about varying quality in collaboratives. I was thinking mostly of past displays I’d either seen at conventions or on Flickr, where I would be more likely to be looking for something that impresses me. It was not my intention to say anything that would deter builders in the LUG from contributing, and to be clear, the LUG has never rejected a build for public display based on perceived quality, and we are certainly not about to start, for this project or any other. For any kind of LUG-based Moonbase, whether it’s a quarterly challenge or a public display, everybody is encouraged to participate if they are so inclined, and everybody is welcome to join in.
>> Funny you should mention this. When we were packing up Pumpkin Trolley yesterday, I noticed that Laura had 110Q Sterlite binds which (if I saw correctly) could hold two 48×48 baseplates side by side. @laura can you confirm?
I’m also very interested in the answer to this. I don’t know if Laura is reading this thread or is actually getting notified if somebody tags her in a post (I have that turned off myself), I might have to post this to the Pumpkin Trolley thread to make sure this gets noticed and answered.
I have been on a quest for such a container for years and years. I have bought containers I looked at in the store and thought ‘I bet that has to work’, and when that failed I actually took 48×48 baseplates into the store and tested it out in different containers. I’ve searched online for stuff. It’s always ended in disappointment.
I do have a bunch of containers in the 110-qt size range in my house, I am not home right now so I can’t check on them. I’m sure I’ve tested them for 48×48 baseplates, and they don’t qualify. I think some will work if you have enough below it that it lifts up the baseplate, since a lot of those containers get wider towards the top, but that’s still a serious limitation. By comparison, when I did my park in 2014, most of the landscaping was pretty flat, and I could stack the MILSed plates three high in one of those slide-under-the-bed storage containers and still get adequate padding in between them. (Incidentally, I bought a lot of those extra large containers for storing parts, but I stopped doing that once I realized that they were too heavy for me to lift. Admittedly, I am puny and weak, but that wasn’t the only problem there. I’ve still kept them though cause they’re useful for transporting larger stuff to events.)
But I found the online Target entry for the 110-quart Sterilite, and it is looking pretty rectangular (some of the ones I have are rather curved), so I still have hope. The inside dimension is listed as 15.5″, which is obviously plenty more than a 15″ baseplate requires, even if it is slightly over 15″. But the problem, and I’ve fallen for this one on storage container listings before, is that the interior corners of containers are often curved, sometimes with a rather significant radius, and that’s enough to keep the baseplate from sitting flat.
PS, meant to include this link:
https://www.target.com/p/sterilite-110qt-clear-view-storage-bin-with-latch-purple/-/A-13794501
Before I do any more Moonbase comments, I’m gonna do some link posts, for people who just wanna check out some pics. Here’s Will Smart’s Moonbase Flickr album, it consolidates all his moonbase display photos from various events, including BFNE17, BFNJ17, as well as some other events from that time period and some older events. It’s 203 photos total, there’s a lot of good stuff in there, and there’s some shots that show the tent and UV-light setup used for the display. (Also, when I talked to him, I told him that based on our last names, he and I should start a law firm together. He did not take me up on the offer.)
I’m gonna post the Flickr group link here also, even though it’s easy enough to find for anybody who wants to. I’ve decided to not post the Moonbase 3000 link – the group only has 24 photos and hasn’t had a new photo added in 3 years, so I’m not sure it’s worth checking out.
The Moonbase group does have some recent entries that are relevant, but it also has a lot of stuff from people who seem to think that Moonbase and Classic Space are synonymous. The guy who created the group posted to Flickr as recently as this past March, but if you scroll through his photos, you only have to go down about half a page and you’re already back to 2010 (which makes it a bit strange that he has a Pro account, he does not have anywhere close to 1000 photos). There’s no other admins for the Moonbase group. I just sent him a message offering to be a moderator, but I’m not optimistic that I’ll get a response, let alone a positive one. Except for Danny’s question three years ago about whether or not the group is still moderated, all the discussion threads are more than ten years old, with the oldest ones going back 15 years. In fact, I’m checking out the second-most-recent thread, it’s from August 2009, and it’s the group founder saying that Moonbase is essentially dead at that point. On the other hand, in the ‘top contributors’ section, the guys who are listed at numbers one and two only joined the group 4 and 5 years ago, respectively.
I’m several pages into the photos and still wading through a lot of crap. Of course, anybody who wants to can look on their own, but I think I’m gonna post some of the highlights here, so everybody else doesn’t have to do all the scrolling that I am. Here’s the link:
Update: I scrolled through all the group photos. It was rather disappointing, I found far fewer good ones than I’d expected. Admittedly, taking a good photo of a large display is always difficult, but I know I have some good ones in my faves list that didn’t actually make it to the group. Additionally, at pretty much all stages of the photos there are irrelevant ones that should have been weeded out.
I’m hoping that some of the photos I linked to will be part of albums that cover the display better than a single photograph can, so if I find anything good I’ll post it here.
I did not read all the previous posts, so I apologize if this has been addressed in the moonbase topic. With all the orange spacemen that y’all bought, it might seems like orange ought to be taken into consideration when devising a color scheme. I would advocate using colors that are more common, especially for certain parts that are essential for the modular design. In reference to an image I posted earlier, black and yellow seems to work and allows using trans yellow. Of course serious consideration has to be given to all fifty shades of gray.
IDEA: THE LINE
One bold stripe around the entire “floor” at a similar level would unify all faction styles, like lines on a hospital floor.Me, for example in the case of orange CS figs, I’d recommend an orange stripe maybe at fig head height, since orange isn’t a color a lot of builders have in bulk. Maybe black-yellow-black within that line to break up that stripe in case of low brick count. A pro tip is to use non-brick elements in orange to complete it, like clips, or even bricks with studs on both sides to run accent color plate, tile, cheese, grilled cheese, brackets, whatever accent color elements you’ve got. I did that in my first attempt at the large base I built, but with three stacked colors instead.
Different colors may mean different functions per area or level, or your build could house different factions per level.
COLOR BLOCKING FOR ORANGE CS?
Orange CS figs? Yeah, perfect time to bust those out and put them to work.DBG and orange work quite well, and that’s the color scheme I picked for my utilitarian looking Outer Colonies space faction. White and orange looks super clean. Blue and orange clash heavily and almost vibrate, so be careful there. Green and orange work surprisingly well.
OVERALL COLOR BLOCKING
But hey, got a different faction? Build with what colors you’ve got! Or build a new Space faction with existing figs and choose the color scheme based on that.Blue and orange clash heavily
Actually, Blue and Orange are complementary colors (they are opposite each other on the Color Wheel) and thus work very well together, at least color-wise. Used together, they can give off a bit of a “cartoon” vibe, which I will interpret that to be the gist of Rich’s comment about them.
Yeah, let me back off on blue-orange. You’re right, Tim. Im testing, it doesn’t clash as much as I imagined it would. This is a personal trope in that I try to stay away from diametrically opposed colors for architecture, as I’d rather have the figs and major features, play features, vehicles, and make these pop against the buildings and background. In Space, though, not that bad!
I started wondering (and need to go see) what some variations on Blue-Orange would look. Dark Blue, Light Orange, etc. So I need to go test those color combinations.
I try to stay away from diametrically opposed colors for architecture, as I’d rather have the figs and major features, play features, vehicles, and make these pop against the buildings and background. In Space, though, not that bad!
That is a great point. Use color to either spotlight or fade into the background.
>> I noticed that Laura had 110Q Sterlite binds which (if I saw correctly) could hold two 48×48 baseplates side by side.
CONFIRMED!!!! I confirmed it tonight. I happened to be in a Target, and they had this container on the shelf, and they had 48×48 baseplates on the shelf as well (my Target typical does not). Even without unwrapping them, I was easily able to fit the baseplates in the bottom of the container. They definitely were flush with the bottom and weren’t bending up at all, and although there’s not much extra room once they’re in there, I was able to slide them around a little bit, which’ll help when they have stuff built on them and you’re taking them out.
I didn’t buy one cause then I’ll have to haul it back to Pittsburgh. Rachel might have me buy one for her tomorrow. They’re $18, and they don’t help anybody who wants a smaller container that just holds one 48×48 plate, but this is still a major find for me and I’ll be buying a few and using them in the future.
Also, here you go:
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