Confession time: I am a very picky man when it comes to appreciating spaceship design. I am also glad I have one of the few forums on Earth where I can say that and not be given a wide berth.
There's an art to it. Because space vehicles aren't burdened by little things like gravity, they're an area where designers can really cut loose. The problem is, that not only leaves them more room to explore rad designs, but also more room to completely screw things up.
I like my ships to be a combination of the absurd and the practical. Star Wars is a good example, as its ship's crazy shapes are countered by practical considerations like pipes and energy supplies. The same goes for something like my all-time favourite video game with spaceships in it, Homeworld: get past the wacky colour schemes and those ships look like something people from the future would actually build, not something a bad comic artist would draw in 20 minutes.
More examples? Halo, via Aliens. Mass Effect. Almost every Japanese shmup from the last 25 years. They're sleek, (mostly) practical, and just look cool. Examples of things that get it wrong? Short of saying everything else, let's just say my dislike for things like Star Trek and Babylon 5 come as much from shoddy ship design as anything else.
All of which is leading me to this strange, but awesome fact: as tough as it seems to be for film, TV and video games to design a cool spaceship, LEGO builders seem to have no problems whatsoever.
There's a massive worldwide movement in LEGO-building circles where people design, then create, their own ship designs. Taking cues from many of my above-listed faves, and other worthy inspirations like Maschinen Krieger, many of them are downright heart-stopping. Well, if you're like me and let spaceship designs stop your heart. It's a risky pastime!
The gallery above includes shots of some of my favourites, though if this gets you excited, the internet is home to so many, many more of them. Some of them even, be warned, come complete with fictional backstories.
Some of the LEGO artists included are Pierre E Fieschi, Cool Black, Dunechaser, Freedom01, Brainbikerider, [Lego Junkie], Nannan Z., Rogue Bantha, neim343, JON1138, Lazer Blade, intrond, dasnewten, Pha][_,][_,, Sydag, Mike el Fabricante and dasnewten.