Tranquility Base - an Unofficial LEGO(r) Space Comic Strip

Tranquility Base #217 - It's not a game anymore

If anybody can whip this lot into shape it's Vader.

It's Competition Time again! Over at the Brick Comic Network we are running a rather cool "Build a Minifig-Mobile" contest. You could win Series 2 Collectable Minifigs!

Just click on the banner below for more information and entry rules (note: you will need to sign-up to the BCN Forum to enter). You don't need to have a Series 2 Minifig to enter.

Contest opens 1st August, so what are you waiting for? Get building!

Find out more... and enter!

Tranquility Base #216 - Your Bank Manager could be one!

And here is my last Series 1 Collectible Minfig, the robot.

An excercise for the reader: which character does which job? The bank cashier (teller) is given to you, can you guess the others?

Tranquility Base #215 - Galactic Village People

What can I say? Cosplayers, you have to love them. Obviously the Spaceman, sorry Space Ace, and Ninja are from something sci-fi and anime/manga respectively. The Pirate, hmm... a Space Pirate, or some other cult pirate thing (but not a Ninja Pirate, or a Pirate Ninja). The Magician could be from a comic book, and the Clown... well... a horror movie, of course (Stephen King's "It"?).

All the characters (except Vader and the Pirate) are the Series 1 Collectible Minifgs.

Tranquility Base #214 - Dr. Falmar puts on his polytetrafluoroethylene shirt

Polytetrafluoroethylene - that's Teflon to you and me. It means nothing will stick to him! It was popularly used as an alliterative epithet for a certain British Prime Minister in the not too distant past.

While we're on the matter of language and linguistics, I'm using the noun "airlock" as a verb here. This is in accordance with a certain sci-fi show I'm spoofing!

On stylistic matters: I'm trying to make it clear that only Falmar can see "Caprica 6" - not easy to do with static scenes. If you don't see her in a panel, but she is in a subsequent panel, it's not because I've forgotten to put her there, it's because we're not getting Falmar's perspective/point-of-view. For example, she appears in the last panel in this episode because Falmar has just said that he has no idea who the humanoid Blips are, which is a lie, because he knows exactly who one of them is (well, one whole design, more than one individual!) - she is there to highlight this. If that makes any sense?

Finally, don't you think Hudson has slipped very easily into her leadership role?

Oooh, forgot to mention: this Classified Film is believed to have originated from Tranquility Base :-D

Tranquility Base #213 - Pluto Station: The Untold Story

In the previous episode, I mentioned that there would be something special for today: it's the Blip Production Line by Peter Reid (Legoloveman on Flickr). Originally built for his Turtle robots, Pete offered to turn it into the Blip production line and take photos for the comic. I think the result is awesome!

To fully appreciate the model, you need to see the original uncropped photos: Blip Production Line and the original Turtle Production Line.

Another item of note in this episode is the black computer screen that "Caprica 6" is looking at - that's a genuine pattern (I added the word "KILL") and according to BrickLink it's a Spyrius Droid Image Pattern (although mine came from a Unitron set). Is the LEGO Group trying to tell us that there are Cylons among us?

Tranquility Base #212 - Major Tom shows his mad piloting skills

Previously in Tranquility Base, Major Tom has always been put-upon and the butt of jokes. But now, wow! Heroics! Go Major Tom!

The large "Blip Invaders" panel is a fake, but... it might become reality.

The last panel is a set-up for something special in Saturday's comic.

The design of Major Tom's spaceship is based on Dunechaser's design for the Mark II Viper.

The action scenes in today's comic were fun to photograph! Here's the set-up I used to enable me to move the Viper and Blips in various directions for the "action poses".

Tranquility Base #211 - Stretching a metaphor to breaking point

Technically a "bogey" is an unidentified object on RADAR/visual contact, but how could I resist such a vivid metaphor?

The design of Major Tom's spaceship is based on Dunechaser's design for the Mark II Viper.

The armada of Blips in the final panel are CAD rendered. I don't have *that* many in all those colours, and the black ones don't really show up in "space".

Tranquility Base #210 - Tranquility Base Revision (Not a Clip Show)

This is a broad summary of the Blip plotline so far. A very broad summary; there are some things I left out, like Anderson/Vader's relationship to Hudson, why Hudson isn't dead - etc, things that were partially explained in Volume II, or haven't been explained yet...er...

For those of you outside the UK, Newsnight is a BBC current affairs programme (running since 1980) that is shown every weekday evening. Its current best-known presenters are Jeremy Paxman and Kirsty Wark - they do not actually present together in the manner shown in the comic.

Tranquility Base #209 - Keep Calm and Carry On

Yeah, so the Space Federation is in safe hands, then.

In other news, I've added a new page for more general (non-robot dog) fan art in response to two people sending me some. The first shout-outs go to Legovillager's (Legoville) fan-episode featuring some TV-watching spacemen, and Geoffrey's custom (unofficial) Blip designs. Also, Geoffrey sent a variation on the Robot Dog (see Robot Dogs page). Thanks guys!

Fans are cool!

Tranquility Base #208 - Squidman pops in... and out...

A while ago Squidman made a cameo in Ye Olde Lego-time Theatre (YOLT) by Rollen Lee ("Lich Barrister") - it's an interdimensional theatre, which is why Squidman's cameo was possible. He first appeared as a ticket-scalping audience member (episode #104) and eventually he decided to steal Hecate's chair (episodes #129 to #132) which he has brought back to the Tranquility Base universe.

I highly recommend YOLT, but if you're short on time and just need to know how this relates to Tranquility Base: Hecate's chair can move around dimensions, space and time.

So, Squidman has popped-off somewhere else now, we will be getting back to him eventually... I just needed him to pop-back from YOLT comic.

In non-comic news: are you a Doctor Who fan? If not, then you might want to stop reading here. Ok, now, have you seen the Series 5 (Series 31, Series Fnarg) finale yet ("The Pandorica Opens" / "The Big Bang")? If not, you definitely want to stop reading here because, you know, spoilers! So, who's left? Right, you lot, if you got a bit confuddled by all the time-hopping, then I've made a handy "wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey... stuff" annotated chart for you (best viewed at the largest size).