Klingons 1, Clones 0

Lego Hacker hacked this diminutive Republic Walker from the Star Wars universe into a Klingon battlecruiser from Star Trek.

The background image is from NASA.

Star Wars is Star Trek in an alternative universe

Lego Hacker turned the Star Wars hyena droid into a Dominion battlecruiser from the Star Trek universe.

Again, Lego Hacker's sister chose the background (I'm afraid we don't know how to give the artist credit).

From Star Wars to Star Trek, Lego style

Lego Hacker has begun transforming Star Wars Lego sets into Star Trek ships. Here a Corporate Alliance tank droid from Star Wars becomes a Federation starship from Star Trek.

The background image, chosen by Lego Hacker's sister, is by Gucken.

Mini Star Wars fighter

The Lego company sells a standard-scale Naboo fighter from the Phantom Menace movie, shown here (in a slightly modified variant that Lego Hacker thought was more accurate to the movie).

The miniature Naboo fighter pictured next to it illustrates the design problem of trying to capture the essence of a form with the fewest possible bricks.

Micro bad guys

In the Star Trek universe, pretty much anyone who hasn't joined the United Federation of Planets is a bad guy. (Sound familiar?)

Here are Lego Hacker's "micro" versions of some of Star Trek's most notorious bad guys. In one image, a Klingon Bird of Prey circles the Ty'Gokor orbital station. In another, a slew of Jem'Hadar warships emerges from the wormhole outside the starbase known as Deep Space Nine / Terok Nor, while Cardassian Galor and Keldon class starships patrol nearby.

The design constraint of conveying a structure's essence with a minimum number of bricks can inspire inventive ways to re-use Lego pieces. For example, Lego Hacker bent two pieces from the bow of a Viking ballista to make the circular habitat ring of Deep Space Nine.

Micro starbases

In these scenes of Federation starbases from the Star Trek universe, Lego Hacker set himself the challenge of conveying recognizable structures with the fewest possible bricks.

Some of these "micros" are made with only three or four pieces.

Shown here are Miranda, Freedom, Akira, Excelsior, and Constitution refit ships surrounding Starbase 357, Jupiter Station, and the Utopia Planitia shipyards above the Martian surface.

We have engaged the (mini)Borg

Here the challenge was to re-create familiar starships from the Lego universe at a small scale.
In this view a Galaxy and Sovereign class face off against a Borg cube.

Lego Star Trek: Sabre Class starship

This Lego version of an esoteric Star Trek vessel called the Sabre Class is not an act of creative misuse per se, but a custom build based on Star Trek schematics and renderings.

Juxtaposed here is the Lego model along with official images of the original ship. Of course, the Lego version is taller, so you can fit minifigures inside.

Lego Hacker made this at age 11, and his sister helped with the rendering in Photoshop.

Engines and broccoli

Don't forget to eat your vegetables when you're done working on that engine!

Note how the diagonal parts of the engine's "belt" shouldn't fit together, but do.

Lego horse hacks

A half-dozen horses become a single hydra-horse, thanks to filling the gaps meant to be occupied by a rider with a long connector brick.

Armored equine helmets, meanwhile, can be attached to create colorful pentagonal sea creatures.

Fire spiral

Plenty of Lego sets include these flickering tongues of flame, but they are never combined together to make a larger structure.

To make this fire spiral at age six, Lego Hacker noticed that the tiny plugs at the base of each flame--perhaps leftover flashing from the molds in which the flames were cast--just happen to fit snugly between two of the flame's curved jags.


Click enough of these together in this way and you have a blazing spiral that can protect or confound Lego beings.

Pike puzzle

The pikes have little notches that can be snapped together.

Again, this is not the way the Lego company intended the pikes to be assembled, but that's what art and code hackers do: misuse their tools to create something new.

Slithering snakes

I contributed this example--again four pieces that combine to produce an unusual symmetry and stability.

Treasure Chest cross

This is one of Lego Hacker's simplest creations, created at age five. The four unhinged treasure chests make a sculptural configuration with surprising stability and symmetry.

Many code hackers are probably unhinged too, but that's another story.

Bridge of bends

This bridge, built when Lego Hacker was four years old, is his first Lego creation "outside the box." It exemplifies the Lego Hacker's ethic, which is not just to make new creations with Lego bricks, but to assemble these standard units in unstandard ways.

In this case, the rods on the ends of the little rectangles prevented them from fitting together correctly--but resulted in an arc that served as a bridge for Lego people.