TOS Starship Creator Prototype

Fellow South Bend Enterprise fan Jonathan Hamm has come up with a great idea for a follow-on (in spirit) to our favorite toy: combining modular building blocks (LEGO, Mega Bloks, etc) with starship components.

You can see his working prototype of the "TOS Starship Creator" below. It's made with a model kit (lighter weight than toys) and blocks, assembled with epoxy and metal strengtheners for the pylons. With just a few additions of connectors - directly inspired by the SBE - you can easily create several of the famous TOS variants like the scout, tug, and so on.

Here are some of Jonathan's older prototypes made with Playmates ships (the Enterprise-B and TOS Enterprise).  The weight of the parts is too heavy for the simple connectors, but the ships look great. I especially like the "Centaur", "Curry" and "Tug" ships.

Mega Blocks has produced a Enterprise-D kit (which I may have to pick up), and while I like the "build things from small pieces" [insert rant about the direction that LEGO is evolving recently], one of the appeals of the SBE is how much fun it is to play with the modular pieces to quickly build new ships.

Here's wishing Jonathan success with his endeavor!