A long time ago I loved Lego & I loved Star Trek. I wasn't able to combine my love for the two until 2020 when I decided to start a collection of Star Trek ships built from Lego! Here is my journey to reclaim a part of my childhood, in my 30's
So It was just the long weekend, and I had the best time.
I went to the CNE, and It was sunny as fuck, and I got burnt so that was great LOL. Then the 2 days after that it was freezing, and therefore I had time to do nothing.
Did I sit down and build my lego's? NO...I was too lazy. Billy made a good point that winter is coming, and I will have plenty of time to sit at home and think about wtf I am doing. I was able to get a friendly message from Paulygons on Flickr. He has tons of designs that he has also made ( link below) and he has been trying to figure out what I am about and what I am doing.
The tumblr blog was a great way to start this project, it got me out the gates and working. I have a habit of thinking of something, and then dropping the initative once I get bogged down with operations issues. For example, I almost stopped writing this blog for a hot minute because I was trying to do it right. Rather than just throwing everything on Tumblr, I decided to go in the direction of having my own site. I was stressed for a hot minute as well because I could not figure out what the fuck I was doing.
Its like work all over again. Everytime I sit down with a project and think of the final vision, all the tasks unravel. All I see is the non stop checklists of tasks that I have to do. That being said...its a HOBBY. Its something that I am doing when I have the freetime to do. At the moment I have decided to use WIX.com to build my website. I am super excited to use it because I have been able to figure out how to edit it. I know where I am going, but its gonna be a long road.
My planning says that by the time my Birthday rolls around, I will have the website running. I will be able to just post blog posts and thoughts to it directly, and not have to worry about the setup. I will also get into youtube shorts and get ourselves going in the right direction. I have so many topics I want to blah blah blah about, and I cant wait to have the forum to do it.
I have not given up…but I have come up with some good ideas. I have all of the parts for the Enterprise A, and it’s just sitting on my desk hanging out. I want to sit down and start building it, but I have come across some roadblocks .
1) I want to migrate my blog from tumblr to Wordpress
2) I have already setup a new domain name for the blog and registered It. TrekWithIgor.ca is alive and mine. I also have a positive SSL with it and have it hosted on Wordpress as well.
3) I want to set it up so that my Instagram has posts, attracting attention to the site
4) I want to take proper pictures of my models, but I am encountering lighting issues. Thank g-d my BF is an electrician and can help me out with lighting issues. I really did not know how many problems I would have encountered trying to take normal pictures.
5) since I dropped the enterprise by accident the other day, I came up with a funny idea to start writing short stories and fiction stuff on my blog.
6) I will also include a section that showcases my Star Trek Online profile. Why? Dunno but for some reason I think this is a good idea to do as well lol
So anyways, my to do list is long. And I am gonna focus on lighting issues and website setup and building the models. Not in that particular order, but really in that order.
Thank you for checking out my posts. Someone asked me the other day what my plans are for the future.
Am I just curating MOC’s or will I create my own in the future? That’s a great question and at the moment I want to curate. Like I mentioned in my other post, I really enjoy playing with LEGO and I really love Star Trek. I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to combine both, and then be able to display it to the rest of the world! Here is my first ever build, which was the NX-01 Enterprise. I have a fondness for Enterprise and I wanted her to be the first hip in my collection. I have attached some images for the time being and I think I will be able to take some more in the near future .
I also have the Constitution Class on my desk at home, and the parts for the Enterprise Refit have arrived. I am hoping to sit down over the labour day long weekend to build the model.
One of the reasons I decided to start blogging and to start this particular blog, was to get away from Toxic Social Media.
Meta is just advertising thats fueled on interaction and hate. The fact that they are constantly trying to change the algorhythm to get you to stay on the site as long as possible, so you can see more ads. There is no point to that social media world unless you are trying to sell something. That being said, I havent used Facebook in ages and I do live on Instagram. My entire social network is on Instagram, and I recently dove into the world of Tik Tok.
I am basically only using my Instagram to keep up with friends and post to the people that I know. I have removed like 250 followers from my Instagram in the last week or so, and I am hoping to just keep reducing it. That being said I still want to keep up with performers, Drag Queens and other time wasters here and there. Thats what Tik Tok is for now, I post some reels of myself just to have at least 1 personal public profile. My instagram is private and I do not accept follow requests from everyone. I have seen so many people get hacked by those idiot Bitcoin Fraudsters, its awful.
I am gonna focus on just putting out my own content, rather than absorbing all the bullshit that is Social Media. I really dont care for wannabee social justice warriors that do not know what they are doing or what they are talking about. I am sick and tired of the antisemitism that is spewed by the same social justice warrios. I am sick of having to be bombarded with the homophobia, transphobia, and MAGA idiots.
PS if you're a MAGA idiot, stay the F*** away from me and my blog. Clearly you never learned to accept others for who they are.
Whatever is to come from this Social Media Experiment, it is definetely gonna help my daily outlook on life. Sometimes it's better to live in the future than the past.
I am in love with this image of the Enterprise Line. I think its great that the creator decided to use the Guardian Class instead of the Ambassador Class.
I am excited to build the Enterprise A this week. I received the first shipment of lego, and the second shipment should arrive tonight!
I have to give a big shout out to Rebrickable and Bricklink. I wasn't able to sleep last night because I got excited after seeing a Pinterest post that lead me to some more posts.
By the time I was done clicking, I was able to setup all of the models that I wanted to build. I wanted to share my Rebrickable account and my Pinterest account, where I have alot of the models that I am planning or want to work on.
The best find was a FREE Lego instructions Kit to a DS-9 Model and to Earth Spacedock! The Earth Spacedock does cost a little amount of $$$ but its totally worth it!. I have attached the pictures to the 2 different types of designs that I was able to find!
LEGO MOC-0048 Deep Space 9 Space Station - building instructions and parts list.
A drydock or dry-dock, in terms of spacecraft, was typically a space station facility used for the major repair, maintenance and upgrading o
I Loved Lego as a Child growing up. I think the first time that I received a Lego set as a gift was when I was 5 years old, and my grandfather came back from a business trip in Poland.
BTW I probably did not mention that I was born in Ukraine
СЛАВА УКРАЇНІ
So my grandfather was able to travel to Poland, or maybe he went to Germany and he stopped in Poland. Doesn't matter because I was able to get my first Lego at that time. The next time I got to buy lego was when I was moving to Canada, and we stopped in Amsterdam. At the airport duty free, my mom bought me a set of Lego as well. When my dad joined us in Canada, he also brought me a Lego Set when he was flying through Amsterdam.
I remember by the time that I was 12, I had a tub of Lego and I could make as many designs as I wanted. I remember sitting in my room alot and playing with the Lego cause I didn't have that many friends. I wasn't social until High School, and I really watched alot of Star Trek. I would imagine trying to build some of the ships and the sets that I saw on the show. I am greatful that in my 30's, I can finally make those dreams come true.
The fact that I have already built the NX-01 is awesome. The fact that I have also been gifted the Constitution Class Cruiser is also awesome! That was hands down the best B-Day gift from my SO ever! And now that the parts for the Constitution Class Refit are in the mail, I can officially say that my shipyard is expanding.
I was also able to reduce the cost of the parts for the Excelsior Class by modifying some of the colours on the parts, and I think all parts will come to about $80 vs $140 as originally thought.
Exciting news. My BF loved his bday present, so thank g-d that worked out. He asked me all about the enterprise last night, and for me to explain to him why I love the ship was a 15 minute talk including a Youtube Video.
I also told him that he can buy me the lego pieces for the Excelsior and I would be super happy. So I am doing that right now...looking for the necessary parts, and I have come across another snag. It seems that because some of the parts are very specific and will cost more than I thought. Some of the pieces are $1 a piece for a light blue plate thats like 1 cm across.
I am going to take my time to determine what is the most cost effective way to do this, but so far it seems the Excelsior will cost about $150 for the parts, and that is 530 Pieces in total.
If you got excited when you saw this blog, and you got excited when you saw the pictures, I totally get it. That was me when I first realized that I could potentially make Star Trek models from Lego.
I never officialy tried any other type of modeling in my life. I used to love playing with Lego as a child, I also played with K'nex and other building with your hands type toys. But Lego is Lego right? There are imitators, but you know for a fact that when you purchase Lego, you are gonna have a good time.
Where do you begin? Well first things first, find Lego Instructions
Check out Ky-E on Rebrickable
Check out Pinterest
Check out the internet, but you are gonna end up going down a rabbit hole
I know for a fact that there are free instructions out there, and I will (once I look into whether or not I can share them) will share them here. But I recommend paying for the quality instructions that I got. I think it ends up being like $6 CDN per model, but obviously there is a higher value for the larger models.
Once you have your model list in the correct format, one trick I learned is to upload the parts to Rebrickable for updating. I bought my designs back in November of 2020 in the height of the pandemic. When I uploaded the parts to Bricklink, I noticed I had really high prices cause the algorhythm on the site could not match me well to the parts I needed. One of the reasons this happened is because maybe the parts have changed, or they will find a more popular substitute part. I have done this for 1 model that has already arrived, and 1 that is on the way.
This little trick was able to save me $35 CDN on the latest order ( 297 pieces in total) which was like a 40% savings at the end of the purchase. So once I have uploaded the parts to Bricklink, did some mixing and matching, I ordered from the site directly. I usually have 2 packages on the way, but I can assume for the large models there might have to be more sources.
So thats it, buy the instructions, reformat on Rebrickable, purchase on Bricklink and wait for the parts to arrive.
Thank you for joining me on this crazy adventure. My name is Igor, I live in Toronto and I am 32 years old. When the Covid-19 Pandemic hit in March of 2020 I was terminated from my job.
There is alot of backstory there, but I was a Hospitality Professional at the top of his game. I was a General Manager for one of the finest Italian Restaurants in Downtown Toronto and then I had transitioned to work at Cafe Landwer, also as a General Manager in Training. When the pandemic hit I went to work back in Real Estate, and there is also a long story there as well that I won't get into right now.
But where does Trek With Igor start? So I love Star Trek Obviously. I watched the tv shows, I have seen the movies, I have played all the games and I actively play Star Trek Online. But thats not something that you can show to people. Noone cares what your online model looks like, or who your online character is.
Well maybe they do? But can I whip it out and show my bosses at work...No they're gonna think I am detached from reality and living in the future. So this is where my friend Henry served as my inspiration. He had moved out of Toronto, to Nova Scotia and he had started to do some amateur Lego Collecting and Modeling.
You Can check out his Instagram here :
But he models Star Wars Lego collectibles, and he does a fantastic job. He was the one who told me that Star Trek never licensed with Lego, and that I will have a hard time finding any sets that are ready to go. So instead he recommened that I find a site that has instructions, and then order the parts separately. So I did some research thanks to Pinterest and some blogs, and stumbled upon KY-E bricks.
I ordered the instructions, and they come in all the necessary and different formats. XML, CS, and IO files. The packages also came with a whole bunch of images etc. Overrall, these are HANDS DOWN the BEST Star Trek Lego models out there. ( I will post a comparison of the KY-E Bricks Constitution Model, and the one that my BF ordered as a set)
I then uploaded the instructions to Bricklink, (well first Re-Brickable) and then setup the carts and ordered them. I have an entire tips and tricks thing that I have figure out already on how to make sure that I am sourcing the cheapest parts. I also try to order from Canadian stores, and as local as possible.
Rebrickable - Build with LEGO
They do amazing Lego Designs of all types of Sci-Fi and fantasy. I downloaded the Enterprise parts list, because I really wanted to start my collection by Building the NX-01 Enterprise. Jonathan Archer and his crew were my coming of age crew. They are the ones I watched as a teen every week explore what happens when you first step out into the stars.
I know the series itself was maligned, and I can see where the short falls were. Much like the original series, it grew to be loved by a small percentage of individuals. I wanted to be just like Jonathan Archer playing with my model of the NX-01. and I did it and I am very happy with the fact that I did it.
Now when I speak of my love and affection for Star Trek, I can show people the physical product of that labour of love. I will share images of my models, and I will also take better pictures of them in the future. I get to feel like a kid for a few minutes when I sit down with the LEGO. It gives me hope for my future, cause doing the modelling and dreaming of it and organizing myself, helped me out of the darkest times in the pandemic.
At first I started an Instagram Page, but I realized that its better to blog and then share to the world. I want to thank you for joining me on this journey. This started as a hobby to give me some hope for the future, and I hope you can get inspired to do something of your own!
PS: I will also post the costs associated with Each Model, and you will see how its super affordable to do!
I know I should be writing this blog chronologically, but I got super excited and wanted to post something. I ordered the parts for my new build! I am super excited because it should be arriving in the next 2 weeks.
I was able to get this model for cheaper than I originally thought. Basically I had bought the instructions from Ky-E bricks on their website ages ago. ( I have included the link to their Brickable site where you can see the instructions ) and then I uploaded the instructions into Brickable, so that some of the more rare parts are substituted for more generic parts. This was a game changer people! Instead of spending $75 on parts (S&H included) from Thailand and Hong Kong, I was able to get parts from 2 local sources in Ontario. I wanted to try to keep the commerce as local as possible, so I sourced it from 2 stores and I cannot wait to see what the quality of the parts is going to be.
To be honest, I have been slacking with building my Legos and I have taken a little more of an initiative this week. I have been trying my best to stay of Instagram and other Meta Social Media things cause I need my peace. Tumblr and building Lego Star Trek is going to be where I find that peace that I cannot find online at times lol
I have so far built the NX-01 already, and my boyfriend surprised me with a Constitution Class Cruiser kit that he bought separately. I was able to get the parts for the Constitution Class Cruiser Refit ( as pictured) and I am excited to get the build going. Once this is done I basically have the 3 ships in total in my shipyard.
Featuring every Federation flagship throughout this legendary line of ships, this bundle is the best way to ensure that your collection neve
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