The Return of Vic Viper Vednesday

What if November was 52 days long, and those days were spread out (one a week) instead of being all clustered together between October and December?  As a LEGO fan, the obvious change would be that Nnovvember wouldn’t be a month-long build event, but rather a one-day-a-week sort of thing.  (Also, it would probably really mess up Thanksgiving.) 

Nnovvember – spelled thusly for the Vic Vipers that are traditionally built that month, and also in honor of the LEGO Community’s premiere Vic Viper builder, the late Nate ‘Nnenn’ Nielson – is a month long build challenge to turn some of your LEGO elements into a Vic Viper styled Starfighter. 

Now, obviously, we’re not redistributing the days of November throughout the entire calendar, but that’s not going to stop me from turning Vic Viper building into a regular weekly blogging meme. 

I started Vic Viper Vednesday in my previous attempt at LEGO blogging last year.  I’m now going to completely ignore its original incarnation, so that I can start the numbering over from #1. 

WTF is a Vic Viper?

The Vic Viper Starfighter originated in the “Gradius” video game series.  [My knowledge of this is all academic.  Never played any of the Gradius games.  Just read about them on various Wiki sites.]  It was apparently the main ship you flew in the original game, and showed up in something like ten games of the series. 

The three main criteria for a LEGO Starfighter being a Vic Viper is that it have a set of lateral wings, a single dorsal tail, and a pair of forward prongs.  Exactly how these components are implemented are up to the individual builder. 

What to Build?

So I was basically sitting here with three things:  A ThinkGeek Build-On Brick Mug, a Larry the Barista minifig from the LEGO Movie, and the question, “What kind of Vic Viper should I build for the first new entry?” 

(Okay, so there were actually many, many other things I had, but those three were the key.  What do you suppose I came up with?) 

The Backstory

A gallon of regular Octan gas?  There’s a printed 1x2 brick from the nineties with the Octan logo and a digital readout of $3.09.  I’ve decided to interpret that as meaning $3.09 a gallon. 

A cup of overpriced coffee?  $37.00.  Thirty-seven bucks for (oh, let’s say) 20 oz. of coffee.  (Or $236.80 a gallon.)

So just how long do you think it would take for the rich and pretentious to insist on having an engine fueled by the more expensive liquid.  (In a world based on imagination?  Not very long at all.)  

The Cup-o'-Joe

Presenting: The Cup-o’-Joe.  The first Starfighter to be powered by the ROCF (Ridiculously Overpriced Coffee-Fueled) Engine.  [Piloted by Bricksburg’s own Larry the Barista!]

Built around a giant coffee mug frame, this Vic Viper is armed with high-energy plasma rails along its forward prongs…

…and pulse cannons on the underside of its wingtips. 

Heavy duty propulsion thruster on the back, powered by the ROCF Engine [not pictured] inside the cup, behind the cockpit. 

The ship’s unique profile make it a thing of beauty and a wonder to behold. 

Here we see Larry in the cockpit, manning the controls as he prepares to set off on all kinds of coffee-fueled space adventures!