Old MOC Review #1

Well, since there hasn't been much Blacktron lately, I thought I'd go and dig up some old MOCs of mine (and maybe I'll do more than just mine) and review them.

Since this is my first OMR (Old MOC Review) I may as well start from the very beginning, and review my very first Blacktron ship, the Talana. I built this way back in 2006 (well, I uploaded it to Brickshelf in March of 2006. I may have easily built it late 2005.

 

First thing whenever I look at this now, I think "Where are the guns?" The description on Brickshelf calls it "The Blacktron's most powerful ship". Umm. sure. Mind you, when I built it, it WAS my largest, coolest,  best ship ever. Not so much. Also, I am fairly sure I used antennae's as guns back then.

At the time, what made this ship the coolest one ever, was the sloped front. I remember building it, and I was going to build it with a flat front (Imagine how ugly THAT would look!), and during the build, one of my older brothers walked in and suggested I used slopes for the front. That moment of decision feels like a very important point in my ship building 'career'. It was that point when I realized that spaceships can look COOL, and not BOXY. It also resulted in a (in my opinion) very distinct looking ship.

 

The rear of the Talana isn't up to snuff of what I build these days, but it still isn't too bad. I am not too sure if those trans neon green parts near the edge on the main body were supposed to be engines, or just decoration. I suspect the former. You can also not the Moonbase module attachment at the rear. (Kudos to you if you still know what that is!) An interesting fact: This isone of my few Blacktron ships that the point of access to get in wasn't an afterthought. I tend to forget about hatches when I am planning ships.

 

The interior is awfully roomy, and also lacking in a few necessities. Like sleeping quarters. And a lavatory. But things like that weren't important back in the day. Things were still heavily inspired by Star Trek, like the bridge layout, and the whole transporters. My Blacktrons don't have those anymore. And that warp core looks very unsafe. And it bugs me that it isn't in the middle.

One last thought is of the crew. Looking at it, I can say that only one (Third from the right) no longer exists, though that's just because the reverse side of his head looks much more Blacktron.

Final thoughts. The landing gear was one thing that also was ahead of it's time. As fragile as it tended to be, it was my only ship at the time that had 'retractable' landing gear. I was also still using baseplates! I though it was awesome at the time that I could use white baseplates for a ship. I didn't care about the underside, evidently. Now to rate it:

Exterior: 7.5/10 The design was revolutionary at the time, and it is fairly clean, though the use of baseplates mean that the bottom was pure white and flat.
Interior: 6.5/10 Quite roomy, but lacking certain essentials. Engineering is especially ugly.
Nostalgia: 9.5/10 I had so much fun with this ship. I was only 14 at the time, and I was a bit late in maturing, so I was still playing with my stuff at the time.
Colour it Blacktron: 8/10 (Colour scheme) It is actually quite well balanced. Lost a point for not having enough trans neon green, and another for the underside.
Swooshablity: 9/10 Bit hard to recall how well it swooshed, but I seem to recall it was pretty good, though the landing gear had a tendency to fall off a lot.

Final say: 8.1 Nostalgia had a lot to do with it.