bricks   mod/mocs of LEGO polybag 11976

our LEGO MOD/my LEGO MOCs

© by Harald Kraenzel, June 2023

LEGO is publishing a magazine called „LEGO EXPLORER“ which German speaking version is distributed nine times a year by Egmont Ehapa Media GmbH in Berlin, Germany. In issue 03/2023 the main theme is „WIR HEBEN AB INS ALL“ (english: „WE TAKE OFF INTO SPACE“). As EXTRA the polybag „LEGO SPACE SHUTTLE (Set Nr. 11976)“ is attached containing 45 bricks.
I was able to find an English speaking issue distributed by Story House Egmont in London, UK but delivery is restricted to UK only.

The LEGO Senior designer says: "What was important to me was that the tank and rocket motors could be removed - just like the real shuttle. The tank should be securely attached when playing, but easy to remove without destroying the rest of the model". From a gaming perspective, that's certainly right and good.

But after we (my friend Ralf and I), as Space Shuttle and LEGO fans, had designed and built the Shuttle Orbiter for the LEGO IDEAS-Set 21321 „International Space Station“ [ISS]) in a correct scale (compared to the one which was part of the LEGO ISS set) and for which I added the mobile launch platform (MLP) and the transporter (crawler), it was clear that we would also have to adapt this LEGO polybag set according to our ideas.

This was done within two steps:

• one MOD, consisting of the orbiter with the external tank (ET) and the solid rocket boosters (in terms of scope the same as provided in the LEGO polybag set 11976) and
• two MOCs, consisting of the MLP and the crawler (not part of the LEGO set 11976)
  

We tried to make the real Space Shuttle as realistic as possible on the small scale.

All price information given in this document is from June 26th, 2023, but is only intended as a guide. Please refer to the used systems to determine daily prices.

The result of our modificarions (LEGO Set 11976 on the left and our MOD on the right):


Dimensions in cm

	Height	Width	Length	total bricks
LEGO set	8.5	3.5	4.8	45
Our MOD	9.8	7.9	12.3	77

Prices in Euro (2023-06-01):

LEGO set	studio	3.61
	Bricklink (auto)	4.46
our MOD	studio	5.24
	Bricklink (auto)	5.03

While the LEGO senior designer obviously uses a 2x2 plate round at the bottom of the external tank as a stand, on which the set can stand but also tends to tip over relatively quickly, we used the vertical stabilizer to create three support points (two solid rocket boosters and one vertical stabilizer), which allows our moc to stand relatively securely.

More Modifications (Goal: Make sizes, shapes and colors of the real space shuttle as real as possible):

• the complete cockpit was designed in more detail
• a vertical tail was added
• additions under the wing tips
• the OMS engines are indicated by brackets below the base of the vertical tail
• the complete area of the three main engines SSME (only two were used in the LEGO set 11976), which now enables the SSME to be moved and below it is supplemented by the body flap (serves to protect the SSME when re-entering the earth's atmosphere)
• a bracket for the suspension point on the large external tank ensures that the orbiter is not directly attached to the ET and was used further down on the ET
• on the wings, the NASA logo is indicated in blue and the USA flag in red
• longer solid rocket boosters, supplemented by a 4l bar in the middle part for greater stability, have received thrusters at the bottom and are now white instead of orange
• the ET was freed from the edges of the bricks - i.e. designed completely round-, lengthened accordingly and rounded off at the lower end with an inverse plate

An MLP and a crawler are required to bring the space shuttle to the launch site.
The entire MOD/MOC combination in the scale of the LEGO set 11976 looks like this:



Dimensions in cm

	Height	Width	Length	total bricks
our MOD	14.9	12.1	15.5	284

Prices in Euro (2023-06-01):

our MOD	studio	24.07
	Bricklink (auto)	25.37

As always, the building instructions are available free of charge under the following links:

Shuttle:	mod-shuttle-11976-orbiter+et+srbs-only-bi.pdf
MLP:	moc-shuttle-11976-mlp-only-bi-v2-0623.pdf
Crawler:	moc-shuttle-11976-crawler-only-bi.pdf

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