Best of BrickNerd - Article originally published April 25, 2021.

Welcome to the world of Hibernia! Today we’re going to chat with Bongobert to learn about his LEGO habitation ranch model, and he’ll help us explore the fictional world created by AFOLs for AFOLs as a backstory to inspire themselves and others to build some really fantastic Sci-Fi MOCs!

Doug: Hiya Bongobert, I’m excited to chat and learn about your amazing Hibernia MOC! First off though… tell us uninitiated about Hibernia, what is it, how does it work, and how does that translate into MOCs by the community?

Bongobert: So Hibernia is a world-building and storytelling project set up by Dane, Nick, and Tayasuune. It was developed as an open place to pull together ideas and build MOCs and was running for about a year before I discovered it.

In a nutshell, (a big one) Hibernia is an ice planet, technically a moon orbiting a gas giant similar to Jupiter. It’s the first interstellar colonized planet (outside of the solar system). It’s in the early stages of terraforming so some large cities have breathable oxygen, the further out you go you need to wear breathing apparatus. The planet has an atmosphere, so no need for a full spacesuit but you do need to wrap up to keep warm because the mean temperature is around -50°!

A hodgepodge of characters in “Hibernia Arrivals” by Colin

Most of the mining and habitation is around a thin band on the equator which can reach temperatures above zero (around 10°), and there are settlements reaching north and south no further than the 40th parallel where it becomes too cold and harsh… the poles can reach -80°!

Mining corporations compete to extract superconductor elements which are progressing the development of more powerful batteries and faster energy transfer.

A monstrous and insanely impressive ore hauler by LEGOZ

Land disputes are common and often violent, law enforcement is difficult, the UN tries to keep order but they are under-equipped and established land treaties are non binding out in the Hibernian wilderness. To help patrol the wildlands, I’ve made a MOC of a UN stop and search team.

Bongobert’s UN team: drone robot & rover with a UN Soldier

It’s a harsh place, much like the early west, but holds some appeal to those wanting to escape the overpopulation and climate catastrophes on Earth. There’s plenty of work, there are mining corporations, terraforming companies and, if you think you can make it, free-spirited individuals with enough capital may be able to set up on their own—there’s lots of unclaimed land on the ice fields.

Intrepid Hibernia maintenance workers by Shannon Sproule

Doug: Fascinating! What great lore for just a short amount of time and a loose collection of individuals. It’s great that this has such a captivating story to draw one in. So who's in the community and how do you work together for cohesion?

Bongobert: The group has been going for about a year, I’m very new to it and discovered it via a recommendation from a Flickr user. Most build ideas are floated on the Discord channel where people tend to bounce ideas around and talk about how things would fit inside the established lore (anyone is welcome to hop in and check it out!). It’s fairly hard science fiction, similar to “The Expanse.” There is no discovered alien life at this point and there are some fascinating mechanics involved in getting equipment four light-years from Earth. The concept is that there are space stations in constant orbit between our solar system and Hibernia’s and ships accelerate up to connect cargo/human transport to the space stations as they fly by.

Doug: The Expanse is one of my favorites, I have enjoyed the books for years, and I’ve absolutely devoured the faithfully made TV show. I totally understand the appeal of that rough and very function-over-form type universe, and I definitely see how the aesthetic matches the Hibernia builds I’ve been enjoying on Flickr.

Thanks for all that great background on Hibernia—that gets us into the world and helps set the stage for your fantastic ranch build which is what we're really here to talk about! So what inspired you to build a habitat in the first place?

Bongobert: I have always enjoyed making homes for my LEGO spaceman ever since the 1980s. I liked them to have all the things you would need: beds/bunks, bathrooms etc., and a place to hang up your air tanks and helmet (which was an idea I got from my friend when we were kids). I still like to include this in my MOCs. Here you can see two examples of my older pods with a similar frame design:

An engineering pod, crewed by catlike space creatures

I really got into the storytelling laid out by the Hibernia contributors and decided to combine the storyline with my love of habitats. To get going, I started to research other space bases on Flickr and Pinterest and was very taken with Sarah Beyer’s space habitat builds. They had a quiet elegance to them, and I borrowed heavily from her greenhouse ideas in my early sketches.

Doug: It is so cool to hear about your long-term passion of imagining how future space people might live. Knowing how much you care for the subject I imagine you have put some effort into crafting an elaborate backstory behind this Hibernia ranch/habitat as well. Can you tell us about the story as it exists and how that translated into the MOC design?

Bongobert: I tried to imagine how people could live in the wilderness of Hibernia, away from the cities, where it is yet to be terraformed so there’s little to no breathable air. I figured first you would need energy, you’d need to melt ice to get water to split into hydrogen and oxygen, also you’d need to heat your home, then grow food, and run a vehicle for trips to the towns and settlements for supplies. Energy was essential so solar or wind turbines would be a must. As I started to develop these ideas, I read some of the lore and it became obvious this was a harsh world and the concept art was of brutalist mining structures and heavy equipment. This home needed to be tough to tie in with the aesthetic.

My wife is very interested in plants and horticulture so I based the female on her. I figured she could be a biologist interested in bringing new life to Hibernia, selecting species that would thrive in colder conditions. The husband could be an engineer, designing buildings and equipment that would improve their life on Hibernia. As I started to build the interior, there were some cool older pieces of electronic equipment that I put in there, a record player and an old games console and television so I imagined he could be into restoring old retro stuff.

I also figured they would need some sort of trade so I’m currently designing small solar/wind powered green houses that they can set up for like minded settlers so that other Hibernians can grow their own food.

Invest now in Solar Powered Greenhouses ‘R Us!

Doug: That’s a very cool backstory! I especially enjoy the little retro gear Easter eggs inside the habitat. And that not only did you want to explore how denizens of Hibernia live, but what their occupations would be and it all feeds in together. Now let's hear about the design of the MOC itself.

Bongobert: I really enjoyed this build—I liked the architectural design aspects, balancing the forms and shapes, and trying to create a tough industrial look that also had some personal elements to it. I like the cold exterior, the tough door, and the intercom. And I like the small cozy interior details, like the kitchen, lounge and bedroom.

Doug: Clearly you put some thought into the practicalities of the layout and features of the home. Could you tell us a bit more about that?

Bongobert: I liked to imagine how you would enter the home and what you would do first: taking off your breathing apparatus or maybe getting something from the kitchen. Also, thinking how would you interact with aspects of the home, growing food in the greenhouse, cooking, listening to music, etc. The hardest part was probably finding an overall shape that I was happy with. I considered a few layouts, one with a separate greenhouse, one with a central hub but they all seemed fussy.

So ultimately, I went with the simplicity of one long flat building that faced the sun as it arched low across the sky. The greenhouse was made larger primarily to break up the build a little and give a central focal point. The solar panels are the icing on the cake though they really top it off nicely. I think overall the ranch has got a nice balance between rugged and homely.

The greenhouse with all its gross veggies!

In terms of other practical considerations, I raised it up off the ice to avoid snowdrifts and so that deliveries could be unloaded from the back of high vehicles straight onto the bay. I also put the big metal bars out over the front to give it a rugged industrial feel—these have been there in my space pod designs for years.

The size of the rooms was largely decided by system parts, I love the industrial look of the walkway plates, especially in dark grey. These tied in nicely with the 6 x 5 square window panels, so it made sense to build the rooms on 16 x 16 plates—this gave me options to extend the home in a modular way.

The lab module—great detailing and features, fits perfectly in the snug 16 x 16 space

Doug: Speaking of “homely,” I really dig how you blended that industrial utility with the creature comforts, the bedroom jumps out a great example of that balance.

A comfy yet futuristic living space for Bongobert’s Hibernian entrepreneurs!

Bongobert: I used concept images from a visual artist named Jesse Riggle to inspire the bedroom design. I really liked the use of space in his artwork, the little herb garden integrated into the wall, the built-in closet, and the tv screen that comes out of the bed. I love the way Jesse has got a futuristic feel that still has a very familiar “lived in” look.

I really tried to capture some of that vibe by making the LEGO build intentionally scruffy with the slightly unmade bed and the clothing crate still slightly pulled out. Also, I wanted to get that futuristic look with the angles and the integrated computer screens. I love isometric art, it reminds me of old video games and LEGO instructions booklets—I tried to get a slightly isometric-looking photograph here.

Doug: One of the main visual draws of the build, which you’ve already touched on briefly, is the set of beautiful solar panels. Can you tell us a bit more about them?

Bongobert: The solar panels are purely a result of the gold printed parts in the Wonder Woman 1984 set. I really liked the print and the gold colour and was trying to think of interesting ways to use them—that’s when the sun-tracking idea came to me. Later, I added a slight ripple effect just for visual appeal.

Bongobert’s simple and elegant solar panel design

Doug: Yeah yeah yeah—pretty pictures are nice, but we all just want to see them in motion!!

(For the full video with an enjoyable soundtrack, head to Bongobert’s Flickr page.) So can you tell us a bit more about how the mechanism works—perhaps reveal what’s under the hood?

Bongobert: The solar panels are clipped onto 6L bars extended with telescopes. These are then connected to some half pins mounted in Technic lift arms. All the movement happens in the half pins—the other connections stay tight. This video probably does a better job of explaining.

Doug: [contented sigh] This is such a great build! I love that story, the mechanism, and all the design considerations and details. But now, with this fantastic habitat under your belt, what’s next?

Bongobert: Here’s a sneak preview of my current build of the husband and wife team installing a greenhouse pod for a fellow settler. As you can see, it has the same solar panels as the ranch.

Bongobert’s upcoming build! His Hibernia Unimog is ready for snow action

This Unimog is based on Jonathan Elliot’s excellent build, and I’ve given it big snow tires and battery packs where the fuel tanks would have been.

There are lots of options when building for Hibernia, there are some established companies, like Providence (one of the original terraforming and mining companies), which has a private security firm, so making MOCs for this mega-corp would be cool.

Slick and shiny but industrial Providence Crawler MOC by Nick

Another (obligatory) theme I’d love to see people build additional equipment for is Octan Interstellar - like my mining laser.

There are lots of facets of Hibernian life I’d like to see explored in LEGO, I think some more cyberpunk-style city scenes would be cool, maybe some cool underground criminal gangs. I can’t wait to see where people take this collaborative adventure.

Doug: Thanks so much for working with us to tell your Hibernia story. I really enjoyed that we got to see some really neat stuff from your fellow builders in the community along the way. Your passion for the story and your immersion into the world is clear with the slew of fantastic MOCs, and I can’t wait to see more!

Bongobert: Lockdown has meant I’ve had a lot of time to invest in imagining life on Hibernia. The creators have written a really rich universe, so it’s been a really engaging experience. They’re also happy to wax lore with the members so it’s been a lot of fun!

What a tour of a fantastic imaginative fiction! I hope this inspires BrickNerd readers to check out the Hibernia Discord channel and get involved. Or head on over to Bongobert’s Flickr and gawk at all his other great stuff—I know I find something new and special every time I visit!

What would you like to build or see built in the world of Hibernia? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Do you want to help BrickNerd continue publishing articles like this one? Become a top patron like Charlie Stephens, Marc & Liz Puleo, Paige Mueller, Rob Klingberg from Brickstuff, John & Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick, Megan Lum, Andy Price, John A. and Lukas Kurth from StoneWars to show your support, get early access, exclusive swag and more.