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Aluminum Mallard (Space Quest III)

The Aluminum Mallard (also found as Aluminium Mallard on the internet, but spelled the American way in the game) is the spaceship of a video game character called Roger Wilco. Roger is the playable hero from the Space Quest adventure-puzzle series by Sierra. A highlight of the series are the creative (and humorous) death scenes when you do something wrong as you control the protagonist constantly through tough situations.


Space Quest III, made in 1989, is my favourite of the entire series and brings me joy and nostalgia (I even played it in full with my nephews to show them a piece of my childhood, but they had to figure out the puzzles). In the third installment of this franchise, this is where Roger stumbles upon this abandoned ship by sheer luck. He still has to do some work to get the ship operational, but I will take a free spaceship any day.


I wanted to build a LEGO version of the ship, so in 2015, I looked to see if anyone already built one out of LEGO. I found the following:


Looking at those, I was inspired to try building a my own LEGO model, AND also have the interior part made for play value.

Something for myself, and if it's good enough, something potentially worthy to submit to LEGO Ideas so that it can go through a voting process, a licensing check, and with enough support (10,000 unique supporters) and a review process, could become an official LEGO set.

2015: First prototype


This is the only picture I have of it, so pardon the mess and partial build. Thoughts of the ship's in-game initial discarded state in the garbage freighter come to mind when looking at this photo.


(Click on the picture for a full-size version):


The idea of building my own Aluminum Mallard came up on January 31, 2015... still fresh from a 2014 return to LEGO from my Dark Ages (the period BETWEEN when you stop becoming a Kid Fan Of LEGO (KFOL) due to school, puberty, work, driving, life... AND perhaps decades later LEGO sneaks its way back into your life and you become an Adult Fan Of LEGO (AFOL)).


I collected in-game screenshots (some of them you can see on the top banner of this page) of the inside and outside of the ship, and of the ship's diagnostic computer diagrams.

I remember noticing back then some contradictions if you look at the diagnostic diagrams on ship's computer and the drawings of the outside of the ship. The most obvious one being the placement of the frontal phasers. Also that most in-game renditions of the ship show a front landing gear, but at least two don't (only the ramp is shown).


Anyway, I ended up building with the following in mind:

Also 2015: Second prototype (and Roger Wilco minifigure)


(Click on each picture for a full-size version):


A bit more complete; still have not realized that the warp motivator hole should be square.

The back was hastily thrown together; no greebling at all; was going to deal with it later.

Same thing for the landing struts/gear. Took what I had and went with it; will correct later... ideally something retractable to provide play value.


More alarming is the use of Mega Bloks/Mega Construx double-sided 1x2 plates to hold the glass part together (also used on the first prototype) and the top hatch is also non-LEGO.

"Sacrilege! Scandal!" must say the LEGO purists, for using pieces from a competing brand.

But seriously, the model in its current state cannot qualify for LEGO Ideas unless I come up with another solution using all-LEGO parts.


I also came to the realization that the hull/fuselage is not wide enough for accurately displaying the inside of the ship.



I had two head pieces in mind for Roger Wilco:


As you can see from the above pictures, I settled with the second one (but the first one would've probably worked better in retrospect).

If I remember correctly, I took purple arms from a Professor Quirrell (Happy Potter) minifigure, hair from a Malfoy (Happy Potter) minifigure, attached them to a white torso I had, and called it a day. Now that I know of BrickLink I can someday get a plain light gray torso to match the pants and use a black marker to draw part of the legs as black boots. Also look into slightly darker hair, and a flesh-coloured face? Sounds like Roger is in for a serious makeover.

2020: Third prototype


From 2016 to 2019, the model was left largely untouched. I work in IT so I have to constantly learn to keep up, so that takes my time, along with many other interests (such as cycling, and watching ALL episodes of Classic Star Trek (I only watched a few DS9 and Voyager when I was a teen)).


Some time in 2019 or 2020, more Mega Bloks/Mega Construx blocks used here for the warp pods to get that tapered portion that is seen in the game.


(Click on each picture for a full-size version):

2021: Fourth prototype


This one is a partially-disassembled, attempt using an 8-stud wide hull/fuselage. I was also trying to round out some parts of the ship to more closely match the ship in the game. My prior prototypes were too boxy.

What I did for the glass part was horrible. But at least i got rid of the dark gray stripe.


Some progress was made on the interior. All that would be missing is colour on the interior walls. I also do not like the gaps between the panels and slopes on the inside partitioning.


(Click on each picture for a full-size version):


Double-sided Mega Blocks plates were used for tiling both sides of the roof/ceiling plate... and for some of the floor tiles inside.


The inside (and hull/fuselage) is still not wide enough for accurately displaying the inside of the ship.

Hopefully a 10-stud-wide hall would not be too large. It would give me better glass options, so it's worth a try.

Also, I realized (after all this time) that the top hatch should be on the BACK part of the ship, not the mid part. The back part is way bigger than I thought, and the insides now need to be completely re-done. What messed me up were how the proportions looked looking at the in-game screenshots of the ship when landed on Ortega and Phleebhut. I should've stuck with the ship's diagnostic computer diagrams for proportion guidance. Now the entire ship needs a makeover. :-)


UPDATE 2023-02-05: I also realize (looking at the in-game pictures of the Aluminum Mallard's interior, and after a comment from hc_bricks) that Dark Pink (Bricklink)/Bright Purple (LEGO) should only be used at the bottom. The ceiling and walls should be Magenta (Bricklink)/Bright Reddish Violet (LEGO). Even though LEGO acquired Bricklink recently, both have different colour naming conventions. I did not realize how bad it was until I started looking at the pink/purple/magenta/violet section. See (and support) the LEGO Ideas colour chart below from another LEGO builder (clicking on the images below will take you to the LEGO Ideas website):



UPDATE 2023-03-01: I ended up purchasing WLWYB's Periodic Table of LEGO Colors 2.0 because of its interesting design. However, the product already needs an update to add two colours available as small 1x1 parts such as the neon yellow 1x1 tile, and the glitter trans-neon green cone.


Anyway, back to the original topic...


I also purchased LEGO set 71707 (many interesting parts) and used the red part 93563 from the battle dwarf minifig to create the head of one of the guys from Andromeda.


I was even thinking of filing the nose flat and putting two dots to make it into a pig nose, but never went through with it.

I was also considering filing the back of the head to make part 93563 fit better. Or attempt to use a red-painted version of 67585?

I wonder if the above-mentioned actions violate some kind of LEGO Ideas rule? :-)

Early 2022 (or maybe late 2021) efforts


Ordered more parts from Bricklink to overcome the issue of using double-sided Mega Bloks pieces for the inside ceiling. It will be an all-LEGO solution.

Other than that the build had a partial disassembly to attempt a complete do-over due to incorrect proportions, but further efforts stopped due to lack of time (I estimate I spend only about 5 percent of my time on LEGO-related activities lately).

2023: Someone else made an Aluminum Mallard out of LEGO.. and it's LEGO Ideas-worthy!


In January 2023, I discovered that hc_bricks built (in late 2022) the most accurate-looking (and beautiful) Aluminium Mallard LEGO model I have seen so far.

And also had the same idea as me for the head of one of the guys from Andromeda. And even made an Arnoid!


Please go check out hc_bricks's Instagram and Reddit entries.


I see that hc_bricks used parts 2 x 2468 and 4 x 2466 in trans-blue for the glass dome, and it looks pretty good. This glass configuration would not have fit the proportions I had for the ship at the time of my prototypes... even though as you saw earlier in the article the proportions I used were been too small to begin with... but at 10-stud wide, this could totally work for my model (off to BrickLink). I also love the rounded parts of the sides of the ship. Wow. (chef's kiss)


At the time of this writing in January 2023, hc_bricks' model is being shown to the public at an Australian LEGO convention called Brickvention along with a giant Sierra logo and other things. I really wish I were there to see it IRL. I really hope that there is footage of the event and hc_bricks's booth or whatever, as I am on the other side of the world in Canada. I am also curious as to how many people would recognize the Aluminum Mallard. In Australia they might spell it Aluminium with an I. In French Canada it's with an I, in English Canada it can be both depending on who you talk to, but I decided to omit the I because IIRC the American spelling is used in the game when referring to the ship.


Ooh my goodness... I just looked now and hc_bricks also did the Monolith Burger restaurant from Space Quest 3 with ships docked to it, and it's BREATHTAKING!

My heart sinks a little bit because it looks like hc_bricks has beaten me to *BOTH* Space Quest-related ideas I have had... well not exactly.. my Monolith Burger build was going to be a land-based franchisee, because there will be a LOT of ships/vehicles parked next to it from franchises like Star Trek, Star Wars, Starfox, Guardians of the Galaxy, Wing Commander, Buzz Lightyear, Spaceballs, F-Zero, LEGO Blacktron, LEGO Classic Space, and Halo to name a few. I already have a MOC somewhat related to it, and ordered burger bun tops and yellow crystal (fries) pieces from Bricklink some years ago, and reserved some pieces from my collection to the project but nothing else done on that front really.


But back to hc_bricks.. I wonder if hc_bricks will submit his builds to LEGO Ideas... I would vote for those in a heartbeat! I already forwarded the Instagram post to one of my friends who is a Sierra fan, and to my nephews. I personally was reluctant to spend effort on going to LEGO Ideas (whenever I completed a suitable model of the Aluminum Mallard) myself because of the following:


I will update this page whenever I get to completing my own Aluminum Mallard model someday. I will probably never create instructions for it, but I will provide enough pictures from all angles so that someone can figure out how to build their own should they want to. That's what I did (reverse-engineering from photos) for sets that were really cool but never met the 10,000 supporter mark for LEGO ideas (or were never submitted to LEGO Ideas in the first place).



Interesting (non-LEGO) Space Quest content made by other people

Free Wilco (Space Quest Parody) (by Bowz): An animation in the style of Space Quest III about Activision holding onto the SQ3 IP.

Mentioned earlier on this page but mentioned again here in a more visible spot.

Space Quest 3 in 3D! (by Kjell Emanuelsson) Only two rooms of the junk freighter, though.

It's a shame that the creators of Space Quest 3 do not own the IP; Mark Crowe even offered help for this 3D project (see the video's comments)

Space Quest: The Movie (by the Space Quest Historian)

A 30-minute movie-like adaptation was made using the in-game footage of Space Quest I. Ken Williams even makes a cameo. I hope the same can be made for SQII and III at least. OK, maybe IV too.

Space Janitors (created by Davin Lengyel and Geoff Lapaire)

OK, so this is not explicitly Space Quest related, but the term "Space Janitor" makes me think of Roger Wilco. Anyway, this was (from the 2010s) a Canadian science-fiction comedy web series mainly starring two space janitors on a massive space station. MANY references to multiple science fiction franchises, but mostly Star Wars. With that said, at 9:52 in the second episode there is CLEARLY a nod to Mark Crowe and Scott Murphy so I say that it IS Space Quest related.