The Xarkon Valkyrie Fighter-Bomber
LEGO by: Justin R. "Saber-Scorpion" Stebbins
Model Name: XAF-117 "Valkyrie"
Weight Range: Heavy
Speed: Fast
Flight Abilities: Air and space, medium-range, no Interstellar Drive (Long-Range Interstellar Drive on prototype)
Armaments: 4 medium energy cannons, 2 medium missile racks, 2 anti-starship rockets, 1 "Gungnir" Shield-Breaker
Capacity: 1 pilot, 1 copilot

You know, one of these days I'm going to completely re-make my Valkyrie and truly make it the most awesome LEGO creation I've ever built. To be honest, that's what I was trying to do here when I made this one... I was trying to make the most awesome two-seater aerospace fighter I possibly could. I still think it's awesome, but it could be a lot better.

The Valkyrie Heavy Aerospace Fighter-Bomber ... otherwise known simply as the the "Valk."
Look, another great desktop!

This is the Valkyrie Prototype, which was built in white. Yes, both LEGO ships exist at the same time, together. I spent more time coming up with the design for the Valkyrie than any previous Xarkon vehicle. I drew sketch after sketch, trying to come up with the most streamlined, cool, intimidating yet beautiful design I could envision. Ultimately I actually ended up with two different designs, one with the wings pointing one way, and one with them pointing in the opposite direction. One was more angelic looking and sleeker, the other more claw-like and intimidating.

So I decided to make both! The angelic original version would become the prototype you see here, and the other would be the military standard version. I incorporated a lot of Valkyrie symbols into the prototype ship's design... the wings represented the wings on the typical helmet of a Valkyrie, the round gun turrets represented her shield, and the cannon attached to the third wing represented her spear. To add to all this, I built the prototype in white, gold, and chrome silver.

Here we see the rotating gun cannon and artistic emblem (and name panel) of the Valkyrie prototype. Yes, I made the decals myself. I had to put them on there, because the white slope I used on the ship's nose actually has a big blue and red number "3" painted on it! Oh, and the little silver air intake sticker is from a LEGO Racers set. You'll see a lot of stuff from that set in here.

As you can see, the Valkyrie sports four engines; the extra engines are used to augment the main ones when the ship initiates Interstellar Drive. Yes, it can do that. It's one of the only fighters that can, but this feature was scrapped in the final military version. It was found to be too expensive to be produced in mass quantities. This makes the prototype version just BEG to be someone's personal starship, doesn't it?

I bet you were wondering what those strange yellow-green disks were in the engines, weren't you? Well, they're the hubcaps from the LEGO Racers set I mentioned. I bought the set because it had silver and glow-in-the-dark pieces in it. I think glow-in-the-dark boosters were a cool idea, myself! No, this is not blacklight; it's actually dark. I turned all the lights off. Which is why it's such an awful picture... but you get the idea, right?

Not every starfighter has transforming wings... JUST THE REALLY COOL ONES!

When I thought of this wing transformation idea, I started saying to myself: "Oh, I am SUCH a genius!" like Wile E. Coyote or the Monitor in Halo. I hereby claim full intellectual property rights to this wing transformation idea, and if you try to steal it, then I'll sue. Don't even try it.

The wings aren't the same length, no. This wasn't the intention. So don't get on my case about symmetry and geometrical exactness! The reason the upper two wings are longer is because I tried to capture the curved bird-wing shape, and the bottom wing is smaller because it looks better that way when the ship is in flight mode.

Sexy, isn't she? ... Why are you looking at me like that?! I've just always wanted to say that in a caption! And really, I built it with the image of a golden-haired, silvery-armored Valkyrie warrior riding on the back of her white horse in mind. Yes, I have a strange obsession with valkyries. Ask anyone. I mean, if you give me a piece of paper and a pencil and tell me "draw anything," I will start drawing a valkyrie. Either that or a scorpion. Heh.

Yeah, this is what the landing gear look like all folded up. There's a bomb hatch on there, if you can spot the hinges. You'll see the bombs when you get to the regular military Valkyrie. Keeeeep scrolling...

Here you can see how I was attempting to make the ship look like the Crown of Xarkon (a military standard). The ship desginer's attempt to recreate the proper shape did not satisfy High Commander Lucas Mars, however.

Here we see a giant, freakish organic alien thing sucking the energy out of the ship's engines! GAAAH! This thing is even worse than a Fleebnork! Uh, okay, so actually it's my hand. I was just trying to show you how the bottom wing can rotate. I didn't really intend for it to be able to, and the actual Xarkon ship (if it really existed) can't do this, but I took a picture of it anyway.

These pictures will make you dizzy if you try to turn your head to be level with the actual floor in the image. So don't try it. Just pretend the background isn't there, okay? Oh, and whatever you do, don't look at my reflection in the Valkyrie's shield here. My knees just totally ruin the beauty of the ship.

This, my friend, is the Gungnir Shield Breaker Cannon, or Gung-Gun for short. No, I was kidding about the Gungan thing... definitely. Anyway, this cannon was one reason the Valkyrie was produced: so that Xarkon would have a ship with this gun mounted on it. The Gungnir builds up an extremely powerful charge and concentrates it into a single beam, which can overload (and pierce right through) enemy ships' shields!

I've never been one to over detail my cockpits, but umm... well, I tried anyway.

Oil?! This futuristic and technically advanced Aerospace fighter needs OIL?! No, it doesn't. I just stuck that there for fun. It's another sticker that came in that LEGO Racer set I keep talking about.

When High Commander Lucas Mars first inspected the XAF-116 Valkyrie Prototype, he was immediately critical.

Mars walked straight up to the shield panel and had some mechanics remove it. "This," he says, "blocks the path of the missiles. Have its size diminished and add more missiles to the missile bay." He then personally oversaw the redesign of the ship.

Oh, uh, here's an older picture of the Valkyrie (before I changed the landing gear and a few other things). I included it in the gallery because I don't think I took enough good pictures of the ship's back side. I want to show off my impressive collection of white curved slopes, you know. Feathery-looking, isn't it? That was my intention, anyway...

And here, comrades, the now standard military version of the Valkyrie Fighter-Bomber, now in standard Xarkonian military colors! They look horribly pinkish here, but that's because it was before I got a better camera...

It's like a Valkyrie turned to the Dark Side... Don't you just love that word, Valkyrie? The spelling, the pronunciation... hehe... uhh... I'm really obsessed, aren't I?

Also, the boosters are now blue (the standard Xarkon color for engines to burn, you know).

The changes include: completely different wing shapes, more missiles, a lack of Interstellar Drive boosters, and differently-shaped shields over the laser guns. The large cones at the top, by the way, are the heavy space rockets... really big missiles for taking down capital ships.

I think it looks cool from this view. Not sure why... By the way, if the red looks funny in some images, its because I had to tweak the colors because my camera makes red look pink for some reason. After taking these pictures I bought a new camera that takes much better pictures of red ships, but I have yet to re-take any of these pictures with it...

Here's the "improved" Crown of Xarkon design. Looks more like it, wouldn't you say? Mars was much more pleased with this wing design. It's like the old wings, but sharper... and turned the other way.

The ship's belly. The bomb hatch (for dropping bombs on land targets) on the standard version is much bigger. It also makes the belly smoother.

Here you can see the loaded Thermite Bomb. They're nasty. Just ask the people at a planetary colony near you.

Loading... yeah, there are a bunch of them down that hole back there.

The pilots in their seats.

"Hey, I heard all you pilots got new fancy uniforms and stuff. How come?"
"Oh, don't worry, soldier. All the soldiers will be getting decals too. And painted helmets and customized weapons and other things that make some conservative LEGO designers cry when they see them."

"They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium, and in return gave them a shiny bomb casing I made out of pinball machine parts!" If you don't know what movie that's from, ask around, because you need to watch that movie.

The military Valkyrie begins its transformation: the gun panels open up, and the landing gear fold up!

The wings go up!

LOOK OUT! Lots of guns! Lots of missiles! Bad picture! AAAAAHHH!!!

Yeah, I know. A good picture ruined because of a shaky camera hand.

The wings are match better on the military version. My opinion is that the best-looking ship of the two is the prototype in flight mode, and the military version in attack mode...

The Valk is an anti-capital ship fighter. First it uses its Gungnir Shield Breaker to blast through the shields, then it launches its heavy warheads. If any enemy fighters try to shoot it down, the Valk has its missiles and rotating guns to deal with them. The Valkyrie is extremely heavily shielded as well, making it tough as nails. It isn't quite as maneuverable as a smaller fighter, but its other advantages more than make up for it, and it's still more agile than most ships, especially in space.

The racing stripes running down the back of the ship help to make it go faster. Or, uh, something...
Da red onez go fasta.

Yeah, the Valkyrie has a big butt-crack for the third wing to fold down through, haha. Here you can see how I did it... and why the Valk's third wing can rotate.

This is another old image, before I made the small changes the people on my forums suggested. I posted it here so that you could compare them... and because I didn't take any good new pictures with the gun panels fully opened up. The panels, by the way, are from the new Alpha Team sets (or at least, the ones that are new right now). Yes, they're real LEGO pieces!

Another shot of the Gungnir. In case you're wondering, Gungnir was the name of Odin's spear in Norse mythology. This specialized weapon works by concentrating large amounts of energy into a very fine beam that can pierce through enemy shielding and overload it. The vents on the back help cool off the emitter, while the cables attached to the vents help channel some of the lost energy back into the concentrator... along with the main beam from the emitter. Once the energy has passed through the concentrator, the lens (the shiny round bowl thing) focuses the beam even more.