If you have any experience assembling plastic model kits like Gundam, Warhammer 40K, and the like, then you’re probably very familiar with all those dull plastic frames that hold each and every part together. Just like any packaging, their purpose ends the moment you pop out or cut off those tiny pieces, and just like any packaging, they always end up in the dumpster.
Because they’re made of plastic, these throwaway by-products become poison to the environment. And because of their thin, bendable designs, they don’t have much value in upcycling or reuse. Not unless you use them for a completely different purpose, turning them from waste into essential structures for a miniature spaceship of an iconic science fiction villain. A villain that, somewhat ironically, is obsessed with efficiency and material reuse.
Designer: Grieg Johnson
It’s almost hard to qualify the distinctive Borg Cube as a spaceship as its geometric form defies preconceived notions of what a space-faring vehicle or even a moving space station should look like. Of course, it also perfectly conveys the worldview of this cybernetic race which is all about efficiency and perfection. At the same time, however, this seemingly simple shape has some of the most complex structures in Star Trek lore, making it an even bigger pain to recreate on a small scale.
This Borg Cube Lamp pulls off this feat quite impressively, mostly using materials that have been thrown away or left lying around to waste. A box-shaped water lamp serves as its light source, and it is wrapped in layers of different kinds of wire meshes, from fly mesh to bird feed mesh. Interestingly, the lamp is set on a pedestal made of LEGO bricks to give it a bit of height and set it at the center of the Borg Cube. These layers of wire mesh are wrapped in a thin layer of translucent keyboard membrane to give it that circuit-like projection.
After this comes the hard part of layering the different sprues to add volume to the cube. Even if only super glue is needed to stick the pieces together, the more difficult task is making sure that the pieces line up nicely so they don’t look like some haphazard assembly of trash. There is also an intentional selection of which kinds of sprues go on which level, such as those with flatter pipes go beneath round ones.
Although the project doesn’t use any complicated soldering or 3D printing, it’s an equally painstaking process to cut through meshes, align sprues, and even dab gold and silver markers to create an authentic appearance. The end result, however, might make that journey totally worth it, especially if you’re a Star Trek fan or any sort of sci-fi buff.
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