u/the-design-hobo

I’ve been messing around with a different take on the Cirrus X-3 from The Rocketeer. Rather than recreate the rocket pack itself, I treated it more like something you might find in a 1930s aviation catalogue or technical document. I kept the CIRRUS name and X-3 designation, then built the rest around that early experimental aircraft aesthetic. The film’s mix of real period aviation and completely ridiculous future tech is probably my favourite thing about it.

Would anyone else love to see more fictional Rocketeer tech treated this way?

I’ve always loved the little bits of world-building in the original LEGO Pirates sets, particularly the treasure maps. For this design I took that familiar map imagery and imagined it as the identity for a fictional trading company operating somewhere in the classic Pirates world.

The Black Seas Trading Co. name is a nod to the Black Seas Barracuda, the iconic pirate ship from the original 1989 LEGO Pirates range. The map, anchor and compass elements are my own interpretation rather than an attempt to recreate an existing LEGO logo or piece of official branding. LEGO itself dates the original ship/set to 1989, although the contemporary LEGO catalogues actually called set 6285 Dark Shark; “Black Seas Barracuda” is the name it is widely known by today.

What was your favourite classic LEGO Pirates set or theme from the late '80s/early '90s?

NOTE:
There are two useful distinctions here. Black Seas Trading Co. is entirely my fan-made creation; it isn't an official LEGO Pirates company. The visual language is inspired by the classic Pirates treasure-map artwork. The 1989 date refers to the original launch year of the classic Pirates range and the 6285 ship, rather than the fictional trading company itself. LEGO confirms that the Pirates theme dates from 1989 and identifies 6285 as the ship commonly known as Black Seas Barracuda, while noting that it was called Dark Shark in many original catalogues.

Blue Sun is one of those details in Firefly that makes the universe feel lived-in. Its branding appears everywhere, from food packaging to Jayne's infamous T-shirt, suggesting a corporation so deeply embedded in everyday life that people barely notice it anymore. I wanted to explore that idea through a clean, bold graphic that feels like something an ordinary person in the 'Verse might wear.

The design is my own fan-made interpretation of the Blue Sun Corporation's visual identity, rather than an attempt to reproduce a specific piece of official merchandise. I kept the focus on the name, the Chinese characters and that unmistakable corporate-branding feel.

For the Browncoats: what other fictional companies, products or everyday brands from Firefly would you love to see explored as in-universe designs?

Back to the Future Part II did something I absolutely love — it filled the future with little products and brands that made it feel like an actual place.

Pepsi Perfect is probably one of the most memorable examples.

I wanted to approach it like an actual piece of retro-futuristic brand merchandise rather than simply making a Back to the Future character shirt.

What's your favourite fictional product from a movie?

One of my favourite things about The Lost Boys is the atmosphere of Santa Carla.

Instead of doing another design centred around the characters, I wanted to explore one of the places that makes the town feel real — Max's Video Store.

I imagined what a staff/workwear shirt for the store might have looked like in the 1980s.

What fictional business from an 80s movie would you actually want to visit?

Jaws is full of little details that make Amity Island feel like an actual place.

Quint's boat and his shark-hunting operation always stood out to me, so I started thinking about what his business might actually look like away from the film.

I designed this as though it were a genuine local charter company rather than a traditional Jaws piece of merchandise.

Would you actually book a trip with Quint?