SubMayRine 2026: The LEGO USS Los Angeles MOC - The Largest Submarine in the Collection

A total of 62 submarines of the Los Angeles Class were built! Serving across five decades of Cold War tension, post-Soviet uncertainty, and modern conflict; they carried Tomahawk missiles into combat, hunted enemy submarines across the world's oceans, and delivered special forces to coastlines no one was meant to know about. The Los Angeles class is the backbone of American underwater power and SubMayRine 2026 Week 2 finally brings the lead boat to the Bobby Brix collection at 1:260 scale.

SubMayRine 2026: Week 2

Following the Argentine TR-1700 pair from Week 1 (the ARA San Juan and ARA Santa Cruz), SubMayRine 2026 shifts to the United States Navy for Week 2 with the largest submarine MOC in the entire Bobby Brix catalogue to date!

The USS Los Angeles (SSN-688) is the lead boat of her class: the most numerous nuclear attack submarine class ever built, and one of the most recognisable submarine silhouettes in the world.

This is also the largest and most piece-intensive submarine the Bobby Brix collection has produced at the 1:260 scale, a benchmark that reflects how much bigger the real Los Angeles class is compared to the diesel-electric submarines that have featured in SubMayRine in previous years.

The Los Angeles Class: America's Most Prolific Attack Submarine

The Los Angeles class, also designated the 688 class after the hull number of the lead vessel, is a series of nuclear-powered fast attack submarines operated by the United States Navy. Development began in 1967 as a response to Soviet submarine technology. The class succeeded the Sturgeon class and was designed with increased speed and stealth to maintain pace with carrier battle groups.

USS Los Angeles Stock Image.
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=503842

A total of 62 were built from 1972 to 1996, the latter 23 to an improved 688i standard. The class consists of three production flights. Flight I vessels established the baseline design (the USS Los Angeles included). Flight II introduced a dedicated vertical launch system (VLS) for cruise missiles and an updated reactor core. The final group, designated 688i, featured noise-reduction technology and relocated diving planes from the sail to the bow to facilitate under-ice operations.

Powered by a S6G nuclear reactor, the submarine achieves speeds exceeding 30 knots underwater with near-limitless range. Armed with four 533 mm torpedo tubes, the SSN-688 can launch Mk 48 ADCAP torpedoes, Harpoon anti-ship missiles, and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles. As of 2025, 23 of the Los Angeles class remain in commission, and they account for almost half of the U.S. Navy's 50 fast-attack submarines.

This class transitioned the naming convention for attack submarines from marine life to American cities. The class has been featured prominently in numerous Tom Clancy literary works and film adaptations, most notably USS Dallas in The Hunt for Red October.

But for many people, the Los Angeles class is simply what a nuclear attack submarine looks like. A long, smooth teardrop hull and distinctive sail shape that became the defining image of American underwater power since the Cold War.

The Lead Boat: USS Los Angeles (SSN-688)

The USS Los Angeles (SSN-688) was laid down on 8 January 1972 at General Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut, launched on 6 April 1974, and commissioned on 13 November 1976. She hosted President Jimmy Carter and the First Lady on 27 May 1977 for an at-sea demonstration of her capabilities. Carter, himself a submarine veteran, was reportedly in good form throughout, when asked by a reporter if he suffered from claustrophobia, he quipped: "Only when you news people are around."

In 1978, she transferred to the Pacific Fleet and was assigned to Submarine Squadron 7, homeported in Pearl Harbor. She conducted 17 Pacific deployments over the next 32 years and earned eight Meritorious Unit Citations and a Navy Unit Citation. In 1999, Los Angeles was modified to carry a Dry Deck Shelter, adding special forces delivery to her already broad capability set.

In 2007 she was the oldest submarine in active service with the United States Navy. Los Angeles was inactivated on 1 February 2010 and decommissioned on 4 February 2011, having served 35 years, a remarkable operational life for a nuclear attack submarine.

The wardroom tradition of passing Richard O'Kane's personal cribbage board to the next oldest boat in the fleet, started aboard Los Angeles and continues in the US Navy to this day.

The Bobby Brix LEGO USS Los Angeles MOC

The Bobby Brix LEGO USS Los Angeles MOC is built to the same 1:260 scale used across the submarine collection, making it directly comparable to (and displayable) alongside the ARA San Juan, ARA Santa Cruz, and other boats in the SubMayRine series.

At this scale, the real vessel's length of approximately 110 m / 360 ft translates into a model 42.1 cm / 16.6″ long, making it the longest and most complex submarine MOC in the Bobby Brix catalogue to date!

The greater size of the Los Angeles class compared to the diesel-electric submarines that have featured in previous SubMayRine events is directly reflected in the piece count: this MOC uses a staggering amount of pieces: about 344 to be exact. This is considerably more than the under-200-piece TR-1700 class models from Week 1. The extra pieces go into the length of the hull, the detail of the conning tower, and the structural techniques used to keep the model solid at this size.

Design & Build Notes

The Los Angeles-class hull is one of the more challenging submarine silhouettes to recreate in LEGO at microscale (at this point it's more mini-scale in fact than micro). The real vessel has an almost perfect teardrop cross-section: a wide, smoothly tapered cylinder, which doesn't map quite naturally onto the rectangular geometry of LEGO bricks. Ugh, yet another challenge in making round things with square things...

At 1:260 scale the model has a beam of 4.5 cm / 1.8″, and keeping that cross-section consistent and solid along a 42.1 cm hull required a specific approach to the internal structure. Feast your eyes upon this amalgamation of SNOT engineering: 

The core of the model uses a solid SNOT-built internal structure (Studs Not On Top) techniques that allow bricks to be oriented in multiple directions to fill the hull form. To reduce gaps and remove redundant SNOT complexity, 2×2 round bricks are used as fillers throughout the interior. The model also makes extensive use of the "Brick Special 1×2×1 2/3 with 4 Studs on 1 Side" LEGO piece a mind-blowingly versatile side-studded element that appears in a large quantity in this build and is key to achieving the smooth exterior profile at this scale.

The only cost of this technique is that there is no interior. This build prioritizes structural integrity and exterior accuracy over internal detail. At 1:260 scale, a hollow hull would compromise the rigidity of a model this long, and the visual result of a solid, cleanly surfaced exterior is significantly stronger than a fragile shell.

The conning tower is the most detailed element of the build. It includes two periscopes, one of the distinctive visual features of the real SSN-688's sail and captures the proportions of the Los Angeles-class sail more faithfully than would be possible at a smaller scale. Blueprints were, of course, used as reference material throughout the design process, though a small margin of error in length and overall dimensions is unavoidable given brick geometry constraints.

The display stand version, available exclusively through the Bobby Brix store, allows you to display the model the same way you can with the previous 1:260 scaled submarine LEGO MOCs designed by BOBBY BRIX.

What's Included in the Building Instructions

Both versions include a full step-by-step PDF building guide and XML and CSV parts lists for sourcing via BrickLink or Rebrickable. The submarine-only version is the baseline build at 344 pieces. The submarine with display stand version adds the dedicated stand and is available exclusively through this store, it is not available on Rebrickable or other platforms.

Given the piece count and hull length of this model, it is recommended to complete the digital parts sourcing using the included XML or CSV file before starting the build.

If you are new to sourcing MOC parts, the Bobby Brix guide to buying parts using XML and CSV files walks through the full process step by step.

Who Is This For?

The Bobby Brix LEGO USS Los Angeles MOC is the next step for anyone building a 1:260 scale submarine collection. Being the largest model the collection has produced at this scale, it's a great challenge to build and explore the real submarine at the same time.

It's a strong fit for LEGO naval and submarine MOC builders, fans of Cold War and modern US Navy history, The Hunt for Red October readers and naval fiction enthusiasts, and anyone who wants to own a faithful brick-built tribute to the submarine class that defined American underwater power for half a century.

But that's not all! Future Los Angeles-class releases may follow in the future! Potentially these next MOCs will cover other flight variants rather than all 62 boats, so this model may also be the first in a growing US Navy attack submarine sub-series within the Bobby Brix collection. 

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