Tag Archives: ApocaLEGO

Zombie hordes, nuclear annihilation, rising sea levels, the monkeypox — the future doesn’t look too bright for all those smiling LEGO minifigs. But survivors abound in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, entrenched in well-guarded camps or on the road in crazy armored contraptions. Check out all these post-apoc models to see that there is indeed hope for LEGO humanity after all…

Moving house – post-apocalypse style

Post-Apocalypse or “ApocaLEGO” is a LEGO building theme which can see more dull brown and grey creations than the most boilerplate of steampunk. Here’s a glorious exception to the rule by Rat Dude: an imaginative take on the genre which sees enterprising survivors build a moveable dwelling out of transport containers and a truck — like some mobile version of the stacks from Ready Player One. Revelling in its central idea, this model is gloriously detailed, festooned with every likely requirement of the wasteland warrior catered for — solar power, fresh water, air con, a vegetable garden, and even an outhouse for the effective disposal of waste!

Post Apocalypse LEGO crate house

This thing is well worth a closer look, and the builder has provided some imagery of various angles. Great attention to detail on the model — just look at all the little touches that have been crammed into it. This layer upon layer of detail has created an engaging model within a building theme that usually leaves me cold. I can’t imagine a better ride in which to tour our dystopian future.

Post Apocalypse LEGO crate house

A well-stocked wasteland workshop

If Santa and his elves survived the apocalypse, they would do very well for themselves in an outpost like this, built by Tony Toy. Without a landscape to define its locale, it would be equally at home on the edge of a toxic ocean, or the top of a rugged mountain peak. Besides a number of industrial details like an abundance of pipes going here and there, a tower crane for servicing what could be a submersible, or a drone, and a machine shop for working on a well armored truck, there is a thoughtful inclusion of alternate colored plates and bricks to lend a well-weathered look to the walls. I also like the way that Tony has crafted modules with subtly curved ridges to give the outpost a stacked, cobbled together look.

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See more details of this highly detailed post-apocalpytic workshop

A cold cellar in a hot desert

Either I was more exposed to post-apocalyptic LEGO creations or they were actually more common back when I joined the LEGO community nearly a decade ago, but this theme always brings back memories of immersive scenes filled with danger and adventure. Zombies, bunkers, bullet holes and toxic waste — what else does one need? The seemingly simple theme actually hides limitless potential — if the whole world went down, there are a lot of locations to build, and James Libby chose to show us a desert.

Cement Oasis

The main feature of the scene is the cutout showing an underground survival bunker including some utilitarian furniture, and of course weapons. The top has some nice details too, the best and the most subtle one being the little wall around the trap door, which has just the slightest tilt to it. What I like the most though is the tan border. The texture adds depth, while the stylish cutout and the skeleton “buried” in the sand create an atmosphere reminiscent of a comic panel.

Maschinen Krieger “CAMEL” walker stomps onto the post-apocalyptic battlefield

Every October, LEGO builders assemble their bricks for Ma.Ktober, a build challenge inspired by the 1980’s Japanese plastic models Maschinen Krieger. Chris Perron‘s contribution this year combines an old-style Dewback body with a bubble canopy and some rather ingenious parts usage for greebly bits on its legs, including crutches as struts. The sponson-mounted cannons are also an excellent touch.

CAMEL

The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth

A man built a thing. He had a name, in those long-before times when salmon ran in the streams like silver clouds in the moonlight and people went about their business in great cities gleaming with glass as yet unmelted by fires from the sky. His name was Patrick B. The thing he built was built from bricks and told a story. A story about a man and his child a boy. That story was first told by a man named Cormac McCarthy in a book called The Road. A book is a thing made of trees but you cant eat it like you can bark and leaves and the little stems that try to push their way toward the darkened sky at the end of the months of snow. This thing this story these bricks by the man Patrick show the man and the boy as they walk long miles along long roads to the sea. It is a thing to behold. A thing you cant look away from.

The Road

Surviving the apocalypse is all about a well-provisioned outpost

When it comes to post-apocalyptic LEGO creations, there is a vast selection of sub-genres that builders are inspired by, from cyber-punk, to wasteland survival, to monster/zombie/alien-infested worlds… and so many more. This scene by LegoFin. is set in a world where massive flooding and pollution have forced survivors to carve out a life among the crumbling remains of cities.

CyberPunk 2046: Shells of Society

Aside from some very well-textured and very broken walls, I especially like the use of black bars throughout the structure for re-bar. This creates an even greater sense of danger and hostility in the environment. One missable detail is that the entire outpost is supported by a few small supports precariously balanced over the water. Then there’s all those utilitarian details like the radio tower, weather vane, and solar panels that complete the scene very nicely.

This survivor of the apocalypse is not clowning around

Creating a street scene with real character is all about the details – big and small. And when it comes to post-apocalyptic scenes, like this street scene by Jan T. the best details are in the destruction and erosion of man-made structures as nature re-claims what is hers. I’m not sure how I feel about the clown. Either it would freak the heck out of me if I were to encounter him on the street, or it would bring a smile to my face, and we would share a laugh as we scrounged for supplies.

Nuke York

There are so many great parts used in this scene and one of my favorites is the use of the twisty stem surrounding the large leaf plant part that most of us just throw away. You can find these used as vines flowing in and out of the buildings. Then there is the mini-fig back brackets used to create a lovely architectural detail above the door on the left building. The broken walls and windows are also quite nice.

Living the dystopian dream

Ah, to get away from it all — just pack up your trailer and head out of town. Well, according to LegoFin in 2046 you might just end up living in one of these dystopian suburbs. A collage of jumbled junk, all of course expertly built, from the resourceful layering of dishes to create the defunct electrical transformers, to the lovingly detailed generator out back.

CyberPunk 2046: Trailer Life

The caravan’s design uses some cleverly arranged slopes, giving it its distinctive shape; a real home from home, it’s got everything you need… well, alright it has a bucket. Still, if you do get lonely, there’s always that suspicious-looking drone to keep you company.

A new beauty born from a new beauty born from decay

Château Nottebohm is an abandoned mansion in Belgium, and while it may not be the only one of its kind, there has to be something special about it to inspire Marion to build it in LEGO not once, but twice! Abandoned buildings are an acquired taste, but even if we would not all agree they are beautiful, decades of disuse have granted the mansion an aura of mystery and the impression of nature reclaiming what man has taken.

Château Nottebohm.01

This amazing creation really rewards a closer look, so click here to see more!

Fort Knowhere, a cozy spot to live out the end of civilization

Who doesn’t love a good post-apocalyptic scene? This outpost by Sebastian Bachórzewski has pretty much anything a gang of war-hardened survivors could want or need to hunker down and weather the storm. Personally, this fenced compound reminded me of the Road Warrior, with its eclectic mix of barriers, ramshackle buildings, and broken vehicles. One of my favorite features is the use of so many minifig hands to top the fence.

Fort Knowhere

This alternate view shows off some more great details.

Fort Knowhere

The ruinous beauty of an earthquake captured in a huge LEGO diorama

At first glance, this ruined city may look a little like a classic post-apocalyptic zombie scenario (like the stunning scene from The Last of Us) but this build by Ralf Langer actually represents an apocalypse of a more realistic and consequentially more threatening type: a devastating earthquake. Admittedly though, the two are visually very similar, zombies and sci-fi gear aside.

BrokenHome

The diorama is huge, but Ralf does not merely rely on size to impress. Instead, he makes textures and details so fine that they would make a tiny vignette worth drooling over, let alone a diorama with a surface that could fit a hundred such vignettes. The different angles at which many surfaces of the diorama are set give a very dynamic and organic feeling, and the builder has done it so well, it almost looks like it’s not LEGO. The colours used are perfect too, with various earth tones and realistic colours on the buildings.

Click to see some close-up pictures and a few techniques behind the builds!

The bounty hunter in a slice of desert

This scene of a bounty hunter — either in a post-apocalyptic setting or he’s just a really weird guy in a poncho — with his motorbike seems to have everything a good LEGO creation needs: It’s built well, with obvious focus on the awesome motorbike, but it doesn’t end there. The lighting, photography and composition are all top-notch. The builder, Sad Brick obviously knows exactly what they are doing.

Bounty Hunter

The different textures on the ground make for a strong contrast even though it is all the same colour. There is just enough vegetation in nearly dead colours to sell the scene as a realistic slice of desert, with a bovine skull and other details to bring it all together.