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…

A monument to the old world

There is a strange beauty in decaying industrial architecture, with chipping paint, broken metal supports and collapsing concrete walls everywhere. Or maybe I am just nostalgic for apocalyptic LEGO creations that used to be all the rage when I discovered the online community. Whichever is the case, Exetrius has hit the nail on the head for me with this ruined communication tower.

Ruined Communication Tower - mainCommunication tower

Sand green is the perfect colour to make a creation like this, and combined with dark gray and limited splashes of colour it makes for a beautifully bleak colour scheme. This is further facilitated by great textures of disuse and weathering. The tower is 120 cenimeters tall (47 in.), a task made easy by using train tracks for its main segment. Everybody who uses train tracks in unique ways is awesome!

Communication tower

What’s not to love about a post-apocalyptic toxic wasteland?

Bleecker Street never looked so bleak in this delightfully dreary scene built by Sanel Lukovic, part of a collaborative build presented at Bricking Bavaria in Munich with friends Robert Maier and Jonas Obermaier. Simply titled Apoca, it has a lovely rustic, decaying motif. Broken windows throughout the dilapidated building contrast with the charming copper oxide green Vespa, while overgrown weeds and cluttered wreckage cover cracks in the pavement. And nothing screams post-apocalyptic like respiratory equipment being worn by the armed and dangerous-looking dudes surveying the badlands.

Apoca

Who doesn’t love zombies?

After watching The Walking Dead, most people have trouble sleeping. Jonas Kramm must have had a bit of insomnia too, as he had to build something from the TV series out of LEGO. I like how Hershal and the rest of the undead-fighting underdogs get to cultivate some small fields and hold pigs while keeping the area safe from walkers. The Tower looks just like the real thing, and the detailed plants and garden look beautiful — I love the little wheelbarrow. Using Technic wiring and minifig hands as the barbed wire fence was a touch of genius, and using it to hold up the LEGO cargo net as the fence is a masterstroke. It is certainly holding up well against the zombie hordes.

The Walking Dead - Prison

Rocketing up to a new home in the sky

There’s definitely a creepy feel to this microscale LEGO scene — it seems that a little extraterrestrial tourism has led to a sudden drop in the population, as if something untoward has left a rather full looking graveyard on the ground and a large ‘not of this world’ city in the sky. Kale Frost has left the exact history of events to our own imaginations, but the title “After the Martians Came” suggests a post-apocalyptic exodus from Earth. I love the use of the stud shooter trigger for the headstones in the graveyard, and Rocket Boy’s rocket outfit gives a nice retro 1960s film feel to the scene.

After the Martians Came

A closer look at the ground shows that a surprising number of parts have been utilised to make this microscale scene. The street lamp is cute and the damage to the streets is another sign that all is not well in town.

Graveyards and rockets

Mad, bad, and dangerous to drive

Mad Max: Fury Road was home to some incredible vehicle designs. We’ve seen a couple of great LEGO renditions previously, including the mighty Doof Wagon and the Gigahorse. Jonas Kramm takes inspiration from the movie with an instantly recognizable model. The build captures the look perfectly — a rusty run-down hot rod, bedecked with over-the-top spikes of questionable practical value. The best part? The front wheels’ shock absorbers, made from springs taken from official LEGO pens.

Mad Max | Plymouth Rock

A mech built to scavenge for his existence

Can you picture this mech wandering across a post-apocalyptic wasteland scavenging for parts and power? Bregma Nicle has built a scavenger mech called Bad Diesel who packs plenty of attitude and more than a little intimidation into his bulky frame. I love the breathing apparatus and his ridiculously oversized weapon system. There are a host of scavenged parts that help to emphasise his hunter-gatherer nature, for example the “lobster  sighting device” on the weapon or the round light tiles from the racing buggy sets as goggles.

BADDIESEL

You can see more of his scavenged equipment on show with his weapons system dismounted and on display. Bad Diesel has plenty of pose-ability despite those thunderous thighs and heavy armour.

BADDIESEL

Zed gets taken to the curb like the trash that he is

It feels like years since we’ve featured brightly colored zombie-fighting vehicles, so I’m rather pleased by this “apocafied” garbage truck built by Guy Smiley. Not only do all the great post-apocalyptic add-ons work wonderfully — the slatted front windscreen, the spikes, gun turret, and roof rack with sun shade — the underlying truck is excellent, particularly the trash can lift mechanism.

Zombie Trasher

Guy says he built this for a zombie-themed contest, so I hope we see more excellent vehicles like this in the coming weeks, though Guy has certainly set the bar high for other builders!

When the zombies come, a damp cellar is like a palace

While not luxurious, it is definetely the desire of any apocalypse survivor to find somewhere like this cellar to hunker down. This particular “palace” by Gareth Gidman was built for the Brrraaaaaaaiiiiinnnssss!!! contest on Eurobricks. The cellar section looks very lived-in, with weapons and sustenance positioned so it looks filled, but not cluttered. I should point out the use of broken tiles; while not purist, it is good that the builder found a way to still use his ruined pieces. On the ground level we see some well-built decay with a broken window, overgrowth, and cracks in the walls. Some nice minifig action makes for a well-rounded scene.

The Hideout

(As a side note, I have seen brown pieces break much more often than other colours, and seeing Gareth’s broken brown tiles, I am more convinced that this is statistically relevant.)

Smashing LEGO like a Rock Star: a conversation with Canadian Iron Builder, Tim Schwalfenberg [Interview]

This week we headed up to our great neighbor to the north to track down Tim Schwalfenberg. Tim lives in Canada, is 21 years old and is currently studying Materials Engineering at his local university. He also likes to publicly smash his LEGO builds too, but more about that later.

TimSchwalfenberg

TBB: Hi Tim! Can you tell us a little about yourself and your relationship with the Brick?

Tim: Sure! I have found LEGO to be a great creative outlet when I need a break from all my calculus or physics courses. While I’ve been building almost as long as I can remember, it wasn’t until my first year of university that I started to look at LEGO with the intention of making anything beyond the rainbow-warrior spaceships of my earlier years. Through a combination of some inspiring creations I stumbled upon through MOCpages and finding myself with too much free time on my hands, I decided that to try out this LEGO thing more seriously. Thousands of pieces and hundreds of creations later the LEGO hobby has become an incredibly important part of my life. The itch to build has become a constant companion that is easily rewarded by long hours tinkering away on a table-scrap covered table.

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Massive LEGO diorama of The Last of Us built from 20,000 bricks is a thing of haunting beauty

If you haven’t heard of The Last of Us, it’s a third-person action-adventure survival horror game set twenty years after a plague decimated civilization. Tim Schwalfenberg has captured the tone of the game perfectly with this tribute, including anti-hero smuggler Joel, as he escorts teenager Ellie through the post-apocalyptic United States.

The Last of Us

Tim worked on the build for around a month, putting in well over 100 hours, He estimates he used around 20,000 bricks (although I think it may be more). Measuring 3.5 by 2 feet (100cm x 60 cm) and featuring custom 3D printed bricks this masterpiece is a thing of decrepit beauty.

See more photos of this beautifully haunting build

Beware the marauders as you scour the wasteland for supplies

Tiny Turbos were a series of 4-wide vehicles LEGO released between 2005 and 2011, but they have lived on as a popular style of custom LEGO creation. Jonas Obermaier has been building some great custom Tiny Turbos, and this latest showcases some great details, from the overpowered engine to the large machine gun and spiky rear wheels — a perfect vehicle to raid the Bullet Farm. The presentation is also excellent, with stunted sticks surrounding a warning sign on an otherwise blank tan base.

Wasteland Marauder

If you like Jonas’s post-apocalyptic truck, we expect you’ll love his LEGO Red Rocket truck stop from Fallout 4.

The house at the end of the world

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been playing a ridiculous amount of Fallout Shelter on my iPhone while riding the bus to and from work. Just as I was thinking it was time to move on to something else, the developers added quests this week that let you guide your vault dwellers as they explore locations beyond the confines of your underground world. This dilapidated house by Joshua Brooks looks exactly like the sort of place I’d send a trio of my strongest dwellers into to find legendary crafting items.

A Remnant of Society

Joshua has included a vehicle for his survivors to get around in, which is more than can be said for my poor dwellers who have to walk everywhere across the wasteland. Here’s hoping that green tank has some gas they can siphon out. The cheese slope roof is lovely, with great cracks in the building’s walls. The house also has a full interior, with reminders of a better world destroyed by a human race gone mad.

Inside the Farmhouse,