With BrickCon coming, I’m sure many are interested in creating vehicles for the Zombie Apocalypse display. If you like what we’ve featured in the past, you should check out Jordan Neves‘ article on how to make your own unique and original apocafied vehicle.
By the way, I recommend Jordan’s blog as a supplement to foster a well-rounded knowledge of the LEGO community.
BrickCon 2009 starts in exactly two months. That means it’s time to start getting down to details on all the collaborative displays being planned for the con, starting with our very own Zombie Apocafest 2009. (We’ll be doing a roundup about all the other displays soon.)
Like last year’s zombie apocalypse display, Zombie Apocafest is sponsored and organized by The Brothers Brick, with additional sponsorship from the generous humans at BrickArms. Look for more information about prizes and giveaways here on the blog between now and the con.
Got builder’s block? Not sure what the heck we mean by “apocafied”? Unsure what the standards are? Read on…
There’s plenty of inspiration for your LEGO creations to be found in movies like George A. Romero’s Living Dead series, the hilarious Shaun of the Dead
Personally, music inspires a lot of my LEGO building. Here’s my personal soundtrack, heavy on metal and light on funny novelty songs. Hey, this is serious stuff! Also, the only convergence of AC/DC, W.B. Yeats, zombies, and LEGO in the history of the human race.
Zombie literature and films are full of social commentary — a dystopian reflection of our present or near future. In other words, the real world we all live in is unfortunately full of examples of the things survivors would encounter in a zombie apocalypse.
Improvised fighting vehicles — civilian or non-combat military vehicles with armor plating and weapons systems tacked on — are the archetype for the chained-up, cage-encased, spiky bad boys we all know and love from our favorite ApocaLEGO builders.
Not cool in real life, but good against zombies.
Finally, here are a few ideas we’ve had at The Brothers Brick — we can’t possibly build them all ourselves in the next two months.
As silly as it probably sounds, realism is one of our primary goals for this display. What would it look like if zombie minifigs invaded the Town display?
No giant robots to sweep through the streets, no deus ex machina with laser cannons and railguns.
Buildings follow the “Cafe Corner standard”:
Vehicles should be minifig-scale, though look for details about opportunities to build zombie apocalypse vehicles at other LEGO scales in September.
For the Zombie Apocafest display, though, most vehicles should probably be in the 4 to 10-stud-wide range (construction vehicles excluded).
Remember, the Zombie Apocafest display is only open to registered attendees of BrickCon. We won’t be able to accept contributions or drop-offs from the general public.
Doors open on Thursday morning at 9:00 AM on October 1. I’ll be there with Thanel soon afterward, helping out with the con in general, and keeping an eye on early additions to the display. The man, the myth, the legend, LEGOLAND Master Model Maker Gary McIntire has generously agreed to add his artistic vision and organizational skills to the display, so look for him as well.
We’ll give out prizes on Saturday night (or whenever the rest of the prizes are awarded). There will also be giveaways aplenty again this year. However, quantities of each item will be limited, and we’ll give them out with fairly specific requirements. We hope everybody leaves BrickCon with something, though.
As a reminder, here are the four prize categories:
Okay, enough reading. Get building!
Nick Crocco (Steam Pirate) is taking the apocafication of official LEGO sets to great heights.
An armored city bus emerges from 7641 City Corner.
Nick replaces the stickers on the truck in 7733 Truck & Forklift with Space Police III stickers of the same underlying design.
I think it’s awesome that the LEGO designers took an existing LEGO City design and essentially apocafied it themselves for Space Police III. And it was brilliant of Nick to notice.
Of course, it looks like Nick could use some more zombies. Fortunately, we’ll have plenty available at BrickCon.
Mysterious viruses and radiation exposure aren’t the only ways to start a zombie outbreak. Muffinmanifestation suggests that what we’re pouring into our lakes and streams might have a little something to do with the coming zombie onslaught.
With the outbreak underway, the soldiers who discovered Ground Zero try to make it back to base.
A common criticism of ApocaLEGO creations is that they’re all shades of brown or gray — believable colors for many apocalyptic scenarios, but not necessarily for the zombie apocalypse. With that in mind, I’ve added a few more colorful creations to my fleet of zombie-hunting vehicles.
The big red vehicle is an apocafied version of my S&S/TATRA Wildland Ultra XT fire engine, while the light blue car should be familiar to fans of a certain boy wizard.
The requisite back story for the blue car:
A trio of intrepid survivors convert an old Ford Anglia into a zombie defense platform — complete with Browning M2 .50 Caliber machine gun and M134 Minigun requisitioned from an abandoned Army base. The flamethrower is apparently homemade.
Of course, these particular survivors have a few extra tricks up their sleeves. Other survivors say that the color of the fire from their flame thrower "just ain’t right." They can also be heard to exclaim "Incendio Cranium!" as they charge into a horde of zombies.
Like the green and white camper, the Ford Anglia is an example of an apocafied official set, one of the categories you can win prizes in during Zombie Apocafest 2009 this October at BrickCon.
I had so much fun with the little pink Vespa leading the charge that I had to build her a gang of zombie-hunting comrades.
The girls are riding scooters from BrickForge designed by Arealight, with custom weapons from BrickArms (including several new prototypes).
Artist Brian Colin recently painted a series of small canvases featuring LEGO zombies. Gotta love that Classic Space zombie leading the horde.
Perhaps not the thing to hang in your baby’s nursery, but awesome on so many levels that I wanted to pick up a couple myself. Sadly, I was vetoed by my wife. The good news is that I’ve picked up a couple as prizes for Zombie Apocafest 2009.
Via Boing Boing.
Kevin Fedde (Crimson Wolf) knows that things are a bit safer in northern climes during a zombie outbreak.
I really like the contrast between the grey police station and the tan restaurant. The LEGO Universe panel on the top of the building is also a great detail.
UPDATE: Planning is now underway for the next Zombie Apocafest. Read all about it in our Zombie Apocafest 2009 strategy, tactics, & logistics post.
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The LEGO convention season is upon us, and BrickCon 2009 is just over four months away — time to start planning your trip and what you’re going to build. Likewise, it’s time to start planning collaborative displays.
With a successful Zombie Apocafest 2008 under our belts, we at The Brothers Brick are pleased to announce Zombie Apocafest 2009.
To celebrate this announcement and as an example of one of our new prize categories, I’ve turned 7639 Camper into a mobile zombie defense platform.
This year, we’re splitting up the prizes into four categories:
There are still many details to iron out, and we’re definitely open to suggestions. What kind of overall theme would you like to build toward? If you were there, what worked last year? What didn’t? Let us know in the comments.
The Big Toy Hut’s LEGO Zombie Contest includes some great entries so far, like this scene in a movie theater by Gettobread:
The theater itself includes excellent details, from Bruce Lee smashing through a wall to Snake Plisskin looking ready to escape New York.
Check out the rest of the entries on Flickr. If you want to enter yourself, there’s not much time left — you have until April 21 to build and post a completely new LEGO zombie creation.
Is it too early to mention Zombie Apocafest 2009 yet?
Well, not in the sense that I want them to eat my minifigs’ brains (well, perhaps some of them), but in the sense that zombies make pretty much anything cooler.
The guys from The Big Toy Hut have put together a batch of minifigs inspired by the zombie megafigs by Andrew Bell:
While we’re at it, here are a couple of really cool Joker minifigs from Dark Knight:
Zombie Apocafest 2008 just wrapped up at BrickCon, and I spent about an hour taking pictures.
Front and center in the display was Ryan Wood‘s beautiful watchtower:
Josh, Nannan, and I awarded “Best Zombified Building” to Paul Hetherington‘s “Casa Baron”:
Paul’s building has a full interior, including comfy chairs and a working elevator. We loved the art deco details, many of which incorporate organic shapes:
The similarly unanimous choice for “Best Zombified Vehicle” was Andrew Lee‘s awesome truck:
In addition to the Zombie Defense Weapons Packs donated by BrickArms, the good people at Valve (the studio that brought us Half-Life and Portal) sent along a bunch of Left 4 Dead T-shirts and a great billboard:
Valve even invited a bunch of people to tour the Valve office on Friday night, where Lonnon Foster posed with Gordan Freeman (photo by Don Solo):
The LEGO zombie display wouldn’t have been possible without the organizational genius of LEGOLAND California model maker Gary McIntire — who even spent the plane ride up to Seattle creating custom zombie heads.
At least 35 participants contributed nearly 30 original buildings, dozens of vehicles, and hundreds of minifig zombies and survivors.
LEGO Certified Professional Dan Parker contributed a super-detailed mall, complete with a LEGO Store, baby store, Spencer’s Gifts, and food court:
Will there be a Zombie Apocafest 2009? Undoubtedly.
In the meantime, check out the full Zombie Apocafest 2008 photoset on Flickr.
Update: Zombie Apocafest 2008 is now over, and it was awesome. Don’t miss our full coverage here on The Brothers Brick:
BrickCon 2008 is less than a month away. The list of attendees is growing, and it’s starting to look like this will be the first 200-attendee BrickCon!
Today and tomorrow are your very last chance to register at the $50 price (registration goes up to $60 on Tuesday, September 8), and the last window of opportunity to guarantee your personalized brick badge engraved by Brick Engraver.
Plans for group projects at BrickCon 2008 are well underway, with lots of progress on the Zombie Apocafest and ChiefLUG Initiation.
To sweeten the deal, The Brothers Brick will be handing out some cool prizes and giveaways:
If you’re worried that you don’t have any LEGO zombies — don’t sweat it. We’ve got you covered with a horde of at least 80 zombies. :twisted:
And for those of you who can’t make it in person this year, there’s still the GO MINIMAN GO Photo Contest with even more prizes! The contest is open to everyone over 18 worldwide, and entries are already stacking up in the GO MINIMAN GO photo pool, so take a look at the rules and try your hand at a scene inspired by the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, or 2000s.