Update: Zombie Apocafest 2008 went off smashingly at BrickCon 2008, October 2-5. Don’t miss our full coverage here on The Brothers Brick:
The pre-registration price for BrickCon 2008 goes up from $40 to $50 next Tuesday, August 5th. If you’re still thinking about joining Nannan, Josh, Keith, me, and lots of other Brothers Brick readers in Seattle this October, now’s the time to register!
If you’re still on the fence, here are a couple building challenges and contests to whet your appetite.
ChiefLUG Initiation
ChiefLUG will be extending initiation to anybody who builds a LEGO Viper from Battlestar Galactica. Here’s what ChiefLUG founding member Ryan “Chief” Wood has to say:
ChiefLUG is a superrad group of Lego fans dedicated to veggie platters, crazy group builds, being awesome, and pretending to be half as cool as KeithLUG. You might be familiar with our work.
To join ChiefLUG, you just have to build and bring a Viper, like the one above designed by Andrew Lee (more photos). Creative color variations are encouraged.
The Brothers Brick LEGO Zombie Apocafest
Not to be outdone by some upstart KeithLUG wannabe, KeithLUG itself, or a bunch of reasonably well-adjusted Train/Town builders, we at The Brothers Brick are sponsoring the first ever large-scale LEGO Zombie Apocalypse. Think Shaun of the Dead. Imagine Max Brooks’ World War Z in LEGO.
Naturally, we’ve recruited some of our favorite twisted LEGO minds to contribute, including Rocko™ and Justin Pratt:
There will be free swag for participants, of course, including prizes in various categories (such as Best Building, Best Vehicle, or Best Minifig) the quality and quantity of which will be determined at our whim between now and October.
To make the display easy to integrate, we’re asking participants to follow the modular building standards exemplified by Cafe Corner, Green Grocer, and Market Street. Well, basically anything featured on Brick Town Talk — with a zombie twist, of course.
Since I can’t find any documentation on what the “Cafe Corner standard” is, here’s my take:
- Building stands on one or two Baseplate 16 x 32 with Square Corners.
- Two connectors on each side of the building: Technic Brick 1 x 2 with Hole placed on studs #10-11 and #22-23 (from the front of the baseplate).
- Floors can be any height (though 9 bricks high appears to be the standard).
- Curb at edge of baseplate built from 1 x n light gray tiles, and sidewalk built from dark gray tiles, seven studs from the curb to the building (curb + sidewalk = 8 studs).
- Building can be any size (though 16 x 16 or 16 x 32 appears to be the standard), built eight studs back from the front of the baseplate with an eight-stud “alley.”
(Please correct my description of the standard as necessary, and I’ll update this. I can post the standard separately too, if there’s interest.)
We’re talking about the apocalypse here, dear readers, so variations are certainly allowed. We’ll also do our best to integrate larger structures (like Justin’s bombed-out office building). We respect zombie diversity, certainly, but I really love the old Harry Potter troll as the basis for my own zombie horde.
And don’t forget survivors. And their multifarious modes of transportation.
So, if you’re coming to BrickCon, we’d love to include your contributions to The Brothers Brick LEGO Zombie Apocafest. Bring whole buildings, or partially destroyed buildings. Bring a truck. Bring just one zombie. Whatever. There’s room for one and all at the Zombie Apocafest!
Sounds like a lot of fun- any chance you can spread the zombie love to the east coast?
As another East Coaster, I’d love to get in on some of that zombie action too
Same with the two before me, and it looks like with all the buildings/scenes already coming in, it’ll be a huge brain party! :P
Thanks for the mention! Just a couple small things I’d like to add: emphasis on the Viper being *as close to Andrew Lee’s* as possible. We’re hoping for some cohesion in the look of the fleet in our display. The Vipers will be displayed in a hangar diorama, among other elements of our Galactica shrine/display :P
Also, there’s a ChiefLUG group on Flickr for coordinating everything. Many Vipers have appeared there already, with more to come!
Don’t feel too bad those who are on the east coast, you guys have BrickFair on labor day. Hailing from the south, I pay a hefty fare to attend conventions (which always happen in the north of things)
You could look at the BrickWiki article titled Modular Houses (Crap, it seems to be offline!) I think you have captured the essentials however.
LEGO Factory includes details of the standard which I used in creating the BW article.
I’m So in!
Yeah but Nanna, I live in Alabama, it’s kinda hard to get to DCfrom here without paying a load of cash… :P
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Sounds great – my only question is, are we going for a certain timeline for uniformity?
I’m picturing immediate post-outbreak (lots of running in the streets) versus 28-weeks later (survivors hunkered down, ice cream trucks with machine guns mounted). Either would be fun, I don’t know if people are planning to pick?
^ Hi Lucas! Josh and I were envisioning the display spanning the full cycle, sort of following the story of World War Z. Some of it will depend on how many modules we get — five or six and we may just want to go for immediate post-infection, but if we get 15-20, then we can try to tell the whole “story.”
See you there!
Hey Andrew, that sounds awesome. I thought I might try my hand at a mid to large sized hospital, as that is where the epicenter of most modern outbreaks will likely be :-)
^ Perfect!
So far, I’ve built a 16×32 auto-repair shop and a 32×32 fire station. I’m also going to build a 16×32 brownstone, if I have time. Rocko’s bringing the 32×32 building we featured a few days ago, Justin has a couple large sections, Josh has a building or two, and Ry has hinted at a mysterious contribution as well.
Scotty and Nannan, any sense yet of how big your contributions might be?
This is coming along nicely, with almost two months to go!
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Where exactly is brickcon?
^ From the first paragraph of this post (or the BrickCon Web site), it’s in Seattle, Washington.
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I’m heading upstairs right now to build a vehicle for the zombie display my question is whether I should get a moc card filled out for it on the BrickCon website.
Hey Aaron! Excellent. Absolutely — a MOC card would be a good idea. It’s not necessary to help the organizers plan for space (we’ve got multiple tables reserved), but it’ll let people know who built the vehicle.
(If it turns out that the MOC card gets in the way of the display — not sure how Town types usually handle these things — we’ll figure something else out to make sure everyone knows what’s what in the display.)
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