As you may or may not have realized, I have a serious soft-spot for decaying, dying things, especially if beautifully rendered in LEGO.
Zach Bean gives us this tiny, forgotten vehicle that will never drive again. Instead of passengers, only trees sit on what remains of seats. Eventually, the forest will swallow it entirely, as it will all of us.
Flickr user kumpel kante presents a gorgeous build featuring ruins (a personal favorite) of ancient civilizations, re-purposed for more nefarious uses.
There are tons of great details hidden amongst the ruins. I invite you to spend some time looking at the great architecture and sculpting he used to create this!
Oddly perhaps, one of the things I enjoyed most about the Maschinen Krieger models I built myself a couple years ago was not the hardsuits and vehicles themselves but the little bases I made to display them. Matthew Oh takes this to a whole new level with the highly detailed ruins with which he surrounds his SAFS “Wolverine” hardsuit.
Many LEGO builders take our inspiration for Ma.K models from the creations of plastic modelers both working with the original kits and scratch-building in the Ma.K universe inspired by nothing more than their imagination. The cross-section profile of Matthew’s LEGO diorama beautifully matches the aesthetic of what plastic modelers do, while retaining enough visible studs to ensure it’s abundantly evident that the model is built from LEGO. Oh, and that roof!
I particularly enjoy when a build just grows organically, after you sit down, and start putting things together. The idea just flows and in the end, you have something pretty amazing.
This particular idea started out just with the broken wall at the very back of this old, decayed manor. It grew from there, and eventually worked it’s way into what you see now.
This was a fun project for me to figure how to take something so fragile and get it safely from one corner of the country to another. So the base is entirely modular and comes apart, and the rockery can be moved around.
To see more of the decayed manor, see my flickr gallery!
This landscape diorama by Patrick Massey (MassEditor) conveys a foreboding sense of emptiness and silence. The integration of the rocks and the tiered rise of the landscape is very skillfully made.
If making a really nice modern architecture building wasn’t hard enough, Andreas has taken it one step further and decided to add unbelievably realistic damage.
The transition from clean lines to rubble is nothing short of amazing.
It is really hard to build good ruins and decent post-apoc is even harder to find these days. That is why I was happy to see this little MOC by TheCrΘw. What really jumped out at me was the detail in the walls and the broken, exposed interior structure. This is a really well-thought out little build.
Kyle Collard (Lazer Blade) displayed this beautifully crafted ruined castle at Brick Fiesta last weekend. This edited photo shows all the details of the decay and lends itself to insta-faves.
Recently the Polish LEGO club LUGPol ran a challenge to build a monochrome LEGO model. I think we can agree that Hippotam more than succeeded in meeting the challenge and making a great model with his “Destruction of Pompeii“. I’d like to see more people try building in just one colour.
It’s December 21 now in the Mayan heartland, and the apocalypse seems to have passed us by. (For the record, historians and archaeologists agree that the Maya never actually predicted the end of the world today.) What better way to celebrate than with a roundup of the best post-apocalyptic LEGO creations we’ve featured here over the years!
To give you a sense of how the genre has evolved over the years, I’m listing them in chronological order.
First up, Adrian Drake‘s “Forest Sentinel” was debuted at BrickFest in 2006 and remains one of my favorites to this day.
Tyler Clites spent the better part of 2007 building post-apocalyptic LEGO models, popularizing the brown-and-gray aesthetic that remained in effect for the next several years.
Brian Kescenovitz combined Nannan’s Black Fantasy theme with a post-apocalyptic diorama in “Ephram’s Garden” back in 2008.
See all of the best ApocaLEGO models after the jump!
Kevin Fedde (Crimson Wolf) rebuilt his original La Isla de los Tiburones and the improvements are obvious. The elevation of the tower above the rocks makes the MOC more interesting to look at.
Another entry into Classic-Castle’s Colossal Castle Contest IX, Knight Eklund shows us something serene and beautiful with this lonely tomb on a hill.
You can see more photos in his photostream, and the entry gallery on flickr.
