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.
BrickCon is just around the corner. In fact, if you don’t register before September 8th, the price goes up to $60 and you won’t be guaranteed personalized stuff like engraved brick badges.
My contribution to the LEGO Zombie Apocafest display we’re organizing is an auto repair shop and a fire station in a diorama that I’m currently calling “The Outbreak”:
Zombies converge on the residents of my modular buildings as they attempt to fight back. The architecture may have been the focus of my building energies for once, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t neglected some good, old-fashioned minifig action:
Please see my Outbreak photoset on Flickr for a ton of pictures.
In Kristian‘s imagination, aliens are rather clumsy while landing their flying saucers and aren’t especially known for their hygiene:
The slime is rather amusing, and I can’t help but chuckle at the poor guy who didn’t manage to get out from under the saucer’s landing gear.
While we’re at it, here’s the sort of great zombie scene we’re encouraging Brothers Brick readers to bring to the LEGO Zombie Apocafest at BrickCon in October:
(And true to his “birdboykristian” user name on Flickr, Kristian also has some really great ornithological photography in his photostream as well.)
Rocko reveals another LEGO creation he’ll be bringing to BrickCon in a couple of months. This modular building is Rocko’s contribution to our LEGO Zombie Apocafest:
Don’t miss Rocko’s Brickshelf gallery for lots more details.
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:
(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!
So, after the zombie apocalypse, when humanity as we know it has ceased to exist, what do the victorious undead do? Kick up their heels in a gentlemen’s club, of course!
(The walking dead are simply pretending to be mindless drones as they tear apart our civilization. Clearly, once we’re out of the way, they’re capable of building a glorious society, as this diorama proves.)
What’s better than having your truck broken down in the middle of the desert? Why, with a horde of zombies of course! Justin Vaughn conjures a swarm of zombies attacking a truck on a desert highway. Check out Zombie Hunt.
Nice salt shaker! Ran out of white paper? ;)
I’ve been busy building my own ApocaLEGO minifigs (to be followed at some point by vehicles and/or dioramas), so I’m rather behind on cool new ApocaLEGO that needs to be blogged.
In reverse chronological order (I think), Mark Stafford gets things going with “Oakwood Avenue: After the Zombie Apocalypse”:
Here’s “Post-apoc road battle” by Shadow Viking:
Alex Eylar combines steampunk and ApocaLEGO for his diorama, “Jekyll vs Hyde” (don’t miss his older Zombie Apocalypse):
Finally (and very belatedly), Bronson‘s excellent “Hellbringer”:
I like it when Moko gets on a minifig-building kick. From Final Fantasy characters (separate post coming up in a minute) to minifigs of his own design, Moko is a highly original builder.
A couple of cyborgs:
An awesome villainous minifig with what appears to be a giant mechanical hand:
Some goblins and zombies:
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