This is a must-see for fans of The Lord Of The Rings - this diorama, built from more than 150 million LEGO bricks, is simply awe-inspiring, and shows off iconic moments and locations from Middle-earth like Smaug's torching of the city of Dale to the kingdom of Gondor.
The sheer scale of the set is incomprehensible, and even the remote-controlled camera zooming over the top of the build struggles to contain the size of the sprawling diorama. It's housed inside SMAERDland in Shenzhen, which is the largest indoor children's museum in China, and comprises eight themed sections across the ginormous facility. Honestly, it's only fitting that the structure is here, as the LEGO The Lord Of The Rings line is a thing of the past, sadly. However, if this is the legacy of the themed toys, then I think we will forgive LEGO for their past transgressions.
50 designers worked tirelessly to construct the set in its entirety, and it took them three years to unveil the finished product. Impressively, it's snagged the Guinness World Record for the largest mini brick build, meaning that all of these individual bricks interlock to form one continuous set. The effort that went into ensuring that the diorama had space for all of the epic scenes and imposing buildings from Tolkien's stories must have used up a small forest in the paperwork and planning. And, could you imagine if someone's shoelaces were untied, while they carried in the coffees that morning, and then suddenly the Uruk-hai are suddenly riding a tsunami all the way down the corridor? I wonder if orcs would like surf and turf.
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There's bound to have been at least one minor disaster. Humans are only humans, and it's not like they had Radaghast on call to bring in woodland creatures to carry the teeny-tiny pieces to their place. But, those three years have led to the creation of this breath-taking set, and judging by the reception from fans, it's been worth the wait.
Rivendell's towers and walkways rise in one corner of the map, and the four official 10237 Tower of Orthanc structures mark the black-bricked fortress, surrounded by "lava". And, with countless figurines representing armies of factions like the Uruk-Hai, Rohan, and Gondor, it makes me think that a remake of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy using LEGO characters isn't so outlandish, actually.
Topics: News, The Lord Of The Rings