From Star Wars to Harry Potter to Marvel Superheroes, the expansive world of LEGO has meshed incredibly well with that of video games over the years. However, one game that may seem like an odd match for the LEGO world, and yet it has been garnering a lot of attention over the last couple of days, is Naughty Dog’s critically acclaimed game, The Last of Us.
Despite the seemingly odd combination of LEGO and a post-apocalyptic world, that did not deter Tim Schwalfenberg from creating a LEGO build modeled after the 2013 Naughty Dog title. Schwalfenberg posted his creations on Flickr, and soon the posts of his diorama collected praise from within the LEGO community.
The diorama is carefully modeled after an entire city street from the game. It even displays the interiors and exteriors of several buildings, with grass that looks overgrown and cobblestone streets that appear to be cracked. In addition to it being exceptionally well-crafted, the diorama captures the dark mood and bleak atmosphere that is present throughout much of the world in The Last of Us. Schwalfenberg also succeeded by including the small, bricked figures of Ellie and Joel into his creation. The authentic look of the buildings comes from the use of custom 3-D printed pieces, which helped to give the exterior a lot more texture.
Schwalfenberg explains that it took a month to build the model and roughly one-hundred hours of hard work. In the end, the diorama required nearly 20,000 connectable bricks.
While Schwalfenberg’s work is indeed remarkable, fans of The Last of Us probably should not be holding their breath for Joel and Ellie to make an appearance in LEGO form any time soon. Naughty Dog has other plans for the franchise, namely working on The Last of Us Part II.