'Wizard of Oz' Lego re-creation has rotating tornado
The Yellow Brick Road, and thousands of other bricks, make a spectacular plastic Oz in this award-winning display from Brickworld 2013.
We've seen plenty of crazy Lego re-creations over the years, from landmark architecture to vintage computers, but we can't help but be impressed when an entire movie is redone in bricks.
That would be 1939 classic "The Wizard of Oz," which a team of 12 Lego builders has turned into a marvelous 3D plastic diorama that includes just about every scene in the film, including a rotating tornado.
The collaborators from VirtuaLUG recently showed off the result of their teamwork at Brickworld 2013 Chicago, a display of spectacular Lego builds.
VirtuaLUG has done displays including portrayals of "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Lord of the Rings." For its "Wizard of Oz" set, the 12 builders in three different countries worked on their components separately and then assembled them in Chicago.
The display, at least 10 feet long, begins with a sepia-tone re-creation of Kansas, complete with a spinning tornado carrying Dorothy's house off to Oz.
It then turns into a brightly colored array of bricks to simulate Munchkinland and the Yellow Brick Road, which leads away to show minifigs of Dorothy meeting the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion.
The road leads through the poppy fields to the Emerald City, an eye-popping build of the green metropolis.
The display continues into the dark forest, which lights up with ultraviolet lights for an eerie glow, to the witch's castle, which has a detachment of Winkie guards on the bridge. It concludes back in Emerald City as Oz's balloon is about to launch.
Check out Beyond the Brick's walk-through video of The Wizard of Oz display, which was named best collaboration at Brickworld, below.