Awesome Dioramas

AMC’s promotional Dune 2 popcorn bucket is the subject of many memes. While most of us can’t get our minds out of the gutter, Adam Savage saw the cursed bucket top as an opportunity to build a geeky diorama, turning the bucket back into a proper sandworm by building a foam and resin sand dune and adding a tiny Paul Atreides and a 3D-printed ornithopter.

Tears of the Kingdom and Katamari Damacy have a few things in common, like gathering objects to create more complex ones. That inspired Studson Studio to combine the two games into one epic diorama. He gathered some characters and Zonai objects from TotK, rolled them into a jumbo Katamari, and then made a combo of Link and The Prince.

At first, we thought these color-coordinated LEGO habitats had been slathered with paint. But artist Dana Knudson built each entirely from same-color LEGO bricks. He had to remove some printing, otherwise, it’s 100% LEGO plastic. Beyond the Brick stopped by Dana’s display at Atlanta Brick Con for an up-close look at every scene.

Artist Duane Perera is a master at his craft. He makes playful miniature scenes inspired by pop culture. Each diorama features characters enjoying everyday life, like playing video games, listening to CDs, or record shopping. His making of video for his Scarface plays NES diorama is priceless. Duane sells prints of his work on Redbubble, and we want all of them.

There have been lots of memorable battles in the Star Wars universe. To celebrate his love for these action sequences, Boylei Hobby Time created a diorama with a trio of tiny battle scenes. He used miniatures from Star Wars Legion to recreate moments from A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.

It’s a battle for the ages – Lady Liberty vs. the king of the dinosaurs. Ok, maybe not, but we still enjoyed watching how Boylei Hobby Time took two off-the-shelf models that have nothing to do with each other and came up with a creative idea for a diorama – that the statue’s real purpose is to defend our country from monsters.

After seeing Top Gun: Maverick, model maker Boylei Hobby Time wanted to make a diorama inspired by one of the movie’s big action sequences. While he found a 1:144-scale model of the soviet gunship helicopter, he couldn’t find one of an F-18 fighter jet a the same time, so he decided to swap in an X-Wing from Star Wars.

Inspired by the 2006 movie Monster House, Midnight Hobbies set out to create a miniature version of the animated horror-comedy’s eponymous dwelling. He built the structure for the model by attaching foam board to a tissue box, cutting its roof and shingles from cardstock, and making windows and siding from popsicle sticks.

Artist Thalasso hobbyer makes amazing dioramas, often with undersea creatures as their subject. This gnarly sea monster was inspired by a fellow artist’s illustration of a nightmarish vision. They sculpted the beast from wire and clay, surrounded it with tiny sharks, fish, and a diver, then submerged them in ocean blue resin.

M.C. Escher’s Relativity is one of the artist’s best-known works. Filled with paradoxical staircases, it’s a real head-scratcher. The Avid Creator went through the effort to replicate the illusion but in a 3-dimensional model. They made the structure from foam board and added details using balsa wood, wire, and clay.

After watching the trailer for the Super Mario Bros. movie, Boylei Hobby Time was inspired to recreate the fire-breathing Bowser scene as a diorama. He started by making the buildings out of wood and foam, added a 3D-printed Bowser, painted everything, and created the fire effect using LED filament lights and cotton.

What’s worse than the claustrophobic feeling of walking down an old mine shaft? How about adding a human-sized spider lurking beneath a trap door? Boylei Hobby Time created this imaginative diorama of a couple of miners who don’t know what dangers await them. This wasn’t the first time he went mining for giant arachnids.

Nerdforge previously built a computer that looked like a medieval house. Now they’ve gone in the opposite direction by creating this awesome work of art – a gaming PC that looks like a neon-lit cyberpunk city. After finishing the exterior, they flew from Norway to Canada to let Linus Tech Tips trick out the insides of the rig.

One of the many memorable images in My Neighbor Totoro is Catbus. Studson Studios thought it would be fun to redesign the walking bus as if it was Garfield. It’s not an original idea, but the first time we’ve seen the orange Catbus brought to life as a 3-dimensional object. We imagine it’s powered by lasagna, not gasoline.

One of the most iconic images of the last decade has to be artist KC Green’s This Is Fine meme. Hong Kong-based LEGO builder Truman pays tribute the meme with an awesome diorama that features the dog sitting in a room on fire enjoying his coffee. Cast your vote and help it get turned into a set we can buy.

Artist Mugen Woong created this beautiful crescent moon-shaped diorama using natural materials including dragon stone, moss, and tree roots. The display incorporates a self-watering system that uses microfiber cloth as a wick to keep the soil moist and the moss alive.

One of the most memorable scenes in The Empire Strikes Back is when Luke uses The Force to raise his X-Wing Fighter from the swamp on Dagobah. Modelmaker Kathy Millatt walks us through her impressive recreation of the moss- and vine-covered scene with shiny resin swamp water, and miniatures of Luke, Yoda, and R2-D2.

Modelmaker Excessively Sentimental shows off the painstaking process of building a 1/48-scale diorama of a rickety old barn. The level of detail is astounding in the balsa wood model and its surroundings, from the distressing on each wood plank to the individual blades of grass and leaves. (Thanks, Orion!)

Artist and filmmaker Sebastian Jern creates amazing miniature scenes which he brings to life with lighting and practical effects. Here, he shows off a tiny tribute to Stranger Things, with dark and puffy cotton clouds and a terrifying monster lurking within. His miniature Mount Everest and Moon scenes are similarly phenomenal.

3D printing technology has been a boon for model makers. Knarb Makes shows off a diorama he built of a medieval city with the help of the tech – though there’s still plenty of artistic talent on display. The impressive Venice-inspired scale city has more than 50 buildings, bridges, canals, and lighting.

Artist WUZU Clay built this miniature scene inspired by the blocky world of Minecraft. They made the underwater ocean temple by cutting and sculpting precise squares of polymer clay, layering them, and then submerging the structure in clear resin. The level of detail in the characters and plants is truly impressive.

LEGO continues to bring their Star Wars game with some creative new sets. We just saw a Luke and Yoda on Dagobah playset, and now we have a tiny version of the Death Star trench run scene. This 665-piece set includes tiny versions of Luke’s X-Wing fighter, pursued by a duo of TIE fighters and Vader’s TIE Advanced fighter.

Studson Studio shows off the process of building a model based on the awesome and imposing elephant mechs from Horizon Forbidden West. Rather than buying the off-the-shelf Tremortusk collectible, he created a custom version out of parts from other action figures, toys, and everyday objects.