Paul Heatherington, a master Lego builder, showcases his mechanized Lego creation of Joker’s Fun House.
Nowadays, whatever little mundane activity you can think of has now become competitive. Unless that’s always been the case and I’ve just been entirely ignorant all this time. Cup stacking has been a big thing since I was in high school, but I just heard about competitive table-setting the other day via Bob’s Burgers. However, my ignorance towards about Lego-building is inexcusable. Considering all the beautiful creations that circulate through the Internet on a daily basis as well as the many pieces of art exhibited at Legoland, it only makes sense that Lego-building would have already become competitive, if not a form of art.
And why is this relevant, you ask? Well, master Lego builder Paul Heatherington recently unveiled his piece for Seattle’s BrickCon, the longest running fan-based Lego convention, where it won Best in Show. The winning piece? Joker’s Fun House. And oh, is it freakin’ awesome.
Welcome to The Joker’s Funhouse. This Lego creation is loosely based on several of the Batman Video Game Funhouses. The Funhouse is built with three “levels” to allow for three separate Batman and Robin scenes. I built the Funhouse over a two month period and debuted it at Brickcon 2013 in Seattle. The automation is powered with Lego Power Function Motors. The lighting is from IKEA.
Check out the rest of the pictures here.
Now, the description claims that it’s partly inspired by a few Batman video game versions of the Clown Prince of Crime’s headquarters, but to be honest, I can’t particularly identify any recognizable feature nor can I spot any influence from any game that I’ve played. I definitely sense some Mask of the Phantasm and Killing Joke in there, but generally speaking, those features are present in most incarnations of his Fun House. I even researched the Lego Batman games and came up short. Does it matter? Not at all. It just means that Heatherington is worthy of that much more praise for creating his own version of the Fun House. Best of all, out of Legos.
Source – Flickr (via ScreenRant)
