It’s been almost six months since I posted work-in-progress pictures of my family’s LEGO Pilgrim’s Progress collaboration. Fittingly, our progress has been slow, but it’s been sure, and we’ve finally taken the last picture, recorded the last piece of audio, and yes, even sorted the last brick (well, except for a few special figures and the sheep, which are sticking around for a while). So at long last we’re ready to present: The Pilgrim’s Progress, built out of LEGO bricks at about 5x minifigure scale!
Before we go further, I have to give a thank you to those who donated to our GoFundMe. There’s no way this project would have come together without you! Also a shout out to our fellow InnovaLUG members who lent us a bunch of light grey round tiles!
The saga began this April, when we came bursting into the tiny house we’d rented for three months with a van full of LEGO bricks. Space was at a premium, but we built on dressers, we built on beds, and yes, we built on the floor. As con-day approached, massive builds (5x minifigure scale is no joke!) crowded onto night tables, got stashed in boxes, and generally took over the house. After two and a half months, three or four LEGO store runs, and half a dozen BL orders, Pilgrim’s Progress was finally complete.
The collaboration’s had a pre-show at a church function in May; but the first time it came all together was at BrickWorld Chicago. The con was a phenomenal experience, and our collaboration took home a nomination for Best Small Group Layout as well as some awards for individual MOCs within the collab. As if that weren’t enough, we had the honor of being nominated for BrickWorld Masters as an entire family.
Next stop was only large enough for five of the MOCs, so we chose the five largest and displayed them during the International Council for Christian Churches. Afterwards, the entire collab had one more viewing at the Ultimate Brick Show. Then it was photography time!
The City of Destruction by Josiah led the collab. This is where Pilgrim was born and where he starts his journey (unfortunately, Pilgrim didn’t make it to the final picture… blame hard drive problems for that).
Next Pilgrim comes to the Slough of Despond. Ostensibly built by Josiah, in reality this was built by our younger sister, following my orders.
Anna’s Wicket Gate is the true beginning of Pilgrim’s journey, the point of no return as he enters on the narrow way to the Celestial City. Her spectacular lettering drew eyes!
The cross (built by Sarah) is the central point of the collaboration, where Pilgrim loses his burden of sin as he recognizes Jesus’s sacrifice in his place. Without being a complicated build, the layout and colors really make this one pleasant to the eye.
I built the Valley of the Shadow of Death, where Pilgrim faces Apollyon. This creation features a mist machine. It also sometimes featured an unintentional waterfall at the back.
Isaiah’s Vanity Fair drew all eyes, as Vanity Fair should. In fact, it won Best Large Building, which everyone felt to be an appropriate but sad commentary on human nature.
There’s an interesting discrepancy between the show version and the photographed version of this build–see if you can spot it! It’s pretty big, but does fade into the background some.
Doubting Castle was the last creation we built, and, well, it’s certainly evident that we were getting a bit low on bricks by this point! It’s a mere skeletal framework, but it added a great contrast to the collaboration and harked back nicely to the City of Destruction.
These adorable sheep are some of the very few parts of this collab left built (in fact, you might be able to snag one yourself on this year’s Creations4Charity livestream auction!). Once again, this creation was built by a younger sister under my direction. But I’m proud to say that the sheep were entirely my own production.
The Celestial City finished the collaboration with a burst of light and color. The tree, sadly, didn’t make it to the photography table looking anywhere near as nice as it looked at BrickWorld! (Honestly, it’s a marvel it made it from my dresser-top to BW looking that good. It also fell down a couple times on the convention table. For being a tree of life, it had remarkably weak roots.)
If you’re not familiar with the Pilgrim’s Progress story or want a refresher, we’ve put together a video narration of the appropriate passages (slightly modified)!
If you enjoyed this creation, you might have fun taking a look at these other posts:
Geneva D 