If you’re familiar with the Japanese anime TV series Attack on Titan you’ll know it’s an action-packed, gory, and onion-like complex story featuring heroic (yet seemingly perpetual underdog) humans battling gigantic titans which look like large mutated naked humans. The show is quite entertaining and I find myself (thus far on season 2) thoroughly enjoying the complexities of the world built by the original author/artist Hajime Isayama in the manga first published in 2009.

I wasn’t familiar with the manga or the TV series until Netflix kept pushing it (correctly I might add) to me via their algorithm. The dialogue tends to the absurd and dramatic and the characters and plot don’t feel terribly realistic… but it doesn’t matter! The struggle of humanity and the rich details of this world draw you in and keep you completely engaged.

The poor humans in this fantasy world of Giant horrors could have used Denzel and his Titans!

How does this all relate to our favorite medium of LEGO you ask? Well that’s the backdrop for my mindset when I stumbled upon Pieter Dennison’s brilliant MOC: The Fall of Shinigana from Attack on Titan. I immediately recognized the subject and the hard work Pieter had done to capture the essence of the show.

He picked a great representative scene of a Titan engaged in battle with puny humans using their steampunk-esque technology of ODM (omni-directional-mobility) gear to fly around and sting the beast like mad little mosquitos. I was also impressed at the way he captured the medieval style architecture ((his research indicated German) in a recognizable way. I’m glad Pieter agreed to an interview to tell us more about this stellar MOC!

Doug Hughes: Hi Pieter, thanks for stopping by BrickNerd to talk about your MOC! First I was curious what inspired you to build an Attack on Titan MOC.

Pieter Dennison: So it all started last year in 2020 when I watched the very first episode of the show. I was instantly hooked and I couldn’t stop watching. What captivated me the most was the setting of the show, as it closely resembled some real-life German medieval towns. Being a huge fan of Tudor-style buildings, I thought it was a perfect opportunity to do a build on my favorite anime and my favorite building style.

Doug: I think you speak for a lot of us castle nuts out there: the Tudor-style buildings are so iconic and a lot of fun to recreate in LEGO! I love the way you’ve brought that style to life and how full the town feels. That got me wondering how you decided on the layout and size and makeup of the build? It's quite large and has a good amount of elevation change throughout which makes it feel so much more realistic, and there are quite a few buildings packed in there. For me, the layout and scope of a build are things I would spend quite a bit of time trying to figure out before getting going.

Pieter: At the start, I didn’t know how large I would want to build the model. I knew that I had to accommodate the numerous buildings—as well as the Titan and some areas where I could include some minor details such as trees, rockwork and containers. So I started with the foundations of the buildings first, that way I could easily build the road, as well as figure out where certain details would go. Once I finished the foundations and the road, I was able to outline how big the MOC was going to be.

Laying out the build starting with the foundations and street

Doug: Well it turned out BIG! And it doesn’t feel like you’ve sacrificed quality in any way going so big. Since the build is quite large and has a lot of street and quite a few buildings to cover, was this a stretch on your supplies? Were there a lot of BrickLink orders to get the parts you needed?

Pieter: So the build took me around three months to finish and a big part of it taking that long was piece shortages. Once I started the road section I didn’t realize how fast my light grey collection was going to run out, so a lot of rockwork and greenery was added to cover certain areas. The roofs were the worst for parts and took so long to complete. There are probably around 1,500 of those 1x2 medium nougat tiles alone and most of them I had to order through BrickLink. I think I made around 10 separate orders just to get all the pieces.

Doug: Seems about right to me… Oh the hours of BrickLink trolling this hobby demands (when it isn’t down for maintenance)! You mention the street with all that rockwork as a part-intensive aspect, so I thought it would be fun if you could explain to people your technique which was not something I’ve personally seen before. It really is a neat way to cover a changing topography smoothly like you’re following the terrain elevation, yet with lots of neat texture to get that cobblestone look and feel from the show.

Pieter: I was trying to find different ways to achieve a stonework texture for the ground. I used 1x1 round bricks and connected them with the mechanical claw pieces, which I could attach to 1x2 or 2x2 tiles. Then I would be able to adjust their height and give them an uneven look, with certain pieces being slightly elevated to show that the road has been aged and worn over time. I was trying various techniques for the road before I decided to use the SNOT technique that I think worked quite well. This was also a very tedious task and I was so happy when it was finished.

thar be a parts intensive, but versatile technique!

Doug: Another technique that caught my eye was the really elegant steep peaked rooves. It appears relatively simple, but at the very top it is quite thin which is a great look.

Pieter: The roof technique is accomplished by using 1x2 hinge plates, connecting them together, then using 1x2 tiles and placing them on top of the hinge pieces. The top part was somewhat tricky but I managed to achieve the pointed look by attaching two 1x2 tiles on either side of a bar 1L with top stud and two side studs (the lightsaber type piece with 2 side studs).

Doug: One of the most iconic aspects of the show is the ODM gear: or omni-directional-mobility gear. This allows the wearer (the human soldiers in the show) to effortlessly glide through the air as long as they have the occasional anchor point—and also with the use of additional anchor points allows for rapid change in direction for quite the feats of agility during battle! Was it hard to portray the ODM gear and the flying soldiers? Were there failed versions prior to the final?

Pieter: I tried numerous versions of the ODM gear before I got the final version. Previous versions were either too bulky or too fragile with the minifigures. Of course I had to show them flying around the buildings so I attached a transparent 1x12 bar piece and attached it to their gear above the buildings. I also included string pieces that were attached and gave a more accurate depiction of them flying around the city.

ODM Gear on arather concerned looking soldier — ODM Gear on a rather concerned looking soldier

Simple but remarkably accurate approximation of the show!

Doug: Last question for you Pieter, I was curious if you already have plans or are considering a return to the world of Attack on Titan for future MOCs? Or is this going to be your only AOT build? Certainly, you’ve done it justice so I’d understand if you didn’t feel another foray is necessary!

Pieter: I’d love to do another AOT build, although there are a few builds I have in mind that I’d want to build first. Although after that and if I want to try another AOT MOC, I’'d want to do one that includes more Titans with different size variations.

Well there you have it folks! Pieter is an impeccable builder of many talents and I was happy to find he is another Attack on Titan fan. I hope you enjoyed this deep dive into his fantastic build and that if you haven’t already had the pleasure of watching the show and following the overly dramatic characters through their wild adventures… perhaps this article will give you a hankering for some delicious human snacks… er Attack on Titan viewing!

Any AOT fans out there? Give us a shoutout in the comments!

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