If you go down to the beach today, you’re sure of a big surprise! If you go down to the beach today, it could be your untimely demise! For the biggest shark there ever was…
Originally entered into the 90th Anniversary: Pirate Theme Celebrations challenge, Baron von Brunk shares this snappy beastie emerging from the shallows to chow down upon unsuspecting pirates… well, you wouldn’t expect a day at the beach to be ruined like this, would you?
Baron von Brunk writes:
An action-packed diorama featuring a team of pirates being ravaged by a gigantic shark as they flee to their secret hideout!
My submission to yet another LEGO Ideas competition, this time for pirates! Here’s an action-packed diorama featuring a team of pirates being ravaged by a gigantic shark as they flee to their secret hideout!
Run for yer lives, lads! But don’t leave the treasure behind!
Not the best circumstances to discover if sharks have bad breath
Hooray and up she rises… Hooray and up she rises… say goodbye to First Mate Rummy
Don’t look quite so menacing when you’re not right in front of those teeth laden jaws, does it?
Baron von Brunk continues:
My original concept was to build a pirate ship being eaten by a large shark, similar to the climax of the film JAWS. I then retooled it to merely have the shark swallowing a small rowboat as the crew members escaped into the sea. The main obstacle of the entire project was building the shark: it ended up being much larger than originally planned, which required a lot of design changes. The shark’s construction uses various unorthodox building techniques such as usage of hinge plates to create the round shape of its face.
After completing the shark, I quickly built the beach scene by filling a 64×64 baseplate with fake water, sand, and bubbles, then topped it off with the pirate minifigures and splashing waves. If you look closely you can see a little monkey with a parrot, and an unfortunate skeleton of a conquistador!
The Imperial Armada’s armour may prove effective in battle but when fleeing from ravenous behemoths, it weighs them down and provides no protection against digestive fluids, whatsoever!
Here’s that slick photo editing in action to emphasize the frenetic chaos
Baron von Brunk continues:
A composite image of my diorama “Megalodon Beach” combined with my outdoor sky photography. This scene was made by me for a contest held on LEGO Ideas for pirates themed creations.
To achieve this shot in particular, I took the photo in front of a blue tie-dye backdrop, then to make the clouds look more realistic, later in post-production I overlaid photos of the sky over Queens, NY that I shot in 2017.
What is a Megalodon?
A bloody big shark is what it is!
Megalodon, which is Latin for “big tooth”, is an extinct species of mackerel shark that lived approximately 23 to 3.6 million years ago.
Here is a modern artistic impression of Megalodon from Sharkopedia
Paleontologists estimate the body mass of adult megalodons ranged from roughly 30,000 kg (66,000 pounds) to more than 65,000 kg (143,000 pounds), with adult females larger (in both length and mass) than adult males. In contrast, most white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) weigh between 680 and 1,800 kg (1,500 and 4,000 pounds).
To put that in perspective, megalodons weighed as much as 30 great white sharks, so they would definitely be a better food supply – if you could ever catch one.
Encyclopedia Britannica provides this lovely diagram to illustrate just how big megalodons were
Body length estimates are calculated using the statistical relationship between the size of megalodon’s fossil teeth and the teeth and body mass of modern white sharks. Which just means they haven’t found a complete specimen (I.e. skeleton) to measure the precise length. Nonetheless, this data indicates that mature adult megalodons had a mean length of 10.2 metres (33.5 feet), with the largest specimens measuring 17.9 metres (58.7 feet) long. Some paleontologists claim the largest megalodons may have measured up to 25 metres (82 feet) long.
The tooth on the left is a great white shark while the tooth on the right is a megalodon tooth. Shark’s tooth looking a little small, huh? Don’t worry it’s capable of tearing you to shreds!
Megalodons succumbed to global cooling 3.5 million years ago due to the shrinking of their habitat, the vanishing of their favorite snacks prey, and fierce competition from other predators. But we only ever get lectured about how global warming causes species to become extinct, don’t we?
About the Builder…
Baron von Brunk or Baron Julius A. von Brunk if you prefer full names (yet we don’t know what the “A” stands for) originates from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A man of innumerable talents! From the Foo Fighters to the Super Mario Brothers to the Amish, he’s distilled their essence in a collection of finely polished LEGO creations, captured in vibrant photography with slick digital editing.
Begin your tour through the vibrant land of Brunk at his Instagram profile, followed by a frollick through his Flickr stream, then tumble down his Tumblr, before ambling through his Autodesk Instructables profile and tiptoeing through his Twitter. Finally, sit back and unwind with the essential viewing of his YouTube channel.
Quite the prolific overachiever! He’s entered a multitude of contests hosted by LEGO Ideas, prestigious enough to warrant a lengthy biography on The YouTube Wiki and even maintains an official website, www.baronvonbrunk.com.
What Do Yer Think?
Has the Baron succeeded to depict the unspeakable terror of the most gargantuan fishie to have ever existed? Or is there something more he could have incorporated to this scene?
A scene of utter chaos… or maybe beauty… or both… you decide…
Let him know your thoughts via Flickr or on the Megalodon Beach Instagam post. And as always, visit the LEGO Pirates Forum to keep up with the latest and greatest MOCs!!!
