On Monday we are going to bring you video and a photo essay devoted to the amazing dioramas and custom figures we saw at JoeLanta and The Great Atlanta Toy Convention last week. But right now we’re going to present a bonus photo essay devoted to one huge diorama, Mike Gardner’s epic Route 66 diorama took up one entire corner of the diorama room and included dozens of figures and thousands of individual details and elements.
Buried within this grouping of a diner, a garage and a general store were such surprises and Easter eggs as a scene from Pulp Fiction, celebrity cameos, custom cars, riffs on classic movies and even Grant and Lee negotiating the terms of surrender at the end of the Civil War.
You will see plenty of video footage of Mike’s work later in the video, but we wanted to give you a sample of the talent and creativity on display at JoeLanta and The Great Atlanta Toy Convention, and also salute Mike for the awesome work he does. The level of detail is simply astonishing.
The diorama was so huge that we almost forgot to get a wide shot of it.
To start, let’s go around the diner…
You can see that there’s a lot going on
Looks like a commerical shoot with the hot rod
Inside the diner, there appears to be a scene from Pulp Fiction happening
From the front door
A closer look
An amazing level of detail
…really amazing
The view from outside the diner
The street outside the diner
More detial
The front of the garage/general store
Inside the general store there’s a heck of a lot going on…
Upatairs, Grant and Lee cut a deal over ice cream
A couple of fellas, down on their luck, in the alley
The garage
A view down the street from another angle
More amazing detail
Yeah, he looks sort of familiar
And then there’s that car
I love your dioramas! It gives me some great ideas.