The release of the first Grand Theft Auto VI trailer on 4 December 2023 generated an unprecedented wave of fan-made derivative content, with one of the most distinctive subcultures of response being the "brickfilm" — a stop-motion animation form built entirely from LEGO bricks and minifigures. Within weeks of the trailer's debut, multiple brickfilm artists undertook frame-by-frame recreations of Rockstar Games' 90-second promotional clip, translating Vice City's neon-soaked coastline, Lucia's prison cell, the bikini-clad twerkers, the alligator-in-a-convenience-store moment, and the high-speed chases into plastic-brick equivalents. These recreations, led most prominently by YouTuber World of Shrimpy, attracted millions of views across YouTube, Reddit, and X (formerly Twitter), and earned coverage from mainstream gaming outlets including Game Rant, ComicBook.com, Android Headlines, Dexerto, and Notebookcheck (Bošnjak, 2023; Onder, 2023; Diaz, 2024). The brickfilm phenomenon represents a notable intersection of fan labour, transmedia engagement, and the broader cultural footprint of the GTA VI trailer as the most-viewed non-music video debut in YouTube history.
Brickfilms — amateur stop-motion films made with LEGO bricks — have existed as a YouTube subgenre since the platform's earliest years, with established creators using the medium to recreate movie trailers, video-game cinematics, and original narratives. The form is labour-intensive: each second of footage typically requires 24 to 30 individually staged photographs, with sets, lighting, and minifigure poses adjusted between every frame. The GTA VI Trailer 1 brickfilm wave is significant because it applied this painstaking technique to a property whose mature, often violent, and sexually suggestive content sits at the opposite cultural pole from LEGO's family-friendly brand identity. The juxtaposition — minifigures performing pole-dance poses, brick-built mugshots, plastic alligators sliding across a 7-Eleven floor — provided much of the humour and shareability that drove the videos' viral spread (Bošnjak, 2023; Diaz, 2024).
The most prominent and widely reported brickfilm recreation of Trailer 1 was produced by YouTube creator World of Shrimpy. Uploaded on 23 December 2023 — just under three weeks after Rockstar's official trailer — the video, titled "GTA 6 TRAILER IN LEGO," replicates the entirety of the 90-second promo using LEGO bricks and stop-motion animation, scored to the same Tom Petty track ("Love is a Long Road") used in the original (Bošnjak, 2023; Onder, 2023). According to a Reddit post by the creator, the project required "just over two weeks" of "non-stop" work and comprised approximately 3,086 individual photographs stitched together at 30 frames per second (Diaz, 2024). Aside from limited compositing — minor mouth movements and a handful of backgrounds reportedly edited in — the trailer consists almost entirely of physically staged LEGO scenes, including custom-built Vice City beachfronts, a brick-rendered prison interior, and a fleet of LEGO sports cars and helicopters (Bošnjak, 2023). World of Shrimpy also published a side-by-side comparison video that placed the LEGO version alongside Rockstar's original frame for frame, allowing viewers to appreciate the fidelity of the recreation; this comparison amplified the project's reach across social media (Diaz, 2024).
A separate brickfilm creator known as "TheSkaar" produced a related stop-motion LEGO video inspired by the GTA 6 trailer, focusing on signature GTA-trailer imagery — fast cars, helicopters, and explosions — built entirely from LEGO bricks. TheSkaar reportedly spent months crafting the scenes and characters to evoke the iconic GTA style (Console Chronicle, 2024). Subsequent Trailer 2 recreations in 2025 also drew comparisons back to the original Trailer 1 LEGO precedent, suggesting that World of Shrimpy's December 2023 piece effectively founded a sub-tradition within GTA fan brickfilms (Dexerto, 2025).
The brickfilm recreations attracted near-uniformly positive coverage. Game Rant described World of Shrimpy's work as "remarkably authentic" and noted dozens of fans calling it "absolutely incredible" or "perfect" (Bošnjak, 2023). ComicBook.com emphasised that the trailer "impressively captures Rockstar's attention to details using only LEGO bricks and stop motion animation, which is quite the feat" (Onder, 2023). Android Headlines went further, headlining its piece "This LEGO remake of the GTA VI trailer is art," and arguing that the medium's inherent comic quality added a "hilarious spin" to Rockstar's otherwise serious cinematic tone (Diaz, 2024). The recreations were also cited in coverage from Lego Cities, EGW.news, and Epicflix as exemplars of the heights of GTA 6 fan creativity (Lego Cities, 2024; EGW, 2024).
The brickfilm wave illustrates several phenomena relevant to GTA VI's marketing footprint. First, it demonstrates the trailer's exceptional generativity: the original's tight composition, memorable beats, and iconic music gave fan creators a clear, well-known structure to riff upon, while its 160-million-plus views ensured a guaranteed audience for any high-effort recreation (Bošnjak, 2023; Onder, 2023). Second, the brickfilms — alongside parallel in-engine GTA V recreations and AI-generated variants — exemplify how Rockstar's drip-feed marketing strategy was supercharged by free, organic, fan-generated content that kept Trailer 1 in social-feed circulation for months. Third, the contrast between LEGO's family-safe brand and GTA's adult content produced a self-perpetuating meme dynamic in which the very incongruity of the medium drove additional engagement and press coverage. For Rockstar and parent company Take-Two Interactive, this represented millions of dollars of effective earned media at zero cost.
The Trailer 1 brickfilm recreations — spearheaded by World of Shrimpy's 3,086-photograph, two-week stop-motion production — stand as one of the most distinctive and labour-intensive expressions of fan engagement with GTA VI's reveal. They received broad coverage across gaming and technology press, generated millions of views, and established a template that would be revisited following the release of Trailer 2 in 2025. As a marketing artefact, they exemplify the trailer's extraordinary ability to inspire derivative work, and they underline the central role of fan-produced content in sustaining the GTA VI hype cycle through the long pre-release window.
Bošnjak, D. (2023) GTA 6 Trailer Recreated With LEGOs, Game Rant, 29 December. Available at: https://gamerant.com/gta-6-trailer-lego-version-stop-motion-animation/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Console Chronicle (2024) LEGO Fan Recreates GTA 6 Trailer in Stunning Stop-Motion Animation, 2 March. Available at: https://consolechronicle.com/2024/03/02/lego-fan-recreates-gta-6-trailer-in-stunning-stop-motion-animation/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Dexerto (2025) GTA 6 trailer 2 gets incredible LEGO version and the internet loves it. Available at: https://www.dexerto.com/gta/gta-6-trailer-2-gets-incredible-lego-version-and-the-internet-loves-it-3210964/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Diaz, J. (2024) This LEGO remake of the GTA VI trailer is art, Android Headlines, 2 January. Available at: https://www.androidheadlines.com/2024/01/this-lego-remake-of-the-gta-vi-trailer-is-art.html (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
EGW (2024) LEGO Masterpiece: GTA 6 Trailer Recreated with Bricks and Passion. Available at: https://egw.news/gaming/news/23649/lego-masterpiece-gta-6-trailer-recreated-with-bric-RLeVkgWHY (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Lego Cities (2024) Fan Recreates GTA 6 Trailer with LEGO. Available at: https://legocities.com/fan-recreates-gta-6-trailer-with-lego/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Onder, C. (2023) GTA 6 Trailer Gets LEGO Remake From Fan, ComicBook.com, 29 December. Available at: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/grand-theft-auto-gta-6-trailer-lego-remake/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
World of Shrimpy (2023) GTA 6 TRAILER IN LEGO [Video]. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUwkxJe1F_w (Accessed: 14 May 2026).