[MOC] She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (WIP)

[elfprince13]

TBH this IP sort of blurs the line between Castle and Sci-Fi, but at least this particular build is pretty obviously a castle so I thought I'd share it here.

Working off this reference image:

Also designed most of the important characters as minifigs:

 

[Aanchir]

Oh wow! This looks very good so far! Brightmoon Castle has a lot of very complex shapes that I would have felt way too intimidated to even ATTEMPT building out of LEGO, and yet your recreation appears to be well on its way!

While they are a nice, simple approximation of the feather-like flying buttresses on the side of the castle, I have to wonder if you might be able to more closely match shaping and the differences in their height using a more custom solution, perhaps one involving curved slopes such as 13731.

The use of the standard bird wing piece from the Legends of Chima sets for the wing motifs on its steeple also feels somewhat out of proportion with the rest of the model, and also loses the stylized curvature of the original. But in that case, I'm not so sure what sorts of parts might allow a more accurate end result.

Best of luck with completing this model! I'm really excited to see how it progresses!

[elfprince13]

1 hour ago, Aanchir said:

Oh wow! This looks very good so far! Brightmoon Castle has a lot of very complex shapes that I would have felt way too intimidated to even ATTEMPT building out of LEGO, and yet your recreation appears to be well on its way!

While they are a nice, simple approximation of the feather-like flying buttresses on the side of the castle, I have to wonder if you might be able to more closely match shaping and the differences in their height using a more custom solution, perhaps one involving curved slopes such as 13731.

The use of the standard bird wing piece from the Legends of Chima sets for the wing motifs on its steeple also feels somewhat out of proportion with the rest of the model, and also loses the stylized curvature of the original. But in that case, I'm not so sure what sorts of parts might allow a more accurate end result.

Best of luck with completing this model! I'm really excited to see how it progresses!

Thanks for the kind words and the suggestions!

I think to build something custom for either the flying buttresses or the wings on the steeple and have it feel right while not being too flimsy, I would have to about double the scale of the model, but at least on this attempt I'm trying to keep the part count under control so that if I end up submitting it via Ideas it's not so outrageously large that it has no chance of making it through review (similar thinking behind using the big UFO saucer sections on the face of the mountain rather than getting super detailed with the sculpting). That said, I won't rule it out, and I'll keep mulling it over to see if something comes to me.

Two questions:
(1) Do you think the wing motif would look better if rotated the Chima wings to point upward, rather than outward? I'm wondering if it's not so much the scale that's off (at least relative to the rest of the steeple) as the positioning...

(2) I'm mostly pretty pleased with how the minifigures came out, but I don't love Scorpia's claws. Any suggestions for a better part or combination of parts to use, ideally so I could capture the lower half of her pinsirs?

[Lord Insanity]

It's a shame LEGO doesn't actually make those grabber arms anymore because they work perfectly for Entrapta's hair.  I am quite impressed at how well you managed to capture all the characters in minifig form.

That is a good working start on Castle Bright Moon.  I'll be interested to see how that turns out.

Admittedly I prefer the original series version (image from the episode The Crystal Castle, Shadow Weaver even had a model made) but the new version is quite nice too.  The new series just made everything way to "nexo-knight-ified" for my taste.  I just prefer straight up fantasy magic to the modern popular idea of making magic "ancient tech in disguise".

[Lord Insanity]

48 minutes ago, elfprince13 said:

(2) I'm mostly pretty pleased with how the minifigures came out, but I don't love Scorpia's claws. Any suggestions for a better part or combination of parts to use, ideally so I could capture the lower half of her pincers?

Atlantis theme's Lobster Guardian claw to the rescue.

[elfprince13]

21 minutes ago, Lord Insanity said:

It's a shame LEGO doesn't actually make those grabber arms anymore because they work perfectly for Entrapta's hair.  I am quite impressed at how well you managed to capture all the characters in minifig form.

Entrapta's hair is easily the part of the execution so far I'm most pleased with.

23 minutes ago, Lord Insanity said:

That is a good working start on Castle Bright Moon.  I'll be interested to see how that turns out.

Thanks! I'll definitely post updates in this thread, glad it's picked up some interest.

23 minutes ago, Lord Insanity said:

Admittedly I prefer the original series version (image from the episode The Crystal Castle, Shadow Weaver even had a model made) but the new version is quite nice too.  The new series just made everything way to "nexo-knight-ified" for my taste.  I just prefer straight up fantasy magic to the modern popular idea of making magic "ancient tech in disguise".

I don't discriminate in my loves of fantasy and sci-fi, or mashups of the two, though I prefer mashups where the two can exist side-by-side or interact with each other, rather than the Clarke's 3rd Law version (fwiw, I think the finale of nu-She-Ra actually does confirm that magic is real and the ancient technology was to channel it, not purely the source).

As an aside, nexo-knights are for me easily the biggest let-down of any modern original LEGO theme, because the premise was so cool and the sets were all just so....bad.

 

7 minutes ago, Lord Insanity said:

Atlantis theme's Lobster Guardian claw to the rescue.

Ooooooh, thanks for the suggestion!

[Aanchir]

15 hours ago, elfprince13 said:

Thanks for the kind words and the suggestions!

I think to build something custom for either the flying buttresses or the wings on the steeple and have it feel right while not being too flimsy, I would have to about double the scale of the model, but at least on this attempt I'm trying to keep the part count under control so that if I end up submitting it via Ideas it's not so outrageously large that it has no chance of making it through review (similar thinking behind using the big UFO saucer sections on the face of the mountain rather than getting super detailed with the sculpting). That said, I won't rule it out, and I'll keep mulling it over to see if something comes to me. 

Two questions:
(1) Do you think the wing motif would look better if rotated the Chima wings to point upward, rather than outward? I'm wondering if it's not so much the scale that's off (at least relative to the rest of the steeple) as the positioning... 

(2) I'm mostly pretty pleased with how the minifigures came out, but I don't love Scorpia's claws. Any suggestions for a better part or combination of parts to use, ideally so I could capture the lower half of her pinsirs?

(1) Potentially! But I'd also recommend experimenting with other parts entirely that might come closer to that shape. I just browsed some parts on BrickLink for a bit, and 98347 is a similar-sized wing piece that might be worth trying out. I even tested it myself with stud.io, and it looks like it'd be just as accurately scaled to your model as the wing you're currently using

(2) One part that immediately springs to mind is 92944 from the LEGO Atlantis theme! Sadly, though, it doesn't look like anybody has bothered to model it for LDraw. Same with bb0534 which would also be a very fitting choice.

[elfprince13]

2 hours ago, Aanchir said:

(1) Potentially! But I'd also recommend experimenting with other parts entirely that might come closer to that shape. I just browsed some parts on BrickLink for a bit, and 98347 is a similar-sized wing piece that might be worth trying out. I even tested it myself with stud.io, and it looks like it'd be just as accurately scaled to your model as the wing you're currently using

Oooh, that looks interesting, I'll definitely take a look =)

2 hours ago, Aanchir said:

(2) One part that immediately springs to mind is 92944 from the LEGO Atlantis theme! Sadly, though, it doesn't look like anybody has bothered to model it for LDraw. Same with bb0534 which would also be a very fitting choice.

 

There's an unofficial version of 92944 here (there is a *lot* of buried treasure on that page, btw, if you are into LDraw and use a lot of weird/new parts). Often stuff that hasn't even made it into the Parts Tracker for even preliminary review, but which has been automatically converted from LDD.

[Lord Insanity]

 

21 hours ago, elfprince13 said:

Thanks! I'll definitely post updates in this thread, glad it's picked up some interest.

I would recommend not holding back to "make it Ideas compatible".  Mattel owns She-Ra and would never license it to LEGO anyway.  Mattel also owns Mega Construx and sells Masters of the Universe building sets that way.  While they haven't actually made She-Ra yet, there was a prototype of Hordak shown off at one of the conventions a few months ago.  They have said they plan to go into the She-Ra half of the lore eventually if sales support continuing the line.

Bottom line is, go all out and make it the best you can for yourself first.  If you do plan to try and build it "in the brick" that might be more of a reason to keep the scale in check.

21 hours ago, elfprince13 said:

I don't discriminate in my loves of fantasy and sci-fi, or mashups of the two, though I prefer mashups where the two can exist side-by-side or interact with each other, rather than the Clarke's 3rd Law version (fwiw, I think the finale of nu-She-Ra actually does confirm that magic is real and the ancient technology was to channel it, not purely the source).

Just to be clear, I did think the show was very good overall compared to other versions of the mythology.  However, turning Light Hope into a hologram and The Crystal Castle into a computer really annoyed me.  Light Hope and The Crystal Castle are supposed to be among the most powerful magical entities in the universe nearly equaling the power of The Sorceress and Castle Grayskull.  (She-Ra's whole deal was she had all of He-Man's abilities plus several from Light Hope and the Crystal Castle.)  They always had both tech and magic just not so "combined" for lack of a better term.  The finale was very good in how they handled "freeing the magic".

I think the biggest problem the show had was Mattel's unfortunate decision to split Masters of the Universe into "Boys have He-Man" and "Girls have She-Ra" licensing halves.  The new show was literally not allowed to use half the mythology.  I give the producers credit for really squeezing every reference they could get Mattel to agree to let them use.  Using Mara from The New Adventures of He-Man was really cool to see.  It's just a shame Mattel's leadership is stuck in the 1970s.  They can't wrap their brains around the fact that He-Man and She-Ra are in most fans eyes the same property.  One would think that appealing to both boys and girls simultaneously would be exactly what any toy maker would strive for. 

22 hours ago, elfprince13 said:

As an aside, nexo-knights are for me easily the biggest let-down of any modern original LEGO theme, because the premise was so cool and the sets were all just so....bad.

To be fair the first two villain factions were really quite good for pure fantasy Castle uses.  I really liked the lighting monsters especially.

[elfprince13]

8 minutes ago, Lord Insanity said:

 

I would recommend not holding back to "make it Ideas compatible".  Mattel owns She-Ra and would never license it to LEGO anyway.  Mattel also owns Mega Construx and sells Masters of the Universe building sets that way.  While they haven't actually made She-Ra yet, there was a prototype of Hordak shown off at one of the conventions a few months ago.  They have said they plan to go into the She-Ra half of the lore eventually if sales support continuing the line.

Bottom line is, go all out and make it the best you can for yourself first.  If you do plan to try and build it "in the brick" that might be more of a reason to keep the scale in check.

Hmmm, interesting point, and too bad because while Mega Construx blocks are "ok" these days, it's no fun buying character-oriented sets that don't match the scale of minifigures. Like a lot of my projects, a bigger limitation than scale to a physical rendition is going to be the outrageous color palette, and toning that down somehow doesn't feel right for a She-Ra build either.

8 minutes ago, Lord Insanity said:

Just to be clear, I did think the show was very good overall compared to other versions of the mythology.  However, turning Light Hope into a hologram and The Crystal Castle into a computer really annoyed me.  Light Hope and The Crystal Castle are supposed to be among the most powerful magical entities in the universe nearly equaling the power of The Sorceress and Castle Grayskull.  (She-Ra's whole deal was she had all of He-Man's abilities plus several from Light Hope and the Crystal Castle.)  They always had both tech and magic just not so "combined" for lack of a better term.  The finale was very good in how they handled "freeing the magic".

I think the biggest problem the show had was Mattel's unfortunate decision to split Masters of the Universe into "Boys have He-Man" and "Girls have She-Ra" licensing halves.  The new show was literally not allowed to use half the mythology.  I give the producers credit for really squeezing every reference they could get Mattel to agree to let them use.  Using Mara from The New Adventures of He-Man was really cool to see.  It's just a shame Mattel's leadership is stuck in the 1970s.  They can't wrap their brains around the fact that He-Man and She-Ra are in most fans eyes the same property.  One would think that appealing to both boys and girls simultaneously would be exactly what any toy maker would strive for. 

I had the advantage (or disadvantage, I guess, depending on perspective) of watching it with very little previous exposure to the mythology (basically only osmosis + a good chunk of the live action movie) so I was only comparing it to other entries in the genre rather than to other incarnations of itself.

Totally agreed that splitting into a "boys" and "girls" licensing scheme is a stupid decision.

[Lord Insanity]

 

23 hours ago, elfprince13 said:

Hmmm, interesting point, and too bad because while Mega Construx blocks are "ok" these days, it's no fun buying character-oriented sets that don't match the scale of minifigures. Like a lot of my projects, a bigger limitation than scale to a physical rendition is going to be the outrageous color palette, and toning that down somehow doesn't feel right for a She-Ra build either.

To be fair the Mega Construx figures scale isn't that much different.  LEGO minifigures are just really weirdly proportioned.

The color palette isn't going to be as limiting as you might think.  LEGO has made some awesome themes like Elves in the last few years that really work well for Etherian based builds.

23 hours ago, elfprince13 said:

I had the advantage (or disadvantage, I guess, depending on perspective) of watching it with very little previous exposure to the mythology (basically only osmosis + a good chunk of the live action movie) so I was only comparing it to other entries in the genre rather than to other incarnations of itself.

Totally agreed that splitting into a "boys" and "girls" licensing scheme is a stupid decision.

The live action movie is a really bad representation of the lore.  If it weren't for Frank Langella's masterful performance of Skeletor, people would flat out pretend it never happened like the Star Wars Holiday Special.  If you only watch one thing from the original Filmation cartoons I would recommend the movie The Secret of the Sword.  That was made after the He-Man series and was intentionally made to be split into the first few episodes of the She-Ra series.  There are some significant differences but far more that is mostly the same.  It would serve to fill in many of the details the new She-Ra could only hint at due to Mattel's splitting of the property into "boy" and "girl" halves.

Now am an not one of those fanboys that will tell you that the original is so much better, because it's not.  Filmation was low budget animation even by the standards of the 1980s.  That was because they sold the show directly into syndication and had to make 65 episodes for the price of a normal season of 20-ish. Remember this was before computers, when they had to hand paint each frame of animation, so they reused as much as they could.  All the main characters shared body types so they could trace over other characters and reuse sequences of animation.  What was very good for the time was the writing.  The story holds up very well.  Mattel was not expecting to get a bunch of young writers using the shows to prove their skills and writing at a level far better than most cartoons at the time.

Mattel's handling of the property is really unfortunate because I would have liked to see what the new show could have done with access to the full lore.

[elfprince13]

10 hours ago, Lord Insanity said:

 

To be fair the Mega Construx figures scale isn't that much different.  LEGO minifigures are just really weirdly proportioned.

The color palette isn't going to be as limiting as you might think.  LEGO has made some awesome themes like Elves in the last few years that really work well for Etherian based builds.

Yeah, the Elves aesthetic is pretty on-point for a lot of Etherian stuff (my wife and I collected the entire dragons lineup too), but the gold is still pretty scarce afaict.

10 hours ago, Lord Insanity said:

The live action movie is a really bad representation of the lore.  If it weren't for Frank Langella's masterful performance of Skeletor, people would flat out pretend it never happened like the Star Wars Holiday Special.  If you only watch one thing from the original Filmation cartoons I would recommend the movie The Secret of the Sword.  That was made after the He-Man series and was intentionally made to be split into the first few episodes of the She-Ra series.  There are some significant differences but far more that is mostly the same.  It would serve to fill in many of the details the new She-Ra could only hint at due to Mattel's splitting of the property into "boy" and "girl" halves.

Now am an not one of those fanboys that will tell you that the original is so much better, because it's not.  Filmation was low budget animation even by the standards of the 1980s.  That was because they sold the show directly into syndication and had to make 65 episodes for the price of a normal season of 20-ish. Remember this was before computers, when they had to hand paint each frame of animation, so they reused as much as they could.  All the main characters shared body types so they could trace over other characters and reuse sequences of animation.  What was very good for the time was the writing.  The story holds up very well.  Mattel was not expecting to get a bunch of young writers using the shows to prove their skills and writing at a level far better than most cartoons at the time.

Mattel's handling of the property is really unfortunate because I would have liked to see what the new show could have done with access to the full lore.

Cool, thanks for the recommendation =)

[eratos]

Did this MOC ever get finished?  I really want it :P

[elfprince13]

Got busy at work then went on a paternity leave so this went on the back-burner for a bit. I'll finish it one of these days.

[TheLegoDr]

Having just recently watched bits and pieces of this show with my daughter, it is neat to see someone building something related to it.

So far so good! Hopefully you'll have time to get back to working on it.

[The_Last_Ray_Gun]

Can't wait to see when it's finished