Haltiamieli
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Everything posted by Haltiamieli
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Wow, great to see that the Great Elk Clan hasn't completely vanished from the realm of Mitgardia even if I did, a long time ago. Of course the build itself is great too! Probably my favourite detail would be how well those mechanical Bionicle arm-thingies (or whatever?) blend into the whole looking like wooden ornaments.
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I wonder if these will have some elemental associations. Naida is just a [deliberate or not] typograpical error away from Naiad, a sort of water nymph from Greek legends (and he/she has a spa, or a fountain or whatever). In this scheme Aira would be clearly associated with air, but Azari and Farran are not that obvious names (or at least I don't get them?). Baking could include fire and crystals are from earth, I suppose. Of course, they might not be that straight-forwardly elementally anyway. Naida would be rather awkwardly unfortunate name in Finnish, as it is colloquially used as a somewhat rude word for copulating.
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Indeed. And Tolkien's 100th birthday was actually back in 1992. No such natural celebratory times are in sight now.
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There are without doubt many different reasons, big and small, behind the choice of leaving Friends (nearly completely) out of the movie, but one that may have weighed in the matter (and I didn't see mentioned here yet) is that minidolls are less posable. That may suit the play patterns of their intended audience, but it does not suit brickfilms.
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And so it came to happen that the 31st review (from New York Post) aggregated in Rotten Tomatoes was the first to be of the "rotten" variety. Of course, not all the other reviews have been glowingly positive either. Nevertheless, the critical reception so far has been way better than I dared to hope.
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And if Lego LotR doesn't end yet and we get a third wave full of Gondor stuff 90+ percent of us will be happy that they put Mouth of Sauron there (the only set ever where we could get him) instead of one Gondorian soldier who would just make some eBay sellers rich before the third wave floods the market. And if they would cancelled the third wave (similarly like they seem to have actually done) just with that one Gondorian instead of MoS in the Black Gate set, I'm not sure if there'd really be considerably less backlash amongst fans. They would still have cut the theme prematurely (as it appears to us), that would still be only one single Gondorian in a pretty expensive set not too suitable for multiple buys, there'd still be no Minas Tirith/Osgiliath, no Eowyn, no Witch-King... It's so easy to take all we get as granted and crave for just a little bit more.
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Gandalf Arrives is still one of my favourite sets from the LotR line... I think it was great introductory scene for the theme, especially for adults (including, mind you, those 99,99 % who aren't active AFOLs). It's cheap enough to be an impulse buy and the cart is well designed build for its size, showcasing what Lego is most essentially about. A battlepack might have sold as well or possibly even better, but to a different demographic... it would be preaching to the choir. The lack of battlepacks is unfortunate and rather unexplicable, I'd like them as much as the next guy, but I think the smallest sets get undeserved flak for that. Well, except Riddles for the Ring − now that actually is a lame set deserving a bit of flak. To keep the window open for a possible future set. They can consider future prospects whether or not they have definite plans just yet. And even if they do have a Treebeard set designed it doesn't necessarily mean it will ever be released. We can hope, but nothing's given.
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Yes, that is implied:
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The Lego Movie Soundtrack Is Awesome
Haltiamieli replied to David Thomsen's topic in LEGO Media and Gaming
The whole soundtrack is available in Spotify. Various Artists – The Lego® Movie: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack -
LEGO Collectable Minifigure Accessories Wishlist
Haltiamieli replied to lifeinplastic's topic in Special LEGO Themes
Don't we already have this? Not that I would complain if we'd get another mold of a bigger and fuller sack. There's quite a few agricultural/horticultural tools that would be nice to have like rake, sickle and hoe. Rake might be hard one to mold though, with all the thin parts. I'm sort of expecting we might get an ancient druid with a sickle someday, if the CMF series goes on long enough. It could be far enough removed from such avoidable subjects as (mainstream) religious practices of today. A rake (or even a hoe) could accompany a gardener figure instead of (or in addition to) a watering can. -
"[T]aking the audience for a ride when in fact they were promised a journey" is probably the best critical summary of the films I've yet seen. On the whole the article is a bit tedious read with the overuse of allegory, but there's a lot of good points. The writer does, however, appear strangely uncritical of the LotR trilogy. Maybe it's for the sake of argument.
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Seems it's already time for the sequel rumours too, in the midst of the first reviews: Warner Bros. Already Working on Sequel to ‘The Lego Movie’ Is this any news, though? Probably not. I suspect the studios have someone start penning a sequel, just in case, for every somewhat franchisable big budget movie as early as possible. Saves valuable time if the movie is a hit, and doesn't waste that much money if it bombs.
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The Wrap gave us the first clearly (though not completely) negative review I've read: ‘The Lego Movie’ Review: Funny Pieces Don’t Click With Heavy-Handed Message. I'm trying to maintain quite low expectations despite all the hype, especially as I made the mistake to pass the time before the movie premiere (February 14th here in Finland) by watching Lord & Miller's earlier films. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs I found pretty watchable/mediocre, but 21 Jump Street was just horribly dumb and groanworthy.
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Yeah, but I think the designers at Lego could do it. They have, after all, a lot of experience of "gates and walls" sets. The biggest problem I suppose would be making the set self-sustaining with enough play possibilies. Would the gates and walls be enough, if there was nothing much behind to defend? They did add the throne room to Helm's Deep set for a good reason.
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Around 900. Even with Grond and interiors etc. I think the design could quite easily be less than 1300 pieces (i.e. the size of The Battle of Helm's Deep).
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The ONE Thing You Want to See from LotR Before it Ends
Haltiamieli replied to Deathleech's topic in LEGO Historic Themes
I'm with the masses and answer a Gondorian soldier. If the one thing could be a whole set, it would be (related to the forementioned soldier) The Gates of Minas Tirith. If the one thing could only be a piece, it would be a Gondorian shield. -
You have principles, I have to give you that. I would certainly take a complete Minas Tirith play set if the other option would be having zero Gondor sets and minifigures. Beggars can't be choosers... But yes, I too would really prefer a set that wouldn't even try to present the whole city, just the gates and Grond. I already presented my crude and somewhat overblown "proof of concept" elsewhere (inspired by Yooha's design). Strip away some of the superfluous details, add Grond, play features, catapults and minifigures and you could have a solid start for a set design:
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LEGO Collectable Minifigure Accessories Wishlist
Haltiamieli replied to lifeinplastic's topic in Special LEGO Themes
Like this? I think better word for that would be flail. But indeed I rather dislike the version used nowadays, as it's permanently freezed in mid-strike pointing straight forward. Of course, there are similar cases like the bow with arrow. Could we get one with actual chain? Very improbable, but after the new chain-with-ball-piece I can't deny it as completely impossible anymore. -
LEGO Collectable Minifigure Accessories Wishlist
Haltiamieli replied to lifeinplastic's topic in Special LEGO Themes
That's good for painting a picture, but not for painting a house. Watering can hasn't been mentioned yet, that would be a nice addition and quite realistic. I'm sure we'll get a gardener figure sooner or later. I second AmperZand's mention of a lute. A hunting horn/bugle and a long straight trumpet would be great too. Also simple eating utensils. Maybe just the Friends versions in neutral colours like grey or brown. -
Indeed. Personally I don't see complete Minas Tirith as a feasible set option... or even desirable, really. But actually I was a bit surprised how much I could do with those 900 bricks in my model, especially as there are only eight wall pieces and not that many other big parts either. And Yooha's model is more conservative with the amount of pieces and still manages to look impressive.
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Is hijacking other one's topic like this legal? Oh well, me being the first culprit and provocator I suppose I could as well continue my criminal life. I hope Yooha doesn't mind? Or maybe we should move posts by me and Deathleech to start a general topic for Minas Tirith LDD designs? So anyway, I too have continued to bloat my LDD file onwards from the little statuettes and the doors themselves. The whole thing is admittedly closer to Exclusives style than play sets. As of yet there's not even any catapults or other play features. It has about 900 pieces, but of course it is also still missing all the additional details and interiors. And of course there should be Grond too.
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Here's my contribution to the Whatever Happened To LEGO Gondor®: My rather firm belief is that they originally planned Lego LotR to be three waves, with a Gondor-centered wave as the third and last one and the Summer 2013 wave sort of as a filler in-between, covering other random things that they thought would be cool for the fans to have (or maybe this wave wasn't even in the plan before The Hobbit was split into three parts, thus allowing one more additional wave which was filled with odds and ends). Anyway it was a great plan but it sort of backfired when, for whatever reasons*, they decided not to release (or, at least, postpone) that last intended wave. "Oops, on hindsight I suppose we should have released that Gondor wave and left out that filler wave instead...", they momentarily mulled before moving on to other things. * I suspect there were just too many themes vying for production capacity and shelf space in the summer selection and, forced to drop something, they chose LotR which may or may not have been underperforming compared to expectations but definitely hasn't been one of the biggest and most important sellers.
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The LEGO Movie Sets News and Discussion
Haltiamieli replied to Itaria No Shintaku's topic in Special LEGO Themes
Certainly one that will be in sets, the helmet mold differs somewhat from an actual vintage helmet (well, even aside the crack) and, as you say, the "faded" logo is printed that way. I tried to do my own Benny a while ago, but none of my old blue helmets were actually broken. White, yellow, red, black yes, but all the blue ones were like new. Not even any of the torsos was faded enough. Never thought I'd consider that to be unfortunate :D -
Future Castle sets - put your hopes and ideas here
Haltiamieli replied to Alfadas's topic in LEGO Historic Themes
Like many have said, some continuity would be great awesome, like in ye olde times. Not rebooting the theme every other year with yet another pair of new lion and dragon factions but keeping the overall theme and adding new factions while fading out others. One year there could be northern seafarers pillaging the Griffin Kingdom coastline (medieval ships! vikings! a chance for some civilian set like MVR!), another it could be Forestmen stealing from the Black Falcons (I think these two ambivalent-ish factions could play rather well with one another). Then a year devoted to a grand tournament with brave knights from half a dozen kingdoms, or a year with even more brave knights on a quest to fight against the many legendary beasts terrorising the kingdom... -
Good model! I do wish that Lego would have done a set along these lines, with the gates and Grond... maybe they still might, who knows. I haven't yet given up all hope... Like some others I do find the beacon tower distracting and strange here "on the plain", as good as it looks by itself. I think the set could do without if the wall would be modified to be a little bit less flat. The sidewalls could already start to curve a bit inwards, suggesting the overall shape of Minas Tirith? There could also be extending battlements on the both sides of the gate, like in the movie model. The most distinctive thing about the gates as I remember them are the carven statues, and last night I was inspired by your MOC to try whether I could include those in the model somehow in this scale. I got a bit carried away, but here's the result... In the end my version ended up being a tad taller and wider than yours, oops. But the doors themselves are of similar size.