Gabe

My partner had this set as a child and she recently dug it out of her attic for me to wash and rebuild... now it stands proudly on the coffee table in our living room, looking fantastic. Some of the studs in the baseplates are worn right through, when i asked my partner about this, she said that she and her sister used to corral thier pet mice in the castle courtyard and they would nibble on the plastic. I guess that's playability for you! Anyway, great review! I love this set, definitly puts the "class" in classic for me.

Yes! Expand! Well, only if you want to - it's looking pretty good already. But i am enjoying watching this develop and grow. Idk - maybe introduce some landscape elevation, or a stream, or more foliage for that dead looking tree, or a dry stone wall...? (Just some ideas)

Wonderful creation! Gosh, you sure chose a difficult subject to build, given yr part restriction. I love the fact that you've put in a crypt as well, although i would have tried to indicate where ground level was on the outside of the building - as it is it is a little confusing. I was wondering where you put the main doors until i saw them halfway up the wall! The scale of the doors give me a bit of a jolt as well, on casual viewing it seemed to be minifig scale, then when i looked closer i realised that no, the structure is meant to be much bigger than that. The only other thing i would do is use something other than grey grilles between the windows in the interior, it just doesn't look quite right to me. Anyway, it looks beautiful and you've done exceedingly well with the subject! The opened out view is my favourite - all that lovely stained glass.

Oh dear, that's not a good time for a monkey to steal yr helmet! Great MOC, lots of lively little touches like this really help to set the scene. And yr greenery and landscaping is fantastic!

Yay! Congrats to all the winners, very well deserved. I know what you mean. I suspected that voting with my heart instead of my head would lead to all my points going to PQ entries, so i made a deliberate decision to split my points among the the themes. I wonder what that bias is about too - is it just because PQ is a new theme? Or because it is a rehash of an old favourite (without the wierdness of ninjago, which doesn't really bear much relation to feudal Japan)? The colour scheme probably has something to do with it for me - it *is* hard to resist that much tan and dark tan! (Certainly trumps the Atlantis colour scheme of red and lime and black...) Incidentally, i wonder if many ppl looked at entries thinking "if that were a set it would be an amazing parts pack!" Or is that just me? Eh, i'm not sure that i'd want to see this. Imho MOCcing (yes, even in comps!) ought to be about what you want to see, rather than finding out what ppl want by survey and then trying to give it to them. But i'm sure that i'm being terribly naive here. Anyway, it was a great contest and i had a heap of fun taking part. Many thanks to EB and the orginisers!

Went on a bit of a spree last night, bought 2 Republic swamp speeders (well, they were only $10AUS each, total bargin), an Outpost attack for $17AUS and then the big one, the 10197 Fire brigade for $198AUS. Me and my partner are going halvies on the fire brigade, we made a pact that we'd pick it up if we ever saw it under $200.

I'm glad yr still working on this one, it's such a great start - only 4 hours, are you some kind of speed builder?! (well, you are compared to me, anyway! ) Btw, i love those old style 8 brick high doors and they look perfect here.

Man, i'm loving this one. The fact you can split them apart, the spiral staircase, the lettering and the little basement are just calling to me, not to mention all that yummy sand blue!! How oh how am i going to afford it, that is the perennial question... *sigh*

It'll have to be better than 20% for me to bite i'm afraid - the prices are just too steep. I'll be waiting for B&N to get stock in.

... and B&N have now cancelled my QAR order. Damn. Last time i try a pre-order with them.

Excellent set - i am so buying the hell out of this when i get the chance. Thanks for the review donut!

Hmm, not liking the sound of that. They have delayed my order of QAR, i'm crossing my fingers that they send it soon. We'll see i guess.

Thanks Algernon! Glad you like it.

Ooh, cool! Great to get a closer look at this set, thanks for the awesome review final exit! I've been hanging out to see if this set was going to be as amazing as i first thought, and yep, it certainly looks that way. Great minifigs, great parts, fantastic design, only drawback is that it's going to eat a hole in my wallet... Oh and yay blue! Taking me back to the old classic space, which i also appreciate.

Thanks Sirens-Of-Titan! I'm glad you like the colour scheme, i really didn't want to go with the traditional red and trans bright-green palette of the Atlantis sets.. Large sets like the Portal of Atlantis managed to avoid it, after all. I'm a bit sad that i'm going to have to dismantle this MOC soon (on a deadline for a display and i need the bricks) - it's looking really good on my living room table!

Oh God, this was so hard to decide... so many wonderful entries and only 7 points to distribute?? But, for my sins, this is how i split them up: Ninjago: 10. Ninjago battle chess arena - Kris Kelvin - 1 point 23. Serpent Ruins - Seircon and Coral - 1 point If had to go for one Lego chess set, it would be Kris Kelvin's. Pure class and the drawers to store the pieces are both elegant and practical. The little clock, even if it is not functional, is a wonderful extra. I deliberated about my inclusion of the Serpent Ruins for a while, but in the end i voted with my heart. I love organic forms and the visual appeal of this entry is undeniable. Not perhaps an obvious set choice for TLG, but we all need a little improbability in our lives! Quy's Ignacia Village and LegoManiac's Attack of the Dojo just miss out on points, but i have to mention them anyway - outstanding entries guys! Atlantis: 15. Rise of the Dread Colossus - Aanchir - 1 point 32. The Final Ruins - Jalkow - 1 point These two entries were examples i felt of amazing design - both visually pleasing and with economical part usage for thier scale. In both cases i got the feeling that the concepts could not have been realised better. The inclusion of the blurred and stamped image in Jalkow's entry was also a really nice touch... really had me going when i saw it on Flickr! Pharaoh's Quest: 20. The Walking Pyramid - Sandy - 2 points 21. Prof. Hale's Oasis Hacienda - Rufus - 1 point Now this was the theme where the comp really heated up, imho. I was faced with the decision to either choose three entries to give one point each to, or to give an extra point to my overall favourite. In the end i stuck to the latter approach, with apologies to the 5 or so entries that could easily have claimed my last point. So my apologies to TazManiac, TooMuchCaffeine, Yatkuu, Neiks and Telvon - my hat is off to you all for yr wonderful entries! In the end the Hacienda won me over with the sheer cosiness of the interiors, plus the beautiful landscaping outside of the building didn't hurt one bit! As for my favourite, the Walking Pyramid was just sheer inventiveness on a grand scale - the troop-carrying legs, the wonderful posability of such a large creation - it even looks like a camel lying down! And it had that slight tinge of absurdity that made it all so idiosyncratic and memorable. So yeah, i hope that is enough feedback for my choices. Because the competition was so fierce, I really felt the need to justify my votes. Best of luck to everyone in the comp, and many, many thanks to Eurobricks and the orginsers for such a brilliant comp!

What is poor CP3O's head doing in there with the conduit?? Don't tell me that our heros will fight through to finally claim the prize, only to find out that it's just some chump frozen in carbonite! ps. Awesome build btw! I love builds with stories behind them.

Dude! I wasn't expecting reviews of the new Kingdoms sets for ages, this is very welcome! Looks like a winnner for me, i want multiples of this one. Thanks for the early review!

Wow, this is lovely! I'm a sucker for clifftop buildings, and to have an fold-out underground component is a great touch. The inside looks great too. I love that fight platform - great posing with the grey and red ninjas. Although that distictly looks like a low blow from the red ninja... Best of the luck in the contest!

Thanks mate! I don't know about being sure of winning though - have you checked out all the other entries?? So many seriously brilliant creations! I can't even work out who i'm going to vote for.

Aha, sneaky with the blurry watermarked image! You got me. Great shapes on the colusseum ruin, really lovely work. Best of luck in the contest!

Well, i like it. This entry made me giggle uncontrollably for about a minute when i saw it, so job done i reckon! Best of luck!

Wow... great idea and all yr vigs are top notch too! I do like the scientist/frankenstein combo, as well as the falling drums in the hazmat dude vig. The tiny bonzai in the kimono woman's vig is awesome too. I do find the wall of them all together very confusing though - my eye isn't sure where to look first! I reckon they'd look better spaced apart somehow.

Thanks! Glad you like the mini-sub, that's my favourite part of the model. Yeah, i never really got into the theme of divers robbing the Atlantis gaurdians etc, or that the gaurdians were themselves evil. Land (water?) rights for Atlanteans i say! Which of course means a proper stake in any business venture in thier territories. Thankyou! Eh, it's not really a set aimed at kids - but neither are a lot of D2C sets either. I can well imagine that it would be a bit too large and sprawling for TLG to make as an official set though - it just kept growing and growing as i was building it. I could have kept going, good thing i ran out of time! Sorry about the lack of good interior shots btw, this shot shows more detail of the cafe interior. Haha, maybe! But perhaps not the celebrity you are thinking of?

Stunning! I love the way it is tiered back into the hill and comes apart like a modular building. All the little traps are great too. So. many. traps... The camp site is great too. But what is that guy doing on the scaffolding with the hammer and chisel?? That's not Lego archaeology son, get some dynamite in there pronto! Best of luck in the comp - not that you'll need luck with this beauty!