Exetrius

naturally

For any lingering Nocties around here: I made my third Civil War scene:

I got a bunch of the macaroni tiles, started arranging for a bit, and then the 'U-wave' came to me. The curves continue on the sides, with the large macaronis, but I still need to get that on photo. The roof curls were partly inspired by this build by Thorsten Bonsch. Glad you like it! Thanks, guys! Good to hear you enjoyed the depiction of the scenes and story! Thanks, mate! The shields are more intended to represent trade counties within Nocturnus actually (it's only a small town), but obviously there's one to honour the Guild of Nocturnus, and one for a major Spire city. What you identified as a grill is in fact a printed 1x1 plate (this one), but I reckon it's a detail that makes it stand out. Thank you, Navarre!

If such thing were allowed, something like "36 x 36, or equivalent stud area" would be stated in the rules here on EB. I think that it will really have to be a square in this contest.

Turmoil in Camp Carakath [Nocturnus Civil War] Ambush in the Rakath [Nocturnus Civil War] Onwards, to the Moruth Highlands! The Civil War of Nocturnus was yet to reach its climax. Lord Raavage had moved into the Rakath Mountains to retrieve the Necromancer's Helm, pursued by the 1st Corps of the Zotharian army, which was moving at a strenuous pace, beyond the front line, into unconquered territory. The 2nd Corps was assigned to fend off any attacks on the city of Zotharith and the surrounding area. Meanwhile, a division had been stationed at Carakath, a miners town in the Rakath southwest from Zotharith. The division was led by Vauranglir Merehgrim, 2nd mage in the Order of Zotharith. After defeating the Spire squadron that initially had the town's surface in control - underground, the dwarves defences were holding out - no attempts had been made to retake the town from the Resistence, and life was actually relatively peaceful. One morning however, Camp Carakath woke up to a baffling sight... Contrary to popular belief perhaps, skeletons are one of the toughest enemies for humans to face. Due to the lack of flesh, they are obviously invulnerable to flesh wounds and virtually invulnerable to arrows. It also makes them incredibly light and swift. Additionally, they are maintained by magic, which means they don't need to eat, drink or rest, and they can't drown. While it is true that they only have a very faint perception of physical world around them, their souls see the underlying spiritual world much better than humans can, enabling them to track down their enemies in complete darkness and regardless of obstacles. It goes without saying that the fact that a pile of them, plus a mage, lay lifelessly in the middle of the camp, seemingly without any witnesses of what happened, gave rise to great confusion. All that could be done was wait in suspense for the moment Vauranglir would step out his tent and lay his eyes on the bizarre scene. The previous night... It was the middle of the night. Vauranglir couldn't sleep. The bed he had been provided with was too soft and comfortable to his taste, thus got up and sat down in front of his tent. The two guards in the little trade hall were craving for sleep, so it seemed, and it didn't take much to have them both drop to the floor, fast asleep, before they had even noticed their commander. He'd take over the nightwatch, but to keep him occupied he started working out a spell that he had had in his mind for a while. The hours slipped by unnoticibly. Suddenly, he sensed something was approaching. He blew out the candle. For a moment, the thought of waking up the guards and soldiers crossed his mind, which he quickly rejected it. Too much of a hassle. He would treat himself to some nightly fun. Skeletons, several of them, charging towards him. Vauranglir was quite amused. Time for some exorcism... He slayed them one by one, and then their master showed up. He strengthened the sleeping magic for the whole camp, as he felt things could get a little rougher from here. Mage "Surrender yourself to the Spire and I will leave your comrades alive!" Vauranglir "You have me absolutely terrified. Come on, Spire lord, show me some magic!" Mage "Not a step closer, I will..." Vauranglir "An advanced targeting spell, excellent choice, very impressive! Though it feels like I've seen it somewhere before... oh wait, I DEVISED IT! Guess what, boy? I also know how to break it!" And thus, the unfortunate lad was done for, and Vauranglir could finally rest as well, though in a more temporary way. The morning would surely bring turmoil, but whatever... Hi, I'm back. I spent my (whole) weekend on setting up the scenes, experimenting with nighttime photography and editing. So, I spent quite a few hours in the dark, and right now it's past 2:00 AM here, so I guess I'm starting to turn nocturnal, just like Vauranglir. Now, let's hope someone will actually read all of this. I'm off to bed, lol.

Someone on reddit got ahold of the Land Bounty and built it! https://old.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/blpeuy/got_the_landbounty_finished/ That roof is so streamlined!

So many GoH builders in one place! I wish Sweden would be more around the corner for me...

I can picture that would be a beautiful theme, but it would be a pain to design. I don't think it's worth doing for the small portion of people who would effectively get the whole wave. It gets old really quickly, doesn't it? Some bat-freak, a lame hysterical clown, penguin grandpa, a spider-freak, some docter with four arms, and so forth, on repeat. At least this is how I view it, as a non-fan. I'd much rather see original IP superhero themes, the more variation in the designs, the better. Well, it was more like specialists vs. super villains, instead of super heroes vs super villains. I liked the Ultra Agents villains for their variety in powers and colour schemes, but didn't care much for the all-black agents side. I think it all stands or falls with a successful TV show. But I'm sure it's not impossible. All shows pull the same tropes all the time, but it's in the execution that some really get you hooked and makes you want to buy merchandise. DC and Marvel are not the only successful producers of superheroes. I disliked the genre, until two Japanese anime - My Hero Academia and One Punch Man - came around, which made me realize it just needed a different execution to appeal to me. The Ninjago show too just struck the right chords for me.

Alright, thanks!

On second thought, I put that wrong. A different thought: those would have probably worked better if they had been blended into the protagonist team, possibly replacing characters that have been milked already (Batman...). However, speaking for myself here, the boy in me wants a cool antagonist faction to fight against my protagonists. Something like TLM1's super secret police, or evil swarms of knights, or ninja, or wizards, or aliens, or a supervillain alliance. I don't want a bunch of silly brick-built teddybear goofballs. My two assumptions that led to my earlier comment were that 1. the target demographic (still) a majority of boys, and 2. the majority of boys has similar desires as me. If both are true, then from a marketing perspective it would not have been the smartest move to make the antagonists minidolls and Duplo.

We can make a fully fleshed out MOC of a location/vehicle/thing, right? Or does it have to be believable as a set to some extent?

What killed my interest was the antagonist side and setting. From the trailer, I was very excited for anything Apocalypseburg-related. That's where the deception began. Well.. what if... the antagonists were all minidols and brick-built characters to appeal to girls, how cool would that be?? Oh, and let's add Duplo, too! If there's two things I don't care for, it would be girl-oriented LEGO, and Duplo. I mean, these have all the right to be cameos, but to take the spotlight was a not a good move, imo. Neither was recycling the complete cast, or leaving out the civilians/cameos in the regular (e.g. non-CMF; non D2C) sets. In my experience, Sweet Mayhem and Rex are on par with the level of value that Lucy and Metalbeard contributed to the first movie: fresh, original, and quality characters. Without having seen TLM2 I'll say: we needed more of these. Same goes for the incorporated legacy themes: the (second) return of Classic Space in physical form was a good move imo, but where are the other themes? Bionicle, Chima, Rock Raiders, Blacktron idk.. Pirates of the Carribean, Powerpuff Girls, etc.; something to get a new cocktail going that works (almost) as well as last one.

It's a Ninjago contest (I can't even remember when we last had one)! Niiice! Given Ninjago is my absolute favorite theme, I guess I'll have to enter, right? I have too many unfinished WIPs already, but who knows...

That's pretty wild! Cat. A has so much potential, great category! I already have some ideas for over-the-top, non-canon, Historican nightmare scenarios.

Here are my WIPs. The 'normal' build will be a CSD (cutter suction dredger) and the bennyfied MOC would become sort of an asteroid grinding and processing ship. Will finish the CSD for sure, but I don't know what I'm going to do with the other one. While I'm at it, here also my concepts for a Cat. A entry: It was based on 70589: Rock Roader, from Ninjago. I modelled the mini buggy after the set itself. It would have been inserted in the back of the MOC, but I got stuck on that part.

I gave up an hour ago, sadly. I went too big and ambitious to finish. I've been working for two days now and an all-nighter wouldn't suffice to finish both builds in time. I can share the WIPs tomorrow, for fun.

I really hope I can finish my Cat. B today, but I'm not even close to being done...

I've been following for a while, makes me so jealous sometimes! He also sells them, I think. Don't start adding prototypes though!

Yes, That new braided mould is great! I don't know which of the latest hairpieces are not in the list here yet, but here's what I can think of right now: CMF TLM2 and CMF Disney 2, I think classic anniversary Leia hair is new in reddish brown, as opposed to old brown. And then there are the BAM bar and regional exclusives: Barbara Gordon hair in cool yellow (BAM) afro in blue (BAM) birthday girl in brown (BAM) and black (Chinese New Year's Eve Dinner) bald guy with bandana and Cole's man bun with bandana hair in black (Dragon Dance) with red bandanas birthday boy hair in black (Beijing store exclusive: http://minifigpriceguide.com/wordpress/lego-store-2019-beijing-exclusive-minifigure/) CMF veterinarian (Beijing store exclusive) And the summer sets will come later...

Those Brick Warriors torches though...

Torso and legs are exclusive, check for yourself: https://brickset.com/minifigs/name-Wu I'm not posting this stuff for nothing, ya know! Of course it is similar to Wu's original torso and the one from Day of the Departed, but it's always useful to get variations, so you can diversify a group of minifigs. A very expensive set indeed. And it wasn't available on B&P. However it did appear as a magazine gift, too, but that's not an option for everyone (either).

A new edition of the NINJAGO Visual Dictionary has been revealed, including an exclusive Teen Wu minifig!! https://www.hothbricks.com/lego-ninjago-visual-dictionary-new-edition-teen-wu-sera-la-minifig-exclusive/ Love the torso printing!

Wacky, just like the original! The Planty-pod is my favorite feature!

Awww, it's cute!

As it should be. See my earlier comment. Btw, I've been staring at Lloyds mech for some time and it seems like it could have bending knees, with two pairs of the 'super rigeted' Technic joints. Would they actually, finally, do that again??