Haltiamieli

He is portraying a Man, not a Hobbit. And he belches instead of farting.

So it says in the appendix, you are right. But Tolkien originally wrote that sentence about the Noldor, not all of the Elves. It is curious how it got to the appendices as it is, seemingly about all the Elves, because it doesn't really agree with Tolkien's other words. The Vanyar were golden-haired in all of Tolkien's texts (that's where the golden hair of Finarfin's descendants came from, after all), while many notable Sindar had grey/silver hair. And yes, Thranduil is described as golden-haired once in The Hobbit. In the most recent editions of LotR the paragraph in the Appendix F is footnoted, and there it is mentioned that the words should be taken to apply only to the Noldor. But I suppose we shouldn't go too far in the Tolkien trivia here...

If you are referring to this picture, it was posted a moment ago in this very thread by AndyC. However there is actually no baldric piece, only the pouch piece from Indiana Jones. I'm sure there will be many new molds made for the theme, like any other new licenced theme, but on the other hand they will also try to cut corners where new molds are not clearly necessary - otherwise they would end up with dozens and dozens of new ones. I'm quite certain that the Uruk-hai will have a new sword design, and possibly the Rohirrim too. Aragorn and others could do well enough, for time being, with the longsword from Highlander CMF.

Is it too detailed ("un-Legoish") for your taste or is there something else wrong with it? I'm interested as I am myself quite liking the design of the bear, but haven't yet acquired it. I agree with you on the general principle that it would be great to get more Lego animals :)

Bought my first three Series 6 figs and for the first time I encountered an error in any CMF series: my Highlander had Minotaur's legs. I suppose that's a single case and not a problem with any complete production run, as I haven't seen any other reports, but who knows - maybe I'm just the first to report, as these haven't been available in Finland for that many days. The identification code of the batch (or that's what I think it is, the number code indented in the same area as the infamous identifying bumps) where my figs came from is 442B1.

Nobody knows yet. I'd say it's very probably not posable, but some disagree.

Thanks everybody for your kind comments, and especially Kabel for feeling honoured I do have plans for a few more Great Elk MOCs – I would like to expand this MOC to include a little more of the surroundings and outbuildings, for example some sort of a... tree store hut? Like this. And then of course the great (well, compared to the other houses of the Great Elks) hall of the Great Elks' chieftains. And then maybe some scenarios like bear hunt etc. But it might be some time before I can build any of those, as I'm running pretty low on unused bricks (browns and whites especially) and lacking the will to break any of my finished creations. And now I've also decided to try to build some sort of an embassy for the next challenge. That won't have anything to do with the Great Elks though.

According to CM4S's list a few posts back, that would be Galaxy Patrol.

As I got back into active Lego madness just when the Fantasy Era sets had vanished from the shelves, I don't have much first-hand experience of that subtheme. Nevertheless I try to be fair in my judgement. 1. 5615 The Knight vs. 7955 Wizard - Battle of the impulses 7955 is a nice wizard (though lack of torso print is a bit unfortunate), but the main problem is obviously that you buy this set once and that's it. 5615 on the other hand... how could you ever get out of any shop without grapping one? By itself it's maybe a bit common (though still a great parts pack!), but by masses... Fantasy Era wins. 2. 7090 Crossbow Attack vs. 7950 Knight's Showdown - Battle of the army builders 7950 is not the most interesting set, but not very lacking in any department either. 7090 certainly has rarer parts, but the crossbow-thing looks a bit awkward and I'm not that fond of skeletons... Kingdoms wins. 3. 7037 Tower Raid vs. 7948 Outpost Attack - Battle of the besieged towers I like orcs better than skeletons... and the siege tower does look quite fab, except the wheels. The tower looks teeny-tiny compared to it, however. Outpost Attack is a more balanced set, all parts fitting together nicely et cetera. But is something still missing? There's no eye-catcher, really. Joust not withstanding Outpost Attack is the only Kingdoms set I still haven't bought. That's gotta be a sign of something, so by close call Fantasy Era wins. 4. 7078 King's Battle Chariot vs. 7188 King's Carriage Ambush - Battle of the royal carriages There's no fight. King's Carriage rolled over the chariot without even noticing. Kingdoms wins. 5. 7093 Skeleton Tower vs. 7947 Prison Tower Rescue - Battle of the evil towers I quite like wacky design of Skeleton Tower, the skull and the bone cage. And there's a dragon. Prison Tower Rescue is not bad either, I've bought two of them. Hard choice, but this time I go with wackiness. Fantasy Era wins. 6. 7094 King's Castle Siege vs. 7946 King's Castle - Battle of the castles Both castles look good. But I do like the shape of the newer castle slightly more - especially the prominent gatehouse. It's altogether a little more compact and less airy than Fantasy Era version, which might be bigger but looks more sparse (at least in pictures, that is). Kingdoms wins. 7. 10193 Medieval Market Village vs. 10223 Joust - Battle of the exclusives Considering that Medieval Market Village is as near perfection as a single Castle set is likely ever gonna get, there can be only one answer in this category from me, as awesome as Joust is (I'm very anxious to get it!). Fantasy Era wins - though personally I think MMV has so much more in common with Kingdoms than with any other Fantasy Era set that it practically is a Kingdoms set, never mind the logo and the two Crown soldiers. So Kingdoms gets a moral point. 8. 7979 Castle Advent Calendar vs. 7952 Kingdoms Advent Calendar - Battle of the holidays Very hard choice and I really wish I could have gotten Fantasy Era calendar for last year when new calendars were both abysmally bad (for me). But it was so expensive! But I think I lean slightly towards Kingdoms' favour. The variety of scenes included just feels more thought-out and more like an ensemble instead of detached small builds. Kingdoms wins. 9. 7029 Skeleton Ship Attack vs. 7189 Mill Village Raid - Battle of the wildcards The Skeleton Ship Attack might outshine many other competitors easily just by its subject matter, ships being all too rarely seen in Castle, but against Mill Village Raid? That's a set that's nigh as close to perfect as a normal retail set can get. And while ships are cool, I'm not really that fond of the skeleton ship's design. The Illustrated Oxford English Dictionary could use it as the very definition of the word "truncated". Kingdoms wins. Counting all that together, Kingdoms wins 5 against 4. The two themes have very different strongnesses and weaknesses, in my opinion. Kingdoms is quite conformist in its designs: compact, elegant, though-out, beautiful and complete at its best, but middle-of-the-road and dull without that special spark at its worst. Fantasy Era on the other hand is all over the place with its designs, from rather Kingdoms-ish sets like the Drawbridge Defence (but if it was a Kingdoms set, it would include neither the jester nor the golden knight!) to wacky and improbable structures and subjects that simply are not content to be "just" anything, they have to be it 200 percent. Double or quits. It gives a more varied line up with more ups and downs and less average results.

A wonderful set, I'm seriously tempted to buy it even though I don't collect town or modulars. This could be a great parts pack for medieval builder, or starting point for making a medieval town hall. Sadly, I don't think I will have money for this. Jut, thanks for the pics! The shield (of which there are two in the set, surprise!) seems to have an... interesting design. I don't exactly make it what's it meant to represent? Nevertheless it's good to have new shield designs. Also, it seems the bride really does have a different torso than either last year's wedding decoration bride or Series 7 bride!

Oh, Smallpox Arrives to the Andes would be a killer set! Or not? Considering how many civilizations fell and millions of lives were lost, it would not be an easy theme to depict... Who would be the bad and the good guys? I don't think TLC would be ready for a completely morally ambiguous theme. AFAIK the film series is in the production hell at the moment, any continuation being somewhat uncertain. And Disney backed off after the second film, so that wouldn't help in the licensing. Not all of the seven books are as easily done as movies either (and the last one is horrible, in my opinion). But I certainly agree with SilvaShado on centaurs – any theme introducing them into Lego form would be great! Maybe excluding that characters tend to often appear only in their underwear, I think for example Girl Genius is quite kid-friendly and rather light-hearted steampunk (or "gaslamp fantasy", as the authors would rather call their work). Also I've understood that the sequel series of Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender will be markedly influenced by steampunk, so if it's not a popular theme with the kids at the moment, it will soon be...

At least for trading uses such structures would be mightily unpractical, anyway. Personally I think they look kind of awesome in some sort of a disproportionate fantasy sense, but then again I don't tend to be that concerned with realism. Not to say I wouldn't certainly be able appreciate your stance. Maybe if the ship looks awesome enough when finished I might be swayed your way - the model you are using really does look great and you seem to be catching the likeness nicely. Though I shouldn't take it to habit to just copycat your designs! Yeah, the typical problem of fact being stranger than fiction: "It does not look real." "But it is a very faithful depiction..." "Does not change a thing." "Crap."

I really like this, partly because I myself have wanted to build a cog for a long time (someday, I hope, Lego will do a little more official medieval seafaring sets too) and the design looks very solid. I think the bow looks great, the rear-section is harder to judge at this stage. Are you planning to do some sort of raised/fortified forecastle or is the bow's shape more or less finished? When it comes to the landscape, I think it looks good and natural except (imo) a bit too straight and orderly striped pattern of dark and light bley in the rock face.

Congrats to our guild, what a wonderful feat! It would be nice to know a bit of the logic how the coins were dispersed, like how much impact did just the top five of each guild have and how much the other entries mattered? If all the entries weighted more than trivially, I think we did especially well in the quality scale, as (if I counted correctly) we had slightly less entries than Avalonia and Kaliphlin.

Dunno, all of the figures you mention are also quite understandable choices just as standalone figures. I think it's not worth it to try figure any logic or reasoning behind the CMF choices - there's too many variables and too many ways they could have arrived to same conclusions. But admittedly I have wondered why there has still been not a single pirate-themed CMF. It does seem strange. I bet fifty bley 1x2 bricks there's gonna be one in Series 8.

I don't think the bear is that good a comparison, as the animal has a bit different physics than horses do - it's easier to add the movable legs to the side of the body. When it comes to the horse mold, it would still have to be only two bricks wide and legs attached to the side would look somewhat strange. I don't think it's impossible, but I see it as improbable. I still haven't found Kingdoms sets in any recent sales. On a weak moment I even considered a half-priced Star Wars set for pieces and to resell the figs, but then again I better save my money for something more worthwhile (for me, that is). There's at least one shop I frequent that still has several MVRs in their shelf, maybe they will be discounted some day.

I don't think I'm going to be able to participate in the Embassy challenge, as I still don't really have any idea for it, at least not anything I would have parts for, and I'm also quite tight on money right now. I did a small Mitgardian MOC though, just to flesh out my clan and not related to any of the mini-challenges. The house itself was close to finished already before Christmas, but I did manage to add the landscape (the small amount there is) only lately and I took the photographs today. A small Mitgardian homestead

Firstly, I have to acknowledge that I stole (as best as I could and my parts allowed) the exterior design of the house from Kabel's creation Stoneroda 1200. But since he's a fellow Mitgardian, that's quite fitting storywise. Like most of the tribes of the northern wastes of Mitgardia, the Clan of the Great Elk has no real villages. Most of the people live in scattered farmsteads where even the closest neighbour might be dozens of miles away. I've built an example of a typical main building, but I left out (at least for time being) the few sheds and storage buildings surrounding it. Often there is also a low wooden palisade at the perimeter of the yard, more to block out the wind and the snow than to keep the intruders away - if troubles arise, people usually flee to some hidden refuge or the closest hill fort rather than defend their homes all alone. As you can see from the pictures, spring is already approaching as the thaw has eaten away most of the snow and melted it from the tree branches. Kemi is sweeping the snow from the threshold while her husband Ruka has gone fishing and the children are out there in the forest gathering fallen branches for firewood after the last night's storm. Inside there is an old wandering trapper enjoying the hospitality of the house, roasting a fresh catch from the lake nearby. Any wanderers are usually warmly welcomed by the Great Elks, especially after the long and lonesome winter, as they bring news and stories from afar. When it comes to the interior of the building, I didn't have any picture from Kabel to copycat, so I had to design it all by myself (oh the horror). There's a fireplace in the middle and benches by the walls for sitting and sleeping. In one corner there's a few logs drying, most of the firewood is obviously stored outside.

IIRC only series up to 7 was confirmed back then? I'm not sure when or how series 8 was confirmed then, though, so maybe I remember wrong?

As far as we know there will not be (there has been some contradicting answers from Lego customer service in Twitter, but it seems those have only referred to the Joust set with bad choices of words).

Maybe, but don't they want to make money? This doesn't look like a very good-selling product, frankly. It doesn't seem like it would include the most easily produced figs either, except Mummy and maybe Gorilla Suit Guy. Fisherman, Space Villain and Elf all have a lot of different pieces etc. Maybe it really is the result of the vote. The problem with democracy is, after all, that you can't trust people to vote wisely. Fisherman seems to have a different-coloured cap, Mummy a scorpion and Space Villain darker prosthetic arm and peg-leg, but I can't see any change in either Gorilla Suit Guy or Elf? Maybe there might not be a zipper print on the back of Gorilla Suit Guy's torso? That would be a very useful change. How about Elf then? He does seem to have same colours and all. Maybe there will be a change not included in the teaser photo, but why then have the other changes been already applied?

I agree. I think the somewhat minimalist approach to landscaping is a nice deviation from the usual abundant greenery and detailing in AFOL MOCs. It really brings to mind the old catalogue pics, as you said. And it's not like there are no landscaping, cause there is – like the small underground stream running into the pond, a great detail made with a simple design and very common pieces. Not that a few small green plates wouldn't be nice to make the ground rise more naturally in some places, or dark grey plates instead of black for the road, but other than that I don't think the MOC would really benefit that much from more parts. Sometimes less is more.

I forgot to say in my last post that by no means do I think Friends is a perfect theme. I think my positive stance towards it is partly because I think it could have been so much worse – and realistically, maybe it could not have been that much better, all things considered. When it comes to gender stereotyping Friends is far from ideal, but nevertheless I think it could be Lego's best attempt (yet) at a "girl theme". Yes, that includes Paradisa, even if it had normal minifigs (lazing away idly in their pink beach paradise, faces distorted eternally into a duckface, waiting for Manolo to bring more piña colada). Actually I think the ladyfigs are quite good and I appreciate their compatibility in size with normal System themes. Minifigs are all kinds of awesome, but I don't think they need to be the only answer.* As a child I was a Fabuland fan, and those figs were much less compatible with other themes. And lo! They are still fondly remembered by many AFOLs of today. * (I'm in a safe hiding place, so lynch mobs don't bother)

I suspect, or at least hope, that later waves will reveal new interests for the main characters, some less stereotypical than others. Admittedly summer wave seems to be a let down on that front. Some sports would be good (is soccer still too obscure for most Americans?). Cosplay might still be a bit too fringe activity, but how about an old-style masquerade party at someone's home? Mia as a pirate captain, Andrea as a female cowboy and Emma as a princess (so that it would please everybody )? There are certainly a lot of possibilities, we just have to hope that if the theme proves to be a success, Lego will be brave enough to try them out later. By the way didn't someone already like drawing in those descriptions, so we could very well get her as an artist with the CMF Series 3 paint brush some day? I agree, but optimistically (or cynically, dunno?) I also think that sometimes, maybe, you have to take a step backwards to be able to take two forward. Lego wants to catch the attention and interest of millions of children worldwide, children who have not previously had much interest in Lego at all. That is a very hard if not impossible thing to do if you are just going to up the amount of female minifigs in existing themes, add some non-trivial hero girls into action themes and so on. That would surely please the girls that are already interested in Lego (and that's why they have been doing that exact thing too, even if we can probably all agree they are making it with irritatingly (and unnecessarily?) slow advancements). But all in all it's not very marketable. It doesn't make much more visibility, buzz or hype. It doesn't get people talking (except AFOLs, but we would talk in any case). I'm still wondering if the controversy people aren't just playing into Lego's pockets with their campaigns, as regardless of their agenda they are still giving the theme launch more visibility.

In Brickset there is a Sets designed by Adults Fans of LEGO bricklist (meaning it has been done by one of the users, not the administrators of the site), but I don't know how good and complete and trustworthy it is. At least some of the sets listed have been designed, I think, by official Lego designers who also happen to be AFOLs in their free time.