Haltiamieli

Thanks to all for your encouraging comments Following Waterbrick Down's advice I tested applying some flowers to decorate the underside of the stage. It surely looks better now than before, but I'm not completely happy yet. Maybe I have to change the colours of some flowers, but I don't have much other than yellow, red and white ones. Got to add some others to the next BL orders. There's some more pics of the village in Brickshelf. Actually I don't have Hagrid, I bought the hut from eBay without the figures. In Hagrid's stead the hut is inhabited by the village witch and her daughter, it suits them well (though I did some changes, like removed the back door). The house in the background is a small MOC based on one of the alternate builds of Apple Tree House. But this is somewhat off-topic already. I'll probably make another topic for the whole village some day. Maybe when I've got Mill Village Raid and finished the MOC building that I'm working on now.

I hope there's a lot of Clowns per box, otherwise the BL price of those pies will probably be unbearable.

Nope, apparently not. This year's advent calendars will be City and Star Wars themed. City calendar includes mostly police and robbers and is quite useless for Castle fans, and Star Wars is obviously Star Wars. I'm probably buying some older calendar to use this year, like Pirates calendar 2009, which is quite affordable (compared to Castle calendar 2008).

A bucket full of bley or dark bley bricks and plates, now that would be something indeed! Wouldn't object to tan etc. buckets either.

Very good suggestion, thanks a lot! I have to try that.

Here we have one of the first MOCs I've made since my dark ages, and the first one I'm daring to post on Eurobricks. Be gentle! I apologise for the mediocre photography. Anyway, the MOC in question is a big and colourful wagon for the pair of jesters I've invited from the famous Bricklink Kingdom to entertain my meager medieval Lego populace for a while before they continue their journey to the other villages around. They weren't cheap, but I believe they were worth it nevertheless. Court jester (7953) is needed in the King's Castle, after all, so he can't be there for the common people. Here they come, passing through the dull sceneries of White Paper Pass! I'm the first to admit that the wagon is quite ginormous and barely in any scale with the poor horses (or minifigs), but no can do. The door frame was one of the two things that determined the height of the wagon. If it wasn't for them I would've liked to build a lower and altogether a little smaller wagon. It will be interesting to see how this one compares with the upcoming King's Carriage, which is quite large too. At the moment I have only the tiny carts from Prison Carriage Rescue and Medieval Market Village to compare. Part of the idea behind building the wagon was to have some use for some of my old yellow and red pieces, even though in the end I had to order some more from BL (I had only part of me and my brother's old collection at hand). Such bright colours aren't the most useful ones in Castle theme... On the other side of the wagon is the stage. Not very pretty, I admit. The stage defined the size of the wagon too, because it had to be stationed over the wheels. I tried some decorations in the back of the wagon, not completely happy how they turned out though. The roof of the wagon is detachable allowing access to the inside. There's a narrow bed in the back, a broom for cleaning and a chest where they can store the necessary utensils like pans and kettles. The food is cooked on the campfire outside, of course. At the side of the stage there's also a place to store the two posts that are used to support the stage when it's lowered down, but they are missing from the picture. Here, as an example, our pair of jesters lower down the stage to show how it works. But always remember to release the horses from their harnesses before doing this! If you don't, you might risk the lives of those on the stage, in case the horses would get restless! Two Spartans had to donate their capes to make up the curtain. Finally the wagon has arrived to the village and the show can start! Oh yeah, between taking this picture and the ones above I decided I don't like the flag on the roof and took it off. Oh my, he dropped the third ball. As a bonus feature, here is my first draft of the wagon with random coloured bricks and less details. I have yet to design the driver's bench and the front of the wagon is one brick longer. And it is missing all the windows. It was just easier to build without them.

I have to admit that we've already seen so many pictures and even closeups of this set beforehand that this doesn't hype me up anymore. But it has been on the top of my "must-buy-on-first-sight" list (which is very short, because of my financial status) ever since we knew the name only, so I'm not sure if I could be more hyped. Nevertheless, thanks to Donut for reviewing the set. I'm so jealous.

If only there were just 7 great entries, would be so much easier... But in the end I managed to choose seven entries I may have liked a little bit more than the rest, or that I thought best adhered to the idea of the contest. 3/ Ignacia Village by quy – 1 point 11/ Leviathan Dragon Fish by ---Vertea--- – 1 point 13/ Attack on the Nile by Yatkuu – 1 point 15/ Rise of the Dread Colossus by Aanchir – 1 point 21/ Professor Hale's Oasis Hacienda by Rufus – 1 point 32/ The Final Ruins by Jalkow – 1 point 38/ Colosseum of Atlantis by Brick_Tom – 1 point

Well, in Blacksmith Attack you get a shield and a sword, here you get a polearm and no shield, otherwise the Dragon knights are identical. Personally I would think that BA is a much better deal as you also get a useful civilian minifig, but of course at the same time you don't get a Lion knight, which army builders might prefer.

Well, it could also have short legs and long arms (Toy Story ones), to make more gorilla-ish appearance. But admittedly it would still be more repetitive than any skater ever was. If we are to hope for an actual gorilla like that, I think we have to put our money on some completely new Zoo or Safari theme instead of any upcoming CMF series.

While I'm by no means very knowledgeable about boats, I imagine quite a few real boats of this size (quite small, that is) do not have high enough cabin spaces that one could stand there straight either?

There was an earlier discussion about this a while ago, let me see... Here. While it's possible in some occassions, unfortunately most of the PotC figs tend to have quite an amount of "fleshy" skin showing in their torsos. Some might not care about that, but I at least am quite pedantic about such matters. This leaves Elizabeth's torso, for example, somewhat useless, even if it's otherwise very nice one.

It is an awful lot of plastic, but the world is also an awfully big place. If I remember correctly, every second seven Lego sets are sold somewhere in the world, but still there is "only" 63 Lego bricks per capita if divided evenly to everybody. We produce so much plastic, and it is used for so many things (globally, even simple things like toothbrushes make a staggering amount of waste every year), that in the bigger scheme of things Lego bricks are, if not a drop in the ocean, then still only one of the thousands of rivers flowing into it. The plastic waste beaches of the future generations will be made mostly of other things. Not to say that collecting Lego would be exactly an eco-friendly hobby, but it's not the worst either. And yes, the documentary was quite interesting.

The new pitchfork is more or less an exact copy of the old pitchfork, piece 4496. Having been released in only a few sets more than twenty years ago it has been quite expensive, but surely the prices will drop now. There's two pitchforks in Mill Village Raid set and one in a medium-sized Alien Conquest set.

The pitchfork, the Mill Village Raid and the new civilian torsos have already been mentioned, and together they form the civilian aspect in Castle theme, all too rarely seen! In fact it has't really been featured in Castle (excluding exclusive sets) since the 80s, when I was just a tad too young to really appreciate it. There are other great things in TLG's repertoire this year, but nothing can compete. This is something I've been waiting for twenty years.

In fact the pitchfork predates the trident piece by decades. It was used in a few Castle sets in the 80s and hasn't been seen since. Before this year's upcoming renaissance, of course.

Hm, the werewolf does look somewhat better in these more detailed pics than in the pics we've seen before, even if I still think it's probably the biggest letdown of Series 4 for me. To me it was the other way round - it was pretty easy to memorize the barcodes, I could still recognize the Spartan barcode with a single glance, but I've never really got the hang of the dots: When hunting for Elves I had to constantly look back to the first bag I had identified (by feeling) to verify how the dots should be, exactly. It's interesting how differently different brains function.

If it means more "constructible" than Belville, and using normal minifigs and that scale, they are still moving to the right direction, aren't they not? Whether or not they are making a specific theme, it doesn't sound like they would suddenly start making less constructible fire-trucks and police stations. I'll wait and see before I start to panic (or celebrate). I just hope that Lego doesn't go, yet again, overboard with the pink and glitter. I'm still 99,8% sure that the "terrible large panel with a sticker" is a cloth piece, which would make much more sense anyway. Also, the set in question is action-oriented and includes only male minifigs (as far as I remember), so I don't see this really relating to the topic in question. Probably they would start "de-constuctibilityfying" from the sets that have the highest perceived marketing value for girls, not some completely random sets. Ceterum censeo, Zoo-theme would be epic. If there had been such a thing when I was a child, I would have cried and shouted on the floor of the toy shop until my parents had gotten me all those sets. :P

Considering that the contest ad is in the cover of the 2012 calendar and the link you provided lists some of the pictures the calendar will include, wouldn't the contest rather relate to 2013 calendar?

Pet shop sounds interesting, especially in that it doesn't really tell us much about the look of the building compared to, like, if it was a bank. There's no stereotype of a "pet shop building", really. Personally I hope it would be a wooden building that could (with some moding obviously) be used for Castle and Pirates-themed towns too. Earlier modular buildings have been pretty exclusively Town/City stuff, but I think some boundaries could be crossed and new audiences met without compromising the compatibility of the series or risk of upsetting the Town fans.

A castle, big or small, for the Dragon Knights is quite a safe bet for 2012. In addition, I'm pretty hopeful that next year we'll see at least one tournament set. Let's just hope it's a grand one, like a remake of Knight's Challenge. While I wish that Lego keeps the ongoing theme (hopefully going on at least for a year or two) fairly free of overtly fantastical elements, I wouldn't complain if Lego decided to do a version of Saint George fighting the dragon - it's quite surprising, considering how iconic part of the popular pseudomedieval legends the knights hunting and fighting dragons are, that Lego hasn't (if I'm not mistaken) ever really used dragons in this specific way (except, more or less, with the Vikings). The set would include a mounted Lion knight armed with a lance and a sword, a big angry dragon and a burnt black tree for scenery. This is a nice idea. I would suggest a toll bridge, though! A small arch bridge crossing a stream, a tiny toll booth with its keeper and a merchant with a small cart of goods. But Lego wouldn't probably consider that very marketable... maybe if you'd add a highwayman?

My real dream license is, by no doubt, The Lord of the Rings. But it has been mentioned in this topic and elsewhere for so many times that there's not much to say about it anymore. But one of my other dream licenses is certainly one that nobody has yet mentioned in this topic: Girl Genius. Never gonna happen, of course, but who wouldn't like Lego versions of giant steampunk robots, dirigibles, epic scenes and scantily clad females?

Well, there's still small sets of course, like Scarab Attack from Pharaoh's Quest or Ninja Training Outpost from NinjaGo. But they are somewhat bigger and more expensive than the impulse sets from last year were, filling a different niche than CMFs. But yeah, this year's Kingdoms line seems to be sort of abridged from both ends - there's no very small sets nor a very large one either, only the in-between. I suspect that Kingdoms had to make room for the new historical/fantastic/action theme launches that there's a plenty this year: PotC, Pharaoh's Quest and NinjaGo. Next year, when all of those are old news and either discarded or steadily grinding money with an already-established fanbase, I hope Kingdoms will once again have more shelf-space and a larger wave. And if the quality of this year's sets is retained, it will be a dream year indeed!

I'm not sure what the official definition of an impulse set is, or whether such exist, but it seems that this year Lego simply isn't releasing any of the smallest impulse sets like the last year's jester and wizard, in any theme. I suppose they are clearing way for the collectable minifigures.

Four people bear witness. So, there's a traveler and his dancing bear performing on a medieval village square. Four people have gathered to watch. Also, there's four women and four grown-up men in the picture as a whole.