Runamuck

Thanks for the comments. My brother was bored and built this little ship. A harmless looking little boat, isn’t it? The crew looks pretty laid back. I wonder if anyone will get the joke… A look at the brick built hull. So what purpose does this harmless looking ship serve? Rum smugling.

You’re right about that Oky, I must have mixed up a few scenes in my head. There is the first time where Sokka just looks at her from a distance and the welcoming dinner where they first talk before the boat scene. It is still from the first episode where they meet if that counts for anything. So no one noticed that I didn’t make any close ups of the guy pushing the boat forward? While not necessarily accurate to the scene I made it master Pakku. I also planned a little ahead on this. Of cause when you have master Pakku at hand it seems rather obvious to try and make part of the scene where he and Katara fight. Katara immobilized among the ice spikes. And master Pakku finding something that he hasn’t seen for the past 60 years. Having made Pakku I thought that I had almost accumulated for something else, but first I needed one more thing. Sokka’s master. Master Piandao, the legendary swordsman. A view through the gate. A view of the door without any of the figures or the meteorite. The new figures for this one. Piandao, Aang, now with hair and headband, and Sokka’s new robes. So what had I accumulated though my various builds? The Order of the While Lotus…or at least the most important members of it.

Yes, I guess you’re right about taking some pictures of Sokka and Yue together. So here is what I could come up with: A little setup of how they first met. Sokka definitely isn’t looking where he is going. A better view of the whole MOC. And just a little picture of them together on the bridge.

It has been quite some time since I last built some Avatar stuff, hasn’t it? Well here is something I have actually wanted to do for some time: The spirit oasis of the Northern Watertribe. Yue and Katara are talking while Aang would want some peace to meditate and try and get into the spirit word. Momo is looking rather curiously at the koi fish. The plate that I used for the pond is actually what got the gears turning for this MOC. A better overview of the island that I have built. That white hairpiece is actually the reason why I have wanted to make a figure of Yue for a long time, but for some reason I never got around to doing so. It’s kind of hard to believe that these pigtails more or less are the only type of LEGO hair that exists in white, although the selection of gray hair has gotten better over the years. As I’m going with the cartoon version of Yue there is no penis shape hair here. But now for something newer from the other end of the Avatar world: The new series is getting closer to release, so here we have Naga. At least that is what I think that this polar bear-dog is going to be called. Naga is apparently going to serve as Korra’s method of transportation; much like Appa did to Aang and Fang to Roku. As Nage is part dog I thought it was a good idea to add some articulation that would make it able to wag its tail. Sit!

I know it takes a printed piece or a sticker, but there are some small phones in the old 381 or 588 police station that are made out of a slope and a tile. It could maybe be worth studying a few other sets for other ideas. A tile with a picture on it might make an OK cell phone.

Thanks for the comments. I thought that the clam and some “carrot bits” would work well as some kind of dish that the cook was making. I like the LEGO pirates theme a lot, but frankly I don’t know a lot about ships. Frank Brick Wright, could you please explain to me what you mean with respecting the proportions of the ship, because it was not intentional from my side as I don’t know what it means. For a first attempt at building a ship with inverted slopes it think it isn’t too bad, but it is indeed not too round, the sides in particular are completely flat, but I’ll probably remember to try and make it rounder in the future. I’m probably not going to change a whole lot on this one, I generally only do short builds, but refinement can always be attempted on future MOC’s. Edit: I have also built a fort for my Armada figures a while ago. I finally thought that I had enough figures to justify building a bigger fort for them. The fort shares some features with the Eldorado Fortress. One improvement over the Eldorado Fortress though is that you cant simply crawl out of the window in the prison cell. A little office for an important looking officer. That hatch is a good way to fill the hole in the baseplate. Edit 2: My ship is good enough to get indexed? I hadn’t expected that.

[pid][/pid] 123C I started building because I was rather bored the last few days, and for only a day and a half worth of building I think this ship turned out rather well. I actually just started fiddling around with some pieces to see if I could find a fairly easy way to make a brick build hull. It turned out well, so I decided to make a merchant ship out of it, and with a little influence of the Pirates of the Caribbean the colour of the ship was determined. The figurehead. Note the doors that allow people to go through the structure. A blurry view of the anchor mechanism and the single cannon, which this merchant ship has for self-defence. The door to the cabin, the hatch to the lower deck and the stairs to the upper deck. Rudder, telescope, Ship’s bell and flag of the East India Trading Company. The backend of the ship. It’s inspired by the backend of the Endeavour. The interior of the cabin. The lower deck. A somewhat blurry view of the kitchen. For the sake of the crew I hope that that isn’t the cook from the SCUMM bar. The cargo hold. There might come some pictures of some other MOC’s that my brother and I have made later.

"That's the second biggest monkey head I've ever seen!" Very well made.

I have both ships, so maybe I could take a little look on what advantages and disadvantages both ships have. First let’s start with tossing realism aside for a bit as neither the LEGO Pirates line or Pirates of the Caribbean were ever truly aiming to be realistic. Advantages: Brickbeard’s Bounty: The cabin doe actually have doors, which in my book is a good thing. The cabin is also pretty roomie and easily accessible which is good for play. Both masts actually have rope ladders (sorry I know very little of ship-terminology), which makes the masts a bit more stable. The cannons are better. Two of the have proper wheels, and I think that the cannon on the turntable at the back is a really fun feature which gives more aiming opportunities than your average cannon. For piratey bits that aren’t strictly necessary it also has a treasure and a plank. The ship also has some smaller guns on the front and is therefore as an unmodified set better armed. There are also a lot of animals, parrot, monkey and a really neat shark. Queen Anne’s Revenge: In most ways it is bigger. The piece count is actually the second highest of all the LEGO pirates related ships. It also has more sails. The figures are better as an actual crew for the ship. All the figures present on the ship were part of the crew (although not by volunteering for it). It also has more unique figures. It has 3 figures that aren’t present in other sets (the cook, Angelika and the quartermaster) where the Bounty only has one (the girl). The ship actually has an anchor. The cabin interior is well above average, although since the average is somewhere between a single table and nothing at all that isn’t saying too much. The system that holds up the sails is way better than that on the Bounty. These sails don’t slide around, and the pieces holding the do not bend as easily. The sails themselves are also a bit better. Both ships have sails that are only printed on one side, but this is a lot less notable on the Revenge as they are dark red and not white. In particular the triangular sails look a lot better (personally I don’t mind the skulls on Brickbeard’s sails too much). Disadvantages: Brickbeard’s bounty: As mentioned before I don’t like how the sails are held up and the white backside of the sails. It has no anchor. You could complain about the figures. While it is nice that they packed a conflict into the set complete with soldiers and hostage it unfortunately leaves the ship with only half a crew. Queen Anne’s Revenge: The cabin has no door. This annoys me particularly as it was a plot point in the movie that Blackbeard was hiding in the cabin. It is hard to hide when there are no doors on it. The cabin is also rather tiny. The cannon system is as bare bones as it gets. The holes to aim through are really really small. Compared to other ships it is also missing a cannon to fill out a full broadside. Only one mast has rope ladders holding it in place. Compared to older ships it looks a bit odd that there aren’t flags on all the masts. I think that both ships pull of their looks pretty well, although they have very different esthetic goals. I’m in general terrible at choosing favorites, and I can’t really do it here either, I really like both ships.

There is a picture of how the hair in question looks on Jack Sparrow in Hinckley's review of 3061, althoug you have to scroll a bit down. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=64241 Funnily enough it was also one of the first things I thought of after seeing the picture. I guess it reminded me a little of Tordenskjold for some reason.

I have been lucky lately. I have been able to buy or get the last pieces for the sets recently: 6258 Smugglers Shanty 6280 Armada Flagship 6270 Forbidden Island and last but not least 6285 Black Seas Barracuda Now I have all the pirate sets from 1989.

It’s kind of funny how the largest building the Imperial Armada ever more or less officially had wasn’t a set of its own, but only a part of an idea book.

Thanks for the comments. Yes, Iroh did heat the water with his firebending, which caused the bubbles. It is nice to see that Ty Lee is appreciated. I was a little worried about her face design, on one hand the one that I have made for her looks almost identical to Katara, but on the other people occasionally find LEGO eyes with sclera a bit creepy. I know, it’s not exactly the grandest of my builds. But it is a bit special, in the way that the figures aren’t that easy to reuse in other builds, they are strongly connected with the beach setting. Although with a little tweaking they might be able to be used as Fire Nation civilians. I deliberately made the beach gray. I originally wanted to make it yellow like the beaches of the classic pirate sets because I don’t have all that much tan, but all the reference pictures I used had the beach in a very gray color. Figuring that it might be of a volcanic nature, I just went ahead and made it gray. Yes, the light in the prison pictures is pretty bright because I used the flash on the camera. The light was a bit dim, and I wanted people to be able to see Ozai inside the cell. This also carried over to the other pictures for better or for worse. I’m thinking of a way to make a better picture of Iroh’s training, I’ll see what I can do about it. I have improved Ozai’s face a bit; it’s more evenly yellow now. There are two reasons for the sloppy yellow: 1) I was afraid to smudge the colors 2) the rather yellow light bulbs in my living room does not make it easier to see the uneven color, so I first really noticed it on the photo. Again, thanks for the comments. Edit: After a little rebuild of the cell and some experimentation with various angles and light sources i took this picture of Iroh’s training. I would say it is an improvement over the old picture. On the other hand it probably couldn’t get much worse than it was.

2000 views celebration! Let’s celebrate it with a little beach party! Azula: Yes, we defeated you for all time! You will never rise from the ashes of your shame and humiliation! … Well, that was fun. Yes, I thought that it would be fun to build the kuai ball scene from “The Beach”. The opponents side of field. Azula must have one hell of a smash, she left a crater in the ground and set the net on fire. The soccer ball will have to do in this case, because I don’t think that I have any other types of spare balls. The royal side of the field. Azula is delivering her gloriously hammy victory speech. Overhead view of the whole kuai ball field. How do you make a round field in square LEGO? You find a plate of the right size, and try to trace the shape with the bricks. Ty Lee, Azula, Mai and Zuko. The opponents.

I mentioned I had something in the works, and here it is: Zuko: “Where is my mother?” This was originally what I wanted to make, but that prison cell could be used for a few more things. Sadly the picture didn’t turn out so well, but it is supposed to show Iroh’s workout while he was imprisoned. Gone is the day of the sumo belly, say hello to the surfer abs. he is even holding a dumpling while working out like he did in the show. The aftermath of Iroh’s escape during the day of the black sun. Fire lord Ozai. Kind of sloppy work with the yellow marker sadly, I’ll correct that. Since this thread is close to 2000 views I have something special in the works.

I think I ran across that Piranha when I was searching Brickshelf if anyone else had tried to build something from Interstate 76. It looks really good. A battle scene? That sounds like an interesting idea, but it would require a lot of space to pull it off. I’ll see what I can do about it. I haven’t played Vigilante 8, but it would be on the to-do-list if I ran across the game. I have built a few more vehicles: Dover Lightning (Dodge Charger) Crimson, autovillain witch with a capital B. Moth Truck (Mack Truck) Cloaker, Malochios second in command. Ransom Marshall (Pontiac GTO) Ach, Raidatormother would have been here a lot sooner if it hadn’t been for Tarus‘ terrible instructions and that eedjet Notorious Bob stealing his bloody car. Leopard XLC (Jaguar E type) The ride suggested for Natty Dread, the leader of the autovillain group the Voodoo Riders. These vehicles might be the last I’ll build from Interstate 76 for a while; I’m simply running out of pieces. I’m running out of windscreens, axels and weapons.

I think I have some of those power miner wheels, but only in black. I have large technic wheels, but I think only in white. I wanted to keep the tank gray. Well, I’ll have to see what parts I can run across. I’m not sure if I have the right spare parts for brick build wheels at the moment. Fire bender will probably end up as some sort of sticker helmet combo, or simpler black clad ones with standard Vladek visors based on The Last Airbender. I have occasionally seen other people center a vig around a wall of rock, so I thought this scene from ”The Runaway” might work as that type of vig. Toph is complaining about how Katara is acting as if she was her mother. Sokka explains to Toph why Katara can be so “annoying” at times. What neither of them knows is that Katara is listening in on their conversation about her while she is taking a bath. Everyone looks way too happy about this actually. Well, I can just blame myself for imitating LEGO’s usually happy faces. Katara’s hair is darker….because it’s wet….and because I don’t have the piece in normal brown. I guess if that kind of hair can keep the mermaids in Pirates of the Caribbean decent enough for a PG-13 rating it will also keep Katara fairly decent. I have already got another vig in the works; I just need to get the figures made for it. Edit: Darn I accidentally got the scene mirrored.

I know it has been a while since I last posted some new vehicles, but people would like to see more, and I also wanted to build more. Courcheval Royale (Chevrolet Caprice) The Fuzz. Sadly your enemy in the game. Your very heavily armed enemy. Warendorf FV (Wolksvagen beetle) I think I’ll just let Drinky speak for himself: "You can't kill me. I'm Drinky, the stunt driving clown!" He is certainly one of the more harmless autovillains.

Thanks for the comment Oky. Yes, the ”basket” for the war balloon is a bit boxy, but that is what happens when I run out of the necessary brown slopes to make it less boxy. As with pretty much every ship LEGO ever has made, the Fire Nation ship is in more of a functional scale than any realistic scale. I was originally planning on making the tank bigger, 6 studs wide to be precise, but that would make the wheels look tiny, and if I remember correctly the spinning feature also worked a bit better on the 4 stud version. By the way, I wouldn’t mind some advice on a few things. Are there any other parts that would work well as tank wheels? Also, what parts would be good for the ordinary firebender helmet besides a red Vladek mask?

It has been a while since I have last build something, but now I have something new. I thought this little scene with Iroh’s DIY hot tub would make a nice little vignette. Zuko is of course not thrilled about his idea.

Funny how Return of the Joker happens to be on TV right now. This is a very nice MOC. You have build in some nice feature. Also neat to see a few Jokerz for Batman to take care of.

Yes, the old Imperial flagship is indeed named the Sea Lion. I noticed while checking various international catalogs here: http://www.brickfactory.info/index.html Funny thing, the new Imperial Flagship is actually the only big LEGO Pirates ship that has no name.

Well, I guess they had to take a few liberties for the sake of the waterski show. Pants are probably a bit more practical in that situation than a petticoat, and so is the ponytail hairdo compared to the braid and free flowing combo. Miranda does still have the white skirt; she just wears it over blue pants instead of a blue petticoat. As for female soldier vs. helpless girl, Miranda was captured by the pirates and forced to walk the plank in the show and was rescued by her soldiers as far as I remember. As for the redcoats, they are definitely British now, so British in fact that they were sent by King George personally to capture Jack.

Yes, I have seen it here in Denmark. Both Toys R Us and Bilka had them yesterday.

My best guess at an adversary for the new flagship would also be the Skull’s Eye Schooner. The Schooner, depending a little on how you interpret the guns on the front and the smaller cannons in the back, has pretty much every other LEGO pirates ship outgunned. Although if you take the fictional depiction into account from Pirates of the Caribbean, Blackbeard and the Queen Anne’s Revenge have a few nasty tricks up its sleeve. I might go a bit into SPOILER territory for those who haven’t seen the movie. In addition to the cannons it also has flamethrowers at the front. Then there is Blackbeard’s voodoo magic as a rather hard to define factor. He can apparently manipulate the winds in his favor. He can also control the rigging (it has been a while since I have seen the movie, so I’m not sure if this only applies to the rigging on his ship) and cause it to attack people. There is also the ability to capture the opponent’s ship in a bottle, but that probably more of a finishing move. Still, most of the magic probably requires him to be fairly close to his opponent.