NiceMarmot

I thought Victor saw his parents gunned down after a movie by Avalonian assassins in a dark alley, and then fell into a well filled with bats. Then later his indifference causes a criminal to murder his Uncle Ben. And wasn't his father a relentlessly self-improving boulangerie owner from Belgium with low-grade narcolepsy? Anyway, I did get laid off today. But here's the good news -- sixteen weeks of severance pay! Woohoo! I sense some building time coming up!

I think this is definitely one of your best MOCs, Kai! Great job. The balcony and the stained glass window are really good, but the fireplace is the best! Great design there. Good photography too. Sorry that Gex didn't make it into the picture; he must have been using the restroom while the artist was painting . My only [minor] advice would be to put a frame around the window, or inset it back into the wall by a stud.

Great story here! Just catching up on these posts that I missed while on holiday. I like the rockwork too; nicely done, and even the BURPs look good. I think the photos could be a bit better though -- have you tried taking them outside in natural light without a flash? Then you won't have those dark shadows behind the build, or the overexposed reflections in the foreground. Can't wait to read the rest of the story now.

I agree; I miss the guildleaders' awesome builds too. Perfect! I'll have to do something outrageous; getting tired of my current title! Can't wait to see what that is! Uh oh. I think in GoH it's not a problem when he does that, as we pretty much all know and love him, and don't really take offense when he gets riled up. But in one of the larger forums, where not everyone knows him... I hope he doesn't get too frustrated with EB, and rejoins us quickly. I think he's a great asset, both from a building perspective as well as conversationally. I am planning on sticking around. I might have more time on my hands, depending on what happens on Monday! I think that when the inmates take over the asylum after Challenge VI, we should divide up the various 'leadership' roles more and rotate them around. It's clear that the burden of leadership was a bit heavy on the guildleaders. If we split up the duties a bit more, then people won't get overburdened, and if we rotate them around, then people won't get too d of them. I'm certainly willing to step up and do my part.

Great point -- how to differentiate (the story, besides in the design of the build). I'm still working out the storyline, and I don't want to give too much away, but one idea I'm kicking around is that if the sacred sites protect us from the elementals, which are Revolword's main henchbeings, what if we could bring the [sacred] mountain to Mohammed, er, Victor? Or I could just send two measly hobbits to sneak into Mordor and do away with Victor while our main army creates a major battle as a distraction, or perhaps there's a whole Luke-I-am-your-father-together-we-can-rule-Historica-as-father-and-son twist...

Great idea. I've got a build going now, but was thinking of incorporating it into the Challenge 6 build. I could probably rework it for a free-build, or maybe do something similar for the free-build. I'd remove the 'structure' requirement -- if someone wants to build a vignette without a structure that should be fine, although builds with interesting structures will get more points. Can we say no larger than 32x32, in case someone wants to use a baseplate? I can donate a prize or two to contest also -- I managed to pick up a bunch of sets last year on pretty good clearance, although I missed the post-Xmas 2012 sales this year. I've still got some PoP and PQ sets around unopened that might make good Kaliphlin prizes (Mummy battlepacks, Desert Attacks, and Ostrich Races). I might also have some old PoP magnet minifigs, and they might be old enough that they're not glued to the magnet. Kai -- I'm not a big fan of the titles, but if everyone else wants them, that's fine. Seems a bit pompous to go around calling yourself Lord High Mucky-Muck of This and Honorable Excellency of That and so on. I was reluctant to take the Cartographer title even. Awarding one title as a prize to the winner of a contest would be a bit better. But I always wondered how Avalonia had so many Kings of the Elves and Kings of the Forest, and Lord High Trash Collectors, and so on. If you have twenty High Kings of the Elves, who are the elves suppose to obey? I'm fully rested up after two weeks of vacation, and itching to do some building. Unfortunately, the LEGO area of the house is a total mess after the kids played with their Xmas presents. But on the positive side, my son received quite a few LEGO sets for Christmas, including Helm's Deep; however he'll build them as sets first so they won't be available for MOCs for a month or two. In other good news, I expect to get laid off from my job on Monday (> 50% chance we think), so I'll probably have more time to build soon! This layoff is expected, and wouldn't be the worst thing to happen, even from a career perspective. We'll see what happens.

Hmmm... Gives me an idea for one of the Challenge 6 builds... By the way, Kai, an example of a wussie would be someone who doesn't have the guts to build for Nocturnus under his own username, if you know what I mean

Good idea, although a tremendous amount of work you've taken on! Gex's background is on the wiki. After the elementals ravaged the Muk-Muk Valley and Messahmuk, he retreated along with many others into the Mystic Mountains, taking refuge in the abandoned ancient temple of An-kah-shuritem, which unfortunately was never represented by an MOC. From there, he has started to rebuild the Army of the South to take on Revolword and his forces. Recruiting forces and retrieving powerful ancient magical artifacts has taken him to many places in the Siccus recently, including the Spice Islands, the Akhenaten Swamps, and the Dune Sea. He is sending emissaries to DaMaximus, Wahil Musca, Erudhalion Sansael, Rasputin Jones, Ageven Deraim, and others to coordinate efforts against Revolword. Secondary characters include his wife Countess Wyndifera Ed-Wardhi, Countess Persifiya Tarfazi (Kaliphlin ambassador in Valholl), Growlfargh the werewolf, Ramesahk the mountain mummy, and Tahrisa (a Karinca merchant captain).

Well, sorry guys, but I just didn't get a chance to build up a decent backlog of builds, and now we're going on holiday today. So this will probably be it for the Advent Calendar until after the new year. I have one build that didn't get photographed, so I'll post that when we get back, and then see if I can finish up then. Have a great holiday!

Are you trying out for the Angeli Memorial Trash-talking Prize? If so, you've got a long way to go! Better get your builds in now, because once my work quiets down in the second week of January, I'm coming back with some major free building action. We'll have to rally the Kali troops for a big building push to put those Midgourdians back under the snowbank where they below! OK, that wasn't up to Angeli standards either. I'll have to work on the trash-talking. Maybe I'll go review some of his old posts...

I think the solution here is to make sure that your wife/spouse has their own hobby that is similar in cost. My wife is into scrapbooking in a big way. We have a tacit understanding -- I don't mention the cost of all the scrapbooking materials and expos, and she doesn't gripe about the cost of LEGO. Since I handle the finances, I know that most years the LEGO expenses are less than hers, so I've always got ammo reserve in case we get into an argument (which hasn't happened yet). Probably more common than you think. Just have to find one who's self-confidant enough to admit it, or geeky enough to not care. Or you could train one. My wife wasn't into LEGO at all, but now she loves building things with my son. I wouldn't say she's a real AFOL yet, but she's on her way! And she's willing to support the pretense that I'm just doing this for the kids. Ha! My situation is a bit easier -- I just buy all the sets for the kids, and then I get to use them. Occasionally, however, I will run into problems when I want to take one of my son's favorite models apart for parts...

Wow. Fantastic job on this. The landscaping and plants are great, but what really puts it over the top for me is the river! Great idea with the leg parts; I'm so going to steal borrow that!

Well said. Exactly my thoughts on this too. I think TLG knows kids fairly well, and has that side of the business down. Part of Cuusoo's purpose is to help them expand the AFOL market and identify new themes/products for that market. Knowing Disney, they probably would be peeved. But I don't think it would reveal anything to the general public that isn't already known, especially since the general public isn't really following either Cuusoo or the LEGO-Lone Ranger rumors. But Disney is definitely a long-term valued partner of TLG, so they probably decided to play it ultra-safe on this one. Still, I think the communication was terse, vague, and generally lousy. I would have tried for something more like: "We love this project, and ordinarily it would be serious contender for approval. However, at this time, it conflicts with an ongoing theme. We will revisit the project in the future if we no longer have a conflicting theme, or if it can somehow be integrated into that theme. In addition, if that current theme is extended, we will investigate the possibility of adding larger, modular buildings to it." That doesn't commit them to anything, but at least lets the project creator and supporters know that they put together a great project. I hadn't thought of that. Good thinking. You might be right about that one. However it would be nice to know if the concern was that it was not as financially viable as BTTF -- as far as I know, that's not a concern for the review and it would be nice to know if the projects in review are judged against each other or completely independently. Didn't know that about Zelda. You're probably right, and that would explain the problem with new molds. However, I think that three minifigs of printing is not a big deal for TLG -- believe I read somewhere that the new printing equipment in the China factory has much lower setup and operating costs. Definitely has potential. I don't see it getting sorted out in the short term, but if they have the patience to stick with it, they could figure it out eventually. I get the feeling that Cuusoo was a project that wasn't completely thought out ahead of time, and TLG is figuring it out as they go along. Sort of a: "Hey! Wouldn't it be neat if we did this!" and then it got approved and built before they had really figured out the all the business processes and policies to go along with it. I hope they stick with it and make it work, but it seems that TLG doesn't have a great track record of sticking with projects that don't immediately succeed. I agree -- I think TLG is still trying to figure out what it wants Cuusoo to be, and how to make it work. It's totally an experiment and they're figuring it out as they go along. I just wish they communicated that a bit better to the fans. I think a lot of people are expecting a much more smooth and polished operation, and are getting disappointed.

Ha! Nicely done. Sort of reminds me of the scene in Disneyland's Jungle Cruise:

Yes, definitely, and until recently I have been part of the problem there. Will hopefully have more free time in the new year, as my work tends to calm down in mid-January. Plus we will have a bunch of new sets to build from (well, actually, they're Christmas presents for my son, so I'll have to get him involved...). I highly doubt I'll get up to 50 for each build! That would probably be a bit unfair. Everyone would start cranking out micro-builds if that were the case! Not sure how they'll count them. Maybe up to 10 points per build (doesn't mean each build would get 10 points however).

December 19th - Thin Ice advent.calendar.19.thin.ice This Kaliphlin tourist to Mitgardia apparently couldn't read the Dwarvish signs that said "Thin Ice"!

My receipt has the numbers '673419188975' and '086985' on them. The polybag has set number 30212 on the front, and "Item: 6023859" on the back. The barcode is same as the 673... number on the receipt. Hopefully that exhausts all possible numbers for this set. BTW, since you're in the South Bay (I think), I know that the San Mateo and Sunnyvale TRUs had these in-stock back around Dec 1st. Redwood City did not at that time. At San Mateo, they were under the counter at customer service / guest services, so you had to ask for them.

I don't think the point of Cuusoo is to create blockbuster sets. Rather, it's to generate new ideas for sets that will have solid and profitable sales, but are not obviously popular enough for TLG designers and marketers to develop on their own. I can't imagine that a well-done Modular Western set would sell less than Shinkai or Hayabusa. I've never seen anyone buy one of those, nor have I ever talked with or chatted with anyone who bought one. Talk about niche products. OK, that's anecdotal evidence at best, but I think MWT would be popular enough to be profitable. I suppose we'll see how well western-themed sets do once LR comes out next year! And, by the way, I'm not sure that Western themes only appeal to Americans, or even appeal to Americans the most. My Korean and German friends are much more into the old West than Americans are, and they tell me that Western movies and toys were incredibly popular in those countries when they were growing up (70s and 80s). Agreed. They don't want to cannibalize or detract from LR, or even draw attention away from it. They probably are contractually prohibited from doing so. They certainly could tell us. All they have to say is that they are contractually prohibited from releasing any sets in this theme for the next few years. They don't have to mention LR, or even 'Western' if they don't want to. Maybe that's what they were trying to do, but their message was unnecessarily brief and vague. I think you're probably in the minority on that opinion, at least on this thread! Given all the discussion we're having trying to figure out the rejections, I certainly wouldn't characterize the justifications as 'clear'. I'm not sure the Rifter explanation was any more clear than MWT's; they seem to be saying that they don't feel it would make money for them, or maybe not as much money as BTTF, or that they can only approve one project per review slot, but it's definitely not clear. The Zelda rejection is certainly clear, but not totally believable. The project only presents 3 minifigures, and I find it very hard to believe that three new minifigures is going to break the bank, especially since they could probably produce all three with existing molds and new printing. All the new swords and shields would require new molds, but how many of them are really central to the project? My suspicion here is that they couldn't come to terms with Nintendo (as most of us expected). Perhaps there's some truth to the justification -- maybe Nintendo wanted to require them to produce lots of custom headgear, swords, shields, etc to make the set look authentic and TLG balked at the cost of doing so. Maybe, but Cuusoo has some big problems: unclear decision criteria, long review times, and thousands of projects to sort through as a supporter. IMHO, it's becoming just a big mess of crappy projects and fanboys. I think at this point it's only effective for isolated, unusual projects that have a highly mobilized fanbase and don't remotely relate to anything else TLG is doing. So Hayabusa, Shinkai, and Minecraft are more the norm; I don't expect to see a lot of projects like BTTF approved. I've pretty much given up checking it, and will probably only look at it if I see an interesting post on EB about a project. Agreed, four months after the review process starts (and ~six months after 10,000 supporters achieved) is not the time for TLG to let us know the project conflicts with an ongoing license. They don't have to reveal what the license/theme is, or even what its general theme is. But they've got to let people know earlier (like before we get 10K supporters?) that there's a problem with the project. Otherwise Cuusoo will more and more appear to be a place a where good projects go to die and AFOLs go to be disappointed again and again.

Yes, I'm liking this one a lot! I may have to try to build it, although my version will be unfortunately mottled in many different colors probably.

Well, that's incredibly lame. I expected Zelda and maybe Rifter to fail, but Modular Western Town? "Conflicts with an ongoing project" - what does that mean? Lone Ranger isn't much of an ongoing project (yet), and I would have thought that it fits in rather nicely with it. Likewise with the City modular town buildings. They're willing to go negotiate a license for BTTF from Universal, but can't figure out how to make this part of the modular line or part of Lone Ranger or just delay it until Lone Ranger is over? Only thing I can think of is that their contract with Disney on LR is limited to certain very specific sets and also prohibits TLG from making any other western-style sets for a certain time period (several years). If so, they could at least tell us. I hope they communicated in more detail with the project owner, because the posting on the blog is incredibly short and vague. Exactly. I think Cuusoo just lost what little credibility it had left. First the really long review period, and now this. I know I won't bother checking it out regularly anymore.

Great point -- I hadn't really noticed the lamps. They are really nicely done. And I'm very envious of all those brown minifig hands.

You're putting out some great builds recently! I like this a lot, and really liked your Valyrio build too. In both builds you've done a really nice job of mixing the brick-bricks into a smoother grey wall; it's a really nice effect. And congratulations on finding a use for all those CMF baseplates!

December 18th - Silo Cottage This is a guest build from Jareth, a micro version of his Silo Cottage build, in Scarborough in Northern Nocturnus. Well, I'm behind again on the calendar. Of course, I didn't use the EB downtime yesterday to do any building. Will try to catch up today.

It's not great when you zoom in, but at this size it's OK. Plus there's not a lot of detail in the build. It's an iPhone 3GS, so the camera is not great. However, I pumped up the brightness and contrast in GIMP, and I think that helped a lot. I was a bit surprised at how good it turned out actually.

December 17th - Prickly Pookfruit Cactus advent.calendar.17.pp.cactus Common around Petraea and in the south and southeast Siccus badlands. Delicious leaves and fruit, but slightly hallucinogenic. Favorite meal of desert womp-rats. (Apologies - my wife has the camera today, so this is a mobile phone picture) EDIT -- Oops, just realized I should have put green 1x1 plates behind the holes in the 2x2 round plates. Oh well, imagine that a womp-rat took a bit out of the middle of each leaf.