NiceMarmot

December 8th - Petraea University Student GoH Advent Calendar - Dec 8th - Petraea U Student Built and photographed by Kai NRG!

Great one!

MK - hope you won't disappear completely! Even if you don't have time to build, drop in and say hi. Although the guild thread has seemed a bit sedate recently... Maybe we can jolt it up a bit. I was hoping someone would post an MOC and thread for in-character discussions. I thought someone was planning on building a tavern in Cedrica for that purpose, but can't remember who. If I build up enough of a backlog of Advent Calendar builds, maybe I'll take on the in-character discussion build. What sets is everyone hoping to get for Christmas (or other holidays) to help your Kaliphlin / Historica building? I for one am looking forward to the Helms Deep and MMV sets I bought for my son! They've been sitting in their boxes in the closet torturing me for months, especially the MMV which I must have bought in the spring.

December 7th - The Old Mill advent.calendar.7.mill.small A small mill in western Kaliphlin, on the edge of the Wither Woods near Eastgate.

I like both those mottos. I did plan on spending less, and probably came close, since 2011 was my first full year out of my dark ages and so I had a lot of catching up to do. I would have spent considerably less in 2012 except for two things. First, the Walmart modular sales in October. Buying a bunch of Grand Emporiums, Town Halls, etc, even on sale, does tend to blow the budget. The other factor was rebrickable.com. Once my son discovered that we had 92-something percent of the pieces to build all sorts of cool Star Wars sets, he pretty much insisted that we BrickLink the missing pieces. Who am I to resist? That probably accounted for a few hundred dollars of BL orders, but still a lot less than buying all those SW sets, especially the old ones. I have resolved in 2013 to not buy sets unless they are 1) a really good deal, and 2) I really need the parts or the set is an instant classic. Otherwise, I'll just BL the pieces I need. That should keep the expense down. Except for the collectible minifigures -- I'll probably end up buying a ton of those. My building was up and down. I got off to a good start with some really big (for me) MOCs for Guilds of Historica in the winter and spring, but then the really good summer weather this year in California meant we were outside a lot, and building suffered (although I'm not complaining). Work has been busy in the fall, so only in the past few weeks have I gotten back into building. So the first half of the year was great; second half not so much. My building tends to closely track the kids' interest -- if the kids are building, then so am I, otherwise I'm doing something else with them. My son's building is really advancing, so I'm looking forward to finally being able to do real co-building with him on EB-MOC-quality builds. That may or may not happen in 2013. For 2013, I think I'm going to focus on more and smaller builds. And also when I have a good idea, just start building.

Although you can buy the green leaves on BL for about $0.30 each, or S@H PAB for $0.25, or get leaves from Alt Bricks for about $0.20. There are seventeen leaves, which is $4.25 on S@H (although the olive-green ones are unavailable there and more expensive on BL). So if you want leaves cheaply, you're better off on BL, Alt Bricks, or S@H. But if you want to get a Hobbit set anyway, and are concerned about reusability in historical MOCs, then it's a good set: leaves, reddish-brown slopes and arches, the wargs, etc. Although I really don't like the design of the tree They're all pretty good from a GoH MOCing perpsective. Barrel Escape has spiral stairs ( ), arches, barrels, and nice bottles and goblets. Mirkwood Spiders has black & brown slopes and arches, spiderwebs, red foliage, and mushrooms. Unexpected Gathering has lots of green slopes and curves, map tiles, goblets & bottles, food, and brown and dark flesh colored pieces. Haven't seen Goblin King yet, but it looks like it has a lot of brown and gray that would be useful. I think they're all pretty good (except for Riddles for the Ring, which is underwhelming). I'm just going to wait and see what goes on sale.

Well, maybe I'll have to participate in some Ninjago contests to load up on tags! If I can steal the Ninjago pieces away from my son, that is...

Thought this survey was a bit more interesting than some of the others in the past. Definitely AFOL/TFOL focused. I answered High to the question about value received on purchases in the past three months, but I think they'll take that answer the wrong way -- most of my purchases recently were of sets on clearance!

That's a nice St Nicholas' Day surprise! Although, if you were a naughty kid this year, Santa Saruman might banish you to the top of his stone tower, which is a bit worse than just not getting a present.

I nearly sprayed coffee all over my desk on reading that one! Wait until you see the special shipping and handling costs for shipping a live fantasy creature. Or perhaps it comes with a real Mirkwood spider? Opening that package would be a real surprise.

December 6th - Nocturnian Octosucker GoH Advent Calendar - Dec 6 - Octosucker The bane of fishermen everywhere, this horrible creature is most commonly found in Butchers Bay.

Sometimes TRU has them at the customer service counter, so you have to ask for them. I have very rarely seen them at Walmart; still not sure where my local Walmart has them. Target sometimes has them on the endcaps.

OK, I clearly need to visit some other forums on EB besides GoH.

Ugh. Bummer. I forgot this was a TRU exclusive. Well, they might make a mistake and not exclude from a BOGO 50% off deal sometime, or a spend $100 get $25 off deal.

Kai, that's a really cool icon below your member information (the flaming head). Did that just show up? What's it for / mean?

Darn noob! LOL. And here I've been working and ferrying the kids to school and sports. Where are my priorities? That is a great figure . Easily the best in the whole set. Unfortunately, there are only two per box . What was TLG thinking? Hopefully, I'll manage to get to the store early enough to grab one. Perhaps we ought to have a GoH Forest Maiden exchange program, in case any of us get extras. If I manage to get more than the two or three I want for myself, I'll offer them up to GoH members at cost. I'll be continuing my Advent Calendar build all December, and I've got another big MOC I'm working on, but probably won't be ready until the weekend at the earliest.

Thanks for the review! Have to disagree a bit. It's not my favorite Hobbit set, but I still think it's pretty good. The design is good - recognizable, looks good, and very playable. It's not accurate to the movie or the book, but making it accurate would have made it a much bigger set. The price in the US is not outrageous; as Faefrost pointed out it's right at TLG's typical pricing for that many bricks and minifigs. Assuming the minifigs are worth $2 each (a very low estimate), then you're getting the bricks for around nine cents each. The prices in other countries may be too high (but that's an issue not limited to this set). Parts-wise, there's a lot of good stuff here for castle builders, including some pretty rare and unusual pieces. Lots of parts in colors that I've never seen them in. The stickers are a disappointment. But still, I think this is a pretty good set. Pick it up at 25% off at some BOGO50 sale, and it's a reasonable deal.

Just saw this on Flickr, and I really love it! Very Avalonian. Really nice woodwork.

December 5th - Kaliphlin Black Oil Worker GoH Advent Calendar - Dec 5 - Kaliphlin Black Oil Worker Another guest build today, this time from Masa of Kaliphlin. He's presented us with a Kaliphlin black oil worker. It's a messy job, but he's up to it.

Wow! I might have to go build that SD. Really nice job on that one. Like the others have said, I think you totally nailed the proportions perfectly.

Design-wise, I think this is one of the better Hobbit sets. It really looks like what it represents. I think retail price in the US is $39.99, which would make it a bit more approachable here, especially when you consider that it has five minifigs plus some good parts like the large arches, the large barrels, the wine glasses, and the circular stair pieces. Not sure I'll get it at $39.99, but on sale definitely.

Yes, I'm not sure either. In a small build like this, you don't have room for a 1 stud wide frame, and it would look out of proportion anyway (too wide). You might be able to do something with SNOT plates - a plate height is about the width you'd want for the frame. Just a matter of getting it to attach correctly, and to stick out of the wall the right amount. Tricky. I might have to play around with that to see if it can be done. Actually, a good option that just occurred to me is to use those 1x2 plates with door rails on the top and bottom for a sill and lintel, and then something like 1x1 round bricks on either side of the window to give the sides some texture and depth. this piece:

Thanks. I did miss it somehow. That set is good too, although I like this one better -- better photos and descriptions, and I like the way you organized them by type and guild. Keep up the good work; looking forward to series 3!

Nice! High points for me are: the stained glass window, the floor mosaic, the stair handrails, and the red carpet. Plus I think you really nailed the look of the column; the square 2x2 plates at the top and bottom, plus the 2x2 round plate at the bottom, are nice architectural details that just make it seem more real. Suggestions for improvement: the low archway, and I feel that the window needs some framing around it - having the window flush with the wall just doesn't seem right to me.

Yes, definitely a second semester! I had a lot of ideas, but never found the time to participate in the first semester. But work is starting to quiet down, and after the new year I should have more time.