NiceMarmot

Really, really like this. Great job on the curved wall especially; it's got a nice design, and I like that upper cloistered balcony a lot. I like the double facet brick look on the smaller tower's corners. Good rockwork too. It made me realize that too often I only vary my rockwork in one dimension instead of two, i.e. my slopes all run in the same direction. You've got most of them sloped away from the citadel, but also some are sloped across the the main fall line. It's a nice effect, and I'll have to remember it next time I do rockwork.

December 4th - Mitgardian Cottage (by Kai NRG) A guest build today, from Kaliphlin guildmember Kai NRG!

I also think TLG has messed up the distribution of minifigs. I think a range of 2 to 6 is too wide; I would have kept it at 3 to 5. I don't think many people will complain about the over-representation of Heroic Knights but, really, how many policemen do you need? I'd rather have a few more Forest Maidens and Fortune Tellers. I'm not sure I would have done six Cyclops either, that seems like overkill. And it doesn't help TLG's gender parity issues to have four of the five female minifigs in the the 2 per set category. I think series 9 is good, perhaps very good, but not the best (for me, the best was series 7). I'm interested in why the overwhelming number of voters thought that this was the best series so far. There are definitely a lot of great figs here, but I'm not totally in love with some such as chicken-suit guy, plumber, roller derby girl, and battle mech and policeman are just OK in my book.

I've never seen those in the PAB. Black, white, and blue are the only colors I think I've seen that piece in PAB.

This is great! Did I miss the Series 1? Love the Avalonian nobility's torso; don't think I've seen that piece before. Will have to try to hunt down a few of those. Anyone know the name of it or BrickLink number? Good job on the Nocturnus nobility; that Geonosian torso fits in perfectly!

In the right context certainly. Looks pretty good. Most roads wouldn't be paved with marble. But maybe an important plaza, or a path leading to an important building.

December 3rd - Fortified Bridge over the Muk River GoH Advent Calendar - Bridge An ancient fortified bridge over the Muk River, in south central Kaliphlin, with two sentry towers and a gate on the south end. First post edited to include this photo

That's great! It's only missing the parents hovering around taking photos with their iPhones! Er, or the GoH equivalent of the iPhone, whatever that may be... It's very challenging to post a build a day. I've got a few builds done in reserve for mine, but I'm definitely feeling the pressure to build some more so I have a cushion in case I can't build for a few days. Have fun!

That is a great idea! Can't wait to see it.

OK, I've edited the first post so it has a format that will be a little better for showing all the Advent calendar builds. I left the first two builds in there (but put a spoiler on the Dec 2nd build), so the first new build will be on December 3rd. I have two more builds done, and have received four builds from others, so we're currently good through Dec 8. I have about ten more build ideas after that so far, and will have to get busy building and photographing them. But I definitely want to encourage others to build for this also, so it's not totally my show. I'll try to post each day's build the night before California time. Unfortunately that means that NZ/Oz/Asia folks won't see it until about noon or so.

Too funny. I saw a couple of full-priced PoP Fight for the Dagger sets at my TRU too, and thought "What in the world do they still have those sets for? I bought four of those on 70% clearance in January 2011!" Just reinforces my resolve to never shop for LEGO at TRU except in the case of exclusives.

Picked up 12 at the TRU in Bridgepointe Center in San Mateo / Foster City CA this morning. Probably at least 20-30 more still there. Have to ask at Guest Services; they've got them behind the counter. BOGO50 in effect! Btw there were none at the TRU in Redwood City. I looked up on Bricklink the cost of a mushroom, two arches, a tree leaf, a barrel, and a trans green large goblet - all together that's about $1.70, which means after the BOGO, we're getting the minifig for about $2!

I find that the LEGO store staff will usually chip in and help find the CMFs that I'm looking for (if the store isn't too busy). They're usually quite good at feeling up the bags; I think they do it a lot when the store is slow. Sometimes there has been four or five people (staff and customers) standing there going through the bags, all helping each other find the ones they're looking for. Very helpful. Most of the kids (and parents) don't realize you can identify the CMFs by feel, so they are very appreciative when you can help them find the one they're looking for.

Luckily, GIMP has a tool that allows you to measure pixels. Petraea to Qarkyr is 144 miles as the dragon flies. It's a fairly straight, good road, so say only 10% more for wiggling, so about 160 miles. Walking is 20-30 miles per day over level ground on a good road, so let's say 24 miles per day, or 6 2/3 days. It also has some hills at the eastern end, plus you have to ford the Lick of Salt river. So let's call it seven days total. Looking forward to seeing the new areas. The mountains north of Qarkyr are very rugged, so it would definitely take some serious time to get into them. From my experience hiking in the Sierras here in California, a fit person would average around 12 - 16 miles per day on good trails. And a lot less on bad trails or through really steep areas.

My Crownies? I feed them to my werewolves, of course! Well, sometimes, but mostly I pair them up with the Lion knights against the Dragons, since I seem to have a lot more Dragons than the others. Sometimes they're their own faction too. But I think they go fairly well with the Lions. I just try to give them different weapons and helmets, so they're pikemen vs swordmen, or put one of the factions on horses, so they're cavalry vs infantry.

Guess it's time to start thinking about strategies to identify the figures by touch. I think for the most part, this will be fairly easy this time. Having three females with full-length skirts might be a bit difficult, but we can use the accessories to differentiate - bow for Maid Marian, trophy for Starlet, cards for Fortune Teller. Plumber looks like he has a wrench or plunger, which should make him easy to identify Cop's hat and handcuffs should be relatively easy to identify Cyclops is easy to find via the head or club Mermaid is easy to find via the tail or starfish Waiter is going to be a bit hard; will probably identify via the platter Rollerskater could be identified by the skates, or maybe the smoothness of the headgear; this one might be a bit difficult also Chicken Suit Guy is easily identified by the headgear Judge will probably be identified by the hair, and maybe the gavel, although that is similar in size to a few other accessories Caesar appears to be the only one with a 2x2 square tile Heroic Knight easily found via the shield and maybe the helmet Splitz easily found via the top-hat Battle Mech and Space Alien Marine might be hard to differentiate, but perhaps the helmets are different enough, or maybe they have different accessories I imagine a lot of people will be going for the Battle Mech and Space Alien Marine, which will be easy to find, although perhaps not too easy to differentiate from each other. So those will get cleaned out early. So will the Knight, and maybe Caesar if he has a sword. Maid Marian and Cyclops will probably be easy to identify too, and will be popular, so expect them to disappear early too.

Where are you all from in NZ? We'll probably be down there next summer; my wife just got accepted to give a speech at a conference in Melbourne in July 2013, and we'll probably visit my cousin in Wellington while we're down there. Actually I should check if there are any LEGO conventions in Oz or NZ next July or August Next time you need those 1 x 1 round plates (or trans-yellow, trans-red, lime, or orange), let me (or others with good access to PABs) know; they turn up quite a bit at the PAB walls near me. I sent Angeli a few cups of those over the summer. I think a PAB cup holds about 3000 of them, so that's about half a cent US each (plus shipping). Unfortunately, they never seem to have colors like tan, the grays, reddish brown, etc.

I'd be happy to help you sort if you'll pay my airfare to Germany and put me up! Oh, by the way, I'll have to bring the whole family along...

Yes, I think the set is a steal at $4.99, considering the mushroom and such. I'll keep an eye out for them in TRU and load up if I see them; would be happy to send some to you all if I get any. Unfortunately, the Bay Area is a bit AFOL-heavy, and stores here tend to get cleaned out early. But you never know... If any of you end up with a few extra, I'd be happy to buy or trade for a few of them.

I'd love to get some of these also. They're not on TRU's website any more. Hope they get more in, and I hope it's not a TRU exclusive. Perhaps they will start selling them again on the 27th when the Hobbit sets are released. $4.99 is a bit steep for a minifig, although the $25 off $100 really helps, and the set does include a mushroom, two large half-arches, a large tree leaf, a trans-green goblet, and a barrel, so I suppose it's pretty good value for $$.

Love it! Way to put it together and post quickly. Just-in-time builds. Very jealous of all those elves. Didn't even know the Mirkwood elves were released yet. Don't see them on TRU's web site; did you clean them all out? While you have them all assembled (and since there's a ban on present-day inter-guild fighting), perhaps you could show a historical representation of some ancient assault on Ondylion by the elves?

That's actually cheaper than the green ones on BrickLink! The green ones are about 30 cents per piece right now.

Yes, really outstanding! So many great details, and you really nailed the elven look. Just phenomenal. I'm going to steal all your great ideas!

Just getting around to replying to this one, and what a nice job! So much to like here: the pyramid, the tents, the tree. And the sand! Having done sand like that for one of my watchtower builds, I know how much work that is. And it's a lot of work to take apart too. Masa can't be roughing it too much considering he's got a woman in a bikini coming out of his tent

I really like this one. Looks more realistic than some of the highly ornamental ones we've seen (which have their place...). I think the brick-bricks and the slight color variations add all the texture you need to the walls. This looks like it was built to defend something, and not just ornamental. But I don't think it needs more arrow slits. The base of the battlements could be one brick higher though; they don't seem quite high enough. I don't think you could usually see over the top of the merlon; kinda defeats the purpose. But that's a minor point. I do think that the wall section is a bit low. It looks to be only about 10 bricks high to the walkway, which is probably about 12 feet or so. I imagine a city or castle wall would normally be 20 feet or higher, otherwise it would be too easy to scale.