Cody Startale

I agree, I see it the same way. If anything, I view the holes in the head as a disadvantage because it makes them look a little flawed. So, thank you for quickly clarifying that, I just wanted to know if my stance is correct on this matter.

Sweet! I think you did a good job! It may be a little cramped, but it's all the more convincing as a set like this. Eh, dunno if TLG would advertise that on the back of their boxes as a play feature.

Sorry to hassle our judges once again with my weird requests But I would like to have clarification on a matter. The core rules call for purist Lego without customs except for the sigfig, which is straight-forward enough. But what about the keychains? Dunno if I am the only one to do this, but I have collected a handful of minifigs by buying keychains instead of expensive sets just because of a single figure (like Yoda here or Boba Fett). The thing is, I remove the keychains. Not like cutting them or damaging the Lego, but actually just pulling it off with great force (it's tough, but possible). What remains is an otherwise indistinguishable minifig with a small hole in its head. Would this still count as "purist" Lego so I could use it? Or does this count as customizing already? It's just for minifigures that are obtainable otherwise as well. I don't have any specific usage in mind right now, I was just wondering occasionally what's the team's stance on this matter.

I think it comes down to a form of escapism, ultimately. Star Wars is my favorite hobby and means a lot to me. It is something that gives me a break from the real, often more uncomfortable stuff and a welcome distraction in times of hardship. It helped me go through phases of broken heart and depression, and often gave me something that lifted my spirits and something to look forward to. Also, I consider myself a creative person, I just love stories and all things you can make up in your mind. So, naturally, the power of phantasy fascinates me and as such, a big and powerful franchise like Star Wars, displaying such a vast amount of imagination, has a natural draw on me. Also, in stories, I find it easier to root for the heroes and their cause because things are more simplistic. That doesn't mean it's dumb or undemanding, just that it's usually more black-and-white and not as greyshaded as real life is. On real life political and ethnical struggles, I often find myself at a loss what to think or who/what to root for, because ultimately, I always feel like I am missing certain information, like I am missing critical context to make a right judgement. In movies, it is very easy... you see an evil Empire oppressing people and building horrible weapons, and you root for the small but dedicated group of ragtag underdogs who risk their lives to oppose them and make things better for the entire world. But real life doesn't work that way, most of the times. You might find fascist regimes here and there and rebels who oppose them, usually labelled as traitors or terrorists, and whoever comes out of this conflict on top writes the history on who was good and bad. Things in RL aren't as clear and therefore, it's easier to find yourself rooting for the wrong thing, even if it's for all the right reasons and intentions... and in the end, you might find yourself aligned with the "bad" guys. That doesn't happen with Superhero stories. You root for those who obviously do the right thing, and they become an instant role model that works without flaws, most of the time (which is why it is all the more exciting to see your favorite heroes struggle and even dip into morally bad waters once in a while, because it's a little unsettling, but also pretty much guaranteed to have a positive happy ending outcome ultimately). In short: with real social and political issues, I often feel overwhelmed, to the brink of hopelessness, because there is so much going wrong and so little you can do. Stories, though, always give us examples of hope and how things can work out in the end. Stories give us hope. If you didn't see it, I recommend to you the movie Saving Mr Banks. It's a Disney movie about how Disney acquired the movie rights for the Mary Poppins movie. Tom Hanks plays a brilliant Walt Disney and says something about this very topic that has deeply impressed me, though I won't spoil it right now.

A very good entry, I like it a lot. The build itself is very good and convincing, and the speeder looks great, too. I can totally see something like that roam Mos Eisley... is that the new XP-38 everyone's talking about? I am excited to see what Josh has up his sleeves for his week-long "vacation"!

Oh, are we supposed to be finished by now? I haven't even started Got caught up in RL stuff and happen to only be able to start today. But there's still some time left after all... :)

Because you've gotta leave the house once in a while As I said, I am in a long distance relationship and by the middle of march, I will travel on the train for four hours to my girlfriend again. And it's great to know that I will simply undock my Switch unit, pack it and continue playing Zelda on the train right where I left off, instead of playing some other, smaller games on my 3DS as a substitute. The Switch is not designed to dominate your living room, but accommodate a flexible life style instead. And I like that a lot, it is really a versatile device in that way.

I had the opportunity to try out the new Switch last friday at a local event! I played Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, ARMS, 1 2 Switch, Super Bomberman R, Sonic Mania and Zelda on it. Overall, I had positive impressions. I've gotta add, though, that I have been a huge and loyal Nintendo fan since early childhood days; and after I felt pretty burned with Wii U, I was very sceptical of this new console. I hoped for some technical and graphical advancements towards Xbone / PS4 territory with the new device, so the unveiling of not much more than a mobile Wii U was pretty much a bummer for me, personally. But then the january event came and the device itself looked pretty cool, sparking my interest in it once again, and by now I see a real and undeniable appeal in the idea of taking my home console with me and playing big games like Breath of the Wild on the go. So, I played it and it pretty much matched my expectations. Graphics are about on par or slightly above Wii U, but not like a generational difference or something. You won't be able to tell if a game is Wii U or Switch if you're just looking at the graphics. That being said, I was impressed how thin and small the device is. The joycon controllers are, like, REALLY small and extremely light weight. Being split apart into two controllers, they are not the most comfortable controlling option out there, but this is a neat little feature for quick and sudden multiplayer bursts. Nobody expects you to play with these things huge gaming sessions of several hours; if you have a gaming get-together with your friends, it's reasonable to assume that people will bring their own controllers and/or Switch devices. The joycon split functionality is still a huge draw in my eyes, because it enables you to do spontaneous multiplayer out of the box. Like, you go somewhere and have your Switch with you, and run into a friend on the train and can spend 20 minutes playing Mario Kart, just like that. I think that's great stuff right there. Being in a long distance-relationship, I definitely see myself playing Switch on the train and the idea to just start up a multiplayer match when I feel like it, without having to worry about additional input devices or handhelds or something is a huge deal. The joy cons have that new feature called HD rumble. One example from 1 2 Switch was that the controller emulates a wooden box with marbles inside. You turn and twist the box or even shake it, trying to count how many marbles are inside. This works extremely well and is a very impressive feature; I have to stress again that these are very small, very light controller devices and I am completely blown away by what amount of technology Nintendo packed into these little things. Do not dismiss the Switch as being expensive or gimmicky because it doesn't match Xbone and PS4. This thing is not a scam, you are getting a great bang for your buck. It isn't cheap, but there's a reason for it, and those small joy con things are one of them. Personally, it saddens me a little, though, to think that the gaming industry is probably too close-minded and too busy with its usual routine to really make use of this. Like, I am very impressed by the HD rumble technology itself, but I cannot think of a great number of uses for it in traditional gaming sense. Making this feature a great experience will require open minded developers who really think about how to put this to best use and go wild and crazy with it, creatively, and the gaming industry is not really like that in its current state. Don't get me wrong, of course gaming sparks inventiveness and creativity all around, just not that kind of creativity, in my opinion. Today, everything is about how realistic things can be, or about things having impressive physics, or how to pull off that cool lighting or something. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, it's just that a weird and unusual cool feature like HD rumble is so much harder to communicate to the audience and to market effectively compared to pretty graphics that the chances seem slim that a lot of developers and publishers will even bother to put resources into something new like that. This is unfortunate, because this is a cool and fun thing that Nintendo came up with and it deserves to be toyed around with. The screen of the device looks very great, especially if you are used to a Wii U and 3DS. This isn't like them, it's way higher quality and the viewing angle is impressive. Everything looked sharp and detailed and colorful on it; short, this is a very good quality screen and it will be a joy to play on it. Now, the games. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is pretty much Mario Kart with a classic battle mode and the ability to hold two items again added. Not much to say here, other than that I played the game for 3 years now, I think it's the best Mario Kart yet and this will be its definitive edition. I just hope I get some kind of discount, I bought the original for full price and all DLCs. I really wish to get a little bonus for that. 1 2 Switch is a tough one. It's a kind of game like Wii Play, only... lamer. I cannot really describe it anyway else; as a friend of mine stated at the event: the wooden marble box was its most impressive minigame, and there's hardly any reason to buy a game for that when you can get the same experience by, well, putting a bunch of marbles in a wooden box if you wanna play that kind of game so badly. In all honesty, as I am buying a Switch for my girlfriend for birthday, I intended to give 1 2 Switch to her as a gift as well as her first game. After its full reveal and videos of its minigames, I decided to cancel those plans and get her Snipper Clip instead, which looks way better (didn't get to play it myself, though, but I watched others play). 1 2 Switch is a kind of game that should be pre-installed on the console, or come free with a controller bundle or something. You would want to try it out just to see what the console could do, but there's no way anyone will want to spend full price on it. It's just too dumb and there's too little reason to keep playing it when it stops being funny after having played each minigame once. Super Bomberman R is, well, Bomberman. Same as every other one I played, just prettier graphics. With the joycon split functionality, this will be my launch day multiplayer title, but just because I never bought a Bomberman game myself before. But from 3DS gaming parties, I know that Bomberman is always fun, so having that on the Switch is definitely a good thing, IMO. Sonic Mania was a short demo, but it was fun. Classic Sonic, nicely animated. Controls fine with the joy con. ARMS will be this generation's Splatoon, I predict. It's a great-looking, fast-paced game with tons of fun and an awesomely crazy artstyle. I was intruiged the minute it was announced, and having played it myself, I know I will buy this on day 1. Controlling it with both joy cons is great; the gameplay is similar to Wii Sports Boxing or Punch-Out!!, only more weird and action-packed. Different characters and weapons add a lot of variety and it's just a very fun game to put up and compete against each other in, if you don't have motion controls, that is. Personally, I love motion controls, and ARMS is a fun and thrilling experience. I love it when Nintendo tries new IPs, and I wish this one best of luck, because I see huge potential. Last but not least, Zelda. I cannot wait to be absorbed into this when it releases in less than three weeks. That being said, it controls fine with the joycon and its controller-like attachment (the thing you put the joy cons on in order to make them appear like a regular controller). The graphics will not impressive anyone in 2017 and I hope that the next Zelda game on Switch will look better after having been freed from the Wii U. Right now, this game is huge and a lot for that little console to handle, and it shows. The framerate, which is targeted at 30fps, can dip here and there when things are being loaded; but at least it usually stabilizes after a few seconds again. Like, you run into an area and you will notice how more details in geometry and textures will gradually pop up as you approach, and while that happens, the framerate takes a little hit. But after a few seconds, everything's done loading, and it will stabilize again. BotW's inability to keep a clean framerate worried me beforehand; but then again, I always have to remind myself that also Ocarina of Time didn't offer a smooth framerate back when it was released, and to this day it's my most favorite game of all time. If the compromises in framerate consistency are a testimony to Nintendo's ambitions with this game like they were with Ocarina, we are in for a magnificent adventure once again. Personally, I will not care too much about its techical shortcomings; I am just dying to play this new Zelda game which has been almost six years in development.

Thank you, guys! Comments & criticism is what keeps me going ultimately. @Forresto It's a very different approach, I guess. I suppose most builders here think about the Lego build first and foremost, trying to make an impressive Lego creation and then present it as such. For me, the story and the presentation comes first; the Lego build is just the means to my end, so rather than trying to create a stunning build in itself, I rather go for something you would build as a filmset: what you need to make your scene work, and not much beyond that. I actually did learn that approach from the Star Wars movies I always thought they shot the Dagobah scenes in a real swamp location. But no, turns out it was just a great and convincing studio set, built in a man's height so that Frank Oz could stand under it and puppeteer Yoda. That impressed me so much to find out when I was younger that it taught me the principles of how convincing set builds can be. Ironically, my upcoming episode entry will probably be my most detailled and complete build, yet But I have reasons for changing my approach with this one. Can't wait to see your next turn, though. Haha, do you expect me to spoil story bits? It's top secret, I'm sorry. Guess you'll have to wait and see

Because of the videogames, I always assumed that the Death Star surface was too cluttered with turrets to make a straight run for the exhaust port. In the Rogue Squadron games, for example, the turrets will shoot you down if you go over the trench. So the rebels enter the trench at a location that is relatively light on turrets and only have to deal with a handful of them during the trench run, which they can avoid more easily. If they were targeting the exhaust port from open space, without any cover, concentrating on getting an aim on such a small target would make them extremely easy targets for the turrets to pick one by one. Especially with such a tricky shot that they have to pull off, it would require the rebel pilots to go down directly on the port in a pretty straight line at a high velocity. The turrets will have an easy time to calculate your vector and shoot you down if you go too slow, and the high speed comes with the risk of crashing into the surface if you can't pull away in time. Going through the trench, on the other hand, gives you cover from most of the shooting, and lets you get your vehicle in a good position to take aim and make your shot in a way more timely fashion. It really does make sense from a strategic point of view, even if the plan initally seems unnecassarily convoluted.

Yet another freebuild right before an episode... gotta string those plot points together, right? Enjoy! Previous entries – in case you're not up-to-date, I suggest reading them first (they're comic-style and quick to go through, don't worry): View my cast of original characters here: Nar Eurbrikka Cast Story: Episode 0 – The Introduction Episode XII – Den Of The Dragon XII-I – Sowing The Seed Episode XIII – Quantum Of Sunrise This is the story variant, for all those enjoying my ongoing comic: Plain images for the SONE crew. Please judge this humble piece of junk from a more civilised age:

Is it on purpose that Feleia is laying on the ground in the background when Beeze gets up on the next day?

I agree, that's marvelous. Great entry and compelling story, looks like we'll have to deal with Death Trooper squads soon... great job!

There’s a problem on the horizon. … There is no horizon. Haha, super cool idea and that micro U-Wing is cool as well. Neat execution, good luck with those Olympics!

There's no bug there, they are simply not online anymore. It can happen to temporarily hosted files after more than four years, dude... did you register just to bump this old thread?

@JGuy Thank you! Can you provide an image example? Maybe your lines are jaggy and pixelated? That would be due to Photoshop's pixel-based nature, ultimately. I recommend using vector-based software, I use CorelDRAW, but it can be done in Adobe Illustrator just as well, for example. In fact, I started working on a kind of workshop/tutorial yesterday where I document my whole process of creating decals and I am also considering an in-depth video tutorial. If you are interested, I can notify you when they are done?

Okay, that's good enough for me :) So I don't have to worry about judges saying "Your Commenor city doesn't count because a Corellian city could look just like that"? I will still try to make it unique enough, but as you said, not every planet (especially Legends ones) has defined specifics that clearly idenfity them. Kashyyyk and Endor, I would find easy to distinguish because of the inhabitants' home architectures.

That's fantastic! I like the computer walls and all the little details, and the Wampa is a fantastic bonus. Doesn't look like the original one, guess that must be a very Special Edition Wampa...

For clearity's sake, when looking at my last episode, I take it that the build featured there would not be enough to distinguish the planet as Mon Calamari, since its generic beach and water scene might as well fit Scarif. But if I added some architectures of Mon Calamari and/or Quarren homes to it for uniqueness, it would count? Also, you recently posted topics in which you featured your Jedha builds as depicting Commenor. Would this still count as being unique enough if the city can pass as being on another planet, too?

First of all: thank you! It's always awesome to get some positive feedback! Where do you think lie the problems with your designs? What I do is that I use an official face design as my template, I have it literally as my backdrop when designing my faces so that I get the proportions of eyes, mouth, beard and such right. I found this incredibly useful design sheet online and have used it ever since: It has been a great help in designing and getting a feel for the overall style Lego is using. So, while I still want my creations to be unique, I also try to make them look like they could be official designs, so that they fit well with the rest of my licensed Lego minifigs. Speaking of which, I have made a test print for Galen Erso's torso (or like I call it: Galen Terso) and noticed that the wrinkles and outlines were too dark, so I made them light grey instead to better pop up from the shirt color. Also, binoculars have been added to the belt. This is the new design, which works much better when printed:

Fantastic stuff! It fits perfectly, storywise, with what I have going on in the near future, so I am very happy for the goals you picked! Can't wait! This time, the Alliance will win, I can feel it. Let's give it our best shot, comrades! Also, someone might want to update the episode rules and remove the part about clue parts and the secret model sooner or later, right? That was two episodes ago...

Why, thank you! That's always great to hear, I hope the next chapter will be finished soon.

Oh no, no, not at all. This is just my "thing", you know? I joined NE to tell a story and start my Lego webcomic, but it is not a condition at all. Building is the core of the play.

Nice. For some reason, I really like how the inside of the house is very barren, except for that it has a seemingly massage chair. Looks like the Rodian sold everything to afford it, gotta be that Spinemelter 2000, lol.

That's an awesome Rathtar, Forresto! Simple and elegant, and instantly recognizable. I admit, I didn't like the scene too much in the movie – combined with the random goons and Han's a bit out of character talking in this scene, it had a bit too much Star Trek vibe for me personally. Like, I could see a scene like this fitting in Abrams' ST movies just as much or even better. It felt kinda alien to me, even though the monster scene is a Star Wars tradition. However, you caputed the Rathtar very well and I like what I'm seeing! I wonder if it could possibly be a little rounder, but this would probably required special parts or even molds, so for a pretty much purist version, this is as good as it gets! /* Edit: Only now do I realize that both our NE characters in our avatars are in shackles. The rebellion sure is having a hard time