Shadows

IMPORTANT RULES UPDATE! Got your attention? Good! After careful consideration, and a brief experiment at building my own Impulse set (not to enter, that wouldn't be right), I've discovered that counting minifigs as pieces is unfairly restrictive. I did manage one, but felt like I couldn't fully accessorize without a few more pieces, and I wasn't impressed with the result. What does this mean to you? Nothing! Too bad! :-( ... Ok, ok, don't give me that look, I'm kidding. X-D Minifigs no longer count as pieces. The limits per class still count, and animals are still a piece each and their limits still count. For those of you who have already entered, please feel free to add pieces accordingly (assuming you were following the rules in the first place X-D) and change your pictures/update your entry post. For the rest of you, well, get building! :-D

Shouldn't we be Merry Men? We're already green. If I was Asuka, I'd have to say ... Welcome to the criminal side of the brick! ;-) Hoods On! *y*

I'll take this opportunity to add that EB News Presents is getting in the spirit of Castle Month by featuring a castle fan as our next interview, which will take place in a castle themed studio on Thursday. We'll see as it gets closer. "A Pirate's Life!" started a week before this and won't end until a week after, but if there are a lot of requests, an extra week may be considered.

A most excellent proposition, good sir. Thou may counteth me in! I'm confused by LEGO elements only, but custom pieces allowed. Are they only allowed if we make them? Hmmm... How self serving of me would it be to mention that KhoRne requested the Elven shield from the inspiration picture for this contest, and I supplied a few variations of a potential decal for it in this thread... ;-) Mysterious Elves On! *y*

Nice job, and an unexpected angle to take on the subject. We all gripe about not getting enough female minifigs, then we forget about the trolls. ;-) To be honest, with a plain buckle and yellow skin, she'd make an excellent generic woman as well. *y* Can't believe I'm going make it through this whole post without a boobie reference. Well, there went that. :-/

A good answer that pretty much sums up what I mean. On a similar note, just creating sets that go well together, even if they don't attach, is a nice way to go, if you don't want to go modular. Good lad. *y*

People will all vote differently. That said, don't take the part about creating something that LEGO would actually make too seriously. Yes, it should be a consideration, but there are obviously certain techniques that they would never use and some kinds of scenes that they wouldn't create, and I don't see any reason to discourage that. So, I'd say... go for the best mix of all of those elements possible. That's how I'll vote, and probably a good way to appeal to as many people as possible. Excellent! I'll hold you to that. ;-)

Yeah, it's starting to get a little out of hand. I intended to update but the list keeps growing, so I gave up. Just add 8 Maul speeders from that desert duel set, 2 more from his ship and something like 20 STAPs. I refuse to count the battlepack droid speeders, or even the little droid carriers with the original blue pilot. I modified some of those Maul speeders for use around Tatooine, mostly driven by guys who dress a lot like either Maul or Qui-Gon, but with different heads. I miss the $2 clearance days. :'-) Heck, if we're being silly, how about the non-enclosed escape pod from the Falcon? That thing looks like a speeder. ;-)

Incredible! I must admit, early on I had my doubts, but you clearly had the vision to pull it all together in the end. *y* I love the fact that you managed it in very non-traditional pirate theme colours, yet it works well. I also love the huge variety of minifigs used in the project and the way that they are used to depict scenes of daily life. Wouldn't it be tacky for me to mention that some of those decals are mine? Yes it would. That said, I absolutely love seeing them used, it makes me very happy! *sweet* Thank you for creating and presenting this incredible project, and I must continue the theme here and request a tour of your work, there are a lot of fine details that need further exploration.

Do the Green Grocer and Cafe Corner combined have 7 minifigs, by any chance? *cough*read the guidelines for each class of entry, please*cough* |-/ Subtle, aren't I? ;-) Modular is certainly a nice way to go. I'd love to see a modular harbour, port, city, fort, lighthouse, just about anything pirate themed. Heck, if you were building, say 3 sets of different sizes, you could almost achieve that effect and create them to work together. Was that a hint to you builders who haven't started yet? Why yes, it was. ;-)

I think it looks great! *sweet* If most of it could be achieved with natural parts and the rest through decals, I'd try to make one myself but at least I can admire yours. It really is a shame that some of those 2x3 and 2x4 wings aren't available in brown normally, or I think it could almost be done... Camo Tumbler On! *y*

Thanks! The Elven design is from KhoRne's original post requesting the decal. It's taken from the latest LEGO Magazine, I just tried to get it as close as possible. I wasn't sure what they were going for with the scratch-like mark on the right, and it seems silly to supply an entire Elven army with identically scratched shields, so I left it out and wrote it off to creative license. ;-)

Entries may be changed up to the very last day of the contest, just try to replace the old images with identically named ones, or edit your original entry post to indicate the new one instead of posting another entry and potentially confusing me. *wacko*

More great entries! Keep it up, guys! *y* Spare parts are optional (sometimes LEGO doesn't even count them) and no, your entry does not have to be in bley and reddish brown. There have never been appropriate bley cannons or reddish brown hulls, among other pieces, so we can't do much about that. Didn't you ever notice what colour they made all the Asian minifigs in the Adventurers Orient Expedition sets? X-O :-D

I couldn't decide... That's pretty much what I had in mind for future expansion of the theme. So far, I've made a small Crownie flag and a small Skellie flag for applying to any 2x2 flag, or theoretically a 2x2 tile if you needed a logo somewhere, maybe a seat cushion or very small wall crest. These are meant to be printed to a size of 1.551cm x 1.551cm (which is roughly 835dpi at this resolution). I intend to do a 6x4 flag as well, if I have time. Still working on a vertical banner (I just need to figure out what it should be attached to and the exact measurements of that piece). Did the Skellie flag with a black background and with a white one. For some reason, the white looks better to me. Thanks for the reminder! Hey, wait a minute ... the big banner isn't enough? ;-)

Personally, I don't believe in smoothed edges, I just use a much higher print resolution and it makes up the difference. I'm working on a Castle flag (that's why I came here, looking for the right print size for the 2x2 and 6x4 flags) based on shield designs. To compensate for smoothing, I do decals at 600dpi. On your screen, it will look a little jagged in spots, but in print, it's as smooth as can be, and easier to manipulate because you aren't dealing with all those in-between colours where the smoothing occurs. As examples, here is a shield, a variation on an official Pirate torso, and a custom back to that torso: Because of the increased resolution, I can get more fine detail in, without the mess that results from a lot of smoothing. It seems like a suitable solution to me, plus the end result prints more like the real thing. For some reason, vectors end up looking cartoon-y to me.

Wow. Just wow. Tons of amazing details and those beautiful roofs, plenty of creative goodness for me to steal here, and you can bet I will! Good luck with the contest! *y*

Both are here, along with 5 variations of the Elven shield, an oval Crownie shield, a Crownie 2x2 flag, and a couple of Skellie 2x2 flags, just for fun.

As requested here, the round Skellie shield. I know you didn't request the other one, but I thought it would be nice to have, so I did both. I'll try creating an Elven one later tonight, maybe. The Elven one is further down the thread. As I said in the other thread, they aren't really suitable for printing, in my opinion, because of the lack of metalic colour, but for your map, it shouldn't be a problem. I do think they could be adapted to other uses, such as a large banner or tapestry wall decoration in a castle. I may play with that idea.A 2x2 Crownie flag is also further down the thread.

OBJECTION! :-D

Welcome to EB! You've chosen a fine time to join this brotherhood of the sea, well done! Be sure to check out the Big Billboard o' Doom™ at the end of my post for some great ways to get involved in this wonderful community that you have joined! Perhaps you should visit the A-Z of Things to Build thread for some inspiration. ;-)

They're all very nice! *y* I could see where more than one of those would have been stiff competition in the contest. I couldn't vote for Alfred because of the modified dog, but I would have voted for a couple of these. Thanks for sharing them! You could throw out that lettuce from your appearance on EB News though. I know it has sentimental value, but it's turned purple. :-D

I just met him in the forest. He seems like a good lad. You know, if you renamed him something similar to Aluvar, maybe people could get us confused. :-D

Narration and actions will appear in black. Aluvar will appear in green. The birds will appear in the colour corresponding to their names, Pinky, Bluervo, Greynard and Petey. Ok, Petey isn't a colour. Don't confuse me. The Aluvar Chronicles 1.0 - And So it Begins. Location: I-22. In a flash of light, a wizard, a chest and 4 parrots appear in the middle of a well worn path through the forest. SQUAWK! Oh yes, a very narrow escape, a very narrow escape indeed. SQUAAAAWK!!! Yes, the spell will wear off eventually. Honestly, the whole town can't stay like that forever. I don't think so, at least. SQUAWK? Oh, right, I did say that, didn't I. All together now lads, sit on the chest and I'll prepare my spell, it's a simple one, no worries. SQUAWK! No, I don't always say that and I don't always get them wrong. Seriously, this one will go just fine and you'll all be speaking English shortly. Now, where did I put my glasses? Oh, here they are. Silly place to keep them. Aluvar begins gesturing wildly and chanting, leading to a small explosion that shakes the leaves from several nearby trees and knocks him to the ground. Ooooh, I'm getting too old for this. You really are, why don't you just find a nice place and settle down? Get married, live a quiet life? Don't think I haven't considered it, but you know why I can't. Oh, I say, the spell worked! You seem surprised. I thought you said it was an easy one? Shush. I wonder what we'll do today, Pinky. Same thing we do everyday... try to take over the world! >:-) What? It seemed like a natural thing to say. Hmmm... Just then, a small cart approaches. Hello, good sir, I am Siloux de Fraun, shopkeeper from the nearby village. Greetings, lad. What business brings you to these parts? I'm setting forth to see the world and promote my business, I have posters and will spread the word far and wide! Would you like one? Certainly. Siloux de Fraun hands Aluvar a poster, which he quickly examines and then folds into an odd, but interesting shape. Tossing it into the air, it flies over the trees and disappears from sight. I say, those are rather expensive, please don't waste them! X-O Waste them? My lad, I just invented the flyer! I think I should continue my travels now. :-/ May you have a safe and prosperous journey! The same to you, sir. The cart continues on, passing through a small opening in the trees and fading from view. Nice lad, though I kept wanting to call him by the wrong name for some reason. Are we going to stand here all day? It's hot, and I'm tired. Right. Off to town we go. Now, I wonder where that would be. We could just go back the way the cart came from. I know, we'll follow these cart tracks in the path and that should bring us to town. Brilliant... :-| Aluvar waves his hand and the chest begins to float beside him, wobbling a bit before stabilizing. Well then, let's go. Adventure awaits! Here we go again. |-/ The group wanders off, Aluvar walking with the aid of his staff, carefully following the cart tracks despite the road having clear and easily readable signage indicating that it's exactly .3km to town, due south.

Some fine entries coming in, I'm quite pleased with the effort shown so far! *y* Minifigs and skeletons definitely count, they're expensive to make. Parrots were supposed to be seperate from the animal count, but somewhere along the way, that was lost. RULES UPDATED! Check the first post. There are now specific seperate limits for parrots and a change to the decal rule as it concerns minifigs. It's only reasonable to expect that a new Pirates line will need new torsos and hopefully new heads, so go wild, they no longer count against you at all. Only time decals count is when used for other purposes (signs, etc).