Shadows

Actual creation goodness is where it's at. It's one thing to be nice to someone because you like them, but quite another to vote for them over someone else who did a better job at creating. Similarly, I would hope that people wouldn't vote against someone because they may not like some part of their personality. In other words, reward creativity, without regard for who created it. *y*

Now that I've spent so much time on the Empire, it's the Rebel's turn and a good place to start is with the generic troops. My first two offerings are your basic Rebel Fleet Trooper and Pilot. To be honest, the official Fleet Trooper neckline is odd to me. Light grey? Why? So, I did one that way, and then a flesh and a yellow variation. After that, it only seemed natural to make one with a white shirt, also in flesh and yellow. It is something of a Han Solo look, and would be great as a smuggler, bounty hunter, or general civilian (or for use in other themes like City). I don't know if the Fleet Trooper costume was used in any other way in the movies, but if so, it should be easy to adjust colours to your liking and I'd love to hear of any alternate uses you might come up with. The pilot is simply the standard pilot that has been issued in orange and red. I know that there is some visual difference in the orange used at one point, going from what seems like normal orange to bright orange, but I stuck with the standard. I did include a white for water slide printing or customizing (or for a white flight suit, if you want) as well as some new colours that I think look nice: dark blue, dark green, and yellow. Here we go: Rebel Fleet Trooper: Original, Original w/Flesh neck, Original w/Yellow neck Rebel Fleet Trooper variation: White shirt w/Flesh neck, White shirt w/Yellow neck Rebel Pilot: Original Orange, Original Red, White Rebel Pilot: Dark Green, Dark Blue, Yellow Hoth Rebel: Original Tan As always, comments, requests and suggestions are certainly welcome. Matter of fact, I might be reaching the point where I try to decide if I should just keep doing these random torsos. Input on that would definitely be welcome as well.

While I haven't actually tried this on mine, what it sounds like you did is operate it with no load, then suddenly full load and may have burned something out. I wouldn't really recommend using anything that way (large scale generators, for example, warn against such use) and hope that isn't how it's supposed to be used or someone at LEGO has dropped the ball. As simon says (uh...), contact LEGO and let them know what happened. I'm sure they'll replace it, and perhaps in the future they'll issue some kind of warning against that.

Excellent review! *y* Getting a better chance to look at this set actually makes me interested in it. I was in my dark ages throughout the Islander days, though I have built up a small force of them (10?) from eBay buys, but no actual sets. If this is really as reasonable as you say there, I may just have to pick one up soon. Oddly, I do own the baseplates to this set, having also picked them up in a lot on eBay, so I might be able to recreate it manually, but I think I'd rather pick one up whole. It looks like a great mix of parts and makes a decent looking display piece. Thanks again for the fine review! *y*

Let me see here... we're all sitting on the internet (Dork +1), in a LEGO forum (Dork +2), and we're going to play some form of D&D style adventure together (Dork +5). :-| Well, if it's good enough for old Dimple-Chubb Bobbins, might as well count me in too! *y* Meet Aluvar, the clumsy, forgetful wizard with a heart of gold who first brought me to EB when I used him to enter BrickMiner's TheBrickster's contest. It seems only fitting that he return for this occasion. Oof, that's some crummy photography. :-$ Instead of reposting all of his background here, let's just flashback to that thread and my very first post on EB. :'-) Wow, times have changed. I turned my post into some kind of silly story where I was talking to myself as birds and making up stuff. I'm glad I don't do that anymore ... 8-| :-| :-D Oh, and unlike then, I've dug out all of my old castle sets, as well as bought most of the current line, so I'm set for some castle work, should we decide to make this occasionally pictoral in nature (would be cool to act out some of our scenes, wouldn't it?).

Did I say I was finished with Imperial Officers? Well, I lied, apparently. I was really just wrong, and could kick myself for forgetting the one man that Lord Vader could always count on, General Maximillian Veers. (you'll notice that the real pic shows his proper rank, while the drawing doesn't, but the drawing gives a good idea of a potential waist area, so I used it) To say that I was disappointed to buy the newly motorized AT-AT, only to receive a General Veers who wasn't even vaguely accurate would be an understatement. Apparently, TLG wants us to believe that he's nothing more than a normal Imperial Officer, in an AT-ST driver's helmet. HA! While I can tolerate the helmet choice, that uniform... completely wrong rank, no armour, he's just desperately wrong. He doesn't have to be, though, not if you print out this decal and make your very own. No longer will the Imperial AT-AT invasion force be commanded by a wannabe officer impersonating the man himself, oh no, now they can invade in style! Now, the disclaimer! As is typical with Star Wars, no three images agree on exactly what the full armoured torso should look like. In the movie, it's basically impossible to see far enough down and some portions are just shown too quickly to be helpful. So, after consulting a variety of sources and merging them into something that seems reasonable, I ended up with these. I kept the belt traditional in the uniform version so he could match other officers on the bridge of the Executor, but gave him a different one for his combat uniform. I still don't know what that thing is supposed to be on the right side (his right). I ended up just making it a sort of modified code cylinder. If anyone has a really amazingly good pic of that thing, please let me know. In some pics, it looks like two things stuck together, in another it has lights. It's almost amusing, and infuriating at the same time. It wouldn't particularly upset me if you wanted to use this torso, but edited out that unknown thing, but I think it will look reasonably appropriate at the right size. 600dpi as always, but no clear/white version. This is strictly intended for a dark grey torso. You could change that, if you had some new idea in mind, it's done just like all my others, for easy colour changes. Wow, this is starting to sound like a used car pitch. Let's just see the decals... :-$ Would you believe that I was originally going to do the Dengar torso until I realised that it's simply a rip-off of what they should have made for General Veers? Despite the basic similarities, however, this is not suitable for Dengar, even recoloured to brown. It is a completely different decal. I may do the Dengar one later.

Disturbing. 8-| Delightfully, disturbing. >:-) Didn't know they used the same joint, now I have an excuse to pick up both some Fabuland figures and Technic ones at the same time. Bricklink On! *y*

Anyone who says, "it isn't the <whatever>" or "I don't care about the <something>", is concerned with it. :-P Now, I don't recall actually predicting anything, but I did accurately note that no one prior to you had mentioned the lack of ability to vote for you. Had they done so, the error could have either been corrected (if it was early enough), or a special post would have been made alerting people to the problem and instructing them to vote in their post. I think it's also fair to mention that since your post, no one has added their desire to vote for you, or those would have been counted as well. Seems fair, doesn't it? However, now that I am officially a predictor, I should make good use of that ability. *wacko* *enters a trance* I am seeing victory, yes, clear and strong victory for a hobo and a butler. Their creators, basking in the glory and enjoying the rewards of their efforts. I see a third victor, but the vision is cloudy... the future is hard to see for this one... there are several images, all vying for attention, but none has a clear advantage... each knowing that their destiny is in the hands of the voters, and could be decided at any time ... *snaps out of it* |-/ Think I might try this gimmick on EB News next time Staudie asks for a raise. ;-)

... and thank you for dressing up for the occasion. The black sleeve and glove added a special dignity to your robot arm, and made it more convenient for me since I could have sworn it was black and not dark grey ... X-O It was a fairly good audience, aside from that lady in the front row. I'm really sure that wasn't a lady. Whatever. :-| You know, with the forum change, the available colours for text changed as well. For the interviews, I manually put in the right ones, but I'm too lazy here. :-$ Seriously though, thanks for being on, we enjoyed it, and it gave Staudie a chance to get some on-the-job undertaking practice for when this whole reporter folly of his falls through. :-D Oh, and did you notice that I included one of your Rock Raiders friends in the audience? I did that on purpose, you know. I almost made the whole audience out of them, but then the joke about Staudie's family being there wouldn't have worked as well. Plus Hinck would have killed, er, bored to death, um, talked to one of them instead. ;-)

Not sure when I'll get my entry done but I have placed an order for some chrome from Bricklink. *y* In the meantime, if anyone needs some story assistance *cough*BORING*cough*, let me know. X-D Oh, and I'll billboard o' doom this contest in a few minutes. *y*

That's a great deal! *sweet* If you don't buy it, we will forever mock you as "he-who-didn't-buy-the-cheap-monorail," or HWDBTCM for short. Sort of short. *wacko* Oh, just buy it! X-D Monorail On! *y*

Jawas actually have black hands/gloves. It's only TLG that decided it was easier to just make the arms and hands the same colour. Therefore, it's much easier for us, and more realistic at the same time, to use black hands as shown here: Easy Solutions On! *y*

This is something I'm not entirely familiar with, as I don't honestly think that my printer is up to the quality requirements. That said, I'll give it a shot anyway. I make torsos at 600dpi, so loading them into any paint program and printing at that resolution should result in the right size. I've done a test of this on plain paper and it was right. The paper part is where it gets interesting. I know that the professionals seem to go for something called "water slide decals" which are basically the same as what you get in a model kit, the kind you wet and then apply. I've also heard of using more traditional types of paper/stickers on a quality printer. Here is something of a guide that I just read, but honestly it seems to gloss over (pun not really as intended as it ended up) the printing process going so far as to potentially suggest paper and scotch tape. I'm not at all sure about that. There have been a number of discussions on the matter in this forum, including one here, comparing the relative merits of two different kinds of paper. You might want to look around at other threads or wait for a better reply here. Wish I was more helpful on this part of things, but it's a process I'm still getting down.

Happy birthday guys! Don't forget, drink enough to be happy, but not so much that you confuse the cake with LEGO and try building with it. Or worse still, try eating LEGO. Sure, you could wait for the problem to pass, but that's a MOC we don't need to see. *wacko* Waffle Birthday On! *y*

I'll confess to liking some of the household crap they put out, but the magnets have just been a hassle. Being of the completist mindset, I have to buy all of the Star Wars releases, even though I already own the sets that the figures originally came in. I'd be just fine with them being dumped. Similarly, the 'bag charms' or whatever they are, should have just been issued as mini sets without the chain. Instead, I have something that will permanently stay in it's package. :-( Pens. Same deal. Keychains, no offense Gylman, honest X-D , but I'm sick of them too. *n* Sounds like someone is offering up the prizes for the next big EB contest! :-D

Maybe Brendan could start such a forum on his site. There are plenty of free forums available, and it would be a great opportunity for him to discuss his works and their inspiration with interested visitors.

Don't worry, it isn't. :-D ;-)

You know, I always wondered who that was... oh well, he didn't get any votes either. X-D

Most of you who have been following the show for some time know that the next guest ... is a secret, revealed in one week's time. :-D

Uh huh. Well, at least take some small comfort in the fact that no one asked why you didn't have a button previously, so you didn't miss out on any votes.

Welcome to another exciting episode of EB News Presents! As always, I'm your host, imperialshadows, Staudie will be asking the questions and generally acting dumb ... huh? ... see? ... and our special guest this evening will be iamded! Lately I've been saying a few words before we get started, and tonight will be no exception. *boos from the audience* >:-( Hmmm... I was mostly going to comment on the audience and mention how much we appreciate them, but I'm not so sure now. AWWWWWWW! Fine. Just you think about that next time you want to boo someone. That's supposed to be saved for Staudie. *Staudie enters* Hey boss! Um, Staudie... what exactly are you dressed as? iamanundertaker, and I brought a coffin with me. Get it? It's like, funny and stuff. You're making fun of our guest's name? That isn't very nice. BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! What did I do??? BOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! *someone throws a bucket* Hey, now that's my idea of a good audience. Thanks! Good? They're getting ugly!!! Yeah, I noticed. Especially that lady in the front row. *one single BOO!* HAHAHAHA! I don't think that's a lady... HAHAHAHAHA! Oh. Well, anyway, I do appreciate you, more or less, so let's take a moment to put all of you on the air, I'm sure it'll be the highlight of your otherwise pathetic lives. Hinckley: You might have seen me on this show before, I've actually been on several times, I'm very important to the show. Knight: Oh, I didn't know, I've been busy lately. Well, let me tell you ALL about it! Uh, ok... YAAAAAY! HEY! Did he just insult us? BOOOO!!!!! They aren't too bright. You have relatives visiting tonight? I don't understand. Yeah, that must be it. Ok, that music means it's time to start the interview. I don't hear any music... *wacko* START THE INTERVIEW. >:-( Now I hear it! Hey everyone, let's give our guest a big hand! That isn't funny. What? He has a mechanical hand, it isn't funny to make fun of that. I wasn't making fun of his ... huh? He has a what? I just thought he dressed funny. Look who's talking. Now that you've insulted the guest, might as well start the questions and finish him off. Q. Iamded, wazzup with that name-tag? That goes for the SigFig aswell... A. My name? Well, I was really bored one day, and I was searching for those addicting online games, you know the type. Anyway, I stumbled across one called Zwok. I knew I wouldn't be any good, and would die before all the other players. So a fitting name tag would be I Am Dead. But that was stupid. IAmDead? No. iamdead. I like that, but it still looks kinda weird. iamded, perfect! And a tasty 6 letters long! :-D As for my sig-fig, nothing extremely unusual. I was searching for cool torsos in my box of minifig parts, and came across Jet's one. Rock Raiders was my favourite theme, and even though Jet was a girl, her torso looked cool, and with matching pants, a stylish head that no one else was using, and brown hair, I was done. Of course there's the robot arm too. That came from my character in the TIE Army. I had a robot arm, so it was only fitting my sig-fig had one too. *starts humming 'Dude Looks Like a Lady'* Er, sorry. *one boo from the audience ... again* HAHAHAHA! Well, I didn't really mean you again, but... Q. How long where you into lego? Plan on continuing? A. Well, I guess I always was into Lego. I had Duplo when I was little, and I guess I just moved onto Lego with out realising. I remember getting TV Chopper twice, so that must have been one of my first sets, when I was about 6 I guess. Ah, I'm rambling. To cut it short, I always have been into Lego, and we know the Castle line will go until 2009 at least, so count me in until then! Really though, I don't see me quitting Lego any time soon. When the Castle line ends, a new theme I love will pop up, and I'll collect that. Q. Lair Pics! A. Thanks to dragonator for getting me those awesome posters! First up is my room. Then the lounge/my building area. That's my tub of Lego. Normally it's full, but for the past few years I've been sorting the pieces. I'll finish one day. And my upcoming MOC, a life size cat! No, that's my cat Smudge. Unusual name, I know. This is my photo area, which I still haven't cleared from photographing my Ork base. You may recognise it from Redman's reviews, my latest MOCs, the below photo. :-P Q. So, what are your top 3 favourite sets? A. Royal Knight's Castle. My first Castle. :'-) And my first skeleton, glow-in-the-dark ghost, horses, etc... Rock Raiders HQ. I never did get my hands on this wonderful set, but I spent hours staring at the pic in the catalogues. I recognise a bunch of stuff in there from the videogame too. :-D And finally, King's Castle Siege. I hadn't seen a Castle that good since, well, look up a few lines. X-D Q. And your favourite theme? A. Rock Raiders. Most definately. I loved that theme, and got as many sets as I could (7, 2 of them being doubles) on 10 bucks a month. X-D An underappreciated, but not particularly bad theme. Still, has anyone else noticed that LEGO seems to have this idea that humans are supposed to go places and steal things, then fight the native inhabitants of the place because they're bad for trying to stop them? Can anyone say Mars Mission? MARS MISSION! Who said that? Show me the audience again... ... I was in school at the time and I really wanted to ... Uh huh... Q. What is your opinion on BatBrick? A. Batbrick's your average friendly stalker. We first met when he began stalking me repeatedly, then we started pm'ing each other. Now we're good friends, giving each other a healthy dose of whackings. Actually, I haven't whacked Batbrick in a while... There we go. X-D From last week's interview, he does a good enough job whacking himself. :-P Q. Ye know he asked for you to be next, right? A. I do now! Thanks buddy! :'-) Actually I'm sure I read that... or maybe I just hoped I read it because I secretly always longed to be interviewed. X-D Just as an editorial note, that's the best way to do it. Secretly long to be on. Don't write and ask me. Don't keep pestering me. It's an absolute guarantee that you'll never get on. Learn from iamded, he did it right. Or else. Q. How do you think TLC is going this year? A. Brilliantly. We get a Cafe Corner style builing, with an interior. We get trolls and what-not for my beloved Castle line. We get Indiana Jones and that great Fedora. And we get that awesome fork-lift in that Cargo truck set. X-D I for one think TLC is doing mighty fine. *y* Oh yeah, and then there's what's to come. Super Castle Chess Set, Castle Battle Packs, Castle Advent Calender... *wub* *wub* Yay, LEGO Group! *wub* Q. *Tapdanceing Zombie Yoda runs by* Right... Is he with you? No? Security! A. Zombie Yoda? No, I just brought along the normal zombies... you know, to keep Larry the Pikeman away... Q. What is your best IRL Lego moment? A. Hmmm.... good question. Christmas. Every Christmas. There's always one big Lego set I want each year, which I can't afford after spending all my money on building a Castle army, and Christmas is the time I always get the set, which I finally get to add to my collection/display. *wub* Also, in the school holidays when I get to go down to Wellington and catch up with dragonator, or he comes up here, and we build, discuss, play with, and buy Lego! It's great having a friedn you loves Lego as much as you do! X-D Q. Best EB moment? A. Being interviewed. I makes me feel special. X-D And maybe, though I didn't realise it at the time, the first time I saw Batbrick's post directly after mine, with that classic stalker sign-off. :-D Q. If TLC made a new theme/set what should it be? A. What happened to 'No "whack a EB member" sets please'? Without that, I could say: "A giant set with every EB member's sigfig, each armed with some sort of whacking utensil!" But I won't. :-P I reckon, as I'm currently undergoing a lack of creativity, some sort of Rock Raiders - Castle hybrid, like an expansion of the Dwarves, full of inventors and gadgets and crazy mining machines. With a Steampunk feel to it, definately. And I'd like normal sets to have some nice greebles too, not just the UCS sets. So we could get crazy Dwarven Steampunk mining machines, packed with greebles and those lovely shiny crystals. I know this would never happen, but still, one can dream... *thought cloud appears over iamded's head, packed with every single EB member's sig-fig whacking the snot out of each other!* *thought cloud appears over imperialshadow's head, packed with every single EB member's sig-fig whacking the snot out of Staudie* *thought cloud appears over Staudie's head, but it's empty* *audience laughs* ... so, that's when I got into acting, with my first big part being ... Huh? What? Where am I? *sad* Q. amiannoying? Yes Im making fun of you. Live with it. :-P ' A. Oh, I get it. It's a parody of iamded. amiannoying. Hehe. I'm sure I have your head in my minifig box somewhere... where'd that giant troll go... what? I don't have your head in my box of minifigs? You're lucky I haven't finished sorting yet. I'll have to use your stunt double instead. |-/ Does that answer your question? X-D Nope. Perhaps you need to do that again. ;-) Q. Who is next on the gravy train into the asylum? (Next interviewee?) A. Well, I was gonna say you, but then I remembered you've already been done. So, I'm gonna go ahead and say... Dragonator! (Shock, surprise, complete unexpectedness!) It's only fitting. Looks like that about wraps things up for this episode, thanks for joining us! It's been a real pleasure. Peace. You know, you haven't been such a bad audience after all. Oh heck, show the audience again! That's pretty much my story. How about you, come here often? Hmmm... :-/ Well, that's not going to improve attendance. :-| At least one good thing came out of you dressing like that tonight. What's that boss? You can clean up the mess in the audience. Aw, man... Doot de doo... *Staudie whistles while he works* *camera fades*

You have a point there. Two, actually. X-D

Some nice work here! I just might try that Han in carbonite myself. Would that process work in dark bley? That droid, in SW lore, has a tattoo on it's butt saying "Thank the Maker." Just a useless bit of funny trivia. :-D As for Vader being washed in hot water, the worst part was that "some shrinkage might occur", explaining his uncontrollable anger. ;-)

Thanks to everyone who voted for any of my entries and a special thanks for the kind comments regarding my help. Trust me, it wasn't that much, the vast majority of the credit for this fine contest goes to Sinner and then to copmike for the great and incredibly appropriate prizes! *sweet* Thanks! That was my angle on it, a cheap way to stock up on an expensive figure. *y* Sincerely, I'd love to see most of the entries made officially, and I'd buy an awful lot of them. It's really cool to see how many different ways we could interpret the Impulse idea and apply it to all of these themes, new and old. Impulse On! *y*

My collection is worth exactly what it means to me, which is more than anyone could offer to buy it for and far too much to put something as obscene as a dollar value on. LEGO Love On! *y*