Duke

Nice article, you've made some quite interesting comments on backstory and comparisons with other sets. I look forward to reading more!

Your customs are really among the best I have seen! My favourite so far is probably the Gengis Khan one.. very effective.

I love reading your posts, they make everyone else's seem trivial.

Lots of good entries, I found it difficult to narrow down.. Jack Sparrow Can't Escape the Classsics (blackpyre) - 1 Point The Last Stand (JulieBlue) - 1 Point The Veteran (greg3) - 1 Point The Captain's Chivalry (The Kid) - 1 Point Another Escape (Seagulls) - 1 Point The Compass (RocketSeason) - 1 Point If my mailing list bonus point gets activated, i'll allocate that one to my entry. Barbossa's Ballad.

Nice MOC, but more importantly nice Alan Rickman impression.

I'd like to claim bonus points for: Mailing List VERIFIED Picture Challenge Vote VERIFIED Total: 7 Points

Good question, I had not thought about it but hopefully they won't just recycle the London Bus. Could be something olympics related perhaps?

Looks like there is going to another Lego Store in London, in the new Westfield Stratford centre. Jobs advertised on lego.com.

What have I done... I decided to buy an Emerald Night whilst they were still available, thinking i'd regret it if I didn't buy one. Just built the Engine and Tender for now and it's just a thing of beauty. I feel like all my other sets pale in comparison and now I feel the need to buy track, power functions and possibly more Emerald Nights Highly recommended, but with a caution warning for addiction.

Try uploading to an image hosting site like imageshack.us and then link to the picture.

I really like this entry. The language and turn of phrase is obviously archaic and then makes it feel more appropriate to the time. Also a nice rhythm, which reveals careful thought in your word choice.

Thank you both for your shared concerns about the rhyme scheme, it is clear that you have examined my entry in some detail! With regards to the first lack of rhyme 'mingled with the ocean spray' I should say that I chose to avoid rhyme for effect. A lack of rhyme can leave a unsettled feeling for the reader, and that's what I wanted to create to go with the scene of the soldiers being killed. The second point you raised, with the crane (ha!).. I must say that I struggled to find an appropriate rhyme. Rather than choosing to warp my poem into another direction just to succeed with the rhyme, I decided to go ahead with a non rhyming pair. I'll try and have a further think about this one. Thanks, i'm glad you enjoyed it.

Awesome dragon-y thing. Especially the wings.

Excellent creation. Lots of different details in the building and the balconies are really nice.. Head selection and minifigures are all nice and unique. Good backstory too. Oh and the roof tiles!

Incredible! I'm not sure about the light blue sides of the wave but the crest is really successful.

I've just opened and built my London Escape and I have the same situation. The gold coins were packaged in one of the numbered bags and were chromed and on a sprue. However the 2 gold ingots were just loose inside the box (very odd as they were the only loose parts) and pearl gold in colour.

Very nice ship, I love your little commentary and the idea of a ship of angry vikings bearing down on the assorted lego castle knights. As you say, this theme was over to quickly and I sadly missed out on it.

How about this one? http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3626bpb435

Nice little tower, it fits well into the style of the official sets I think but with some extra details. Unusual also to see a detail like a horse shed, but I think it looks good!

Wow brilliant creation! I look forward to seeing more from you. I need some time just to take in all the details of this.

Firstly thank you all for your kind comments and suggestions, i'll try and address each seperately. Hi buddy, thanks for your well thought out comments. I like the idea of an introduction a lot but unfortunately i'm up to the word count already on here and i'm not sure that i'd want to remove anything to make room for it! Thanks for your comments, very thorough in both analysis and suggestion. You picked me up on 3 areas where I lack depth of knowledge! I'll certainly change the Admiral to a Governor to be more in keeping with the classic pirates saga. I had forgotten that there was something to have guided the Black Pearl to Port Royal in the film, so I just made up the siren thing as you have obviously seen. Thanks for enlightening me in that respect, I think it would have been hard to work in that whole detail into a short line! Finally, a ballad. Shown up again . I think in this case I obviously can't use a repeating chorus because of the word limitations. I really called it Barbossa's Ballad because of the alliterative name though I did feel I had given it something of the nature of a ballad (if only in motif). Anyway, thanks again. Helpful stuff. Hi MstrofPppts. Firstly, i'm glad you liked it and changed your mind after seeing it was a poem. (I know a lot of people don't get on with poetry!) With regards to rhymes of 'go' and 'El Dorado' there has been some discussion it seems. Personally, I would definitely pronounce them in the same way but obviously pronunciation does vary. For example I looked up the google translate pronunciation as you mentioned it. It does some to be slightly different on there but with what I feel is an odd way of saying 'go'. As for chest and tempest, I hesitated over including this as it's a bit of a half rhyme since the syllable count is different. However the endings are the same sound. It's one of the struggles of poetry to balance what you want to say with keeping the rhyme scheme. Finally the (not chrome). I guess I wanted it to almost be seperate from the poem as a little kind of out of character add-on. Just for you though, I will change it to a hyphen! Thanks for backing me up on the rhyming point of view :) Thanks! Thanks very much, flattering commentary and I laughed at the criticism!

I love the idea of a contest based around writing rather than LEGO construction, so I had to give this one a go. I think with a short word count limit, you can get a lot out of your words if you write in verse. Trying to fit to a rhyme and rhythmn makes you think very carefully about what you want to say. I also went for a fairly dark style. Anyway, it was good fun writing this and I hope you enjoy reading it. On a midnight dark and stormy, All lay still amid the town, But on the ship that lay before me, I clutched an Aztec golden crown. A life of wealth, a life at sea, A life of immortality But life that's cursed with no need sated Leaves little joy and all else hated. We searched the sea, we scoured the land, To find our blood gold 'mid the sand, 'Til sirens told us where to go, Unto the fortress, El Dorado. -- Moonlight pierced the umbral dark, And showed us all as nought but bones. It lit the harbour sentry's ark, We sent him down to Davy Jones. They heard the splash and rang the bell, And musket shots rained on the sea But this crew of mine from deepest hell, We ran them through with savage glee. They fought us long, they fought us hard, Those noble soldiers in the yard. 'Til blood ran down the cobble stones And mingled with the ocean spray. I found the governor in a tower, I knew that Broadside was his name And though he died within the hour, I felt I knew him all the same. He told me where they hid the gold, The mint arrived in sealed box And there it dangled from a crane, Above the jagged broken rocks. Leaping swiftly from the ledge I landed firm upon the chest But caught the twine with just an edge And fell away into the tempest. Down it sank and down I swam, Down to where it all began, Down to nest upon the bed 'Mid weeds and wrecks and creatures dead. My dead heart pounded in my chest To lay this evil curse to rest. I speared the lock and drove it home But like my ship, the gold was pearl - not chrome!

Try this thread: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=55426&st=0

Great creation and I really like the idea of the street incline.

Funny, engaging and well written. Can't ask for much more from 300 words!