pombe

Over seven years ago, I made my way out of the last of the few LEGO dark ages I've had in my life. I discovered SNOT and micro building, and I put together this little spaceship dedicated to my favorite LEGO theme of all time: Classic Space. It was simple, but it was also clean and it shifted the way I thought about building with LEGO bricks. I was proud of it, and when I discovered Eurobricks (and Flickr), I decided that it represented me more than a typical minisigfig, so I made it my avatar. I never took it apart and it sat around in my collection undisturbed due to how fond I was of it. Recently, however, I started to feel that it deserved a bit of an update, especially since it represents me as my avatar, as I think I have grown quite a bit as a MOC builder. And so I set about the task of one-upping one of my favorite personal MOCs and this is what I came up with: I am very pleased with build and I believe it better reflects my current building level and style; and thus, it has become my new avatar. Here's a pic of the old one and new one side by side for comparison: And here's a pic just for fun: Additional pics are under the spoiler tag, and as always, comments and criticisms are welcome!

This is a beautiful and clean vignette. I was puzzled on how you did the wall textures, but @LucByard figured it out for me. I like the display screens and the little robot helper. I thought maybe Koro had uploaded himself into the little robot and was about to do some assassinating, but I guess I was wrong.

Ah, I forgot that you didn't have builds for the hangar. It would be hard to have pics for mocs that don't exist! Anyways, again, I love what you've done. There's just always something so clean and polished about your presentations.

Beautiful corridor and excellent story writing! Things are never dull for Yseult! Constructive criticism: I love how as things heat up, there are more pics showing the action. But, I felt that the earlier parts of the story could have used more pics to break up the wall of text. Not as much as when the action is really going, maybe really just two more pictures (one each inserted in the long text areas) to show what the characters are up to.

Thanks for taking the time and making the effort to go back and take additional pictures to showcase your techniques. It's much appreciated and I don't think happens enough.

Nice greebling over such a small area! I particularly like the use of the revolvers on the wings.

Lots of good techniques here, including the roof, the wall, and the brick street. I'm always looking for effective methods like these. I'll be sure to copy them in the future.

I wanted to talk about the topic of games, specifically, and how incredibly fun they are. My experience is limited to Andromeda's Gates (AG), Nar Eurbrikka (SoNE), and Brethren of the Brick Seas (BoBS), which is just a small slice of all the fun games offered on Eurobricks by the staff. I specifically wanted to follow up on something that @Cyclone Titan wrote: In a word: YES!!! As much fun as I have building a MOC in a vacuum, I have so much more fun building a MOC in a context. I can build a car and that would be fun; and I can take my time and build it well and showcase it with all its clever parts usage to the world. Or...I can build a getaway car used by veteran bank robbers; it's non-descript with four doors so the robbers can get in quickly and its minifigure driver is a cool headed woman who knows all the back alleys and nearby garages to evade and confuse the cops. And now, I need to build a second car (bonus!) because the robbers will need another car after they ditch the getaway one. Suddenly, the MOC takes on a personality and becomes part of a narrative that makes it so much more interesting and fun to build. And it makes it more fun to view. I see LEGO bricks as an awesome medium for story telling, most likely because that was how I built as a child. I didn't just build spaceships. I built adventures. The spaceships I built had crews and they would swoosh about defeating the bad guys and their evil madness with all the pew pew glory my young mind could muster. I joined Eurobricks a while ago, because of my young love of LEGO, and just sort of lurked. I shared a couple MOCs and participated in a contest or two and posted a (terrible, in hindsight) review. But it was all just sort of dabbling. I bought LEGO sets, but didn't build much: I just couldn't find the magic I once felt. The spaceships didn't swoosh, the weapons didn't pew, and I didn't even build bad guys to defeat. Then @Bob De Quatre announced he was creating a new game, Andromeda's Gates, and holy hell I found the magic again and it came with a bonus side of fries. I've read the criticisms of the games and I understand the high barriers of entry to join them (or even just to view), especially when a game has been going on for a long time. Additionally, I feel that many Eurobrick members don't go into game subforums because they just want to see MOCs and don't understand how to view ALL THE INCREDIBLE GAME MOCS because of the confusing [FACTIONX - LOCATIONY - BUILDZ] pre-fix bits in the titles, which unfortunately, are necessary for game mechanics. It seems that a MOC index or some sort of organization is something many, including players, want for these games. One of the best features of AG was the external webpage dedicated to the progress of the game (major props and shout out to @Bob De Quatre): http://www.bakahomepage.com/EB/AG/ It made the game easy to navigate (use the tabs!) since anyone could easily see the influence each faction had on each planet, where each faction was in the tech tree, and (BEST OF ALL) see an index of all players AND ALL OF THEIR MOCS INDEXED IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER. Holy moly, it was awesome. Anyone could go there and just read all the stories of any player straight through without having to sift through months of noise. How's that for convenient? Now, players could easily go back and refresh their memories if they were gone for a while, and spectators could effortlessly follow the stories of their favorite players. However, there was one flaw with this super awesome webpage. It wasn't well advertised. Sure, it was linked in the rules and background post. But thinking back on it, it should have received its own topic and made clear that this is a great resource for anyone (players or not) who wanted to follow the game. Not only that, but it solved the problem of having a MOC index for the game. Over the course of the ~90 week long game, AG players collectively built over 2,000 MOCs, which would be impossible to organize in a single thread. I know that the webpage was a lot of extra work for @Bob De Quatre, and it's unreasonable to ask that every Eurobricks game has such a thing (it's still there, so anyone who wants to check out some incredible brick built adventures can do so!). And I know for existing games, some players take it upon themselves to keep a personal MOC index. But I will say that the external webpage was great to have, and I think was a valuable tool to lower the entry barrier for participation and spectatorship. Then, there's this: No feedback? No recognition? NO PROBLEM! JOIN A GAME!!! I've found that fellow players will comment and critique your game MOCs OUT THE YANG. EB somehow feels too cliquey for you? Can't break in a group and feel like you belong? JOIN A GAME!!! The players will instantly welcome you and you will immediately be part of a clique. You will be added to private discussion groups where players on your team routinely share WIPs and story ideas. And best of all, the players on the other teams will start TRASH TALKING TO YOU (better than getting ignored, right, right?). Don't want to join a game since you can't build every week like the Tazmanian Devil on crack cocaine? No game has a a requirement that says you have to build or be kicked out. It's not uncommon for players to take breaks and/or leave and come back after a long hiatus. Everyone builds to their pace. So what are you waiting for? JOIN A GAME!!!

For those non-Sea Rats who are curious about my creative process, this micro build was actually started in February and the original story below was based on something that was discussed in the Sea Rats' private forums, as I was trying to figure out how sailors actually docked sailing ships and develop a joke for the process. Thanks to @Roadmonkeytjand @Professor Thaum for clarifying how it was done for me. It took me a while to finish the MOC, but in the meantime, the needs of the Sea Rats changed, so I changed the story to fit a new commercial building. However, I figured the original story was worth sharing. The sign says, "Parking Stern In". Hold on, I have to turn this boat around. Stop! There's a row boat crossing by! Why must row boats always show up when I'm trying to park? Okay, backing in. You're at an angle! You're going to hit the dock! STAY IN THE LINES!!! Where's the rearview camera on this thing?! There's no such thing as a rearview camera!!

The Naval Academy wargame store which is a small commercial building.

Dramatis Personae: Previously, https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/160606-sr-fb-the-alois-forever/... A quiet day at the unsuspecting Oleon port... Little do they know that they are about to be attacked...by pirates! Fortunately, not all is lost! The fortress fires its cannons! Or is it cannon? I can never tell when to put an "s" at the end of plural cannon(s). YOU SANK MY BATTLESHIP!!! We're not playing that game! This is BrickseasHammer 1.8K! And what's with these unpainted grey models? I didn't have enough time to finish them before we arrived here...wherever this place is... Ahem...Currently, at The Naval Academy wargame store in Bastion... Who's that? I'm the narrator. No, you're a fake wanna be writer who is too stupid to realize you suck. Er...moving on...Suddenly, Oleon reinforcements show up! Wait! What happened to my turn? You deployed, then I got to move and fire. And now I'm deploying my dreadnought, which can move and attack the turn it arrives. What?! How's that fair?! Here...you can have a yellow cheese slope to represent how cheesy and overpowered this unit is. My dreadnought fires it's flame attack on the nearest sloop. Meanwhile, my Dreadnought's sorceror hero captain casts a time warp spell on the sloop that was already on fire from my fortress attack. There's magic in this game?! And flame attacks?! And...er...the ship that got time warped...that's not a sloop...that's a Goliath class ship of the line with 84 cannon...or is it cannons? I was just using the sloop model. You're using a proxy model?!?! Hey, these models are expensive and I'm just a graduate student! Just be glad I didn't resort to using rocks and pebbles! Anyways, it got time warped and it's your only unit, so you lose a turn. Now, I summon a sea dragon which uses a freeze attack! Of course... And you've lost your last ship. Good game. Whatever. Hold on a second. Based on the previous post, weren't we supposed to be sailing somewhere so you can do some secret thing to win over that idiot, Alois? First, Alois is not an idiot! Second...that's true. I wonder why we stopped at Bastion to play this game? Because I felt like it. Aaaaand that is why you suck as a writer. The MOC for that story is even finished! You uploaded onto Flickr last month! And...er...Harriet, when did you grow a neckbeard? Comments and criticisms are all welcome!

Personnel Files: Previously, https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/148348-sone-ep-xiv-muunilinst-family/.... Currently, on the Forest Moon of Endor... Skrogging mountainside! No shade and no cover! There's a lone tree up ahead. We could take a breather there. Alright, Razer Losers, you heard "Fiend"! Let's take five under that tree! Comments and criticisms are all welcome!

Dramatis Personae: Previously, https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/158702-sr-mrca-welcome-to-the-jungle-part-3/... Currently, somewhere on the high seas... Yes...with The Alois Forever, the most advanced ship in the entire Olean navy, I will finally bring my precious Alois back to the Olean cause...and make him mine. It's just another stupid microbuild! The stupid face who writes these idiotic posts not only can't write, but doesn't seem capable of building a sailing ship at minifig scale! It's not just a microbuild! It's named after my dearest darling Alois, and has 100 points in every stat...it's the most powerful ship in the Olean navy! And wait...what are you doing here? Since nothing interesting happened in the latest Trade MRCA to my stupid advisor and her students, the stupid face pombe jerk wad writer decided to post something about your stupid quest for Alois. And for some moronic reason, he thought adding me to your story would be funny. I can't even explain how I'm in two places at once; I told you his writing sucks. And how is a ship with a 100 points in every stat even allowed in BoBS?! Ha ha! My true naval genius is revealed! I can use ships with whatever stats I wish, so long as I don't license them! Ha ha! You mean the ship is useless since it can't participate in the MRCA. A minor detail. Captain, shall I have her detained and moved to the brig? What?! No, Helmut, leave her be. We'll have her witness my master plan as it unfolds. She'll see when we arrive at our destination. Great. Where are we headed? I can't reveal that, yet. Why not? It's not like a single psychology graduate student is going to overwhelm your ship with 100 Crew points...though the max stats according to the rules is 12. No, it's a separate MOC and will be posted as a separate freebuild to maximize the doubloons we get. You'll see it then. I have no words. To be continued! And additional photos can be found under the spoiler, including how the base for the ship was constructed! Comments and criticisms are all welcome!

Thanks for the kind words, though I'm not sure it's worthy of this topic. I still have a long way to go.

Above Earth... Lotus Blossom, this is Sakura Leader. GATE activity detected...a single vessel coming through. It appears to be a M.A.N.T.I.S. vessel...a Razerclaw Corvette class. It's transponder identifies it as The Dutiful Sister. It's headed towards Earth. Don't worry, brother. Sister is coming to clean your clock...

Desert Raiders Desert Raiders

I have found Eurobricks to be an incredibly welcoming and encouraging community for AFOLs, and I would like it to stay that way. Eurobricks very much embodies the LEGO ethos of "play well", and I am glad to have found it and become a member. Regardless if a player is gone for one month or one decade, so long as BoBS is around, I would like the game to welcome that player back with open arms when s/he decides to return. As for players gaming the system, Kwatchi has pointed out that BoBS, unlike a couple of the other EB rolebuilding games, has no actual win condition. A player cannot win BoBS. A faction cannot win BoBS. If anything, BoBS is a huge international collaboration by AFOLs to create a fictional world. We populate it with minifigure personalities, build settlements, and flesh out its history (and occasionally fill it with drama). So if a player goes against the spirit of the game and the forum by creating several EB accounts and fills the BoBS world with more minifigures and more ships and more settlements and amasses an infinite amount of doubloons, I'm not sure I would have a problem with it, unless that player purposefully and deliberately ruins the game experience of another player. I would just see it as someone who had a lot of time on their hands. That said, I would just request that the game masters not add to the existing paperwork of the game. Please. And then, there's this, which I would like to see very much: Yes, please.

This is the MOC that inspired me to come out of my dark ages. In the back of my mind this is the level of quality I eventually want to reach and I am hoping that I will one day build something worthy of it. "Calamity Jane" Privateer Gunship by M.R. Yoder

That's quite the superb Eagle! SUPER BEAGLE!!! No, Alois, I said superb Eagle. Well, it can be quite confusing given the other incredible Corrington ship that @Bregir built, which is quite the super Beagle. I hate you guys.

A chemical testing laboratory (small factory) in Fuerte Unido.

Dramatis Personae: Previously, https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/158700-sr-mrca-welcome-to-the-jungle-part-2/.... At Fuerte Unido, Isla de Victoria, Eslandola... What is this?! This is our chemical testing laboratory, which we are setting up here in Fuerte Unido. I figured we needed some place to test the fermentation of the plant we brought back with us from the jungle. We'll license this as a small factory. You stupid professor! You put the Jolly Roger right on the front of the building! We're Sea Rats! You might as well just advertise that this is a pirate hangout! Nonsense. Everyone knows that that is the universal warning symbol for poison. And given that this is a chemical testing laboratory, I think it makes perfect sense as a warning to others. Besides, we're not pirates. We're scientists. And do you think so little of the Eslandolans that they would confuse the Jolly Roger for the poison symbol? They look the same, you stupid professor!! Regardless, let's go in and set about fermenting the new plant. Hours later... THE FLOOR IS SO FLOORY!!! Hee hee hee. I hate my life so much. Hee hee hee. My life sucks so hard. Hee hee hee. Come back here, you stupid spider! I must harvest and sacrifice you! Hargoth the Destroyer demands a sacrifice or I will be cast into The Plane of Empty Loneliness! I don't want to be empty and lonely! Journal Entry, Ethylene Glycol January 31st, 618 AE. The subjects graduate students have consumed the first batch of the distilled fermented product from the Minifigurous failurous plant. All indications suggest that the plant contains hallucinogenic compounds, which have altered the states of mind of the subjects graduate students, though the effects vary. I think this product is highly marketable given these properties and I believe that the next step should be to scale up production. For that, I have been in contact with @Roadmonkeytj, who will oversee that process. The funds from the sales of this beverage should help fund my scientific endeavors for quite some time, provided that permanent damage has not occurred to the subjects graduate students. But even if that has occurred, it is not as if subjects graduate students are difficult to come by. Comments and criticisms are all welcome!

Dramatis Personae: Previously, https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/158698-sr-mrca-welcome-to-the-jungle-part-1/.... Near Fuerte Unido, Isla de Victoria, Eslandola... Did I mention I hate you all?! And did I mention I hate this jungle?! Anyways, are we done, yet?! My mosquito bites have mosquito bites! Almost, Lucy. We just need to check out that clearing up ahead. I've never seen a plant like this before. I think we've discovered a new species. Indeed. I shall name it Minifigurous failurous. I believe we have the scientific responsibility to bring it back. Once we've noted the characteristics and made an illustration, standard scientific protocol tells us that we must ferment, distill, and consume it. What scientific protocol?!?! Are you nuts?!?! Spoken by someone who spends all day listening to unhappy couples whine about their problems as part of her so-called science education. Tell me, do you ever offer any real advice or do you just nod your head, say mm-hmm, do nothing but ask questions, and always answer their questions with more questions? It's called active listening! It's called active B.S.. They came to you for answers not more questions. That's not how it works! Anyways, sorry to interrupt, but do we have a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae that we'd like to use in the fermentation? BAKER'S YEAST!!! Okay, you are all stupid or something! Yeast has not been discovered as part of the fermentation process, yet! Nobody in BoBS is supposed to know that the reason they get the booze they love so much is because little microbes fall out of the air into their ingredients and produce ethanol as a metabolic byproduct! Lucy, I think you need to relax a bit. TO BE CONTINUED!!! Comments and criticisms are all welcome!

Dramatis Personae: Previously, https://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?/forums/topic/156124-sr-fb-sweet-novvember/.... At Fuerte Unido, Isla de Victoria, Eslandola... And we've finished another MCRA. That's MRCA, you stupid professor! You know what I mean. Anyways, here we are aboard the Nerdy Mermaid's Sister, entering the Eslandolan port of Fuerte Unido. What in the @$%%^&$^#$%@$^%^&?!?!?!?! We built a microbuild of the Nerdy Mermaid MOC, which was already a microbuild! We've built a microbuild of a microbuild!!! NANOBUILD!!! You shut your face, Alois! The metric system doesn't exist, yet! This is ridiculous! Perhaps if we build a microbuild of this one, we can create a picobuild, and then a femtobuild, and so on. You shut up, too! Though, it seems we've skipped the millibuild. Hmm? We've just dropped anchor and it seems we are being boarded by Eslandolan soldiers. That's probably because we attacked an Eslandolan ship on our way into this port. What the?!?! WHAT THE?!?! You mean we attacked an Eslandolan ship and then just sailed into an Eslandolan port?!?!?! First, who does that?!?! Second, how can we attack anyone when we don't have any guns?!?!?! STRATEGY!!! I see. Our ship is being detained and we have been sentenced to community service for the provocation. We are to explore and map out part of the jungle surrounding Fuerto Unido. That sounds exciting! Exploring an unknown jungle, let's do it! There must be interesting scientific discoveries to be made! I hate you all, especially Willy. TO BE CONTINUED!!! Comments and criticisms are all welcome!

@Dukesc currently owns the Nerdy Mermaid, as per this auction: I own the license to the Nerdy Mermaid's Sister, not both ships. I just wanted to point out the error.

Yasssssssssssssssssssssssss...