Grover

Yeah, I'm old too. I grew up before green and brown entered the color palette. That being said, I think that green and brown were great additions, and I like the dark red, dark green, and dark brown, as well as sand blue and sand green for MOCcing (and sand red if they ever made it again!). Of course, for a throwback, I would have thought that black and yellow timbers with a black roof, plus a banners of some combination of black, blue, and silver on the front would have been awesome. I still prefer light grey and dark grey over their bluish variants, but I guess we have to live with it!

Out of all the color changes TLG has made, the loss of old brown is really sad to me. Reddish brown is really red to my eye. It does not look very brown and in all but the best lighting I have trouble telling it apart from dark red. I'm happy to have the dark blue slopes, I like the idea of brown, and would have been good with black timbers as well, but the theme doesn't seem to be very consistent. What is the red and white banners doing with the black and blue falcons and a yellow and dark blue timber/roof? Great as a parts pack, but it seems a little confused as to what it is trying to throw back to. Regardless, I like the set and the build and will probably get a couple, then maybe modify a few for fun!

I was a little surprised they didn't use black for the roof pieces since the Black Falcons' Fortress used black and yellow historically.

Oh, those aren't redneck knights, those are naked knights! I remember thinking to myself "Who would put on plate armor and underwear, and nothing else?"

You could if you want a redneck knight. The yellow arms make it look like the knight is sleeveless! While I appreciate that sentiment, the striped shirt is so strongly stereotypical of a pirate (and I would guess historically inaccurate to the medieval) that it doesn't make a lot of sense. I would have preferred a solid color torso of pretty much any color. Oh well, I can always remove it easily enough.

Very cool! I like the set. Not entirely sure how well the yellow and dark blue go together, but that's a minor quibble. I like the 33 degree roof pieces and the general castle look. The parts overall seem good, and I'm glad to see two more falcon knights. The one part I really don't like is the pirate torso. I really do not like mixing them with my castle figures, and feel that the torso would have been better replaced by another or simply left out. I will not be using this torso from the set at all. It looks very out of place to me in a medieval setting. I am glad it's just one torso, since it's easily left out and does nothing to the rest of the build.

Wow, nice job! I like the blue background, and the cohesive color scheme. The platework around the statue looks nice, and the abundance of sand green ties everything together. Creative use of the ankylosaurus babies, too. The statue is uniform enough being red... is there a reason it is red? Is that a stone color or is it painted? Very interesting with the upside down three leaf plants, too. I would not have thought of that. Well done, and I am curious to learn more!

The first person writing is interesting and works well for the story being told. I like the blue background. I may have to try that with some of my builds. The higher angle shots are decent, but I think less impressive since they give away some of the 'sausage making' as to how you get your POV shots, although I understand their need to show off the dragon (which is quite nice). The POV shots are amazing. I love the first couple shots with the grasses. You really hit a great mix of colors and textures and the stems really look like tall grass (which can sometimes be a stretch in a build). The callback to the old GoH lore is nice as well. Good job!

Thanks! Usually around here if you start opening boxes you have to pay for it or they will charge you with vandalism or damaging merchandise, so I will just try and get some weights! Obviously, with the number of torn open boxes, some people are willing to take that chance however!

And that is...?

I have weights on two of them a page back.

We have the blind boxes at Walmart in the region, and all of the boxes have been ripped open. I guess that people are not happy being unable to feel the minis.

Awesome job! The lean on the tree and the snow covered stairs are spectacular. Looks like a small one room cabin, but if this is just an outpost, I would think keeping such a place small would be ideal since it's less room to heat. I like the railing and rocky overhang, too. Makes me wonder what this looked like in the summer when the cabin was built!

The microscale is really nice here, and gives a sense of how big these ships are. I keep reading through the saga, and am enjoying seeing where it will lead next! The design of the elven ship is really cool and stands out I think. Nice job!

Wow! This build is ridiculous in its size! I love all the detail, and how you used the inspiration from the Ninjago city set to build up instead of out, which seems appropriate given that Cedrica is probably packed. The mix of various colors is great and your color blocking does a very good job at not making everything seem like a hodgepodge. Very well done, and I love some of the humor!

Really beautiful tower. I love the dragon skulls, and your use of the sand blue and green with the foliage feels very elven to me. You've packed a lot of detail in here with the sweeping staircase and the statuary, all of which is gorgeous. Great job, and way to kick off the challenge!

All weights are in unopened boxes. Standard deviation is calculated for any boxes where I had 3. Alien rocker is 26.10g Ice Cream Guy 26.21g Samurai DJ 26.64g Cheetah 26.80g Werewolf 27.14g Cheerleader 27.93g Shark guy is 28.28 ± 0.11g

What a beautiful castle! Did you originally build it for the Guilds of Historica? I ask because it uses Avalonian colors. In any case, I like the color scheme and the layout. The landscaping is great, and I like the details with the stylized architecture and Tudor woodwork. You do a nice job using the dark tan and olive to detail the walls without making them too busy. Is there an interior to the towers? Thanks for sharing!

BTW, I found this kind of funny... desert is sand and no water. Dessert is cake and ice cream. Just one letter difference. I originally thought the title was a play on words before I saw the build, like "desert daylight" = "dessert delight". Now I need to build a bunch of people eating cake in the noon sun in the desert and can title it "Desert dessert daylight delight."

Oooh nice! I love the colors and the idea. The use of the Griphook hairpiece on the old elf looks great! The brick built trees and stag look fantastic! The irregular base looks good too. I pity the person who cut down that tree. I bet the elves will be after them!

Nice juxtaposition of color! I like the tree, too. The roof looks good, and the architecture looking 'new' and interesting while showing some Mitgardian influences!

They never said which guild you could build for... and since Nocturnus was alive in Book I, I would think you should be able to build there...

Excellent! This is great! I'm excited to see all the builds! I'm a little bummed, since I am likely moving in the middle of Part 1, so I may not be able to participate. If I don't participate in Part 1, can I participate in Part 2 later? Thanks for setting this up!

I have purchased copies of 6390, 375, and 580. I would consider these to be fairly old. They are also not the oldest sets that I have in my collection (those are from 1965). Anything from 1990-present I don't consider to be all that old.

This is very beautiful. You have a good level of detail without being distracting, show buildings in good and poor repair, and even manage to keep the color palette to a 'realistic' (i.e., non-fantasy) look, which is somewhat out of the ordinary and yet very nice. Thanks for sharing!