Grover

Notice in your second picture that the moss is growing from the ends of the shingles where the dirt gathers. Can't really see the top picture very well. After it grows a lot it' hard to see where it started.

Something about the blue sticks out to my eye. After reading your comments, it dawned on me that moss typically grows in ares with dirt, so starting on gutters, etc. would be the most logical place. It seems unusual that the dirt would be on the peak of the steepest part of the roof with the most exposure to sunlight (unless that is a north facing side of the building in which case I would expect it to have vines etc. on it and a wholly dirty roof). I would think that it would grow in the corners of the dormers. I think I will modify my version to have some olive small limbs extend over some roof tiles to try and make it more appealing to my eye. Regardless, I think that they did a good job making the flatter portion of the roof darker, since, as you say, it is likely dirtier. Hopefully this sells well and encourages TLG to make a new Castle line!

I think that the Barracude Bay set is better and more true to the classic pirate theme than the Blacksmith shop is to classic castle. The blacksmith shop was always destined to be changed a lot since it was a digital submission with no source material extant (a la Sesame Street). I'm worried the blacksmith shop will miss the mark of enticing classic castle fans and the people who wanted the 'gothic' feel of the original submission and then TLG will take it as a signal that castle is not a popular theme. I'm hoping that the final product will really draw people in and it will be popular. I'm also kind of disappointed in the lack of real medieval feel, since, as you say, it could easily be a 'pirate' shop that could extend into the 19th century. I was hoping I'd get a parts pack for my medieval builds with barracuda bay, and didn't get it. I hope the blacksmith shop is not just a nice parts pack.

Probably sells more sets to kids. For me, I dislike the choice of blue on the roof because it makes no sense to me that the lighter blue, which is presumably the original roof color (since things darken as they get older and dirtier), would be next to the 'moss' (which is too regular for me anyway), and then the roof gets darker as it goes down. The moss should be next to the darkest spots if you ask me, and any spots that are untouched and pristine should be the brightest colors. As it is, the blue seems to stick out to me. I was also disappointed that they appear to have gone with a spring theme rather than a fall theme, but if they include parts to make both, I will be happy. I still like the set and think it's a good medieval building (and about time). I hope that this does well and brings more castle/medieval sets, but I am a little concerned that, as someone mentioned in another thread, that in changing this so much, they have missed the mark on target audiences and made it less appealing to everyone.

By grasses I meant element 15279, which I think could have been very cool in tan, dark tan, or reddish brown. Those are still in production and would only require a recolor, which I think could have been a homerun. I do agree, the twisted and gnarled tree design is great on the trunk. I'm less in love with the foliage on it. It reminds me more of a bonsai tree than a European style deciduous tree of any kind. Thinking about it now, the foliage choices that I am least in love with are the more spring like colors, rather than the fall. I really enjoy the colors of fall, and I think that the oranges and browns in the original set captured that. I understand why the set was made brighter overall, and I think that this set is more true to the original than Barracuda Bay, but I would have liked to see the fall colors, especially since they are in production right now in both the limb elements and the three leaf varieties. Reds and bright yellows could have spiced up the colors without cutting to a lime green, which reminds me more of springtime. If they include multiple colors for foliage, I would be very happy. I don't really see the green on the roof as moss. It seems too regular for that to me. I'd like to see more irregular shapes or some small foliage for that. The thicker curved slope in the original design was kind of cool, but I'm just as happy with the irregular baseplates. I do agree with you, the curved plates are pretty neat, and a thick base would be interesting and unique. Overall, I think they did a great job with cutting down the design, and my judgment is reserved for the official pictures. As I stated above, however, with a goat, I would have bought 5 of these! I think, too, that a new mold is not out of the question for these sets now, so it would have been a great place to include it. As I understand the rumors, the lack of goat int he T-rex set was not due to not making a new mold but rather that the decision was made too late to cut and test a new mold before production began. That I could believe, for as you say, a new mold is not out of the question for TLG at all. I think a goat would be a smart addition to the animal lineup since it would be quite usable across themes, and could even be reshot in different colors like gold and grey for statuary.

I can't even check out until recently, and that not even on a computer. Their website needs some serious work. I'm hopeful it gets back working before all the pieces drop.

You're lucky you were able to buy at all. I've had errors since midnight, won't let me checkout, no matter the browser, OS, or network. I watched all the sets I wanted go from in stock to backordered to out of stock, and the GWP disappear. I don't know if their website is that slammed, poorly constructed, or hammered with bots buying stock for scalpers like the playstations are.

I hope the goat is included, but I have my doubts. I at least hope that the horse is grey. For $150, I am curious to see the rest of the pictures, particularly of the interior. They changed a lot. I'm happy with the Nexo shield roof, but disappointed in the bright blue color. I think that dark blue would have been good and they could have interleaved reddish brown or dark brown for variation, but the blue sticks out a lot. I really don't like the bright colors on the tree. Dark orange leaf pieces would have been much cooler. The smaller size and less texture looks fine to me. I would have loved printed wood pieces, but I understand they are costly, so am OK with the plain wooden boards. Dark brown would have been great, but I'm OK with reddish brown. I think they also missed the mark without brown grasses. Had they included the goat and left the more muted vegetation I probably would have picked up 5 copies. Now I will have to wait to see if I will pick up 1 or 2, depending on the interior. Cool, yes. Great for parts? Maybe OK. Really amazing? Not by these pics so far.

You're welcome! I think I'm going to use that technique on my next brickbuilt doors. It's pretty flexible and makes the doors swing authentically.

Well done! I like the three builds coming together to show the progression of the shields from start to finish. For anyone reading this, I would recommend looking on Flickr if you haven't already. The pictures are more detailed there. The loggers build has good use of the whips for a horse harness and I like the idea of dragging a singular tree rather than loading up a larger cart. The sawmiller is probably my favorite. I like all the detail on the roof, the chains hanging down, the mini posing, the use of the bar to chisel/pry (rather than the ever present hand axe), and the attention to detail on the eaves are awesome. I would personally like to see the sticks in the water set down between tiles. They kind of look like they're hovering above the surface a little to me, but this is a small detail. Nice clean interior on the shieldsmith. The shields on the wall are a nice touch. I like the way you added the rafters/crown molding while keeping the ceiling open to let in light but also give a sense of the room. Overall, I would like to see a little more contrast on the images. They're good and true to color, but some of the shadows are getting in the way of my being able to see the details that you've packed into your builds, and it would be a shame to have anything missed! Great work!

Fun little build! Nice use of the old school parts!

That's a fun spider! I think the first picture is the best. It really conveys a sense of the jungle with the dense foliage and has a great perspective. Some of the other pictures are a little too busy, in part due to the lighting I think. The shot in the spoiler shows the color blocking much better and the entire scene becomes more clear. If that lighting were combined with the perspectives from the other shots, I think it might help. Very nice use of the technic gears on the mushrooms, the various greens and browns, and several trees leaning at askew angles. It makes the scene feel organic. One of my favorite aspects is the slight variation in terrain height. It does a good job making the scene seem real, with some slight but noticeable elevation variation. Great job!

I think there are many ways to articulate a functional door, although one of my favorites is a technique used recently in the front doors of the new Sesame Street set. Download the instructions from Lego and take a look at how the build the green doors on the main building. I think you could use something like that here.

B&P is 200 per part. No limit in aggregate parts as far as I have seen and I've had thousands in single orders before. There's some 3000 part limit for some sort of order, I think it's bulk, unless you sign a waiver, which brings you to unlimited, but I never had that issue.

I ordered mine in June. I think the Monkie Kid stuff dropped day 1.

Looks like a scene from GoT. Nice work! Almost looks like he's going through ice. Could be interesting to try other colors like trans green, blue, or black. Well done with the colors and the various half arches. They look really worn down and fantastic. Is this for an upcoming world builder story?

I bought mine the first day they were available and they are still 'in warehouse', so it may be after the holidays before they ship.

I don't really know what World Builder is, but I believe that there is probably enough IP legality mess with the highly diverse set of characters, stories, images, maps, etc. that it would be a nightmare. As @Kai NRG says, a story inspired by the Guilds might be good, or perhaps a much smaller story arc set within some small fiefdom or kingdom that could fit in GoH (with appropriate colors etc.) might also be possible.

Taken care of. I cut back to one, or put extras in parenthesis. Removed. It's only barely forced perspective anyway based on the clouds. I'll build something else later. Cut back to the four most useful in the categories. Will do! I'll link them here actually. I may have some time over the holidays to look through my previous builds and see if anything else I have fits categories so far untouched. Thanks!

I miss the older instructions with fewer steps, and I have nostalgia for unnumbered bags, but sets were smaller then. I can't imagine building the falcon with unnumbered bags. I personally don't find numbered bags to be over simplified, but some of the instructions, where they have one plate per step, I do find to be oversimplified.

Great little build! I love the cracked glowing floor. The colors are fantastic. Love how you used the neon chain for the magic. Great idea! I agree with @The Stad, the Ninjago skull looks goofy. It's a shame that TLG seemed to design them solely for the skeletons since they don't quite work with the minifig. Seems that we're getting more of these 'single use' type parts lately. In any case, nice job!

I like the black background. It makes it seem like nighttime. The choice of olive here works great for dormant grass. The flowers are very nice and I like the dark brown barrel. The brick built bow is awesome, too! I would echo @jtooker with the wedge plates around the grass. I really like the design of the ruins, although something about the snow on it seems unusual. Maybe because the snow would cover everything and it's impossible to cover edges of tiles with partial plates and such, but you've done a good job based on the limitations of the media. The curve of the wall is great! Keep up the good work!

Thanks! I wasn't really sure what MOCs fit best into what categories or if things fit into categories, so I just put them where I could. I also forgot some, so I'll go and add those. I can simply delete the ones that aren't the best at filling each category. Thanks for your comments! Interestingly, although I agree with you that the open hole at the top of the straw roof looks weird, it is how many of the old cruck houses were built, especially when they were temporary housing like this is supposed to be. I usually do my research in making these as historically accurate as I can (fantasy elements and joke anachronisms notwithstanding). I pretty much threw the Fishery into every category it fit and figured I'd delete the ones it didn't fit well later. I think that the SNOT cliffs fits it better, too. The Pig Pen comes from two warriors practicing so they have the same heraldry and are practicing in a pig pen. Of course, I forgot my best battle scene (with bear cavalry!), from the middle of the Enlightened. I also included a smaller one from Downfall of the Rego. The Cedar Serpent was a MOC I built in the middle of a move so I was very limited on what parts I could get to. I would definitely build it differently now. I thought about putting the fountain in the Pool and the Downfall of the Rego in as flowing water, but I interpreted the category as more natural and not artificial water features, so skipped it. I should probably add posing of the minifigures to the Highway from Hell build. I've added two of my humorous builds with joke anachronisms as well. I'm sure I have more builds to fit these categories, but I keep forgetting about bits here and there. I'll keep adding as I have time!

Looking good! If you want to smooth out the grass edge around the fountain, you can use some wedge plates in green. I don't know if you meant it to be landscaped in square corners, though, it may be artistic. I kind of like a little more texture to trees, so you can put SNOT plates on the outside to give more of a bark texture with the studs and some flare at the bottom with slopes. Of course, if these are manicured trees that don't have rough bark like oaks or something, then the smoother texture is more appropriate. You can also do some really detailed whip trees that might look good here in various colors to represent fruit trees, etc. @adde51 does some amazing whip trees, some examples of which can be seen here and here and here. My Flickr is here. I tend to keep my WIPs elsewhere. Good luck with getting your bricks in! The postal service here has been crazy slow lately so everything is late.

Architecture roofing (2/3): Early Spring in Prenmôr - Technic pin roof; Prenmôr Forge - Staggered tiles wall techniques (2/3): Early Spring in Prenmôr - Half-timbered Tudor; Secret Meeting Room and the Rego's Mansion - SNOT tiled round walls and towers: The Pool (Curved corners) roof rakes (the inclined end of the roof between the eaves and the ridge; see explanation and a great example from Derfel Cadarn) advanced windows and window frames advanced SNOT -- See question below for an explanation Landscape Design trees (demonstrate mastery of at least three (3) different tree building techniques; examples here and here): (1/3) On the Lamb - Large tree flowers and dense foliage landscaping studs up rocks and cliffs: On the Lamb Two (2) of: (1/2) sand dunes snow and ice extreme environments (lava, caves, acidic pools, etc.) sideways rocks (studs horizontal) Fishery and Shrine - SNOT clay cliffs Hydrology Four (4) of: (1/4) still water (lakes, ponds, ocean without waves, etc.) waves: The Cedar Serpent - wake flowing water waterfalls underwater General Building (Other Techniques) minifig posing Highway from Hell (also Prenmôr Quarry; Cleanup; Aftermath) interior design: Lady Gwenllian's House; (also Secret Meeting Room; The Golden Goblet) forced perspective microscale: Scouting a Site one (1) of: lighted builds (e.g., light bricks, LEDs): Fish Fryday movement-enabled (Power Functions, or manually operated via gears or other mechanisms) mosaics, stained glass, or complex SNOTted floor designs brick films History A special discipline, wherein you must build three (3) MOCs depicting significant events in Kaliphlin's history (you make up the events, or use whatever existing history there is). You must also supply a story of suitable length and quality describing the historical event pictured. At least two of the history builds must consist of at least three different pictures, either different scenes altogether, or the same scene at different moments in time, with changes to the scene such as figure movement. Military Science battle scene: The Enlightened (pretty much the entire middle of the thread) siege fortifications: Palisade (also Castle Palisade) military camp Trade and Law marketplace manufacturing one (1) of: caravan / shipping by land shipping by sea / water o two (2) of: arresting criminals and/or jail courtroom governing body (king, council, etc.) Agriculture and Zoology three (3) of: (1/3) brick-built animals -- Brick-built animals, birds, or fish, realistically rendered using advanced or innovative techniques. Number of animals should be commensurate with their scale -- three or more if they're approximately minifig sized. crop farming raising livestock fishing Fishery and Shrine harvest time logging Anthropology life in Kaliphlin Two (2) of: (0/2) city scene village life countryside scene tribal scene Two (2) of: (1/2) life in Avalonia Prenmôr Quarry; Highway from Hell life in Mitgardia life in Nocturnus life in Varlyrio Geography Four (4) of: (2/4) mountains or cliffs Fishery and Shrine oceanside or river scene Fishery and Shrine forests swamp desert grasslands Culture Two (2) of the following: (1/2) Theater Music: Highway from Hell Art