Grover

Excellent! In general, I am not a huge fan of the style of stonework in here on a lot of structures, but I do think it lends itself well to older, run down structures, and you have used it here to great effect. I also appreciate your color palette. The greys mixed with the white, dark tan and brown of the wooden structure and the orange of the fall tree is great. As I keep reading these forums and looking at MOCs, I find that the best ones take an artist's eye for color to choose the correct shades and know where to place them to make believable and textured builds. I think that you have that in spades. Thank you for sharing with everyone!

Welcome, Tyndale! I am in and out of here recently, so my apologies for not saying hi sooner. One of our dogs had puppies about 4 months ago, and we've been busy raising them. The pups (aside from the 2 we're keeping) are now off to their permanent homes, so my time is slowly coming back, but I have a lot of chores that have been neglected in the meantime. In any case, I am still fairly new here myself, but have found this to be a great community. We just finished a large push to build the end of Book II, so things slowed down for a bit. It's starting to pick back up. To answer your question, I think that Artorius Rex may still be our leader, but someone else can probably tell you for sure who's running Avalonia now. Welcome again, and have fun building!

Fantastic! I love the clean lines and the detail on the Tudor work, especially the slope roof pieces. I like the juxtaposition of the well-kept manor with the more wild vegetation outside of it--something that I really think of when I think of Avalonia. The dark green water is awesome. I really wish I had that many dark green bricks, but it is not to be yet! As Kai says, the microfigs look awesome in the water. I don't think there's anything wrong with the tree; its size and shape, plus the bright green color, seem to tell me it's a younger tree, but that's nothing bad. The overall color scheme is very appealing with the greens and browns. Awesome job!

1. Henjin_Quilones 2. Faladrin 3. MiloNelsiano

I'm in the camp with ElectroDiva. I don't know for sure, but I'd guess I spend $1.5-2k/year on Lego, almost all of it on the large creator sets. Sure, if something is on super-sale or looks really awesome on the small price range (like the snow plow did the other year), I will pick it up, and I get the CMFs that interest me, but for the most part, it's the large sets. I would also like to say, I am interested to buy my first Ninjago set ever, the new large modular coming up in September. Not to build it, as I doubt I'll ever do that, but for parts. It's got a lot of great parts I'm interested in for my own medieval MOCs, so I'm going to get it as a parts set. Usually there's too many parts that are not useful to me (this is particularly true of Nexo Knights, where 99% of the pieces are uninteresting to me) in my building, but this particular set has some great trans tiles, browns, and interesting shades of colors. I'll probably keep the town minis and give away the Ninjas.

For me, it's not as much the theme as it is the quality of the build. I would buy a Modular Space or Pirates set, despite not being that interested in those themes. I would probably buy multiple copies of Castle or Train Modulars, as I am interested in these. I wonder if marketing has taken into account the buying power of the (probably) fewer AFOLs compared to kids. In the last 3 years, I have bought more Legos than I did from 1980-2000. That is because I have a real job and multiple times more disposable income than I did when I was a kid and then going through my dark ages. Thus, 20 years of being a kid is replaced by 3 years of my adult Lego consumption, a 6.6:1 ratio. Maybe there's 10x more kids than AFOLs, but something to consider.

Thanks for doing all you do, Z. I am happy to be patient. I have an insane work schedule and am raising a litter of puppies right now, so I feel your pain. Good luck at BrickWorld, and we will be here when you get back, don't worry!

Perhaps not, although I could imagine that they keep the City Modulars as an evergreen theme while they rotate the others. I suggest that because, although 5x as many modulars won't correspond to 5x sales, it would for me, and thus, there may be others like me out there. I think they have not saturated the Modulars line yet, and can rotate another theme in and out each year.

I would agree that I'm glad that Nabii and SirBlake both posted. I agree with SirBlake more than anything. and I, too, am disappointed along with x105Black, in that it seems that there's some disconnect between some of the audience and the designers. That being said, I am unusual. Growing up as a child (1980s), my favorite genre was the Castle line, followed by Town. I had a couple of odd Pirate sets, but my interest was low, and actively disliked Space. I never had any of the Fabuland stuff. I did buy a lot of raw bricks (remember the 62 brick assortment pack?) and other accessories for MOCs. Perhaps because of my aversion to Space (which I realize is unusual), I dislike Nexo Knights. I realize that marketing shows that kids may like the Nexo Knights theme, and I am OK with it, as I am with the Elves and Friends themes (the latter of which I am not really fond of), as I realize that LEGO is out to make money. My problem with Nexo is that although it's supposedly 'Castle' themed, I cannot use most of the parts. Lots of trans orange, blue castle crenelations, weird space armor and other oddly colored pieces are not useful to me. Sure, a few of the pieces are light bley, dark bley, silver, etc., but it does not justify the cost of buying a full set. I have wound up buying Creator modulars (which are awesome) for parts, as they have better value for me. The Elves line also has more useful pieces to me. As I say, I am unusual because my preferences are not normal, and I am an adult now, not a kid. However, I would argue that I disproportionately have consumer power now. I have a real job and much more disposable income for Legos than I used to. I have likely spent more in the last 5 years on Legos than I have in the previous 30 (and none of it on Nexo). Thus, although I am only one person who gets one vote on a theme, I probably consume 5-10 times that amount of younger consumers. I think that something LEGO should consider is the popularity of the Modular themes with AFOLs. I think modular sets aimed at AFOLs in other classic themes would be wildly popular. Imagine medieval modulars with marketplaces, stables, blacksmiths, etc. Same with a modular pirate theme. Modular Arabian themes. Modular space themes (look at how popular the Saturn V is!). If kids really want Nexo Knights and Ninjago, great. I don't. I have no interest in purchasing these sets and probably never will. I look at all of them, realize the pieces aren't useful to me and pass. If an awesome modular Castle line came out where each tower, wall section, or gatehouse was modular so you could construct your own castles, I would go broke buying those. On the other hand, there is a part of me that's a little happy that there are no awesome Castle sets now, as it allows me to spend more money on old Castle sets and bulk pieces on Bricklink for my own MOCs (none of which helps the coffers of LEGO at all--something to note). Silver linings and all that.

Gorgeous! The color scheme is fantastic, and the architecture looks great. I wish I had that many olive green cheese wedges! Too bad the actual sets weren't that big!

Fantastic! I always thought the bat lord line was kind of hokey, but you made it look really awesome! The stained glass and giant bat statue are amazing. Great job!

Love it! I really like the idea of dragons that are matched with an element or area somehow. The use of the CMFs really work well, too! Excellent job!

I was skeptical of the Elves line at first (and more particularly the Friends line), but they have actually come out with some decent sets, especially for parts. The Shadow Castle looked pretty cool to me overall, but I am not a fan of the lavenders, pinks, and some of the magenta that the overall color schemes include. I am also at a loss for time these days, having not had a single day to build a MOC since February. In light of this, and having found the Shadow Castle on sale at Wally World, I opted for a quick modification of the castle by removing what I found to be offensive colors and replacing them with decent ones. My mild modification is below. Enjoy!

I don't know that I would exclusively use one style or the other. When building, I would probably stick to the 'realistic' style myself, as I am with you and most of the things I build are based on some sort of picture or model. For a thriving medieval city, I would use this approach, as I think that people will maintain their housing and clean everything. On the other hand, the fantasy style is really great for certain things--especiallyghost towns, abandoned ruins, and houses that are in disrepair in the wilderness. I can see combinations working well, too: the 'realistic' housing making up most of a village, but the fantasy style applied to a wall and maybe a gatehouse that have fallen into disrepair and are part of an older era before the town grew up around them. I am still learning and am experimenting with the fantasy style, as I think it is a great tool to have in the box, although I personally will not use it exclusively. In any case, I love your build! Thanks for sharing the WIP. It has encouraged me to share some pictures of my WIP, which I hope to do this weekend.

I saved this for my commenting for last, as I wanted to take the time to write something meaningful. There are some really awesome builds out there for Category C, and out of all of them, this is my favorite. The detail in each one is astounding. I don't know how you found the time to do all of them, but there aren't any that feel 'thrown together' or put in as an afterthought. The large and the small all look like you took your time and really thought about them. On top of that, I am impressed with the way you were able to make each area of Historica come out in the colors and architecture. I think my favorite part is the story that you crafted. Very, very well done.

Nice build! I like the sideways tiles in the middle, and really appreciate how you linked to the building so we can all learn new techniques and think about our builds in different ways.

Very nice job! The interiors are excellent as others have mentioned. It's clear you spent a lot of time on them and their detail is great. I think it's cool that you included a bunch of sig-figs as well (and thanks for including mine!). The coloration on the sacrificial grounds is cool, too. I'm sorry that you didn't have time to do more builds, although I understand how that goes. My builds for this were mostly preempted due to lack of time recently. If you ever do get around to more of the builds, I'd love to see them! Thanks for sharing your build with us!

The story is quite compelling! I like how the builds take the reader through different areas. You get a sense of place by the general color palette and look of each build. Amusingly, I got images of Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in my head when I saw the groups of minis lined up on the forest path near the camp. :-) Well done!

Very cool. I like it a lot. I don't know how you found so many dark green bricks, but I wish I had that many! This is an example of why I liked the old brown rather than the new reddish-brown, though. I find the old brown more realistic and I think that the red really comes out in the new bricks here. Not a knock against your build or anything, just wish Lego had stuck to the brown. I like the round huts and I really get the swamp feel from the build. Awesome job!

Very nice. Clean, dark, detailed but still simple... I love it. Well done!

Very well done! I think these builds are an excellent example of how small vignettes can be strung together to make a story. The overall feel is consistent, and I like a lot of the detail. I didn't realize that you could make such detail with all black, but I suspect it was tough to photograph! Good job!

I second the sentiment that it has a classic castle feel to it. I like that aspect a lot. The interior of the castle sticks out to me as particularly well done. I like the black beastie in the middle of the darker build, too--it reminds me of the saarlac pit from Star Wars. Nice job!

Excellent! This is exactly what I imagined Kaliphlin to look like. Very Mediterranean feel to it. The mosiacs and the water in the pool look great! Love the story, too!

Very nice build. The plaster work on the front of the house is great! How did you get that house to balance there on just two studs worth of support? That's crazy!

Very cool! The amount of detail in this small vignette keeps me looking for more and more. Even the boards in the floor are outstanding. Love it!