Armothe

Thanks for the great feedback! Category icons are indeed part of the plan but I didn't want to wait any longer to launch the site since I gave myself a two week post BrickWorld deadline to get the site live. Rest assured, we have a lot more add-ons and neat little bows to tie around the website. We also underestimated the amount of orders we would receive and have been furiously assembling, packing and shipping parts on a daily basis - which is why I've had to put improvements to the site 'on hold' for a few days. We appreciate all of your understanding. -A

FYI, the new items are officially available now. The store is officially open.

Assuming we can master the color-match we will be producing the Space Marine Armor in 15-20 colors - purple being one of them. -A

The visors are seperate as we wanted to allow customizers to swap different colored visors on different colored helmets. RedBean actually designed this piece and I've often thought their styles are fairly similar (which is why I personally admire both). Keep in mind that the proportion of a standard minifig is not reflective of an actual person. As a result all of our accessories will reflect the same proportion as official elements which are also slightly-larger scale. Even though the Gladius is considered a Shortsowrd you'll find it to be smaller than a LEGO Shortsword. Shortsword length ranges anywhere from 30-45 inches whereas the Gladius is often 25-31 inches so we feel there is a bit of leniency here. Historical Pilums were usually around 2 meters (6.56 feet) high and given the 'short' stature of the minifig in comparison we felt there was a lot of wiggle room. Also, the Pilum was traditionally grasped at the joint-block or counterweight - which a minifig can't really grasp - thus we had to place these elements towards the upper portion of the spear lending to its length. The iron head was indeed exaggerated by us, but only because we wanted to construct an iconic weapon. The alternative would have been to cut the length of the shaft in half and reduce the flare of the tip resulting in what we thought would have been an incomplete piece. There were several styles of roman shields over its 1000 yr history, including several that were fairly flat and more rounded. Our tooling prevented us from making anything that would encompass a minifig 180 degrees so we opted for a smaller, rounded and flatter shield. You won't see a center boss because we encourage using decals to turn the piece into anything you want. An iron knot would have made such customization more difficult. The face guards were more or less a nod to the official DragonMaster's helmet which we always thought would be the defacto Roman helmet if there was to ever be an official theme. We really aren't out to construct exact mini-scale replicas of popular historical items. We want these items to be recognizable and playable so I'm not ashamed to say that some artistic licensing does take place at BrickForge. We appreciate the critique! -A I also wanted to point out that we still have not officially launched our new store, although it is possible to place an order (we will ship the items you order). This is due to a few technical ducks we want to get in a row before we fully announce its availablility. In otherwords, order at your own risk until we are ready to launch in the next day or so.

Sometimes you have to throw a bone or two....... -A FYI - the new store 'works' but we are currently finishing it up. I'd discourage any orders through the new store although feel free to register an account for when it does go 'live'

This is what we envision an authentic Cow to look like :) We make the products we do, so polls like this would be much easier to decide. Buffalo or Vulture ON. -A

Space Marine Helmet $1.50US Space Marine Armor $1.50US Space Marine Visor $.0.50 Should be available about 2 weeks after BW on our site. Plasma Pistol is indeed a flintlock with the butt dremeled off, a magazine off of our Military Rifle and the barrel dremeled down to a peg the size of a minifig hand so I can slide the arm on :) -A

We actually have some Blue Vambraces that will be available in the new store. I suppose if there is enough interest we'll run the other colors too. -A

What's stoppin' ya? If I had to pick an animal I'd go with a buzzard/vulture. Mountain Lion would be nice, too. -A

Thanks for the comments guys. The armor will be for sale on the BrickForge site soon after BrickWorld. The rear of the armor simply has familiar details, along with a peg to holster our upcoming MEGAGUN. Check out Mark Sandlin's Flickr for pics of the gun: http://www.flickr.com/photos/grandadmiral/2565406384/ The energy sword is a 1-UP I hand-dremeled just for display. However, we have had one drawn up - along w/ a Plasma Pistol - for a potential mold. Keep in mind that we go through dozens of drawings before anything official is decided. Deciding what makes it vs. what doesnt is a long, complicated (but fun) process. Whoever isn't planning on going to BW, even as an attendee, should really reconsider. I had a great time meeting a lot of people from the community (yes you, Hink!) and its a great place to get some exclusive parts. This year each registrant will be getting exclusive BF Dark Gray "Steel" Space Marine elements. These won't be for sale on our site, ever...only registrants will receive them. Rest assured, however; we will be making the Space Marine items in a rainbow of other colors. -A

Thanks Dragonator! We do apologize about the order mixup, but are glad that you are excited about the new items! No problem that you shared w/ the community as they are coming out fairly soon - they will debut this week at BrickWorld '08. We've actually had the Dark Tan Jersey cows for sometime now, but both RedBean and I failed to realize a lack of Dark Tan 1x2 pieces. Since we had some inside information that 1x2 bricks in Dark Tan would be in several of the Indy sets, we decided to just hang on to them until the sets hit retail and started showing up on BrickLink. The Dark Tan Jersey Cow will join our White Holstien, Black Angus and Brown Shorthorn as the fourt member of our Bovine BrickBeasts. The Spiked Mace is one of SIX new weapons being released this week by BrickForge. We are very happy with the way it turned out. With each new mold we are trying to match the look, feel and playability of official weapons by including more-rounded edges and points. We feel we really nailed it this time. The new items will be available on our new and upgraded website shortly after BrickWorld. The plan was to have them available prior, but if we did that I think we'd run into inventory issues since we can't track manual sales during the show. Stay tuned to the BrickForge site as well as other sites that are covering BrickWorld for photos of the new items! -A

Blue Armor w/ Plasma Pistol

White Space Marine w/ Carbine:

Just a little taste... Space Marine I'd embed a pic, but no dynamic links (Flickr) allowed :(

Hey Tin, Thanks for contacting BF. I know I already replied to your e-mail but thought some of the information regarding professional molding capabilities would be appreciated by the rest in the community. Indeed, the cost to create an individual mold can vary depending on which country you are in, but remains pretty expensive none-the-less....in the thousands. That initial investment is madeup over time by selling pieces in larger volumes. Usually, there are minimum quantity requirements that need to be considered as well. To design an entire mold ready for plastic injection around one or two pieces that will never see distribution is sort of like using a mallet to alleviate a headache. Your best bet here is to find someone to either sculpt and cast a single piece, or draw it in CAD and send it to somewhere like Protomold.com. The latter costs around $1,000 but you will get a professional-looking piece usually free and clear of defects and air bubbles. -A

This month! We are currently scheduling the best time to launch the new site around the BrickWorld event. Note: We will be doing away with "sets" and selling all items individually. -A

Say, that's actually looking pretty good. Casting is a difficult medium to master and from what I understand fairly expensive as far as materials are concerned. Glad to see another person able to get of to a great start. -A

C'mon, get that dremel out and let's see a Mola Ram Headdress :) You're off to a great start! -A

Very, Very creative. I love the detailed sticker decals! The sash is great too! -A

Hey Guys, I am looking forward to seeing someone hand-cast these hats as well. BrickForge does not have any immediate plans to reproduce the official LEGO Shako Hat. There has been some off-the-record talk about us reproducing out-of-production pieces, but nothing official has come of it. -A

The new BrickForge accessories can't come soon enough! -A

I use Brasso w/ a paper towel, religiously. Paper towels are dimpled and provide a better surface to help rub off the print. Not to mention you can fold the paper towel around the minifig (cushioning and leverage) and use sort of a snapping/pinching motion to take the print off faster. I'll use an X-acto blade to remove pesky corners or small details. Metallic print is by far the hardest to fully remove. -A

Awesome! Welcome to the world of Illustrator......and fleshies. Would love to see a photo of the scarf applied and w/ blue minifig hips/legs. If possible, I'd recommend a decal for the hips representing that way cool metallic belt. I think it would add that extra touch. Weapons? -A

Egads! For Pete's sake its a minifig! What makes you think he has a little orc-poker anyways? -A

Hailing from Mirkwood, Legolas is actually a Sindar Elf from Lindon and son of the Elvenking, Thranduil. This is one I've been wanting to make for a long time. Thanks to RecluceMage for providing the custom hairpiece. Perhaps I'll take a crack at my other unfinished Tolkien ilk. -A