Armothe

Yup, that will be a better option. The Corinthian Helmet and Centurion Helmet will share a (off-center) plume and the Legionairre Helmet will receive its own (center) plume. -A

I always like seeing minfigs with a familiar. Sort of makes me wish the 'wolf' looked more like a wolf and TLG made a tiger and/or hawk. -A

In the case of the DragonMaster Helmet our plume will not fit due to the dragon head in the front. For other helmets, including our own - the plume was really designed for the Corinthian Helmet so application on other headgear is possible but depending on the piece it may pop-out easily. -A

Hey Yall! I'm really glad all of the custom minifigs have been consolidated into a single place - makes it easier to browse. I'm sure some of you have already seen some of my work but I just posted a few new things to my Flickr gallery. Hope you like them! Armothe's Flickr - Custom Minifigs -A

I like the work you did with paper. Paper is my second favorite medium after plastic. Soon, however; you won't need a paper hat for your Pope! -A

If that's a Bull I have to wonder what that guy is doing down there in Pic #4?! Maybe I shouldn't.... -A

Excellent work! -A

Thanks for all the support guys! Being huge LEGO fans ourselves, RedBean and I have pretty high standards when it comes to making plastic accessories. Of course we are always learning how to do things better so improvements are a natural part of our growth. When we first parterned up and began selling our custom accessories 70% of our orders came from the US (where I am). Almost two years later 70% of our orders are international so it's always nice to hear when orders reach their destination. Even more nice when the customer is satisfied! Because our subscriber base has grown to well over 1000 members we are starting up a BrickForge Google Group Newsletter that will allow the community to keep better tabs on stock status, new colors, promotions and sneak peeks into our latest projects. This is a free e-mail based newsletter that goes out about once a month - you can subscribe and unsubscribe as you like. You can go to the NEWSLETTER section of our site to find out how to subscribe or just visit the group here: http://groups.google.com/group/brickforge -A

But perhaps "Troll Warriors" simply means the minifigs are warriors under the command of the Trolls. Sorta like the ancient Roman Militia - which was made up of mostly non-Roman ethnic groups. Hmmm........

Technically Goblin is a colloquial term for Orc - so they are in essence the same thing. However I always picture Orcs as having green skin and Goblins with grey so my vote is Orc. Troll Warriors????? -A

I guess I'm sorta biased about this particular issue since it features BrickForge but I'm excited at the prospect of getting these in printed form. I think the price is reasonable for the amount of work and content that goes into each issue. I think it would be great if Joe and staff could find an easier way to distribute copies to Europe - my guess is that its a matter of time to work out such issues, not a lack of commitment. -A

I really need to get our ecommerce site up and running.....

Thanks Hinkley! RedBean and myself are extremley pleased that so many people are excited about these! We do our best to imagine how these may have been officially produced; and being fans of the brick since we were kids we have pretty strict expectations. The price point is something I wish we could make more appetizing to a wider range of people - especially those who plan on having a minifig cattle drive. But if you study the engineering that went into these pieces - as well as the amount of plastic that goes into each mold - you'll admit it's a great value. We are pretty happy with the screen printing on the white (Holstein) cows and if the community echos these feelings we will move forward with producing the cows in both brown (Hertford) and tan (Jersey) as well as adding some type of screen printing (eyes at the minimum). If these do well you can pretty much be guaranteed we'll do more animals in the future. -A

Time to create some cattle rustlers. -A

So far my favorite design is: It still gives the impression of a SHAKO, but can also tie in a plume as well as a potential braid piece. Because both RedBean and myself envision this as potentially a three-piece project we will have to put it on the backburner for now and begin to plan some other items around it. Tano, I'll answer your questions in a PM. -A

Thanks Piranha. All, Currently, both RedBean and myself realized that it is not the best time to clone any official pieces. We will, however; consider making something comparable to the theme as a whole. Because neither of us really have our pulse on the Pirate/Imperial community we might have to go the route of preorders. Of course we hope that the community will provide assistance & feedback during the creation process. For the time being we decided to focus on some other parts 'til we really feel like we can sink our teeth into a Shako-type hat. Hopefully after we redesign our site we'll have our own forums where we can keep the public updated on our project schedule. -A

Bingo. The Dragon and Rider is Saphira and Eragon from the movie (book) Eragon. It's a custom. BrickForge is not producing a dragon. We are making Moo, Oink & Baaa. We'll have official pictures on our website soon :) -A

Hey guys, it does appear that there is a lot of interest in a shako-type piece. I'm not necessarily worried about whether or not it's immediately profitable; rather RedBean and myself are more interested in how certain pieces enhance others MOCs. The more people we can affect, the better. Others in this thread have expressed interest in casting/molding this piece so I don't want to step on any toes here but I thought it might be a good idea to steer the conversation back towards discussing potential designs. My instinct is to come very close to the original design, but perhaps make the plume piece on top a separate piece that came in multiple colors (maybe add braiding around the front?). I'd be interested in hearing/discussing ideas on how the original design can be improved. -A

Hello Pirate and Imperial lovers! Bonaparte alerted me to this thread and I wish I had known it existed sooner! As a big Pirate fan it never occurred to me that the Shako hats would be in this big of a demand (I was more focused on actual buccaneer accesories). I've taken some time to read over all 8 pages of this thread and let me do my best to respond as someone who has researched these issues in depth: Most if not all of the individual parts LEGO produces have a patent. This secures the design so that nobody else can mold/make it. A lot of the Asian companies do not particpate in global patent laws so they can get away with molding many of the clone copies you see in their sets. Also, patents run out after 15 years at which point anyone can mold/make the item for resale. Of course, as LEGO fans we want to avoid harming the business and profitability of TLG in anyway possible. The good news is that so far, TLG has encouraged hobbyists such as myself and RedBean to make our own compatible accessories and also allowed such artists as Recluce to cast existing official accessories. None of which goes towards harming TLG, but rather encouraging the hobby and most likely boosting sales. I've spoken in depth with two LEGO employees who absolutely love our products and have recieved orders from a very high-ranking LEGO executive. BrickForge simply wants to fill in some of the gaps and provide fans with necessary accesories to complete their MOCs. If a part/brick/accessory is retired it's a safe guess to assume we won't see it released in the near future. Also, destroyed or retired molds make it a bit more feasable for someone else to model after or make a similar accessory. As far as cost is concerned, it does indeed cost several thousands dollars US to make a mold, and quite a bit of time to recover that cost. RedBean and I have streamlined the process so it's much easier for us to keep up with new projects without having to worry about recovering our costs. As a matter of fact, we are working on a project right now where a Shako hat (or similar) would fit right in (the primary colors of this mold will be black and white). I think all of your other ideas are outstanding as well but at this time we don't have the resources to make them all, instead perhaps we could discuss the possibility of adding the Shako, or modified Shako, or different Imperial/Cavalry headgear to our existing project and see where we end up? My only concern is that we tend to stick to items that are versatile and higher in demand - so we can please a wider group of people. I plan to bookmark this thread so I can continue to interact with your comments and questions. -A