The Stad

The details in this build continue to reveal themselves the more I look at it. I love the SNOT techniques in the floor, walls, window, and door, and the music stand with scroll is particularly clever.

An excellent assortment of relics, and an impressive brick-built Minotaur head! My only critique is that I think the door frame would have been better in white to match the un-printed edges of the wallpaper bricks.

I love the texture you’ve created in the roof, and I hope we get to see more of this architectural styling in your typically grandiose scale.

A suitably cluttered office, perfect for intrigue and plotting. Nicely done!

I’d love to see a CMF but don’t think that the Fellowship should be featured. For one thing, we already got them in their most iconic looks in Rivendell, and for another, there are so many interesting characters that we’ll likely never get in a set but could be collected in pairs/trios or as a whole set: Eowyn as Dernhelm + The Witch King at Pelennor + Merry in Rohirrim gear Faramir as a ranger + Haradrim Denethor + Pippin in Gondor gear + Fountain Guard Gil-Galad + Elendil from the Battle of the Last Alliance Arwen + Aragorn in coronation outfits I think the beauty of a lineup like this is that they cover a lot of important movie scenes, most could be massable on their own by general castle fans or pulled into a DnD game with the figures from that line, and they all fill gaps that any future sets likely will miss.

I did go back, page by page, and found the actual conversation threads. They still exist and can be opened directly from the forum page, it’s just that none of the old hyperlinks seem to work anymore.

I was trying to go back and review the community build challenges, like Age of Mitgardia, as well as the recaps from the past books, and none of the pages were opening. Has anyone else had that problem, or am I the only one that revisits Historica’s bygone days to get my nostalgia fix?

This book nook situation is giving me flashbacks to the latter days of the last Age of Lego Lord of the Rings, when Lego misread the market and put out a wave of underwhelming sets. Then, when those sold poorly, they assumed it was because there was no interest and the theme was ended. But who knows; maybe this set will be wildly successful and we’ll see the theme fight on and finally give us a Gondor-based set.

Would love to see what your “physical” calendar looks like to house so many different sizes of builds!

I look forward to your Advent calendars every year, and this and last year’s are true standouts. I love the daily additions to the larger scenes and, as always, your builds and fig combos are top-notch!

Beautiful and evocative. I am sorry for your loss; I hope this helped you find some peace.

I always enjoy your advent calendar, and this is the best one yet! Excellent fig combinations, terrific mini-builds, and wonderful compositions with each of the scenes.

Love all the details and how you planned all the interior access options. It feels very Nocturnian while also seeming palatable to foreign visitors. Always great to see a post from the Old Guard pop up here!

I just received this set for a birthday, and now I'm that much more excited to put it together. I might have to pick up a second copy so I can moc with all of those excellent Mitgardian detail bricks... Congratulations on another awesome official set. You're living the dream!

Gideon 1 Luis of Nutwood 1 Exetrius 1

LittleJohn 1 Zilmrud 1 Adde51 1

Lots of great techniques in this moc, particularly the trees, the bridge, and the boards of the cabin walls. I love your use of the Korg torso! Another wonderful installment in your story!

I think you have a great build with some interesting part uses, but the yellow castle doesn’t quite fit with the rest of the color palette. I’d love to see a summer version though!

I have to disagree with this line of thought. I think that the landscape is a major defining feature of Rivendell, especially as depicted in the Peter Jackson adaptations (for which Lego has the rights), and I think the numerous establishing shots of Weta's celebrated "bigatures" have lent the location a highly recognizable form. I think the rumored part count and price puts the potential scale of the set in the same range as Hogwarts Castle #71043, whereas a Master builder style set would have to be broken down into a series of vignettes that couldn't be displayed together in a satisfying way for non-AFOLs, and which would be entirely dissimilar to any other $400+ set that is currently in production. I mean, this moc has more than 3x the rumored pieces, is way too big for the average display space, and still doesn't present as a very recognizable rendition to the average consumer. At this price point, I think we need to come to grips with the idea that Lego thinks that potential buyers with fat wallets (that don't love Star Wars, 80's nostalgia, or modular town layouts) are interested in Eiffel Towers and Colosseums. Fortunately, @soccerkid6 showed five years ago that Rivendell works great on a micro scale, taking a similar design approach as the architecture line, and since he and many other extremely talented LoTR fans are designers at Lego, I think we're still in for something special: Also, and I can't stress this enough, I would love to be wrong here. I fall firmly into the "LoTR ended too soon, we need Gondorians, we need more army builders, we need SA Numenorians and Noldor, we need more large-scale location sets" camp, and I kick myself frequently for not collecting all of the sets when they came out (and for not buying way more discounted Uruk-Hai Armies), so I would be overjoyed for 20+ minifigs and lots of new parts and prints though I'm not holding out much hope. But you know what the say, the pessimist is either always right or pleasantly surprised.

I'd love for the "background elves" to include at least one of the smiths who reforge Narsil into Anduril, in a little vignette tucked off in a corner somewhere. There should also be new molds for both the shards and the re-forged sword, and one of the rooms needs to include the statue that holds the shards in front of the awesome painting/fresco image of Isildur with Sauron (obviously Legofied but still done with the ethereal elvish Art-Nouveau styling). Is that too much to ask?

These are amazing. Very true to the Brickheadz concept with some great custom prints and really nice shaping (especially on the beards). I think the only thing I would change up is your set combos. While I appreciate the effort to diversify the offerings of each set, I would probably put Sam, Frodo, And Bill (excellent pony by the way) together, then Merry, Pippin, and Boromir, and then either pairs of Aragorn with Gandalf and Gimli with Legolas, or just those four all together. That way you don't have all of the hobbits together, and you've kept to the groupings that are developed within the story, which I think is pretty typical to the Brickheadz strategy.

@MKJoshA @Louis of Nutwood What did you guys have in mind?

Glad we got to see this build, and I like the story you've written to accompany it. I love all the funky angles on the wall, and the buildings inside the city are very well executed. I'm glad you've got your priorities sorted properly!

Ominous, and very, very cool. Love the use of the octopus tentacles for roots and the dragon limbs as branches.

Another amazing project from you, and a very entertaining story! I love your trees, the house, all of the interior scenes, and of course the bridge is very impressive. I hope that model castle is a hint of what's to come...