Darnok

Good to see you back in action! Not necessarily. All your "old" characters are still around. The player base has changed quite a bit though, so you could "update" your character introduction to give us newbs an idea of the glory days! Nope, all your properties are still around. I just checked the current Account Summary, and you sit on a bit more than 4000DB, and counting. I think technically you can continue as if you never left.

Apart from the question for "war" between factions: is there some system in place for place to earn somethign other than XP? One example I have in mind is the EGS from BotBS ( @MKJoshA will know it). Curious for the last faction to be unveiled!

Day 9 - Having a rest After a week of hard work, everybody came together for an afternoon of recreation. "Man, it is getting really cold outside, get a cuppa!" Chewy doing its thing... . The second Sunday of Advent was all about cookies, pastries and hot tea. There was a lot of work left to do - tomorrow.

@Mesabi Looking quite good already, I like the shaping and overall structure. I guess it should be longer for this width, but nothing wrong with a chubby boat! As set in another place, I think it would really benefit from a strong contrast colour. Right now it just feels too white to me.

Day 8 - Merrynight Cookies 't is the season to bake cookies! The following is a very easy recipe, that you can use as a starting point for literally hundreds of variants. The amounts given here make for about one baking tray full of cookies. Simply scale it up if you want to do more. Sieve 300g of flour and 100g of sugar powder, then mix with 200g of butter, 1 pack of vanilla sugar, a pinch of salt and a single whole egg. Knead well and let rest in the fridge for about two hours. Roll out on a well floured surface, about half a centimeter thick. Cut into shapes as you like, either by hand with a knife, or with cookie cutters. Put the cookies on a tray with baking paper. The rest of the dough can be kneaded to a ball and rolled out again - repeat the process until the dough is used up. Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for 8 to 15 minutes. The cookies should be golden but not brown. After letting the cookies cool completely, they can be decorated with whatever you want. The "usual suspects" are sugar frosting, chocolate coating, sugar beads, nots, or any combination of these. Store in a tightly closing box. Putting a piece of apple into the box will keep the cookies from drying out. This is how they should like like fresh out of the oven... ... and with some sweet decoration (with a round variation using a chocolate flavoured dough):

Impressive, most impressive. The colours chosen provide a very striking visual appearance, and the overall architecture has been given a lot of attention. The details like the inlay turntables and the gable ornaments work perfectly with the mostly straight lines - very well done! An appropriate headquarter building for a trade company!

Day 7 - Playtesting "Woohoo, you can not sink my battleship!" ... "That is because you have none, doofus." A heated discussion was going on, as two WTC Marines played the new "Fleets of the Brick Seas" a product just recently finished. Some bigger ships were still being built and painted, but the game was playable with what had been finished so far: a blue cloth "sea", some island terrain, and two models of smaller ships. Here the pirates seem to have more luck than the ship under Corrish colours: .

Excellent, thank you once again for your work! I assume the "automatic settlement growth" is not that automatic and will be done at a later point?

Amazing collection! I see many LotR and Warhammer influences, but the whole army is more than that. Some really creative ideas, and all well exectuded. Great stuff!

With first week of December almost over, I hope there are some entries in the works already. Looking forward to what you all come up with! If you want to show the Myzec people on Cascadia celebrating Merrynight: why not also enter your build in the "Daily Life in Myzectlan" by @Ayrlego? Assuming your build fits both themes - i.e. everyday life of the Myzec as well as Merrynight celebrations - you are free to use your build in both!

Nice for this seeing the light of day so quickly! A great idea, and I am very much looking forward to all entries. I hope the general idea catches on, and we get similar things from all factions in the future: small "microchallenges" or building initiatives, centred around a settlement or a particular "landmark", with a strong theme, focussed on a shorter timeframe than the main challenges, and encouraging everybody. An announcement from my side: you are free to enter your builds from here into the Merrynight Minichallenge as well (assuming it fits both).

Day 6 - Cookies and candy The production of presents was going well, but the Big Book spoke of more things being important for Merrynight. Chapter 3 was all about cookies and candy, and other treats handed to nice minifigs. So Chef Curtis was commissioned to bake a variety of Merrynight cookies - the first batch had just arrived for testing. It seemed like they were all good, but the gingerbread horse - with saddle and hair made from sugar, hoofs of black chocolate and an almond for the eyes - was everybodies favourite!

Welcome, and I hope you enjoy your time on the forums. Combining trains and the Modular approach is a great theme!

Welcome to the forums!

Are you sure? Bricklink lists the Lederhosen Guy with a white feather, not a lime green one. Bricklink also has the lime grean feather only as part of the Justice League Anniversary Party - where it comes once for Green Arrow, and twice as extra.

The first faction thread is up, great! I am curious about the details of the other factions, so will not jump for the CFS right away - but I like what I see! Definitely something that should appeal to a lot of people (myself included). Good start!

Great stuff! An excellent build, and something very different to most of the things we see. The trees on the right look a wee bit anemic, which might be due to the thin stems. Other than that I see nothing to criticise. Well done! I think the idea is great, and I would love to contribute. I fear I am severely limited by my minifig collection though. Can you think of some scenes that would need only one minifig, or none at all? I know you have everyday life in mind, so this might be difficult...

That just made my day. Awesome!

Day 5 - The Big White Once upon a time, when Lego bricks were still made from wood, a particularly cold winter held all of the Brick Seas in its icy grip. It seemed like the snowstorms would never end, as all nations were buried under layers upon layers of snow - all lands were covered by white slopes and tiles. It was in these days when a grumpy old man decided: enough was enough. The world was a place of colour! So he started building and painting, crafting many a small miracle. When, after many stormy nights, he was finished, all those gifts to the world were stuck into one big sack. The old man put on his warmest suit and hat, both in fiery red, and went out into... the Merrynight. All minifigs had retreated to their homes, clsoing in on their warm fireplaces. To stand against the dark cold outside, candles had been set up in many placs, spending light and a cosy feeling for everybody nearby. Leaving the house was impossible, for the snow had risen high enough to block most doors. So what could the old man do? Colour and joy had to be delivered to every minifig, but the doors were blocked. Only one solution remained: through the chimney! For the heat of the fires below had kept them open, with a bit of squeezing he could enter and leave every house despite the closed doors. No matter the weather outside, through hailstorm and bitter cold - an old stranger in red coat came to every home on this holy night. And so a myth was born. A myth of an old man bringing colourful presents and joy to everybody at Merrynight. From "The Tales Of Merrynight", aka the Big Book

Good news! I think a sound beating should raise the morale of the workers, so whip them hard!

Not exactly a Pirates set, but something of interest to all BotBS players I believe.

The parrot is included as a part. To avoid confusion I just included the original German parts description and a translation in the OP.

Thank you. If I remember correctly, DD was on sale last year near Easter, so you might be lucky. The CE line being kind of exclusive means it will take some time before you see "big" discounts. The time around Black Friday (i.e. late November) is your best bet, so quite a bit in the future for now.

This year Lego started a line of polybags, each a collection of parts suitable to a certain theme. Currently those are traffic lights, street lanterns, bycicles, plants and food. Now in 2019 there is another one coming, namely 40341 xtra Water: "These parts are included: a shark, a surfboard, a buoy, a pair of flippers, a treasure chest with fish, binoculars and tresure map (printed 2x2 tile), a parrot, a barrel with oar and harpoon, two crystal and a flap-shell with starfish. 24 parts all together. The retail price of this polybag is 3,99€." While this is not at all a Pirates set - and even comes with some inappropriate pieces - in my opinion this is an excellent collection of "piraty parts". I for one will get multiples of this, retailing at 4€ it is an absolute steal. This set is now listed on the Lego Online Store, to be released on January 1st 2019.

I took some time to think about this one, and I doubt I can add much to the discussion, but I want to give my opinion on this nonetheless. I will judge the Corner Garage (CG) mostly on its own, trying to compare it as little as possible to other Modulars. For reference: in Germany this sets standard price is 180€. All of the following is of course my personal opinion. The Good Overall outside look. To me it looks great from some distance, and integrates perfectly into a setup with the previous Modulars. Assume you stand some feet away from it - from that perspective I really like its appearance. The contrast between the ground floor and the upper levels in terms of colour and style is good. Speaking of colours: "Factory style". The first and second floor look amazing. No in-your-face feature, just believable and realistic architectural features. The dark orange and light sand blue work perfectly with this. The garages exterior. Again, this looks pretty good. Some mechanics shop adds a lot for a "Modular town", and on top of that it looks lovely all around. Minifigs. Just a great variety of characters, genders and looks. And five different animals! My absolute favourite is the female mechanic. Open space to work with. While I do not like the interior (see below), it gives a lot of space to modify the build. I already have many ideas what to do with the interior, and the set provides a great start. The Bad Close-up look. Others have brought it up many times: the gaps between the wall section looks ugly and unfinished. Stuff like that is acceptable in a City set or for a private MOC, but not something in the Creator Expert range. This does not look as bad from some distance (see above), but it is still a huge downside of this Modular. "Open" interiors. Why is there no wall between the stairs and the garage? Why is there no door in front of the appartment? Why is the ground floor open sand? Why is the appartment so minimalistically furnished? Why is there so little going on on the huge open roof? All of this just looks unfinished to me, as if it was not really thought through. To me it feels like the whole thing was close to production when somebody noticed "oops, we still need somethign going on in the inside". A rushed job at best, and not appropriate for the Modular line. That car. I think cars have no place in the Modular line, not at all. There are so many options for cars in other Lego lines, why waste space and parts for them here? And while a truck like this can be part of a garage, it is not necessary for it. Those parts could have been used for a proper interior on all levels, or more details on the outside. The way it is, I consider this car a wasted opportunity. Veterinarian. This is complaining on a high level, but the vet's office looks rushed to me, as if the contents of a small play set or polybag were thrown into an otherwise empty room at the last minute. The huge sign on the front window is also completely wasted due to the garage sign and glass roof directly in front of it. Why somebody chose this arrangement is completely beyond me. The Ugly The price. There is no way around it, the price of CG is just way off. Should Modulars be forever sit in the 150€ bracket, with all the restrictions this would bring (parts count etc.). Of course not. A price rise over time is normal. What makes this one difficult to swallow for me is the severity - 30€ in one go, or +20% - combined with the fact that this Modular does not offer substantially more in comparison to previous ones. The part count went up only minimally (100 over PR, 89 over DD, both at 150€), and the build itself is not more complex or offers anything spectacular. Given that I think the price is not acceptable, and I will not buy this one - at standard price. There will come a time it will be sold at discounts, and I can wait... Summary This one is a mixed bag for sure. There are things I like a lot, and there are many elements I dislike. To me the biggest downer is the price in comparison with all the things I would like to change: that makes the price even less acceptable, since I have that nagging thought of "should this not be the way I want it already at this price?" As a model standing on its own I still consider the Corner Garage okay, and a solid addition to the Modular line. Not good, but not bad either. I will buy (and modify) it one day, just not right away - and definitely not at the price Lego is asking!