Ravelino

Wow, I knew you were an AFOL and read a lot of your reviews/discussions.. So this shouldn't be such a surprise actually lol. But in all these years this is the first MOC I've seen from you, and I must say I'm as impressed by the result as I was surprised to see one from your hand! Brilliant greebling and shaping on that Harvester and I like how the little 2 piece ships are buzzing around it for a nice size contrast. Don't know what to think about that gray thing next to it... From the thumbnail it looked like an enormous gray robot on a STAP.. I'd call that a micro Ugly if I ever saw one and I think I just did Great work and may the force be with you

I was genuinely afraid until I read the smiley... But to dive into this deeper.. Do you want it done in silence and cause confusion after the beating? Hire Ninja-Pirates. If you want it done in utter mayhem and cause even more confusion after the fact? Hire Pirate-Ninjas.

Tell me about it..ended up buying a new closet after because all the wooden stumps broke off trying to dissemble it after 5 years of (I must say reliable) service Ontopic I don't know what to feel about this..I'm not too fond of the Diner but I'd prefer that over an IKEA store modular so I hope they'll stay away from that area. Lego incorporated furniture would be funny but niche market and I doubt it would be man sized lego bricks to 'build' furniture(although that would be fun just literally buying 'pieces' of furniture) so I'll just have to see.. Maybe it's closets with sorting bins! Now that I would buy..you can never have too many sorting bins

*and suddenly the world turned studs up* "ehh why is that palmtree growing sideways?" very nifty technique indeed..I also like the pattern you used for the blue tiles not too sure about the "branched palm tree" though...although I like your trunk and branches the palm foliage just seems off on top of it

One of my favourite non-castle sets from childhood! Did you receive this MISB? Because I honestly don't remember that skull or that black dragon! Hilarious review indeed! Nice that you dug this up from an old drive. I remember wanting it badly as a kid if only for the black saddle..that was an awkward negotiation with my parents; At the time there was no way that saddle alone wasn't worth buying a $40 set in my eyes but I made a good case for the remaining 222 parts because I knew my parents didn't share my opinion on that matter(duh)

I agree..although I don't follow the series I quickly divert to Ninjago Lego when I don't have a specific set to buy and want to "support TLC" instead of bricklinking for parts.. Especially the €20-€60 sets usually have multiple of a new element or new color-type(usually gold) of an element without duping too many minifigs(I rarely resell lego)

Nice job again! You're starting to have a bad influence on my wallet lol.. First you make me notice/buy the Temple of Resurrection because of your cute little Temple rebuild and now this crawler! If TLC released the set in this version it('s box) would've been comfortably sitting in my collection for a while now. Seen this set lie about here and there, skipped it everytime and picked something else.. Seeing this rebuild makes me doubt wether to still buy this set..

Very complete review indeed..except for the little baby thing Just bought this set after seeing CoolerTD's MOC a couple days ago (didn't even know it existed until then). I was actually picking up an extra copy of 70651 Throne Room Showdown(also a recommendation!) when I remembered this set, found a single copy on the shelf and couldn't get myself to leave it there until next time. Totally agree with everything the reviewer mentioned (especially the love/hate for stickers) except one thing: I don't think Cole looks that much the same as the Ninjago Movie version; and honestly the two ninja are my least favourite minifigs in this one..I'd rather see a return of the Lloyd + Cole combo like in 70623 Destiny's Shadow but that's mostly because of their bodies reusability and the fact the orange accents look a little gimmicky to me.

Yeah that MoF Black Falcon's Fortress is a beauty I liked these as well in my recent browsing: Flight Works by EndlessAges Medieval Inn by Wazzup258 but then again I'm heavy into medieval lego and crazy detaiis

Cute little MOC to display a cute little Panzer 2! The brickarm U-clips look a great fit as well although some would've preferred a "purist" solution, I only think you would need to change the 1x1 with horizontal clip's colour to black as or the pulley,s to new dark gray for a more coherent look as I'm not too fond of the clash between old and the new dark gray there..

Nice review! The amount of greebles and reusable parts in one set almost makes me want to buy this set despite the rididculous 10,16 ct per element price ratio (compared to the 0,78 per element I paid for the Old Fishingstore and 0,5 ct per element for the Destiny's Bounty)

and that just killed the topic... Anyway, yeah I do talk about it outside of EB and even outside of the lego community and keeping it a secret is a bit hard considering I have only 37m² to "hide" my collection.. By the way offtopic again I find the idea of the nerdy Lego enthusiast a bit blasé as well and personally I don't see myself in that stereotype either even though I do admit I have some nerdy preferences I like a drink every now and then and performing(not watching) most popular (heavy contact) sports as well; although the cars don't need all that gas guzzling IMHO and I'm not the guy who says it has to be the noisiest(either from the motor or the speaker volume) I do have the need for speed and power when it comes to cars any "gas monkey" would refer to when showing off his/her hotrod. That being said I'm also not the guy too shy to say it's Lego that's standing in the middle of the room as I usually have to verify it to people who're not familiar with it

I build it up to see it in real life and if there were new applications/building techniques to parts in the set and in my collection, and when I'm tired of looking at it/need parts for a MOC from it I start to cannibalize it for parts until there isn't much to look at and I decide to tear it apart.. Only 2 sets I haven't touched/will restore are the MMV houses(I also have the stand somewhere and a couple more I build using/altering its design), which I just like as a set and a Jack Sparrow BrickHeadz I got from my cousin will remain built as a tribute for he never tears down any set unless he buys it for parts, it's currently missing its headband because I needed the dark red 2x2 curved slopes for a speeder but I will replace them. A third will be added to that; Once I have the time I will restore my Tower of Orthanc as I actually only tore it down for easy transport. So my answers were based on the first (MISB) copy of a set as the second usually gets parted out immediately or in a rare case will be put away MISB in a plastic bag, in the rare case I buy a 3rd set it's for the parts/figures so it will be dismantled from the jump. I don't sort out because Lego does it for you, so unless it's a second hand set I don't need to sort out and even then I find it amusing to just throw the elements on a heap and plough through it as I build the set.

Had a real laugh reading through these! First of all: Nice builds, it's nice to see how you stayed true to every faction's building style while still making a coherent overall setting. I especially like how you kept a sort of punchline/ending to each page while having a story over multiple pages as well The backgrounds really add to the "real feel" of the shots.. Keep up the great work!

This brings back old memories.. Sure in comparison to Mark of Falworth's HUGE rendition this somewhat pales, but so does the original and I must say yours does less so in my opinion. I like how you kept true to the original floorplan while adding new accents to features like the drawbridge, the "half timbered building" (great name since it's not technically a keep I think) and the brick solution for the BUWPs(big ugly wall pieces). Therein lie also some (minor) points of dislike.. From the looks of it although the bridge is drawn by the beams there is no way to actually draw the bridge except to "thumb the beams up".. Maybe you could add some sort of a wedge which could be operated from within one of the gatetowers to retain the "functionality", since in the original I think you could operate it from on top with a spool? I didn't much like the yellow arches in the original but hey we had blue yellow green or red(maybe a little brown and pink) so we just had to go with it... due to the fact you used browns and added the MMV style the house now also doesn't look too nifty in yellow either.. maybe replace the yellow with tan or dark tan to get a more realistic colorscheme? That leaves us with the "half timbered building"..I like how you removed another BUWP from the build but the execution leaves us with a weird dull reverse yellow L..maybe if you changed the color it would already help but what would really help a lot is to centralize that window using 1x1 tiles and plates like this: Front Back Don't mind my color scheme it's so you could see which heights I used and how they fit. So the grooved 1x1s you see are the tiles placed in the middle in front and at the sides in the back. The front part is actually hanging like this but if you add that on top of the reverse slopes they should be a snug fit.(you could even consider not using the bottom plates at all and build directly onto the reversed slopes. All in all great rendition of a classic and although not as extravagant as a recent cousin still a noteworthy addition to the catalog of black falcon inspired builds! Ps to remove the gaps you could add 1x1s with snot and tiles on the snot stud..it looks way more gappy in the photo though

80s and early 90s castle and space will always have a place in my heart as the sets that introduced me to Lego. As for current series I buy the most Ninjago sets so that has to be my favourite theme although I'm a big fan of the Creator Expert and Architect lines as well... I'm a bit strange as "rebrickable value" weighs in a lot when I buy a set as I usually build a set up only to completely tear it down a couple days later because I remember a certain element I need in the MOC I'm making is hiding in that set.

Very nice little set indeed! That bike rack just took me back to a holiday in Sevilla where I saw those things everywhere. That vending machine is cool but I think it's for softdrinks, since I haven't seen many movie rental machines in Spain(or Europe in general) a lot. I could be wrong though.. I also like that even though it's a small set on a low quantity production(only 50 if the box is correct) they still have gone the extra mile on design by putting 2 custom printed tiles and a minifig body in it AND adding a sticker sheet for all HPB's issues to be put on a 2x3 tile. Good work guys and you too, Jim, this review really puts the set in the spotlights!

yeah but even if I had the opportunity I wouldn't do it...there's extra value to a Veyron(supercar) and let's say a BMW 7(Luxury sedan) sure the veyron will cost you 10 times more but if you can afford it there's extra to gain.. It's like someone offers you a Veyron for a million bucks and say you can get it all platinum if you pay the man 10 billion extra..even if you have that kinda money to throw under the bus you wouldn't take it over the regular veyron just because it's shiny unless you have some big itch you can't scratch otherwise

Sadly it's just the single one so like with paintings it rarely changes owner (cause who'd be crazy AND rich enough to buy one) but when it does it usually earns you a nifty extra.. Like I said in my first post I never doubted it to be the most expensive one I'm just saying I'd rather have bought me a couple (hundred) thousand of cheaper bricks worth 30k together when I sell them piece by piece, knowing I can sell them off pretty quick than the one 20-30k mask I have to buy that might earn me 60k one day if I find the right sucker.. actually exactly what this guy said lol. But you answered the topic question spot on as well..there's only one so it's one of the rarest and it's worth a couple k so it's the most expensive..but if you read the first line of the topic:I just wouldn't spend that money on it and neither would most people so it's desirability goes down.. also you have to look at it from a different perspective: ofcourse that piece is expensive; it's pure platinum..how about paying 100+ dollars on an inch by an inch of plastic?

Salute SirBlake.. us true castle fans get where you are coming from as you have read from your colleagues and shall miss your presence I myself have doubted wether I should "go back" to Lego because of this fact, the fact that I usually MOC out every set I own made the difference for me... I understand from your post your building was more focused on combining and MOCing around official sets so that to me would certainly be nigh impossible with what TLG is bringing out nowadays Best of luck in your future enterprises and may your old castle sets provide you with some solace in the coming time This made my morning again after reading through the first part of this thread lol

With boat builders I meant/included city builders as well and I think city builders would have good use for it as well in other aspects? And space builders, since it came with a space craft why not build one with several of them? I may be wrong but I'm just saying it's much more versatile

My single personal pet peeves would be that TLG didn't come up with a way to buy official older sets or bricks.. Personally I would love to pay extra (up to a certain limit) for a way to buy older sets and not fill up some "lego-enthusiast"'s piggy bank who clearly has a monthly lego budget of ten grand(figure of speech people) and buys 10 Modulars UCS's CMF boxes or other high-in-demand sets and bricks with the clear intention of reselling them 10 years later at double(or higher) prices... Also the fact that I have to pay 10+ euros a piece to that same kind of guy/gal to replace (now) rare pieces lost in time and space (moving, mom's vacume cleaner) or destroyed by a younger me(or (hopefully for them) accidentally by people around me) in the days I wasn't as careful with my collection... It isn't as easy as it sounds I know but for a company the size of TLG it's not impossible and would in the long run(it's been around for more than 60 years it will be around for another 100 IMO) it would actually be quite lucrative if a bit risky.. Set a barrier for the sets like Ferrari/Lamborghini does with their High end(really? Ferrari/Lamborghini are already high end but oh well) cars like the Enzo and the Reventon.."You want the Green Grocer? Show us you have at least 10 modulars in your posession and for an extra 50 euros/dollars on top of MSRP you can order it"..."You want that yellow bird used as a figure head in the Caribbean Clipper? Show proof that you have the Original set and you can order it from us at 200% inflation rate" (the afore mentioned lost in time and space piece I still haven't bought because of the price) Would solve the unemployment problem in the world pretty quick too..Imagine a lego factory in every middle sized(100.000+ inhabitants) city to supply the "niche" of long time Lego fans all around the globe and instantaneously collapse the market for these so called "enthusiasts" who're just in it for the money mostly anyway Agree as I might with for example AmperZand's torso problem(fleshy/yellow necklines) I understand the only true resolution would be for those torsos that have no choice IE a bare chested or deep decolleté'd one to issue both a fleshy as a yellow one but that is too much to ask really

It may be the rarest and most expensive but I can hardly believe that (aside from bionicle MOCers) it's the most desirable part in the Lego Community...also it's not a production piece but like you said a give away in a promotion... My money's on that MF lattice for this one to have all 3 categories..it's rare, it's very desirable(especially to pirate/boat builders and Star Wars enthusiasts who didn't have the money back then for a UCS MF, both of which together make up a large portion of the Lego community) and as stated before has gone up in price ridiculously since and even the TLG price was way higher than its brown and black cousins

Holy F....alcon! Holy F...alworth! Now this is the perfect blend of MOC and set; l really believe this is the epitome of what future castle sets should strive to look like if TLC would be so kind to create such a line again. Lovely brickwork, although not too intricate and as said before by other members, I like how you incorporated the original features of the classic set while also adding some new ones like the stables and the little armory corner adding just that bit of realism the old set missed. I agree with the other members that the "Keep" could use some more attention, although IMO it doesn't have to be bigger..it just looks pixelized next to the rest of the building and of course gate towers are screaming for interior decoration but you know that already. My two cents will be about the usage of base plates making the grass edges "float" why not use regular large plates..they're cheaper and would eliminate the floating! All in all this is the set I'm(and I'm sure lots of Lego Castle lovers with me) waiting for and when(not if...when) this one hits the stores I'll be picking up half a dozen of 'em Keep up the great work!

Minor detail and personal opinion; I'm not fond of the fact that the (presumably tarred-looking) black lines here and there are thinner than the brown lines whereas in most pictures of real life third rate ships I've seen(although I must admit not all) tarred lines are in fact the thicker of the two