Wardancer

I wonder if the decline of castle themes has deeper cultural reasons. With Lego becoming more and more global, maybe, eurocentric themes lose power. Typical castles are after all, mostly located in only in a part of the world. Another reason might be a general Shift in kids upbringing. As a German kid, it was normal for me to visit real castles, then to go home and try to build the same castle with bricks. Do kids still do that? Castles are made for war and conflict, maybe modern parents shy away from that. Also some decry that modern kids stay indoors too much (Jonathan Haidts famous Book Generation Anxiety for example). This again might lead to less visits in real castles and therefore less interest in them in General.

It is very popular outside the restraints of offical Lego. Many builds for the Bricklink Designer program are castles Bluebrixx is releasing one modular Castle theme after the other, from playable themes up to 20000 part castles for adults: https://www.bluebrixx.com/de/alle-themenwelten/mittelalter/burgen-und-festungen/

There is also a very recent attempt by the mighty Brickwarriors in colaboration with some dude: https://www.instagram.com/p/DP4nxxiDlLY/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link I cannot find out how to embed the picture. You can clearly see the typically brickwarriorian shape language at the helmet. Very nice yes, but it lacks detail in comparison to the Asia trash variant. As does the whole fig. The shield, however, is perfectly fine. I would accept this from LEGO. Reminds me of the Forest Maiden shield...

I would acually be happy if the LEGO ones turned out like these ultracheap asia trash ones, but in good quality and with some improvements. I have about 30 of these as a source for custom parts. The helmet I love and I have used it in many of my custom Elves, but painted over. The pictures show the bad quality. The shape of the the shield is downright unlegoish and therefore useless. The sword looks grotesk and overly detailled at the handle. The design of the cape is great but it is a useless terrible print. The silver bows and quiver are quite nice. I wish there were more different bows from LEGO. The print of the fig is an awesome design, but had numerous quality issues. But still, a nice design. This should have been made by LEGO decades ago. So yeah, please improve this.

Interesting that after decades of custom and even knockoff Aliexpress Gondor figs offizial ones will be released. The design of the knockoffs was often quite beautiful, but with very bad quality. Time will tell how LEGOs design competes.

Thank you ZZJHONS!

A grove of Feral Forest Splinters lead by a Timber Dryad Soon after the male seedlings sprout they become Splinters. What they lack in the towering awe of taller Dryads they make up in scratchy-spiky playfulness. Aspiring to become adult Timbers one day they roam the woods eager to playfully scratch-spike-impale undesired visitors. Their greatest honor one day might be to fall into a century long slumber and wake up a full grown Dryad Deity. Customization Notes: These are a pain in the megablocks to make. But the forest grows. A second deity has awakened and will reveal itself soon. Body: I bought six Demogorgon keychains and ripped out the chains. This is a very affordable way to get many Demogorgons. So I will build six Splinters in total. I did not want the Groot bodies, because the Demogorgon bodies look more fierce and less humanoid. Head: I bought six cheap knockoff Groots... in the wrong color. Then I bought six original Groots just for the heads. I glued on extra bits and painted some parts. Feet: The claws are cut from the the same shoulder armor bit used on the shoulders. Shoulders: This is a shoulder armor upside-down and painted. Tail: This is a Brickwarriors' harpy tail, painted. Claws: Cut and painted. Dryads have always been a favourite project of mine, because I find them very difficult to make. Humanoid, but not human, irregular shapes and so on. I am going to redo many of the ones I already have and make some big new ones until I finally have something of a walking forest. Follow "mwardancer" on Instagram.

I have tried many from Aliexpress. I would roughly put them into two categories. 1. Bad cheap imitations. These are ones who try to look like Lego, but with more factions. Like you mention. Some look a bit different, they reach further down, but you can see they still imitate. Very poor quality, at least the ones I have. Very thin plastic, bad printing, saddle clips you have to glue on. There is a reason Aliexpress sellers use render graphics for Display. Most horses suck, too. You have to assemble them, the hooves are different. The only reason to use them is for colors Lego does not make. If used, best hide them under a Barding and a helmet. 2. Insane own creations that strongly deviate from the Lego aestetics. Designs, angles and structures which make the design unlegoish. The ones I have are thick sturdy plastic and are of a much better quality for some reason. So I would use them if they did not look so bad. BUT there are some very very few awesome designs which can be used… if you are a customizer like me who does not shy away from using techniques like cutting, painting etc. to make the unlegoish look legoish. Then you can find quite stunning designs of bardings and horse helmets even on Aliexpress. I am currently working on two designs.

There is a new, very big, dark green leaf piece in the upcoming Christmas ornament Very promising. I cannot figure out how it looks on the other side though.

Moccing and Customizing Rivendell This is a multi-part series of moccifications and customizations of the Rivendell set. Some changes are smaller, some bigger. While I felt that the set is virtually perfect, I could not help but play around a bit. (This thread could fit into both the Historic Themes and the Minifig Customization Workshop forums. I hope it can stay in the former as more and more MOCing is already in progress.) Lusher Trees (designed by Rebelnili on Rebrickable, brickbuilt by me) Build notes: The instructions for this can be bought on Rebrickable: "Rivendell - Lusher Trees" by Rebelnili. As you can see it is not only substantially more foliage, but also a bigger trunk with more details. Ever since German reviewer Held der Steine has pointed out that the trees of Rivendell do not represent Elven splendour very well, I felt the need for better ones as this is THE Elven tree and trees are at the center of Elven lore. So I immediately bought the instructions for lusher trees when I found them. I can greatly recommend this. Be prepared so spend some money though as both trunk and foliage are parts intensive. I thought my parts would suffice as I own two Rivendells, but I still had to make a lot of orders. Arming Rivendell "Gazebo?! You cannot kill a Manticore with a gazebo! Get me some serious FLAK!", Queen Alarielle exclaimed. "Yes, mylady, as you wish. The Elfenmetall MEADS Modular Elven Allround Defense System shall be installed shortly." mumbled the architect,: "May we at least paint it white?" Initially designed as an answer to the proliferation of evil airborne creatures, the MEADS has quickly become a true all-round Elven weapon. It is known as a long-range cavalry killer and effective troll deterrent. The prospect of encountering a sudden rain of bolts reinforced with Elven steel is something even medium-sized dragons frown upon. Due to its modular nature, versions with up to 10 launchers can be built if mobility is not of primary importance. Customization Notes: - various paintjobs - strings - bars cut as axis Statues of the Ancestors Customization Notes: - custom weapons by Brickwarriors - shields from Nicebricks, painted. They were pearl gold and for years I had no idea what to do with them. Now I have found a good monochromatic use. The Statue of Everqueen Alarielle the Magnificient Customization Notes: - The tower needed to be extended. I have always wanted a taller mid-section. - wings painted, drilled, parts cut off - gems cut from bars, inserted into wings - armor (Brickwarriors) cut shorter, back cut off, clip added, painted - sword painted - shield from Cultbricks This is it so far. I have a work in progress which will add more real estate to Rivendell.

Is this about bricks only? Just bought the body of an old Hungarian Horntail for 9 Euro. I was surprised how cheap it was. Old Hippogriffs I bought for 12 Euro. Four dark green horse bardings I got by buying the set four times (used), kept the bardings and resolut the sets. So it was about 15 Euro per barding. Also with shipping and customs taxes I paid about 11 Euro per piece for custom Woodland armors from Ktownbricks. Such is the life of a customizer.

Very interesting. Since I saw this dragon set for the first time I have been wondering what to make from it. I even bought some of the wings this week. And now here is your entry. Things I like: + the threefold wing connectors make him look like a well-trained tough beast + poseability and proportions are very well done + color scheme (except the dark blue (?) belly) + the claws look very forestish So inside your self-imposed restrictions I think is this the best possible dragon. But why do you restrict yourself to parts from the set? Why not open it to all possible parts?

Great banners!

They should make a dark green Smaug!

Dark Elf Silver Thread Archer by MWardancer When he aims at you, your life is hanging by a thread.These versatile archers use their longbows to shoot normal arrow as well as the rare Dragon Glass (TM) arrows to pierce ephemeral beings. Customization Notes: At some point I noticed I did not have a regular Dark Elf archer. So I made a light, basic, not very spectacular one. I am not satisfied with the range of bows and quivers Lego offers and grew fond of the Aliexpress ones. They even have typical Elven ornaments on them. Since I have to mix my own paints I am quite happy how the new batch of light blueish gray and semi-glossy turned out. The painting on the ears is not 100%, but neither is Lego's... - Body: Lego Chima Keychain with the chain ripped out - Cape: Cape Madness - Bow and Quiver: Aliexpress, painted - Hair: Painted - Arrow: Brickwarriors

Great building, very nice Elves!

This is one of the best brickbuilt dragons I have ever seen! No ugly visible joints, believable wings, great head and eyes. Perfect.

Great fig! Looks very clean, especially the very fine details like the creature‘s eye and horns. How is it made?

Thank you. No harm done. There is not much customization going on on Eurobricks any more. Once every few years one of my figs gets frontpaged. I was actually very surprised that this dark elf was frontpaged, because it is not a very complex fig, a small project only. Maybe it serves as a reminder that customization does exist. Once there was even a customzation competition here on Eurobricks. There is still a lot going on in customization, but on Instagram. Many customizers with crazy skills and 3d printed parts, quite exclusive Little Shops and more.

Actually the only reason I became a customizer is that I wanted an Elven army and there was no chance to simply buy one. LOTR came and went and Elven army builders had very few options.

Yes, that is why I mentioned that LEGO puts extremely badly printed Goblin shields on the market, which makes it very frustrating and expensive to find any good LEGO Goblin shields. Even the ones in the picture are slightly off-center and there are the best among the 10 LEGO Goblin shields I own. Ok, let me go buy official LEGO Elven helmets. Oh wait, there are none even after a decade of owning the LOTR licence…

I don’t know where it is from, but this Information might help: It is not a white head, it is glow in the dark. So check all glow in the dark heads on Bricklink, there are not many. It has the typical Elven cheeklines. On the other side there is an angry face with red lines.

Thank you everyone. I could not get rid of the ribbon on the waist, which looks a bit feminine. One idea was also to paint the gray area, which tries to give the impression of female hips, black to cover it up. But when you cover up the neck with an armor I figured it is not very feminine any more.

Dark Elf Ceremonial Guard Ceremonial in name, but not very ceremonial in combat, these Dark Elves have sworn to protect the Emperor with their swords. Dark Elf Ceremonial Guard by MWardancer, auf Flickr Customization Notes: - weapon: Aliexpress - helmet: Aliexpress, painted, added plume, painted - shield: two shields glued together with a new handle - cape: Cape Madness I have been wanting to make a fighter with the slope legpiece for a long time and when finally the Jazz Singer became available for a good price I bought three of them. I am very angry that the expensive and rare goblin shield is printed off-center most times. The one shown here is the best one I have. I quite enjoy the variety of weapons on Aliexpress. Finding an armor that sits well with the cape was easy.

I have a somewhat similar feeling. For example I began customizing when there was a Custom Minifigure Contest here at the forum. Unthinkable today. Also the Colossal Castle Contest had a custom category for a few years. This disappeared as well. One reason might be the proliferation of third party products. Aliexpress for example. I have found a few new companies like cultbricks in Germany, whose products often sell out within minutes. Or Ktownbricks in the US. Capemadness also seems to be back after they got kicked from Bricklink. So some are still thriving. Nicebricks makes nothing new any more and customminifigureintelligence is also dead. I have the suspicion that the death of customization might be a matter of perception in a shifting social media landscape. Flickr has limited groups to 30 for a picture. And Flickr was a niche anyway. Maybe one should check one‘s media preferences. For example on Instagram there seems to be a lot of customizers I had not known before. I am actually thinking of shifting my media presence to Instagram as well.