Wardancer

[Review] RBC Tabard and Balaclava I recently got hold of a few of RBCs tabards and balaclavas. Maybe you will find it useful to have my humble opinion about them. Let us look at a few pictures first. The Tabard Tabards by MWardancer, on Flickr As you can see in this picture, the red tabard matches the original LEGO cape kind of well. If I were building a castle army, I would not mind the very slight difference. I do not have a dark blue LEGO cape, so I could not compare this. Also visible here is another difference. The TLG cape looks like machine made. Edges, angles and holes are all 100% clean, symmetric and straight. The RBC products have a bit of a handmade feel to them in comparison. Tabard Front by MWardancer, on Flickr Here you can see the tabard on a fig. It is easy and self-explanatory to apply, The arms of the fig need to be taken off. Tabard Back by MWardancer, on Flickr The picture from the back shows that the fabric will not cling to the body tight. I personally do not mind, it gives an airy feeling to the thing. Tabard Side by MWardancer, on Flickr Poseability is not affected as you can see here. The Balaclava Balaclava Color Matching by MWardancer, on Flickr In this case color matching is perfect. I am very picky and I think it looks like the real thing. Balaclava Front by MWardancer, on Flickr Does it make this fig look better? I think it does. It is compatible with the hood. Balaclava Front by MWardancer, on Flickr This is how it works. Verdict Tabard 7/10 + a good idea for a fun product + color matching in red is ok, other colors may be different though + poseability remains intact o the loose fit may be a matter of taste o edges and symmetry not 100% If I had a focus on castle factions, I would enjoy using these. Balaclava 10/10 + a unique idea as far as I know the market + compatible with hood + perfect color matching in dark green This makes virtually every minifig look cooler than before. I can think of numerous uses such as assassins, knights, mysterious ladies, dark priests or druids. I think this fabric ones are better than any plastic ones.

I tried. It seems to be a very good invention. For some reason, it did not give me the abovementioned Revell paint as output when I entered the hexcode for Tan. It gave me all the other brands, so I think in general that it works. I will try again with other colors.

Tan 32314 Beige, on the lid it says SM 314 Revell Available in Germany and many other European countries, Revell makes plastic model airplanes etc. 95% similarity at least Satin matte finish takes longer than a day to dry I am pretty content with the level of similarity and the finish. Good for a minifig's hair.

Great! Awesome! Very good use of the insect bodies!

Ah good, if these parts were glow in the dark, it would make them useless for me. I trust the Bricklink Name is yellowish green then without spring. Have I seen a new dog in one of the ninjago pictures? Is that a new color, it is hard to see? Edit: Nevermind, I found a high res picture. It is just a husky with a clip on top.

Thanks for the review. I don't care for this series, but maybe I can spice up a few of my figs with some of the new short sleeved arms.

Yellow 32112 yellow (on the lid of the pot it says only 12) 32310 Lufthansa Yellow (on the lid of the pot it says SM 310, SM means semi glossy). Both by Revell Available in Germany and many other European countries, Revell makes plastic model airplanes etc. 90% or more similarity can be reached if these steps are followed: Take the number 12 pot, empty it a bit and pour an increasing amount of 310 in it until it fits lego yellow. Mix and try every few drops until the color matches. This way you have a whole pot with the same colour and you do not have to mix again for a long time! I use this to make Elf ears and it works quite well. http://www.amazon.de/32310-Revell-lufthansa-gelb-seidenmatt-14ml-Dose/dp/B0002HZ344

Are these very bright yellow parts in the upcoming sets of the evil faction glow in the dark? The box art seems to indicate some kind of glow.

Good topic! Since I have a Warhammer past, I tend to mentally assign the features that Warhammer figs have in their profile to my lego figs. That is how fast they move, how far they shoot, how much hits they can take etc. This also includes special abilities like being fearless or able to cause panic in the enemies. Besides that I think of most special characters in terms of all the archetypes modern fantasy media offers. Of course, the leaders are noble, courageous and strong and of course the wizards are wise etc. That does not make them personalities, but only archetypes. To only very few I ascribe individual character traits. I have one hero who is selfish and arrogant, mainly because his face expresses this. My queen I want to be beautiful and loving, but sometimes cruel and deadly. Both cases again can be reduced to modern archetypes. LOTR Galadriel already includes these two opposites. The queen example shows that I could not decide between the good and the bad queen archetype, so I combined both. I guess once my army building is finished and I move on to scenes which depict scenes of a narrative, personalities might come in. Not necessarily, most fairy tales are narratives without round characters.

Sooo many two-colored arms. I would like to see Willy's tattoo.

Some People sell sets without the figs. This can be a good way to get unused bricks. I for example bought the mines of Moria twice without figs just for parts.

Even for me, who has drilled into wolves and chopped bears' heads and limbs off in the process of customizing, sawing or cutting into a regular brick feels very strange, because they are not minifigs. But I guess it hurts only the first time.

Vikings would be nice. I enjoy the current TV series Vikings. It will surely not be licensed, but it does promote the topic in populär culture maYbe.

Just checked the new Game of Thrones trailer for the number of legs of the dragons. I am sorry to say that they only have two. Therefore, every cry of "Where are my dragons?" should actually have been "Where are my wyverns?" Since language is always shaped by cultural conventions, we should consider that the two most influential fantasy franchises of the last years (Hobbit ,GoT) use two legged dragons and call them dragons. PS: Who cares, they're epic.

I just saw that dark red dragon arms are not as expensive as I thought, so I'll buy some and give it a try.

The problem are the wings. Even if I found some airbrush master who sprayed Smaug for me, the rubbery part of the wings cannot be covered by paint. It would react with the rubber perhaps and peel off when they move. I would have to find some self adhesive foil or cloth or something to put on the rubber areas of the wings. Hmm. Puting on additional arms is also difficult, because there is no flat surface to drill into. The best way would be to sacrifice poseability and try to carve the joints of the arms in such a way that they can be glued on in the right angle. This also minimizes the risk.

Skeletons were done in Ninjago recently. Also POTC had some. If you include all the heads and bodies that are somehow skeletal, a well made skeleton army will easily be one with the most variety around. Therefore I hope that this will not be a new focus.

Nice touch giving the elves dark blue capes! Also the gray hands are a good choice.

Oh, I didn't know there was a dark red fantasy Era dragon. So there are indeed dark red arms one could attach to Smaug. This would mean drilling holes at a difficult angle. Could someone who is not me try this with his really expensive Smaug? If someone could count the lenght of the Nidhodd dragon in studs, I could compare it to Smaug.

IMHO there is always a Break or a gap in style. If you put a modern detailled fig on a brickbuilt animal, the visual difference gaps between rider and mount, but the mount in turn fits well into a brickbuilt environment. If you put a detailled fig on a detailled mount, the style gap is pushed between mount and environment. I prefer the latter because I regard rider and mount as one unit. Often I display them even without environment. Also one could argue that most environments are more suitable for being brickbuilt than creatures which in cases require difficult angles, an organic shape, many details and poseability.

As were dealing not with the scientific problem of biological classification of a real being, but with a cultural and etymological one (different concepts of Dragons spread over countries, languages and discourses), maybe we could agree that a two-legged Smaug is a dragon sensu lato (wider sense), a wyvern specifically, while the four- legged one is a dragon sensu stricto. So whoever calls Smaug a dragon is right, more or less. At first I thought the German translation for Wyvern would be Lindwurm, but they don't even have wings. Unless you count the Warhammer Riesenlindwurm, which does. I also wish I had a four-legged Smaug, but I wonder how I would deal with the claws on the wings then. Keeping them would make a beast with 6 claws which is exaggerated even for a lizard the size of a house. Omitting the claws will leave a questionable free space on the wings. One solution could be to make the claws dark red and thereby make them look more like part of the wings.

I recommend getting Smaug at the moment because I guess there will not be such a beast for a long time and prizes will only increase. Buy the set and trade off the dwarves. This would look so nice. If there were dark red arms, I would drill a hole. When wyverns dream of being a dragon by MWardancer, on Flickr

"Have you been working out lately?" "Oh yes, thanks for noticing. Battle season is coming and people kept calling me a wyvern." 4-legged by MWardancer, on Flickr

Would the thin arms on the classic dragon qualify as 'legs' and make him 4-legged and thereby a dragon?

If we include the T-Rex, there is even a third mold for the legs of lizardlike giant creatures. If money grew on trees I'd hire an airbrush sprayer to turn Smaug into a dark green forest dragon. I don't know if I would dare to spray him myself. I tried making tan horses by spraying once and messes them up. I can make a few tomorrow.