Wardancer

I think the price is ok. Most people do not know what publishing a book costs. When a book is sold, many need to get their share: the lector, the printers, the people who made the graphics, marketing, salespeople and at the end of all this: the author. A friend of mine published books sold for 20 Euro a piece. How much do you think she earns? She gets 1 Euro per sold copy. For a book that is three quarters of a years work. Try and apply that to Brickdiction and you will realize that the author most likely earns a few measly cents per copy. Publishing a book is a risky adventure and those who do it often pay more for it than they earn. It is always an act that shows the authors passion for what he writes about. So even with my beforementioned critism in mind, I think risking to publish a book on Lego is a courageous act of love for the brick.

Although I am usually in no way a killjoy and although I do enjoy humor verging on the black and deviant, I see some disturbing potential in this book. Judging from the review, it does 2 things. Talking about Lego as an addiction - ok, well, that has been (over?)done with every hobby or everything that has ever stimulated people. Functionally, this seems to stress how important the thing is to a certain group, in the case of LEGO it might even have a cry of "take us serious" in it. But mimicing the structure and style of a self-help material - I am not so sure about this. This explicitely draws on the pathological - those who are addicted enough to use self-help material such as the well known 12 (7? 5?) steps into freedom from alcoholism. Making fun of that discourse might make it more difficult to talk seriously about real addiction, even LEGO addiction if something like this exists. Maybe I am overreacting a bit. But if talking about Lego as an addiction is old news and mimicing self-help material for addicts is morally questionable, this might be not my kind of fun. This book presupposes that no real cases of LEGO addiction exist or that LEGO cannot have a destructive potential on people and relationships at all. This I highly doubt.

Good dwarf! The armor and the helmet work well together. If you want to stab him, you would not know where to do it. Maybe it would be worth trying different legs and torsos underneath. Mixing two dofferent kinds of gold might be an overload.

I would try Haldidr with different arms, maybe also red or metallic gold instead of pearl gold. Also Theoden's red arms I would like to see in some sort of brown, green or gray. And of course fleshies will be given yellow heads and hands. I am not going for movie accuracy.

Nice, they would be great for pulling a small carriage such as Gandalf's.

I don't have any pictures at the moment, because I hope to show most of the army at the same time when finished. I have focussed on regiments of 8 for a while, but there still is a lot to do. I made some custom longer spears which is a lot of work if you have to make 8 or 16. At the moment I am working on horses. I hope to spray some in tan and maybe put the CMF valkyrie on as a light female cavallery. It depends very much on what your colour scheme is. I habe divided the army in a lighter, reddish brown and dark green part and a darker one which allows dark bley and black.

Thank you both for your help. It is so great at Eurobricks how AFOLS help each other. I just ordered 25 capes from bricklink. I need to change my BL habits. I think I have to start include other countires for buying than my own (Germany). Now I got them for the price that jFox described which is MUCH cheaper than it would ever be here (currently, there are 6 capes available in the whole country.) Capes, being light and flat, don't need much shipping. The special ones from MMCB I'll order later. Thanks again!

Hi everyone, I am thinking about buying a lot of custom capes for my elven army. The color I need most will be dark green, therefore I would like to know: Did anyone ever compare a dark green MMCB cape to an official one? If I mixed original and MMCB ones in the same regiment, would it be very noticable? How would you describe the quality difference if there is any? (If for some reason someone wants to sell up to 25 original green capes for a reasonable price, let me know.)

I have the same problem with dragon wings on my elf queen. I plan to cut off the back of the neck holder and glue it on the back of the torso. I imagine it to be difficult with a cape.

Thanks!

Does anyone know how the divers feet are made? Simply a 1x1 plate or something else?

Excellent! While the CMF series 8 fairy makes us cry over her ugly wings, you customize the best wings I could imagine.

Now after I have seen the conquistador up close on bricklink, I like him even more. His breastplate and legs are very beautiful. He will make a good elite knight or even elf.

Finalllllyy, a dark green hood. So obvious an important item and it had to become late 2012 till it was implemented. No more painting hoods dark green says this observer.

This might be old and irrelevant news, but I have seen LOTR sets in Germany yesterday.

Another lovely designed, well thought of series. I am a bit underwhelmed though which is not due the quality of the design, but to my personal (historical) tastes and aims. The alien queen is a great fig but I won't need it. The conquistador is of course the army builder of the series. I would like to see his armor and body closer to judge if i can use it for other themes. I like the German as well, his legs might be interesting for custom figs. I am disappointed by the fairy. I had high hopes in that. Now she is kitsch and even the wings won't look good on other figs I guess. The actor has an interesting torso and legs. So, in comparison to series 7, which had 4-5 army builders in it, I am a bit underwhelmed. That is not a bad thing, it leaves more money for LOTR. The conquistador's armor will be easy to feel. Also the divers helmet.

Beautiful! I am not entirely sure about the rooftop which could look a bit more organic and seemless, but I like the set a lot.

I was in a similar situation in the last year and to some extend I still am because I do not want to use my old childhood bricks which are very worn out. I started with cheap sets, new but reduced in price. I got them from private sellers mostly (ebay kleinanzeigen). For example, I got the recent Kingdoms castle new for 50 Euro (instead of 100) and Hogwarts castle new for 85 (instead of 130). From the Hogwarts, I sold the dementors for 15 Euro, so I got it for around 70. That is a lot of parts to draw from for good value. Just resist the urge to buy the newest stuff immediately.

I am following this thread with excitement. I like the boars a lot, also the young ones. I generally like the way you use printing for the animals' ankles very much. Some animals are IMHO a bit more detailled than a real product would ever be. E.g. the big boars teeth have a diameter of say one quarter of a stud, this would be kind of fragile I guess. Anyway, great job on all of these, I am looking forwart to seeing more.

I love the wolves! To have them posable would be great. I think the tigers' stripes need to be wider and more.

I think the amount of discussion around this shows what a good idea this is. I believe we will see orcs on raptors frequently from now on. (Reminds me of a Calvin and Hobbes cartoon with raptors in F16 jets.) I would love to see a regiment of 3 or 4 in a row. Maybe they would fight dwarves on bears? The versions with less apparatus on top looks better IMHO. I also liked the banner, but maybe this should be restricted to the leader. It looks less swift, I could imagine a banner on a triceratops with a few orcs on it. Also I like the trophies!

I have already given my top 5, but now it crossed my mind how cool a rhinoceros would be!

The article does not include fantasy creatures, which is a fully valid perspective but neglects for example the adorable Harry Potter griffin, a very horselike animal. Anyway, here are my wishes: 1. Stag (normal and albino) 2. Wolf (bigger than the one that is also used as a dog) 3. Eagle owl (the biggest owl, often with a wingspan of 1,7 meters or more, sort of the stealth bombers of the German forest) not sitting as the HP owls, but in flight 4. Moose 5. Tiger (6. Wild boar (the kind that eats you if you don't eat it first)) Come to think of it, my selection seems focused on forest animals (except 5) which might be due to my current focus on elves and my identity as a German.

A great idea! Maybe there could be a little less chains, it might be a bit overloaded.

Very beautiful! I especially like the kangaroos! Maybe the elks' antlers are a bit more datailled than a real product would be.