Yoggington

Okay cool, that works. I'll pop a short line with each vote about why I'm voting that one over anything else, then I'll work my way through any topics that I want to add final thoughts to.

I believe this is what you're after? Let me know if not.

One question around the casting of votes by critics. The critic comments - are these supposed to be 1) put with the votes in the voting thread, or 2) votes in the thread, separate comments in each build topic?

I'll see if I can get a video (or gif) of the rotating in action. The statues move in opposite directions (direction dependent on which way you turn the gear) and can spin forever. I was careful to make sure the rotation & gear sizing work so that they will both face the same way at the same time I will admit it's a little clunky due to the sheer weight in the larger statue - I'd prefer it smoother - but it does work and that's the main thing. Miles ahead of you on the back of the box, see OP or previous post now. I even made sides for a box and maybe I'll fake a 3D table set-up after the deadline, no time beforehand! Here they are though if you are interested. Big pics: https://i.imgur.com/7FEKD7l.png https://i.imgur.com/INxDHwn.png It's actually turquoise - same as the stripe on the hut and the various highlights dotted around on the statue base & cheeks, hairpin, chameleon etc. I'm a little colourblind in that end of the blue spectrum.. maybe the colour levels on the box art are a bit wonky whoops. I don't really have time to fix unfortunately - my own deadline is tonight, due to a busy weekend ahead. Not at this stage I'm afraid, re-doing all the photos & work that went in there is not gonna happen. Possibly in the post-competition stage when I see if I can get that bridge going. @Mister Phes This is now complete as it's getting, and you can add it to the entries index, thanks. Also also. I'd love if someone would tell me where the setting to turn the rich text editor off permanently is. It's driving me a little bonkers with it's assumptions.

Presenting Short Pork Island. This is a modernisation loosely inspired by the Islanders sets of my youth. An older brother had pirate ships sure, but even the famed Black Seas Barracuda and it's fancy cannons stood no hope against our spears when we were small and plentiful. I say 'loosely' because this build had a bit of a journey - starting as a re-do of Enchanted island - but ending up as something else. Read the thread to get the gist. Short Pork Island is a heavily forested isle with (mandatory) ruins and treasure to catch the pirate's interest. A large foreboding statue features front and centre - with a smaller cute piggy sidekick at it's right hand. Is this a tribute to King Kahuka or some deity? To the rear of the Island features an Islander tree-hut, modernised to a six-sided palm tree design, replete with throne & shields & drum and food. I am a sucker for a good mechanical feature in a build, and in here we feature three main play features; 1) On the front of the stone statue you can tug one of the ears to drop whatever you've loaded up out the mouth - skulls, pineapples, jewels. 2) Turning the splat gear buried in the sand turns both the large statue, and the smaller pig statue roundaways to reveal a much more sinister pair of bone statues. 3) The ribcage of the larger statue opens at the front as a place to lock away captured scallywags. I hope the minifigs here speak for themselves for the most part. The tricorn pirate has a double-sided face - the backside is a shocked expression. Perfect for being jailed or having pineapples rain down upon him. The more folically-challenged scallywag is the torso with the large duck tattoo on the back. It should be noted that King Kahuka's pride and joy piglet is known as 'the Pig Kahuna'.

Not quite yet, I'll be finished by tonight and I'll alert you when it is.

Well we're not there yet, a little photoshopping to go as of yet, but we do have the front box art; <snip> Edit 1: Big asterix beside that piece count btw. I've no idea how many are in here and there's no way I mock up a stud.io render before the deadline. Feel free to guesstimate yourselves and we'll see who was closest once I eventually do that <edit 2: to remove previous pic, better one below and in OP>

So I have given this a spin, and it looks great. Good call, thanks. I think removing the centre pole was something I knew I needed to do but was putting off. I'll save the pics for the final submission. Cheers for all the input. With the waves, I think the other post made the right call in just removing them altogether. This brings it back in line with the design aesthetic the official Barracuda Bay/Eldorado Fort seem to be going for. If I follow through here post-competition, I imagine I'll be bringing some better looking water in though. I was hoping the silhouette main viewing angle would have a bit more interest than it ended up with alright. A taller hut and a not-so-tall bigger statue. The mechanisms inside the statue kinda put paid to that, plus stability of the tree. Again, I need to call it 'good' at this point and not rewrite the fundamental layout this late in the day. Another one for the post-comp period. I'm thinking more like.. say in the one of the modular sets you'd have smaller things to build within. A chest-of-drawers, or a bathtub, or a flowercart. Is that a mini-build? A side-build? In this we have the throne.. and that's kind of it? A small archery target could be good. I liked the hanging cage I saw in another entry but I've already got the main skeleton ribcage trap. On top of that, where would I even put it? I think at this point, I just have to call it good and get working on the presentation. Cheers though.

I do like the red crossbeams better, though I'd have the vertical claw that attaches to the strut be brown in that case. I think having these in red reduces the need for the spear to be black too.

Good call on the white waves. That's an easy fix at least. I will have to test the removal of the centre column. While I like the look of it myself, it really hampers the space inside. Much easier to set up the throne if it was gone. I'll try it out tonight. With the connectors, they seem necessary, the stud-to-pillar connection wouldn't hold up much. Just unfortunate about the colours available. I'll try it out at the same time I play with the column removal, but I think they will end up being a necessary evil.

This is fabulous. In just 49 pieces no less. If I could be so bold (and if that is a 2x4 plate on the back), you might consider swapping it out for a pair of the inverted tile 2x2s for a smoother finish? https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=11203&amp;name=Tile, Modified 2 x 2 Inverted&amp;category=[Tile, Modified]#T=S&amp;C=86&amp;O={"color":86,"iconly":0} No complaints about the portrayal - it's a nice modernising of the tribe without straying into anything non-PC.

I am overwhelmed just looking at this Do you think it's possible to crank out a few more renders/photos of some of the details before the deadline? I'd love to explore the nooks and crannies a bit more.

So the last of the bricklink orders arrived in record time (shop local!) and I think I can say that I have a finished model now. With time to spare :o Here's the finished product: And just for scale, here it is relative to Baracuda Bay: I will spend the remainder of the time taking some better photos, and mocking up a nice photoshop presentation. Maybe a few small edits. One direct question for the critics - I could do with some 'mini-builds' in here maybe. Any thoughts of what? I have now made a small boat for the island faction; And the hut has changed a bit - turns out my long axle that gives it stability up the centre was a few bricks longer than I'd figured. It worked out to heighten it all though, as the accessibility was a bit tight for adult fingers previously

Thanks man, appreciated. Unfortunately with the deadline rushing in, the bridge will come after the cut-off, or perhaps in another project. If I wasn't pivoting it as a deadfall I think it'd be a lot simpler to put together. But still, that deadline is encouraging more progress. So firstly breaking up the sand and stone with some green plate to map out the forest floor was an excellent call. It looks much better now. Somehow bigger thanks to the zoning. I've tried out various trees and plant layouts, and I think this mini-palm is worth seeing, using the newish fern element; That's likely what I'll go with at the lower level, you can see some studs with holes in the first pic for locations. The colour combo in the flower ties in with my plans too. As part of the general layout (and story) I've now added the compulsory treasure that lured the pirates in in the first place. The chest slides in and out and ramps up for ease - it's a lot more 'hidden' with the large palms in place later. The chalice can be just about glimpsed from the window behind, and as simple as the pattern above is, I quite like how it ties in with the use of that same gold jumper elsewhere. Lastly for tonight, and the biggest thing - this is clearly no longer a remake of Enchanted Island. So I'm renaming it as 'Short Pork Island'. I'll be giving Kahuka a pet piglet (maybe offspring of the Barracuda Bay pig :o ). But more importantly, I finished the smaller statue. It's a pig and skeleton pig on the back :D

Thanks for the info Phes. That makes sense. As for the questions here in thread, I think a standard 'no voting for self' is a good thing. Looking at the volume of entries, no harm in giving out five votes per person per category either.

Of all the mini-builds, I love this one the most I think. I would say you don't need to wholesale change to red, but perhaps the two crossbeams being bright red could add a nice bit of visual interest.

So far so good. I particularly like the rock window now where it was previously just a straight tower. Hard to critique at this point. my one question mark would be whether it would look more interesting if the wet/dry rock divide wasn't a perfectly straight horizontal line. A plate above or below the line here or there could break it up nicely.

A question in advance of the impending deadline. Once my build is finalised and I have final pictures etc., what is the better way to present them? Should I be editing the OP in my thread to be the post with the final versions? Or is it better to leave the thread as historically posted and have the final submission post be over on page 2/3? Does it even matter?

Oh for sure I suffer from that. Part of the reason I wanted to enter here was to force myself to work to a generous deadline. Not long left now D: I don't worry so much about the greebling as the way the pieces fit together in sweet spot ways, but it's definitely the same issue. Well you are in luck. As I await the final Bricklink order to arrive, last night's job was to go through my minifigs to pick out the selection that will come with the set. Here's what I landed on. Three Islanders; One big kahuna in King Kahuka, plus a male & female to bulk out the numbers and allow for a smattering of population. I like the monkey kid (?) hair here, as there are a few turquoise bits of detailing elsewhere in the set so it links up. The drums go with the skellington throne. For Pirates, we have these two scallywags who've been washed ashore; I love that bald headpiece so much I had to use it. Worth looking at the backs here too. I do wish the brown shorts had a bit more cloth in the rear, but it's good for comedy value. The double-sided face is good for the when you don't need the alternate 'arrrgh-I've-been-locked-in-a-ribcage' expression. And of course, the massive duck tattoo.

That is an excellent call. I was struggling with making it junglish without overcramming plants in. A bit of green base in could do the trick.

I have no critiques but I just wanted to comment to say how much Iove that roof. You've got a new flickr follower eager to see what you come up with next.

Oh this is great. I love in particular the mechanism that springs the jail cell. Is that your own invention? This looks near finished on your end, so I won't suggest too much of an overhaul. One thing that sticks out to me is your change of colour for the various bridges. Going from brown to black has led to a lot of black all together in the upper building, particularly in the box image (not an issue in the detail shots at all). I wonder if there is some way to break that up, maybe like the grey bricks do in the lower half? Maybe some colour in the bridge? Maybe it's just a case of a higher resolution photo or better lighting.

Okay, a bricklink order arrived an between that and bump comments here, I'm making some progress. I've abandoned the bridge until post-competition. So best to start with an overview of the new look and where we're at right now: Some re-arrangement for the single island layout, but glad to have a solid sturdy biscuit of an island that has all the cogs inside, and is sturdy enough to can be picked up one-handed with ease. Even the wobbly looking tree hut is very firm, with an axle running right up from inside the curved beach piece. (i.e. nephew-proof) I might squeeze one more bricklink order in, so long as I shop local. So if you have piece-feedback, now is good. The tree-trunk is where the most obvious colours need correcting. Hopefully these images give a better breakdown of how it's all constructed to give the neat off-grid angled branches. The tree is sturdy top-to-bottom and side to side thanks to the internal construction. And I'm hoping that by using the rounded pillars on the round base we get away from any hint of squareness. The six-sided hut up top began life as the Spring Garden pagoda, and you can still see the remnants in the support structure, but it's since moved far away. As dense as the roof looks, it's actually pretty elegant. Again, a picture is worth a thousand of my words. From top to bottom then (though I realise now this doesn't show the side branches): It needs some decoration inside. I intend to put a King Kahuna throne in. Open to suggestions of other items. Lastly I kind of breezed over this last time, but I'm quite proud of it. It's a variation of how the Friends Botanical Garden set squeezes in two trees so snugly together. Add to that the ol' hinge plate on the cheese slope angle, and you can get a neat sloping beach with angle palm trees. I would hope in the next week to finalise all of this. And build a catamaran :o The other big task is to do something better with the placeholder-smaller statue. Smaller tasks include the throne, a bit more density to the forest so the hut doesn't look out of place (but not too much!), close the skellington neck, and possibly a small cave with treasure in. Thanks for reading this far. As a reward, have a flower tablescrap:

Thanks for the comments guys & gals. That gave me the reminder bump I needed to not just let this deadline breeze by :D What little lego time I've had has been aimed toward building with my nephew. Unfortunately the bin-limo won't qualify here. This is going to be my approach here I think. I'll be cutting the scope of the piece right back so that I have something for you all for the deadline. The bridge is both my favourite part and the bane of my build, that damn connection has me stumped. Especially considering one side should attach to a tree. I do have a neat tree and hut built, I'll post a few progress pics soon. New scope will be the statues and the hut & tree. So less a remake and more a new thing.

I don't have any complaints about the eligibility here. Looks good to me as a remake. However, I do see how the 'MOC-ness' of it has introduced some areas that could be improved. My favourite features here are the sail first and foremost, followed by the different take on the palm tree, the white window detailing.. and distantly the rock.. so the one thing missing then leads to my biggest issue - that the ship has become a huge mass of brown pieces. Some judicial use of colour or features to break this all up would go a long way.. Perhaps the smaller raft could be a different colour? Perhaps you could re-introduce some black and white areas? Perhaps the crocodile needs to return, or the white area needs to expand? Secondly, I agree with the previous that I'd love more photos. What's inside the cabin? What does the model look like from behind?? All in all, there's a lot here to love. Big props for that excellent sail - I love how it turned out.