SlyOwl

This says Stalingrad to me Or the Crimea, maybe. I really like the concept, and the ketchup is... interesting. I'm not a big fan of the over-stated gore (although I do like a bit) - what I'd really like to see is a less "Batman" approach, but more like these (minus the ketchup ) - Sort of bodies in the snow, mostly covered, only vague shapes. And soldiers with crutches limping through the snow. Perhaps as a Part 4? Keep it up

Check out this picture from Lego Universe - - The ship design is almost identical to the Black Seas Barracuda, only with Skull's Eye Schooner colour scheme - The pirate holding the flagpole is in the Vintage Minifig Collection 2 - The "Captain" has a face more similar to Redbeard than Brickbeard - The pirate in the bottom left corner has a classic torso, although of the later sets - The Captain and the closest pirate's torsos look new - The Captain's plume is a discontinued (obsolete, maybe?) part - Anything else?

Sorry, currently only the staff run contests. Feel free to submit your contest ideas here, and they will be taken into consideration in the future. There's something Pirate-y in the pipeline at the moment!

Thanks all! 2 pages without me bumping? Wow! Fixed! The 1x1 round plates just about stay in between the inside edge of the bottom of the cart and the outside of the tube, but it's not very sturdy at all. Minifigs can grip the handle of the crate when perpendicular to the side There aren't any BURPs/BURBs/LURPs in there! It has roughly the same texture because I ran out of slopes, though. Dwarven women have beards... Nope! The carts with the figures in them barely fit through some of the holes, and the carts don't even fir through others! It's not worth extracting: the man dwarf hours required would not be worth as much as the revenue the dwarf would earn working as a theme park operator. (Actually it's because the area looked bare) I wanted to do a loop, but ran out of track and space in the mine. The back? These things stack together, mate! Battle-droid/Life on Mars arms

Happy Birthday! Y'know, I thought you were a real old man, much like the rest of the staff. I guess that reflects well on you, unless your aging has been accelerated, much like at the end of The Last Crusade - Be warned! When 26 years old you reach look as good you will not -

You have no butt. Unless you want to prove otherwise

Dwarven theme-park ride operators... ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Brickshelf Gallery.

1. Castle (especially the current line) - Easily my favourite. So many ways to take it. 2. Aquazone/Stingrays - Love 'em sooo much! 3. Adventurers/OE (Jungle in particular) - My actual favourite genre, but I can see more expansion with Castle, and I like Aquazone better for the colour scheme. Worst... 1. Jack Stone 2. Bionicle - I lost the plot with these guys after the original Toa came out. 3. Town/City - Dull, dull, dull. Whilst Cafe Corner and co. are very nice, the normal sets are boring and plain, and have been since the beginning. What, no Pirates? I can't say I'm too big a fan of the old sets, and I haven't got any of the new ones, so the line itself doesn't score too well with me. The concept does, but can't save the sets.

New! The Captain Green Hair articulated action figure!

Although...

Nice one, Hinck! Chinese Gongs The building is cute, but I especially like the fence at the front. You also did something I never have the patience to do - roof beams! And a neat Edge too! Although there's a load of people out there now who missed out on the Fabuland Revolution, so haven't got a clue what it is! What's that black sticking up thing? You lose, punk! Good luck in the contest - there's a lot of entries so far! (I go away for a week and the whole of the CC MOC page is flooded with Mullers ). I've often wondered to what extent Fabuland is allowed into Castle. For example, this MOC isn't particularly castle-y (it could fit in town/city/belville). Your Sherwood one though...

Let us know if you find one. As far as I can see, there isn't a large enough Islander fan base for a seperate site - but that's not to say that Classic-Pirates hasn't got its own Islander fans! Check out - The Islander MOC thread The Islander topic thread And the Islander MOCs on Classic-Pirates Personally, they're my second favourite faction, after Bluecoats. Classic Lego versus Current Lego? I'm going to go with current, as it's more useful for MOCing, unlike the older stuff, although it doesn't have quite the same nostalgic or design value.

That's generally seen as more of an age-old rivalry, not outright warfare (read Tolkein's The Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales for the cause). Regarding possible "dark elves" (or "black dwarves" - Narnia), these are delving too far into Dungeons and Dragons or World of Warcraft e.t.c. to make it a feasible line for TLC. In the same way, you won't see a balrog, but you will see a dragon. And the Dwarf line can only go so far - they're far more limited in terms of set design than soldiers, so that's my suggestion for the lack of new dwarf sets.

I'm thinking Forestmen, not Elves. There's an even heavier emphasis on forest, and the green fits too. Furthermore, check out this thread. There's definitely a Forestman in those preliminary pictures, meaning that TLC had them in consideration. I'm thinking that instead of Elves, TLC will go down the Forestmen route, as they can have a bit more freedom with them, design-wise, and they're probably more universally appealing than Elves, which - as far as I know - not many children know much about. Or, they may co-exist. And just for reference, the original "hint" -

Yup! Some of them are grey, but there's a fair amount of random-coloured ones behind the rock face, attached to the bricks which stick out further backwards. This was my first rock-scaping ever, and it was far too tedious, part-intensive and slow for my liking, so now I go with my current style of upright, plenty of slopes. It helps that I've bought a load more recently, too. Angled tiles can save slopes, though, and give effects you can't achieve otherwise.

I tend to use the above, as well as Achu. Pretty much the whole array of Exo-Force heads can be used, as they've got suitable expressions and markings, but with no headsets e.t.c. Personally, I don't like to give my Islanders beards, as they look kinda funny like that

Many would have expected to see a more famous and charismatic pirate brought back, such as Captain Redbeard/Roger. Why, then, do we get a minifig that only appeared in 3 sets (6289 Red Beard Runner, 6281 Pirates' Perilous Pitfall, 6249 Pirates Ambush)? The later pirates from the original line are more similar in design to the new ones, so this could be the reason. Or could The LEGO Group be closely monitoring AFOL demand trends? Of all the classic pirate torsos, the one bearing the anchor tattoo is the second most expensive, sometimes selling for as much as $12! The Vintage Minifigure Collection is expected to retail for $17.99 in the USA, so this rare torso could stimulate a high demand for the set. What do you think? Should Captain Roger/Redbeard, often used as the "flagship" minifigure for the LEGO Pirate line at Legoland parks and on official merchandise, have been brought back instead of the "anchor pirate"?

Wouwie has found pictures of the new Pirate Keychain and Magnet Set on Lego Shop @ Home: Discuss here! And Etzel found the City ones: Discuss those here!

Thanks for the feedback 1x4 tiles on a backing of stepped plates. A combination of hinges and jumper plates hold it up. It works quite well, but it prevents an interior (I would like to experiment further here, though). There's also a slight gap at the bottom, but that could be remedied with some SNOT work, or minifig neck brackets (although I'm not a SirNadroj with them - I only have 1 and have never used it ). S'meant to be a wolf, but I didn't have the right parts in dark grey. Mmm, they are minifig scale. I can't be bothered to make myself animals to 2 different scales. I would've if I could've. It's probably possible to make one with some development of the split log technique, but I was out of time (photographing during daytime, contests). The cabin only has 2 walls, as I ran out of tiles, so it would look mega-walrus-dumb. Oh, right... that... The deer head wasn't my original Fabuland Edge, but it seems to be the obvious one. I had the concept from the very beginning, but I couldn't find anywhere good to put it. It ended up in the tree. A blonde wig. Think Goldilocks

Amazing, Z! I love all the whiteness and details And the angled sections and bley trim As normal for me, could you tile the tops of the crenels, as well as the embrasures? I really like the mixture of yellowed white and normal white in Phred's Church - Would it be possible to do something like this, to break the solid white up a bit? It could give it a more weathered/ye olde looke.

Really quite beautiful! I love the dark blue/white colour scheme - if you could, would you have the blue on the Imperial flags as dark blue? The Belville arches with the 1x4x2 lattice fences look really nice. I'm not a big fan of the curved stair part, but it looks great here. What's with the roof in this picture? I can't see a way to do that with slopes... I'd love to see this in real life; the green/red colour scheme forced on you by the Fabuland roof part could cause problems, although you could switch it to Imperial Armada or Guards, as it fits their colour schemes. As an improvement, the colonial building looks a little close to the sea - surely it's being supported abaove the water at the moment? Pushing it further back the dock and having a little landscaping (grass/rock) or pavement beyond the dock could solve this minor problem Looks like MLCAD to me. Thanks for sharing this

That's about it: push and twist. You can widen the hole a bit first with a nail, but this isn't really necessary.

Lego-wise? Check out Teddy's WIP

I just dip the end of a cotton bud into the brasso, and it works fine, but I guess you Americans have to do everything on a massive scale A toothpick can be used to only remove some areas of print, to get cool new custom prints, without any decaling! A standard eraser offers a less messy alternative, although it isn't as accurate, and leaves a bit of stick on the part. It is better at getting into cracks or round corners, however, so it is good for cleaning up parts where the print isn't central, and you want to get rid of the areas which go round the corner slightly.

Thanks Guss ^^ Yup, they're just balanced, although there's a fair amount of friction, so it can withstand light knocks. I did experiment with an elastic band around the whole ship, and over the rib, and it held the black parts in well, but I don't have enough bands