Math Wizard

Oh yeah, the piece limit . Kinda forgot about that... Maybe you could try using those extra pieces to build up the back wall on the left and use slopes to make it appear to be a level horizontal line there, as if this is just a vertical slice out of a scene rather than the whole image seeming somewhat tilted even though its not.

Interesting thought. Maybe a mix of studs and tiles would look good, that way you could use angled plates, which have both tile and stud elements, and avoid the pixelated look. Also, I was just curious- is there any particular reason the deck is made of dbg plates and not brown or dark brown as the wood of a deck would likely be?

I feel the opposite- When you can't tell something is built out of LEGO bricks, that's when it really excels! The studs are just the connection points- they're meant to be hidden. We try to hide the internal mechanisms and connection points on other things, so why not on LEGO?

Perhaps you could do both- keep what you have and add a second stand on level ground to the right of it. It would add to the view in looking like a fuller marketplace rather than just one stand, and show that the market ends as the street begins to slope, giving reasoning for why Steve picked that stand to rob

Thanks! It took a lot of tries to get it looking this good (and a lot of cheese slopes filling in gaps). I agree with your critiques. The problem is the dbg sharks have printed eyes, which is why I used an old grey one, and hoped it would blend in since there are several other old grey bricks mixed throughout. In regard to adding plants, it seems like a great idea, and I would totally do it if I still had the build fully intact.

Great work! It looks much better now. Thanks for responding and updating based on the criticism you received!

Ahoy Matey! They call me Captain Crit in these parts and I heard that polly wants a sandwich (They’re fed up with crackers apparently) - a criticism sandwich that is! (For you landlubbers, that’s 3 seas [Cs]- Compliment, Constructive Criticism, and another Compliment). Ye did a great job buildin’ this and writin’ a story to go along with it. The story is incredible- we’ve been seeing a lot of stories written in poetic verse recently, but I think this is the best one yet! Me biggest critique here is the photo quality. It seems to be quite blurred and out of focus in some spots, in particular the crab, which I think should be the center of attention. Or mayhaps a few more closeups would help us see the rest of the build. I’m also curious how many pieces you used. This looks like it may be over 200 when you add up all those 1x1s. Me favorite part of this build is the crab- very well articulated. I never realized the ball joints came in more colors than just grey. I also like how you mimicked the feel of classic pirate builds in your creation with the color scheme. Fair Winds Matey!

Thanks! That story will continue later this year when the Wandering Skies contest occurs again... You'll have to wait until then to find out, but given the different locations they probably won't cross. But then again, LEGO has a contest to have builds displayed in the LEGO House right now and one of the categories is mashup madness, so...

Ahoy Matey! You know me by now- It’s Captain Crit, back with another criticism sandwhich for polly! I almost didn’t see this- it got buried under all the posts you commented on! Ye did a great job buildin’ this, always great to see a microscale contribution, as that is my favorite thing to build (despite how little I do it). And another entry with a poem- also fun to see! My biggest critiques with this are first of all the studs in the river. If you are trying to emulate the original set, the grass has studs and the water is smooth. Perhaps you could also put the stud holding the red boat built into the ground, so the boat would be right on top of the water and not floating. I also think the horns on the statue look far too big. I think just the clip, rotated 90 degrees and holding nothing, would be better at this scale. And one more thing, (since you are the type of person who listens to advice and changes things I am giving you extra) Perhaps you could replace the 1x1 slopes used as roofs with piece 10187 somehow to look like the individual palm leaves. Me favorite part o’ the build is the tiny bridge. Excellent use of the bucket handles! It adds a lot of detail to the build. I also like the shoulder armor for the 2 boats- great choices. Fair Winds Matey!

Yeah, I really enjoy the creative writing aspect of this contest. I have a lot of builds that have stories written with them. My current favorite is this duo of builds and the accompanying story: https://www.flickr.com/photos/197227990@N07/53279791357/in/dateposted-public/ and https://www.flickr.com/photos/197227990@N07/53347674998/in/dateposted-public/ (Also, you might want to edit your previous post and add a period to change it to 2 sentences to qualify as a reply for the critic awards)

Fair point, but they've somehow got to get from one end of the ship to the other and right now that involved jumping over a lot of chests lol

Come to the dark side... It's not that I don't like the palm trees, just that the one with the thick trunk seems off somehow

I think there's also some consistency to think about. The wooden beams are tiled over, and the floor is tiled, so it stems to reason that the top of the build should be tiled. Perhaps even using the 1x4 tiles that have one stud on each end would look better- a halfway point between tiles and studs (and yeah, I think the plate is off center-- but when has a pirate ever needed everything centered? They seem to be known as quite rough people, not pretty perfectionists lol )

Now I'm the one just returning from a vacation! The update looks great- I especially love the photo copying the original box art! Mayhaps if they were on 1x1 round bricks instead of square ones this would remedy this?? I don't know much about the digital building realm, so I'm not even sure if stickers can be placed on round elements but that could possibly help

Wow, quite a deep conversation seems to have sprung up here while I was away I think this build certainly takes the cake for the build with the most meaning hidden away in it! Something new to think about each time you take a look!

Ahoy Matey! They call me Captain Crit in these parts and I heard that polly wants a sandwich (They’re fed up with crackers apparently) - a criticism sandwich that is! (For you landlubbers, that’s 3 seas [Cs]- Compliment, Constructive Criticism, and another Compliment). Ye did a great job buildin’ this and writin’ a story to go along with it. The story is incredible! And in full comic style too! This adds a ton to yer build, and shows the effort ye put into it. And I think I caught a glimpse of yer large entry st the end of the comic... Me only critiques are the surface of the raft- mayhaps you leave the plate off if ye can, ‘cause it seems to cover the texture of the logs making up the raft. And if the other technic pins could somehow be concealed as well, the color stands out a bit and looks odd. Aside from that, it’s a wonderful build! I’m glad ye had the time and pieces to build this out of real bricks afterward! It looks great, particularly the cloth sail- far better than those digital pieces! I also like all the supplies you were able to stow away on Steve’s raft, perfect for his journey! I cant wait for the next installment of the story! Fair Winds Matey!

Nice to see you updated the photos! It does look like there is some blue from the original background hiding behind the railing though. If the background was already blue, perhaps it may look a tad nicer if you didn't try to remove it. Then ye wouldn't have the jagged edges from the cutout, and it might look a bit cleaner.

Interesting thought. Perhaps a darker background color could add to this sense. Maybe a navy green or dark gray instead of white?

Actually, I submitted this build to not 1, not 2, but 3 contests! It was for the open round of MELO (Middle Earth LEGO Olympics), the Stairway Tales category of Summer Joust, and here, for the Infamous Steve Contest. If contests have overlapping time frames I like to try to build things that can fit multiple, as I don't have a super lot of building time between other life obligations.

This is the type of MOC that you can stare at for a while and keep seeing new things- no need to worry about details getting "lost" in the build- it is a good thing because people can keep coming back to it! I was actually the opposite- My builds used to be all studs, then I moved to more tiling. I think the ramp looks fine- rocks should be fairly studded. I think the issue is the dock, as wood is inherently a more smooth surface

Thanks for taking note! I feel like that is one nice thing about digital builds is you can easily modify and re-render them, instead of going through the whole process of rebuilding, rephotographing, and re-editing a physical build. I might also suggest changing the base layer under the stones to either tan or dark tan while you're at it- I don't think the grey quite fits in the desert.

Thanks! It was a lot of fun to build, and ended up being pretty complex. Rockwork was something I wanted to work on growing my skills in, and this build really helped. As for what happens next... we all know where Steve ends up, right? So I'm sure you could deduce how it goes :) I am indeed a Math Wizard, however I am much to busy to answer questions right now. I would advise going to your profile and checking your recent posts and counting them. Thanks! I'm glad you like it! If I still had it together I would add some more color, but unfortunately I had to take this build apart for need of pieces, ssince it uses all the dbg I own. Thanks! The rockwork took a lot of patience to get looking good without gaps- some sections went through a lot of attempts before I was pleased with the lack of gaps. In regard to color, see what I said above. As for the skeleton, I didn't even think of that-good catch! I guess I'll suppose he worked his way around it to the right. And by Kirk, I was trying to give a reference to Ole Kirk Christiansen, the founder of LEGO, similar to how I referenced lego and Billund. Thanks! Nice work! Can you also find the minifigure beanie, airplane tail, and cockpit? Thanks! I feel like he has a good chance, considering where he ended up. Thanks! They're actually modeled after my attic stairs. (jk lol) The shark was mainly placed since I was running low on grey pieces and needed something to fill the corner, but also adds a nod to the pirate theme. I was originally going to create a few smaller entries to go along with this, but I'm nor sure I'll have time as life is quite busy right now. As to the reference you noticed- It was entirely accidental; the only things I tried to reference were lego, billund, and Ole Kirk Thanks! I think he will Thanks! It was built with careful hands and a lot of patience. I have a picture of the back, but I don't want to take up space on my Flickr. Is there another way to post images? Thanks! Creative writing is one of my other hobbies in addition to LEGO, so this was a perfect chance to use both of them! Thanks! Using dbg and lbg contrasted too much, but old dark grey and new dark gray was a better gradient. You can see my earlier mention of using colors. Coincidentally, this was a MOC of Cirith Ungol, that I modified for this contest while I had it built. Here is the original build: https://www.flickr.com/photos/197227990@N07/53828024590/in/dateposted-public/

Ahoy Matey! They call me Captain Crit in these parts and I heard that polly wants a sandwich (They’re fed up with crackers apparently) - a criticism sandwich that is! (For you landlubbers, that’s 3 seas [Cs]- Compliment, Constructive Criticism, and another Compliment). Ye did a great job buildin’ this, though I’d like to have a bit of a story to go along with it. The title says a lot, but it can’t tell everything! The presentation of this is quite good- some nice immersive scenes, which can be hard to take. I can only think of a few pieces of criticism for this. The first is the floor. I think it would look far nicer if you covered the floor with tiles to make it a bit smoother, and matching with the rest of the scene. I also think mayhaps ye could add a tad more furniture to the room, and maybe the imperial who is recruiting Steve. I love the concept of this build, and it was executed well. The inkwell looks great- I never thought about putting a stud underneath to make it look as though it actually has ink in it. And your books actually have pages- something many other builds with stacks of books don’t. Welcome to Eurobricks and fair winds Matey!

Ahoy Matey! They call me Captain Crit in these parts and I heard that polly wants a sandwich (They’re fed up with crackers apparently) - a criticism sandwich that is! (For you landlubbers, that’s 3 seas [Cs]- Compliment, Constructive Criticism, and another Compliment). Ye did a great job buildin’ this and writin’ a story to go along with it. The story in poetic verse really hits the spot for a good pirate tale- quite creative! And the mystery at the end… I can’t wait to find out what happens next. Hopefully you’ll be buildin’ a sequel to this! With such a good build already, it took me a bit to come up with a critique. The only thing I can think of is that it seems a tad small. Perhaps the jungle terrain could be extended a wee bit further in each direction, to make it a tad larger. Also, in terms of presentation, perhaps you could intermix the pictures with stanzas from the story, since I first I didn’t realize that the build changed over the course of the pictures. It was hard for me to pick out me favorite part o’ this build, but I really like the brickbuilt islander- quite clever usage of parts. In fact, the whole build has a lot of great NPU. My other favorite is the skull used as a crab shell. Fair Winds Matey!

Ahoy Matey! They call me Captain Crit in these parts and I heard that polly wants a sandwich (They’re fed up with crackers apparently) - a criticism sandwich that is! (For you landlubbers, that’s 3 seas [Cs]- Compliment, Constructive Criticism, and another Compliment). Ye did a great job buildin’ this and writin’ a story to go along with it. The story is short and sweet, and the mention of noodles got a great big smile outta me! It was a tough task to come up with a critique for this build, as it looks incredible already! The only things I can think of is to tile the floors of the interiors to match the decks, and maybe add the ocassional plank in dark tan to show a bit of weatherin’ for I’m sure this ship has seen many days. And of course, it could use a monkey if you’ve got one lying around :) It was hard for me to pick out me favorite part o’ this build too. I really like the detail you put into it, both inside, on the deck, and on the exterior. I’ve seen many other ships that only focus on one element, but this ship has it all! The sails and tube and clip design also look quite good. Fair Winds Matey!