The_Cook

Whilst I think that the Ballista Elephant is inventive, it's the sort of invention that the fans should do. In that it's up to the fans to take the elephant model from the Hannibal set and a Ballista model from the Romans set and work out how to combine them for themselves. That combination of two separate bits is what makes Lego fun for people, if you've already done it you've compromised on the inventive desing fun that they could have had. As we've said before, pare things down, focus on one or two key sets and make sure there is playability and storyline. I've just been reading the booklets that come with the Level 3 MBA Kits; whilst there are lots of great build tips and tricks contained with (that we as xFOL's probably already know) matching them 1 for 1 are hints about building in storyline. The booklet opens with "In Level 3 the focus is on Story Building...", Story is important and it's what I'm missing from the models in this thread. The xFOL's here are typically army builders, they'll love anything that gives them as many minifigs for a few dollars as possible, but it's your designs that are based on stories, be they historic or mythical, that will sell to the general public. Trojan horse, great story, hopefully famous enough that most people that paid half an ounce of interest at school would recognise it. I admire your historic accuracy and it had never occured to me that it would have been constructed from the hulls of boats but it makes complete sense when you remember that that's how the greeks got to Troy, by boat. However, where's the play? Can I lift the lid and move my Odysseus and others around inside, preparing themselves for the battle to come. Where's the hatch for them to escape through? Where are the gates that they open to let the rest of the army into Troy? On it's own the horse is missing the last few elements that are needed to allow me to re-enact the story that I've read in the books or seen in the movies. We can't recreate Troy but give me some simple gates. Within the price band that you're targetting e can't recreate the entire Trojan or Greeks armies but give me two Trojans manning the gates that I have to sneak the story past, give me two Greeks to hide in the horse who have to be quiet as the horse passes, who slip from the belly of the horse and throw open those gates. In short, stop presenting set-piece models and start presenting stories that your models help enact. Explain to me how I can re-act your proposed story with what you've presented, which in turn will make sure that you have a fully rounded set.

Each have their own personal favourites, usually tied to their childhood. My heart lies with the original grey castles from 1984. It's not whether one castle is better than another, it's about the emotions that they remind you of. Whilst 375 Yellow Castle may not be my favourite I can appreciate the effort that Lacara has put into creating it and re-creating the alternate models. The whole ensemble looks really good, especially the service buildings like the stables and the viewing tent for the jousts. From those models you can see how they evolved into the modular sets of the grey castles such as 6067 Guarded Inn, 6041 Armour Shop and 6060 Knight's Challenge; a lineage that carries on through to 10223 Kingdoms Joust.

You can use the set inventories on Bricklink to find out what bricks are used in each set and then use Bricklinks colour listings to find out what other pieces are available in that colour. Brickset also has an inventory for each of the modern sets vehicle cross links through to TLGs own inventory and ordering system but it doesn't have the colour listing pages that Bricklink has.

Yes, any geometric shape and much, much more. Procedural generation is typically used in computer graphics to create landscapes, trees and other organic structures. The techniques and algorithms that I'm using are identical, the only difference is that the output from them is a list of bricks and positions to be fed into LDD rather than triangles that are fed into a graphics card. The hard part is making sure that the algorithms that I use fulfill the rules of brick connectivity that LDD enforces. Overnight I was able to put into place the basic structure of a digital moc that I'm planning. Working out how hinges are encoded took a bit of effort but what you're seeing here are the important elements, there will eventually be stacks of 1x4's or some other "filler" brick between the various loops that can be seen but if I added them now they would obscure the sections that I'm focusing on. All of the connections are legal, however until I encode some additional support the top plates would be very fragile if this were to be constructed for real. Progress will probably slow now as attention turns to detailing. I'm still not sure whether I'm going to generate the details through code or whether I import a basic structure into LDD and then add the details there. For those that are still bemused, today's clue is "Pieter Bruegel the Elder".

An involute of a circle modeled in LDD using code to procedurally generate an lxfml file with positions of 256 1x4 bricks. It's the start of something much more ambitious... ...but don't hold your breath it'll take me a while to perfect things in LDD and even longer to realise it in ABS. There's an LDD file on MOC pages if you want to play with the spiral yourself and if you can convince me that you know how to code then I'm happy to share the C++ source with you.

The alternate versions have been reverse engineered from pictures in Lego Ideas book 6000 from 1980, pg75 onwards. The peeron link below will take you to scans of the book. http://www.peeron.com/scans/6000-1/75

In the history forums you'll find a lot of army builders who typically just want cheap minifigs in bulk. Your assertions about battlepacks are probably quite correct; although the reason the initial "Dark Side Bucket" of storm-troopers was disallowed was because the particular license that they hold with Lucasfilms doesn't allow them to issue figures on their own. With CUUSOO you have one set. You're not designing a theme you're designing a set. The $50 sweet spot is because it gives the designer a decent number of bricks to work, with between 400 and 500 bricks, whilst being something that an average person walking into a toystore, who isn't a xFOL, would consider buying. Which brings us back to the original set of comments: condense, consolidate. Pick one myth or legend and build one solid set around that. If that set sells then a Minecraft situation may develop and a range may spring from it but you have to get that one set out there first before you can think of extending it to a theme.

I brainstorm with a mix of paper and ldd. I use paper in dull and boring meetings and LDD when I'm travelling on trains and planes or stuck in hotel rooms. Inspiration is from books and visiting historic sites; in the USA you have distances and landscapes, in Europe we have history. Admitedly I'm on vacation, but this week I've already got through three castles, one 11th century church, one 11th century cathedral and an exhibition on 9th century illuminated manuscripts... More castles and cathedrals later in the week It's not the era that you're trying to replicate; but all of my builds have a thread here on Eurobricks or over on MocPages which describes the evolution of their design and they all have LDD files attached.

You can also use places like Peeron or Brickset to browse online copies of the instructions for ideas and tips. Valdeks' can be found at: http://cache.lego.com/bigdownloads/buildinginstructions/4299301.pdf If you're going down the modular wall sections route, start small, grow it over time. It doesn't even need to be a fully enclosed castle to start with, start with a gatehouse and build slowly outwards add more and more sections until they meet at the back. Solid right-angled corners mean that you need to think about you module sizes in advance a little bit to ensure that walls line up properly, adding a couple of hinges like the 80's style modular castles gives you more flexibility.

http://www.brickset.com/browse/themes/?theme=Cuusoo They pretty much average out at the 400 mark. This year's castle range, 90, 199, 248, 376, 996 pieces, so all of the sets bar the castle itself are below 400. It's the sweet spot, it's the $50 set. Consolidate and focus; or 10million shoppers will be going straight to Star War or the next Disney property that's licensed rather than the Cuusoo section.

I still love the concept but I feel that you're trying to do too much and as such are diluting the power of the original idea, especially since we know that through Cuscoo you're not going to get a theme you're going to get a single smallish set of single of around 300-400 pieces. Currently you've got Greco-Roman, a mix of mythical characters from other cultures and now you're branching of into brick-built mythological creatures. Unlike Minecraft whose fan-base is obviously sizeable enough to support follow-up sets, you're targeting the existing xFOL community and general shoppers in-store; Focus on one set, reasonably small, and get it polished to perfection so that it will pass the Cuscoo evaluation process. Make sure it's part of recognisable legend so that kids can enact the story. Keep it simple, Lego are going to redesign whatever you give them and you can be pretty sure that they will redesign it into the minimum of bricks, a 1000brick temple will be reduced to 20bricks representing a temple. They've got more change of selling $30 sets than they have of $300 and whilst Cuscoo is fan-orientated they're still in it to make money.

Remember US prices are listed excluding tax because it's applied at the state level, whereas European prices are listed including tax. That's not to say that there won't be a price differential across the Atlantic, but that it's not quite as drastic as it sometimes appears... ...New York sales tax converted back to Eurors would be 29euros, so still a sizeable differential

I'm not aware of any thread. If there were; I'd be posting there!

Very impressive. It's certainly a building that I'd expect TLG to have considered (or still be considering) as part of their Creator Expert line, eg. Taj Mahal, Tower Bridge, Sydney Opera House.

You could look at it a continuation of the design ethos of 375 Castle which utilised baseplates. Flat baseplates were also used in 6085 Black Monarch's Castle from 1988 but subsequent large castles moved towards raised baseplates. For the smaller sets the use of standard plates rather than baseplates gives more flexibility both in sizing and articulation. From a sizing perspective it is tricky to get the 5 stud wide 4444 panels to match against the baseplates which are typically a multiple of 8 studs. From an articulation perspective something like 6062 Battering Ram would not be possible if baseplates were used. I agree that the difference in heights is frustrating but I'd much rather have the articulation of the 80's castles over the modern castles which although modular are constrained by their use of right-angles. For those partial to classic 80's castle follow the link below to my MOCPages gallery or track down the Moc threads that Ive started.

A very good redition of late 80's classic castle, you've captured the style and spirit very well. My personal feeling is that the arch across the front is a bit low and wide. Medieval builder couldn't build flat arches, all their arches were either tall and pointy or segments of circles. I've only just noticed the handcart, I particularly like that detail. For those partial to classic 80's castle follow the link below to my MOCPages gallery or track down the Moc threads that Ive started.

Thanks to both of you. I know lxfml is an open format and I'd found references to the schema on other sites but the links had expired. I was hoping someone here had kept a copy tucked away.

Does anyone have a copy of the schema for validating lxfml files? Additionally has anyone compiled a reference of how the xml structures within the lxfml work? I'm in the process of reverse engineering it so that I can write a couple of programs to mathematically position bricks but if someone has already written it up it saves duplicating the effort.

It's very nice and I'm definitely up for a classical mythology theme but if you're trying to build a theme that will target stores then there needs to be play value in order to attract the primary market which is parents buying for children. At the moment the sets are display pieces which whilst nice just don't work for me, there needs to be some drama, some conflict or something that I can re-enact. Athena - nice model and minifig but what I do I do with her? What story from legend can I recreate with the single character? Caesar - again, nice model but on it's own I can't re-enact anything. Give me a some senators and I can recreate his murder on the Ides of March. Give me a soldier or two and I can recreate his military campaigns. Medusa - two characters this time, but still I find it lacking playability. Give me a Perseus and I can slay the Medusa. Give me the Graeae and Hesperides and I can recreate the entire myth. Celopatra - same as Athena and Caesar, how can I create a story around a single character? Cleopatra needs an accompanying Mark Anthony and Julius Caesar to recreate the story. Stonehenge - too much of a jump! Other than the obvious "Romans invade Britain", how do I create a story out of this when I've got a Stonehenge and a Medusa? The theme needs to be coherent so that the different sets interact and interplay, stick to Greco/Roman or Mythology rather than trying to encompass the entirety of the modern world. Babylon - same reasoning as Stonehenge, it's destroying the coherency of the theme. The moc'ers that inhabit Eurobricks would love your builds as parts packs but buildings without storyline wont sell in a retail environment. Kids want to recreate stories, give me Theseus and the Minotaur, give me Daedalus and Icarus, stories from the Illiad or the Odyssey. How are these models modular? It's not like I can lift off floors to see inside which is what makes the Modular city buildings modular. Apologies if I seem somewhat harsh, but I'd actually like to see this succeed and to do that it needs a rethink to introduce some coherence and above all play-ability. Don't be disheartened, the designers at TLG spend months to years perfecting a theme.

Very neatly done. I think in the end TLC realised that there was more market in the Pirates theme, which is of a similar era, than there was in pursuing a Napoleonic theme within Europe. What I always found interesting was that there were a couple of parts for the prototype stes (both Europa and Medieval) that they must have produced moulds for that never saw the light of day, namely the curved window shutters and the corner pieces that form the sides of the Europa fortress.

I think it's the same part, the technic ski-pole, but I think that they've used a bit of artistic license on the box and shrunk them to get everything to fit. I'm fairly certain that the box art is rendered and composited rather than being photographed and then composited so they can do these little tricks. Another hint is that the shadows between the balista and the carriage are in different directions... Gone are the days when it all had to be set up precisely and photographed extremely carefully.

Well done. It was good to finally get a proper written review with properly taken photos rather than those awful video reviews that everyone seems to do these days. I can actually study the prints and develop my own opinions thanks to your photography skills, rather than watching a minifig waved infront of a camera. Hopefully you'll be able to post more reviews of the other sets.

The video is awesome. An excellent choice of music combined with great editting really conveys the feel that they're going into battle. My one criticism is that some of the sweeping shots are a bit jiggy, invest in some Technic Lego (I know, I know, Technic Lego is heresy for a castle fan - unless it's used to build trebuchets!) and use the beams to build the mechanics to track the camera smoothly. I'd love to see some up-close pictures of some of the details in the MOC, particularly the flamethrower in the front assault group.

Very nice. I particular I like that fact that you've done your very best to reduce the number of right-angles, nothing lines up, which is great. The lefthand rockwork next to the mushrooms, the brickwork patches on the upper floor, the rising ridgeline of the roofs and the chimneypots are all highlights for me. I feel that the pillars (1x1 rounds) supporting the front overhang feel a little slender compared to the size of the rest of the building. The brown of the side-wing needs something to break it up as it's currently just a solid block of brown. I feel that the undergrowth on the ground should be creeping up the wall a bit as well which would break up the flat grey wall. However they're minor criticisms on an otherwise excellent build.

I think the trick that Lego has missed with this latest Castle range is to include a number of the new gothic half-arch pieces in Bluish Grey. The design already appeals to TLG's target audience of children but having such an important part for medieval building within the sets would mean that the AFOL MOCing community would lap them up... But alas, no gothic arches in Bley yet. Patience, patience, they will come in time....