The_Cook

Time passes. Civilisations rise. Civilisations fall. Continents drift. TLG releases new sets; which means new minifigure parts are available for customising Trolls. The inspiration here was the Dark Ninja from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; the Dark Red torso fitting neatly with the Troll's colour scheme of Dark Red. An arm swap to Sand Green and the addition of capes and headcoverings gives a set of what I've been calling Ninja Trolls as a nod to the inspiration. TLG's efforts at a better gender balance mean that Troll Town can have a better gender balance as well. On the left the torso is from Shredder from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Whilst not a female torso intentionally I think that the cutouts are on the torso look very similar to the waistline cutouts that TLG uses to represent the feminine body shape. Dress is from the Fortune Teller collectable minifigure. The middle is another amoured female torso. I think it's another Shredder variant due to the purple belt and clasp being similar but it doesn't match the images in Bricklink. The righthand is Magpie from Batman. As soon as I saw the Minifigure in a reivew I knew that I just had to obtain it for TrollTown and purchased the set; which is unusual for me since Superhero sets are not normally something I'm that interested in. The Kanjiklub Gang Member was the starting point for the next two; just a head-swap needed. The Ninjago Skybound Pirates provide the starting point for the next set. I'd picked up quite a few of the Skybound sets in order to get hold of the Dark Orange balloon segments. Another happy observation was that a number of the old Viking torso's are devoid of yellow skin printing; therefore with just an arm swap they become different armour variants for the Trolls. The leather and chain armour of the Viking theme fits with Troll aesthetic. The latest Mad Eye Moody minifigure from Harry Potter provides a long buckled coat eminently suitable for my Dragon pilots; aviator headgear finishes it off.

My inventory is somewhat haphazard; but from where I'm sat I can count: 2x 7048 Troll Warship 1x Dragon Carrier 1x Small Ship from Graving Dock 1x Sailing Dinghy from Fisherman's Landing I'm fairly sure I've got at least another 2 warships in dismantled; boxed state with parts to build at least 2 more (or into other variants such as the Dragon Carrier). I've been watching Hungarian Horntails slowly increase in price over the last 5 years but careful Bricklinking and eBay purchases mean that I can mount two airborne divisons of 10 dragons each. I have one Trolls Mountain built, two disassembled and several that have been parted out; only the minifigures are unique in the Fortress.

MOC pages has gone down and I don't have an alternate means of distributing the LDD files at the moment; PM with me with an email address and I can attach the relevant files. Uploading the images to Flickr and updating all the earlier posts is on my list of things to do; but other more immediate concerns keep getting in the way. As to which is best; it's entirely up to you and what you want out of the model. I try to make sure that they've all got some degree of playability in them. If you've got 7048 Toll Warship then the Fishermans Landing, Graving Dock or Prison are all water/boat orientated. If you're more interested in building out a town and the industries within then Blacksmith, Marketplace or Guarded Inn would be more approriate. The bricks you have access to (either directly or through BrickLink) might also be a constraining factor, Graving Dock is definitely the biggest, Marketplace and Blacksmith are much, much smaller. Some pieces are fairly scare and that is reflected in their price on BrickLink, Troll Sails and Dark Brown Viking Hulls are the obvious ones but interestingly the Dark Brown Inv 75 Slope hasn't been used in a set in over a decade so are increasingly scare and expensive.

Yes I speak English.

When there is no pricing data to go on then an auction is the most appropriate method. The price will be dictated by how much the buyers are willing to pay to obtain the item in question. This isn't Lego specific; this is how it's done in real life from Cattle to Flowers to Fine Art. Usually there is some historic precedent; even with unique items like fine art there is always a similar paint or the artists pervious work that was sold to use as a benchmark. The key is to make sure that you've got the right set of buyers lined up to bid against each other. For these items you'll be wanting buyers that collect rare and prototype pieces.

Dark azue, white and orange is veering towards the gulf colourscheme from Le Mans racers.

The rainbow colour scheme reminds me of Cor Eusers Marcos LM600 racing car:

Bricklink doesn't list 4444p03 as being available in white but that photo does appear to be real bricks. It's not impossible that they've got hold of prototype bricks; but equally some masking tape and a pen could easily create or perhaps printed paper and glue.

Whilst the white panel hasn't been released pubically I was certain that I'd seen a version of it before. Look for the pictures of the Europa theme at the bottom of the first post. The white panels 4444 panels are actually a slightly different design to the standard 4444p03, probably just the designers drawing on a plain white 4444 panel.

Hmm, I'm very happy that it's been chosen; castle could do with some love but it will be interesting to see what compromises TLG have to make in order to make the "greeble" heavy design work within the structural and stability guidelines that TLG sets have to meet. At least the walls on this set are primarily comprised of stacked bricks rather than stacked tiles a-la "Derfel Cardan" style moc's. My gut feeling is that the roof is most likely to under-go some simplification to make it "buildable from instructions".

I see the inspiraton from 6086 Black Knight's Castle in standalone building. I notice that what they currently lack are connection points; you can't join things together to create a long curtain wall like you used to do with the 80's ear castle sets.

A really nice build; it certainly captures the ambiance and style of the classic 80's castle. I'm going to be ultra-critical here; please take it in the spirit of improving what I think is a good idea rather than me dismissing the idea (I will be supporting it over on ideas). - Do you think the storyline is going to sell? Here is a forum thread you can communicate the ideas through lots of pictures but what if you were constrained to just two or three "windows" on the back of the box would that be enough to communicate your intent? - Is the storyline going to resonate with the target market? Historically Lego's target market for Castle were 8yr old German boys. Germany being one of the biggest Lego markets in Europe and the Germans perferred the medieval period since early 20th century conflicts didn't exactly cover them in glory. Is that market going to go for the "Boy meets Girl" storyline? I would suggest that the "Good vs Bad" conflict might sell better; but in true 80's style it would be nice not to dictate which side is good or bad; it could be the forestmen it could be the falcons. - Medieval conflict often became seige warfare, storming the castle. A gate to storm and defend would allow more play here. - Can you actually play in the rooms? This is where a physical prototype is going to be beneficial; the electronic builds can't test this. Are little hands capable of reaching in? My gut instinct is that the lower tower rooms are difficult to access; the position of the Princess minifigure on the lefthand side of the Hatch Access image would be really hard in real life; there's no room to get the figure in. Our logical adult brains need stairs but children don't they just move the minifigs up and down as they need to play. If you do want stairs consider turning them to face the opening so that they are more accessible.

Really nice. My personal preference would be that if you want to get for the Old-Skool look of the 80's then don't greeble. Greebling is an affectation of the historic forums; Derfel Cadarn being one of the ultimate exponents. The masonry bricks are anachronisms; 1x2's in old-grey. A red roof would align you with 6086. A litle yellow above and below the 3 brick window around the back of the tower might break the expanse of blackness as welll.

I've just downloaded the LXF of The Wharf from MocPages and it loaded up in LDD without a problem. Perhaps some issue with the StudIO import functionality? You might want to ask in the LEGO Digital Designer and other digital tools forum; they might know more.

The wharf is here (it's probably somewhere on Eurobricks as well); essentially it's a Castle-fication of the 6277 Imperial Trading Post http://www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/322936 Unfortunately the raised baseplates aren't available in LDD so the digital model uses a brick built substitute.

I still lurk around here ;-) I've no plans to recreate this in StudIO as I don't have that particular application installed; however if you head to the MOCPages page which covers this build the LXF file (for LDD) is available to download from the very bottom of the page. StudIO might be able to import LXF's http://www.moc-pages.com/moc.php/307888

It's a slow burning project but my homage to Fantasty Era castle is Troll Town.

The lack of male/female balance isn't my preference but is driven by the lack of suitable female parts from which to assemble minifgures; unfortunately it's not a 1:1 ratio out there. City has become more balanced over the years, but the modern torso's are not transferable into the city setting. Ninjago often provides the best pickings. I do have one or two extra female head designs that I might still print in the future; a winking variant. In my mind theTrollesses are the equiavlent of 18th century working class women in a costal fishing town; independent whilst the men are at sea, tough as nails from hard physical work and likley to give as good as they get. I am still tinkering with Troll Town, all of the sets are still assembled and carefully stored, but work patterns means I'm regularly away from home and a young son means that time at home is spent with Duplo Trains. Progress is excrutiatingly slow but; I've been tinkering with designs for a Sawbones based upon the pattern of the most recent city hospital. However I've not yet had a design that convinces me to invest time in locating the parts so it's still all in LDD.

The LDD files are available on my MOCPages site.

There are very few 1980's style builds on the forums; most builders tend towards the highly detailed and ornate. Try doing a search on "Retro MOC" which will get some interseting builds that I've done over the years are closer to the original 1980's style; or my MOCPages.

Could you reconfigure the "platform" so that the scissor beams are attached/run along the side rails of the platform and have the floor of the platform "slung" below. It might not look as nice aesthetically as the yellow rails but allowing the beams to attach higher up means they don't have to lie as flat when it's in the down position. Potential problems are that it can no longer reach as high.

It's a Nute Gunrary with alternative head and hands.

Ewald from China has a light blue / white robe. https://brickset.com/minifigs/loc018/ewald-no-chi Saruman would also make a good priest; but he’s in silly money territory https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?M=lor074#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

I finished this little build a few months back and just as I got it photographed Mark Of Falworth posted his Black Falcon's Fortress Re-Imagined;mine somewhat pales when placed alongside that creations scale and ambition but then mine was designed to fulfil a certain specific set of criteria. My goals were to produce an updated 6074 Black Falcon's Fortress with an identical floorplan but using the modern building techniques from 10223 Kingdons Joust. The floor plan of the castle remains the same; two towers flank a large gateway and a half timbered building with peaked roofs perches upon the back wall. The large panels making up the towers in the original have been replaced by a mix of facet bricks and cheese wedges attached to 1x1 brick with stud on the side. Arches have been retained in the correct places which necessitated some head scratching to ensure the facet detailing accomodated the arches. The drawbridge has been updated to use chains and lifting beams; the lifting beams themselves are attached using technic friction pins so that the drawbridge can remain up. Articulation of the structure has been retained; the two sides are hinged and can be folded outwards from a split in the back wall. This versatility in the early castles (375, 6080 and 6085) allowed them to be played with as either an enclosure or as wall. The half timbered detailing of the building has been retained but recreated using techniques lifted from 10193 Medieval Market Village. I was surprised to find that 62361 Vehicle, Mudguard 1 1/2 x 6 x 1 with Arch is still quite rare and I ended up having to source one through bricklink. The rear wall of the building used a staggered pattern of light bluish grey 1x3 bricks with dark bluish grey 1x1 rounds. Whilst this provides pleasant detail and texture the pattern itself forms 4 wide panels with no interlocking unlike the original 4444 Panel 2 x 5 x 6 Wall. Once the parapets were added the construction gained sufficient strength but it's nowhere near as robust as the original. I'm very happy with what I acheived;the ambitions were deliberately modest. The structure alone (excluding minifigs, weapons, etc...) is 660 bricks which is significantly more that the 430 (including minifigs, weapons, etc..) of the original. Most of the additional bricks come from the large panels being replaced by brick built solutions. The LDD file is available from my MOC-Pages posting.

The raised baseplates were typically used by the flagship set in the line; not just Castle but Pirates, Space and Adventurers as well. Packaging cost may well be the driving factor here you need a large enough set with a big enough box to be able to accomodate a raised baseplate. I'm not sure that I agree with your conclusions on the similarities between Ragana's or Goblin King's and the earlier River Fortress or Black Knights castle. Whilst all four given examples are "unitary" builds rather than "modular" the principle differentiating feature for me is that the modern sets are designed as a "wall", there is a front and a back with easy equal access for play on both sides. The older sets; both the ones cited and the modular sets are designed as "enclosures" that contain a space. I wouldn't be surprise if TLG has done extensive research with focus groups and they've found that the "wall" plays better than the "enclosure" because it's more accessible. The nice thing about the original 6080 King's Castle and 6074 Black Falcon's Fortress were that whilst they were "enclosures" they could be opened out via their hinges to become a "wall"; I miss that from the more recent 7946 King's Castle and 70404 King's Castle where the lack of articulation in the modular pieces within the large set constrains the set as a whole.