The_Cook

A review of Nuju Metru's 64019 Siege Of Issiad; one of a series of MOCs designed to resemble real Lego sets. I've attempted to emulate the Eurobricks Reviewers Academy style as much as possible, but it should be pointed out that this is not a real set!. Regardless, enjoy it. Unboxing The bricks fill the box. This is the flagship "opposition" set for the first wave of Not Dragonlands and at 1470 bricks, 7 minifigures and a horse compares favourably with 9474: The Battle Of Helm's Deep. Bag 1 Bag one builds the wall segment that contains the main gateway. The contents of bag 1 emptied out. Interesting parts in bag 1 are the Pearl Dark Grey Portcullis and the Dark Brown Stockade Doors. For the remaining parts the colourscheme is predominantly Tan, Dark Tan, Dark Bluish Grey and Reddish-Brown with a couple of Dark Red pieces in amongst. The build starts with a simple tree built from a handful of brickS. For the gateway itself the build IS simple without being repetitive; building from the ground up. A little bit of SNOT around the top of the wall provides the detailing on the crenelations but everything else is fairly standard. The portcullis runs smoothly in grooves; the friction of the technic gear being sufficient to hold it in the raised position. The stockade doors open and close easily but I feel like I'm missing a simple lock on the gates that the attackers can break through. The final play feature is a tilting barrel on the top that can drop transparent orange cones, presumably representing oil or fire, onto attackers caught in the gateway below. The minifigure in bag 1 is General Lerus and his mount. The dark green of the breeches and shield complement the tan arms of the torso; the detail in printing lends the prince a definite air of wealth and nobility. This section took just under an hour to build. Bag 2 Bag two builds the throne room tower. Tan, Dark Bley and Reddish-Brown are in predominance amongst the parts with a scattering of Dark Red and a few Green and Dark Green pieces. Interesting parts here are the Pearl Dark Grey arched gates, a Pearl Dark Grey 4x6 gate, a Dark Red 2x2 Round Tile which is quite rare, and the Pearl Gold 3x3 Quarter Domes. Bag two starts by building the trebuchet. This is a mix of studded and technic construction with technic beams being utilised to lend strength to the assembly by tying the bricks together. The mechanism uses rubber bands to provide the mechanical power necessary with the "counterweight" being held together by some simple SNOT construction in order to take the forces generated. The pivot for the ballista arm is made up of two technic wheels running on 1x2 rail plates; this arrangement provides a useful little flick to the arm as the pivot moves closer to elastic bands. The build for the lower part is slightly tricky as it comprises mounting a 4x4 corner panel on plate hinges in order to allow it to hinge as an escape hatch from the prison. The upper level is a more standard build with a band of Dark red to provide an architectural highlight and the dark red being carried through into a well designed throne. The dark red is contrasted by the green carpet. The build continues on up to assemble a domed structure uising the Pearl Gold 3x3 Quarter Domes. The dome itself sheltering a telescope type piece. The play functionality here is obviously the trebuchet. In the prison the moving wall is one play feature whilst the front gate is loosely mounted on 1x2 jumper plates allowing it to be removed either as an escape tactic or just to get little hands into the back of the prison chamber. The throne room provides plenty of decorative elements in terms of claws and hat-stands but they don't qualify as action features. The minifigure in bag 2 is Vorash and his Wolf steed. The muscular green torso gives a wonderful impression of strength and power. This section took about an hour, with about half of it being the Ballista and it's mix of studded, SNOT and technic construction. Bag 3 Bag three builds the Smithy. Tan, Dark Bley and Reddish-Brown are again in predominance with more Dark Bley than earlier bags; Dark Red pieces act as a contrasting colour. Interesting parts here are the large printed slope Panels, a plethora of Sais in Pearl Gold and Pearl Dark Grey and a lone Olive Green 2x4 brick. The build for the lower part is densely packed; a number of Dark-Bley pieces build up the rock structure that hides a secret compartment containing a Pearl Gold axe/dagger weapon. The printed Panel and a LURP quickly bulk out the bottom layer but with enough additional decoration to avoid the big grey wall effect. A band of dark-red provides the architectural demarcation between the lower and upper halves of the wall, with the upper half being comprised predominantly of Tan. A mix of plain and pallisade bricks provides texture with Dark Tan taking over for the crenelations at the very top. The build is finished through the assembly of a ballista that can shoot flick fire missiles. Play functionality is the Ballista, it rotates on a turntable and sits firmly in it's pivots through the use of a Technic 3L pin with friction ridges. The momentum of a flick is transferred through to the missiles through a 1x4 technic axle with stop. The minifigure in bag 3 is the Ustokal Blacksmith This section took about 45 minutes to build. Bag 4 Bag four builds the Kitchen. Tan, Dark Bley and Reddish-Brown are once more the predominant colours. Interesting parts here are the large printed slopes, the cloth canopy and lots of food and drink pieces from apples and carrots through to bottles and plates. The build is split into three parts a loose table and benchs, a 12stud wide section and 6 stud wide section. The table and benches get built first and are complete within a minute to two. The 12 stud wide section is slightly more interesting but goes together fairly quickly by virtue of it using large panels. There is some interesting texturing on the upper wall but the build here is brick-on-brick, the crenelations use a mix of SNOT and overhang that is familiar from the earlier bags. The top is crowned by a tilting barrel using a mechanism that we've already seen above the gatehouse in Bag 1. The smaller 6 stud section is a slightly more intereseting build as it involves some shelving for the produce and a cloth canopy mounted on a number of T-pieces and sticks clipped together with robot arms. The minifigures in bag 4 are an Ustokal Warrior and an Ustokal Archer. They look particularly fine figure in their Gold Breastplate armour with the variances in the headgear and weaponry giving them sufficient differentiation that things don't look too regimented. This section took about 30 minutes to build. Bag 5 Bag 5 builds a section of Wall. The wall is identical to the 12stud section found in Bag 4, the build is therefore the same. Once the wall is built a siege ladder is built. With the exception of the siege ladder this section is repetition but it passes fairly quickly. The minifigures in bag 5 are two Ardun Soliders; what differentiates these from many earlier castle figures is the Armor Leg Anti-Blast Kama 61190a in Dark Bley that they are wearing. This section took 20 minutes to build. Bag 6 Bag 6 builds the final two angled sections of Wall. The usual mix of colours is present; interesting parts being the Dark Brown 1x5x4 Arches and the Olive leaves. The two sections that are built are identical, starting from angled plating at the bottom that is held at the correct angle by hinge bricks through the Dark Bley slopes in the lower section up through the tan of the upper section. There are some clever construction techniques on the front of the wall where the angles would cause bricks to intersect and round bricks or the space of the window have been used to relieve the corners where the intersection occurs. No minifigures in this bag. This section took 20 minutes to build. Conclusions It's a big set, assembled it stands 30cm tall and forms a wall about 50cm long. There will be the obviously complaints that it's not an enclosed castle but there is precedence for sets like this in terms of 8877 Vladeks Dark Fortress or 8813 Battle at The Pass. The "defensive wall" format allows play to easily take place on both sides either as the besieging force or the defending force. The detailed rear of the wall with it's throne room, prisons, smithy, and stores gives plenty of opportunities for "Doll's House" play around day-to-day life in the city. The large number of minifig food and utensils helps with the "Doll's House" play and is reminiscent of "An Unexpected Gathering." The build is simple but engrossing, there are no ground-breaking techniques, but the simple SNOT that there is makes for change of pace in the build sequence and the provides clever architectural detailing that stops the wall being just another pile of bricks. In terms of parts the majority are fairly common, the Dark Pearl Grey doors and portculis being the rarest. Minifigure selection is good. Whilst there is always the desire for more minifigures to replay epic sieges the number feels about right for a set of this size. There are enough minifigs to have a small attacking force and enough for a defending force to repulse. Observations At 1470 bricks the (suggesteD) price point of $115 is a little low given that 9474 was $130 for 1368 bricks. One could argue IP costs offset the extra 100 bricks but that still leaves the actual cost $115 lower than it should be; whilst that might sound great for buyers it wouldn't keep The Lego Group in business. Section 3 could do with a little more design work, particularly around the rock structure within which the golden dagger/axe thing is hidden. There is no support across the bottom between the two plates, potentially this is my interpretation of Nuju Metru's design rather than a flaw in the original. My attempts to reduce the number of unique elements also resulted in the the sliding mechanism being compromised which me to rethink this section at the last moment. I feel the decoration on the Ballista is slightly flimsy and0 a plate or two should probably be added to firm it up. Section 6 with the two angled sections could also do with a little more design work, it feels like the angle of the section should be fixed rather than fully flexible as it is at the moment. The issue here is ensuring that the underlying structure adequately supports the plating at the bottoms and the 2x2x3 slopes at the front. Currently a 2x2 corner brick ties all of this together, replacing it with a hinge brick a 1x1 brick and a 2x2x3 brick to tie the 1x1, hinge and exisitng 1x4 technic brick together might make a more robust structure. Again this might be my interpretation of Nuju Metru's design. The amusing thing has been seeing what "spare" bricks come with each section. How can there be spares when the bricks have been purchesed to build exactly the set? Miscounts on my part when counting out pieces for each of the bags. Bag 2 had 5 Brick, Modified 1x4 w/4 studs instead of Brick, Technic 1x4 a counting mistake that cost me a week whilst waiting for extra Brick, Modified 1x4 w/4 studs to be delivered in order to fill later bags. Given that I'd pre-sortted all of the parts into bags and built from one bag at a time the build times felt as if they were about the same as a large system build. I recall 9474 taking about 4hrs to build; this seemed comparable which feels about right for a set of this size and was sufficiently lengthy to justify the $130 cost. Sensibly distributing the build across the bags was a challenge, the Trebuchet should have been included with the simpler more repetitive sections towards the end of the build, possibly bag 6 which doesn't contain any minifigures. Also rearranging the build order such that repetitive sections were interspersed with the interesting Throne Room or Blacksmit sections. With hindsight, Gateway (bag 1), Store (Bag 4), Throne (Bag 2), Corners (Bag 6), Wall (Bag 5), Blacksmith (Bag 3) would be a more engrossing order. The Process The process started some 12months ago where over the course of a couple of business trips, where I was stuck in hotel rooms with nothing to do, I reverse engineered the model in LDD from the available photos and a couple of PMs with Nuju Metru to clarify some of the more awkward to see areas. There then followed a process of taking the 1303 parts and 317 unique elements and reducing them down to 1456 parts and 303 unique elements. From a manufacturing perspective reducing the number of unique elements is important because it reduces the number of moulding machines that are needed to generate the parts. Recreating the design gave me clear knowledge of the parts utilised, it was obvious that a couple of key sets went into the design, notably 8877 Vladek's Dark Fortress which supplied the printed slopes, 7571 Fight For The Dagger which supplied tan bricks and the gold dome, 7573 Battle Of Alamut which supplied the Dark Brown Stockade doors, 4183 The Mill which supplied the Dark Tan details and 7187 Escaped From Dragon's Prison which supplied the Dark Pearl Grey Portcullis and Arched Gates. Of those I knew that my collection contained a Vladek's Dark Fortress, the Prince Of Persia sets and the Pirates Of The Caribbean The Mill. Months pass, seasons change, empires rise and fall, etc... My first job is to modify the Bill-Of-Materials spreadsheet that LDD produces and subtract the bricks I know that I have in my stock sets; the remainder will need sourcing through BrickLink. I start trying to use Brickficency but realise that it's alogrithm is set up to minimise the number of orders not the cost of the orders; with the number of parts I required it was picking some of the most expensive Bricklink shops as they have the largest stocks. I revert to a manual method picking local Bricklink shops and focusing on obtaining the rarest elements first; some of the Dark Pearl Grey parts have only appeared in one set so they were a priority. Once I've located a store I scour it for other parts that are needed for the build and other parts that can go into stock assuming that their prices aren't too extoritionate. The aim is to ammortise the cost of postage across hundres of bricks rather than repeatedley taking the postage hit on small orders. After some 20 bricklink orders I've got all the majority of bricks necessary to build The Siege Of Issiad and Dunrak Harbour plus an amount of bricks that are going into "stock" for the next build. In total £416 (there was a brief "oh my" moment as ExCeL revealed the total!) on 28 orders to obtsin 7338 pieces, of which 2000 are used in the Siege Of Issiad and Dunrak Harbour Builds at an average price of 6p per pieces. At that average price Siege Of Issiad has cost £83 to obtain. The needed bricks are counted into a box and cross-checked in the spreadsheet. The discrepancies result in more BrickLink orders and another week of delay before building. As a secondary check I separate the big box into separate bags, once more checking against the spreadsheet. What would I give at this stage to be able to feed my lists into TLG's packaging pipeline and see all the little balances and scales measuring out the set rather than me counting it laboriously by hand. As I'm separating things out into bags it occurs to me that I should write this up in the style of an official review; which is how this all came about. The process of identifying the Minifig parts begins; scouring the Bricklink Catalog for corresponding parts. Knowing the base sets helps; some of the minifigure components are drawn from them, others result in more Bricklink orders in particular the Golden Breastplates that come from the Lando Minifig on the original 6210 Jabba's Sail Barge. I can't identify the torso used for Vorash, my suspicion is that it's a custom; an Atlantis torso has to be substituted. After many months of waiting I actually get to "open the box" and start building. There are no instructions; buids are done straight from the LDD model. As a result I'm building slightly slower than I would do if I were following official instructions but the finding of the bricks is no slower than an official build since the bricks for a section have already been picked and sortted. Photography is an iPhone 6 against sheets of white foam-card. There are a couple of miscounts on the bricks that force me to raid my stocks and a couple of design errors that need to be rectified in order to create a stable build. Thankfully the required parts for all of the issues can be found in my stocks. Much as I would like to binge on the process and build it all in one afternoon I'm deliberately drawing it out one bag per evening to make the experience last longer and to give me something to look forward to after a long day in the office. Assembling the Minifigures turned out to be harder than I was expecting. Some of the rarer parts such as the CMF Elf shield were always going to have to be sourced from BrickLink but I'd expected to have more of the Viking era Torso's in my stock. It turns out that most of the Viking Torso's I have are of the alternative "tattered" design. I also need to raid my Troll stock in order to retrieve an Orc Captains head and finally my stock of Flesh heads (of which I am not a great fan so my stock is minimal) for the human opponents. After another 3 weeks waiting the Minifigs are finally assembled and photography and reviewing can begin.

Your right about volume being the deciding factor, but it's not volume to weight; baseplates weigh less than the equivalent bricks. It's volume to revenue, the fact that the larger volume might only realise as much revenue as a smaller set means that smaller sets will be favoured. Additionally shipping costs might not be as efficient because there's more wasted space within the boxes.

I'd reign back your expectations. Perhaps a one wave theme, the recent trend is that only the big-bang themes or licensed IP get three waves and the licensed IP only gets three waves because there are three movie to market the toys.

Yup, part limitations is a b****. I tend to design in LDD, redesign in LDD to use parts that are generally avaiable, then source from my stock and Bricklink. If th Now I understand that you're going for a different colours on each module it makes more sense. I'd still say that reuse of the "opposition" colour scheme isn't the best of ideas. If the logic is different colours then choose bright colours for one side and muted colours for the other, or a colour range (eg. reds, oranges, yellows) vs another colour range (eg. blues, greens) as a differentiation. Minor point: the half barrel sitting atop the hay looks wrong, just leave the barrel loose infront of the set.

Next piece of product design advice: Fat Fingers! In order to be able to "play" in a room the room needs to be accessible. TLG probably have a rule of thumb; the nearest that I've got is that for every 2 studs in width of the opening the space behind can be one stud deep; scale accordingly. The logic being that's how far fat fingers (or little hands) can reach in to position and play with the interior. The doors and arches on the middle floor of the tower make the interior inaccessible. If you were in the design office the engineering review would have slapped you back. I'll also call out colour consistency on the Wizard. Your using Dark Green for the good guys roof and the accent colour for the bad guys; the colour clues are confusing. Pick a colour palette for each faction and stick to it; religiously. I like the siege tower design; good use of 64448, Support 1 x 6 x 5 Girder Rectangular to keep the build simple. It an expensive part from a manufacturing perspective but still probably cheaper than 10-12 round bricks and plates. I'm not convinced about another siege emplacement as the opposition for the King's Regal Throne. If it were me; I'd have gone tournament and jousting, something for the king to watch, instant playability without being more of the same.

Most interesting. It needs a bit more colour; not much necessarily but some form of accent colour to stop it being monotonous grey. You've got the beginnings of it with the Dark Red slopes on the tower of the gatehouse but I think that needs to be carried down onto the wall somehow. On the other hand, the use of the accent colour for the chimney of the blacksmith feels wrong, it should certainly be a colour that's separate and distinct from the grey of the walls but probably doesn't want to be the secondary colour. Design Aesthetic: When starting a design exercise like this I've always found one of the most useful things to do is to build little "architectural sketches" of key design elements to illustrate to myself how things are going to work. These elements can then be replicated in the designs to ensure that the desing aesthetic is consistent through the range of models you're designing. When putting together Troll Town I put together design sketches for key elements of Troll Architecture, their windows, archways, gates, etc... in order to learn how to apply them at a later date. All this was done in LDD for simplicity (and I think I was on work travel at the time) and the screenshots can be found in the first post of the linked thread. In your scenario I suggest looking at crenelations, buttresses, a consistent way of supporting the wall-walk, etc... Colour Scheme: Think through your colour scheme, what's the base colour(s), what are the secondary colours and what are the highlights. With Troll Town the two base colours were Dark Bluish Grey for Rock and Bluish Grey represented masonry infill, the alternate colour was Reddish-Brown for wooden infill in the walls. The remaining three colours were Dark Brown for wooden structures, Dark Green for foliage and Dark Red used extremely sparingly as the accent. That colour palette remained fairly consistent throughout and ultimately ended up driving brick selection, 1x2 pallisade bricks were always Reddish Brown, 1x3 bricks were always Light Bluish Grey, 1x2 Technic Bricks were always Dark Bluish Grey. This primarily came about from the fact that one of the rules that a Lego design has to adhere to is to reduce the number of "unique" elements in a set; if a designer uses a 1x3 in Red and a 1x3 in Blue then the factory has to run two batches of bricks in the two colours which is increased cost and overhead interviews with Jamie Berard or Mark Stafford talk about "limited Colour Swaps" in terms of being allowed to get new elements in new colours due to factory production constraints. Detailing: A designers constant battle is to add detail without increasing the brick count or complexity. The Gatehouse needs more detailing, all there is at the moment is a barrel. Set yourself the challenge, in no more than a dozen bricks how can I add more interest, a fish here a clipped axe there, a three brick table (2x4 plate across two 1x2 pallisade bricks), is often enough to give a set some depth and character without going down the Creator Expert route of building entire pieces of furniture from 1x1 and 1x2 plates. Look to the advent calendars for inspiration; it's amazing what they can achieve with just a handful of bricks. The Prison and Blacksmith both have better detailing, although you're going to have to fight the studless urge, the table in the prison didn't need those extra 4 tiles on top the 4x4 plate would have sufficed. Wear your business head not your AFOL head, 4 tiles cost $0.02 which given a run of 200,000 units is $16,000 which is your wages for 3 months; you can either work for free for 3 months or remove those elements (as an AFOL 3 months working for TLG for free sounds very attractive, as a TLG employee who has a family to feed, clothe and shelter 3 months free work is not attractive). Storyline: To sell a set it needs an obvious storyline that a child can understand: Good vs Evil, Escape from This, Chase That, Capture The Flag, etc... Storylines drive the initial playability. They are vitally important for in-house IP where there isn't a wider context to drive the play, ie. there's not a movie to watch to tell you how to play with the set! The Gatehouse lacks a storyline; give it a siege engine and there's instant storyline, the siege engine tries to breach the gates. It's the very reason that in the Kingdoms theme everything was Raid this, Ambush that, Resure someone, etc... Storyline for the Prison is obvious, the Blacksmith less obvious. I also think it's a very great and brave thing that you've opened your design process up to peer review and are willing to respond to constructive criticism. So few people realise that the process is industrial design not art, every designer at TLG has to submit their designs to a peer review processs for criticism and they will go round the desing loop many times to check that they've got the design right, the playability, that it's structurally sound and can be built, that it fits the price point and the factories have the capacity to produce it.

If it's a "Big Bang" release as everyone says then it will have some form of play feature, eg. spinner, speedorz, airjitzu, or whatever new thing they dream up. There are likely to be 6 or 7 play-feature based sets for around $10 with the remaining 8-9 sets being the size of a standard theme with the associated range of prices. Therefore 14 sets sound reasonable but expect a significant number to be small and play orientated.

Not going to happen. In order to sell on a shelf and engage with kids the sets needs to stand-alone in their own right and have a pretty obvious storyline, even if it is just the cliched good-vs-bas. Lego wants kids to be able to play with the sets instantly not read a fantasy novel first. If it can't be explained in two catroon panels (ie. the back of the box) then it's too complex. Both Chima and Ninjago, without the cartoons, would still have a very clear good-vs-evil motif running through it which would allow you to start playing with the sets; the capture the "chi" storyline is also fairly obvious. Licensed themes are an exception but then they're often targetted at collectors or fans of the show/movie/etc... who already know the story and there's often a multi-billion dollar cross-medium advertising campaign ensuring that everyone knows the story regardless of whether they've seen the movie or read the book. Unlicensed themes don't have that benefit.

They'll be pushing stupid tanks and helicopters on small kids; who seem to like that sort of thing otherwise Lego wouldn't keep doing it. If the castle build xFOL community were really driving the sales then it would alternate between Falcons resurrected and yellow Elves year after year; but we're not driving the sales we all covet the "can I find the battle-packs at 50% off" deals which squeezes the retail chain and lessens our influence. Agreed. Named characters; probably bright colours to stand out from each other and to make the boxes stand out when on the shelves. Wierd and wonderful siege engines.

Probably quite true for high volume pieces such as 2x4's or cheese wedges, etc... probably not true for low volume pieces like boat hulls. However this is suppostion on my part rather than definite knowledge. The source of my info was a business article that I read a year or so ago about their migration to SAP to manage which moulds get selected for placement in the injection moulders in order to satisfy production needs. The new software allowed them to do things like working up the colour "intensity" spectrum white can be followed by red by black with less wastage in between wheras black by red by white results in lots of wastage as the outgoing dark colour taints the lighter new color. Changing production from one colour to another takes 5 minutes, changing the mould tooling takes half an hour; the more they can minimise the latter the more efficiently the factory runs.

It looks as if it could be a real set with one major exception; the staircase. Lego would either not include a staircase or make it a permanent fit, the folding mechanic is too fiddly just to allow the building to close. One could ask: does it even need to close? The width and open back are reminiscent of "An Unexpected Gathering" and the fun in that set is recreating the scenes in Bag-End, to achieve that it doesn't need to fold or close and indeed doing so would reduce it's play value.

That's not quite right. They can (and do) produce different coloured parts using the same mould. They stop putting white (as an example) plastic into the mould and instead put red (as an example) plastic in; therefore same part, from same mould, but different colour. Where you will get different moulds is where they need such a large number of parts that they have to have multiple mould producing parts at the same time, or where it makes sense to have moulds in geographically different places, eg. the US factory, Denmark, China, etc... so that they aren't incurring shipping costs and delays by moving parts around the world. Expertly done, that's the set of photos to send TLG when explaining what the issue is. What is being seen isn't a mould deterioration issue; when moulds get old the sharp corners start to become rounded. The change in physical dimensions has to have come from a mould that is physically different from the earlier mould. Do we have enough information to know whether there are geographical traits, eg. do Europe and America both suffer the problem?

Does your part have the mould lines shown in the earlier photos?

If it's a mould issue, which I believe it is, then the replacement part is very likely to suffer the same problems because it will have come from the same mould. If they have multiple moulds in the factories then it will be pot-luck which variant of the part you get. If you don't contact them they'll never know the extent of the problem and never try to remedy it at source.

It sounds like TLG have two separate moulds for creating the pieces, with the moulds being ever so slightly different. The give-away is the notches, they are mould lines where the top and bottom parts of the mould separate to release the part; if some parts have them and others don't then the parts must have come from different moulds. Perhaps there are different moulds in the North American, European and China factories? The question would be: Why did they redesign the mould when the needed a second mould to satisfy production demands? However; I suspect that we'll never receive an answer to that.

The box images for 6080 are available on Peeron, http://www.peeron.com/inv/sets/6080-1?withpics=yes You're not as lucky with 6061, just the front of the box there.

Sorceror's Gully... at least one more set to come then? The Faerie architecture is very nice, distinctive yet buildable.

LDD files are available from each models individual MOCPages page so you can look at the builds in more detail for inspiration and even recreation if you want to build a version yourself. The models were all designed to be "buildable" and the greatest compliment is people going away and doing just that.

A weary traveller approaches the Great Gates of Troll Town with news from the south. He brings news of the Crown King massing troops in preparation for invasion. Nobles with their bodyguards hurry to meet the king... as watchmen are stationed in the towers; crossbows at the ready. To bolster the numbers new recruits are trained and drilled; Whilst Ogres assemble the battle wheels ready for action Veterans patrol beyond the walls, checking the caves and crevices for malicious agents of the crown. Maps are studied and dragons fed; ready to take to the skies. Pilots take the reins; the Crown King's dragons will be met tooth and claw. The fleet lies at anchor as supplies are loaded. The market is bustling, a last chance to purchase the essentials before battle. Steel and spells will win the day. Champions fight to pass the time whilst the common soldiery looks on; meat and ale in hand. The ogres form ranks; taking their orders as a fighting force. Ready to defend their home against the antagonistic Crown. An overview. Even the plan view doesn't quite capture the expanse; the town covers an area roughly 2m x 1.2m. When I first plotted this out I was concerned that the middle would be empty; in the end there wasn't enough space for the Troll Battle wheels. The sketch plan for Troll Town. This has been well over 12months in the planning; although I have a day-job and a life to lead so progress on it hasn't been particularly fast. I happened to have a free weekend when the missus wouldn't be around to complain that little green men have taken over the house. I start assembling Troll Town; however the problem with Troll Town is that it has grown larger than my dining room table; and it's the largest table in the house. This shot doesn't show the Troll Navy nor the Battle Wheels... Quite simply it's not going to fit. I could haul an 8x4' sheet of plywood out of the garage, lay it across the table and work on that but I opt to assemble things on the floor instead. I'm going old-school, no photoshop, it's going to be done with coloured paper as backgrounds. I've already source card that is as close as I can get to Dark Green, Red-Brown and Bright Blue. The first few sections go into place. The disadvantage with working on the floor is that it's carpet underneath and therefore springy. I can't lean on the card as it will crease. I have to assemble the rear before the front. The majority of the strucutre of Troll Town is now in place although there are two gaps in the wall either side of the Dragon Platforms that need filling in. I have an unbuilt 7097 in reserve which just needs assembling to fill the gap. After 3hrs of effort I still have about 30 Trolls waiting to populate the town and that doesn't include another 20+ that I find in the box with the spare 7097... Placing minifigs on cardboard is slow and tedious, much like standing domino's with a similar propensity for falling over and taking an entire row with it. Overview. To be honest, I need to obtain more card. I have one sheet of green spare but need more green and more blue. I could also do with a bigger room. More time might help as well, this has to be disassembled and stowed by 21:00 when the missus returns! The blue sky card shows the gaps, I might try to source a roll of thick sugar paper that can be used in one continuous length. Somewhere in there are 140 trolls, 14 ogres, a couple of stray prisoners and the odd skeleton. Due to space limitations it's missing a warship, 3 battle wheels and an assault wagon along with anothe 20 or so trolls to man them... ...maybe next time, when I have more card and more room. On the drawing board is a mine to add to the walls and a giant crane for assembling battle wheels to stand in the middle. I also have a couple of spare 7097 pieces to add to the wall to make the town even bigger.

Perhaps a little hard to see but there are 140 trolls in there, 14 ogres, a couple of crown prisoners and the odd skeleton. Click to get a bigger version. Due to space it's missing a warship, three battle wheels and a heap of captured chariots. Maybe by the time I get to assemble it to again I'll have more room... Most of the sets are discussed in my Troll Town thread if you want to see the individual parts up close; I'll try to get detail shots posted later.

This set was great for it's time and a pavilion is supposed to be brightly colored. If I remember correctly, this set was a steal at $20. From a historical accuracy standpoint the bright colours are accurate; our perception of castles is as grey ruins because that's what they are now but when they were built they whitewashed and lavishly draped in brightly coloured cloths in order to make a statement. Tournaments such as this would have been brightly coloured. If you ever happen to be near Dover, England go visit the castle and see the interior of the keep which has been returned to it's original 12th century decor. A great set, lots of play potential and I'm amazed that the whites haven't discoloured after 30 years.

The variation in the water comes from varying the colour of the plates beneath the transparent tiles. I would guess it's bright green around the edge and dark green in the middle but it could well be a different combination to provide the graduation between light and dark.

Having walked through that area of Copenhagen just before Christmas it looks pretty much perfect in terms of detail, even down to the trucks and containers on the corner of the church which I assume are associate with the major extension of the Copenhagen Metro system. The only thing that it's lacking is some rain, it was definitely raining in Copenhagen in December.

Would this not have been better in the "Should Castles have raised baseplates?" thread? The vacuum forming process that is used to make raised baseplates utilises an "open" 1 part mould therefore can only cast detail into the top surface of the part. ABS parts, ie. bricks and plates, utilise a "closed" 2 part (at least use more than 2) mould which allows detail to be cast into the underside. Creating 2 part moulds to the level of tolerance that Lego demands is very expensive, the bigger the part the more expensive it gets. To create a baseplate in ABS would require very, very expensive moulds. Additionally the different plastics used have different physical qualities, the baseplates are more flexible, bricks are more brittle, to create a baseplate in ABS would require significantly more plastic to give it the required strength so that it doesn't snap under normal use. Ultimately it is a compromise between cost, usability and play-ability.

That ability to create volume with minimal bricks is one of the key skills of a TLG designer. It's easy for AFOLs with brick collections that have been built up over years (decades?) to stack brick upon brick to create huge intricate structures but to do that with a very limited brick budget is a lot harder. I've always liked 8877 Vladeks Dark Fortress since it manages to get height and bulk for very few bricks, a deviation from standard castle but 8759 Battle for Metru Nui does the same. For AFOL creations see Nuju Metru's Siege Of Issiad, the techniques are a little more detailed that TLG might use but it follows the same principles of using BURPs and panels to quickly create height.