AmperZand

Some soft plastics become brittle and eventually crack over time. Some of my rubbery BrickForge parts have done that for example. How durable are Arealight's soft plastic parts?

There's something profoundly wrong about that minifigure. Profoundly wrong.

Thanks for the great review and pictures, Fangy! I bought Jungle Trap yesterday, mostly for Krait, the snake cultist minifig. I think he needs a cape and a different weapon, but I really like his printing and skull headdress. I appreciate that the characters on Kai's gi aren't supposed to be any real language, but even as made up characters, they look upside down. Maybe they're supposed to be read by an opponent who's been thrown by Kai.

LOL! Very true.

There are many definitions of what is/isn't a minifig. Even TLG is inconsistent in this regard: they sometimes count brick-built droids and sometimes don't for example. BrickLink has a different definition: they count skellies, TLG doesn't. Personally, I class LEGO humanoids as minifigures (including skeletons), micro-figs and big-figs (such as the Fantasy Era giant trolls, the LotR Cave Troll and SW Rancor). When I literally count them, they are all included. I exclude animals such as dogs, wargs, monkeys and horses, and monsters such as Shelob and dragons whether moulded or brick-built.

Cool! I especially like the horns but wouldn't they allow someone to climb up the tower? Maybe they should start half way up.

I'm not easily impressed, but I have to say that dragon is amazing! Easily among the best designed MOCs I've ever seen. Wow! I have a lot of respect for TLG, but they're not that innovative. You would think that big companies would actively seek super-talented people and create jobs for them where none existed, but they don't. They're not flexible enough to do that except, sometimes, for very senior people.

I'm looking for a shield with the white tree of Gondor permanently applied/printed on it. Where can you get those? Are they good quality? Alternatively, does anyone provide a sticker or transfer of the white tree? I already have a plain black shield that would look good with the crest of Gondor on it. Thanks in advance, Amps

It seems that not all the hands are made to exactly the same tolerance. I don't know if it's because they are made in China, but I do have some that are too large to use on some arms. If a hand is too big, I never force it. That's just asking for it to crack the forearm. I don't have a problem swapping arms. I just rotate the arm back and then gently lever it out using the forearm, not the hand for purchase. I then ease the replacement arm in. The trick is to slowly ease arms in/out, not snap them in place. There's a thread on this forum, I think, with more advice on replacing arms.

I'm with Wardancer in preferring moulded creatures, but your manticore is still really cool! Great MOC!

I vaguely recall that when Fantasy Era was still around TLG released a piece of (digital?) art of a map that included an elf land. Then along came the LotR/Hobbit lines and those plans were shelved. We never got an elf faction, just the elf CMF. Maybe, this is that plan revived. I doubt when the map was drawn that TLG was thinking of the Elves theme. Thoughts?

My not so interesting Uruk army. Note these are two pictures of the same minifigs taken from slightly different angles and using different lighting. And here are their general and champion:

Wow! Coool! I love images of large fantasy armies. My own own Uruk army is only thirty-something strong. It feels pathetic compared to yours. Makes me ashamed to post pictures.

I'm hoping it's true, too. Fantasy Era v2 would be fantastic in every sense! I've been collecting fantasy minifigures since 1993 and would welcome the opportunity to add more with open arms - and wallet! New/expanded ranges of fantasy minifigures such as elves and goblins would be excellent especially as battle packs. Large monsters, I imagine, would be in sets with castles, wagons, siege engines etc as well as minifigs of course. Note that TLG has done a brick-built kraken and a moulded Cerberus before. I have both of them.

LOL! That's very cool. I know a few adults who would try to make that triangle if you gave them the pieces and those instructions.

I was in a pub when I read your comment and I literally LOLed . The people around me gave me funny looks. I think he's supposed to. In fact, I think the entire series is of Halloween party-goers, not actual monsters. I would have preferred fantasy/mythological creatures and, failing that, horror monsters, but I'll settle for people in monster costumes. As long as they don't have zips or other obviously modern features, you can always pretend they're monsters.

For series 13, I felt for a few in store and got what I was after. Then returned a few days later and bought a sealed box. I checked the ones from the box at home using four methods, kept the ones I wanted and sold the rest at cost to other AFOLs. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

One of the problems for the OP of using BrickLink is that the Indian postal service isn't reliable. When I used to send documents from the UK to colleagues in India, I had to use expensive couriers. It was the only way to ensure things arrive. I hate to think what it would cost to send LEGO by courier, assuming you could find BL sellers who would ship by that method. Really? I've been into Dungeons & Dragons for well over 30 years and an AFOL since 1993.

If the print on your capes are your design (and they look like they are), I don't think you have anything to worry about. I very much doubt that TLG would pursue you for intellectual property infringement over the shape of the standard capes. There are loads of custom sellers that produce that shape already. If TLG was going to stop them, they should have acted a long time ago. That said, I'm not a lawyer.

Indeed. When removing print using metal polish, the only thing I would caution against is rubbing too hard. It's easy to overdo and damage the sheen as well as removing the print. Once the print starts to go, proceed carefully by gently rubbing a bit more, then checking, then rubbing, then checking and so on until the print is just about gone.

Thanks. The unfamiliar head is the monster's from set 9466 Crazy Scientist and his Monster: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=3626bpb0772 , and the mystery torso (but not arms/hands) is from set 79003 An Unexpected Gathering: http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=973pb1338c01 . I changed the original arms and hands for olive green ones. You spotted that? Yes, I removed the patch using metal polish. And while I'm posting, here's my force of death knights:

I don't know if these guys count as an "army". I actually think of them as a raiding party. And no, they're not purist. I used some third party parts.

I have lots of geeky hobbies. The main one, apart from LEGO, is Dungeons & Dragons. Some people combine the two pastimes and use LEGO as part of their D&D games. I don't go that far, but I do MOC fantasy-themed minifigures many of which were inspired by D&D, e.g. http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=103694 , http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=103215 , http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=103765 and http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=104265 .

Although I don't have a desire for TLG to create religious-themed sets, I often find myself admiring small companies that try to fill a market niche. So I did a bit of googling and discovered a company called Trinity Toyz that does Christianity-themed sets. I couldn't find a URL for them, but they seem to sell through lots of channels including Amazon. For sacerdotal hats, body wear and accessories, try: http://www.bricklink...ore.asp?p=Dan76 . I don't have any of his religious-themed pieces but do have some of his secular ones and they're good quality. For inspiration, you may want to check out the Brick Bible: http://thebrickbible.com/ Was it this company?... http://www.binyanblo...etl-series/cyu0

Hello, nine09nueve, It's important to distinguish between Eurobricks' (EB) rules and the prevailing view of the worldwide AFOL community. With the greatest respect to EB, the two aren't always the same. According to EB rules, a thread that is only about minifigures should be here regardless of whether the minifigures are purist or not. The only official exceptions are Collectible Minifigures (CMFs) where the minifigures haven't even had their parts mixed. My own view is that purist minifigures should be permitted in the subject matter forum to which they relate, so in the case of my mind flayer, the history forum (which encompasses fantasy too). But I don't make the rules. Customisation, to my mind, involves an artistic talent that goes beyond combining parts. So cutting, sculpting, painting or erasing are all customisation techniques. Recolouring the ears of the elves below is customisation. I don't think of the use of third party parts such as the two-handed sword and the spear in the picture as customisation, though I appreciate that many (perhaps most) AFOLs do. A grey zone for some - though not for me - is the use of so-called illegal techniques, viz. reconstructing torso or leg assemblies. In the picture, I turned the torso of the elf on the right back-to-front by swapping around his arms (what you see in the picture was originally his back). Some people think of this as customisations. Personally, I don't. In short, different people have different definitions of "purism" and "customisation" and even whether or not they are poles of the same dimension. AmperZand