Etzel

The great park tree has been a symbol for the small town for as long as anyone can remember. Big and majestic it has stand in the center of the town and given the citizens a feeling of nature and life even amongst all the concrete and asphalt. Not long ago the park that the tree stand in was sold to a private business man with nothing but money in his mind. Now he plans to cut down the tree to make room for a new car park in it's place. When the locals found out about the plans the gathered to protest and some even chained them self to the tree. Police have now been sent to the park to handle the protests but they seem to be heavily outnumbered... The business man himself with his two henchmen. I'm not used to build town-themed MOCs but I had this idea in my mind that just needed to be made so I tried to do the best I could. Some more policemen wouldn't hurt but I only have three (two of them I bought just for this MOC ) and I guess the tree is a little to big for a single man to cut down. But all together I'm pretty pleased with the result, I hope you are too Please write comments and critics if you want to! /Etzel PS. I'm not very active here on EB during the summer so it might take a while before I answer any questions and other things, sorry about that.

Well, there is two main reasons. The first is that Gustav Vasa was elected King of Sweden the 6th of June 1523 which definitely ended Sweden's part in the Kalmar Union (with Denmark and Norway) and becoming of an independent country. The second is the introduction of the new Instrument of Government 1809. But as I wrote before, not many Swedes know of this and I think that nowadays it's just about being Swedish and having a day off Later this month, the 19th, we have the Midsummer's Eve holiday which is much more celebrated and a bigger part of Swedish culture. I guess the closeness to this and other big events, like graduations, contribute to making the National Day less attractive as a holiday

Yeah, that's a difficult one. Maybe if you make it really, really big

Today, the 6th of June, is the National Day of Sweden. The least celebrated holiday in Sweden Well, that's not completely true but it isn't a very big holiday and hardly anyone knows why we celebrate this day. But I thought I would do at least something so here is a little MOC. Tonight it's time to kick some Danish @$$ in football Go Sweden!

Freaking awesome! Such a great and detailed MOC must have taken a lot of time and hard work to make. I truly admire your skills I really like the landscape with the levelled hill and the hole in the ground, it's perfect for a battle scene! Fights are fought in so many different places and between so many different creatures. I also like all the great custom parts in the MOC, especially the wall paintings in the cave. Very nice!

I do hope we get a second soldier faction to the pirate theme, it would be great! But I don't think we can expect it any time soon. I think it's unlikely that TLG will make two different soldier factions at the same time and it seems too early for the red coats to be discontinued. They are still great minifigs that have a lot of potential. I guess we have to wait at least to the second half of 2010 or 2011 before we see any new soldier faction. But it certainly is interesting that they chose blue coats for this game. Why bother to convert the red coats to inverted colours? It does make you wonder. But I must say that if we get the blue coats that are pictured in the game I will be disappointed. TLG should definitely make a new torso design instead of copying the old one. (And personally I prefer a different colour than blue. Please give us dark green soldiers ) Well, I guess we just have to wait and enjoy the LEGO we got for the moment

Great work! My fig is perfect and I like that you put my and Sir Dano's fig, that have the same torso, together in the shot. btw, is Trexxen's torso an official piece or is it a decal? It looks great

Thank you everyone! I'm quite proud of this one really I've made some instruction photos of how to make it if anyone is interested: All the parts that is needed Construction 1 Construction 2 Done! Enjoy!

Oh no, they didn't The closest Rome came Persia was when they conquered Mesopotamia in 116AD, which they lost just two years later.

Never heard of Ben 10, does that mean I'm getting old?

Today I got the new Camper set (# 7639), one of few city sets of mine actually. I'm more of a Castle/Pirates guy Anyway, I loved this set and I finally got a bike! I had one when I was a kid but it was broken several times and was no use (it's still in my old collection back at my dad's house). With the new bike and it's wheels I could finally try to make something I've had in mind for a long time, a wheelchair: It's easy to take of the arm rests and put in a joystick instead: Back with handles and tip guard (is that the right word in english?): A few more pictures can be found here when public: Brickshelf I would like to give credit to Ricecracker for the way to attach the wheels with this piece. Thank you for watching, please tell me what you think of it if you want to /Etzel

I think a Greek theme would be great! Roman as well of course but I think a Greek mythology theme would be easier and better in LEGO. Firstly, there is already a lot of fun, exciting and interesting stories that can be transformed into sets. Like the Odyssey, the story of Heracles, Theseus and Ariadne. Secondly, you wouldn't have the problem of picturing a society build on conquest. I see a lot of ethical problems with LEGO sets showing a "great, civilized" empire conquering a "barbarian" tribe's land. Thirdly, I think kids in common is more familiar with the mythology of ancient Greece than the history of the Roman Empire. Now, this is just what I think and I could be wrong. Maybe the Romans is more famous in the countries that actually was under their rule. But anyway, I think it's easier for kids to understand and embrace the mythological world thanks to the stories. But I will be happy whatever historical theme it might be. I just think Greek is more likely

Seems like all the S@H countries got the new castle sets available, except Denmark (wonder why?) I never realised that the troll mountain fortress would cost as much as the MMV, it got almost only half the pieces! I might having second thoughts on that one Oh, and while I was scanning through the different countries on S@H I noticed that in Czech republic the MMV is cheaper than both King's Siege Castle and Trolls Mountain Fortress. Now that is strange pricing.

I use to run about 10 km now and then (haven't been so strict on it) but the longest would be 14 km cross-country running 6 years ago. I might have ran further in some orienteering competitions but it's hard to know exactly how far then Wow, well done CopMike! I'm not that well trained so I could ran a marathon right now but I've been thinking of trying Göteborgs-varvet (21 km). But it's been to far away to go to

Happy Birthday! May it be a good one with lots of fun! Oh, that's right ISC, load up those ice cube trays (which one was the better tasting now again?)

This is my vignette entry for the Battle Contest over at Classic-Castle.com but I thought I could share it with you guys too

Thank you everyone for your comment The jokes might be a little of date but I hope you got most of them. I had very fun making this review so I guess I'll have to try something similar when vol. 3 is out.

Ras, the calender you posted earlier is for 2009 so the dates you proposed wouldn't be in the weekend in 2010. You might want to check that It certainly sounds interesting but I'm planning to go to the next EB event in the spring and maybe a swedish event too. I think two events is enough, at least my wallet thinks so

Awesome! This is easily the best volume so far! Blue coat, black falcon and Western officer is great! However I'm really disappointed that they included yet another spaceman That makes 4 in total! At least the chef is somewhat decent I was unsure if I should get vol. 2 or not, but eventually I got it. This volume is no doubt on my wish list

A regular soldier like LEGO uses on S@H: It's simple and easy to understand.

Very rarely! I mostly take the sets apart completely and uses the parts in MOCs. I think it's much more fun to make my own creations and use my imagination than start from something someone else came up with.

I would also like to give a +1 to MarcusV3. As Natman8000 wrote, very professional trader

Come on, Sandy! I know you wrote in the Army Building topic that you liked diversity between your minifigs and this is the same The colour of the uniforms is really important if you want to have different factions. They don't have to be all Imperials if you don't want to, many uses them as British and French soldiers and with lots of different uniforms you can have more diversity in your armies. So I say the colour is crucial!

My german isn't the best but in the link that you posted, KD, doesn't it says "1 kleines jubiläumsset" which means a small jubilee set? I really hope it's true but I must say TLG have made a good job keeping it secret in that case. And I don't mind that it's small since we already got the big and awesome MMV this year.

This is a very interesting topic, thanks for making it Grevious! I'm an army builder, but not a great one. You might want to call it "patrol" building I like making armies in the size of 5-10 soldiers in the Pirate, Castle and Adventure theme. At that size the armies are perfect too be included in a medium sized MOC and that's the size I like the most to build. To me it's really important that I use the armies in MOCs, just having them as display isn't enough for me. If I had more parts so I could build really big MOCs I probably would expand my armies to a proper size but for now I'm pleased with their numbers. At the moment I got three armies, a Swedish Carolean army from the early 1800th century, a Russian army from the same time and a Chinese army (from the Orient Expedition theme) but I'm also working on a Castle army with an own faction. I like to have somewhat unusual armies apart from common redcoats, bluecoats, stormtroopers etc. I hope I will be able to show them in action soon.