tvih

I agree that Helm's Deep just isn't a good match. Aside from the different style, just like the King's Castle it's just way too small compared to the MMV buildings to be placed near them!

Not to mention Finland being even more expensive than Germany, with even Uruk-hai army already being 10 euros higher in price...

Actually, the "wings" of the various TIE ships indeed ARE solar panels

Oh, don't go changing it on my account, since I think I'm probably the only one who thinks that way! My comment was more just a general observation based on my own personal preference, but to back it up a bit more on a closer look... It's true the SSD has/should have the trenches, which are not as clear on the 10221... but at the same time the LEGO model manages to create that sense of extra detail. Yours just seems so... smooth? And it's not just the tops of the "buildings", but the sides also feel so uniform. I mean, if you look at shots like this of the studio model, there's not a smooth or uniform section in sight. Obviously with LEGO there's plenty of limitations in trying to implement such tiny details. Your city are does look nice, but personally I prefer the busier look of the 10221 in that one regard, even if some of the underlining structure loses definition as a result. Oh, and there is one additional "caveat" - I often find it difficult to compare LDD/render pics to photos of physical LEGO model, they're just not quite the same! Yours might look better as the real thing, who knows?

Well, even the BSB only has half a deck. It's a nice compromise for a ship of that size, though.

Clearly it should've been Escape From the Lion Harbor Prison Rescue Attack where the Lion guard soldiers escape from the attacking Dragon rescue soldiers

Nice review. The minifigs indeed seem nice, although I must say that while the Sandtroopers look nice, regular stormtroopers would work better with the stuff I have planned. Biggest problem is the price though. $20 is indeed nice as you say, but 30 euros - the price in Finland - is just too much for what's included

On the value for money... that's one thing where I'm not so impressed with Joust. I mean mainly when you compare it to the MMV. Both have about the same amount of bricks, and both have mostly small bricks, so it's comparable in that regard. But the thing is, I can't get Joust cheaper than about 128 euros shipped, while MMV I can find for under 100 euros shipped (right now it'd be only 90 euros, but I'm broke!). And Joust really is a set that needs two copies to really shine, so it's even worse than that compared to MMV which does perfectly fine on its own. Bah. Maybe I should just take some people's advice on another forum and give up on the mega-diorama and do smaller ones for each individual set (with MOC expansions for MMV possibly) At least then there's no problems with "compatibility" and whatnot.

Ah bummer. The more I look at the comparison shots etc, the more I want to have the more accurate version I will say that I prefer the "city" area of the 10221, but yours definitely looks better for the rest of the ship. The 10221 being as pricey as it is (over 400 euros even in the cheapest place - 449 from S@H) it's getting harder and harder to "forgive" the flaws compared to these great MOCs as of late. Damn you!

Yup... the main problem is the gold-trimmed helmet which makes him stand out a bit, but I guess it's one of the compromises one has to make to make the figure useful.

Exactly. As I mentioned it would be possible to mod doors to it, but it probably wouldn't look all that good... might have to give it a try in LDD though. But I feel using it as anything but seems kinda strange too. Arch of Triumph perhaps, but why would such a thing be in a very small village. Then again the same can be said for an elaborate outer wall, I guess. So indeed the main weak point of this set is integrating it sensibly with other sets! Yup, one of the primary reasons - aside from space issues - why I figured I'd use it separately. I mean I like the look of the KC for the most part, but compared to MMV and Joust it's a bit plain, there's no denying that. I also toyed with the idea of mashing Joust and KC together to form a nicer castle, but I think with how many wall elements KC uses and how different the two are in general, the benefit would from using up the KC that way would be small Of course I also toyed with the idea of an entirely MOC castle (which I still probably will do at some point, but not for this diorama), but in the end I bought the Kingdoms sets because I liked them as such, so it kinda makes no sense to not use them as they are! It would've been nice to get all sets into the same diorama, but I guess I'll have to compromise.

While I agree that the price is quite nice, one has to remember that it also has less large parts than many sets. For example if you compare MMV and MVR, the MVR barn is as big as the MMV buildings, and while the windmill is smaller the MMV also has nearly a 1000 more pieces! But in any case MMV is still definitely good value. I'd love to get a second one, but might not be able to. I feel like I'm going a bit offtopic again posting about my MMV/MVR/Joust/etc diorama... so I'll put it in spoiler tags to make it optional

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the Imperial Flagship literally the only ship with an actual deck rather than only putting stuff on the "bottom" of the ship? As far as achieving that I suppose the problem lies in the ship having to be very large to accommodate such a design, at least if you want to have enough space below the deck for figs to stand.

Awwwww crud, why didn't I see this earlier? Those classic pirate figs went for such a ridiculously low price! I don't check the pirate forum all that often since there's no current products that'd interest me much... figures that'd come back to bite me in the end. EDIT: Well looks like the BSB went for a low price too, but can't see if he'd have shipped it abroad anyway.

While I like it, I'm having a slightly hard time figuring out how exactly I'm going to integrate it into my village diorama. For one, I'd possibly need two of them to make the towers closed. Secondly I don't think the wall buildings would really work that well. Unless I end up doing with the whole thing what I might have to do with the MMV buildings - put them at the edge of the diorama so that you still get access to the interior semi-"realistically". But that would indeed limit overall placement of the whole thing quite a bit, and in a way I'd prefer not to leave buildings open. Meh. If I were to use two of them and ditch the wall segments, I suppose it'd end up being an "Arch of Triumph" style of building.