Bobsy

Massive heavy creations are fine for the elaborate MOC that you're putting on display in your local Lego Store to have the region's kids wowwing over - that's fine. But don't expect people me to want to pay for it.

Or indeed, filter out UCS. Plenty of submissions to Cuusoo still hold to the idea that bigger, heavier, more difficult must be better.

The render does indeed look aces, but that's all down to Hrontos's fantastic app, not me! No, I don't think this will go to Cuusoo, as it's part of a whole theme I'm devising for the sake of it, not a standalone set as Cuusoo's for. I am trying to make a submission for Cuusoo, but it's extremely tough going. Hopefully it will be worth it when I'm done.

An updated version of the model. As I said while it was rendering, one of the clips on the throne has rotated 90 degrees. But otherwise, I'm pretty chuffed with this! Throne of Babylon by bobsy26, on Flickr

Throne of Babylon by bobsy26, on Flickr As with everything I do in LDD, this is a work in progress. I'm trying to create projects in LDD that conform to TLG's criteria of themed sets, with an appropriate piece count and number of minifigs (though I may be pushing it with 4). An approximate cost for this set would be £29.99. Piece count is 361. I've included a basic but functional action feature in the form of a trapdoor on the tower's first floor, but more appealing to me is the modular nature of the set - the tower detatches from the throne room and can be reattached on the other side. And similar to the recent Kingdom's Joust set, buying two of these means you can link it all together into one larger palace complex (albeit one with two thrones and no door). As for the theme? I'll expand on the wider concept another time, suffice it to say the fig on the right is a time travelling thief trying to steal from the King of Babylon (or King of Persia, I still can't decide which he is. Considering there is no crown piece I much like, it makes no real difference). I used dark blue highlights wherever possible, to give the place the impression of wealth in lapis lazuli, as well as a welcome splash of colour among all the tan bricks. There's also a fair amount of gold, also to make it look rich and opulent. (One notable error in the LDD2PovRay process is the 1x1 clip on top of the throne, which has randomly rotated 90 degrees) So yeah. What do y'all think?

Ah, I was being coy. The changes I meant were adding another 50% or so to the model. Re-rendering the whole thing with a whacking great tower on the side. Sorry, I should have been more specific - it's not poly count I'm bothered about - the fantastic texture and lighting effects mean you have to look carefully to spot an angular round piece. What I meant was jagged black marks around certain edges. I realise that they've pretty much vanished in resizing the image, so the problem's not exactly critical. (incidentally Hrontos, you're an absolute legend for making this. It's ace) I have noticed a weird recurring error that's just happened on my current in-progress render, and I've seen it happen before. A certain piece - single stud with a clip pointing straight up - is sometimes randomly rotated 90 degrees, which looks pretty odd when the thing it's holding is magically passing through it. If I re-render that segment, could it change? Or is the orientation of the piece fixed when it goes to PovRay? You can see an example of this in the Winter Village render - two of the clips on the roof of the building on the right are doing this.

More of a word of caution than anything else, but I was less than impressed with the shipping service Lego are using in Europe at the moment. The delivery was done through PostNl / TNT and really badly packed. The outer box was crumpled and squished, and so were both Lego boxes inside. I don't keep the carboard so I wasn't too cut up, but it was still very disappointing.

You know how it is, you start on a many-many-hours-long render, then realise all the other bits that your set needs. I've already added a tower with a trapdoor (got to have those action features...) in order to up the piece count to justify 4 minifigs and now need to render the whole thing again. Well, consider this a WIP preview. The 'shiny' gold colour doesn't come through particularly well here, and blends too much with the light tan bricks. Still, I'm pretty chuffed with how this turned out. While I'm here, have a look at another WIP project - the Oldean Flurry speeder from Star Wars: The Old Republic. A few jagged edges around the minifig there. Is this just something to put up with or can I minimise this?

Utterly gorgeous. I really wish I'd bought some Prince of Persia sets when they were still around. Ah well.

I seem to remember (vaguely - I didn't end up getting any) last time they did this that only WH Smiths and Toys R Us actually stocked the toys themselves, so if you buy your copy from anywhere else you then need to take the paper down to WHS or TRU to actually get your hands on them. Is this correct?

Well, as I say I've been avoiding SW for many, many years. I do prefer historical themes, to be honest. My dreams of a 16th-17th century theme are unlikely to be realised however. Curse you Lego, and curse your smart and perfectly reasonable business sense!

Sets with Jawas and/or Sand People would be very welcome - neither have been seen very often, and deserve another go. Even if it were just a Tatooine battle pack with 2 of each... (actually that'd be ideal).

If ever a new Mos Eisley cantina set is made, it ought to have a Bea Arthur minifig behind the bar. Lego doesn't need to tell Lucasfilm about it, just, y'know, plop her in there.

So, hi. I'm Bobsy, I'm English, and I have more Lego than can possibly be good for me. By the standards of some collectors here I guess my few sets look measely in comparision - I don't buy many, but I do tend to buy the occasional larger sets. The Imperial Flagship is currently sailing around looking for enough shelf space to park it's massive, beautiful hull, and this summer I splurged out on the Old Republic Star Wars sets, the first SW Lego I've bought since 2000. Anyway. Hullo. EDIT: Whuzza-whaaaa? I have an avatar already? B-b-b-but how? Is it using Gravatar?