Venkefedo

The bikes used in the Mortis episodes are definitely not the bikes Zeb, Kanan, and Ezra hijack in the Rebels preview (which is the same bike style, albeit in different colors, in the book that Ezra uses). The Mortis bikes are fold-up numbers based on, I think, entirely different OT concept art images. The REBELS bikes are based on art that is clearly more a precursor to the ROTJ bikes, simply with more relaxed seating for the riders.

It's getting easier every year to spruce up the Dwarven ranks with figures friendlier to posing: more printed-beard heads in yellow and flesh, shorter, less obtrusive beards like Dwalin's, Santa/Fisherman, and Wiley Fusebot's (plus the upcoming CMF12 Prospector), BrickFortress articulated short legs... I adore the Fantasy dwarves, but was late getting on board because of how limiting the beards & legs were. It's getting better, tho! Anyhow, glad you had similar initial thoughts! It's a really fun build, dwarves or not

That spilled drink! Great build all around. Reminds me a bit of many Dwarven taverns in WoW, which is something I wanna try building someday. Good stuff!

AoM Tower Phase I: An outpost in peril / Venkefedo / Mitgardia AoM Tower Phase II: Orcs Triumphant / Venkefedo / Mitgardia Mount Up! Great Snowy Ram / Venkefedo / Mitgardia

And thus BrickFortress was born!

Why? You want them to kill all the main characters? Tantive IV - stormtroopers slaughtered RFTs Tatooine - sandies hit Sandcrawler and Jawas, torch the Lars family Mos Eisley - sandies failed to hit moving target Han beneath the cover of his armored ship Death Star - stormies failed to hit our heroes and may have been ordered to not hit them, due to the plan to track them Hoth - snowies hit Rebels Cloud City - stormies miss our heroes, but again may have been ordered to do so due to Vader having the hyperdrive deactivated so he could capture the Falcon and all aboard it Endor - stormies hit Leia's bike, slay Ewoks and Rebels, hit Leia in shoulder

The must-haves have already been covered (and there are more than enough to fill a CMF wave if that was the only way to get ahold of them... aside from the Balrog and maybe Woody-limb Sauron), but I'd also like to see a good armored orc, preferably with the Moria orc torso print (tho perhaps the undershirt color could change) with a new sharp metal helmet... the BrickWarriors harpy helm would do in a pinch if it were available in steel. I like the center column of the six-pack shown in this link. ...and an armored BoFA orc as well with unique headgear and all.

I hope not; they're just black-and-grey Utapau troops with dark red visors. I know regular shadow troopers are just black stormies (with white or silver eyes if of the Blackhole variety), but they're from an era where troopers didn't really have distinct decos, so simply having the armor a different color was enough. With the clone shadows, it just looked lazy on Hasbro's part (tho they did dub them "Utapau shadow troopers", and when that pattern first appeared in multiple colors in concept art I quickly painted a white clone with a bit version of that pattern, so I understand its appeal... but the clone shadows started Hasbro's trend of turning EVERYTHING into shadow-something as an easy way of making exclusives) Not really; this looks far more like Ezra's helmet (with good reason)

There is no story context to it, just an art-direction context (i.e. a heavy focus on McQuarrie work). Unless I missed some blurb specifically saying they look different because it's 5 years before ANH. The eyes hit the "brow" band and the black grill separating the muzzle from the rest of the face is more exaggerated and sits higher because that's basically how those features looked on a lot of McQuarrie stormtrooper art for ANH

Finally got around to taking pics of most of my "armies", such as they are... First up, the Dwarves: Next, the Evil Dwarves, aka the Wyrmaxe Clan: The Bloody Boars: Nefarious bandit Blackax & his outlaws: A few unaffiliated villains: A motley assortment of heroic adventurers: My orcish horde, comprised of Fantasy greenie 'trolls' and all of my Tolkien orcs (aside from the two Moria Orcs still trapped in their box) Last but not least, probably my favorite creations, my own little Goblin 'army': That's it for now! Got a few barbarians, some cyclopses and minotaurs, peasants, and a bunch of Green Dragons, Red Lions, and Crownies, among others, kicking around. More pics in my Flickr album Very impressed by the armies in this thread!

Tower Phase I:

Long ago, when the guilds were still young, outposts were established throughout the western range to keep watch on the Orcish Marches. In the spirit of cooperation fostered by the recent formation of the great guilds, a human contingent was dispatched to each outpost to join the Dwarven sentries keeping the ways thru the mountains clear and safe. One such outpost along a minor road a couple days' journey northwest of Erikson was manned one spring day by a human named Denric Wulfsen, far from his home outside Nordheim, and the dwarf Thorgal Axehand out of distant Omurtag. Most of the outposts in these parts were dwarf-built, and Denric & Thorgal often passed the long hours of their shifts arguing over whether theirs was a watchtower or merely an outpost. Thorgal firmly believed it to be a tower, only exceeded by the great structures within the halls of the Dwarven cities. Denric refused to budge, noting his usual perch as the resident archer was barely a man's height off the ground. For three months the pair had been stationed there, alternating with another human/dwarf duo every 12 hours, spending their time off duty at a small mining town three miles inland. It was a quiet life, with only the occasional trader or traveler passing near their outpost. Word of orc incursions further north had reached the mining town, but there was little fear of any raiders so far south. The only excitement they'd had on duty was when Thorgal dozed off against the nearby tree and a wolf mistook him for an easy meal. He was startled out of sleep with a yell, and only managed to get one wild glancing blow against the hungry creature before Denric's arrow pierced its heart. On that particular spring day, over a month since the wolf incident, the two were bickering over the outpost's status, keeping an eye on the road in front of them but neglecting to keep watch on the woods & rocky hillsides around them... Tark and Ruggezh, two orc scouts from the Marches, were part of an offensive seeking weak points to gain passage thru the mountains to target the richer lands to the east. Traveling much further south than the other scouts and raiders, the pair found a suitable spot they deemed too far from Erikson to warrant much defense. For a week they observed the occupants of the outpost from a distance, both shifts, and found the two on duty that day to be the best targets given their frequent if mild arguments. Ruggezh led Tark thru the woods northwest of the structure, approaching from behind as the watchmen bickered. Ruggezh gestured for Tark to take care of the dwarf, while he'd attack the human up top, who had foolishly left the ladder down. Sadly--or, perhaps, fortunately--Thorgal and Denric never knew what hit them. Their petty squabbling was the gateway to a shift in power in the region, for a time anyway... Here's a better view of the players: More pics in the full Flickr album! Thanks for viewing! This is my first real MOC structure. Can't wait to get Phase II done, but vacation beckons...

The Hobbit 2014 thread in the Historic Themes... within the last page or two of the thread. I love the dwarf torsos from AUJ, they're so much fun for adventurers, nobles, peasants... A nice change from the endless parade of soldiers from most Castle sets Editing so as to not double-post: Just posted my first proper MOC, my Phase 1 tower!

I know ...but there are, at least, a bunch of new dwarf torsos, many armored! Sadly they're in the biggest sets...

Pretty disappointing... I kinda like the sets, but I also find the figure selections disappointing. The orc faces are nice, the orc hair is GREAT, and it's novel to see the Mordor orc torso again the Lake Town set (tired of the Gundabad print, even tho I still don't have any of them). The lack of Bear Beorn and an Iron Hills dwarf is almost painful (with the missing Thranduil, Bolg, and armored elf not far behind). It's making the probable end of the Hobbit line just as disappointing as the probable end of LOTR... so many major gaps. But at least the Witch King set is useful for elves and populating Weathertop with Frodo-vision wraiths.

Keep in mind (unless I missed some Rebels artwork showing otherwise) that the transport will almost certainly be redesigned so the troopers' upper bodies aren't completely exposed in a floating deathtrap. I've seen other tweaks to the design over the years turning the little baby-gated standing compartments into enclosed spaces, or open at the top but taller than a stormie and the troops ride inside. In all cases, the artists/builders dumped that massive design flaw of the original toy, so there's no reason I know of for the Rebels artists or TLG to bring it back to that. Of course, if you just don't like it as a whole, that's another story Pretty much every complaint I've seen about it over the years has been due to the troopers hanging around half-exposed on the exterior.

You can also see his bike throughout the 7-minute preview released last week, it's the same style as the Imperial ones they steal, just a different color.

The only reason they are stylized as they are is because of the show's focus on McQuarrie art. McQuarrie helmet Rebels helmet Like I said, even the regular stormies are based on McQuarrie. They didn't want to go full "McQuarrie trooper", armor and all, because it's only 5 years before ANH... but stylizing the helmet features lets the troops in the show look like OT troops while honoring the McQuarrie history. But that doesn't need to translate to the Lego figs, since everything else (so far) blends well with the movie figures.

I think you misunderstood me; I meant "regular stormies" that appear in Rebels sets, like the one in the Ghost, having the McQ helmet print (the stylized one, again, as with the Ghost) will make them stand out from all our movie stormies. That stylized look is based on McQuarrie's paintings from the first film; Ezra's helmet is a whole different thing. I didn't mind most of the nonhuman faces in TCW's minifigs, tho some bugged me (Ki-Adi, Saesee)... most of the human faces put me right off (Palpatine!) so I'm glad to see those go. I'd rather be able to mix my SW sets & figures as I see fit, not have them clash because of differences in face styles. I'm a fan! I know which figures belong to which era without a stylistic difference.

I hope they rethink their direction with the stormtrooper from the Ghost set and just print all future Rebels stormie helmets like the movie versions. The other characters all fit nicely with OT figures; no reason the stormies need to feel so out of place. If some special unit like the Yoda Chronicles' Special Forces pops up (particularly if they have shields!) with different-colored armor, then go ahead and throw a McQuarrie-style helmet print on them; we (and kids) can easily justify that because they're different. But having any regular stormies have the McQ print will make em stand out from regular OT troops... Maybe not a lot, but more than enough for some fans.

I don't think you can call out the latest X-wing for not having the Rebel Alliance crest on it as a flaw; 7140 may have had the crests behind the cockpit, but it shouldn't have. OT ships rarely, if ever, had emblems on them; pilot helmets and some uniforms, however, often did on both sides of the conflict. Also, by your logic, the most recent Naboo fighter should be ignored in favor of the very first one... Yet it also has a technician's cart which your logic says is something fantastic that only old sets have. If you want to collect the first version of any Lego SW ships, that's fine... but don't try to claim they are inherently superior to any later efforts or that we're no better than children (a strange insult) if we're more attracted to the look & feel of current ships. By your logic, AFOLs collecting Castle should only be after the 1978/79 castle, joust, and minifigure sets since those are the originals and everything after, from molded horses to gray walls is just poorly imitating those first sets.

I guess in September you'll be buying a Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! then, to score this figure for your Exo-Suit and using the SSS to MOC a proper salvage ship for Pete & Yve?

The 2012 X-wing is the first edition of a Porkins ship and figure. There! Now the only "problem" is that it's still readily available... darn it, why don't I have to hunt for a good deal on it via BL or eBay and still risk paying much more than retail?! That's the only true measure of a toy's value! Whoa, I accidentally turned on the Sarcasm option for a minute there.

I'd like a Dagobah dark-side tree/cave set, something that requires some natural environment building... I'd love to see the cave transition from roots & rocky walls to the unexplained man-made hallway Luke enters just before the apparition appears (never noticed as a kid, but he walks thru a doorway!). Minifigs would include "Bespin" Luke, Yoda, Vader (possibly with trans-black arms and/or legs to indicate he's a phantasm) with maybe a special extra broken helmet, but new helmet or not he'd definitely need a Luke face print. Colors on Luke would be tricky tho; dark tan seems the obvious choice for his outfit, but it's also a natural choice for his hair. He'd look ridiculous with dark tan fatigues and the much-lighter regular tan hair... Maybe olive green fatigues would be a better way to go? Or just do regular tan for the clothes, using olive green or dark tan later on for his undershirt if they ever do a "Dagobah training" Luke. In any case, Dagobah/Bespin Luke is the perfect time to finally revise Luke's hair color, looking again at the movies and--if necessary--convincing Disney/Lucas licensing people that Luke's hair isn't nearly as light as Lego has made it all these years It's my biggest SW pet peeve along with Wookiees deserving Toy Story arms & legs.

Man... then I'd really want a Moldy Crow with Kyle Katarn microfighter! I imagine Shadow Troopers of some sort could easily appear in Rebels... Elite troops working for the Inquisitor perhaps? Possibly with new designs, tho I'm all for the new canon including as much of the EU as possible where appropriate, so we EU fans don't feel totally snubbed by whatever comes out of the new continuity.