Sandy

Thanks for the bump, guys. It's true that there are more new printed dresses around, and I've not given up collecting them all. 2011 has brought us the following printed dresses to add to the list: 19) Geisha's red dress from Collectable Minifigures Series 4 (I own.) 20) Elizabeth Swann's dark red dress from PotC set 4181 Isla de la Muerta. (I own.) 21) Narcissa Malfoy's black dress from HP set 4865 Forbidden Forest. 22) Professor Sprout's dark tan dress from HP set 4867 Hogwarts. 23) Peasant woman's light blue dress from Kingdoms set 7189 Mill Village Raid. 24) Egpytian queen's white dress from Collectable Minifigures Series 5. The two mermaids from PotC set 4194 Whitecap Bay could loosely be counted in this category as well. I'll post new photos when I have collected the whole bunch.

5) Cryostasis (Eurobricks Collectable Minifigures Series 1 Entry) (Build by Darkblane) - 1 point 6) Lunchtime at The Column of Times (Eurobricks Collectable Minifigures Series 1 Entry) (Build by shmails) - 2 points I wanted to award originality and versatility when it came to the selection of minifigs in these custom collections, but naturally looks of both the figs and the structure mattered as well. These two got the job done best, in my opinion. Good luck with the contest, guys!

33) Mad Scientist Entry (Build by Skafte) - 2 points (This is a fun take on the shenanigans that a mad scientist can cause. Very comedic.) 38) Kimono Girl Entry (Build by pelle) - 1 point (A great, ethereal scene, and the light-up lamp just seals the deal.) Great entries, guys! Good luck with the contest!

Such as Brienne, who must be my favorite character in any book ever. You've captured her quite well, even though I've pictured her even more unfeminine in my head than how your minifig portrays her.

You've done what I've only contemplated on doing - creating the cast of Song of Fire and Ice books/the Game of Thrones tv-series. And what a great bunch they are! You've even improved some of the characters that are a little "off" in the tv-series, such as Varys and Hodor, in my opinion. I don't know if using the brown pouches as shoulder paddings is your own thought, but it's ingenious anyway.

I highly doubt the dancing ladies are innocent...

I can. It's a guard's torso from the largest Prince of Persia set, the Battle of Alamut, only with different arms.

That's a great suggestion, but we'll have to see what the reception is like before that. I for one am in love with these games even though I haven't even seen them with my own eyes yet.

I whole-heartedly agree with your review of this set, Pandy. For the potential of what it could've been, this set is highly disappointing. Most of the minifigs look like they're made up by a kid at the Build-A-Fig section of a Lego Store. Not only there are no unique and only a handful of rare pieces, the designs of the minifigs look cheap and lazy. The worst offender is the use of the older woman's face, which couldn't be called generic in any sense of the word, but is still used like it was. I already have every single minifig piece from this set in my collection, so there is really zero incentive for me to buy this. It's really a shame, too, because if the designers had at least tried, this could've been a true moneymaker.

I visited New York last month, and this MOC really brings me back to the streets and avenues of Manhattan. It really looks like a skyline made out of several buildings instead of just one mismatched construction. That's not an easy feat to accomplish, so I applaud you for that! Like others, I'm loving the attention for details you have. The MOC actually feels like a part of a metropolis. I would've liked to see it from the back as well, though. And the pieces arranged in different ways would be cool to see too.

Thank you for scanning the instructions, SpiderSpaceman! I can't wait to get a chance to play Heroica myself. Like I've said earlier, this boardgame could easily become the next big thing in AFOL/TFOL scene.

It never seizes to amaze me how some people can just take a piece and make use of it in a totally new way. I don't know how much of the techniques you've thought out yourself and how much is borrowed, but I certainly have never seen the window awnings or the side pillars done like that. Aside from some color discrepancies, the wall looks fantastic. Great job!

The European premier was today. I'm going to see it tomorrow. So yeah, neeners neeners.

This is a great scene, and I think you've done a good job capturing the feeling of it. I've actually thought of this as well. The different LEGO Castle factions do fit neatly into the GoT world.

I've got to say that the minifig looks nothing like Jon Snow (where's the beard and the curly black hair? And foremost, the black clothes?!) but yay for a Game of Thrones MOC! I fell in love with the book series, and now I'm intently watching the tv-series as well. The next book is due to be released in the summer, so yay for that too!

I believe the cute superdeformed animal figs are at least partially blamed for that. I remember playing out many gruesome scenes of slaughter with my Fabuland figs (may they rest in pieces) as a kid. Good times...

Thank you for the kind words, and a great big thanks to all of you who voted for my entry! The competition was so tough that I did not make it to the top three, but I think I did quite well, considering the high overall quality of the entries. I've now dismantled the creation, and got a piece count of 1604 pieces. Sounds decent for a D2C set, eh?

Nice job, and extra credit for staying purist with these. I think out of these, Canton looks most true to the source. Rory is otherwise good, but he needs to have a face with more personality in it (something a bit goofier, perhaps?). For the females, I think Ginny Weasley's new hair is the perfect and thus only choice for Amy, so you should've gone with that instead. Your River's face is a great choice, but again, the hairpiece is not really suitable for her. As for The Doctor, the clothes you've put on him look the part, but the face is all wrong. He's not grumpy or angry like that at all. I'm digging the sonic screwdriver, though. So please, do work on these some more, and you'll really hit the mark.

Most of the microfigs are exclusive to their gamepack, exluding the Barbarian, the Mage, the Cleric and the Orc Sailor.

I recently returned home from a trip to New York, where I bought all the sets from this theme and brought them home in my luggage (without the boxes, of course). I've now assembled them all, and what a beautiful view I have next to me. Here's my thoughts about the sets: PRICE Uh, the price! These sets are really, really expensive in comparison to the piece amount included in them. The fact that there are so many unique and new pieces (and extras in the form of posters and code cards) compensates the price only partially, in my opinion. However, I actually made a huge bargain buying them from USA instead of my own country. I paid $440 (about 300€) for all the sets at the Lego Store in Rockefeller Center, which is a lot of dough, I admit. But in Finland, the total price for these sets is about 500€ because of some incomprehensible policy TLG has, so I actually saved 200€. Granted, the trip itself cost a lot more than that, but I would've made it anyway even if I hadn't bought any LEGO from there. MINIFIGS My biggest love in this hobby are the minifigs, and boy does this theme offer a wonderful bunch of them! Granted, they are all fleshies (except the few skeletons), but I don't discriminate. The prints in all the minifigs are beyond fantastic, even though I don't really like how some of the prints continue from the torso onto the leg pieces, since that reduces their use separately. There's plenty of new headgear and hair pieces (and even pieces with both hair and a hat in them), and the new saber holster piece is quite nice as well. The biggest stars of the theme's minifigs in my opinion are Jack Sparrow's multiple forms, the two mermaids, and Hadras (with the seashell on his head), but there really isn't a minifig in the bunch that I wouldn't like. DESIGN I built the sets in the order of size, starting from the smallest and finishing with Queen Anne's Revenge. I have to say I don't really understand the concept of Captain's Cabin as a set, even though it offers several wonderful items. The furniture doesn't really fit into the ship or any of the buildings, and all three minifigs are featured in other sets as well. The Fountain of Youth is a bit too simplistic for my taste, but again, the individual pieces make it worthwhile. Isla De La Muerta has more going on for it, with the revolving rock feature and boat and treasure piles and all. The hut in Cannibal Escape looks wonky and unbalanced for me, with the huge cage hanging from it, but the play features are nice. The throne is especially appealing to me, with the printed tile. I have the Troll Battlewheel, so it was fun to see the same technique used in The Mill. I quite like the building itself, too, it's not as simple as it looks on first glance. The tavern in London Escape (what's with all these "escapes" in so many set names?) could've been more like the buildings in the other sets, with a floor and proper walls etc. The carriages are quite nice, though. Whitecap Bay is my favorite set of the bunch. The building is just so intricate, with an architecture and a design that has an actual feeling to it, being all gritty and weathered, rather than just being a house of bricks. Aside from the repeated zombie pirate, the minifigure selection is perfect, and the play features are actually quite skillfully designed. Then there's the literal flagship of the theme, Queen Anne's Revenge. I absolutely love the rear cabin with it's intricate detailing and cloth canopies, but the bow leaves much to be desired. Why couldn't the figurehead skeleton be all trans-orange, or gold like the movie counterpart, instead of an ugly mashup? The main deck is very disappointing in it's bareness, it looks plain unfinished. And only three cannons with eight places for them to go into? What's the sense in that?! So yeah, the theme has it's faults, but all in all I do not regret buying all the sets one second, since the overall aesthetics, the minifigs and individual pieces and mechanics are so inspiring. I will of course dismantle them to be used in my future projects, like I do to all the sets I buy, so look forward to seeing the pieces in my comics and hosted games.

Congratulations, guys! Too bad my camel couldn't match your creations, but you all definitely deserved to win. Funny, though, how all the prizes went to entries of the same theme. I would've thought the votes would been split more...

But he's the fumbling anti-hero type of the group who is always outmatched by the heroic Jake Raines (at least that's the impression I got from the official website's description). Those type of characters always go bad, so I thought I was being too clichéd with that twist. If it's any consolidation, the mad Dr. Patra is controlling Mac with her enchanted dagger, and once she bites the dust Mac will surely see the mistake he's done. Or at least that's how the story of this set goes in my head.

You have already graduated from Mafia School, and that cannot be taken away from you (unless you do something really stupid to piss off Dragonator, of course). Hinckley has chosen to open his Mafia Schoolgame to members who have already participated in a few games as well, so you are eligible for that as well as Quarryman's game. I'm telling you, though, that Hinckley will most likely not have even half of the patience I had with my batch of Mafia students. You're up for a boot camp, I can bet.

Well, duh! Show me a person who gives permits for signing into Mafia games around here. That's right, there isn't one. Again, it's up to the host's discretion to chose who gets to play, but if you don't sign up, you'll never get in.

Thanks for the encouraging comments, guys! This has turned out to be one helluva competition with a ridiculous amount of awesome entries, but I sure hope my unique idea stands out in the crowd... I feel like I've given my all. I don't even remember how many times I redid those legs to get them to work properly. You're right, but I was kinda hoping the two camels would replace the vehicle. I have to admit that I probably couldn't build anything better than the cars in the existing PQ sets, anyway.