Sandy

Apparently someone's taking the appropriate age suggestions a bit too seriously. "But he's only fifteen, he might swallow the tiny parts!"

Samuel Yellman, reporting for duty! Oh, what nice moustaches you all have! Maybe I should grow one as well.

I think he means that if you're really so obsessed you throw entire LEGO sets into the trashbin just because they're missing a piece, you really should get a new hobby. It's a construction toy, it's supposed to be taken apart and built again, and in the process, a piece or two might go missing. That's just how it is, and if you can't handle that, better leave LEGO alone. LEGO is a precious hobby for most of us, both in monetary value and emotionally, so having people treat it like trash gets angry reactions.

Tell me about it. Shadows, I always knew you were a psycho, but I didn't know you were that mental!

OCD much? I say just get over it, you're being totally silly. Of course you can mix minifigs, like you can mix other pieces as well. And the Drawbridge Defense fits perfectly with the other Fantasy Era sets (MMV included), just take out the skeletons if you're bothered by them. ... Seriously. *rolls eyes*

The Dragon Tower looks to be my current favorite set of the theme as well. It looks imposing without being overly eeeevil in an clichéd way (like the Skeleton Tower). The color scheme is superb, and it has a very interesting architecture. As for that cauldron on top of it, I believe it's meant to be filled with burning oil that can be poured on any enemies that come knocking at the gates.

Samantha was on the verge of panic. It was Mr. Charon himself, standing right in front of them holding a katana and a gun. They had all dropped several feet below into the sewers, but they weren't alone. A mutant crawled into the dim light trickling from the sky above, and a moment later two other humans walked in on them. Samantha recognized the other as the sleazy R.A.T. she and Kiara had asked directions from earlier. "We meet again, Samantha", Warren said. "In need of a helping hand again, are we?" He and the STEEL that he was with pointed guns at Mr. Charon. The mutant lurched back, quietly observing the situation. "I see you've made friends with the vermin already, Miss Vonne", Mr. Charon said, not letting go of his weapons. "I have a terrible feeling that you weren't going to come to meet me tomorrow morning after all." "No. I know all about your boss' horrible plans, and I can't believe you are with him on them. Borgiss plans to enslave the whole human population, and you would let him do that?!" Samantha felt fear giving way to anger. "You know nothing of my plans, girl!" Mr. Charon barked. "Do you take me for a mindless fool who would blindly follow a cyborg into my own destruction? I have far greater ambitions than that!" "You have to figure out some new ambitions in Hell if you don't drop your weapons - now!" Kiara shouted. Even when being aimed by three weapons, Mr. Charon didn't seem to faze. The stalemate in the sewers continued.

Except that there's a portcullis and actual windows now. This new castle is also shorter in height, which adds to the illusion of sturdiness. I love the sets and the new minifigs included in them, but somehow they seem to lack the shininess of the Fantasy Era figs. Have they given up on pearl silver helmets and weapons, or is the lighting just off?

So you don't have time to play Cyberpunk, but you have time to play this? That's funny...

Oh, wow! At least I wondered how do the SNOT-walls even stay up, but then I noticed you've built them like real log cabins, with the pieces overlapping each other. Adding to that is the wonderful roof, which makes this a great feat in LEGO architecture. The interior is very nice as well, but I do miss a splash of color in it. Maybe even just colorful mugs or something? The overall feeling of this MOC is, like others have said, very authentically rustic. It's funny how it doesn't feel very historic, despite the minifigs, though. Maybe the world just hasn't changed that much after all.

Samantha looked at Roger Jones sheepishly. She could not believe she had worked for a maniacal cyborg aiming for world domination for five years. "Well, I am... was a Human Resources Manager at Solar-Com, in charge of recruiting new workers for the New Terrel office - and keeping them happy, too. I... I had no idea..." "Go on, we ain't got whole day", said Jones, tapping his foot. "Well, lately some workers have gone missing. I dug at the office's security logs, and saw that they never left the building, but had an appointment with The President, as we call him. I've never seen him personally before today, for Mr. Charon runs the daily business routines in the company while The President hides in the background." Samantha felt the need to take a deep breath. The R.A.T.s both looked at her with curiosity, but not with sympathy. "So today, after work when most of the others had gone home, I sneaked to the doors of The President's quarters, and saw him emerge with another man. He... he... was a cyborg! A man with robotic spider legs and horrible, metal fangs! The other man called him Borgiss. I followed them into the N.E.R.V. testing area, and heard the whole, horrible plan!" The R.A.T.s looked at each other. "We know about the mind-controlling capabilities of the N.E.R.V. chips, but what is this cyborg president of yours going to do with them, exactly?" Roger asked. "They will use Zerbite to replace the memories of every human being in this planet with ones involving Borgiss as the world leader!" Samantha exclaimed. "Bah! This sounds like a cheap comic-book plot! Can't the villains ever come up with something original?" Roger scoffed. "Samantha speaks the truth!" Kiara said suddenly. "I heard some of this through the air ventilation system in the roof. But there was some other person there, too." "Yes, the man I helped escape", Samantha nodded. "He didn't tell me his name, but he was obviously a R.A.T. He might be able to help you, but I need to get out of this island. Please, Mr. Jones, you have to help me!" Roger rubbed his beard. "Alright, you've given us important information to get us up to date with what the Solar-Com is planning. I can use my connections to get you out of here, but first you must help us defeat the cyborg." Samantha gasped. "But I'm not a fighter or a hacker! What more could I possibly do?" "You can give us access to the company computer systems. That way, we can get into the controls of the N.E.R.V. chips and disable them for good." "But I don't have such authorizations! All I get access to are the personal files of the people working there", Samantha said, spreading her arms. "Which are classified information, aren't they? If we get into those files, we will find a route into the other highly restricted sections of the network." Samantha sighed. "Okay, I'll do it, but you have to promise to get me out after that. I'm sure Mr. Charon has already send someone after me." Roger nodded.

I will gladly enlist to the army. I'm eager to see how you've upped the challenge level for this game.

OoC: Gah, everyone's after me! --------------------------------- After asking directions from a few more passers-by, Kiara took Samantha to a bar that had a real Hulk for a bouncer. The pile of muscle gave the two women a long, evaluating stare. "What d'ya want? Lookin' fer a job, maybe?" Then he laughed scornfully. Samantha saw Kiara glentching her hands into fists, obviously resisting the urge to punch the man in the guts. "Is Jones here?" Kiara asked. "Go see fer yerselves", the bouncer said, and opened the door. The initial reaction Samantha had upon entering the bar was one of abhorrence: Kiara had taken her to a strip club! "What are we doing here?!" she hissed at her companion. "You wanted to see Mr. Jones, the leader of the R.A.T.s, didn't you? Well, he's here", Kiara answered. "What kind of a man is this Mr. Jones, anyway? It's barely evening, and he hangs at a strip club?" "I doubt he's a customer here. He doing business with the owner, most likely. We R.A.T.s protect these kind of establishments, and we get paid well for that. Except sometimes, we don't." Samantha paused. "Wait a minute... So you're operating like a Mafia?!" "You Chings have made it quite impossible for us to work in legal and honest ways, so don't give me that judging tone, Samantha." Kiara turned, and headed to the back of the bar. Samantha blushed. Glancing around, she quickly followed Kiara. But they didn't get to the backroom before they found Mr. Jones. He was leaning against the bar, sipping a drink. It looked like he had had quite a few already. "Ahem! Mr. Jones, may disturb you?" Kiara said, clearing her throat. Samantha saw that she was obviously not pleased to see her leader in that condition. "Ah, Khiarah! Whaizzit you wanfrommeh?" Mr. Jones mumbled. "I got into a fighth just reshently, and needdo geddit out of my headh..." "I've got very important intel from Solar-Com. We finally found what they're going to do with the damned mind-controlling chips. But you are in no condition to receive this intel, so we have to get you out of here to sober up. Samantha, help me." Samantha took the man by the other arm as Kiara took the other. She smelled the days of heavy drinking on him, and felt even more disgusted. The two embarrased women took the R.A.T. leader out of the strip club. ----------------------- Edited to fit Brickme's post better.

In a head-spinning turn of events, Samantha found herself in R.A.T. territory, accompanied with a sinister woman who shared the same stylish hairdo as her. "So, uh... Kiara? Are you sure it's okay for me to be here? I'm technically a Ching, you know." "You are safe as long as you are with me", Kiara replied. "We probably should find you another set of clothes, that businesswoman attire attracts too much attention around here." "O-okay... I've got my credit card with me, just lead me to the nearest mall, if you would." "Mall? Haha, you think I'm inviting you to a shopping spree? That's not the way things work here, girl". Kiara winked at her and took her by the arm. She lead Samantha across a few narrow streets and into a shady alley. There was a metal door with a flickering neon sign above it saying "ARMANI'S ARMS & ARMOR". Kiara opened the door, and Samantha found herself in a small room filled with military equipment. "Yo, Armani! I've got a customer here for you! " Kiara hollered. A lanky man with greasy hair and shifty eyes stepped from the backroom. "Kiara", the man called Armani said, with obvious disdain. "What do you want?" "This blondie here needs herself some new threads. Something inconspicuous but protective." Samantha opened her mouth to say something, but felt better to just not say anything. A few moments later she was wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and tight trousers with padding on the knees - not very different from what Kiara was wearing. "Welcome to the R.A.T.s", Kiara said, and winked again. But Samantha knew that this was only temporary. She had no desire to live in these dark streets, always skulking around. She wanted security and comfort, but New Terrel wasn't going to give her that anymore. "Kiara, we need to inform the leaders of the R.A.T.s about Solar-Com. After that, I want you to take me out of here."

The official site says it's a sea serpent. It does look a bit like an eel, though.

OoC: Disturbia, my character's name is Samantha, and she did not come down to the sewers with C.C. ---------------------- Samantha felt her heart racing as she returned to her office. She had never been this excited nor scared in her life. She now knew what this company was all about, and that horrified her to no end. "I sure am glad I had to get my N.E.R.V. chip removed now..." she sighed as she slumped down to her chair. She took a tissue from the box at her sidetable, and wiped sweat from her forehead and neck. She had ran into that weird, nonsense talking R.A.T. and actually helped him out. She knew the guards would've killed him on sight if they had caught him. This company was rotten to the core, and she knew she would have to leave it as soon as possible. She started to gather her few belongings from the office, when a communications bot appeared from a hatch in the ceiling. "Miss Vonne, you have an appointment with Mr. Charon at his office tomorrow morning at nine o'clock. Please do not be late." Crap! she thought. They had seen her! Of course they had, there were surveillance cameras everywhere in this building. Why hadn't she thought about it then? "I guess I'm not cut out to be an action hero, after all", she muttered. How she wished she could be back home in Melbourne again. How she wished she would have never accepted the internship at Solar-Com five years ago. Samantha knew she had to get out of New Terrel, but of course The President and Mr. Charon wouldn't allow it. Every dock and airport would be closed off from her. She needed to go underground, then. Maybe the R.A.T. she had helped would be able to return his favor. But where could she find him? But first, she needed to get out of this building and return to her loft.

What a nice Venetian house! I love the details on the bridge, too. Just two things: I think you meant that this MOC is inspired by the Adventurers theme, rather than the Orient Expedition (which was a sequel theme of sorts), since Venice has nothing to do with the Far East. You even have the original Gail Storm minifig in your MOC, rather than Pippin Reed (the female companion of Johnny Thunder in Orient Expedition). Also, this is not quite the right section for Adventurers MOCs, as they aren't considered historical enough (as funny as it is), so they're categorized as an Action theme here. But I'm sure the mods will get around to fixing this.

Good to hear someone picked up the joke. And yes, I'm aware of the Dutch queen. I just learned that Beatrix means a female traveller in Latin (the female form of Viator). How appropriate, innit?

But this topic isn't about the SNOT technique, it's about whether to show studs or hide them. Tiling is different from Studs-Not-On-Top, you must know that. As for me, I'm gradually moving towards tiling surfaces, because 1) my collection has increased so that I now actually have enough tiles to do it, 2) my building techniques have improved from watching all these gorgeous creations here, and 3) a tiled floor really does look better than a studded one, despite it's impracticality with figs (I've found jumper plates to be handy with minifig placement, though). I will never hide studs completely, though, because I too appreciate them for what they are, and they really do bring texture to things. Studs don't really bother me at all, tiled surfaces look more finished but also less LEGO-like. So yeah, I do love studs...

But wasn't your purpose to list every minifig in the new Pirates, to see how many different ones there are? The mermaid is a minifig as well, so you can't just shrug her off because you dislike fantasy. I'm just saying, you shouldn't let your own bias affect your list, or else you're not being truthful. I did a list of female minifigs a while back, and it wouldn't have been correct if I had excluded all the figs that I do not like from the list. I hope you understand my point.

Well, they obviously changed their minds on the smallest set in the last minute. It doesn't mean this fig won't appear in the second wave of sets, though.

A nice list, even though it's a bit jumbled up, making it somewhat hard to follow. I'm just wondering, why doesn't the mermaid somehow "count" in your list? She's a minifig like the rest, isn't she? Also, you've got the wrong face for the Imperial Flagship maiden. She has the same face as the Castle queen from Drawbridge Defense and the female Atlantis researcher.

Why don't we just start the game and worry about the NPCs once we run into them? I think attention to details is important, but it sure would be great to actually get into the world so we could better help you with the details, computerbug. I don't want to push you, though. I just think I'm not the only one who's anxious to play already.

Thanks for the comments, guys! It's always nice to wake up to see people have actually read the comic I've been working on for days. Of course you will see the Blood Knight, you know how much I love to "foreshadow" events to come. As for the photo quality, my boyfriend taught me to use a tripod and adjust the lenght of exposure to take better pictures, but of course I managed to screw up a few of them. I just don't have the patience to check every photo I take, but you're right, this is definitely something to improve upon. Uh, you might want to check back on the final chapter of Princess Quest to see what fate befall on Sir Brickhart. But there's plenty of knights in Queens' Quest as well, since there's the new, ginger-haired guy along with Rod and Sir Dancelot. You'll learn more about him in the future chapters. There's actually an important reason why the other Zanzibar has decided to dress up differently. There's a hint of it in this comic as well, since he doesn't really care to argue with the blue Zanzibar. But more on that later, as well. I feel like I'm holding so many strings with this comic that I really hope I don't jumble them up. But to get philosophical, I believe that the more "threads" the story has, the more beautiful is the pattern it will eventually make.

I promised I would post at least one chapter of my comic Queens' Quest every month, and Chapter II made it just in the nick of time. I intend to keep the deadlines in the future as well, even though I also thrive to up the quality of my comics at the same time. As you can soon see, the photography has once again improved from the previous chapter, and I'm quite happy with the MOCs I made for this chapter as well. Anyway, in this chapter we return to Queen Beatrix at Castle Brickborough. Like the first chapter, this one is also an "introductory" chapter, but I guarantee that there's plenty of action up ahead. I hope you won't be overwhelmed by the multitude of characters, I'll try to get a "Who's Who" topic up somewhere in the future as well to keep you in track of them. But for now, I hope you enjoy the comic! All comments and feedback are greatly cherished! In Chapter III dated for February, there will be an unveiling of a third queen aside from the twins. Crazy, huh?! We will also return to the witches, and watch as Xulda embraces her own quest.