Tenorikuma

I decided to build some ambitious MOCs by first laying out the design with software, and then using Bricklink to locate and purchase all the pieces. It's been a learning experience so far, so I thought I'd write about the process here. The first model I'm going to build is a Forest Tower I've decided to build for the forest king and his men. This is actually the centrepiece of what I hope will be a large fortified outpost. I'm trying to avoid the look of typical castle MOCs and go for something a little more fantastic. The architecture is sort of a mix of Nordic and Japanese, almost elven. The bulk of the model is sand green, with dark blue roofing, reddish-brown timbers, and gold trim. Here's the model being worked on in Bricksmith, a Mac building program that is Ldraw-compatible: Here's what the almost-final draft looks like in LDview, an Ldraw renderer for the Mac: Building an Ldraw model that actually works is challenging. You can't rely on the software to know how well pieces fit, and whether your construction is sturdy enough to hold together. It's also surprising just how limited some pieces are when it comes to colours. I kept referring to Bricklink's database to see what was available, and was surprised over and over to find that pieces I needed didn't exist in colours like brown or dark blue. A certain amount of revision had to accommodate this. Once the model was finished, I used another app called Brickstore to analyze all the pieces used in the model and upload a wishlist to Bricklink. Then, from the Bricklink website, I began shopping. I ended up opening up some of the larger stores in parallel tabs, and, using the "show all parts in wishlist" feature, doing price comparisons and adding parts to the shopping cart of whichever store was the cheapest. Since this model has over 1000 pieces, it only made sense to buy each part from the cheapest source possible. In hindsight, I should have focussed on buying from the fewest number of stores possible instead. I ended up purchasing from 12 different vendors, and a good 30% of my cost has gone into shipping. Live and learn. At this point, about 70% of the parts have arrived by mail, and I've already begun the foundation. In doing so, I've discovered a few pieces I missed ordering (I definitely need a better way of tracking the parts I need), and I've had one slightly messed up order already — one vendor sent me mostly brown tiles instead of reddish brown. To be continued…

Star Wars is the best selling line in the US, a key market for Lego, so they're not likely to ever get rid of it until a decline in sales makes it a moot point. That might happen if Clone Wars sucks and they don't want to keep making original trilogy sets, but there's still that live-action TV series that could keep Star Wars hot. If Lego ever dropped Star Wars, they'd want a strong replacement for North American market. I'm sure Lord of the Rings could do pretty well, and The Hobbit would give them a nice opportunity to introduce it. LOTR is also likely to do better in Europe than Star Wars, I'll wager.

Does it have to be wheat? I bet someone could come up with a good corn plant.

I think it's half corporate culture — Lego likes being secretive and revealing sets only when they're ready to sell them, because that's just how they are — and half a marketing decision, because they don't want people to put off purchases until next year. I don't think clone brands are the issue — the Asian cloners won't get their info from blurry photos on the Internet, they undoubtedly already have real copies of the retail catalog in their hands.

This is a truly terrific model and diorama. The building designs are wonderful, and the builder's maintained excellent control of his colour scheme. There are some interesting roof techniques in there as well.

I suspect this will be like Star Wars Lego and the new Castle line. If it's a big hit, Lego will see it as less risky and put more effort into large quality sets. For starters, I think it looks very good, including the new pirate ship — which looks nicer to me than the BSB.

Dar, here be my entry. Now where's me booty?

Proceedin'! Your starship corrider is great, and I love Starcraft. Your figures are also great, except that I can't say I approve of painting the pieces or otherwise modifying them (that's what Warhammer 40K is for). I think that using some of the printed hospital pieces, you could make a great set of white-clad medic troopers.

Ah, so his uncle's the villain then. Use the slogan if you like it, I have more.

If he built up his identity by stealing from his uncle, doesn't that set on the path to being a super-villain instead? "The Curdler Always Gets His Whey!"

How about this: Make the main setting a massive super-villain base on a tropical island (think Far Cry or The Incredibles) where Dr. Inferno has a secret laboratory dedicated to breeding or engineering Ogel's skeleton zombie army. The base should be complete with lookout towers, bunkers, barracks and ammo stores, a power plant, small airstrip, etc. The Agents infiltrate the island, looking for a way to sabotage Dr. Inferno's plans. Along the way, they discover and rescue several Alpha Team members kept captive by Dr. Inferno in holding cells.

This is really an ideal small set. In spite of its size, it has nearly everything: • Three minifigs • A vehicle • A building • Numerous minifig accessories • Numerous rare and useful parts • Nice model design (especially for the time period) Too bad Outback came out during my dark years.

I prefer castle for MOCs and minifigs, but I think the Star Wars sets are nicer when it comes to design and pieces. If you're the collector type, Star Wars offers one long, unbroken line with dozens of ships, vehicles, and buildings that will make terrific dioramas. Castle themes tend to change every 2-3 years and don't mix as well.

Hilarious! I bet she threw out the penicillin and flare gun to make room for the axe and dynamite in her survival kit. Who wouldn't? Maybe she's a Lost escapee.

I should really get one more of these for the figures, shields, and weapons. This set is the only one with the scythe in pearl-grey, by the way. "The only thing that puzzles me is; why would a Crown Knight joust a Skeleton?" Good question. For a joust to make sense, this set should contain two human knights instead -- which would be fine with me so long as they had differing armour and colours.

Graphic designer and Japanese-English translator.

I picked up the Coast Guard Platform the other day, and I have to say, I'm quite impressed with it. The price-per-piece ratio is not exactly ideal, but it's a well-designed set with a ton of playability and great pieces, including those extremely rare struts and pillars. Construction is easy and fun, especially compared to the Exo-force tank I assembled the other day that was complete drudgery. The helicopter in this set is much more nicely designed than helicopters from previous years -- I like the pontoons in particular -- and the piece for it come in a separate bag with a separate instruction booklet, so those of you buying this set for parts could sell off the chopper as a separate model.

It appears you've covered nearly all the "fun" pirate loot, Wes. I think good old bullion and gems are standard booty/treasure stock. The Peruvian idol does make for a nice-looking prize — I guess that could be some pilfered native relic, although I think a conquistador is more likely to have these in his cargo hold than a pirate is. Other valuable cargos from the Golden Age of Piracy would include guns and gunpowder, kegs of ale or wine, tobacco, sugar, and chocolate. These last three were significant cash crops grown in the New World and primary targets of piracy. (Most pirates did not actually go around looking for pieces of eight or buried trasure.) Seizing European goods to sell to the New World colonies would have been lucrative as well. Basically, a pirate is interested in most of the same things a legitimate merchant is. On a side note, while many regular merchants sold slaves in the New World, pirates had a reputation for freeing the slaves they captured. Occasionally, however, a useful civilian like a doctor might be forced to serve aboard a pirate ship for a while. You might consider him a sort of booty.

ANA sets are always the real thing.

I like it! The "story" you've included with the MOC lends character, and I like how the main building is at an angle to the landscape.

I vote for you, since you took all my ideas (monkey and parrot smileys).

In that last photo, the hands of the minifigs are visibly falling out of their arm sockets.

If you ask me, the mud guard piece isn't nearly as bad as the big helicopter landing skids piece.

That's really neat; it looks like fun to play with! Are you planning to upgrade it or add onto it?

"Economies of scale" has to do with a lot more than just population. It involves how highly developed and streamlined manufacturing, distribution, and retail networks of a locale are, as well the purchasing power of an average individual and the reliability of the local infrastructure. It may well be that Lego has run the numbers, and they can make more money selling to Singapore's 5 million people than Indonesia's 210. If Lego is wrong about this, perhaps someone should set up a competing wholesale business to sell cheaper Lego in Indonesia.