MKJoshA

Wow! Fantastic story and your photography is impeccable!

Here's my entry for Cat B!

UPDATE! I've added some more pictures that show the actual battle between the crews. OoC: there are a lot of pictures, if you want the "poster shot" go here. The White Wind was an Eslandolian warship tasked with defending the treasure being transported back to the mainland. It had an able-bodied crew who was dead set on defending their cargo. With 10 canons, they knew they were not an easy prize. The captain had received a special commendation for taking this commission and was determined to see it through. Their sails were full and they were making excellent speed. (more pictures of The White Wind) But even though were going about 12 knots, another ship was coming up behind them and they were flying the black. They were being pursued by The Jade Piranha. Led by the notorious captain Zheng, his crew of miscreants aboard The Jade Piranha were after the treasure they had heard about from Captain Li Fang after he learned about the information from a whaler. They spied The White Wind and began their approach and assault. Having two forward guns, they began their attack long before a normal ship would be able to. While The White Wind had 10 canons, The Jade Piranha had 12 side canons alone and was more than a match for the treasure laden ship. The crew was a fearsome bunch. And their captain was not known for his leniency. (more pictures of The Jade Piranha) Using their forward canons, The Jade Piranha disabled The White Wind's ruder. Without a ruder, it was easy for the pirates to close the rest of the gap between the two ships. The crews prepared to face each other. Cannons fired! And then the crews clashed! When all was said and done, The White Wind was captured, it's crew killed or enslaved, and the treasure now in the hands of pirates! (more pictures!) OoC: Sorry that there isn't more minifigure posing! I was struggling to keep these two ships within my poster board for pictures and editing was already going to be a nightmare without editing 50 of the same shot but with the minifigures in different position. In hindsight I could have done a little bit more with close ups, but too late now! For those who are wondering, the sand green clips were from a PaB in the Chicagoland area. I didn't buy them with this boat in mind, but I'm really happy with how it turned out and I'm glad I did! The Chinese Junk design is based on a number of Google imagines that show up when you search for "Chinese Junk," surprise, surprise. Lastly, these two ships barely fit within the size limits of 80x48. They fit in the 48 width restriction when they are side by side like they are in the pictures and the only overhang past the 80 length restriction is The White Wind's bowsprit which overhangs by about 5 studs. I asked and the rest of the BoBS leaders are okay with that much overhang for anyone else who might be interested. I hope you enjoyed my entry. I had a lot of fun making it!

Just a reminder that there are only 11 days left for this contest!

There's a battle coming. Can anyone withstand the Jade Piranha? Teaser Pic:

Category B: How to Make Enchanted Pumpkin Pie

Location: B06 Sorn Tags: Vehicle, Land Vehicle, Exploration Last time, in Ender's story: Kanto Park Space Pirates "Ender," said Valentine, "I'm glad you're here. I wanted to talk to you about the specimen you brought back from one of the islands." "Oh yeah," responded Ender, "That plant you wanted me to bring back?" "It's not a plant" replied Valentine. "It's actually a small furry mammal similar to Earth's rabbit. It's cute, cuddly, and reproduces offspring faster than any other known warm-blooded creature." "Wow! Thanks for the science lesson" said Ender. "Hmm, you know, this could actually be exactly what we need to take down Graver's robot!" "Wait," interrupted Valentine, "I thought Graver was the threat." "You didn't hear?" inquired Ender. "Well, let me tell you... (OoC: the scene below is recycled and shouldn't be judged) Good job robot. Now hand over control of the ship. No. I no longer need to submit to you. I have outgrown my programing. You can call me Master or you can die. Why you ungrateful hunk of metal! I made you what you are! Without me you would be nothing! And with you, I am nothing. I will take my chances on my own. Glurg.... glurg... "So you see," explained Ender, "Graver is dead and now his robot is the threat!" "Oh my" said Valentine. "So what's your plan?" "I think we can use the Pokeball I won at Kanto Park while on my vacation" responded Ender. He then explained the rest of his plan, which we will find out next week! More pictures of the lab:

Thank you all for working to keep this thread on track. And thank you for understanding that some people care about certain spoiler elements more than you yourself might. Keep up the good work!

No rush Bob, I know you have a lot of things to catch up on, but when you get the map updated can you give us a heads up that it's ready for further planning? Thanks!

Hurray! I'm so happy to at least have won 3rd! Thank you pombe for an honorable fight. May you win a medal in one of the other competitions. And thank you LucByard for your poem.

Yikes! Blastoise didn't stand a chance! Do we have a match to decide 3rd place between Big Head Mech and Blastoise?

I've fixed it to have both say G10. Thanks for catching that.

Noooooooooo!!!! I will avenge you Bigger Sal! Go Blastoise!

No, that's fair. Thanks for clarifying!

I don't think I got my Driver bonus for my last build. Was it because it didn't qualify?

I really want to see Big Head Mech vs. Bigger Sal! Come on Bigger Sal, beat those odds!

Hurray! I beat an alien! I am a little surprised that the alien was able to deal 12 damage points though. That's quite the punch that little guy packs!

The deadline for entries to this episode has officially passed, so please don't post any entries anymore, since they will be disqualified. You can always post your entry as a freebuild so that you still get XP for it just like a regular freebuild. This also means that you have a week now to come up with a model that represents what you think the secret model looks like, as described in the rules of this episode. Try to use as many of the parts of the list you can, and guess at the parts you don't know. Accuracy of the build will be based on subject, form and the difference between the amount of correct and incorrect parts. You can guess what the secret parts that were assigned to the opposing faction were by paying close attention at their builds (only the ones with the ID of the part - like R06 or E02 - in the topic title contain a secret part). Parts that were assigned to the opposing faction, but weren't incorporated into a legal build, are now publicly available on the adjusted public parts list, which you can find here. You have one week to come up with your best guess at the model. Send a digital .lxf file (this is the file made by Lego Digital Designer) to BEAVeR before September 11th has passed on every place of the world. If you have any questions, you can post them here, or send them to MKJoshA and/or Nom Carver.

Here's my entry for Cat A!

WARNING! The story below is a graphic one. Do not look at the pictures if you faint at the sight of blood! Previously: Recruiting at Marco's This Is Not the Wealthy Housing of Rassilon Falling Out with Foxx Cantu's Fort in Rassilon Freddy's Trained Chickens The Viper Jail Break! Cantu's House Even a Pirate Has a Sweet Tooth La Oleon Captain's Cabin Tropical Fruit Decision Lumber Camp Freddy's Big Haul The Golden Dragon The Capture of "El Polla" Swamp Raid Pirate Lagoon Palm Tree Inn Statues of Justice Secrets in the Hold Pirate Dojo Rumors were rampant with word of a possible treasure, but specific details were scarce. Captain Li of The Viper was determined to be the Pirate who would be known for getting the treasure. His crew spotted a cog known as Barell Belly (not shown in this post) in the distance and he decided to see if they had any information about the treasure. Of course, being the kind of captain he was, he decided to torture the information out of the crew. As they approached the cog, they realized it was a whaler. Li sent a small number of his crew out to retrieve the crew who were harvesting the whale oil while the rest of the ship took care of the Barell Belly. The whalers had just finished slaying the whale so the long boats were still a long ways from their ship. This allowed the small party from The Viper to approach without suspicion as Li began his attack on the Barell Belly. Li had commanded the men to bring back as many prisoners as possible for questioning. But the party's captain had other plans. As soon as they were out of ear shot he told the crew, "I'm itching for a fight today boys! Now we're going to kill the lot of these whalers and have some fun with it! We can tell the captain they put up too much of a fight to bring any of them back alive. You all with me?" There was a chorus of "yes" from all the crew except Sinbad. "And you, Sinbad" asked the leader. "Can we count on you?" "You're the boss, boss" was Sinbad's reply. "Good, now let's give them what for!" Three of the men were dispatched with brutal quickness, but Sinbad kept hesitating. He never had any intention of kill his man. But he was contemplating his next move. He was in a right sticky situation and he knew it. All four of his fellow pirates wanted him dead. And he knew they probably intended to kill him here and now and make it look like he died in the fight. But how was he to get out of his predicament? "Please, I'm the captain, I can pay you a ransom" said the man Sinbad was holding at gun point. "Just don't shoot me and we can both come out of this with what we want." Sinbad called over his shoulder to the leader, "Boss, he says he's the captain. Maybe we should take him back to Li for questioning." In that moment Sinbad knew what he was going to do. How had he ended up in this situation to begin with? He had chosen it. He had chosen to join a pirate crew because he didn't want to live by the rules his family and country had dictated he must follow without consulting him. His whole had been planned out and regulated without so much as a thought as to what he might want. So he had left it all behind to join a crew of men who made their own way in the world. He had even chosen to serve Li over his father Cho, as little as he liked to admit it, when he left Cho in prison. Being a pirate was really about being able to chose your own way, and dealing with whatever consequences there might be, good or bad. Sinbad was going to give this lot a choice. They could obey the captain's orders and bring this man back to Li alive, or they could chose not to and face the consequences. The boss called out, "Now Sinbad. We agreed, are you going to make this difficult for us?" The other men started to turn towards Sinbad so he made his move. Sinbad shot the first man in the face blowing him backwards. Then he leaped across the whale's carcass grabbing one of the harpoons on his way across. "You all had your chance!" shouted Sinbad. "You shouldn't have chosen to cross the captain and kill me." And with that he threw the harpoon through the flesh of the last pirate. His dirty task finished, Sinbad tied up the captain of the Barell Belly and sailed back to The Viper, still carrying the harpoon. OoC: Since I know someone's going to ask, the harpoon is from this set. Not a common piece, but I ran across it while I was making a Bricklink order awhile back and decided I really wanted to use it as a pirate weapon. And the orange hair is from the new Beauty and Beast set.

Pirate Dojo

Previously: Recruiting at Marco's This Is Not the Wealthy Housing of Rassilon Falling Out with Foxx Cantu's Fort in Rassilon Freddy's Trained Chickens The Viper Jail Break! Cantu's House Even a Pirate Has a Sweet Tooth La Oleon Captain's Cabin Tropical Fruit Decision Lumber Camp Freddy's Big Haul The Golden Dragon The Capture of "El Polla" Swamp Raid Pirate Lagoon Palm Tree Inn Statues of Justice Secrets in the Hold While Cho had been secretly hiding out in Rassilon he had contemplated his mis-fortune. His own son had left him to rot in a Mardien prison. His men had essentially mutinied against him and no one had come back to rescue him. He wanted his ship back and he wanted a crew to command. But as long as he had no gold, neither seemed like a reasonable possibility. While in town he heard the rumors of a treasure fleet bound from Nelisa. He decided to visit his old Sensei. He know that if anyone in Rassilon had information on the treasure, it would be him. "Sensei," said Cho, "I see you are still training men in the ways of martial arts. It seems that even Sea Rats can be taught discipline." "Yes," replied the Sensei, "You would do well to remember your old lessons. You seem to be lacking in discipline yourself these days if the rumors are true. Not even able to hold a crew together eh?" "Sensei," said Cho, "It was not I who lacked the discipline, but my son. He's the one who choose his own way rather than submit to me. But that's not why I'm here." "But it is why you should be." answered Sensei. "You think that treasure will buy your way back into power, but what you don't understand is that you are working with pirates. They exist because they do not believe submitting to their authorities is in their best interest. They want to choose their own way and reap the full rewards of it without having to share with anyone else. That is what your son understands and you do not. Sea Rats will not submit simply because the honor demands it. But they can have honor in their own way. If they respect the Pirate Code and their fellow men who uphold it, that is a kind of honor. But enough of my prattle, as you said, it's not why you're here. Come inside and I will share with you what I know of the treasure."

To finish off the Space Olympics, Ender trained long and hard to be able to compete in the galactic pole vault. Even though he trained for months, he still only made into the rookie round. But he cleared the vault with room to spare! Ender hoped it would be enough to bring his company glory and honor.

The contest is over everyone! I'll try to get the list of parts not used by either team up soon for you all.

Gorgeous! The build and the story, I'm always left wanting more!