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I found your initial vote to be unfounded, or at the least unsubstantiated. If you could give a more solid reason than "Missing his family," I would have more faith in my leadership.

I am changing my vote. The degree to which I'm unsettled, I need to do something. If I'm aligning myself with the wrong party, well, God forgive for the mistakes I've made. Know my heart is in the right place. I think this is for the best. Unvote: Provost Guard Mason Dalese/MetroiD Vote: Vote: Lt. Pellcan/pedro

Reading the discussions that have gone on in the last few hours, I am puzzled by one thing; why hasn't Private Entaine voted? He seems like the one with the most personal evidence to do so...

I too, would love to be investigated, to have my status as an honoured confirmed. I have nothing to hide.

My previous statement was indeed hasty and overstated, and perhaps regrettable, so I respect your decision. The actual intent of that statement was to communicate that the rash of voting for Entaine has unnerved me, and it was the second time a provost's behaviour has not sat well with me. So, having seen our captain pass in the last 24 hours, I am unsure of how high up in the hierarchy this corruption has reached. I wonder why you think yourself and Mr. Des should be above suspicion? Up to this point, the two of you are the only ones who've exhibited any suspicious behaviour. In contrast, my only "suspicious" behaviour is suspecting you. I place my country first above all. Let us have more concrete information tomorrow.

If it's a "shot in the dark" you want, I suggest the Provosts, who've brought nothing to assuage us so far... Just a continuing investigation and a dead captain.

Initiative is not the issue. It's four people making an identical vote with little rationale behind it. One person, yes. But four? No, it doesn't sit right by me. More is needed than, He missed his family, therefore... I stand by my vote. I'm not 100% sure, but far more so than I am about Pvt. Entaine. This feels like a lynching, a coordinated one.

I haven't used CorelDraw, but if it were me, I'd do a decal in Illustrator. It would be scalable, and you can turn it into a Smart Object in Photoshop/Illustrator. It's a takes a bit of time to explain it, but smart objects are really useful.

That's fine, if you send me a link to a higher-res original version, I'll see what I can do with it. Let's use the shot before you worked on it, if you still have it. I'm not entirely keen to do the Mars shot again, since I made it a month ago, but I can do an alternate maybe, to keep things exciting for me if you don't have it.

Sure, let's do it. You can stop it when it's white, and I'll keep going, because I have a new lovely cloud (and possibly water) technique I want to try out.

I don't find that argument convincing at all. Is there a man among us who doesn't wish to be with his family again? I find these four votes in rapid succession with little foundation very suspicious indeed.

I might have already mentioned it in this thread, but I'd love to see a full Nintendo license. I would only buy a little Mario set for the mini-figs, but the other two big Nintendo series, Zelda and Metroid would be phenomenal. I've been playing different Zelda's for the last month, and the setting is perfect, kind of foresty/castle stuff. I finished Metroid Prime last year, and the same thing, a perfect setting, a mixture of ruins and sci-fi. I don't know if the license would be powerful enough to justify though. Wii is number one, but those three series seem to only sell great when packed in Smash Brothers. A lot of potential there though.

Sorry, I meant drop a background in in Photoshop. In a pic like that, simply a nice sky, grass, and sea background would do nicely. I take my photos on white too, though a pic like that would be well served with a color to contrast with, since the building's white.

I think full Photoshop is needed if you want to do graphic effects. Elements is more or less a colour editor, right? As I mentioned in the first post, there is a free 30-day download of Photoshop, so I recommend installing it at the start of a vacation, so you can push yourself on it. I started on Photoshop 4.0, and am now using CS4, and I keep needing to learn new techniques. I've been buying The other thing though, is that it's really hard to do tight graphics without a digi-pen. It's an investment (a cheap one is $100 or so) but it will pay off in the long run in all graphics stuff you do. As for your pic, it looks fine at that size. Once you drop it on a background, we can see how well it works. Lego tends to get a shiny white line around it, so I tend to edit it out, cutting out a little extra. I'm working on a technique to replace the colors and keep more of it intact, but so far no luck. But looking at the ninja pic, it doesn't seem like there is anything missing. Do you have a background in mind for your picture? The angle you shot is a little difficult, because it is a crane shot of sorts, and may be hard to find something that fits that perspective. You could try taking a shot from a Lego person's eye level. The background would be easy to improvise... Very easy

Are you saying that photo didn't make you crack a little smile, not even a little? It brightened my day up a whole lot

If you're having a bad day, and feeling low about yourself, well, look what this guy did to himself. And apparently, he's just getting started

Hora is "look" as in "look out!" "look at that!" but not as in "I'm looking". Cave would be 洞. Same pronunciation, but written different I'm a stickler for accuracy.

While I respect that you will not vote for me as an act of revenge, at no point did I request anything be sputtered out. I simply asked that we be given some information from those in charge of the investigation. Already, it seems our captain has been failed.

I almost don't read any issues anymore, just collections if any. But my preference is for books rather than 30-page booklets. I mentioned I'd bought it before, but I just started reading it yesterday, A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi. A roughly 900-page autobiography by one of Japan's early manga masters. The first 150 pages show the artist growing up in post-war Japan, getting published while in high school, and meeting regularly with his idol, Osamu Tezuka (creator of Astro Boy, among many other things). Not a slow read, since it's manga paced, but very deep and personal. Recommended to anyone who loves comics (reading, drawing, dreaming), but gets tired of the same muscly-man/pin-up girl computer colored books that dominate in the West. It's also an interesting taste of life in Japan in the post-war era. I'll be finishing this book quickly, but if it was just the parts I've read so far, it would still get a 5/5 rating from me. As a comics fan, I get really sad that comics=superheroes and talking animals to most people.

I too was surprised that the captain was targeted. I thought that they would avoid a high profile victim, such as him. I have a theory which makes me quite uncomfortable, and fills me with horror, since it is the only one that makes any sense to me. I asked the captain how the first murder was being investigated, and he said the provosts were in charge. I asked the provosts to reveal their findings, and they have been silent. In fact, the only suspicious behaviour I have witnessed has been from a provost When it was revealed we had these scoundrels in our midst, Provost Guard Mason Dalese urged us not to investigate. When the first murder was discovered, he suggested we all show our bags, and then volunteered to show his own. It is a strange thing to see an investigator first proclaim their innocence before they investigate, and offer "evidence". Of course, if you are investigating, you would offer up "evidence" of your innocence, knowing where the investigation might begin. Since then, no investigative evidence has come up. It is with heavy heart that I vote: Provost Guard Mason Dalese unless contrary evidence arises.

In a week or two, I'm going to do a tutorial on how to do a Mars scene, in this pic: But, in the meantime, if anyone wants to chat about Photoshopping, I'd love to, it's on my head a lot these days. I finished this today, which is a combination of photos of Lego I took, with a variety of effects, all done in Photoshop (except the word baloon, done in Illustrator).

That's a really lovely assortment of figures there. It's hard to see Yavin from every view, but shots like this really capture the mood of the scene. Nice!

Ninjas. Full of surprises. TLG knows this, and portrayed it in their late 90's set Ninja Surprise. Ninjas and surprises, two of the greatest achievements of human civilization... On paper, it sounds perfect, but how does it actualize itself? (Full size intro pic http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/nahadef/...mangabig.jpg) Set#: 6045 Name: Ninja Surprise Theme: Castle/Ninja Year: 1998 Pieces: 112 Minifigs: 3: Ninja - Black, Ninja - Robber, Brown, Ninja - Robber, Green MSP: U.S.$13, Peeron Brickset Bricklink The booklets Front cover has an action scene. Though ninjas are Japanese, the setting is positively Chinese. None of those type mountains in Japan. Some alternate build. Not particularly stimulating. The inside back cover shows the action features, and another alternate build, which is very lame. The Pieces Most of the pieces are nothing special, but there's a few notable parts. The flag is classy, the fish are lovely, and the weapons are deserving of a medieval militia. Three ninjas. One proper one, and two scoundrels. Why do the two reds guard a jewel in a mountain top hideout? Something's going on. I quite like the guy with the eye-patch, his scowl, his stubble... And lovely prints on all of them. Nothing much to see from behind, but I can give a lot of credit to a set with three original headgear pieces. The Finished Product When building this, I wasn't even aware of what it was until it was finished. It's not overly complicated, but it's very stable. Using a pair of lances, the large one piece wings are snapped on. This is a nice, vinyl print, lots of details. The tears are unprinted and see-through. I'm impressed. Two little handles jut out for our ninja to grab. He sits there firmly, sword on his back, ready to swoop in. The temple is a nice small size. It has slopes, greebling, and greenery. The rock part of the bricks aren't symmetrical, a rare touch. The back is nothing unimaginable, since it's mostly one large piece. The red knob on the left side is the trigger for the one action feature, as we'll see. There's something lurking up above... Nothing worth worrying about, at least not when there's a sparkling jewel to drop in me pocketses... Oh! An axe! Devious, ninjas, truly devious. The Final Verdict It looks good. Design: 8/10 I reviewed the Adventurers set Spider's Secret last week, and I remember getting both around the same time and noting the similarities. Both are a small remote locale with a secret treasure and a near-identical booby trap. I felt pretty disappointed about it. Of the two, the Adventurers set gets the win. In this set, I like the detailing, but it's a pretty simple design. The glider keeps this from being a lower number. Build: 6/10 The glider is clever, but this is truly an average build overall. Playability: 8/10 It comes with two factions, a clear setting, and a narrative. Very playable. Minifigures: 10/10 A small set with three cool figures and no repetition between them. They made this set worth buying. Price: 9/10 I wish there were deals like this today. Overall: 8/10 Not exceptional, but a small solid addition to the ninja line. For the price, you couldn't ask for more. And as much as all the colours of ninja are cool, lets be realistic: ninjas wear black. This is the real deal. This set gets you two classic-looking Japanese minifigs, and a third, grizzled o-jiisan (old man). I'm glad I have this, and I'm thinking about expanding my ninja collection, thanks to all the ninja action on Eurobricks in the last couple of months. Mr. Jim Butcher, I trust these photos satisfy thee?

I don't think you understood my post I explicitly wrote that Indie wasn't popular enough for an expanded universe Lego series, not that one didn't exist. Maybe you think it is, but I don't think so. Adventurers has already shown it is a series not 100% grounded in reality, seen in the dinosaur series. But, I've seen your avatar, so I know what side of the fence you're on, and I'll leave it at that

I am disgusted by what lows my countrymen have sunk to. Despite my love of grilled meat, I cannot enjoy sausage while under the cloud of our current situation. As our dear honoured countryman Captain LeCoq told us yesterday, this case was in the hands of the Provosts. Provosts, please tell us what your investigation has revealed. I think I can speak for all the men when I say that our morale will not recover until the culprit has been uncovered.