blueandwhite

I love seeing these rare parts. Even though most are utterly useless, the sheer 'gotta have them' factor for these makes them amazing! I think the first one I heard about was the Red Ghost which apparently was first found in Germany at a market sale. Despite fears of counterfiet I doubt that there will ever be a huge market for these. If rare parts became commonplace, many buyers would undoubtedly become skeptical and the store would be shut down pretty quickly. It would also be a quick doorway to litigation as the bricks would either be too close to the LEGO originals prompting action by LEGO themselves or easy-to-spot fakes which would set off alarms for consumers. Very few sellers are actually in a good position to get these bricks and it would appear that LEGO is more than ok with the ones who have them. Given the public nature of Bricklink, I would suspect that LEGO could easily clamp down on this down if they wanted to. That being said, I'm very happy with my black wizard beards.

Studs Not On Top I think he's referring to the base of the MOC which has been constructed by laying the bricks on their sides to expose the smooth surfaces of the bricks while avoiding the tiling effect (covering studs with plates). ---------------------------------------------------------------- As to the MOC itself. It's a very nice MOC and a great combination of colours. I'm particularly impressed by the use of the mixed-colour LURPs (Little Ugly Rock Piece) at the base of the mountain. It really gives the MOC a nice feel as if snow has built up at the base of the cliff. And while I'm not a big fan of bley, I have to say that it works incredibly well with winter MOCs. the blue tones in bley really add to the 'cool' feel of this MOC. Great work!

I'd actually like some white/offwhite canvas sails instead of the older striped varriants. The striped sails look ok on smaller ships, but when it comes to large MOCs they tend to look too busy. As I'm a purist and cringe at the thought of making my own sails I'm hoping LEGO will solve this dilema for me. I'm also hoping for dark brown hull pieces. I'm not overly fond of the reddish brown colour but I absolutely love the new dark brown. It actually seems like the perfect colour for a ship's hull. The other thing I'd like to see is a modular port system using technic pins or something similar. I miss the modular castles from the 80s. The idea of combining sets to create something more impressive always struck me as being a good idea for those builders who weren't that into MOCing.

I wouldn't worry that sort of thing. As long as the original creator is credited and people are polite things shouldn't be a problem for most builders (I hope). This isn't exactly a problem unique to Eurobricks. I've found this to be somewhat common across LEGO forums. I suspect that it's just human nature to be more critical of strangers. It's very easy to be unnecessarily condescending when the original creator is not present. Perhaps I'm alone in observing this, but it does seem that people do tend to heap on nothing but praise for MOCs that are created by a thread-starter while ripping apart the MOCs of unknown builders if they are anything less than a masterwork (and in some cases even master-level MOCs seem to take a good thrashing). Heck, it's that anonymity that makes many of the reviews on MOCpages so difficult to read. People tend to forget that there are other fans behind these MOCs who pour their best into them. Phes, I actually have found that most posters are pretty level-headed. There will always be a few who are a bit harsher than the majority.

This is a decision that ultimately rests in the hands of LEGO. As Hairy Ruben pointed out, given the fantastic MOCs seen here and elsewhere, there's no reason that LEGO couldn't improve on older sets but that will depend on any number of factors including cost, target demographic and the set designers themselves. Still, I'm voting yes if only because I'd like to be optimistic about what the future holds for the pirate line. Even though I am a diehard castle fan, the pirates theme was always a close second for me so I would love to see it return bigger and better than ever. Given the recent success of the Castle line, I don't see why we shouldn't expect great things from a new Pirate theme.

How comprehensive is this index going to be, because particularly when it comes to castle I could envision this entailing literally hundreds of MOCs. Other than Town/City, Castle seems to be one of the most frequented themes. Is the index going to focus largely on Eurobricks members or is it also going to entail prominent non-Eurobricks builders? I'm only asking because given the nature of LEGO History & Adventure, might it not be better to have a few indexes (ie. Western, Adventure, Ninja, and Castle) rather than a single index that becomes too convoluted to be easily navigated? Despite my concerns, I do really like this idea and I'm glad to see MOC indexing being featured on Eurobricks as searching for that perfect MOC when you can't recall the builder can be frustrating. Thanks for the work your putting into this. It really is appreciated.

I'm too lazy to make a niche for myself. Heck, the best builders let their MOCs speak for themselves. It's my goal to get to a level where I can do the same. IMO, the people who have really carved a niche for themselves on this site are those who have the phrase "MOC Expert" under their names. Good solid building skills are what LEGO is all about.

I graduated from law school but I have since gone back to school and become a teacher (not everyone has what it takes to be a lawyer).

She was a nice ship but kudos to any LEGO fan who has the courage to canibalize any MOC to move forward to bigger and better things. Green Hair, you're an excellent builder so it's nice to konw that whatever happens, the bricks from LE Requin will be put to good use.

I've been a member of both Classic-Castle and Eurobricks for a few years and have found both sites to be quite useful. Given Forbidden Cove's close ties to Classic-Castle. I don't really see the harm in having another site dedicated to Pirates, particularly if there is a new pirate theme (which is seeming quite likely at this point) on the horizon. I'm not really that put off by the jabs coming from either site. I'm an adult and I choose freely where I want to post. As long as I'm curteous and mindful of a forum's rules, I don't care if different sites choose to be in competition with each other or not. People left Lugnet. I never really got that involved over there as I found many senior posters to be quite condescending or flat out rude to more junior members. Eurobricks has always been friendly to me, so I can't see myself going anywhere. The same is true of Classic-Castle so when all is said and done, I'm more than willing to give Forbidden Cove a chance too. Right now I simply see the jabs at Eurobricks as being of no real importance. I certainly wouldn't let them get under my skin.

It looks like a very nice set but the price is a bit too rich for my tastes. I don't play alot of chess so the set doesn't really appeal to my interests and as a high-end parts pack I can probably do better elsewhere. Still, your review is excellent and I definitely get the feeling that for fantasy fans this is definitely a must-have purchase.

I agree that this is quite beautiful, but it's definitely far smaller than minifig scale. Still, for most fans that shouldn't be an issue as sets like the Death Star and Star Destroyer have been similarly misproportioned and both have proven to be quite popular. As for an interior; if it doesn't have one you can always add your own.

I can't believed that I missed this gem of a MOC. I've got to say, this is one beautiful ship. Generally I find that the majority of pirate ship MOCs tend to feel a bit mis-proportioned when built on the conventional LEGO boat hulls, yet you've managed to build one of the most beautiful ships I've seen to date. There are several larger Pirate MOCs on these hulls, but this is probably my favorite. You have essentially done what most of us only dream of doing with hull pieces. In particular, I like how you've captured the way the ship bows out towards the midsection. This is something very few builders do well, yet you've nailed it perfectly here. While your ship may be of a modest size, the beautiful shape of the vessel is hard to ignore. Awesome work!

While many of you are requesting countless new lines and licences, I have a far simpler request. I simply want to see LEGO support some of their existing lines for more than a few years. One of the biggest problems that I have with newer lines is that they aren't supported for very long. Lines such as the Vikings line came and went like a flash. I suspect that this has a devastating effect on a young collector who becomes hooked on certain lines. As a castle fan growing up in the 80s, I always knew that I could rely on a new set of castle sets in the following year to keep me excited. This trend seems to have died in the 90s in favour of randomly introducing short-lived themes that seem to have little or no staying power. Ice Planet, Rock Raiders, Time Cruisers, Dino Attack, KKI, KKII, and the Western sets are but a few lines that came and disappeared almost immediately. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every year, I would like to see LEGO stick with some of the lines they currently have. It's hard to be loyal to a brand when they discontinue your favourite lines on an annual basis. If LEGO is going to introduce any new lines in the future, I hope that they plan on keeping with that line for more than just a year. This is where town, castle, space and pirates succeeded in the 80s and early 90s.

It's been a while since I finished law school and I'm not a practicing lawyer, but I think you're mistaken about trademarks. From what I recall, a trademark is a label or other identifying mark associated with branding (ie. LEGO, Toyota etc.). Essentially trademarks are things which a company or an individual may use to 'mark' his business for goodwill purposes. Even popular characters (Luke, Leia etc.) may become trademarks when associated with a business (Lucasfilm). The Eiffel tower is a national treasure for France, but I doubt that there are any trademark issues. The other concern would be copyright. That being said, copyrights are finite and expire after a specified period (I believe that it's 75 years after the author's death). As both the Taj Mahal and the Eiffel Tower are far older than this, I would imagine that there are no royalties being paid to anybody for these sets. The VW Beetle is a bit different as the VW trademark (and likely any associated copyrights) are still good meaning that LEGO would have to pay VW. The same is true of most of LEGO's licences. As for the Automium; André Waterkeyn the architect who created the Automium only passed away a few years ago. The copyright on this work would still be valid. If on the other hand, the Automium had been constructed several hundred years ago there would be no copyright issue as the copyright would have long since expired. Of course, things are considerably more complex then that. Still, I suspect that LEGO probably didn't need to pay anybody in this particular situation.

It's not just LEGO. Different jurisdictions almost alyways yield different price schemes. Cars are a perfect example. Heck, the difference is so blatant that several automakers penalize dealerships in the US who elect to sell to Canadian customers. Many dealers in the Northern US will no longer deal with Canadian customers and many automakers refuse to honour warranties for Canadians who buy their vehicles in the US. When you look at Canadian pricing compared to US pricing on most items you will find that US pricing is favourable. Pricing for clothes, food, vehicles, and even housing is very different in the US. Yes, it does suck that some people pay more for LEGO than others, but it is hardly an isolated example. Cars made in Germany cost more there than they do in the US. The same is true of countless other items. Personally I don't mind the premium so long as it isn't out of line with the rest of the world. Canadian prices are actually pretty much consistent with most other juristictions outside of the US when it comes to LEGO (we pay an additional sales tax as opposed to VAT). There are times when a really high price cheeses me off, but at the end of the day it pays to remember that the US is an anomoly when it comes to pricing.

I don't track my LEGO purchases closely enough to give accurate percentages but I can tell you that most of my recent AFOL purchasing has been done through bricklink. Prior to the colour change I did make a number of large purchases through S@H, however my interest in new LEGO has diminished greatly now that bley is the new grey . I now buy sets on only rare occasions, leaving most of my focus on acquiring desired bricks from bricklink.

I'm of the opinion that dark-skinned minifigs should be used with other flesh-toned figs and not with the yellow figs. I always appreciated that LEGO was race-neutral. Simply put, a yellow fig can be of any ethnicity whereas adding skin tones defines the figure. The result is something like the Simpsons where yellow becomes synonomus with caucasian or east asian while brown becomes black or south asian. If creating an ethnic distinction between figs is necessary, then simply use all flesh tones.

I have to say, I'm kind of disappointed with the new torso for the peasant woman. I preferred the prelimnary design where she actually has her top done up. The new design looks a bit too busy and doesn't really match well with her skirt pattern. The set is still a must-have though. The peasant woman and jester alone make it worth it for me (they both will probably cost a small fortune on bricklink anyhow). I can't wait to pick a few of these up.

I can only say that as a Canadian I'm happy that our pricing didn't jump up along side the pricing in Europe and Oceania. Don't get me wrong; I'm not very that interested in this set but I really cringe at the thought of comprable offerings being priced so high. I must say that I genuinely feel for you Star Wars fans who were hit with this unexpected price hike. Later.

I'm a set of roof bricks . On the other hand, I come in both red and blue.

Nice work. This is a very clean, elegant design. While some MOCs seem to be studless simply for the sake of being studless, this is a build that actually benefits from such techniques. It truly is an excellent MOC.

I think this is the perfect example of why fans have so much difficulty evaluating the value of one's collection. Just how much is 50,000 parts worth? At 10 cents per piece that would only be $5,000. LEGO collections are very personal and when we have so many unique and out-of-production elements to our names it becomes extremely difficult to place a value on one's collection. Many of us overvaule our prized possessions, while others tend to be too conservative. At the end of the day, I think most people would have a hard time collecting the $ value of their collections if they wanted to sell them. It's really too subjective.

I'm probably the only person who is pleased with the price. Honestly, with over 20 minifigs I'm not too surprised by the price. Sets with alot of minifigs always seem to carry a premium sticker price and this one is apparently no exception. Heck, the pricing doesn't seem out-ofline with what we paid for the Falcon so I don't really understand the disappointment (price wise). I still think the set itself looks a tad bland.

I'm just guessing on this one but I would imagine that it has more to do with the figures than anything else. I actually agree with you about this one. While the Falcon was a fantastic build that was remarkably complex for a LEGO set, I don't really see anything really exciting here beyond the figs.