Berry Syedow

Ahoy, BaronSat! Phenomenal?! That’s an understatement. ;-) The diversity and balance crafted into this MOC are beyond my capabilities. It has real flavor to it. This is what pirate MOCs should be all about; lots of color, culture, and atmosphere. It’s a shame that you aren’t designated to the pirate theme, but I suppose this is a double edged sword… Other themes will also get great exposure from you. Your idea of a richly populated sprawling port makes me think that some sort of port-collaboration at next year’s Brickfest is in order. I also like that your port is modular. This is exactly the sort of stuff LEGO could have done to prolong the Pirate Line. Thinking back to this thread, modularity could be a major component to LEGO themes in general. If only TLC would invest in ideas like these, they would have never suffered financial difficulty.

Whoever designed that layout needs to do an overhaul. It

For a prototype it's still a real beaut'. Keep up the quality work. :-)

Wow! I am impressed, Landlubber. You

Not to be a grinch, but your plan is a bit far fetched. Shipping MOCs across the states or overseas without negative repercussions is null at best. What if upon return the MOCcer discovered that a few red coats are missing? ;-) Is that part of the risk involved? And if you aren't insuring MOCs then I doubt a lot of people will risk their creations just to say they boosted the pirate morale at Brickfest. If you do, you're crazy. ;-) In my eyes a superior plan would be to provide instructions for a MOC you desire to be displayed at Brickfest. Whoever has the pieces and also plans to visit the event could build the MOC and credit the designer and all that rift raft. In fact this could even spawn competitions... A pirate fan posts his available inventory and challenges everyone to transform the pieces into a MOC. Then he decides which one he prefers and builds it, and so on. If nothing works out, all we really can do is encourage pirate fans attending Brickfest to build something and help represent the Pirate Community in the process. I'm glad that you brought this subject up, though, JackDagger. The pirate community can always benefit from some thorough discussion and debate. I am curious about your progress. What's the consensus regarding ship class as dictated by cannon number, eh?

Wonderful! A few questions: Is the checkerboard completely glued? Will you review the set? Could you kindly identify the faces of the blue side? How does the Viking carrying case compare to the Knights' Kingdom version? (If you own it.)

'Tis a fine start for a budding pirate fan like yourself. If you haven't already incorporated railings, then I suggest you do so. An' make sure to add some sails when you're sure of its completion. I can't properly answer either of your questions. I'll just say that from experience, do keep an eye out for LEGO listings in your newspaper. (It only got me my one and only complete ship hull; a narrow too. But you never know) The same goes for garage sales. As for your second question, I can't say. Though I believe Admiral Ravensburg said something about creating a ship tutorial, which I've always thought would be great.

Neither of them really do it for me. I'd investigate a SNOTty solution. If I have to choose, I pick the first one.

Nicely done. The ship looks great from afar. The inverted slopes are a simple, elegant solution for widening the hull. Seeing the sheer height of the mast I can't help but think that my previous ship's mast is too short. I'm struggling for perspective. :-/ The railing is a creative solution; though too unstable for my taste. I like the white color scheme. *y* I haven't seen many ships that utilize the color. Believe it or not I intended to make a "winter ship" covered in snow and all that jazz, but had to improvise because I lacked sufficient pieces. If anyone knows of an educational site centering around sloops and cutters or just something general, feel free to toss out a link.

Mmm, sweet, sweet, juicy, castle. Any information pertaining to this theme is welcome.

The devil will make quick work of that wall with his trident:

I chuckled. The matrix still holds up very well, today. Quite the feat considering a lot of modern special effects fests have already become dated. Since my last post I've watched three movies: Spartacus, Brazil, and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Besides the Pepsi commercial I knew nothing more of Spartacus. My interest was perked when I learned that Stanley Kubrick directed the film. Aside from the cheesy music that accompanied the flick I was thoroughly entertained. I was going to post a little description of each, but Spartacus easily got out of hand. I'll just say that it's worth checking out if you see it at the video rental store, along with Brazil. Brazil really is Terry Gilliam's masterpiece, with some great visual imagery and a whacked out plot. A man named Sam is at the center of it all. He dreams of soaring into the sky with a big pair of wings and being with his dream girl. His lifestyle starkly contrasts his dreams. He works in a highly inefficient society dominated by paperwork and constantly tormented by terrorist attacks. In fact they are so recurring that the public has adjusted and gives them not a glance, literally. There's a whole lot of hoo haw and a subplot that amounts to little, except to relay the fact that the government doesn't like to be condemned for making mistakes and will quickly cover them up. Eventually Sam accepts a promotion to find out where his real life dream girl lives. When he discovers her standing inside the building that he works at, he runs away with her. At that moment his sanity dissipates until by the end of the movie he's completely nuts. Apparently the studio that released Brazil edited out material, including the ending, to make the movie end on a positive note. If you're tempted to watch Brazil make sure to get the full version. Baron Munchausen is another Gilliam work. I was a bit disappointed by the lacking narrative. The movie focused too much on imagery and too little on telling the story, a movie truly ahead of its time. :-| I didn't know about Robin Williams association with the movie, so he came as an amusing surprise. (King of the Moon or the universe as he puts it.) John Neville is inspired as the Baron. A very fine performance, if you ask me. **Thar May Be Spoilers** As the movie begins, we learn that some town in France? is besieged by Some King from Egypt? (was a bit sleepy). The movie really starts when the "real" Baron interrupts a play featuring him and his "companions". In short he meets a little girl after panic invades the theater from the warring parties outside. The Baron determines that he can defeat the antagonist of the besieged town by gathering all of his "companions" together and letting them loose on the enemy. A whole lot of humorous fantastical nonsense occurs and when the antagonists are defeated we realize that the Baron has been telling a story the whole time. Then, shockingly, the besiegers are no more. A bit contrived if you ask me.

Admiral, I like the MOC. Are you determined to build all of your ships with an identical color scheme? Variety is always welcome. You seem to love building powerful ships. I encourage you to expand your talent and build a few ships with an artistic license; ships that exist for the sake of looking good, eh? Or powerful ships that look a little extravagant, at least. Cheers~

No kidding. ;-) Very imaginative, ska! I happen to agree with Mr. Phes, some sort of comic would be great, which reminds me, that I've still yet to read that other one... I don't believe I've ever seen a tan pirate fortress, so at least you can attest to doing something first. ;-) Looking at an overview of the MOC I'm reminded of the East. Perhaps that would be a more sensible setting, if it doesn't clash with the story too much. Plus you'd have a perfectly legitimate excuse for including some junks. *y* Good work!

Ha, that cotton is laughably bad. The fort on the other hand, laughably awesome. It doesn

He meant that spongebob is only available for "sale" in North America. Amazon.com did mistakenly price the Build a Bob set for about 8 bucks(?) when it was just being released. Though, from what I heard, it was a tremendous hassle for anyone to receive their order. (Gotta love amazon. ;-))

Ah, bonaparte, you know your stuff! The ship's design is great. I'm loving the interior; it adds a lot to this MOC. I feel sorry for the poor laddies without pillows to sleep on. :-( My only suggestion for future reference is to dust off old displays before photographing them. ;-) Good work, mate!

Hey, there, Nacker! That cannon design really is ingenious! For a brick built boat, it's not half bad! In fact it's good. ;-) The close up of the hull in image two is uncanny as far as illustrating the feel of a hull goes. Excellent job, very nice. I'd love to see the ship rigged with real sails. The figurehead (whatever it is :-/ :-$) I'm not keen on. Otherwise, great job!

Admirable effort, Landlubber! I'll just say that I agree with most of the points already mentioned and leave it at that. A bit of landscaping would help, and in this case may be necessary if no arches are at your disposal. Then again, perhaps you could use that creative noggin of yours and achieve an entirely new technique! One more thing, you should abandon the portcullis and slap a pair of doors on the entrance instead. Is that true? I've been contemplating whether my first imperial fortress should be white or grey. I've always imagined that the white represented a form of plaster. Like this picture with the plaster peeling off:

I received four huge boxes of 4423. I'm not joking, those boxes are enormous! Much larger than anticipated. A few of the orange bricks (mainly the 2xs') suffer from a teensy bit of transparency or just sort of look off to me, but eh, I'm satisfied. A definite must buy for the brick oriented people. Also, one pack each of 10115, 3499, and 3738 Managed to nab all of the above during TLC's free shipping week, too. *wub*

Oh, man, curse TLC

Heh, if that's how he enjoys treating the jellybeans then I have no argument. ;-) What does he think of Vladek and his mesmerized minions?

Well, it