Admonisher

Hi again, ScottishDave! Sorry it's taken me so long to reply. I got distracted by other things, and just now remembered that you'd had a few questions for me! That has made my morning! You are the first person I've heard from who has followed my instructions and completed one of these (apart from my nephews, who had my help). I know it's been a few months since you built it, but did you have any problems with the instructions or the parts list? I'm always looking for feedback. Toward the very end of the build, I discovered I was short a few small wedge plates -- 2x3, I think. I forget if they were light bley or dark bley (light, I think), and I can't swear with any confidence that the discrepancy wasn't just a result of me miscounting when I was making my list of things I had vs. things I needed to order. I only bring it up so that if anyone else reports the same tiny issue, you'll have corroboration. The most delicate parts of the actual build were attaching the side engines in the back, and attaching the nose section of the destroyer. For the latter, I had to try a few combinations of plates in different positions to get the ones that were straightest and made for the cleanest lines. They did not wind up 100% symmetrical, but the same thing happens with official LEGO models, of course. You can see from the pics that it worked out pretty well! While it's definitely more fragile than an official LEGO product, it's surprisingly sturdy. I've moved it a few times, and everything stayed where it was supposed to stay. I might have a go at that myself, to see how it looks. Out of curiosity, which part needed to be dark grey? It was the 1x2 hinge plate with 3 fingers. The one at the very front of the undercity, near the nose. As far as I know (and I could be wrong) that part was never available in dark bley. (And probably will never be, since according to BrickLink it hasn't popped up in an official set in 10 years or so, having been supplanted by different hinge styles.) A few sets had it in dark grey, though. I got mine from 7103 Jedi Duel. Thanks again!

The official model is bat-shaped, definitely! It's just that it's not AS bat-shaped as I'd have preferred. :)

I used ScottishDave's instructions and parts list this spring, and placed a couple of Bricklink orders so that I could build it. I took photos, but it took me a few months to get around to getting a working SD card reader. Now that I have, here are my results! The only major modification I made was to make the forward undercity dark bley instead of black. (For the one part that wasn't available in dark bley, I just used dark gray. It's barely visible, so it's not like it sticks out or anything.) Thanks to all the people in this thread who made this awesome build possible!

Hi, all! So I picked up the 30301 Batwing polybag from Target the other day, but wasn't very satisfied with the overall profile. Here's the original, in an overhead shot taken from ArtiFexCreation's : I like the concept, but I wasn't completely happy with the execution. The shape isn't as "bat-like" as I'd prefer, and it looks slightly too large when compared to last year's 30161 Batmobile polybag. Fortunately, the set is pretty easy to modify! Here's my version: And here's my list of tweaks: * Removed the flick-fire missiles. (A few black boat studs added to the underside, not visible here.) * Bley and yellow bricks swapped for black. * Wingspan brought in by two studs. * Nose shortened by one stud. * Tail tightened up with use of a Technic half pin with stud. * Inner angle of wings changed to be less steep, using 2x3 wing plates instead of the black wedge plates with cut corners. * Black 1x1 plates with "teeth" added to rear wings, to enhance classic bat shape. (Maybe my favorite new detail.) I did experiment with leaving the wings extended, and also with creating a sleeker, pointier wing shape (forgoing the inward-curving wingtips). But this version was my favorite. It sits nicely on the shelf alongside the polybag Batmobile, and has even inspired me to whip up a matching Batboat, since I doubt that will be high on LEGO's priority list.

Thanks, BHs! You're correct, the Imperial Guards were not present during the duel (and I don't think we see them standing inside the little console turrets, either). This vignette was only meant to evoke the general feel of the throne room scenes, not to recreate a specific moment, so I took a few liberties. Anyway, the Guard minifigs look too cool NOT to include! If I ever move into a residence with lots of room for display, I suppose I may be tempted to do an enlarged version. But I deliberately kept this one small so that it would fit comfortably on top of a CD shelf!

Thanks for the kind words! The entire vignette has now been updated with 2014 minifigures (see first post). These figs are a big upgrade, IMHO. I love the new Vader -- the leg printing and sloped shoulder armor really gives the impression of height, and avoids the somewhat "chibi" look of the previous incarnation. Light tan was a great choice for Palpatine, looking far more screen-accurate than gray -- and he's finally got that evil grin he so often sports in the films. Meanwhile, Luke is FINALLY wearing his Death Star II outfit (even if the shirt flap wasn't down until after the duel).

Just wanted to report that I bought a new Big Ben set at the store yesterday (a Meijer in Michigan, if anyone's curious), intending to do the above mod. I even had some tan 1-stud SNOT bricks in reserve to compensate for the white issue. To my pleasant surprise, the clock faces were NOT the old round 2x2 tiles with the "X" on the back! Rather, they were the more recent round 2x2 tiles with a bottom stud holder that have popped up in recent years: I hadn't been aware these existed until now, but they made modding the set a cinch! I simply left off the tan 2x2 plates, clipping the clock faces directly to the SNOT bricks. I'm sure others have done this before me, of course, I just wanted to make sure that other people who find this thread by searching for Big Ben reviews and feedback (as I did) are made aware that at least SOME new copies of the set are shipping with the new, more convenient clocks!

Once again, just for fun: the image de-nosed and de-eared. :)

I agree. I did a quick mock-up in Photoshop. Without the nose and ears, I think it looks MUCH better, and probably closer to what people were expecting when the line was announced:

This is INCREDIBLE! The single picture in this thread doesn't do it justice. You even got in the trophy room (brilliant use of the baby T. Rex and the Joker card) and the display case for retired costumes! Bravo!

Is it just me, or is the "hidden bonus droid" on the left there basically WALL-E?

This is just a rough little vignette I threw together for the shelf, meant to evoke the Emperor's Throne Room in a space-conscious way. When I got the new Death Star Troopers battle pack (75034) I decided to rejigger it slightly to incorporate the new Royal Guard minifigs. I wasn't satisfied with their "force pikes," however. Formerly, they were just given black spears. Now, they have weird gray lightsaber-like things. I can see where they were going for in terms of having an action accessory. But for those of us who just like to have the guards standing at attention looking menacing, the lightsaber analog just doesn't work. The old black spears look a little better, but still fail to capture the iconic Royal Guard pose. After playing around with a few things, I hit upon using harpoon guns. Held vertically, they look VERY much like the pikes as seen in the film. And if you rotate around the hand so that it's "backwards," they sit at the perfect angle against the shoulder. A quick forum search reveals that I'm not the first to come up with this solution. But I haven't seen an example of this usage in an actual MOC before, so I thought I'd post a quick shot. Apologies for the low resolution. (And yeah -- I know my little turret things are clunky, and the guards don't actually stand inside them in the film. But it suffices for my purposes!) EDIT: Updated with all-2014 minifigures: Darth Vader from 75055 Imperial Star Destroyer, Luke from 10236 Ewok Village, and Emperor Palpatine from the Lego Star Wars: The Dark Side book.

Very nice! This obviously took an incredible amount of skill and precision. The one "flaw," if you can call it that, would be the lack of a spine, which somewhat spoils the illusion when the book is closed. How you'd get a functional spine onto this is beyond me, though ... at least, not one that you wouldn't need to remove every time you wanted to open the book! Bravo, in any case.

If you do either of these, I'd love to see pics of your results!

This is hardly a stroke of brilliance on my part, but here's a subtle space-saving MOD for "An Unexpected Gathering," such as you might do if you wanted to display it flush against a flat wall, and/or (as in my situation) on a narrower shelf. I think this maintains a pleasing interior that keeps with the feel of Bag End. It also gives Bilbo a high stool so he can reach his writing desk. The obvious trade-off is that you lose the party scene -- but that wasn't a major loss for me. This was done entirely using pieces that came with the set (including some extras, such as the brown studs for the shelf bottoms). I also used some bonus cheese slopes to smooth out a few tree brances. Frodo is inside because Bilbo is outside to greet Gandalf and Balin (re-creating a scene from the novel). Incidentally, I'm very close to jumping on the "best set ever" bandwagon. The more I look at this beauty, the more I love it! When the Tolkien line was announced, this was the number one set I wanted to see, and it exceeds all my expectations!

Barnes & Noble has the LOTR LEGO sets up on their website, and ATTACK ON WEATHERTOP 9472 is currently marked at a list price of $49.95, as opposed to the official SRP of $59.99. I don't know if that's a listing error or just something B&N worked out with LEGO. What's more, B&N currently has it marked down to $44.95! If you have a membership, it's free express shipping -- AND B&N almost always has coupons you can apply (a quick Google search will turn up some valid ones, such as 15% off, even for non-members). I happened to have a membership coupon for 20% off, on account of Father's Day coming up. Even after paying tax, I was able to snag the set for a mere $38! That works out to about 8.9 cents per piece! If you don't want to go the B&N route, Amazon has dropped their price to match: $44.95, with free shipping included.

I am so jealous of that MOC, it's not even funny! With the exception of the engines, it's PERFECT. Sadly, I completely lack the skills needed to reverse engineer it ... but if I ever had the instructions/parts list, I'd be all over it -- it's exactly the right size for my living space, unlike the four-foot-plus beast coming this Fall...

Great review! After being so enchanted with the Midi-scale Falcon (which I got on clearance), I just couldn't wait on this one. And it's fantastic! Fun to build, and looks great on the shelf. But I found the model was even MORE fun once I built a tiny Blockade Runner to go along with it. Here are some pics (sorry for the resolution -- a Blackberry is the only camera I have at the moment). You can even stick a little transparent red tiara into the vents to approximate an explosion. :P