rodiziorobs

Great lighting effects!

Very nice vignette! I love the color choices, I think it works really well to make those Ninjago panels pop.

Congrats, winners!

Location: E03 (Ertauq) Tags: Spying After scouting for the secret Octan base on Jurin II, Scorpio made a rendezvous with the MANTIS fleet in the neighboring planet's sector, Ertauq. He was finally going to close the chapter on that mysterious prisoner from months before. **************** It's about time Starstriker. Come on, let's go. We'll use the secure interrogation room. Since she managed to completely disarm one of our own agents, we have classified her as dangerous. Dangerous? I thought it turned out that the operative she took down was actually a Kawashita spy, something none of our own agents had discovered! That is immaterial, Starstriker. She is a threat and we must treat her accordingly. If I recall, your report stated that you thought she seemed familiar to you. She did seem familiar, but in a very distant way. I am not sure I have ever actually seen her before. I have tried since then to figure out where I might know her from, but I don't know. Well, have you thought that maybe you are familiar to her as well? Perhaps she has a grudge against you, and only wanted you here to try and find a way to kill you! As happy as that would make me, we can't have that kind of situation on our hands. Ah, here we are. **************** Prisoner No. 108457, in exchange for your cooperation in this interrogation, we have complied with your request and brought your original captor, S. Starstriker, to be present here today. Finally. Let's get on with your stupid interrogation. Urm, uh, right then. We will begin. What was your position at Octan? I never worked for Octan. I was on a long-term assignment from Kawashita to infiltrate Octan. Kawashita? So that's how you recognized and apprehended the spy in our midst. What was the nature of your mission there at Octan? My job was to go undercover and try and learn the secrets of Octan's high security coffee machine production. I broke into the Octan facility on Ertauq... ...swiped a key card... ...stole an operative's identity... ...and attempted to get myself promoted to upper-level permissions. However, I wasn't able to gain sufficient clearance for the coffee machine project, so Kawashita assigned me to infiltrate the missile defense and WMD research programs instead. ... ... What? Uh nothing. We'll follow up on the specifics of your mission later. The Kawashita spy you exposed here at MANTIS? I assume you had to stop her before she killed you, Kawashita didn't want you divulging any secrets? Yeah, Agent Sega was afraid I was going to spill my guts. Glory and honor and all that nonsense. She and I had trained under Agent Raven. Sega always bought into that kind of crap more than I did. For her, Kawashita was a way of life. And you? For me it was a paycheck. I have seen enough dishonor that it's hard for me to believe in any of it any more. Your boy Scorpio could probably tell you more about that, though. Huh? You still can't tell who I am? Figures. You always were dumb like that. You must have got that from dad, he was a moron, too. What the..? Arsenica? **************** Arsenica is a character I had been meaning to properly introduce since way back before I even officially joined AG, but for one reason or another it just never happened until now. Sorry for the lack of balance between story and build this week--lots to read, less to see. Sometimes that's just how it goes.

For me, a part of building any set (under 500 pieces, say--otherwise it gets unwieldy) is building it once by the instructions, then dismantling and doing an alt build using only those same pieces. Also, I have to build something completely different as the alt build: i.e. a wheeled vehicle becomes a spaceship or building etc. instead of another wheeled vehicle. Then, if I liked the original model enough, I take apart the alt build and try and build the original again from memory. For small sets, in-the-bag building is a fun challenge (but tedious), or if I buy multiples of a set (such as polybags) to build the first from instructions and the second without.

Poor sad Chogg Cheshley! Well Scorpio didn't get a build in this week, but at least he made an appearance Love the terrain and the vehicle. I am particularly jealous of those angled windscreen pieces.

Remember, though, that if you take your old cups in and reuse them then you get a discount. It's only like 50 cents/cup, but if you are really trying to maximize your piece for price ratio...

What a great group! That's going in the yearbook! MANTIS yearbook by rodiziorobs, on Flickr

...it never showed up. Apparently others who received this same batch also got no Raphael torso. However, since any free Lego is good Lego (and CopMike does such a huge job anyway) no one was too put out about it. Besides, Chicken Box!

Pretty much this, except for some reason I put the picture on my Flickr: Untitled by rodiziorobs, on Flickr I thought it was funny how you are obviously supposed to cut around the wing and comb. It was like play features on a box.

About the time Thor and CA:TFA came out I got all caught up in the excitement. I saw several of the follow-up movies on opening weekend, and some more than once in theaters. I didn't really slow until after seeing AoU. While not terrible, it felt like a big let down and kind of cooled me off from SH anything for awhile, I kinda stopped caring. I didn't even see Ant-Man at all until about a month ago, and then it was because there wasn't anything better to watch. I liked it well enough though, so I guess my post-AoU "dark age" gave me a second wind. I am not nearly the enthusiast I was before, but I am looking forward to CW in particular, and am cautiously optimistic about the other movies coming soon (incl. DC's offerings). I figure I will probably see most of it eventually.

7 9 10 37 55 Good luck to all who participated!

Hoping for white embroidery, then all my ¡3 Amigos! MOCing dreams can come true. Also, I really hope we get an acoustic guitar . I am surprised with all the new characters and moulds to come from the CMF series that we have had so few instruments.

I try and make sure to ask first--it reminds them that they also need to ask before borrowing mine.

I also kept my chicken box!

The Rocka-who? Yes, that's the one. Your turn!

wriggling

Here's the new one. For some reason I can't see the picture here (after repeated tries), but it's hosted on my Flickr so clicking it should take you there. Let me know if it doesn't work for anyone. Edit: seems to work fine now.

should

Oscar!

I think when TLG first produces a licensed fig, especially one that is/will be very popular, they don't worry about getting it perfect the first time. They know people will want to collect it whether it is accurate or not. But they also want the fig to be a draw to future sets; if they get the figure exactly right the first time, what incentive is there for people to get the same fig later on? If it's a newer, better, upgraded look later on, it will still move sets even though collectors already have that character, because they "gotta catch 'em all!" Good enough is good enough, especially for a character's minifig debut. This!

underground

I love alt builds--and while this isn't one it is kind of a spiritual alt build with Space I love the look of both of the little spacecraft, and the tow truck fits right in. This is a pretty great build.

Scorpio has researched Amplified Radar