L@go

This is very nice - which is not surprising for something coming from you. I actually quite like the understated, clean likes of the facade, but as always with your builds, it's the inside that really makes it stand out from other buildings. The restrained interior of the ground floor is great, and so are the colour choices. The kitchen is also nice, but my favourite details on that floor are the carpet - great! - and the table. Using plates with chopped corners is a very good way to save space. And the top floor interior is superb as well - there's nothing I don't like here. Very well done!

Very nice! I thought to myself, this has got to be a builder from somewhere close to the Arctic Circle, because it's so spot-on - and I was right :)

I love it. Like I said on Flickr, seeing Calvin and Hobbes again brings back so many good memories. I stopped by a comic shop today and was very close to picking up one of the books - I've read them all, because my parents bought them when they originally came out, but it's been a while. It's unbelievable that it's eighteen years since Bill Watterson drew the last one... You could have gone a bit more overboard on the snowmen, though - the strips featuring those were always my favourites. Some of them used to make me laugh out loud.

This is the best microscale skyline I know. Keep up the good work!

I'm also eagerly awaiting some more pictures of this building - which I still like a lot. Some nice interior details would also help to draw the attention away from that hideous car! Some funny statements in this topic though - and even though they're off-topic I just can't not mention them... What bag was that again? :D There are plenty of J's in his name, but I don't think there's a Jesse Jones...! EDIT: I corrected a typo. Probably had it coming...

That is very nice and much better! The tower seems much more well-proportioned now. Build it! :) Oh, and by the way - if I had been from Bergen, I'm sure I'd have heard of Strandvik. But I've only lived here for four years...

I agree with the others - the Jeep is just about perfect, but would probably be even better with black bars in the back. I'm not too keen on the shape of the other one, it's a bit too square and the proportions seem a bit off - but on that one, the colours are spot-on :)

I really like this church - you've got some very nice architectural details in there, and it's a great addition to the contest! The lack of an open back is a negative, but I understand your reasons for building all four walls. My biggest problem with it is that it seems to dwarf the other buildings - I'd prefer it to be a bit smaller. But all in all a very nice building that definitely fits in, as you say, with the atmosphere.

I have been told, by people who should know what they're talking about, that you can protect your LEGO pieces against sunlight as much as you want, but it won't necessarily help against discolouring. Apparently the plastic needs a day/night cycle to stay fresh. How well the pieces keep their colour also depends on what batch they originally came from. Two days ago I dug out some old pieces for a set from my childhood - there was a white pair of car doors in there, and I know for a fact that they're from the same set, and they've been kept together at all time since the set was new more than 30 years ago - yet one is white and the other looks much more like tan. This is probably because they were molded from plastic from different sources, that have stood the test of time differently.

Now there's a weird coincidence. I've just been driving back home to Bergen after spending Christmas in the South of Norway, and read this on my iPhone while on the ferry between Sandvikvåg and Halhjem, just before reaching shore at Halhjem. I didn't know where Strandvik was, but I looked it up - and realised that at that very moment I was as close to it as I've probably ever been - just about 10-12 km in a straight line... I think it's a nice build, and I've actually been thinking about doing the same thing with my local church where I'm from. I agree with Rufus though, it could be a bit bigger. The largest Architecture sets are quite a lot bigger than your church. And, by the way, welcome to Eurobricks!

Provide picture of cat, and I'll be willing to look into it.

Brickshelf doesn't work that way. If you just post links to a folder after you've uploaded pictures, it won't work until a moderator has approved the folder. Only dukeybootie can see them until that - unless the poster provides deeplinks directly to the pictures.

Keep in mind that there's only one - 1 - official LEGO Store in Denmark, the home of the brick... and not a single one in either Norway or Sweden, the very closest countries to Denmark, and the two first countries, apart from Denmark, where LEGO was ever sold... :)

Yeah - but in the case of the Dino sets, there's a warning on the pages saying "Alle Artikel nur solange der Vorrat reicht" - that means "all items only available as long as they're in stock". Which is a pretty clear indication that they're on their way out. The same thing goes for the forest police sets, the City space sets, and the Harry Potter board game.

I really like it. The amount of texture is very nice, in my opinion, but I agree that just a tiny splash of colour would be good - just adding a couple of accent stripes might be just what it needs. The interior you've made so far is great, too - what are you planning on doing with the two empty floors?

You're right! How could I have overlooked that? That is indeed great news. They're starting to get very hard to get hold of. I don't understand what you mean by that. I repeat from my previous post: All the formerly "exclusive" or D2C sets that are not at home in other themes, will be labeled as Creator Expert from January's Horizon Express set onwards. This is no different from Town Hall in that respect. They've just changed the labeling.

It's a bit sad that the people in here who don't understand Danish (which, let's face it, are most of you) won't be able to make much sense of the story, because it's really quite interesting. So I've done a rough translation for you. The people involved are: The news reader (NR) Svend Erik Saksun (SES), labeled "retired" in the news story, but he's the ambassador for the Danish LUG "Byggepladen". Michael Aae (MAa), journalist, DR (the Danish national state broadcaster) Troels Lange Andersen (TLA), Senior Business Developer, LEGO Jan Christensen (JC), Communication Manager, LEGO. Here we go! NR: Several companies have discovered that they could make a lot of money from the ideas of amateur inventors. One of those companies is LEGO. (pointing to the Minecraft set) The bricks I have here make up one of LEGO's new products, Minecraft, and that idea comes from a private fan. And there is more on the way, because LEGO has organised the process of collecting ideas from amateurs, into a system. (cut to Svend Erik Saksun climbing ladder) NR (off camera): Let's start with one of the people who hope to have an idea slip through the needle's eye at LEGO. SES (while climbing ladder): This requires a steady hand, because otherwise it might... (inaudible) MAa: Svend Erik Saksun has built with LEGO bricks all his life. SES: The whole harmony of this building, and the finish up here, stuff like that adds a bit more fun to the whole thing. And these (pointing to the 2x2 corner panels) haven't been used this way before. MAa: In this household, one does not adhere to LEGO's printed instructions. SES: These are ideas that come from within, and then they emerge through the hands. MAa: And the stuff that emerges is both big stuff and small stuff. SES: This guy, Harry the Hedgehog, he's been around the world on the internet. There are many elements that you'd think couldn't be used to create animals, but he does look a lot like a little hedgehog... (The clip goes silent for a couple of seconds, but I'd be surprised if this isn't pretty accurate) MAa: Svend Erik has designed several hundred new LEGO models. SES: Well, design... that's a big word. But yes, I invent, I make things from my own imagination every single week, I actually do. MAa: Around the world, LEGO has at least 180,000 fans who, like Svend Erik Saksun, design their own models. And LEGO has discovered that what their fans create at home, presents enormous opportunities. TLA: We have a webpage where we encourage regular people to give us ideas for products to make. (off camera) There's the Rifter from EVE Online, which we're also studying... MAa: The webpage is called CUUSOO. That's Japanese, and it means "imagination". TLA: It's great if we can find something there that we wouldn't have thought of ourselves. MAa: On this site, fans from all over the world have uploaded their suggestions for new LEGO models over the past year or so. TLA: Right now we have... we've got more than 10,000 ideas in our bank. MAa: The other fans vote for their favourite models. TLA: When an idea receives 10,000 votes, we guarantee that we'll take it into consideration. MAa: That happens every third month. Today, there are four models on the table. One of them will be produced by LEGO. Troels Lange Andersen and Jan Christensen will help decide which one. TLA (off camera, about the Rifter): Shall we start wil this one? JC: Yes. TLA: This is a real biggie (laughing). JC: Yeah, it's a real biggie. TLA: The model, as it currently stands, is relatively instable and unwieldy. It won't be... you could say it's not a play model. TLA (about the DeLorean): This is the time machine from the movie Back to the Future, a Steven Spielberg movie from 1985. There aren't all that many kids that know Back to the Future... JC: No, no, but it's still a cool car. TLA: Yes, it is. JC: And if I had bought it, I know that my six-year-old boy would want to play with it because it's a cool car, and I'd like to have it on display because I remember the movie. TLA (about the Zelda project): This one... it's a game from Nintendo. It's got its own universe, and the players have proposed ideas for minifigures that we'll have a hard time making... right away. Because they require new elements. There are some figures with ears, long elves' ears and stuff. TLA (about the Modular Western Town): The basic idea of this one is that you can remove elements, like this... JC: Ah! That's nice. TLA: And then you can decide how big you want your modules to be. JC: Great. TLA: I have to say, I really like this one. JC (turning it around): And can you... is there anything... yeah, there's a prison in here! TLA: Yeah, there's a prison in here, where you can put a bandit in jail. MAa: Each of these four models have collected more than 10,000 fans' votes on the CUUSOO webpage. One of those votes came from Svend Erik. SES: This Western Town, Western Modular Town, I am absolutely crazy about. And it's in my genre. MAa: By letting fans vote for models created by other fans, LEGO gets even more out of their webpage. TLA: When people vote for an idea, they tell us... they give us some indications of how much they're willing to pay for a product, and how many they'd want to buy, so we've got some data that tell us that if we are to make this product, we'll have to offer it at this specific price. MAa: The amateur designers that manage to get their model into an authorised LEGO box, get paid in cash. TLA: As of now, we actually give one percent of our revenue on the product, to the fan who gave us the idea. SES (off camera): And then a four... MAa: But it's not the money that attracts the amateurs. SES (off camera): ...and an eleven... SES: All of us, at least the hardcore fans, we strive to... or let me say, dream of... it would be amazing to have one's name on a LEGO model. It's as simple as that. It doesn't get much bigger than that. SES (off camera): I've made this game, Tric-Trac. Of course, it's based on the existing game, but I've made my own version and built it out of LEGO, and tried to get it to look nice and work properly. It's going onto the CUUSOO site because I want all the world to be able to participate and play this game. It's just a matter of hitting the right key - then, who knows, maybe Tric-Trac is just the product that can get Svend Erik onto the world map. (laughing) NR (off camera): So, the amateur inventors, like Svend Erik Saksun, risk spending several hours on something that still doesn't end up being bought by a company. (moving on to another story). That's all! Feel free to ask questions if something's unclear. I hope you've enjoyed the translation - after all, I need to provide a favour for the community every now and then to deserve the title I so proudly carry :) DISCLAIMER: I've just translated the piece. That means I can't be held accountable for any errors in the piece itself - like the reporter claiming that CUUSOO means "imagination", when we've been told all along that it means "wish"; or that he says that "one of the models will be produced by LEGO" like there's a guarantee that one model will be produced every quarter. I don't know if such a guarantee exists - I doubt it, but again: I've just translated it! Reason for edit: Spelling, grammar - and disclaimer.

I'm translating the whole thing right now. I'll have it ready for you in half an hour or so :) - just be patient!

Wow indeed. It's always nice to see somebody putting some proper work into a MOC to add that little extra touch. I bet this is really popular with the kids if you display it at conventions - they love all kinds of movement.

You're right - I had only seen what you've posted in the Town forum. And from those builds, this is the best one. Now I've had a look at some of the MOCs you've built in other themes, and while there's some pretty nice stuff there, too, this is still one of the best builds I've seen from you. That said, I might be biased, because I like Town stuff :)

I like it - especially the colour choices. The lights are cool additions as well, and the sign looks great, apart from the strange mixture of capital and lowercase letters. And the roof is a very nice design. It seems like there's going to be quite a substantial sticker sheet in this one, which is unusual for a modular building. The limousine, however, is one of the absolute biggest car design disasters I've ever seen from LEGO. That will go straight into the parts bin. I can't believe they couldn't come up with anything better than that. And before anybody says anything about the Creator Expert branding and starts claiming that it can't be part of the official modular line: All the new Exclusive sets that don't belong to licensed themes, from the Horizon Express onwards, have this branding :)

This is one of the best builds I've seen from you. I think you've gone a bit overboard on the chimney, but apart from that the house itself is very nice. The SNOT tiling on the floor is a particularly neat detail. Well done!

I agree with the comments above - stunning is the right word for that cathedral. It would look fantastic in any layout... or, on second thoughts, it would probably dwarf just about anything in a small layout :)

That guy in the van seems to be everywhere these days...! I like the tree on the roof. Very realistic! :)

There are several nice figures here, but Rudolph the Red Beret Reindeer takes the (Christmas) cake. Wonderful!