ZCerberus

Great work Carson!

Looks great!

We're pro border here. 16 x 16 NOT including the border. Reasonable, limited overhang is okay. None. BTW- "America" is not a country. Just sayin'.

It's cool! I am a pretty lax mod all things considered!

Normally I would be compelled by moderator duties to move this to the community forum, but since you've been such a spectacular member, I will leave this thread up for a bit before I move it. Thanks for the MOCs over the years Simon, you really have become quite the skilled builder! We wish you a fond farewell. Now drop and give me 20!

The little workshop is cute- I like the toys and evles and I thought it would be a great little addition to Santa's workshop. I admit disappointment in the exterior view though. The colors are a bit rough on the hanging tool side and there is a technic pin that is exposed. With a little mini-modding it would be a sweet addition to Santa's shop for sure.

This was on my mind, but we had a shake up at my job IRL, so things have been on hold for a few weeks. The entries have been added to the judges score sheet- just waiting to get that underway.

Great color and some cool organic shapes here. The use of the non-LEGO/string elements does not sit well with me- but I use illegal techniques all the time without pause. Maybe it is just the next step in the "art" of building. I guess you have simply evolved past the confines of the LEGO system!

I did get the Lonely mountain set now that it is officially released (and double VIP/Xmas set of course). I could do a review if anyone is interested!

It has to be a chapter from Bilbo's book, but as you can see, you can ADD one. So if you wanted Bilbos adventures post ring, then you are adding a chapter to his book and you are indeed within the rules.

Sure. LEGO has rehashed Star Wars many times. Ways of connecting parts that are not used in official LEGO sets. Clipping tiles or plates into clips, cheese slope mosaics etc/

Lovely photos, great color- very Kalphlin-y architecture. Are you sure you're in the right guild kabel?

Okay, enough chatter- let's see some orc/troll army already!!

Cool build. I also redid this tower once. I always loved the wolfpack!

Very Nocturnus-y!

No.

Absolutely. You may have a MAXIMUM of two entries per category, but there is no minimum. You can have 1 in all three, or 1 in category A and none in B and 2 in C or just one entry in category C and none in the other two. Again, no minimum.

Agreed. That is why I said the figures were too varied for army building. If that set contained 7 dwarves- you'd still have to be crazy... just slightly less crazy!

Reserved for future merging.

Reserved

Eurobricks and Rebrickable were challenged by LEGO to make alternate models for current year city sets. The builds had to only use the pieces in available in the official LEGO model, be made in LDD, digitized, tested in real brick and be a model a 7-10 year old could build!! I received set 60035 "Arctic Outpost". This was a good set to receive because it had a good variety of parts and plates, but not so many that it was overwhelming. There were some challenges of course, one being there were no brick with stud on one side bricks, though I did have a few good SNOT pieces. Another challenge was the lack of inverted slopes to really shape my models. It was still a fun project and I came up with 5 alternate models. Here are my alternate models: "Snowmobile Transport" "Speedboat Blastoff!" "Listening Post Uplink" "Arctic Air Watch" "Snow Tow Rescue"

You sure have an odd way of pricing figures Deeth. Average sale price in last six months of Azog was $14.05 and Radagast was $10.15 you'll also need to pay shipping on those so toss in another $2.00 a figure unless you can get them in one spot. So my feeling is the initial value will be in the $15.00 range, but it will drop to more like the $12.00 as Radagast and Azog have now. Looking at the figures from the Black gate set- which also cost $60- Mouth of Sauron, Gandalf the White and Aragorn, average sale price of them in the last six months has been $9.15, $8.17, and $7.04. Adding in the shipping costs, they are currently at 11, 10 and 9ish dollars. A year from now then, who knows- $8 "landed" might totally be right on for the price for these figures, but $12 is also quite possible depending on any number of factors. Still my point was the same, the pure price to parts ratio is not a true indicator of "value" here as there are 7 figures, at least 4 of which will be highly sought after. You seem to agree with me on that point. I don't disagree that a different figure line-up may have been nice- generic soldiers would have been awesome for adult collectors- but we didn't get that. I said the set was not a good choice for army building, or as a parts pack but I still feel if you want the 4 "main" figures, you should buy "a" copy of this set, just not several copies.

I agree, I would have preferred a different selection- but based on what we WERE given- we have 4 figures that are "new" and look great (Azog (sort of), Thorin, Dain, and Bard) and two new Orc face prints. That means 6 of the 7 figures are new and worth getting. It felt like a 10 to me.

Perhaps the most anticipated set of the third Hobbit wave has found its way to EB and here it is, set 79017, "The Battle of the Five Armies". I obtained this set "in the wild" at ToysR'Us in the United States. A note about the set name- it appears to be printed on the box as "The Battle of Five Armies" while I see it referred to in multiple online sources as "The Battle of the Five Armies". Since the name is also trademarked on the box, I believe it should have been title "The Battle of the Five Armies" to match the name of the movie, so I am going to go with that name. Since I am primarily a MOCer, I will discuss some of the interesting pieces in the set, but I did not bother to line up every single piece in each bag as I did not find the piece selection especially compelling- and let's be honest here- if you're buying this set, you are primarily in it for the minifigures. Basic info of the set Set no.: 79017 Name: The Battle of Five Armies Theme: The Hobbit Year: 2014 Pieces: 472 Minifigs: 7 + Molded Eagle Age group: 8-14 Price: US$ 59.99 Price per part: US$ 0.127 The Box: The third Hobbit wave and third Hobbit movie are subtitled "The Battle of the Five Armies". The box art for The Battle of the Five Armies sets all contain a beautiful emerald green color that I find to be one of the best looking schemes in recent memory. The front of the box provides a nice overview of the set and also shows two of the play features of the set- the firing ballista and an exploding wall. The back of the box shows the play features again as well as a few nice shots of the Orcs and Eagle in action. Again, because I love to build MOCs, I still find myself missing the old "alternate model" ideas on the back of the box. With all the licensed themes driving sales these days, perhaps it isn't surprising that play features and showing the potential display value of the models are more important than showing what the bricks can do. I always find myself a bit miffed when my 6 and 8 year old niece and nephews are only interested in building the sets and putting the pieces where they "should" go. Perhaps I need them to watch the LEGO movie again so they understand being a "master builder" doesn't mean being really good at following the instruction booklet. Okay, off my soap box and back to the set. The back of the box also displays the weapons available in the set. Another frustration with the new school here. When I was a young lad, there seemingly would have been twice as many in a set this size, but it is a bit atypical with modern sets that there are actually more weapons than figures here. I do not know that I understand why Dain's axe is translucent red, it may make sense within the confines of the film, but as a MOCer I actually don't mind. I have dozens of steel colored axe heads but only these in trans red. I also like Thorin's pearl gold short sword, a nice weapon for sure. The top of the box displays the 7 figures and molded creature contained in the set along with the names of each character. As is typical with all current LEGO sets, the box tells is the figures/pieces on the top of the box are to scale. Inside the box there are 3 numbered bags, a baggie containing the molded eagle and two instruction manuals. The manuals contain the exact same printing on the front cover. This set contains no stickers and has no printed parts of any sort. The Build: Bag 1: Along with the obligatory brick separator on sets of a certain price point, bag 1 contains four figures and the pieces to build the Orcish ballista. The instructions also tell you to assemble Gwaihir, the molded Eagle, though he is contained in a separate baggie apart from bag 1. The Orcish ballista has a very evil and sinister vibe. The color scheme matches that of other Orcish weapons we have seen in other Hobbit and Lord of the Rings sets featuring reddish brown, dark brown and dark red. The build is pleasant and uses a few nice build techniques and pieces. I especially like the use of the "A-frame" pies as supports on each side. The ballista fires by quickly rotating the black gear in the center. The firing action leaves much to be desired, but it is almost a necessary play feature in today's play feature centric world. Bag 1 actually contains the most interesting parts, in my opinion, of the whole set. You get four 1 x 2 reddish brown bow curves, three of the tan 3/4 pins (great for making candles in your MOCs), two 1 x 2 reddish brown modified slope, two black "A-frames" and five dark brown 1 x 2 tiles. The long "horn" pieces (not pictured) on each side representing the "bow" of the ballista are not new, they have been in some other sets before including Hero Factory. I find their scale to be hard to work with in minifigure scale, but I think they look good here. The four figures in bag 1 are Bard the Bowman, Legolas Greenleaf and two Gundabad Orc warriors. Bard looks sharp in his new blue and chain mailed outfit, but Legolas is the same as he was in the Mirkwood Spiders set. Is it just me, or does the Bard figure look a ton like he could sub in for Will turner in the Pirates of the Caribbean line? It is kind of a funny thought since the actor who played Will turner, Orlando Bloom, plays Legolas, the minifigure to the right of Bard. I am slightly dissappointed that the Bard figure is showing some flesh in the neckline. We had heard none of the elves in the Mirkwood set showed flesh so they could be recycled into generic "yellow" figures and this was done intentionally for the fans. Perhaps that philosophy only applies to generic characters and not named guys like Bard. Though Legolas is the same figure from the Escape From Mirkwood Spiders set, he doesn't contain exposed flesh and I like the pearl gold arms. The Orcs' face printing is actually new and is slightly different from the Orcs' prints in the second Hobbit wave, though the torsos and legs appear to be identical. Back printing on all four figures, but the Orcs have hair printed on the back while Bard and Legolas have alternate faces. Bag 1 also tells you to build Gwaihir, though he is contained in a separate baggie. In case you were concerned that he looked identical to the eagles in prior sets, fear not! He has a little extra dark brown printing on the back of his neck to differentiate him from the "generic" eagles of other sets, though as far as I could tell, it was the only difference. Bag 2: The second bag contains the pieces to build a little bridge that connects to the tower in bag 3. Bag 2 also contains three figures which we will discuss below. They really are the stars of this set, so we will spend most of our time on them. The bridge itself is not terribly exciting and has no interesting parts to speak of. The bridge does contain a play feature, allowing it to explode if you press down on the sand green tile. Of course bag 2 is probably the bag you will most wish to dig into as it has the three major minifigures you were after when you bought this set, Azog, Thorin Oakenshield and Dain Ironfoot. I will discuss each figure separately since they are the stars of the show here. Azog, the "Pale Orc" is perhaps less of a draw here as he was in the previous wave in the Dol Guldur Battle set. Rest assured that LEGO can call him all new as he does have a slightly different facial expression than he did in the previous wave. Here is the new Pale Orc on the left compared to the previous wave Orc on the right. The back printing is unremarkable and identical to the previous figure so no need for a picture. Thorin is decked out with a new crown in his hair mold and some swank new black and gold armor. His face printing looks great and I love the hair with crown piece. I am also happy to report no fleshy outcroppings here so the torso is appropriate for yellow purists. Back printing and alternate facial expression. The printing on the hair looks excellent as well. The figure that is the most anticipated out of this set has to be Dain Ironfoot. Again, yellow purists rejoice- no flesh color pieces on the torso. I am especially fond of the pearl silver arms and sharp torso printing. I have heard the question asked if the plume on Dain's helmet is removable and the answer is no, it is not. Here is Dain sans beard and helmet for your viewing pleasure. I like the shape and size of the beard piece and I will certainly be using it in a MOC sometime soon. His face is quite expressive so it could easily be recycled by fleshy fans in other MOCs. Back printing and alternate expression. Bag 3: The third bag contains the pieces to build a crumbling, beat-up tower. Though I do not know all the Hobbit lore, the coloration of the tower makes me think this battle is taking place in Dale in the winter. The third bag contains no figures, but has a couple of interesting elements to discuss. I like the color combination of the dark red roof and the tan, but I do not belive any of the roof pieces are new as I have seen most, if not all, of them in the Harry Potter "The Burrow" set. The tower itself looks nice and has an exploding balcony play feature. The exploding wall feature here is actually several sections, which is nice, but also takes a bit more force to cause explostion than most play features. You can determine if that is good or bad, but the extra force required to break the clutch power of the bricks does mean the explosion is a bit more... er... "explosive" when the bricks finally pop. There are a few elements of interest that I indentified as new in color or rare enough to take notice. There are two of the decorative arch pieces in tan (I have previously only seen them in white or black), two 1 x 3 dark tan tiles and two latticed windows (thick tab) in reddish brown. They are all welcomed color variations to me, though I wish there were more or the windows and tiles in this set. Bonus complete set shot: Scoring: Display/build factor: 6 out of 10 Nothing special in terms of techniques and while I do believe the ballista looks sharp, the overall display value feels fairly low. Playability/fun factor: 6 out of 10 The play functions are okay, though I wish the shooting function on the ballista launched the missiles farther. The tiles ability to pop the wall sections work, but there is nothing new or innovative about it. I doubt play will be a big draw for this set. Brick selection: 5 out of 10 From a MOCers perspective, I can't say I'm impressed. I like the brown bits in the ballista and a few pieces of the tower, but certainly not enough "desirable" parts or quantity of rare parts given the price to recommend the set as a parts pack. Minifigures: 10 out of 10 Though I much would have liked to have Bolg than another Azog (perhaps Bolg is dead and gone by this point of the film) the real draw to this set is the minifigures. I thought Dain and Thorin were sharp, good looking figures and the new Bard torso print is great as well. While Azog might not be as welcome as Bolg would have been, it is still a cool figure with some nice molding. While the Orcs aren't completely new, a little variation in the Orcish ranks face prints is nice. The addition of a repeat Legolas is disappointing, but tolerable given the other figures. I doubt many will care that Gwaihir is slightly different than the generic eagles we have already seen, but for those who wanted "the" eagle, rejoice in the fact that LEGO took the time to differentiate the printing, no matter how slight. From a MOCers perspective, the torsos are varied enough and the price is high enough that despite the sets name, this is likely not an "army builder" type set. Value: 8 out of 10 The price to parts ratio isn't good at 12.7 cents a brick, but again, if we're being honest, we're picking this set up for the minifigures. Taking into account Azog, Thorin and Dain will likely fetch at minimum $12-15 a piece on bricklink and maybe even another $5-7 for Bard, we would have to spend at least $40 on Bricklink to collect the major figures in this set, but I suspect those prices will be on the low side, especially when the set comes out. For an extra $10-20 then you can buy the set and get Legolas, two Orcs, and Eagle and 400 some odd bricks in decent Earth-tone colors. That is a pretty good deal if you ask me. The number of figures and their desirability easily offsets the "pure" price to parts ratio here and I believe the set represents a good value. Final score: 35/50 Conclusion: Despite the low score, I would recommend this set based on the minifigure and "value" scores handed out above. The minifigures are too varied and the set likely too high priced to be an army builder candidate, the set is too expensive and the rare bricks too few to be a parts pack, the play and display features are nothing to write home about, but if you are going after this set for the minifigures, you'll be pleased. From a MOCers perspective, you get some great figures that would fetch a high price on Bricklink and for the extra cash you'll get some solid, if not rare earth-tone parts to use in your MOCs. I would therefore recommend this set, but I probably wouldn't recommend buying multiples. Your thoughts?

No, this is not the right spot for this. I think we need to have some discussion in private, so I am making that happen now. I don't know how many times I can say we need to respect each other here and that not doing so will quickly draw my wrath. Any more directly hurled insults will be met with very swift justice.