Tanotrooper

Thank you CopMike for organising this raffle yet again, it got me to finally start MOCing again albeit only a LDD one. Had to choose between either a Star Wars one, given the new movie or Western one since I'm into that genre of movies as of late. I hope it's recognizable enough as a Christmas tree! Cheers and happy holidays! Gaetano

I've sent a PM some time ago, but I forgot to add something to this thread! First of all, a huge thanks goes at to you Copmike, for making this event possible every year! Things like the bonus winners is something that's really nice of you. Secondly: Yay! The LOTR figures are excellent, glad I'll be getting the excellent Arwen minifigure! Happy holidays! Gaetano Tanotrooper

Almost forgot about this raffle! Here's my ornament: Good luck everyone and have a great season! Cheers, Gaetano Tanotrooper

The AT-TE looks great, love the figures! FINALLY an AOTC/Non-animated Phase I Clone Commander! There does appear to be a lack of regular clones, I hope this will be resolved in the next wave? Gaetano

Happy Newyear everyone! Here's one of my entries for CCCX: A Last Alliance of Men and Elves (and Dwarves) faced the armies of Sauron on the slopes of Mount Doom. All goes well until the Alliance has to face off against the Dark Lord himself... (Love this shot in the movie) The scene features Sauron (with the Ring of course), Isildur, Elrond and a human and elf soldier. I wanted to enter Sauron in the Fantasy Minifigure category, but since there's nothing minifig left I decided to build the scene and enter it into the Miscellaneous category. I'd have to thank LEGO for getting me interested in LOTR, but this specific scene has been engraved in my mind since the first time I saw it. Trying to scale Sauron with the minifigures was a bit difficult, but I really love the way he looks. I have to admit that the binoculars technique has been used on a Sauron before, but not in combination with the knives I believe. Four black minifigure capes were used to make his large cape. The elbows and knees can turn in 90 degree movements, so he should be able to sit down and enjoy his cup of tea. He's certainly more to scale than LEGO's version in the LOTR videogame! :D The scenery isn't that special I suppose, but then again there's not really much to build when you look at the movie. One note, I'll replace the Elf's helmet with a complete golden one when I get an Atlantis guardian. Comments and criticism are appreciated, as always! :) Sincerely, Gaetano Dooms Tanotrooper

About the amazon.de SE version, is the PS3 version only in German or does it change according to the language set on your PS3? TT

Thanks! The torso works well in real life, perhaps the photo makes the pink stand out too much due to the flash. I have a colour image of the white uniform with pink facing in an Osprey book, I'll try to scan it tomorrow. Thanks again! A minifig hand couldn't fit in the room that was left, so the hook was an obvious choice. I have to say that the work by FalconsLord gave me the spark I needed to get the tire idea. (He makes LDD/CAD versions, some connections are possible and some or not. He uses a visor on top of the shako, a connection of which I know isn't sturdy enough: FalconsLord shako I hadn't ever thought of broadening the original shako, but I did know the perfect part for it. The tire has exactly the right tension and has been used in several of my brickbuilt headgears before. So a big thanks to FalconsLord!) When my Bricklink order arrives I shall update this thread with a few Napoleonics and a few Thirty Years war troops. Cheers, Gaetano Tanotrooper

Greetings everyone, it's been a while since I posted here! I've stopped production of my TTfigs and have finally returned to regular minifigures. I feel LEGO has provided enough new parts for me to do so. (Things like the scabbard, moving horse and more printed legs.) I'm planning to make minifigures from different eras, and as this is the Pirates forum, the minifigures shown here will limit themselves to the forum's boundaries. (Renaissance - Napoleonic Wars) Let's start off then! The first figures in chronological order: Scottish mercenary halberdier Scottish mercenary halberdier from the XVIth - XVIIth century, known for their fiercefulness. The armour consists of a full cuirass and two large metal plates suspended below it, offering protection for the upper legs. It took a long time before I found a piece that could hold the blade and the two pikes. Finally ended up with the telescope. I'm quite proud of this halberd design! Based on the appearance in Mount and Blade: with Fire and Sword. Louis XIV, le roi soleil 1638-1715 Based on the famous painting. You've got to love the elasticity of the Friends hair. Seems like I've put the wrong leg forward... French grenadier 53ème de ligne 1806 First of all, FINALLY found a good French shako design! Made using a small tire (Racer sets) onto LEGO's shako. Years of experimenting to finally arrive at such a simple sollution. Due to lack of indigo due to the continental blockade and a desire of certain veteran troops to regain their fabulous white uniforms they wore under the king, Napoléon decided to reintroduce the white uniforms in 1806. Distribution was curious, with certain regiments not receiving their ordered uniforms while other regiments that hadn't ordered them did. Even within a unit there could still be a mix of the old blue and new white uniforms. Legend has it that blood appeared so vividly on the uniforms, that Napoléon ordered their removal when he saw wounded and dead troops in them. A more realistic scenario was that they were impossible to keep clean, and that other ways were found to dye the uniforms blue. Whatever the case, in 1807 production was seized, much to the annoyance of officers who had just purchased several uniforms for themselves. The uniform slowly dissappeared and remains a curious part of the napoleonic wars. The colours on the facings and other parts of the uniform changed according to each regiment and the 53ème de ligne was the only one to actually receive the white uniforms with pink facings. That's it for now, many minifigures coming up soon. Comments and constructive criticism is very welcome! Gaetano Tanotrooper

Although this series as a whole isn't that impressive, certain figures are excellent. The conquistador, Shakespeare and pirate captain are perfect figures for my 16th-17th century warfare project. Shakespeare is perfect, I'm glad the collar will be removable, outstanding printing aswell. The pirate captain, although not as impressive as a whole, has a fantastic torso for armybuilding. (I'm thinking 18th century redcoats.) I'm happy and disappointed with the conquistador; the figure itself is perfect but I (and I think the Pirate/historical comunity aswell) REALLY needed a silver/metallic helmet. I can't think about a single example, both historical and fiction, when someone wore a goldcoloured Morion. Even kings and nobility wore heavily decorated silvercoloured or darkened helmets. The figure is a succes on its own, but it's a missed opportunity for the MOC community. (Btw, didn't the Spanish and Portuguese go to the Americas looking for gold instead of wearing it? ) Guess I'll have to dress my pikemen in black and gold armour... The alien queen's skirt should work great for some noblewoman's dress. (With a different torso though.) Love the cape on that one aswell. The English gentlemen is perfect, the much needed black bowler has finally arrived! TLG did a marvelous job on the diver and cowgirl, both look great! My two personal biggest letdowns are the manbat and the cheerleader. The manbat will allready be released twice soon (both monster hunters and batman I believe?) so making a third one for the CMF seems a bit overkill. The cheerleaders would've been better if they didn't make her EXACTLY the same. Besides the colour, everything just looks the same. (The same hairmould is what kills it I believe.) That being said, there's one thing I really like about the cheerleader: red and white pompons = minifigure pokeballs. All in all, quite a few figures to 'army'build. Gaetano

They all look excellent, but the curves on the hood of the firetruck are amazing! Keep up the good work. Gaetano

Thanks for the wonderful review. Looks like this'll be my first Architecture set. When looking at the pictures though, I wonder why they didn't use yellow or gold pieces behind the clocks and beneath the top? (Would've made the set more colourful.) Cheers, Gaetano

Well this is just a must-buy! Love the functions on it, now let's hope they release a new Fokker aswell! Cheers, Gaetano

Happy Birthday Rufus! Hope you have (had) a fantastic day with lots of LEGO! Cheers, Gaetano

Interesting discussion, I've read through the entire thread. First of all, opening a package is unacceptable since it's pretty much damaging the product itself. No one seems to bother feeling but most oppose massive army building. Being an army builder myself, my view on the CMs has changed over the years. When S1 was released, I only got a complete set and some doubles. (Only exception: lots of unopened boxes still left when S2 arrived, so I got some extra cheerleaders and zombies for EB members.) With the arrival of the Spartan, a figure which I had wanted for most of my TFOL age, I went completely overboard and hoarded lots of them. I did stop at a certain point, feeling that collecting more would just be useless. What pushed me to this? A rare figure, which I desired for a long time, a series that was limited in supply and some fellow LEGO sharks in my area which did the same... In my defence though, I did collect most of them by bike, which was A LOT of kilometers. For a long time, I predicted to do the same if a Roman legionary would arrive. But the series came and went, and I got sick of shelling out every couple of months for a box and then selling the remaining figures, which takes a long time. I completely missed S5, and when the Roman finally arrived, I wasn't impressed with him. I saw the S6 boxes in a shop and decided to get a few I really liked, like the genie. The boxes had been picked through for Romans, but I saw a sealed box in the stock shelf. I got two Romans out of that box and decided to leave one for a kid. When I got home, the Roman still didn't impress me. But now that I've added flesh parts to him, I finally figured out I could make a historical accurate Centuria out of them. I found two more Romans by accident (I thought they would have been picked out by this time) and now I'm looking for more. Is it so bad for us to take all the wanted figures from a box to armybuild? That's not the question that should be posed. I would gladly buy the figures online and leave the boxes in stores full for others to enjoy. I'm just not willing to pay triple the price I would pay in stores. Sure, this can work for that one missing figure, but not for multiples. To be honest, if LEGO would sell the minifigures on their site for €3 instead of two, but I know which I'm going to get and I can order quantities of it, I'd certainly prefer that. I enjoy the hunt during our BeLUG weekends, feeling at the packets with other AFOLs, to get a few figures and (most of the time ) help each other, but going through complete boxes by this method is stopping me from buying them. (This was different with the barcodes, it only took a few minutes but now it can take up to an hour.) Why doesn't LEGO offer this option for LUGs for example? The minifigs I buy are for creating MOCs which can be seen on our clubweekends, which bring a lot of joy to kids and parents (and are also free promotion for LEGO. Using the CMs in layouts could lead parents to buy some for their kids in the shops). It's not like they are just sitting somewhere, waiting to make money? The money earned by second market sellers is money that LEGO could earn by offering seperate figures in bulk to AFOLs. In the end, my conclusion is this: I (and I suppose we as armybuilders/AFOLs) collect/hoard these minifigures because of incertainty. The Roman legionary might turn up in a theme next year, which would make the prices drop a lot or he might simply not appear ever again. It's this uncertainty that makes people buy figures at absurd prices, in fear of paying even absurder prices later on. If LEGO doesn't provide alternatives, this game will continue untill the series are finished and prices will skyrocket afterwards. And is this game of armybuilding ethical? As a philosophy student, I think Ethics has certainly achieved some objective grounds but there's still a lot of gray zones left. And so this debate shall continue as long as we play this game but perhaps we should question the cause, not the consequences. Cheers, Gaetano

Thanks! I tried to follow these schematics as closely as possible. I see you're an Architecture fan, and I felt like one of those designers while designing this ship. (Constantly applying the 2 studs - 5 plates rule, working with half plates, ...) I've never really used the flower part before, but in this case I feel like the part turns a LEGO build into a scale model. Thank you. My condolences for your ancestor, the crew really did admirable things under those circumstances. Atleast your ancestor and RMS Titanic were born and passed away on the same places. I'll certainly be going to Belfast in a couple of years and visit the museum and shipyards. Gaetano