Siegfried

Well you're first! Time for me to make a tracking topic!

Welcome just the same, but be aware that we're aware and we expect mature behavior.

I remember one of the rare times I was building with my sister and she kept asking for a "chick-chick thing". This I couldn't work out, but then she found one... I rarely make names, normally I go by mental pictures, but I used to call "plates" flats, and tiles "smooth flats". (Smooth flats were rare for me then.)

It's a composite effort. Rufus Banner design. Brickthing EB logo Shadows General skin help and theming. It'll probably end up being used in "Special".

...so you're sure you can't use official ones? If that's the case then I'll allow an exception here... but be aware that come judging time you might be penalised for it. (But a Technic sailing ship would be pretty cool. )

Yeah, I've seen those, but they don't seem to be from any sets. Are they?

Ever heard of March?

Set Index: Sydney Opera House Theme: Architecture (Architect Series) Parts: 270 (Reported, not counted.) Note: This is the prelim official blurb. Ask the average Joe ( Josef or Josephine) for a man-made construction from France and it'd be a good chance that they pick the Eiffel Tower. Ask the same Joe about Australia and I think they'd pick the Sydney Opera House. I'm no different. When I first visited Sydney it was one of my primary visiting goals. To me it's one of those things that seem too fantastical to actually exist, especially since it's a practical construction. I'm not saying that it's not excessive, but for a building for artistic performances it makes almost logical sense for it to be unusual. But anyway, back to LEGO, if there was a LEGO Eiffel Tower shouldn't there be a LEGO Sydney Opera House? I sure think so, and at last TLG agree. Will Adam Reed Tucker's creation satisfy? Thanks to TLG providing us with this early copy of the set, it's time to find out! Before we move on, do note the age recommendation; 12+. It is interesting how these sets are rated higher than their difficulty would suggest. For example the Empire State Building is 10+ when some Technic sets are 8+. My best guess is that they are aiming for people who don't normally buy LEGO. This is what greets you when you open the seal. More empty space than one would prefer, but at least it's not Star-Wars-box empty. Thank you, I will try to! Seriously though, it's little touches like this that make things seem more special. As you can see the bigger parts weren't bagged. I've never liked this much. I understand with things like big rubber tires, but otherwise I think it just looks like a cost saving measure... which takes away from those special feelings! The manual/guide is wonderful. It's very nicely bound... I wish all sets were done this well! Note the absence of a set number on the booklet. Inside are 14 pages covering the development, design, construction, stats and history of the architect. (For those aware of the many controversies of the Opera House, I think it's written from a very neutral point of view. For those who aren't aware look it up! ) The instructions themselves are very nice too, and I especially like the little photos and quotes that are on about 25% of the pages. The part edging is emphasised, which I'm not sure if I like or not, but in the context of a set that could be sold in gift shops it's probably smart. I think TLG should consider either bagging these and/or all of the parts; mine ended up with a noticeable bend on the back in transit, as well as some edge damage. (Mine was mailed however so it probably was mostly caused by mishandling.) It's opening time! I considered arranging the parts really nicely, but there is a surprising amount of small parts and I got lazy! Thus I sectioned it instead. Interestingly there are no random colours (such as blue) in the set. Finished! It's a the Opera House on a cloudy day... haw, haw, haw. Actually there's more parts in the box so I might as well use them. From the start it's clear the amount of thought that has gone into this set; that amount of jumpers just to make a half stud offset? No way! But it's yes-way in a premium set. While it's smart part usage, I find it really weird that the door rail part is in dark tan... but more on that later. It is amazing how many parts have gone into these few layers though. Even at this stage I think it's clear what it's going to be. The rear platform is complete now. On the subject of colours, the turntables used to angle the structure don't come in tan, so there's nothing that can be done about that little spot of black. They're multiplying! (The buildings that is.) Taking shape... Adding the shells. The two angled structures are locked in by those 2x2 tiles, which are also needed for a more correct representation of the Opera House. You can see here that the black turntables are mostly hidden... but not quite. And now.... (photo shamelessly stolen from the LEGO® Architecture official sub-domain ) ...we're really finished! Personally I feel the Opera House looks odd without water. It's generally photographed showing the setting and, like most great architecture, it was designed specially for the location. But maybe I'm just having delusions of grandeur seeing myself as someone who can appreciate fine architecture. Here it is in comparison to two from the Landmark series. (N.B. Sets not to scale.) Anyway what I think would be cool would be if I could let our little model meet its Big Daddy.... ...and as things turn out, I live in Parramatta, which is about 30 minutes from Sydney, so I can and will! Thus early on a Sunday I dragged myself out of bed, jumped on the bike, and took some photos. (This photo shows me after being in the sun for about 4 hours. I tried to smile, honest.... ) Now it's time for some comparisons. Before I do this I'd like to post a quote from the booklet in the section, "A Word from the Artist"; (Much the same is said in other sets.) In other words, regardless of the "replica" in the blurb (and on others from the line), these sets aren't aiming for photo real perfection. Even so, the temptation was too great so I've done some comparisons. First off, here is the real thing. I was "lucky" to get a clear day for my photos, but it was too hot... anyway, complaints aside, let's move on! This is also the real one taken with a block filter... haw, haw, haw... darn, it seems the sun killed my sense of humor. Anyway moving on... The fun thing I tried to do was do the comparisons in camera. (I like to avoid image editing if I can.) This one wasn't the best, but it does let you see that in basic form the set is "correct". Moving down the coast I took this one. On a side note, it was funny doing this. I arrived at 9am-ish (which on a Sunday is a huge effort for me!) so there was good light but not too many people, but even so, each time I stopped and pulled out the Opera House from my bag I got loads of stares. On a less positive note, it's clear from this angle that the single-piece shell is too simple to match the real thing. I tried to get the (Bennelong) restaurant shell to overlap the Concert Hall, but the gap between is too big. BTW, the base you can see in most photos is a 3847 Magma Monster box. I carried it in that instead of the actual one as I didn't want to damage it. The set generally got a bit broken each time... and it's annoying to fix and re-align while you're outside, so I wouldn't recommended taking it on tour. Forgetting about LEGO for a moment, I was able to catch the light here to highlight the tiled surface. Cool eh? This one is a more successful comparison than the last. Interestingly I was rather close to the water while taking this one and I was concerned the whole time it'd fall in. (It didn't. ) Well I've arrived, all hot sweaty and sunburned at the Sydney Opera House! Unfortunately they are renovating so I can't do any long shots of the stairs. As you would expect from artists, they have turned the temporary fence into an artwork... This part of the stairs people can actually walk under for another access point to the inside. This is a bit of detail that the model misses... ...and I think a bit of black (2 stud long after the cheese slopes?) would have given a similar effect. I might actually mod mine! Note that bit of black near the stairs? Good... keep it in mind. The stairs are captured as good as can be expected. Aside from a print (blurk) I can't see how it could be improved at this scale. Still remember that black? This I think is the reasoning for it. To be honest I think it should have just been a black plate. However it's possible that the black angles is supposed to look like a shadow. Here is another bit of detail in the model that confused me; see that gap in the "floor" between the main buildings? I saw that and thought that it was meant to be a water feature or similar, so I went looking for it... ...but found nothing. Now that I've went to the effort to go and look for this "detail" I'm 95% sure that this is just a flaw in the model caused by LEGO limitations, but it does raise an interesting point about subtle details like this. In the case of this model the designer wanted a half stud offset and needed to do this to "catch up", but should it have done it somewhere else and in tan? Interval. Time for five minutes of random Sydney Opera House appreciation. One... ...two... ...three... ..four (nice girl too)... ...five. Resuming program. Sadly the details in the interval, while nice, would be impossible to replicate at any sellable scale, but this part can be, and... ...I think for the most part it does very well. This is actually the first time I've gone to the effort of walking out this far! Continuing our walk we get to the the other side, so it's time for another comparison! I couldn't find a flat spot so I held it this time. I was tempted at this point to walk inside the Opera House and use my model to get a free tour but I feared the Wrath of Jan... I was planning on taking photos from the other side of the harbour, but I was getting hot and I'd just ran into my wife and kids... so I called it a day. Here you can see me demonstrating my ability to balance glass balls on my head. Summary: ...and so we come to the end of the review. Where's the score you ask? I'll pass this time. Why? Well normally I judge by things like appearance, function, parts and price... but the Architecture sets don't really turn out too well when measured like that. I could make a custom one (as I have before) but for the most part I have done that by making comparisons... which are not supposed to be perfect anyway! So I think I'll just rant some more. I do think this is a case of a huge opportunity missed. Because of the simple design concept of the shells they "jut" out rather than "flow" out in the case of the real one. I really think that they should have made it a bigger model, probably of around the size of Robie House. That would have made it more practical for this model to do more than merely resemble the Opera House, it would than have captured what I think is the essence of Jørn Utzon's design. But I make no claims to be an artist, and I'm being a silly AFOL making comparisons that this model was not intended to stand up to. Ultimately the true test is "Would anyone who is familiar with the Sydney Opera House see this and know what it's supposed to be be?" and I think that the answer would be a "yes". The model is quite successful in pulling off a very complicated design in a small model, and I suspect this will turn up in the Gift Shop, where anything bigger simply wouldn't sell. This size is perfect for someone to buy as something to take home as an Australia souvenir, and unlike many, I suspect this would stay in a place of pride for a long time.

Updated! What happened there?

I got a PM from someone (no names) asking about 3rd party lights. While it's tempting to say yes, I'm leaving the rule as a 100% no to non-LEGO. IMHO once you start making exceptions, things get messy real fast. It's like the old "Brickarms==OK, M%g& Bl#ks==NO" one... I'm not accepting any digital entries. No exceptions. Sorry. The contest still has over a month left for build time.... and chances are I'll allow slight extensions to anyone who can send me photos of a mostly finished MOC.

Post it when you're ready... but... if your idea is really good but someone else thinks of it then it'll look like you stole the idea. It's risky either way... sorry! (What you could do is PM me an early image and I'll use that to prove to the Meister's later on that you were first. )

Well right now I have 14... DLuders Conchas Anio dhc6twinotter Alasdair Ryan Povratnik timr JunkstyleGio Zblj allanp legolijntje parda Blakbird Burf2000 ...and considering the fact that one or two might be unavailable this is a OK amount. The people I have mentioned have all "passed" but it will still be at least another few weeks before I see any need for action on my part. The contest still has over a month until voting afterall.

Happy Birthday wolfboy!

Indeed. To be honest this topic is beyond stupid. I've seen Squishy Stelactite visit it several times without comment. I think he's just here for a laugh so...

Sure! But probably just for a limited time.

You're kidding? Please tell me you are. Biggest set; 402 parts. 167 parts. Including hard to use ones like; On the other hand... 235 parts and a contra-rotating drill! Juniorisation? Perhaps these; IMHO Power Miners was the far superior line.

Really?! Tell me more!

I'm sure you can do it yourself. Read some of these tutorials.

Well use the accessibly functions, or cut-and-paste "a"s from other places. Don't keep posting "@". Joke or not, it's annoying.

I'll tell you what, if you can build a LEGO engine that is water cooled it's OK... OK, that's taking it too far. Remember, 50% of the vote is panel based. Making a car for example and saying "it's water cooled" will just result in the panel disqualifying your entry. I'm looking for smart, not smarty-pants. Yes, but it's hardly inventive. Pretty much, but I can't see many people voting for a pump. Exactly. The rules are loose to encourage interesting entries... thus if an entry is interesting it'll stand a decent chance.

If you think it'd be a good MOC...

I was doing a check of our generally ignored official EMail and I noticed that a lot of people have been replying to PM EMails expecting it to send an EB PM. It doesn't work like that! It will instead go to our GMail account which is generally used as an error catcher and emergency contact. You need to be on EB to send replies.

No big surprise. We're all volunteers. I don't have time to answer tech EMails for every member. We have tutorials which are linked to the Guidelines you read that explain all of this kind of stuff. But it's not a big deal and aside from taking up my morning no harm was done...

Red Ninjago skeletons.

Are you kidding? They are still 2500x2000!! EDIT: Ahh, I see. You've replaced the images and I needed to re-cache them. Thanks.