MKJoshA

Scores are in and posted. Congratulations to the Triumvirate on winning! You have gained a Secret Hyperspace Route. This allows you to build 1 entry on any planet in the galaxy regardless of current accessibility. Please add a comment in your build when you enter it so we know your Secret Route has been used. Cumulative Scores: Triumvirate - 79 Confederacy of Free Systems - 26 CorSec - 24 Black Sun - 13 We are hard at work on the next contest which will have physical prizes! So stay tuned for more and while you wait be sure to participate in the latest LTC.

'The grand army of the Republic!" - Palpatine Special challenge, from now till May 27th you can earn double XP (and double IP if built on an eligible planet). There are 2 criteria. Your MOC must be no more than 16x16 studs (or 256 total studs in surface area). Your MOC must also showcase a Clonetrooper. Lego has created dozens of Clone variants. This is a great way to show one of them at work in his area of expertise. If you don't own any Clones you can use a Stormtrooper without a helmet. Just make sure your storytelling compensates. Please include the word "Clone" in your entry title and submit it under the Special Challenge option on the form to ensure you get double XP. You may enter this special challenge up to 2 times.

Trolls: World Tour. The movie that every Lego fan couldn't wait to see! Right?... Well you may not be a fan of the movie. Or, like me, you may know nothing at all about it! But whether you are a Trolls aficionado or not, this review will help you decide whether this set is a worthy investment. Set Information Name: 41254 - Volcano Rock City Concert Theme: Trolls: World Tour Year: 2020 Pieces: 387 Minifigures: 3 Price: £34.99 / $39.99 / 39.99€ Resources: Brickset and Bricklink The original Trolls movie came out in 2016. My daughter was not even 1 at the time and I had no other incentive to see it, so I gave it a pass. 2020 rolled around and while my daughter is 4 going on 14 right now, she doesn't yet get to call the shots on which movies we view. So I gave Trolls: World Tour a pass as well. Therefore this review will be spoiler free! The box art matches much of the other Trolls: World Tour promotional artwork. The rainbow color spectrum hints at the colorful pieces awaiting us inside the box. Inside we have 3 numbered bags, the foam pieces in an unnumbered bag, 2 loose roller-coaster tracks, 1 loose 8x16 plate, a sticker sheet, and instructions. The back of the instructions shows this line of sets is clearly marketed to the same demographic as the Friends sets. The beginning of the instructions shows us what to expect with each bag and how to build Poppy, the protagonist of the movie. Page 6 shows us how to build Branch (teal) and Barb (lavender). All the minifigures are in Bag 1 and they provide most of the interesting parts from that bag. We also get the 4x4 curved cut-out plate in dark blue which only appears in this color in 2 other sets. The black skeleton leg is originally from the Minecraft Wither Skeleton. And the Trolls accessory bag comes in pearl gray exclusively in this set. Here's a close-up of the accessory bag parts as well as a few other nice re-colors in Bag 1. The minifigures are fascinating as I'll explain further down. Here's the back printing. Many minifigures get no back printing at all, so the attention to detail here is nice. Each fig in this set uses a tradition torso and mini-legs. The heads are made up of two parts: the face and the hair assembly. The back of the heads have an interesting notch. If you look closely instead the hair assemblies you can see the guiding groove of plastic that forces the hair to face the "right" way when placed on the head. This prevents you from placing the hair backwards as a legal connection. But you can still mix up the hair assemblies among the minifigures. Poppy comes with a new skirt piece the fits between the legs and torso. With it removed she is "naked" underneath. I guess Lego's standards are different for Troll figures than other themes. Poppy's outfit is exclusive to this set. Here is a comparison picture to how she looks in most of the other sets. Branch's outfit is also exclusive to this set, but I don't own any other version of him for comparison. By the time you're done with Bag 1 you have the main floor of the stage built as well as the separate drum set. You can see the extra pieces from the first bag. I ended up with an extra red modified plate. I double checked to make sure I hadn't missed a step as this is not a usual extra part. It seemed that I had followed every step correctly. So I guess I just got lucky with this piece. Hopefully there isn't someone out there with a set that has this part missing! There are a few new re-colors and interesting pieces in Bag 2. What stood out to me first were the lavender roller coaster curved track pieces. There are no other coaster pieces in lavender which limits their use for roller coaster rides. But there are plenty of ways to use the curved track pieces and I'm sure AFOLs will find ways to fit them into their builds. You also get the new lighting bolt pieces in trans-red and trans-purple, both exclusive colors. The only non-minifigure printed piece is found in Bag 2. A 1x1 round tile used as speakers. We also get to assemble the foam pieces found in this set. These have no connection points that work within the Lego system. They are the width of 1 plate and need to have a wider piece in front and behind to secure them to any build. They provide for shapes not achievable by bricks, but I wonder why Lego chose to use a new medium instead of the printed plastic already in use for Ninjago dragon wings and the like. When we are finished with Bag 2 we have the makings of a rock concert stage! There are a few extra pieces, mostly 1x1 quarter tiles. Bag 3 has some great re-colors and rare parts. There are a few Bright Light Blue, or Cinderella Blue re-colors that really stand out. Lego has been slowly increasing the number of parts in this color over the past couple years. Part of the building process for Bag 3 are the statue looking troll/ogres. This is what the back of them look like. Not having seen the movie I'm not sure if they are supposed to have useful functions on their backsides or if this is just Lego's way of utilizing space. They look a lot more plain without the stickers, which I declined to add. But I get the impression it's supposed to represent some kind of backstage dressing room. Finishing Bag 3 completes the building experience! We get a few extra pieces though not as many as I expected. Maybe this makes up for getting an extra red modified tile. The instructions show Poppy hanging by the chain in the background of the stage. Surely something to do with the movie, though out of context it looks odd. You can place either Barb's chair or the drum set on top of the stage. Though the instructions indicate the chair is what was meant to be placed there. The completed diorama is a riot of colors, though more muted than the other Trolls sets which represents the rock music venue. I really like the small detail of having the Cinderella Blue statues raising their hands to different heights from each other. It's something I didn't notice during the building process. Here's what the backstage area looks like. The hinges allow you to swing these around for more storytelling fun. And here is the sticker sheet. You can see the troll/ogre faces on the top left. Final Thoughts: So is this set for you? Playability: 8/10 - The set has a built in function of having the stage circles turn by use of the splat gears. It also has a number of areas for the Trolls to interact with. You have the stage, the backstage, and all the instruments. I think kids will have fun playing with this immediately after building it. Building Experience: 7/10 - There are few amazing building techniques in this set, but the building process never feels boring. Design: 6/10 - I can't compare this to the movie scene it was designed on. But they seemed to have covered the concept pretty well. My only complaint is that things seem cramped. The "backstage" feels squeezed in, but that probably can't be helped unless the set were bigger. Aesthetic: 5/10 - This set has a different feel to it that the other Trolls sets. The brighter colors are "hidden" beneath the dark blues. If you like the Trolls' color schemes you'll probably like this set, but you have to look deeper to see it. I personally like all the colors, but not in this combo. Minifigures: 5/10 - Either you want Trolls figures or you don't. There is very little middle ground and is probably a turn off to many Lego collectors. Price: 7/10 - This set gets close the the $.10/piece ratio so many AFOLs look for in sets. It has a number of larger pieces and is a licensed theme which accounts for the slightly higher price/piece ratio. It's a decent value for the money spent. Verdict: 6/10 - As a Trolls set this one fits the theme's aesthetic the least. I'm sure fans of the movie would enjoy playing with this, but probably not as much as some of the other sets. As a parts pack it provides some cool re-colors and some exclusive ones, but not in great quantities. If you're not a Trolls fan I can't recommend this set unless you can find it on discount.

Inane questions are allowed of course. You will just get docked questing points for each one

That particular rule is an EB standard from long before I started running contests, but I'll do my best to answer! Obviously you can have the LEGO logo that is stamped, printed, or stickered onto bricks visible. I believe you just aren't allowed to photoshop it into your photos as it would be a copyright infringement. BTW, this isn't the rules channel on the Style It Up! Discord group

Happy Star Wars Day! Join in all the fun in a galaxy far, far away with our contest. See all the details for the contest here.

You've added some great details with that window and color scheme. Your photos are a little blurry though.

Your photography did a great job highlighting what you were able to finish building. I'll echo that your chair looks great!

May the 4th be with you! The galaxy is a big place. Beings and cultures of every shape, size, and flavor exist everywhere you go! And while we've seen either too much of the politics of Star Wars (Ep. 2) or too little (Ep. 7), we've barely scratched the surface of seeing the ways various cultures manage to survive from day-to-day. We've seen moisture farmers, Cantina bar-tenders, blue krill farmers, Klatooinian grog makers, Kessel miners, coaxium refiners and many others. But there are so many other ways an economy thrives in the Star Wars universe! Show something we've already seen or come up with something new that fits within the Star Wars universe. There is only 1 category this year. But there will be 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. We had some challenges getting Lego to sponsor prizes this year so they are a little smaller. There is a chance that the prize pool could increase so check back for updates! To enter you must build a MOC that shows economy happening within the Star Wars universe. Your build should showcase something that helps a group of people survive from day-to-day. This needs to involve more than just an average citizen at his 9-5 office job. Beyond that it's up to you! As always, if you have questions feel free to ask. Rules Only one entry is allowed per person. There is no maximum or minimum size limit. The contest will run from 4th May to 15th June, 2020. As long as it's still June 15th somewhere in the world, you can still enter. Entries posted after the deadline will be disqualified. This contest is open to all EB members, even if they joined EB after the contest has begun, with the exception of the Star Wars staff, who are not eligible to win prizes. All entries must be new creations, not posted anywhere else prior to being entered in the contest. You may be asked by a staff member to change your entry if it is too similar to an earlier creation. All entries must be built from real LEGO. No clone brands, no third-party custom parts. Digital entries will be allowed. All digital entries must use only existing pieces in existing colors. All entries must be posted as a new topic in the Watto’s Junkyard forum, the title prefixed by, "[Economy] - entry name". (For example, "[Economy] – Blue Milk Processing Plant".) Please place a link in this thread to your entry. That will ensure your entry is counted. You may do a 'full-blown photo edit' with all the text, effects, background compositing, support erasing, and other effects on one picture. All your other pictures may have no editing other than color adjustment or background removal for a solid-color background. For obvious reasons, any photo editing that changes the shape, functionality, or color (not tint or adjustment, but actual color) of a LEGO piece is prohibited. It is also prohibited to use the Lego logo in any picture. All entries are considered WIPs (Works In Progress) until the deadline passes. Until the deadline has passed, you are allowed to change and improve your MOC. The winners will be decided by EB members voting. Only EB members who were members before May 4th, 2020 will be allowed to vote. Prizes First place will win their pick of 75272 Sith TIE Fighter 75278 D-0 75269 Duel on Mustafar 2nd place picks from one of the remaining sets. And then 3rd place. The remaining set will be saved for a future contest. There will also be a raffle for 75267 Mandalorian Battle Pack. Anyone who doesn't win one of the top 3 places will be entered into the raffle:

Yes! I'm finishing up the May the 4th SW contest which launches tomorrow, then we'll choose a limited time challenge for Factions.

I did it this morning and the cart says I qualified for the promo. But I don't know if it'll ship.

Welcome to another of my Lego set reviews! We're going to be looking at one of the smallest sets from the 2018 Arctic line. Set Information Name: 60191 - Arctic Exploration Team Theme: Town / Arctic Year: 2018 Pieces: 70 Minifigures: 3 Price: £9.99 / $9.99 / 9.99€ Resources: Brickset and Bricklink This isn't the first time Lego town citizens have ventured into the frigged regions of the globe. Back in 2000 we got a rare, new animal mold of a polar bear as the first Arctic theme hit shelves. Then, in 2014 Lego town ventured back out into the cold, this time with a brand new dog mold. The 3rd ever non-Belville or Scala dog mold Lego made. The first was the mold used for the Grimm from the HP line. The 2nd was the Chihuahua found in CMF series 10. Now, in 2018, Lego is back on the ice with 3 brand new animal molds! Something that seems quite fitting considering the history the Arctic line has in introducing new animals to the Lego menagerie. Unfortunately we only get a Husky in this set. But it's a great nod to the 2014 line and certainly something you would expect in one of the smallest sets. The back of the box shows the "play features" which mostly consist of discovering and transporting the frozen insect. Inside the box is a small instruction booklet and two unnumbered bags. The instructions are very straight forward. The use of the 3L technic beams is a great, simple way of adding treads to the snowmobile. The chunk of snow is extremely basic. It certainly could have benefited from some curved slopes or cheese slopes. The set only came with 70 pieces, a few more to add texture to the small piece of landscape seems like a reasonable request. There are no stickers in the set. And besides the minifigures there are just 2 printed pieces. The completed model works very well for such a small set. For the intended audience (children), it immediately offers storytelling and character interaction. With the frozen goods acquired and safely stowed, it's time to move out! Unfortunately for one of the intrepid explorers, this means either walking or being pulled along at break-neck speeds! The set comes with 4 extra pieces. None of them are particularly rare, but it's nice Lego continues this practice. The minifigures come dressed in warm, nicely printed jackets. The red Ushanka hat is new for this line and it looks fabulous! The dirt bike helmet is also new for 2018 and is also used in Dark Blue for the police sets. The jackets are all new prints for this line and have great details. The snowmobile driver looks very striking with his bi-colored arms. Here's another picture with the headgear removed. All 3 minifigures have single printed heads, no double expressions. Final Thoughts: Playability: 9/10 - The set instantly provides play opportunities. There are no functions or mechanisms. But that's okay because this is Lego. It's the kid's (or adult's) imagination that sparks the play possibilities. Building Experience: 4/10 - This is an extremely simple set. You don't get it to have an amazing building experience. Design: 8/10 - For 70 pieces it's very well designed. The snow landscape could just use a little attention. Aesthetic: 8/10 - The Arctic color scheme emphasizes orange and blue. It works very well for this theme. Minifigures: 7/10 - These are great additions to any Arctic or City layout. However, they have very little use outside their predefined themes. Price: 6/10 - Being a $10 set with only 70 pieces this doesn't hit that AFOL sweet spot of $0.10/piece. That's pretty normal with the smaller sets, but still a little bit of a negative. Verdict: 7/10 - Overall this is a great little set. If you're looking for a cheap way to get some of the unique pieces for the 2018 Arctic line, this one gives you the Ushanka hat, the bike helmet, and the printed frozen bug. If you're a kid looking for creative play value, this set also delivers. It's not the most amazing in the piece/price department, but $10 sets very rarely are. It's probably not something you'll buy multiples of but it makes a nice little purchase.

The contest is now closed! Thanks for all the amazing entries, we'll start judging them shortly.

I imagine more parts will be added soon. But for now the only thing I found was the white pneumatic T piece from the football stadium set.

I just tried to go to Lego.com and it said they were doing site maintenance. Maybe that's why your order isn't going through. Hopefully they'll be back up shortly.

YES!!!! There goes my money.

Very nice! I think your work on the slug paid off. You have very few gaps and the shaping is nice. I would suggest working a little harder to hide the brackets and snot bricks. The grey and yellow really stand out in some of your pictures. Your terrain looks really good and I love the combo of black and dark red. The hovercraft looks okay, but begins to dwarf the landscape. It just looks too big to fit on your 32x32 baseplate. I would also recommend using GIMP or photoshop to get rid of the lines around your poster board. I use GIMP myself since it's free. It has a steep learning curve, but it's well worth the time. Something else you could do to get more instant results is re-position your posterboard to leave fewer gaps and lines. Here's what most of my photo set-ups look like: You can see I use the natural curve of the posterboard to remove all harsh transition lines. And I can get most builds onto 1 or 2 sheets.

This is amazing The follow up from your previous entry is so well done. The beast really looks like it exploded and left a bloody mess everywhere!

Great take on a Dragonsnake! I love your use of wing pieces. Are the ones by the head from a Batman set or an Elves set? I don't think I've seen them before. I think it was a good idea to leave the tail off for your entry. The build already feels a little cramped. More terrain would have helped, though I know your personal collection may not allow for that. The transition between land and water is also a little rough. Have the land a little higher would really help to differentiate between the two. But overall a very nice entry!

Fantastic entry! The monster is terrifying and suitably tall. Your terrain is good too. The top of the cliffs might be a tad bit flat, but not so much it immediately stands out.

Glad to be able to welcome you in public!

This is amazing! I'm a sucker for anything FF7 and this really tickles that fancy.

We are getting off topic guys.

Fantastic first MOC! I will echo the advice about a background for your photos. I use a simple white poster board from Walmart. You can see it in action here: For lights I use some I bought off Amazon that are specifically for photography. But I know others use utility lights like this one. You can also get by with desk lamps. That's what I used when I first started out. Others prefer natural light and take the photos outside. Lastly, I highly recommend using some sort of software for editing. I use GIMP because it's free. But if you have a Mac I know there are some good programs that come standard. GIMP has a steep learning curve, but if you're going to continue to take photos it's time well invested. For the build itself, I think the dragon's head looks pretty good. I'm not sure I would have picked tan and black as a color scheme. It works, it just doesn't look as natural as maybe a different color combo might have. Your rock-work is nice. But the color transitions look a little too random. Maybe try to be more intentional about when to change from light bley to dark bley. Or maybe group the two colors completely together so you have strata layers. I like the ground you built. It would be nice if you had grey plates to put as the lowest layer instead of yellow and blue. But I know that may not be possible with a smaller Lego collection. All said, a wonderful entry and I'm glad to have you on the CorSec team!

Sometimes there is something wrong with a little speculation. This thread needs to be used for discussion actual sets and substantiated rumors. Pure speculation should go in this thread. They will probably be available on Bricks and Piece once they open again. They closed right now due to COVID19.