First up,
Medieval Legends
As I mentioned before, I love learning new things through the CCC. So while I expected a lot of Arthurian or Beowulf MOCs (and there were several great ones), I particularly appreciated those builders who brought out some more obscure or local tale.
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Tom Snellen's Bakery of Eeklo[/url] was certainly a delightfully fun story that I'd never heard before. This was a great winning entry and also my personal favorite. When I saw the first image with a line of people out the door and a head hanging over the entryway, I thought this was going in a much more macabre direction. Seeing the inside and reading the story really made me laugh. The best build detail is that fireplace, incorporating little flourishes like the 1x1 plates with clip light and the lion heads, the ladders as grills, and the light-up feature. Setting it at an angle was exactly the right move. Fig placement is great, especially the lettuce-head guy wandering blindly and the headless fig picking a new head. Other great details include the guy rolling out dough with one ball of dough and one flattened, the knife block, the little flag curtains, the salt and pepper shakers, the chandelier, rat with cheese, and the little patterning with 1x1 cylinders and slopes along the top of the wall.
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Piotr's two dragon entries[/url] were my second and third place picks. This is probably because I'm a sucker for brick-built beasts and these two dragons are awesome. Great head and claw designs and very fluid organic shapes. I hope Piotr posts more close-up pictures of these. Is there flex tubing running through as a spine? The wings are a weakness, IMO, but offset by the overall shape (and the photo angle de-emphasizes the wings, wisely). Cute variation on a sheep design in Wawel Hill (the yellow one). In Last Adventure (the white one), the great dragon almost made me miss the SNOTted ground, which moves seamlessly into the SNOTted bridge. Rotating those tall slopes allows for a unique 15 degree slope in the bridge railings. SNOT design also gives a nice shape to the carriage (though here I think a different color would suit better.
Others, in no particular order:
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Daria's Betrayal of Gwenievere and Lancelot[/url] is one that really shows how presentation really makes the MOC. The low angle on the close-up pic (the one in the thumbnail) really sets the scene. Also perfect face choices and fig placement, with an angry Arthur, an upset Gwen, and a smirking Lance. Hilarious that Lance apparently keeps his armor on in the heat of passion. Using half of a hinge plate as the fringe on a hanging tapestry is a nice build detail.
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Sir Brithead's Holy Grail[/url] is a really neat idea, drawing on a medieval painting for inspiration.
I really like the background black sky with trans stars (reminds me of work by
Kezzart), and the floating angels are effective. While I've used hippogriff wings for angels before, here the use of wedge plates gives some wing variation and makes the space considerations work much better.
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Jokkna's Sigurd Fafnisbane[/url] - The splitting of the anvil is cleverly done here.
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Robert Black's Morte D'Arthur[/url] - Some positives and negatives here. The shoreline is a little too blocky and non-organic. Also, the figs on the boat seem very static. The legs on Arthur and ____ (dang, forgetting my Arthurian lore, time to pick up Mallory) are cool, but the photography doesn't highlight it. What should be the emotional center of the scene is almost off the edge. What really sets this MOC apart, though, is the cool water surface and the great underwater lighting effect it gives. Great Lady of the Lake design (Moistened bimbos distributing scimitars is no basis for a system of government!).
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Athos' William Tell[/url] - One thing I always appreciate about Steve's building style is the classic LEGO feel. You could easily imagine this as a set in the golden age. The colorful roofs and shutters/doors brightens this scene up. Nice bonus that the interiors are all fully accessible and at least partly furnished.
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Crises' Saint George and the dragon[/url] - Nice detail on the very long spear. I assume that is a careful positioning of a spear and a 4-long bar held together by the fig's hand?
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Barbara's Snow White[/url] - Perfect use of the large trans chest as the glass coffin. Gorgeous trees, especially the dark green.
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DNL's Roland's last stand[/url] - Very natural fig placement here, especially the archers on top of the ridge. I almost wish this MOC had been saved for the Battles Contest as that would be a better fit. One critique - when the action of the figs is much busier, as here, I would make the landscaping less busy. Maybe stick with just dark gray with a few light gray accents so that the figs would then show up better against a more solid background.
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DarkTide's Macbeth[/url] - All of the blood details are awesome here - streaks in the floor, on the bed, hands, arm. Great to use a fleshy head for the dead king and I like the upset servant. Other great build details are the spiral stair, the stained glass, the floor rug, and the little wall accents with cheese slopes. My one complaint here is the completely empty and bland downstairs. Some of the details such as the statues and the spiral stair get lost against all that light gray. I think this MOC would be tons better if the upstairs were preserved (the bedroom and the hallway), but turned into a stage with a crowd of groundlings watching this as a play.
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Giorgio's Blondel[/url] - Nice variety of plant life here and details in the castle like the torture chamber, the arrow slit, the various arch details, and the portcullis. I hope more pictures are posted so we can see this in greater detail. The opening up for interior play is great; is this held together with magnets? One question, shouldn't the king be looking out a window in the front to hear the minstrel?
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Phil's Green Knight[/url] - I just wanted to echo all who loved the Green Knight fig. That's just perfect. The round table is also quite nice.
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Szww's Sword in the Stone[/url] - The foliage on the tree is great (also the nesting bird). Brick-built fig is a cool idea, though perhaps color variation might make it stand out better.
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Micah Berger's Grendel[/url] Grendel is a little cartoon-y for me, but the mayhem in this scene is awesome - the fig cut in half by a shield, the one impaled against a pillar, another embedded in the wall, and the snake entrails. The mosaic in the doorway showing the road receding into the distance, the city wall, and the far hills, is amazingly cool.
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DARKspawn's Beowulf versus the dragon[/url] - The non-square footprint of this is great, as is the landscaping of the mountain (including the mushroomsand the snow). Cool dragon design.
Bruce
Keep it coming!
I really was looking forward to this thread. I really enjoyed reading it last year. What i like about your comments is that i get the feel of it that you really have carefully studied all of the entries. You point out all kinds of little details i would have missed in some MOCs. Thank you for that! 
I'm really happy with your comments. Thank you.
