CCCII: What were your favorite MOCs?

Discussion of personal LEGO Castle creations
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Bruce N H
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Post by Bruce N H »

Hi all,

Well, now that the results are in I'll comment on the entries. It was really cool to go through all of these in detail and really take in the details. Congratulations to all of the winners, and also congratulations to all of the builders. I figure I'll take each of the categories and comment on a few of my personal favorite details over the next few days. Let's start out with the CCC Tudor Shops category:

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Krzysztof Gras Jankowski's Small Brevery Shop
. I really like the SNOT walls in the upper section, with the windows put back in in a studs-up orientation. The use of railing pieces to look like diagonal beams is particularly cool.

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blueandwhite's Green Fox
. The green and black on light gray is particularly attractive. The walls are two or three studs thick, which allows for the interesting arch-work, which along with the mottling avoids the Big Gray Wall syndrome. I really like how it opens in the middle of arches, which necessitated attention to detail how the halves come together smoothly. The chimney is actually hollow! No one ever does that, so this is a really cool detail. I also like the upper balcony running along the interior a lot.

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Piotr Lomero's Merchant's House
. My favorite detail is the curved roof on one end. The interior is also packed with details, like the flower vase by the bed, that bring this to life.

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Ley's Tapestry Shop
. I've commented elsewhere, but the mottling, the staircase design, the innovative opening, and the sheer audacity of building upside down all make this stand out.

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Scud's House
. The raised ground with built in path and hidden cellar is really nice in this one, as are the minifig legs as window details.

Bruce
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Bruce N H
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Post by Bruce N H »

On to the beasts:

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Kevin's Gryphon
. I've commented elsewhere, but this is just a thing of beauty. The wing design, the innovative beak, the tail, and most especially the talons are all very cool.

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Apophis' Cave Troll
. I love that this guy has a pot belly. The belly button, chest, hand design, and the cape as loincloth are all very cool. I'm not a fan of the elbows, but I suppose that is the tradeoff between look and posability.

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Sir Nelson's Fire Bat
. What makes this creation is the presentation. That pic really makes me laugh, as the whole cast of Monty Python yells "Run away, run away!" in my head. I believe that brave Sir Robin needs to change his armor. :P


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Freak's Fenris
. The head design, the shape of the legs, all the SNOT, and the posability really make this MOC. My only suggestions would be to do something a little less block-y for the paws, and also to present it a little better (the shadows in the photo are a bit distracting). I'd love to see this guy in a story.

Bruce
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Bruce N H
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Post by Bruce N H »

Pausing a moment to look across categories, it's important to note the amazing breadth of some of our members' talents. If you look through the "Honorable Mentions" on the winners page, you'll see certain names pop up again and again (Freak 10 times; Sir Nelson 8 times; Blue and White 5 times; Greg and Psu-Ericksen 4; Kenn, Ed, Fryslayer, Norro, and Yaron 3; Stephen, Josh, Troy, and AC 2). So, in that spirit, there are a couple of things I'd note across multiple categories:

Best use of a faction: ed's series of Black Falcon creations
Image Image Image Image Image
Perhaps it is Jojo's influence, but I have a special affection for these happy little guys, and ed really expands their realm with these MOCs.

Best history: Greg3
Image Image Image Image
I love MOCs that show not just someone's imagination of "something medieval", but some real scholarship. While Greg actually won with a different MOC, these creations were a real education in different aspects of medieval history and life. Of course he's done this before with his Ale Conner and Tower creations.

Bruce
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jonesy
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Post by jonesy »

I almost missed Stephen Wroble's Signal Tower. When did it sly its way into the entries list?

He so beat me to the punch with this. I had been meaning to build a semaphore tower after reading Terry Pratchett's recent Discworld novel Going Postal. The "clacks" are an awesome medieval equivalent of a telegraph system, which is just the kind of medieval tech (davinci-punk?) that appeals to me. I'm gonna have to see if he'll share that chain mechanism...

Kevin
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Post by Stephen »

I'm glad you liked the Signal Tower, jonesy. I too was inspired by the "Clacks" towers mentioened in Terry Pratchett's Diskworld books. That's why in my description I mentioned the inventor - "Terrence of Pratch." :D

Among the entries this year, I thought psu erickson's Ice Machine had a tremendous level of detail - there were several great castles in the Miscellaneous category that i liked, including Blue and White's, Kai Gerkin's and of course the winner by Andrzej Szlaga. - I haven't done any custom minifigs (yet) but I was inspired by Legofreak's Monk and Saxon - and although I really wanted the prize for the Outlaw Fortress category ( :oops: ) I have to admit that Kenn Oldham's Tree On Moon Lake was better and deserves the prize.

Almost every entry had something I liked. Congratulations to everyone who entered! We do great work around here.
Stephen
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Bruce N H
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Post by Bruce N H »

Some nice details from Classic Shops entries:

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Josh's Cooper's Shop
. The use of a door as a table is a really nice idea, also the ladders as a rack for the barrel slats. The canopy is a great use of a piece I wouldn't have used in a castle creation.

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Norro's Sultan's Alliance Co.
I really like the shape of the tent on this one. Very innovative.

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Norro's Tournament Supply co.
. The thing that makes this MOC for me is the use of the tooth/claw plates as the fringe on the canopy (I didn't actually reallize they came in red and blue. Are these from the TRU bonus boxes?). There's a nice weapon rack design on the right hand side. Does that use a fence 1x4x1?

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SirNelson's Flags and Banners
. I particularly like the standalone rack off to the left. It's a nice solution for attaching two bars at right angles. Those red poles on the booth are also a nice detail.

Bruce
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Bruce N H
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Post by Bruce N H »

DaVinci:

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Freak's Lowsea Explorer
. The inclusion of the barrels, presumably via bricks with technic axle holes and then a long axle running through the barrels, the large barrel, the flags as fins, and the curved window are all very well done.

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Mikal's Sunbeam Focuser
. This one may be easily overlooked as it is so simple (8 pieces!), but it really fits the whole idea of the DaVinci category so well. I really like this little creation.

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Psu's Ice Machine
. I was a fan of Mosquito Coast, so I really like this. The machinery looks realistic and the door opening is well done. Plus just the idea is so cool (pun intended).

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SirNelson's Dragons' Breath
. The color scheme on this works really well on this and it's a good use of non-traditionally-castle elements.

I'd also love to see more details on the chain mechanism for Stephen's signal tower. That looks really good, and spelling LEGO is a nice touch.

Bruce

Bruce
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Bruce N H
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Post by Bruce N H »

Medieval Life:

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Yaron's Pavilion
. I agree with Ed; this would have fit perfectly as an official set alongside Knight's Challenge.

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Greg's Dovecote
. This was really original; a subject that I would have never thought of. The building has a lot of great details, with the nesting boxes, eggs, droppings, chamber on the ground floor, etc.

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Chris' Inn
. The gray slopes at the bottom of the walls are a nice detail. I also really like the icicles and the way the roofs come together at a right angle, even though a 2x2 concave double slope doesn't exist in that color (AFAIK). Scooping snow from the front entrance area is a great little piece of life. The snow on the top of the roof is nice as well, though I think with a double peaked roof like that snow should basically fill in the whole central area (it also seems to be perfectly set up for leaks along that central seam).

Image
Piglet's Knight's Home
was a very deserving winner of this category. This would fit very well as a set alongside the BFF. I particularly like the inclusion of the chickens and the garage (stable).

Image
Jim's campsite
has really nice landscaping. Also there are some nice mushroom ideas there.

Bruce
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Bruce N H
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Post by Bruce N H »

Mythical/fantastic customizations:

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Joey's Nevtalath
. The decals are well designed and flawlessly applied. It's those ears, though, that really make this one stand out. Perhaps a Spock custom is in the future?

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Dan's shapeshifter
. This was a clever idea (makes me think of Two-Face from Batman, actually). The half-cape is really funny.


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Freak's Azragath
went along with Joey's Nevtalath as my top two picks. The paint job and the horn attachment are masterfully done.

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Radleigh's Balrog
has a really cool flaming mace desing.

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Ben's Rubber Chicken Knight
While other customs may have better execution, none could beat the humor in this MOC.

Bruce
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Bruce N H
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Post by Bruce N H »

Miscellaneous:

This category is full of great creations. Castles by Kai, Andrzej, Blueandwhite, and Xiblal are all at the top of my list and have been discussed extensively elsewhere.

Image
Ed's hoarding
, OTOH, is a small creation and might be easily overlooked. I really liked this as an add-on to other castle creations. Sometimes I think we focus too much on stone and ignore wooden parts of castles, because we're used to seeing modern ruins in which only the stone is left.

Image
Piotr's tower
has a really nice color scheme and the landscaping is very well done.

Image
Fry's Falcon gathering
. The presentation of this one, the clean design, and the great custom banners make this look like an official set. I could see this pic in one of the old Idea Books.

Image
Bluesecrets' isle
. The doors set on a diagonal, the ducks, the tiled railings, and the brown heads as decorative details are all really effective here.

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SirVincent's snow fort
is a simple creation with a lot of humor. The snowman is very nice, too.

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Bluesecrets' fishing scene
has really nice landscaping and I always like brick-built trees. The fig knee-deep in water is an easy detail to miss, but IMO makes the scene.

Image
SirNelson's Wolfpack fortress
also has very nice landscaping, and I like the statue out front a lot.

Bruce
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Post by Blueandwhite »

Bruce, those are all great. I also thought that the Amberstone Mage's Emerald Forest Fortress and Forest Retreat were quite nice. These two designs had an almost set like-quality to them. I was particularly impressed by the Forest Fortress, which would make for a fine set. I like the extensive use of hinges to create a number of angled surfaces.

Still, you really hit on a number of the best MOCs. Those were some amazing entries!

Later.
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Post by KennDoubleN »

I just want to say I'm really enjoying Bruce's commentary. It's a nice way to have features highlighted that might have been previously missed.
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Post by Norro »

Bruce N H wrote:Some nice details from Classic Shops entries:

Image
Josh's Cooper's Shop
. The use of a door as a table is a really nice idea, Bruce
Missed that!
Bruce N H wrote: Image
Norro's Sultan's Alliance Co.
I really like the shape of the tent on this one. Very innovative.

Image
Norro's Tournament Supply co.
. The thing that makes this MOC for me is the use of the tooth/claw plates as the fringe on the canopy (I didn't actually reallize they came in red and blue. Are these from the TRU bonus boxes?). There's a nice weapon rack design on the right hand side. Does that use a fence 1x4x1?
Bruce

The 'teeth thingys' : ) are available in minute quantities in the new 3 robot creator set... If (like me) that would be too expensive of a solution, 2 TRU boxes give about enough to do the canopy...
That is a 1x4x1 fence (after several seconds of 'what on earth is he talking about'), though I was more interested in achieving a cooling trough for the sword (not done well in this MOC, I'll come back to that...)

Thanks for the mention and God Bless You,

Nathan
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Re: CCCII: What were your favorite MOCs?

Post by Norro »

My personal fav was the Aladdin's cave model; very creative! I also liked Kenn Oldham's 'Tree On Moon Lake' even if it was a blatant rip-off of my 1st entry to the 'outlaw fortress' categor:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=110445 : )

and of course the 'Cooper Shop' by Josh; love the 'table'.

God Bless and Great Job All,

Nathan
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Re: CCCII: What were your favorite MOCs?

Post by Blueandwhite »

Norro wrote:My personal fav was the Aladdin's cave model; very creative! I also liked Kenn Oldham's 'Tree On Moon Lake' even if it was a blatant rip-off of my 1st entry to the 'outlaw fortress' categor:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=110445 : )

and of course the 'Cooper Shop' by Josh; love the 'table'.

God Bless and Great Job All,

Nathan
Wha :? ? I'm a bit confused. How can Kenn's 'Tree on Moon Lake' be a 'blatant rip-off' of your 1st entry if he entered before you? Also, his design isn't really that similar to yours in the first place.

Later.
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