Praise for a great builder

Discussion of personal LEGO Castle creations
moom
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Post by moom »

On the other hand, the model not being 'overdesigned', might have been a crucial factor in the company's decision believing it was possible to bring the 'Backsmith Shop' out as a official LEGO set.
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architect
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Post by architect »

moom wrote:On the other hand, the model not being 'overdesigned', might have been a crucial factor in the company's decision believing it was possible to bring the 'Backsmith Shop' out as a official LEGO set.
I agree. One of the best things about these mocs are the common bricks and plates. This made it easier for LEGO to make and more usefull for our collections. Of course some models like Dan's Guarded Church and the Tanks have hard to find elements and ridiculous quantities of grey ;) LEGO should make a UCS castle or keep with alot of grey.

Ben
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E of Alshire
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Post by E of Alshire »

Dan wrote:I would gladly design more sets if I had the opportunity. If Lego asked for another set, I'd give them a set that's 10 times better than the Blacksmith Shop was.
Who needs LEGO's approval? I'd love to see more medieval instructions.

Also, your site was the beginnings of my leap to the LEGO community, so thanks!
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Dan
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Post by Dan »

E of Alshire wrote:Who needs LEGO's approval? I'd love to see more medieval instructions.
Time (or lack of any) is my biggest obstacle to putting my ideas into any form of tangible output, be it in the form of complete kits or simply instructions. Aside from publishing a magazine and running a fairly successful record label and music distribution company, I also have three kids and an ark's worth of animals soaking up all of my time. Since I'm not planning on giving up on any of the above, it looks like my Lego time is going to be limited to the couple of hours I can find here and there. With time so limited, it means I have to savor each moment and frankly that means hands-on building beats out Ldraw drudgery any day! For the past few months I have been working on some 1 stud = 1 foot scale modern trucks and trains (10-wide!). This work is ultra-detailed and is extremely time consuming, so it's going to be a while before I change gears back to castle (the kids want me to build Hogwarts for them... but that's gonna have to wait until we can buy a bigger house!).

On the other hand, I'm glad to many people have continued what I started with the Blacksmith Shop and have since seen many models that have taken the concept to the next step and beyond. I may have helped open the door for a new generation of builders, but I think the community on a whole has taken a giant leap forward during the last couple of years, well beyond anything I ever imagined. I'm also happy to be so warmly embraced by the AFOL community (for the most part) and I will try to check out this forum as time permits.

Cheers! Image

Dan[/img]
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Dan
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Post by Dan »

architect wrote:
moom wrote:On the other hand, the model not being 'overdesigned', might have been a crucial factor in the company's decision believing it was possible to bring the 'Backsmith Shop' out as a official LEGO set.
I agree. One of the best things about these mocs are the common bricks and plates. This made it easier for LEGO to make and more usefull for our collections. Of course some models like Dan's Guarded Church and the Tanks have hard to find elements and ridiculous quantities of grey ;) LEGO should make a UCS castle or keep with alot of grey.

Ben
I would think a UCS Hogwarts series would have made the most sense. They get good use out of their license and would keep the castle junkies happy at the same time. They could even sell it as a serial... whereas its sold in modules and you can buy it in sections or all at once. My guarded church sold really well to "castle heads" at about 4-5 times the price point where Lego could have offered it for. I sold out of all 10 units of my Vlad's Tower kit in less than 24 hours at $1000(!!) per kit.

They could also easily come up with a 100% modular castle and castle wall system that can be as small or large as each consumer's budget allows. I made a few prototypes of my own modular wall designs, the last versions can be seen here surrounding my Vlad's Tower prtotype:

Click

It's mostly made up of basic bricks and can easily be configured into just about any shape or sized castle. Best of all it's in a more historically realistic scale, which is good for both castle junkies like myself and good for Lego, because it uses more product. Also, the fact that it is mainly basic bricks means easy assembly at the factory and no need for any spacial new elements. It clows my mind that Lego hasnt done this yet when there's so many people screaming so loudly for it. Even if people aren't in love with my particular design, we can all appreciate the goldmine of basic bricks such a system would be!


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Kev
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Post by Kev »

I agree 100% on the modular castle system. It's a total no-brainer for Lego. I remember this being kicked around lugnet 6+ years ago, with a lot of fantastic ideas. Put out a square tower set, round tower set, corner tower set, wall set, towered gate set, and have the big one be the keep. Talk about encouraging multiple purchases! It seems really successful recently for other companies (Shleich?), and its always been a core element of Playmobil. Sigh.

Back to praising Dan, as a builder that almost always leaves the back open of my buildings, I particularly appreciated the fact that the Blacksmith Shop opened right down the middle, enabling me to instantly double the number of storefronts in my village by only switching a few bricks on the back to make it another shop! Bravo!
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