Barrels Out Of Bond

Barrels Out Of Bond by Letranger Absurde.

LEGO Dimensions

Here in this blog I try to focus on fan creations rather than news about official LEGO offerings, but I did want to note the latest official development. It seems that there will not be a new wave of Tolkien themed sets. There are rumors that there was a planned run of sets based on Return of the King, but it got canceled. That said, a week ago LEGO announced LEGO Dimensions. This is a new video game where you get to play LEGO characters from various themes, including Lord of the Rings, in an interactive world. It will be kind of like Skylanders and Disney Infinity, where you buy little models, and each one you buy gets you access to that character in the game. In the initial announcement, Gandalf is one of the initial figures, along with Batman and Wyldstyle from the LEGO Movie. Some of the add-on sets include Gimli, Legolas and Gollum. Also, it looks like orcs, cave trolls and oliphants will be among the enemies you encounter in the game. The game is set for release at the end of September.

MELO Round 6 and final

Woo-hoo! I actually got all of these blogged. The finals of the 2014-2015 MELO pits the winner of the Barad Dur bracket, Dunedain98, against the winner of the Orthanc bracket, Andrew JN. They were challenged to build a scene from Peter Jackson's The Battle of The Five Armies movie. Dunedain shows Bilbo's return to his beloved Bag End to find Messrs Grubb, Grubb, and Burrowes in the midst of selling off his belongings. Andrew chose to show Azog's elaborate semaphore flag setup atop Ravenhill (btw, the flags work. It was an incredibly close round. The first two judges voted for Dunedain, the next two voted for Andrew. The fifth judge broke the tie by choosing Andrew as the winner of this year's MELO. Congratulations! BTW, Ian noted that this third MELO would be the last one ("for a while"), which is too bad as this has inspired a lot of great Tolkien-themed MOCs. However, I'm sure that other contests will come along. For instance, last year Eurobricks held a Middle Earth Contest that I've hardly touched, so I'll have to go back and blog some favorites from that and the ultimate results.

MELO Round 5

In the fifth round of the MELO, the remaining four builders had to come up with MOCs based on characters from Return of the King.

Graham Gidman faced off against Dunedain98 to build creations based on Sauron. Graham built a micro version of the climax of Return of the King with Sauron looking on. Dunedain built the scene where Luthien and Haun come to rescue Beren from Tol-in-Gaurhoth. We don't get enough Silmarillion builds, so I'm happy to report that Dunedain98 won the Barad Dur bracket and went on to the MELO finals.



Joseph Olson faced off against Andrew JN to build creations based on Gollum. Joseph's scene at the foot of the stairs going up to Cirith Ungol really suffered from poor photography. He tried to use low light for effect, but it makes the scene hard to see, so I'm showing below the picture with full light but without the figs to show the great build he has here; the bridge to the right is the road towards Minas Morgul. Andrew JN showed Gollum leading Frodo and Sam through the Dead Marshes and won the Orthanc bracket and went on to the MELO finals. In a cool detail, Andrew made a mosaic of Gollum in the water, but I have to admit I find it hard to see.

MELO Round 4 Orthanc bracket

Here are the pairings for the Orthanc bracket in round 4 of the MELO. Again, the topics are characters from the Two Towers.

Joseph Olson faced off against Vladimir van Hoek to built MOCs based on Theoden. Joseph Olson advanced to round 5.



Bane of Seaguls faced off against Andrew JN to built MOCs based on Saruman. Andrew JN advanced to round 5.

MELO Round 4 Barad-Dur bracket

Round 4 of the MELO challenged each pair to face off based on characters from the Two Towers. Here is the Barad-Dur bracket.

Captain Nemo went up against Graham Gidman to build MOCs based on Treebeard. Graham Gidman advanced to round 5.



Tim W went up against Dunedain98 to build MOCs based on Eowyn. Dunedain98 advanced to round 5.

MELO Round 3 Orthanc bracket

Continuing on with round 3 of the MELO. Here are the four pairings for the Orthanc bracket - again, with creations themed on characters from the Fellowship of the Ring.

Pieter Dennison faced off against Joseph Olson to build MOCs based on Aragorn. Joseph Olson advanced to round 4.



Andrew JN faced off against Professor B to build MOCs based on Frodo. Professor B defaulted, so Andrew JN automatically advanced to round 4, but given the quality of this build he probably would have gone on anyway.

ForlonEmpire faced off against Bane of Seagulls to build MOCs based on Gimli. Bane of Seaguls advanced to round 4.



Vladimir van Hoek faced off against Trevor Turco to build MOCs based on Merry. Vladimir van Hoek advanced to round 4. I cannot find Trevor's entry, but I don't think he defaulted.

MELO round 3 - Barad Dur bracket

In round 3 of the MELO, each pair had to build MOCs based on characters from the Fellowship of the Ring. Here are the four pairs from the Barad Dur bracket.

Captain Nemo faced off against Graeme Straughn to build creations based on Boromir. Captain Nemo advanced to round 4.



Finn Tegotash faced off against Tim W to build creations based on Sam. Tim W advanced to round 4.



Dunedain98 faced off against Dodge to build creations based on Legolas. Dunedain98 advanced to round 4.



Mark McPeek faced off against Graham Gidman to build creations based on Pippin. Graham Gidman advanced to round 4.

MELO round 2 Orthanc bracket part 2

Finishing out round 2 of the MELO, here are the next four pairings from the Orthanc bracket.

Jake Andrews took on Trevor Turco building MOCs based on Kili. Trevor Turco advanced to round 3.



P Andrei took on Bane of Seaguls building MOCs based on Bifur. Bane of Seaguls advanced to round 3.



Professor B took on Jacob Pennington building MOCs based on Gloin. Unfortunately Jacob defaulted, and Professor B advanced to round 3.


A Sargent took on Joseph Olson building MOCs based on Dori. Joseph Olson advanced to round 3.

MELO Round 2 Orthanc bracket part 1

Okay, now let's look at the first four pairings in the Orthanc bracket of round 2 of the MELO. Again, these are all head-to-head matches based on characters from the Hobbit.

Pieter Dennison faced off against Zach Lucia to build MOCs based on Gandalf. Pieter Dennison advanced to round 3.



Andrew JN faced off against Hildigrim Took to build MOCs based on Bard. Andrew JN advanced to round 3.



ForlonEmpire faced off against Brick Madness to build MOCs based on Bombur. ForlonEmpire advanced to round 3.



Vladimir van Hoek faced off against Caleb Walker to build MOCs based on Dwalin. Vladimir van Hoek advanced to round 3.