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 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.

Still more MELO round 1 - Gollum's song

The next source of inspiration in the MELO Round 1 was Gollum's Song. Here are some of the best, IMO.

Tim W. built Gollum's Cave. This was my favorite of these and easily advanced to round 2.


My second favorite was Graeme Straughn's To Catch A Fish... So Juicy Sweetttt!!. This illustration of the scene from the Two Towers also easily advanced.


I'm not sure where exactly Bane of Seagulls' End of the Road is set--presumably when Sam and Frodo first meet Gollum at the edge of the Emyn Muil. This also advanced.


Theomatic's Forbidden Pool was a nice entry, though it did not advance.


Finally, Pieter Dennison had a very different take. Rather than illustrate a scene from Gollum's life, some of the lyrics in the song made him think of the story line of the video game Middle Earth; Shadow of Mordor. His unique take, You are banished from death.. was one of the top scoring entries in round 1, moving on into round 2.

MELO Round 1, Dark and Mountain

Four more from round 1 of the MELO:

Legopard's Fire and Water was his way to illustrate 'dark'. He argues that Smaug's attack happened at night, and brought metaphoric darkness into the lives of Lake-Town. That's quite the stretch, but it's an awesome MOC and earned him a spot in Round 2.


Jacob Pennington took a more literal take on dark with the Mines of Moria. A great MOC, but it just missed the cut to go on to the next round.


Elliott Feldman's Mount Doom is his take on the mountain riddle. Another really nice MOc that went on to round 2.


Lee Muzzy also made a mountain for the Goblin Caves. He even includes Gollum's cave inside, and went on to round 2.

More MELO round 1

Continuing my look at selections from round 1 of the MELO. Remember, these are all based on riddles from Bilbo and Gollum.

Dodge illustrates wind.


Disco86 made a mountain.


KW Vauban illustrates time.


Josh Walter does a more literal take on the fish riddle.

Sauron

I have to apologize for my general blogging malaise for the past month. In the meantime, the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics has been inspiring tons of great builds, such as Legonardo Davidy's terrifying Sauron.

At the end off all things

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. It's appropriate to consider endings as we come to the end of the year, and Disco86 built At the end off all things.

Fell Beast

ACPin made this really scary Fell Beast.

The Black Gate is closed ... and tiny

Pasukaru76 built this Black Gate as part of the last Iron Builder.

Barad-dûr

MSP! built Barad-dûr.

Middle Earth

Sharon Vance displayed this amazing Middle Earth at BrickWorld.

Barad-dûr

Warhawk built this Barad-dûr. He shows it here next to his Orthanc - both built at the same scale, so you can see the vast difference between the towers.

BrickFair NE

Here are some Tolkien MOCs from last month's BrickFair gathering in New Hampshire. I've previously noted Steve Morrison's (aka ShayDeGrai's) Argonath, but he's updated it, adding river and landscaping around the base. Somehow I've never featured his Minas Morgul or his Minas Tirith, so here they are from his Flickr stream. As a bonus, here's Greg Titcomb's set mod of Gollum's cave.

Micros

I've been going through Thaler1978's photostream, and he's got a bunch of Tolkien micros.