Micro Rivendell

Marcel Vei built Rivendell.

16x16 scenes

Ivan Storm built a number of great Middle Earth scenes, intentionally limiting himself to a 16x16 footprint.

Erebor - interior

Michał Kaźmierczak built this amazing version of the main hall of Erebor.

Erebor - exterior

Michał Kaźmierczak built this amazing version of the entry to Erebor.

Cozy little hobbit hole

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, but this lovely dwelling by Noel Peterson.

Balin

Eero Okkonen built Balin in his younger days before Smaug came to the Lonely Mountain.

Thorin's Madness

Graeme Straughn shows the king under the mountain brooding over his gold in Thorin's Madness.

Dain Ironfoot

Pate-keetongu made this awesome version of Dain Ironfoot, complete with battle-pig.

Barrels Out Of Bond

Barrels Out Of Bond by Letranger Absurde.

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 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.

MELO Round 2 - Barad Dur bracket part 2

Here's the second half of the Barad Dur bracket round 2 of the MELO - head-to-head match-ups based on characters from the Hobbit.

Zoltan paired up against Graham Gidman to build MOCs based on Fili. Graham Gidman advanced. Zoltan's entry seems to have been deleted from MOCpages.


Dodge paired up against Micah the Fire-breathing Hobbit to build MOCs based on Beorn. Dodge advanced.



Kevin Moyer paired up against Tim W to build MOCs based on Bofur. Tim W advanced.



Graeme Steaughn paired up against Mate Paton to build MOCs based on Ori. Graeme Straughn advanced.

MELO Round 2 - Barad Dur bracket part 1

Round 2 of the MELO started the head-to-head match-ups. The 32 builders were broken into two brackets, the Barad Dur and Orthanc brackets, in a single elimination tournament. Each pair had to build something with an assigned theme. In round 2, challenges were based on characters from the Hobbit. Here are the first four pairs and their results.

Captain Nemo faced off with Ian Diller on the theme Bilbo. Captain Nemo advanced to the next round.



J-rod Smith faced off with Finn Tegotash on the theme Smaug. Finn Tegotash advanced to the next round.



The Dunedain98 faced off with Thomas on the theme Thorin. Dunedain98 advanced to the next round.



Mark McPeek faced off with John Smith on the theme Balin. Mark McPeek advanced to the next round.

MELO round 1 - Song of the Lonely Mountain

I'm kind of surprised that Song of the Lonely Mountain did not inspire many entries in round 1 of the MELO. It seems like you could have legitimately built any scene that is set in or around Erebor, or keyed off of one of the lines in the song to make something else altogether. For instance, the stanza "Some folk we never forget, Some kind we never forgive, Haven't seen the end of it yet, We'll fight as long as we live" could easily be invoked to build a great scene of the Battle of Azanulbizar. Oh well, here were my two favorites based on this song.

Vladimir van Hoek made the Golden Anvil.

A nice MOC by itself, but it opens up to reveal a stage for the loudest dwarfmetal band in Middle Earth. He advanced.


Luc Johannesen built a nice micro of Erebor and Dale but did not advance.I have to think that better photography might have helped here.