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.

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.

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 - The Last Goodbye

The Last Goodbye was another popular one, inspiring several MOCs.

Jacob Pennington showed Bilbo on his trip out of the Shire after his eleventy-first birthday party. He advanced.


Jared depicted Boromir's death. I'm surprised, but he just missed advancing to round 2.


Forlorn Empire advanced with Thorin's death scene from the movie.


As did John Smith.


Micah the Fire Breathing Hobbit did not go directly to a book or movie scene, but instead gave us an unnamed warrior and his fallen comrades after an orc-raid. He advanced.

MELO round 1 - I See Fire

I See Fire inspired a lot of entries into the MELO round 1. Here are some of my favorites. Perhaps predictably, most of the entries were Smaug-centric, either his original attack on Erebor, or the destruction of Lake-town.

My favorite of these was actually very different. Finn Tegotash's Fate of Merry and Pippin shows Strider, Legolas and Gimli coming to the smouldering remains of the Uruk-hai, and perhaps, they fear, their friends as well. Finn advanced.


Here are some of the best (IMO) depicting Smaug's assault on Erebor. Caleb Walker advanced with his entry.


Jamie Hampton showed the breaching of the gates. Nice idea, but it did not advance.


Thomas' entry, on the other hand, did advance.


Dunedain98 is the first of my favorite Lake-Town entries. This advanced.


Brick Madness also advanced.


Zach Lucia also moved forward with this entry. Frustratingly, none of his photos really do justice to both his dragon creation and the building.