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 - 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.

MELO Round 1 - Edge of Night

The next song to inspire round 1 entries of MELO 2014-2015 was Edge of Night. This is a really interesting song, where context and melody really shape the tone. The original poem from Fellowship is all about going out for a walk before coming home to a nice warm fire. In the film, the lines about home and hearth have been removed, but still if you just read the lyrics, there is a lot of hope:

Home is behind, the world ahead
And there are many paths to tread
Through shadow to the edge of night
Until the stars are all alight
Mist and shadow cloud and shade
All shall fade, all shall fade

A straight-forward reading says that, yes, night is falling, but the stars are coming out, and night shall fade away come morning. But in the film this is sung with that haunting tune by Pippin while we see scenes of Faramir's forces being slaughtered, intercut with an uncaring Denethor, so the tone is completely different. Watching it on screen you get the feeling that everything is falling into darkness, and all that is good and noble in the world will fade away in the coming triumph of Sauron. It's that feeling of despair that drove most of the MELO entries. Here are a few of my favorites.

Mate Paton thought of the siege and near-fall of Minas Tirith and advanced to the next round.


Dominik the Builder also went to the RotK context, illustrating the charge of Faramir - a nice scene though it did not advance.


J-rod Smith went to a different context altogether, seeing Lake-town as being on the edge of disaster. His was the third-highest score of the round 1 entries and easily advanced.


Ian Diller left Tolkien's world altogether, simply keying off the song's tone of imminent disaster with his Last Stand in the Badlands. He advanced.


A few of the entries looked more at the lyrics, suggesting setting out from home on an adventure. Saequis still stuck to movie inspiration, showing Pippin singing to Denethor, but he illustrated the line "Home is behind, the world ahead", but he did not advance, so faded from the MELO.


Jake Andrews took this line as reason to justify Bilbo setting out on his adventure, illustrating different scenes from the Hobbit. He advanced.


Kevin Moyer did much the same with Frodo's journey. He also advanced.


Graham Gidman also advanced with an unnamed figure leaving home to set off on adventures.

More MELO round 1

I've been just horrible at this - I keep meaning to go through much of the 2013-2014 MELO, but I keep getting distracted, and have gone through long blogging hiatuses (hiati? Haiti?). Anyway, here are some additional selected MOCs from round 1, again, all based on riddles from the riddle game:

Zoltan went on to round 2 with wargs of the Misty Mountains for the Mountain riddle.


General Magma just missed advancing with Smeagol and Deagol's fishing trip for the Fish riddle.


Kyle Ransom built the Gates of Edoras for the Wind riddle, because, um, I guess the flags were flapping when Gandalf and the three hunters arrived in the movie version. Sketchy, but it's a great MOC and went on to round 2.


Eli Willsea advanced with his Mountain riddle entry, out of the mines.


LukeClarenceVan the Revanchist advanced with his Dark entry, There is no light, Wizard, that can defeat darkness based on the Desolation of Smaug movie.

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.

The Lonely Mountain

David Hensel built the Lonely Mountain for MOCathalon 2014.

Lake-town

Madoruk displayed this portion of Lake-town at the recent Bricks Cascade gathering.

Lake-town Chase, Azog

Yesterday LEGO revealed the upcoming set Lake-town Chase. It will come out in December and cost US$50. In a video they say that there will be five sets for the Desolation of Smaug. I'm assuming that this is in addition to the Spiders and Barrel Escape sets that have already come out. Also in that video you can see that this set is mostly normal brown - the color balance seems off in the set photo. In other news, I suppose I should spend a moment on the exclusive Azog fig. On second thought I think that this will have to be included in an upcoming set. The fig includes two new molds, and there's no way they would do that just for a promotional giveaway. Perhaps the fig that comes out in some future set will have a different torso print, and it will certainly not have the Comic-Con packaging, but I'm sure we'll get an Azog sooner or later.

MELO round 1 - more selected MOCs

Here are some selected MOCs depicting scenes from the from the qualifying round of the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics.

AM had a clever idea to feature the film crew for the Jackson movies On set at Bag End.


Legopard has Bilbo making a Last Look at Bag End before setting out on an adventure.


Hugo Van has a troll ask What's a burrahobbit doing in my pocket? Dodge has the trolls Turned to Stone.



Kenton Lanier has a great version of Gollum's Cave.


Matthew Oh has Laketown under attack in Fire and Water.

MELO octafinals - Barad Dur bracket

Let's look back at the octafinals in the Middle Earth LEGO Olympics.

Buurli Burri squared off against Poggle 55 with the category "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard!". Buurli Burri advanced, but for some reason I can't find his entry. Maybe he deleted it?


Disco 86 squared off agaisnt Kenton Lanier with the category Passage of the Marshes. Disco 86 advanced



Justin Knelsen squared off agaisnt Martin Geistefeldt with the category Warg Riders. IMO this was the hardest decision of this round, as both entries are amazing and I don't know which way I would have voted, but Martin Geistefeldt advanced.br>


Dodge squared off agaisnt Derrick Rose with the category Helms Deep. Dodge advanced