JRC III Post-mortem

Well, now that the Jolly Roger Contest III has ended, it is time for the judges to judge, and the entry-ers(....) to wait.

As I did the first two JRCs, I did up a stat list, and here are my findings:

In the eight categories, there were a total of 62 entries, with the Custom Minifig in a Vignette category having the most with 13, and the Pirate Town category having 4 entries. The average per category is just a hair under 8, or 7.75. Twenty-three different people entered anywhere from 1 to 6 entries, with the average being about 2.7 entries per person.

Okay, now, first JRC I scored two Honorable Mentions (10 categories, 110 entries), and in the second one, I won one category, and got an Honorable Mention. (10 categories, 89 entries) So, I figure My chances of winning are about the same as the last couple years. I shall now go and break down how I feel I did/shall do in each of this year's 8 categories

Pirate Town: With only 4 entries, and one of them mine, I feel That I stand a fairly good chance of getting an HM, but I would almost put money on me not winning this one. Quality, not Quantity is very evident here.

1592 Remake: Didn't enter.

The Tower: 12 entries, and some very good ones, too. I definitely feel that mine probably won't get anything, but it was a bit rushed of an entry, and I didn't get to do as much with it as I wanted.

Custom Minifig in a Vignette: What a mouthful... Anyways, this may be the category with the most entries, but I feel I ought to get an HM, if for no other reason than I actually customized my fig. Only 3 or 4 actually had customization done to them, and I feel they all have an advantage over the others for that reason.

The Backwaters: Yeah, I don't think mine will do well, considering that min isn't really much of a wreck, unlike all the others. But hey, I had fun building it, and the fun is all that counts in the end.

Pirate Flag: I think I stand a chance of winning this one. Partly because I think mine really looks like a flag, with the pole and waving look to it.

Spanish Treasure: Didn't enter.

Merchant Attack. I won't win this one. Guaranteed. I hope for an honorable mention, but no way I am winning. Even with that little mess up on the Cove forum that cost me a custom rank (Not a good one), I feel that a certain entry shall win. It is that great.

And as for the Master Builder Catagory, I feel I stand a good a chance as some, and a better chance then many. 6 people are eligible for the Master Builder, and at least a couple of them won't get close.

Anyways, that is all for now, stay tuned for the Post-Judging comments!

Weezil Sleazebaggano

When I build Pirate MOCs (or any kind of MOCs, actually) I tend to use the same bunch of figs over and over, mostly because I am more of a builder or things, and figs are a constant thing throughout my LEGOverse. Easily one of my favorite Pirate Figs who has appeared over the many years is Weezil Sleazebaggano. (5th from the left, or 4th from the right in the following picture.)

This line of figs was about half my population of my first Pirate Town/port (Made in 200, and i have to say i have MUCH improved in the last 5 years), and since 2007 was the start of my Pirate building, one could say Weezil here is one of my oldest Pirate figs, when one doesn't take into account the 10 or so figs that came from various sets before hand. Heck, considering I now have over 200, since he is in the top 15 for oldest figs, that is kind of saying something. I think

Over the years, Weezil's 'personality' hasn't changed much. In fact, it has hardly changed at all. He started out as a low down, cigar/cigarette/deathstick seller, who would yank people out of alleys, and would  say "Want to buy a deathstick?" Yeah, this fig is basically a Bull Knight, a Star Wars minor-minor character, and a pirate, all thown into one. Heck, a running gag (That no one other then me would laugh at) is that Weezil is always irked that I have no Pirate town built, because he can't do any business then.



First cameo in a contest-orientated MOC

All in all, of all the (non official) pirate figs I have built, Weezil is one of my favorite, and even though he is basically a minor-minor SW character Pirate-afied. I like him.

Just going about his business in his latest Cameo



HMS Faithful

When one looses a parent, such as I have, it is generally a good idea to do something special to the other parent. When I lost my Mom last May, I knew that I had to do something special for my Dad. And being the two track mind kind of guy that I am (Lego and hockey being the two tracks, with a few branch lines of various other things) I decided to build a Lego ship for my Dad, who is quite a fan of ships and the like. Almost as much as I am, I would say.

So after a couple months of dithering, and some planning, I figured out what sort of ship my Dad liked (He said clipper and schooners, it being obvious which I choose to build) and then a couple days in July, maybe August of building, I finally had a 'prototype' of the ship I would eventually give to my Dad as a Christmas present. A Bricklink order in August had about 95% of the parts, and another one in October got me the last 5% of pieces. At some point (I don't recall when) I made the custom sails and rigged the ship up, and after a late November decision and a trip to the Lego Store, it had a nice little stand. And there it was, in all it's glory.

So it sits on my shelf for a couple more weeks, Christmas rolls around, and even though I had laid a few hints here and there, my Dad was very surprised and happy when he received it.

More pictures can be found on the finicky old sit known as Brickshelf

Note: the ship in the pictures is the prototype, not the actual gift.

Black Pearl crew

After being sorely disappointed at the fig selection in the still somewhat recently released Black Pearl, I decided to add on to it.

All the figs in the front row (And the far right one in the back row) are ones I built and added to my Black Pearl set (Which at some point is going to need a complete overhaul) The front row figs are from the earlier parts of the first Pirates of the Caribbean, aka, part of the Cursed crew. Back right is from post-cursed crew, aka, MR. Cotton. I still have one more planned, but it hinges on acquiring a rather rarer SW fig. Hopefully I shall get my hands on one soon.

Merry Christmas!

I made this little "Christmas card MOC" a couple years ago, but never got around to posting it anywhere. All the minifigs in the photo are special in some way. I really ought ot take a new picture, for there would be a few more minifigs.

From left to right, we have Captain Edward Netsooj (Story Character) Rick Ricks (Story Character and a friend's Sigfig) Eleman (My sigfig and also a story character) Flimsy (Ermmm, not to sure why she is here, actually. I think it was because I need someone to balance the picture out), A nameless (as far as I know) Sigifig of a friend, and Von sea, My first Pirate minifig (And my first Minifig, period)

Christmas is on the horizon

With Christmas only one week away, I am finding myself getting very excited for it. Mostly due to the fact that for 15 years strait, I have gotten some LEGO for Christmas. But this year I am more exited by that fact that I am giving LEGO, rather then receiving LEGO. ( I do believe I am, but with the numbering system used by my family, I can't be positive) To elaborate, I built a ship, and bought the parts off Bricklink to build another. The ship is a present for my Dad, who is somewhat into LEGO, but also into ships. I feel he will really enjoy the present

On another Christmasy note, is the Cross Bone Clipper.

In the Christmas of either 1997 or 1998 (My memory is a little hazy in that era) I received 6250 Cross Bone Clipper. This would have been my third Pirate set (After 1464/1696 Pirate Lookout and 6252 Sea Mates) and my last pirate set until the year 2008, when the Pirates 2 came out. At the time, I wasn't really into pirates, and this ship was just "Oh cool, Pirate ship!". Now, after 13/14 years, all I can say about this is "Oh, ugly Pirate ship." Well, it is more then that. It has quite a lot of nostalgia for an ship that would accurately be described as a dingy. Not to mention those are my favorite hulls. Hmmmm, I all of a sudden want to build a revamped version of this. And on top of it all, it does have some good pieces in it.

HMS Brunswick

Going to start things off here with my first large ship, the HMS Brunswick. I built it about mid 2010, so it isn't the oldest ship I could have gone with.



The HMS Brunswick wasn't also my first large ship, it was also my first S.H.I.P. To those uneducated to the term, it stands for Seriously Huge Investment in Parts. It also was my first ship to break over 10 guns, having 22. My previous high being 10, this more then doubled the amount, though admittedly, 12 of the 22 are simply this piece. Also, this ship simply had the most rigging I had ever done on a ship, and possibly even more then all the previous ones combined. I didn't actually measure the amount of sting, but I imagine it was over 100 feet (My other ships of the same size used about 110 feet or so)

To put things simply, this ship shattered many records of my ship building skills, some of which have already been broken.

However, this ship wasn't perfect. Looking at it now, i see that I could have improved on it in many ways. First, the stern, while nice, is a bit messy. It could have been coloured a bit better. Random bits of dark bley here and there, a random light bley, not to mention my skills at angling walls have progressed. The bow is something I still have problems with, but this one still has me satisfied. I also still have trouble with making properly dimensioned sails, though I have since moved on to using cloth sails for most of my ships, somthing which has made it slightly harder.

The reason I built it? Well, I was reading Master and Commander (Nothing at all like the movie with the same name) and it had a diagran fo the ship in it, and I was sudeenly hit with the inspiration to build it in LEGO. Thus, the HMS Brunswick was built, blogged, and broken. Not to mention it took a trip to Seattle in 2010...