“Far over the Misty Mountains cold,
To dungeons deep and caverns old,
We must away, ere break of day,
To seek our pale enchanted gold.
The pines were roaring on the heights,
The wind was moaning in the night,
The fire was red, it flaming spread,
The trees like torches blazed with light.
The bells were ringing in the dale,
And men looked up with faces pale.
The dragon’s ire, more fierce than fire,
Laid low their towers and houses frail.
The mountain smoked beneath the moon.
The dwarves, they heard the tramp of doom.
They fled the hall to dying fall
Beneath his feet, beneath the moon.”
The Hobbit — J.R.R. Tolkien
Blake Baer and Jack Bittner set out to create their largest Lego creation. The result is the super impressive Erebor. Based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. This massive Lego MOC is centered around a huge mountain and contains the main entrance into the dwarven city, a human city, a working windmill, and more details then you can imagine. A total of 6 months went into this build, and 80,000 Lego pieces. With no dragon, this Lonely Mountain sure is looking very peaceful.
The sheer size of Erebor is hard to capture with just a few photographs. Luckily, a video has been made to show off a lot of the features. A build this size needs a video.
Here an overhead perspective shows just how large the exterior of this build is. A huge river, three different roads, and a plethora of flora can all be seen from above. It feels like you are bird flying over everything.
The tiny details give so much personality. From a tiny bird nest perched near the river, to an overcrowded market place. There is so much to look at. By taking these photos from a lower angle it allows the viewer to be drawn into the scene.
Erebor has some amazing stats:
- 80,000+ Lego pieces.
- 16, 32×32, baseplates in a 4×4 pattern.
- 56 inches tall at the peak.
- Modular, breaks away into 11 separate sections.
- 400+ hours of work.
One interesting thing about these massive builds is what goes into creating the illusion of a solid MOC. Usually Erebor will be shown in person with its back to the wall, so the hidden support structure will never be seen. This massive mountain is a technicolor hollow shell with many supports and miscellaneous pieces holding up the exterior walls. Amazing.
Check out many many more photos, or read the full story about Erebor over on MOCPages: http://www.mocpages.com/moc.php/375137
There is also a Flickr page here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/baericks/sets/72157638097215594/
, by Robert Jordan and finished by Brandon Sanderson, is one of those epic fantasy series. WoT spans 23 years, 14 novels, and 1 prequel. For a while it seemed like there would never be an end. Especially in the late middle half of the series, where everyone was going nowhere fast. It all starts out with a couple of youths in an out-of-the-way village who soon find themselves wrapped up in a plot to save the world. With over four millions words written, it is safe to say you get to know the main characters pretty well. 
and 
have proven to be extremely popular. This is mainly do to the little Minion character. The little Minions appear to be stupid (although some seem to geniuses) but full of personality. Even with these limitations they find themselves in a variety of situations where they end up ruining an experiment, or getting hurt. Even so, they might one day end up saving the planet.
. Imagine if EA Games made a Lego themed version of SimCity. It would look like this. This micro scale city in completely modular. Usually these type of projects can look too artificial, sometimes being too constrained to a set of rules. Brickville seems to have found a way past this problem. This little city is currently 67 or so baseplates in size and is expanding. Not only is Brickville extremely photogenic from overhead, but its profile looks almost real. The variety of the high-rises and skyscrapers help lend the project a sense of realism.
