Merry Christmas!

Hi all. Sorry I’ve been off the grid for the past few days, but that’s what happens when you want to spend Christmas with your family and not think about all the things you do the rest of the year.

Well, since it is still Christmas day, at least here in California. I thought I’d share a few of the fun Christmas pictures I’ve been seeing recently before they all go back into storage for another year.

One that I some how missed was this awesome advent nativity calendar

Apparently we don’t know the whole story of Santa and his elves…

Here’s a fun little Christmas house

Something that is either a table center display or a festive UFO

And cuteness!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from me to you!

Don’t have a chimney? Build one!

Okay, maybe we can’t do this in the real world, but in the LEGO world anything can be built from anything else.

Charlie Brown’s Tree

I know I just posted Kristi “McWii’s” snowman but I couldn’t help but post this as well.

I love this version of Charlie Brown’s tree

The red ornament and the spindly branches are perfect. Although I do have to wonder how many minifigs had to sacrifice their arms or hands for this project. I guess scrifices must be made for LEGO Art.

Be Brave

I made this about a week ago, but didn’t think to post it on Flickr till last night after I posted it as my Facebook picture. I was surprised to see such a huge response, both on Facebook and Flickr. Brothers Brick even posted it this morning.

What’s really getting a lot of people’s attention are the curls and the bow. Pixar’s Merida is known for her wild frizzy hair and I wanted to capture it as close as I could in a 4 inch figure.

I have to admit though, this technique isn’t new — at least in Miniland building — this has been a technique for creating curly hair for as long as I can remember at the LEGOLAND parks and I have used variations of it many times on several of my Superhero figures like Wonder Woman and for my Wedding Cake Topper Brides.

And of course what is Merida without her bow? I thought about using the new elf long bow from the Hobbit sets, but I realized it would still be too short. So I did the next best thing, I made one out of pearl cotton thread and a bit of copper flex tubing. The quiver might be a tad too short, but it was just to perfect not to use verses trying to design my own.

If you would like your own Miniland Merida either as a figurine or a Christmas ornament, I have them for sale on my Folded Fancy Creations Etsy Shop.

Sumptuous Snowman

Kristi “McWii” didn’t have any snow yet so she built herself a snowman.

I love what she did for the mouth! Between that and the tilted hat, this brings a little holly to my jolly — okay, I know that was corny.

Its starting to feel like Christmas and I’m starting to see a lot of fun Holiday models.

Jingle all the way!

I was waiting till Simon Liu posted the complete verse before I posted this so here goes:

And here’s what they look like all together:

A great compilation of vignettes of a classic (if a bit raunchy) parody version of the Christmas song.

Sneak Preview of Collectible Minifigure Series 9

On LEGO’s Facebook page they have release sneak preview pictures of all 16 Minifigs of Series 9. The catch? They are shown from the back. Even so, it confirms the rumored list that has been going around.

You can click on any of the images to go to the full set on Facebook. On December 3rd they will be showing the front images of them. I have a feeling that even though the release date is in January, they will start showing up in stores some time in December, just in time for Christmas. Its not a guarantee that it will happen, just a guess.

Folded Fancy Sale

I don’t often plug my Etsy shop Folded Fancy Creations here on my blog. But I am having a sale this weekend in time for Chrismas shopping. Just use coupon code THANKS2012 for 10% off your order. Coupon valid Nov 24 – 26th. Click the picture to go to my Etsy shop.

LEGO Lord of the Rings the Video Game Review

So I’ve been playing LEGO Lord of the Rings the Video Game for about a week now. I’ve beaten the story portion and I’m making my way through gathering all the extras. I’m playing it on PS3, as that’s my console of choice. First impression — Awesome!!!!

Before I played it, I was a little hesitant with this game. Some of you might cringe when I say this, but I’m not a fan of the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) trilogy. I love the Hobbit, which I’ve read several times, but the LOTR is just a little too heavy and depressing (if I want to be perfectly honest). Sure it has a grand sweeping story of power, tragedy and good triumphing over evil but I just can’t get into it.

I couldn’t even get excited about the sets too much. Somewhat because of my lack of interest in the subject matter, but also because there isn’t all that much in the way of parts that interests me in the sets. Yes, it is a bevvy of castle parts, and I used to be almost exclusively castle when I was younger. I just don’t build castles much anymore. And of course there are the minifigures but I don’t need to collect every figure either.

Putting all of that aside, I wanted to get the game and see for myself what it was like. And of course I wanted to share my opinion of the game with all of you.

Now after LEGO Batman 2 I wasn’t sure how TT Games could top it. Being able to traverse all of Gotham was simply awesome, especially flying around as Superman. There’s no flying in this game (or if there is, I haven’t found it yet ) and like the books you are walking around Middle Earth — all of Middle Earth.

Take that in for a moment. All of Middle Earth. Peter Jackson may have opened the window into the world, but running around a LEGO version of it is simply cool. Its all there — the Shire, Mines of Moria, etc. And you get to bash all sorts of things for golden coins to your hearts content. Its all laid out on the familiar map of Middle Earth and as you go through the different stages you unlock more of the world. The initial playing of the game as I beat each “story” version of the levels really kept me wanting to play till I beat the whole thing.

The Fellowship characters are all used with pretty equal amounts of time, which is nice. Giving even Pippen and Merry specific tasks that only they can do. Although I’ve found that Legolas is one of my favorite to play. Is that on purpose I wonder?

One thing I like even better than LEGO Batman 2 is that it is much easier to find the special silver bricks and items. In Batman I got a little tired of trying to find all the specials. I didn’t completely finish it after I went around the city for what felt like the 50th time.

You will probably get a little tired of traveling around here too as there is a vast assortment of items you need to collect. It is a little tiring traveling around all over. I feel as if I’ve gone on the long journey that the fellowship took. Here its easy to go on the map and actually select where you want to go and have the helpful transparent travel studs to show you the way. The only time I’ve found it hard to see them is in the snowy mountainous areas.

If you don’t want to wait for the game, but want to see all the “mini movies” you can see it here:

If you aren’t familiar with the story (and who isn’t really?) then there might be a few spoilers. There’s the now classic TT Games humor as well. But I have to warn you, it is an hour and a half long. So in essence, its really a full length movie.

So my over all opinion — get it! It might be a tad scary for the little ones, although they’ve skipped over a lot of the truly scary parts of the story. It would be a great Christmas gift for any little (or big) kids to play.

Here’s hoping (and I bet it will) that there will be a LEGO Hobbit the Video Game in the future.

Galaxy Squad Sets appearing on shelves

Galaxy Squad may be part of the 2013 LEGO line, but its already appearing on some Toys R Us shelves just in time for the Christmas Holidays. These were found in Canada, but I have a feeling that they will be popping up in the US soon.

Galaxy Squad reminds me a lot of Insectoids that came out in ’98-99 except with dark red.

I have a feeling several 2013 sets will be finding their way to the shelves this December, usually about 20 or so sets come out. So keep your eyes peeled.