~SUMMONER~

1 Large, please.

Purple shirt purple shirt. That would be #3.

In keeping with the "theme" for this year, here's another oddball. Er, cube I think it speaks for itself (I don't know what size is best, but this is scaled down from a much larger image, so it can definitely be higher-res if need be.) (You're right, this really would have been perfect for the puzzle theme at last BrickFair.)

Large, please.

Wow, thanks for the feedback you guys. Quick heads-up: I fixed the image links under Reiz, and hopefully the full gallery will be available for you to view soon as well. I'm glad you like the wings. They were one of the hardest parts to get right, but are probably my favorite feature as well. Getting them to be able to support their own weight while also being foldable/poseable was a real challenge, so I'm really happy with how that worked out. Thanks -- I didn't really have a pre-established method or process for building when I started him, so I largely just pulled out all of the pieces of the right colors that I thought might work for different parts, like the Inika and Stronius armor for the jaws, Technic panels and various flat-bladed weapons for the wings, etc., and shuffled them around until I found something workable that I liked. He did end up being pretty large in the end, so a lot of the work involved just getting him to be both stable and poseable. (Fun fact: the front toes are virtually ornamental, since all of the weight lands on the heels.) I'm proud to say that even in combined form, they're still capable of doing a decent range of poses without shaking or toppling over, but for some reason I didn't think to photograph it until after our setup was torn down. Anyway, feel free to drop any more questions you guys have, but otherwise, good luck to everyone in the polls!

Hey everyone, ~SUMMONER~ here. If you don’t recognize me, that’s probably because I’m your typical BZP lurker. Anyway, I haven’t had the parts to do any real MOCing in some years, but this latest BBC Contest was the perfect chance for me to steal parts from collaborate on a build with TuragaNuva. (You may know him as “The Compilation Guy.") So I guess, without further ado, here are our creations: Reiz and Pax. Reiz, a mystical being of unknown origin, was merely an egg before he was happened upon by Pax, an old warrior who had long moved on from the battlefield. Sensing something in the veteran that it had not felt from other passers-by, the dragon hatched from its age-old slumber, imbuing Pax with a portion of its power in the process. The warrior’s form was changed by the event, and he found new strength as the dragon’s energies teemed throughout his being. Feeling that the encounter was a work of destiny, Pax took Reiz in and raised him into the beast you see now. With a bond unbreakable by any foe, the two now re-enter the endless battle, wielding abilities far greater than perhaps either ever imagined. Hey, TuragaNuva talking now. So, the concept we wanted to go for was two MOCs that are visual opposites, but with elements that bring them together: one is humanoid and one is bestial, and they have opposing colors. But they both have black as their other primary color, and each have eyes in the other’s color (blue and orange, respectively), to tie them together. They also have one other thing that ties them together, but we'll get to that later... Here are some pictures of Reiz on his own: Wings folded: front, side, back Unfolded: front, side, back And here’s some of Pax: In times of utmost need, the bond that Reiz and Pax share can be fully realized, allowing them to come together as one: Back: center, left Rushing: front, side Guarding: front, side Pointing: front, right Cloaked: left, right Other: relaxed, alert No disassembly is required for the combination (other than moving Pax’s weapons to the combined form’s hands), and there are no additional pieces needed. Orange pieces fold out from behind Pax’s shield and spear, and orange on the back of his legs is revealed on the front of the combined form’s arms. The top half of Reiz’s head swivels and flips up to rest against Pax’s back, while his lower jaw flips and folds down to form the codpiece. For more pics of everything, here’s the full gallery. Any comments or criticisms are welcome. Thanks for stopping by!

I'll have a #3, please.

Yes, yes, we've all been waiting for this moment...I just wish that we could see Lewa get Skull Spider'd. (since it seems they come back into the story at some point) We haven't quite fulfilled the tradition until that happens, after all Really good episode though, one of my favorites so far.

Well it was two blows, really, if you count the disarming.

The problem with this is that the MoUP wasn't forged recently, it was forged many thousands of years ago. It indeed shows those lines that might be sources of elemental power, so I can agree that the mask cauldron was most likely used by Makuta, but as you said, it looks like it was forged recently and as the surroundings look overgrown, this might be the Ancient city, and a certain someone might have been making masks again... To me it seems to be much more reasonable to assume that this is a mask made by Makuta for one of the summer villains. -Iben Actually, I kind of like your idea there, but I'm still curious as to whether (and if so, how) Makuta has been awakened. Also, assuming the mask is indeed being infused with the powers of all of the elements, that would basically mean we have multiple MoUP's coming into the story, which I can't imagine LEGO would do. As for the time that the picture is set in, I don't see why this can't represent the creation of the MoUP so many thousands of years ago.

I am kind of leaning towards this being the MoUP, but I'm just going to go through some random observations before I get to the points that convince me of that most: As everyone has noticed already, the mask is clearly skull-shaped, and oddly enough, the forehead also mimics the shelled, insectoid appearance of the Skull Spiders. If you look closely at the base of the forehead, you'll see a circle highlighted by the lighting, also similar to the Skull Spiders. After noticing this, combined with the shape of the eyebrows and "cheekbones", I realized this must be the same as the mystery mask in the background of this picture. While this doesn't confirm the identity of the mask, it's obvious that it should have some important role in the coming story. As for the surroundings, the mask is floating above a cauldron dripping with molten liquid, the sides of which sport carvings of the Protector masks. From the looks of it, we are in the Mask Makers workshop, and this mask was just recently forged here. The most interesting feature of this picture, however, are the two colored streams of "liquid" that are apparently flowing into to the cauldron, one blue and one red. You will notice four more trenches surrounding and leading into the cauldron, and I would bet that they are guiding four streams of certain other colors into it as well. I would guess that these streams are made up of the elemental energies that the Mask Makers use to forge the elemental masks. So we are looking at this dark, ominous mask that has just been forged from a cauldron that is being fed by six different elemental streams. That just feels like a Mask of Ultimate Power to me.