There are some bargains to be done at the moment in the LEGO Lord of the Rings range with a few 2012 sets sold at bargain prices while waiting for the arrival of the 2013 novelties as shown in the table below.

We will notably remember the set 9473 The Mines of Moria sold € 55.99 by amazon.de which also markets the set 9476 The Orc Forge at 42.99 €.

For its part, amazon.es (Spain) displays attractive prices on sets 9469 Gandalf Arrives, 9470 Shelob Attacks, 9471 Uruk-Hai Army and 9472 Attack on Weathertop.

4-LOM, former protocol droid turned thief and bounty hunter looking for Han Solo on behalf of Darth Vader (Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back) gets her bust in the Bounty Hunters series proposed by Omar Ovalle.

He is here accompanied by a superb reproduction of his favorite weapon: The W-90 Concussion Rifle or LJ-90 which is in fact a barely modified version of a German weapon dating from the Second World War: The Maschinengewehr 34 or MG34 .

I still appreciate it so much this gallery of bounty hunters that Omar introduces us regularly and I look forward to Dengar and Bossk so that the team recruited by Vader and seen aboard the Executor is complete ...

To see on 12/04 on France 5 in the program "We're not just guinea pigs"presented by Agathe Lecaron, Vincent Chatelain and David Lowe, a LEGO challenge with in bulk: 15" builders "members of Fanabriques, 250.000 parts, 300 hours of work and a 10-meter tower.

For those who do not know the show, it is a magazine that aims to be the French counterpart of MythBusters crossed with Brainiac for those who know these TV shows, if we believe the description given on the official website "... A band of daring testers set up sometimes spectacular experiments to twist the necks of received ideas, to demystify or confirm popular beliefs ...". It's good fun, educational and the animators are nice even if they constantly overplay their characters, which may annoy more than one.

I won't tell you more, watch the teaser below and meet up on April 12 at 20:35 p.m. to learn all about this LEGO challenge which brought together more than 35 members of the association in its preparation and pre-assembly phase. .

You can find more information about logistics preparation and execution of this challenge at the Fanabriques website.

http://youtu.be/AfxGL2i181A

Imagine for a second what Disney could do with Star Wars ... Imagine a giant octopus in the service of the Rebel Alliance, controlled by an electronic system implanted in its brain by kamikaze Ewoks and which would be able to smash a Super Star to pieces. Destroyer ...

Iain Heath aka Ocher Jelly presents us his KR-KN (For Kraken) Rebel eater of steel (or plastic) Light Bluish Gray in a really successful staging. 

This creation, presented for the first time at the beginning of March during the Emerald City Comicon 2013, will remain on display at the premises of Iain Heath's employer, Tableau Software, between two trips to conventions for LEGO fans. Hopefully Disney is not too inspired by it ...

More pictures on Ocher Jelly's flickr gallery.

It's very, very calm at the moment: Little or no interesting information and no or few interesting MOCs to eat ...

I take this opportunity to post here this magnificent Boba Fett to scale Midi Mood Scale recently proposed by Kevin Ryhal aka MOODSWIM.

Speaking of MOCs, a few days ago I came across an interesting topic opened by HJR on Eurobricks entitled: "Are Star Wars MOC Builders becoming a dying breed? (Are Star Wars OMCs an endangered species?)"

The creator of the topic mentions his disappointment to see the number of Star Wars MOCs presented on EB, FBTB or even IDS decrease significantly in favor of photos of minifigs of all kinds (The adventures of Joe the Stormtrooper at the beach, on vacation , bad jokes featuring minifigs, Instagram to all the sauces, etc ...)

The answers posted by different MOCs shed some light on the reasons for the disappearance of Star Wars MOCs from the most prominent forums. Lack of time, limited budget, limited interest in reproducing certain ships or machines already offered by LEGO or by other MOCeurs, criticisms not always constructive from the readers of these forums which discourage MOCeurs, etc ... There are many reasons to explain this drop in the number of Star Wars MOCs visible on the internet.

There is no doubt, however, that several projects are in progress and that the MOCeurs concerned do not always communicate in real time on their work before being able to present a successful creation.
Not to mention the many fans of the Star Wars range and universe who focus almost exclusively on the minifig collection and for whom LEGO has long been a non-player.construction game"...

Do you also have the feeling that (real) Star Wars MOCs are becoming increasingly rare?