Adam Dodge aka Dodge_A is currently participating in the contest LEGO Olympics Middle-Earth (MELO) which takes place on MOCpages.

Here is one of his participations with a reproduction of the scene in which the Fellowship of the Ring tries in vain to cross Caradhras before turning back and passing through the mines of Moria, all in decorative wall panel version ...

It's practical and it frees up shelves ...

I let you discover the other views of this MOC on his flickr gallery. You will also find a Balrog and Smaug ...

Other nice MOCs are to be discovered among the many entries of the LEGO Olympics Middle-Earth competition.

This is the news of the day and it comes to us from Austria where representatives of the Turkish cultural community announce that they are suing the Danish manufacturer LEGO for inciting hatred and racial discrimination in Austria, Germany and in Turkey.

In question, the set 9516 Jabba's Palace released in the summer of 2012 and which, according to the complainants, would be a perfect reproduction of the Hagia Sophia mosque in Istanbul or the Jami al-Kabir mosque located in Beirut (Lebanon).

Representatives of the Turkish cultural community in Austria then equate the Gamorrean Guard minifig delivered with the set to a religious representative in his minaret, presented by LEGO as an overarmed criminal.

Jabba the Hutt, notorious criminal of the Star Wars universe and owner of the premises, also takes it for his rank in the analysis made by the complainant of the content of the set. Jabba would be the materialization of racist insinuations towards Eastern and Asian communities: He is a slave criminal who uses drugs, and sacrifices his subjects without any mercy.

The dressing of the box is also implicated with the presence of the scary and evil Darth Maul.
On the strength of these arguments, the complainant therefore accuses LEGO of engaging in acts of racial discrimination and incitement to hatred towards certain communities, but also of marketing toys that are unsuitable for the target audience: children.

The set 9516 Jabba's Palace is intended for an audience aged between 9 and 14 years according to the indications provided on the box and the complainant considers that this product containing a building representing a combination between a "temple" and a "bunker" n ' is not suitable for this young audience.

LEGO is then questioned about its relationship to religion, war and ethnic diversity, including requests about the psychological damage that these toys could cause to young audiences.

You can read the full arguments developed by representatives of the Turkish cultural community in Austria at this address (Translation from German to English via Google Translate).

Thank you all to avoid slippage in the comments ...

Darwin316 reacted like many of us when he discovered what LEGO had planned to interconnect the set  75005 Rancor Pit released at the end of 2012 with the set 9516 Jabba's Palace : He was disappointed by the risky side of the thing ...

It must be said that the complementarity between the two sets is not immediately obvious if we trust the advice of LEGO which can be found on the back of the box of set 75005 : You have to detach the tower from the palace and it ends up casually next to the Rancor Pit itself topped by Jabba's palace.

Darwin316 took the Rancor by the horns (which he does not have) and modified both sets to achieve a magnificent compromise: The Rancor Pit has been extended to cover the entire available area under the palate and the base of the palate has was itself extended to cover the entire cellar at Rancor.

The result is really excellent, we get a coherent whole, playable, displayable, etc ...

Other photos of this magnificent modification are available in the dedicated topic at Eurobricks.

As we get bored while waiting for some unpublished information on the novelties 2013, I take this opportunity to present to you a Cuusoo project that deserves your attention.

Pekko has indeed imagined a LEGO board game with Marvel Avengers sauce that he presents in a very convincing way with quality visuals.

In six months of presence on the Cuusoo platform, the project has achieved onlyjust over 600 supporters, including mine.

Obviously, these LEGO board games do not have a great interest, if not to be designed for short games and Avengers or not, such a product would not revolutionize the genre.

But I'm sure many of you will find interesting potential in a series of Marvel microfigs ... The virtual prototypes presented by Pekko below should convince you.

Let's be realistic, this project has no chance of reaching 10.000 supporters one day, but I still wanted to present it to you here.

It is the Canadian branch of the Sears brand that makes the dumpling of the day and which in the process allows us to see a little more closely what the next LEGO Lord of the Rings set will be made of. 79007 The Black Gate.

On the preliminary visual of this set of 655 pieces marked as "in stock" at Sears and that you can discover by clicking on the image above we will note that the eagle is a molded figurine, that we will be entitled to Gandalf the White, Mouth of Sauron, 2 orcs and Aragorn.

The description of the set in English:

"... Fly the Great eagle high above the Black Gate of Mordor where Aragorn and Gandalf the White must distract the Eye of Sauron. Use them to stage a scene while Frodo Baggins and his friend Sam throw the One Ring into the fiery depths of Mount Doom and destroy it forever. To reach the Ring's final destination, you must defeat the Mouth of Sauron and the Mordor Orcs positioned high in the spiked gate walls. Then breach the gate and lead the attack on the enemy! Includes a Great Eagle and 5 minifigures with weapons: Aragorn, Gandalf the White, Mouth of Sauron and 2 Mordor Orcs..."

If you want to see the visual, don't hang around too much, LEGO is definitely going to request its removal from the Sears online catalog ...

(Thanks to maxell in the comments)