Spirit of the season

Up here in the Northern Hemisphere, winter is in full swing, and while it may be mild for some people, it's decidedly not for others. You could blame this on the climate being affected by axial tilt and the Earth's distance from the Sun, or you could blame it on this "malevolent mountain spirit with powers over the wind and snow," Uromroz the Cold.

Built by Djokson, this icy, sharp character certainly looks responsible, doesn't it?

Feelin' blue

So much for me being a sci-fi blogger. The MOC in this post is another Castle build in a very similar style to the last one: a rustic, cobble-hewn style befitting of a rural countryside cottage. 

I'm not a huge fan of some of the part choices for rocks (too round) or the transparent elements (for the stream and chimney smoke), but still found this definitely worthy of a blog mention because of the beautifully textured cottage walls and roof, and the use of color. Blue is not too common in the gray/brown/green-dominated Castle theme, but between the roof, stream, and bluebird, there's plenty of it here, contrasting nicely with the sienna trees, gray walls, and cool green earth. 

Oh, and there's NPU: a feather, a minifig hand, and a joystick base for a bird? Ingenious. And John Snyder (jsynder002), if you're reading this, is that a minifig hairpiece used as a bird's nest? (Nice build by the way...) 

Take me to church

I'm no Castle expert, but I instantly felt this MOC by newcomer don leopold brings something new to the table. It has a different feel than a lot of Castle builds I've blogged before, although I couldn't for the life of me tell you what it is. Maybe any Castleheads reading this can elaborate...

We've seen the 1x1-cylinder-for-roofing technique before, but it works really nicely here. The trees and stone wall are well built and fit nicely into the scene. My favorite aspect of the build is the excellent use of SNOT and greebles to achieve the look of crumbling, paint-worn walls; it's some of the most natural-looking I've seen in a Castle build. Also note the NPU for the bell - can you tell what those pieces are?

"Bazaar"ly masterful building skills

Howdy.

Ignoring my face-palm-worthy title, Mark of Falworth's The Grand Bazaar is truly a LEGO magnus opus in the first and finest degree.  It not only invokes a wonderfully refreshing building style that perfectly utilizes a brick-built base to give the MOC structure, but the details that he has added really bring out the structural beauty in this diorama.  I especially am a fan of all the pastel and sand-green/blue elements he has used. Quite inspiring, indeed.