Flower and Honeybee

Pirate Ship Solomon

The ship is named Solomon because we own a tile that says Solomon from the Solomon R. Guggenheim art museum set. But there were, in fact, many Jewish pirates in the Caribbean in the 1500s. Click to enlarge.

We had very limited options for the ropes, rigging, and masts. I didn't like the first sails I tried-- they looked like they were made of cast iron-- so I went with rolled up sails.

I don't know what the witch is doing on this ship. Apparently some of the sailors used to work for the British navy?

The ship base is the same one as we used for Noah's Ark.

The cannons are made from palm tree stem pieces.

The captain has 6 different maps in his cabin. It is a cutaway view so you can see inside. Either that or cannon damage. His blankets are made of fabric robes.

The figurehead is made of gold. I think the ship should really be called Solomon's Gold. Because let's face it: these guys are pirates.

This is the captain, up in the crow's nest. He's allowed to go up there any time he wants because he's the captain.  

I don't really know why Princess Leia is on this ship.

This is the pilot.

Snowspeeder

Daniel made this.

Cave

This is a cave with stalactites and stalagmites.

 looking in the mouth of the cave:

in the dark

a dwarf miner

 rock formations:

Castle Whitespire from The Magician King by Lev Grossman

I really enjoyed the books The Magicians and The Magician King by Lev Grossman. So when I decided to build a castle out of Legos for my son and his cousins to play with, I modeled it on the description of castle Whitespire. The coolest thing about the castle is that it is built with ancient dwarven clockwork, so the towers of the keep all rotate independently about once per day, powered by windmills. I only built one windmill (ridiculously inside the walls) and one rotating tower, but it's still fun to play with. Here's a video of it working:

There's a few houses inside the walls. I visited the Tower of London and guards are still living in the houses like this inside those walls. You can click on all these photos for a larger version.

This is a clock tree made by the Watcherwoman.

This is Penny. I told Daniel I needed a punk with no shirt and no hands, so he built this guy.

One of the kings standing on the wall.

A king and queen waving from the tower. The only good girl's crown I had was for Galadriel, so she has pointed ears.

I tried to make a ram's head for the chapel. I used little dinosaurs for the horns, it was the best I could think of.

Inside the chapel.

Some stained glass windows.

This is the square room in the square tower with four thrones. There used to be a map on the table, I don't know what happened to it. The kids have been playing with it. When I went to take these pictures, Batman was looming off one of the gargoyles on the tower.

A shot of the main gate and the overall layout. You can also see a lamppost that seems to have been carried over from Narnia.

Some of the villagers.