MOC: Thrór

I'm back from a LEGO convention! I'm back with my LUGBULK pieces! I'm back in the dwarf business!

That's right. A week ago there was a convention in Vantaa, southern Finland, held by Finnish brick store Lelukauppa Pii Poo. Photos can be found on Hovinet's gallery. There was also excellent selling tables of used bricks - I bought seven bags, each a bit bigger than half of a litre, with some great Bricks of Character parts (tan plates, jumpers and headlights and so on) and some goldies (My third rock raiders drill and pleasing amount of old light yellow bricks - Modular buildings to come...).

I also got my LUGBULK delivered there. That meant I had to leave most of my MOCs on the show (Scuba mech, Toa Kyberi, Forfhuarú and never-posted-online small Easter Holiday Island) to my uncle's house because they didn't fit into the backpack. The two days after the convention were dedicated to sorting, and this creation was built in two days after that. Hectic!

So, this is Thrór, King Under The Mountain, father of Thráin and grandfather of Thorin Oakenshield. The design is from recent The Hobbit movie trilogy, as you all know. Thrór was portrayed by Welsh actor Jeffrey Thomas, which you probably didn't know. He didn't have any lines, though, appearing in two flashbacks, the other one cut short by beheading. Rude!

Building Thrór was natural after Thráin. I had the head built several months ago, probably shortly after his son's. After that I just waited for my LUGBULK parts to come - That's right, sand green. I wanted to build The King of Carved Stone on his green marble throne.  I though it would make a great book-end. It turned rather big for that use, but guess I have to use some big books with it...

My LUGBULK included five key parts in sand green: 1x1 bricks, 1x2 bricks, 1x4 bricks, cheese slopes and 1x1 SNOT bricks. Those five are almost invincible together: Cheese with SNOT works as several kinds of slopes, for example. Some additional parts like 2x2 and 1x4 tiles are used too, with support of those 3x6 roof parts. The 1x4 fence pieces in pearl gold are also from LUGBULK. Fresh bricks, I'd say!

The build began with the base, with some interesting bits (Angled corners, trans-red bars in the fences). The boots were added (they are not connected to the dwarf...) and the armrests were shaped, and then the most of the cloak was shaped around them, hiding the tricky bits. The arms are connected to the armrest, not the king again, the the shoulder/head/beard part is connected to the lower torso/throne via ball joint to enable a bit hunched pose. Arranging these was frustrating: Getting the pearl gold cloak trims under the beard/shoulder fur naturally without leaving too big gaps. The lower coat has also some tricky shapes and angles. I'm especially happy how the fence pieces look there.

The back of the throne was combination of dull brick-laying and tricky shaping. The SNOTed cheese works nicely as inverted sloping in my opinion. The golden frame around the legendary Arkenstone, the Heart of the Mountain, was hard; I had to simplify it quite a bit, but hopefully nobody remembers what it should look like; Close enough! The jewel naturally lights up, as seen below in a shot featuring my very own hand. Enjoy.

-Eero