Black Samurai

wow Nick, as always a great production. the helmet idea is awesome. can i ask though is the hat connected to the Mask? and is the face a decal... its quite hard to work out. the chinese symbols are so acurate and... shiny :) and finally, this guy beats all your former designs!

go nick!

~Obliviumjr

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~Obliviumjr

Nick, you've done it again! One of your customs has taken my breath awaY! Please give it back!

Nah just kidding, great work as usual. How many Green Goblin mask does one have? And in how many ways can you use them for customizing?

BTW we never got to see the face of the red samurai, do you have a pic?

~BB88

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Mr. NickGreat,

I represent the Association For Moderately Adequate Customizers. (AFMAC) And I am here to form a complaint. Please stop making customs, you are making us all look bad.

AFMAC Rep,
Stix


All silliness aside, you seem to be the only customizer I know who consistently tops all previous customs whenever he makes a new one. Well done!
I echo what Damien said about the blade. I near drove myself crazy working on Cloud's sword(s).

Just a couple questions more for my own curiousity. How long would you say you spend giving them the professional finish? And What kind of lighting/setup do you use for your pictures? I can never make mine look as good on the screen.

Sticks will start complaining about having to read it all.
That's only when there's long blocks of text with no punctuation inbetween. Something you thankfully avoid.

EDIT: See what a nice guy I am? I did the uploading for you!

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MCN Moderator of Customizing Tips, Techniques & Questions

I know I haven't posted much on the forums lately but I couldn't resist this one. You know Nick, what I like best about you is you are an accessories man, just like me ; ) His blade out classes most anything else I've seen. No offense of course to all other customizers. How did you give it that edge so evenly? Instead of a litany of things I like about this custom, all I will say is like every facet of it. I hope that will suffice, you have done a great job!

Please stick with green for the next warrior. It's my favorite color (blue is my least) and I think it will work well in the line of your Samurai. BTW, is there a montage pic of all the warriors you have done?

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~MCN Moderator of the Minifig MOCs Forum~

Great work.  I really like the way the horse armor looks.

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Wow! I am amazed at the level of detail you always seem to achieve in your customs!

(Do I hear an echo?)

Seriously, this is an amazing job. A question, if all three of your famed samurai were caught in battle, who would win?

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MCN members like Recluce and Damien who might know me from Classic-Castle Forums can probably attest to my purism, so I hope you take the fact that I registered just to leave a comment on your latest minifig as very high praise indeed. ;-)

The kanji are an excellent touch (death!), the mask is perfect (it took me a while to figure out that it was the Green Goblin), and the naginata is awesome.

Can't wait to see your next samurai. I vote for green.

Oh, and blogged.

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-Andrew B.

Flickr | The Brothers Brick

Damien;  
We'll see, we'll see. I wouldn't bet your house on it tho. heheh..

l33tone; 
I was actually about to upload the pics earlier but I realised that his flag was out of position. Had to retake those pics.

obliviumjr;
Heh, thanks. The mask is glued to the hat. And yup, the face is a decal whose design I lifted from the original Lego ninja-master.
I'm not too sure about beating my former designs; I kinda prefer the White Samurai.

badboytje88;
The Red Samurai is faceless! Bwahahaha!!!  Seriously, I think it was an aquanaught's head or something.

Sticks; 
To the AFMAC Rep; You know what, I felt the same when this Deathstickman fella came up with Cloud. Go bug him instead!

Not quite sure what you mean by "professional finish", but I do spend some time, fine sanding custom items to ensure they don't look too grainy when up close. I sometimes, also do a clear laquer over decals so that they appear seamless.
My phototgraphy setup is quite simple actually. Here's a pic; http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/NickGreat/misc/setup.jpg
After that, I use Photoshop and adjust the colour levels "Ctrl-L". Incidently, I do that for all photos that I take.
(Feeling embarrassed) And thanks for uploading it, I'm sure I would have remembered tho... eventually...

Pharazon;
Yup, we do like to accessorize! Lego just don't make enough weapons.
The blade's edges was done with careful dremelling with a cylindrical grinding stone at low speed (low speed so that I get to keep my fingers). After that, high-grit sandpaper to finish.
I'm actually still pondering over the colour for my next samurai. Doubt it'll be blue tho (sorry, Damien).
For the montgage pic, I'm waiting patiently till I have at least five samurai before taking them with a huge grand hulking Lego Japanese castle as the backdrop. Okay, so maybe I'll just wait till I have 5.

Vidgamer838;
They are; Evil, Good, Neutral in that order. None of these ever wins for long.

Dunechaser;
Wow, thanks for positive comments!  (Don't tell anyone; truth is, I used to be a purist too.)
I've actually submitted this for the Classic Castle Contest IV. I seriously don't expect to win, but I figured it would be a good starter for joining in their fun and forums.
Green eh? Vote noted. ; )

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~MCN Brick Talk Moderator~

Nick's MOC Page.

whoo another awsome fig, incredible work once again. where do you get all the green goblin masks, do you cast your own or buy them, the weapon is  great, really nicely done, the decals are great as well, where do yo get your translations from, i cant find anywhere to translate into japanese or chinese characters, sorry for all the questions but im so curious about the fig. anyway great work again, can we look foward to another samurai in the future?

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Humankind can not gain anything without first giving something in return, to obtain something of equal value must be lost. This is alchemys first law of equivalent exchange.

I got all my Goblin masks from Bricklink. Try not to snap them all up; I might need more. :)
The characters are in traditional chinese, written in a very light calligraphy style (sort of cursive to us).
As long as I can think of something new, you'll definitely see more samurai from me.

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~MCN Brick Talk Moderator~

Nick's MOC Page.

Sticks is right. You should stop. You are getting too good. ;)

There isn't much to say really, or should I say... anything that hasn't already been said. (I'm not good at opinions on customs. Can you tell?) It's amazing. Can't put it any other way. I wouldn't be suprised if this won in the CC custom minifig part of the contest. Though I haven't seen the other entries.

Can't wait for the next!

Zach

P.S. Do you ever think you might start Ninjas? Maybe after your done with all the colors on Samurai.

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Just one breath... incase that's all that is left...

I beleive the right classification for that weapon is called a pole arm,I have my years of playing D&D to thank for the knowledge.Some examples of pole arms are the halberd,the barditche,and of course,the naginata ;D ~odin

By the way for those who dont know the zig zag shape of the blade is known as a kryss blade,so i would clasify this weapon as a kryss bladed naginata.But im no weapons expert so you can call it whatever you wish.

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Those who tell me I am too old for legos must die a horrible death by the hand of a custom minifig. >:D

bicentaur, that was the word i was thinking of, its a big sort of halliberd thing with a wide  blade, my freids sensei brought one in for them to feel how heavy it was, its really heavy, they sort of resemble a long handle horse hair knife, or even a really big chinese broadsword with a long handle. you dould even clasify it as a type of nine rinf long handle sword but for that it would traditionally have the nine rings allong one edge, it could also be a type of  general kwan long sword, theres a lot of possibilitys of what it resembles in ways, but the shape of the blade really makes this weapon unique.

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Humankind can not gain anything without first giving something in return, to obtain something of equal value must be lost. This is alchemys first law of equivalent exchange.

Lego already has 5 colours for the ninjas. They are an option, but I'll stick to samurai for the time being; there are so many colours available...

On the subject of the weapon, I'm really not sure. Pork demon did remind me of something; he mentioned the General Kwan had a large pole-sword type weapon with rings. That weapon was quite famous as is called the "Green Dragon Sabre". His sworn brother carried a weapon which looks similar to what I have made. It's a ten foot spear called "Octane Serpent Halberd".

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~MCN Brick Talk Moderator~

Nick's MOC Page.

it does have the shape of a kung fu weapon called a snake spear, however the snake spear has a pointed end and a much much smaller blade,  in ref to gereral kwan, a quote i found on the net

"When the two armies had been drawn up opposite each other, Liu Bei  rode to the front, Guan Yu to his left, Zhang Fei to his right. Flourishing his whip, Liu Bei began to hurl reproaches at the rebels, crying, "O malcontents! Why not dismount and be bound?" Their leader Cheng Yuanzhi, full of rage, sent out one general, Deng  Mao, to begin the battle. At once rode forward Zhang Fei, his octane-serpent halberd poised to strike. One thrust and Deng Mao rolled off his horse, pierced through the heart. At this Cheng Yuanzhi himself whipped up his steed and rode forth with sword raised ready to slay Zhang Fei. But Guan Yu swung up his ponderous green-dragon saber and rode at Cheng Yuanzhi. At the sight fear seized upon Cheng Yuanzhi, and before he could defend himself, the great saber fell, cutting him in halves."

also with the weapon, it almost looks like you cut a groove into the top of the scimitar handle, did you or did you file a semi circle into the bottom of the blade?

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Humankind can not gain anything without first giving something in return, to obtain something of equal value must be lost. This is alchemys first law of equivalent exchange.

Nice quote from the 3 Kingdoms.
I could give you many other stories off hand like how Zhang Fei was eventually killed in his sleep by his men who were to sick of him overtraining them.
But lets not veer off topic...

For the weapon, I filed a semi circle at the base of the blade, than glued it on. On hindsight (actually, right after I had trouble glueing on to the PP handle), I should have just cut a groove on the scimitar handle and slipped it in. Oh well, it worked anyway.

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~MCN Brick Talk Moderator~

Nick's MOC Page.

u used waterslide decals right, can i ask how much it cost to get them printed.

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Humankind can not gain anything without first giving something in return, to obtain something of equal value must be lost. This is alchemys first law of equivalent exchange.

can i ask how much it cost to get them printed.

This kind of question is generally bad manners. As a matter of etiquette you shouldn't publicly talk about how much it cost someone to make something. He already stated that Kaminoan printed the decals. If you need information on pricing, you should contact Kaminoan privately.

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MCN Moderator of Customization Tips, Techniques & Questions

sorry, my bad

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Humankind can not gain anything without first giving something in return, to obtain something of equal value must be lost. This is alchemys first law of equivalent exchange.

Humn how about using the green wizards hat with the goblin mask attached to it, like you did with the black samurai. That would look hot!

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Instead of making many, many painful obvious comments about how utter fantastic in concept and execution this custom is, I've brought in my resident translator (rather cute one at that) to give all of us on the MCN of the Latin alphabet pursuasion the skinny on what the characters the Black Samurai sports mean:

Hat: Death
Sword - Yep, "Sword of Fate" it is (although she always says "cleaver" rather than sword)
Flag - Death, "Door of heaven and earth" repeated
Armor - Death
Horse head armor - Death (I'm noticing a trend . . . .)
Horse body armor - "When death comes, neither good nor evil can escape.  All will be killed under this sword (cleaver?) and have their souls ripped apart"

Pretty tough stuff.  Then again, that's why my Eastern armies tread softly and carry flint-locks.

badger

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