Like Olaf the snowman on a beach…

…we’ve been completely off. Offline: Too little LEGO for a very long time. But without further ado, I am now back. More posts will follow shortly.

Alanna – and her creator.

So, it’s been a while. I’ve actually written several posts, but never got around to finish and upload them. With a lot on my mind, LEGO and this blog has been pushed back a little bit, but not forgotten, I promise!

Last weekend, my sister and I took a roadtrip to the other side of Denmark, a 3-hour drive from our home in Copenhagen to the west coasts biggest city Esbjerg (and yes, you can drive from one side of Denmark to the other, in under 3 hours..)

We went for the annually Fantasy Festival, which is mainly a book festival, we’ve never been before, and probably won’t go again, normally not really our scene, but this year Tamora Pierce were there. Tamora Pierce wrote the books about Alanna – Song of the Lioness.

We went there to see her, get our books signed and hear her talk. She was as we expected quite fantastic! She’d never been to Denmark before, and here she was in the most western windblown part of itty bitty Denmark.

I had packed Alanna and the whole gang, to take some photos while she spoke, but I got to caught up in everything so I forgot. I did however sneak some photos.

Tamora read a paragraph from her new book (about a young Numair!), and answered questions from the audience. She is quite an awesome and fierce little lady.

I got my copy of the last book “Lioness Rampant” signed, both the Danish and English Version (the English version for our other sister, who couldn’t be there).
And because it was the International Womens day, and because she always write these remarkable women she wrote “Women rule!” in them, which only made us love her more!

All in all it was a great day for my sister and I, and Alanna too..

New Tortall figures.

Now it is time for some new minifigures from the Tortall universe.
This time it is for some figures from The Immortals.

It is Veralidaine Sarrasri known as Daine. As it is custom in a Tamora Pierce series, the main character is a woman, and a fierce one at that.
She meets Numair Salmalín quickly in the first book “Wild Magic”.

Their relationship evolves over the course of the books, and dispites him being a bit older than her, the end up together.
Daine has a magic skill, that allows her to speak with animals, so she is always surrounded by animals.

Daine adopts a dragon baby, when her mother saves Daine, Alanna, George and their home at Pirate’s Swoop.
The dragon is called Skysong, but she nicknames it Kitten.
Numair is a mage, a wizard, with the highest honor, the black cape.

More Tortall minifigures to follow.

New Tortall figures.

So as I promised in my first post about Alanna, I have created more Tortall minifigs.

I realise that these post are more fun for those who have read the books (there aren’t any movies, I am sorry to say), and my build will contain spoilers for the entire series, so if you haven’t read it yet, close your computer, and start reading!

Two important men in the first series Song of the Lioness is George Cooper and Jonathan of Conte.
Jonathan is the crown prince, who befriends Alanna, when she first arrives to Corus, disguised as a boy, in order to become a knight. Alanna must keep her gender a secret, since girls aren’t aloud to be knights. She arrives at the capitol Corus at the age of eleven, and quickly befriend the older Jonathan who is 14, and the 17 year old George.

These two guys plays a huge role in Alannas life, and are some of the first who learns her true identity. So of course they are to find in my castle.
Here they are!

                                                   George Cooper

George is the king of thieves, and a rough guy. He is always a friend to Alanna though. He befriends Jonathan and his friends and helps both them, and Alanna throughout the series. He always carries knifes in his sleeves, and always knows the gossip from the castle and what goes on in the city.

                                              Jonathan of Conte

Jonathan is a cool and handsome young man when Alanna first meets him. She doesn’t buy in to all his pride and cockiness, and he likes that, so they become friends. Just when Alanna is about the become squire, he chooses her as his squire even though he knows she’s a girl. He becomes king in the last book, after an incident with his father.

He has the  Dominion Jewel, presented to him by Alanna, when she returned from the Roof of the World. He has his armor, sword and lance, aswell as his horse Darkness. Again LEGO has some limitations when making MOCs, and that is why Jonathan has black hair, and brown beard.

More mini Tortall figures to come!

Alanna – The Song of the Lioness in LEGO.

One of the very best things about LEGO is that it is all about creativity. You can build anything, and it is beautiful, just like the adverts from the 80’s say, remember?

I love the ordinary LEGO sets, the police stations, fire trucks, houses and the franchises – Star Wars, Marvel, DC, LOTR and so on, but is there anything more fantastic than making your own creation? Not really, right?

My new and far biggest MOC will be a castle! Not just any castle, the king’s castle in the city of Corus. Don’t know it? That’s okay, although a bit of a shame. Corus is the capitol of the land of Tortall, from the books of Tamora Pierce.

Tamora has written a lot of young adult books, and her series on Alanna – The song of the Lioness is one of my all time favorites!

So what is more natural for an AFOL like me, than to recreate that universe in LEGO.
I know it will be a big task, and it will probably take a few years for it all to be build, but I don’t mind that, more Lego fun time!

So this is going to be a long-time-running line of posts about Alanna and the process of my castle.

My first post will feature the first thing I wanted to create in order to make the MOC – Alanna in mini fig!

So here she is, small and feisty!

In the books Alanna is known for her small appearance, yet she is the first female knight in Tortall for over a hundred years.
Her shield is a prancing lioness, so all of her LEGO gear will feature lions in some form, although I haven’t found the right shield just yet. She has a cat – Faithful, and a horse – Moonlight.

More Tortall-minifigures will follow – in the meantime I urge you all to read the books if you haven’t already, they are very well written, and can be enjoyed for people of all ages!