Hey, it's been several months since my last post! I've not only gotten a new job and moved, but the lego collection has grown greatly, too. Mostly by being patient and seeking out discounted/clearanced sets, I've been able to pick up a lot of what I want from the various themes of interest.
Speaking of which, the themes I'm collecting most are Star Wars (duh) and Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, with some DC thrown in for good measure. As such, I've also delved into the corresponding fictions a fair bit, such as watching all of the Clone Wars on Netflix, reading through the Hobbit with my son and restarting the Fellowship of the Ring on my own. I've enjoyed having the Lego version of these characters to manipulate as desired, and one thing I've enjoyed putting together is my "Black Council." Clearly a counter to the Hobbit's White Council, the Black Council basically consists of the Orthanc throne room set packed to the gills with various villains. On the throne itself is Chancellor Palpatine in Sith mode, thanks to the Palpatine's Arrest set, though I'd love to get his minifig from the Palpatine's Shuttle set as a replacement. Anyhow, directly in front of the Chancellor on right and left are the Mouth of Sauron and Saruman, respectively. Circling the palantir are Darth Tyranus at 12 o' clock (from the 2013 Geonosis set), Darth Vader (from the 2011 Millenium Falcon) at 3, Darth Malgus, only just acquired yesterday at 6, and Darth Revan at 9. On the left hand steps is General Zod and Faora on the right (both from the Battle of Smallville set). Hanging out on the back left of the throne is Darth Marr, also on guard duty. In the center on the Palantir dais is the Necromancer himself, Sauron! Basically, I've tried to give the impression of the Sith using their lightsabers in conjunction with the Palantir to summon the Necromancer in a sort of seance. As you can see, this relatively small collection of minifigs represents a decent investment, but I'm pretty sure the only sets that produced these figs that I actually paid full price for were the Wizard Battle itself and the Millenium Falcon. However, there are still a few individuals I want I add to the Black Council: Darth Maul (I'd like to get the version from the 2011 Scimitar, or the shirtless poly at version. I would just get the cyborg legs version, but I'm not a big CW face fan), the Weathertop Nazguls, and the new Witch-King of Angmar. Next year's SW Rebels Inquisitor will make a nice addition as well.
