One last review - braziers!

[John D]

I had my eye on these for ages, but they kept getting cut from my store orders in favor of building materials.
So (a month ago?) I was placing an order for some more Tower pieces when I noticed the UNpainted Braziers had gone out of stock. I don't see them listed on the Fall 2018 restock, so I ordered a painted set. I friggin Love these. Bigger than I was expecting, but man, they really shine on the right builds. If the UNpainted ever make a return, I'll happily get another set. Nice work, Josh

[William]

So, I finally got a set of these (unpainted) and really like them (Yes, yes, yes, thanks Josh).

I was wondering why they went with reddish flames though. Don't get me wrong, when lighted they look 'almost' just like the Catacombs lighting. But when not on they look funny to me. Kind-of wish they were clear like the other LED lighted flames.

Also, I need help on one of them. It so happened to be the first one out of the box to test. The light works fine when the battery door is off, but when I snap the cover on the light goes out. It's pushing the prongs that touch the battery side. I've tried to adjust them and even scrape the cover where it hits and no luck. Any ideas of another fix before I go to customer service? Luckily, all 7 of the others worked fine.

Thanks, Bill

EDIT - I finally fixed the connection. So, no need to ask Chuck.

[NinjaMeesta]

+1
I also love these. (thanks Josh!)
I'm also intrigued to see if we get more fire options in the future. (brilliant idea to make them changeable!)

Yay!

[jchunick]

Here is some more insights into the sculpt (and maybe I'll post some pics of the production and building of the prototype... if I can find those pictures - they're somewhere on my old computer.)

The biggest factor that ensured the size was going to be large was the base where the battery holder/battery, switch and wires had to go (including the posts that hold the bottom lid on). It's a tight squeeze. That, in itself, is a pretty amazing piece of work, especially on the scale of thousands of braziers being massed produced in a factory. They even made it wider than I had in order to include more of an edge for thickness of the base walls.

Once you have that base to work with you don't have too much leeway if the brazier is going to be proportional to the base. You could fake it, I guess, by making the base a separate platform to raise up the brazier, but I decided to go with something large since they were going to be outside.

I did have some concerns when I put together a setup with the wall and road pieces I had been given for other LED mods. The brazier was the height of the first floor of a building.

I think things were pretty crazy behind the scenes during KS3 due to them moving into a new studio and Stefan's mom passing away. Since I had not just done a simple armature (which I was originally supposed to do), but also built a complete piece, well enough for DF to put their name on, it ended up in production and wasn't resculpted.

I have also come to love their size for certain large outside builds and large building builds such as the keep that I built.

[jchunick]

I was a sceptic, but bought some during the presale and them cane last week. I really like them - very wizardy! My only issue is the trademark on the bottom is raised enough that they slide around a bit if the are placed on moving features (like battlements) I may grind those off or put some nonskid rubber on the bottoms. I also wondered why the thematic CBS emblem was only on one side of the brazier? Good job Josh! Looking forward to more lighted features in KS4.

... oh, oh! << raises hand >> I can answer that!... I did it so you could rotate it to the most exposed-facing direction and have a basic brazier without the symbol showing (as much), if you so chose; A bit more usefulness in other settings.

[lostpict]

I was a sceptic, but bought some during the presale and they came last week. I really like them - very wizardy! My only issue is the trademark on the bottom is raised enough that they slide around a bit if the are placed on moving features (like battlements) I may grind those off or put some nonskid rubber on the bottoms. I also wondered why the thematic CBS emblem was only on one side of the brazier? Good job Josh! Looking forward to more lighted features in KS4.

[Law]

So I picked up just about the last thing I didn't have a pledge for -- the braziers. (Full disclosure: I also didn't get the Tudor wall set, which means I don't have the off-set Tudor window. However but seeing as how I've ended up with two Capital City pledges, plus various add-ons which include Tudor walls like the magnetic walls and torch walls, somehow I couldn't bring myself to buy that just yet. I'm already drowning in walls. That said, I'm sure I'll get it with time, provided it remains in stock.)

So I got these. And I am REALLY diggin' 'em. I understand why some people might have blanched at the size at first -- we're used to the small cups of fire included in the Catacombs sets, and if you've got the old resin sets or KS1, and you thought you might use these in a dungeon, the large size might be off-putting.

However, the CBS is in such a larger scale, and designed for such massive builds, these are perfect. While they do reach the top of a normal wall, they'll still be dwarfed by a castle or a massive cathedral or an entire city block. They feel like great ways to illuminate the interior of a building for just pure aesthetic effect -- I've noticed that the torch walls don't actually illuminate that much if they're inside a building with a roof in place . But these feel like they'll actually provide for a sense of inhabited buildings at night. And they REALLY set the scene for a massive chamber, or for the entrance to an imposing building.

I like the sculpts, I like the scale, the light is strong. These are gonna be FUN.