allencao3

Well, to me, it is not really about how much I want elves but how much TLC wants to "complete" its fantasy line because I cannot imagine a fantasy theme without elve. And to lefty, I know what you are talking about. HOMM used to be one of my favorites too. A lot of childhood memories!

A detailed and well-structured review! The pirate side of the set is excellent especially with the variety of pawn figs and accessories. Of course, replacing one of anchor tattoed pawns with the elder pirate with grey beard in loot island would have been better by including all figs in 2009 pirate line. The imperials side really sucks IMO though. No epaulette, tricorns on pawns and shakos on bishops, poorly-designed rooks (especially when compared to pirate counterparts). Most importantly, the knights don't belong in here at all! Seems like someone picked up whatever at hand and put them in to merely complete the chess pieces. Sincerely hope this would not be a bad example followed by other sets in future!

I dont think the fantasy theme will die out any time soon. There are whole lots of things to be added into it imo. Village-themed sets will definitely be one of the directions like more houses, cottages, churches or a city hall with a bell tower. These are of course just my speculations now but shouldn't the popularity of medieval market have said something to TLC? Looking back at the castle history, a lot of factions did have more than 1 base. But except for the King's Castle, a tower and a drawbridge, we don't have anything else. Another castle or fortress for the crownies with some new designs should be another direction to follow. And of course, same applies to dwarves because the dwarven constructions have been quiet for ever after the 1 mine 2 years ago. And introduction of a new faction (and of course the whole new style of buildings and stuff) is inspiring! I can't even imagine how lame a fantasy line is without elves! If these are the ways to go, fantasy castle fans like myself will have at least another 3 years before an alternative castle line shows up.

Thanks a lot, you guys! Those are some really informative advises! I am thinking to stock up another set or 2 of 7094 and the drawbridge defence and medieval market are on the way. Hopefully, I'd have enough pieces by then. I am really fond of these wall panels from the black falcon sets years ago and would like to add some of these to my castle building. But these are really hard to find, aren't they? Any suggestions on that? Again thanks a mill! Allen

I have always wanted to MOC a castle of my own but always have the feeling that the bricks at my hand from the original castle boxsets are far from sufficient. After seeing all these fabulous MOCs out there, I am recently tempted to make one. But before that, I would like to know what sets you guys bought before starting a project to supplement the bricks needed, especially useful pieces like slopes for rooftops, dark and light bricks for walls and stuff, etc. Is there any recommendation of useful sets (not limited to castle sets) to buy? Or did you already have the piece counts required to make one? I would also like to know what sort of approach the MOCers should take when buying new sets in the market. Do you always purchase multiple big sets? Thanks in advance from an amatuer builder.

Talking about being the last, I don't know about the situations in Denmark but China is definitely one of the last. Well, it is probably forgotten given the fact that I have never seen 7029 here and 10193 is STILL not available!

Thats what dwarves do! Great MOC and I love it! And btw, from which set did you get that trumpet piece? I have always wanted to have one.

This is the kind of review that makes me determined to buy this set! I was hesitating on this one before but not any more. Very appealing and covered almost all of the elements in the set for someone who doesn't own it. Keep it up. Cheers

Jester is THE coolest fig ever given its scarcity. Castle calender is the only one that contains a jester and it is quite unlikely it'd come with other sets in future. Lucky me . I love those dwarf figs a lot too especially the one with the brown beard (which totally covers the printings on torso). I am expecting more variety in beards/helmets/weapons for those little creatures next year.

I want all these things too. Elves and centuars are definitely something I would like to see ASAP too The thing for me though is that I can't get some old forestmen sets cuz I am in China, where there is few old sets. Buying them off eBay is a bit too costly because of the international shipping fee and the fact that there is little gurantee on quality...

Revivals of some of the old sub-themes would also be nice, like forestmen! I missed those forestmen sets when they were released and now I want them so baaaaaaaaaaaaadly! A kingdom with no bandits and all is kinda dull.

I would have bought 2 or 3 sets if that kind of deal were ever available here.. So jealous of y'all. Great review though. I guess I would buy one with a three-fold price.

I would go with elf castle, well, not much of a castle but some sort of hideout with all the trees or on top of a huuuge tree. And maybe one of those trees can be transformed into an ent to protect the hideout and the elves? Orcs ain't supposed to have a castle in my opinion cuz they roam around looting villages and castles. Add-ons for village is a defnite go so that orcs will have something to loot. Crownies would have troubles defending the civilians cuz they can't take advantage of castle any more. They have to go from strength to strength to take the evil orcs down! Time to enlarge the scale of the crownie army! Battle packs and impulse sets for dwarves!! Or even another stronghold for them would be perfect to put them back on the map. They are by far the weakest of all. The presence of some other mythical creatures would also be cool! Zombies for the undead, goblins/shamans for the orcs, griffins for the crownies... More kinds of weapons available for different races would also be appreciated. Combats ain't always about numbers after all. Tactics matter alot too.

I personally haven't seen any pirated/fake lego in China fortunately even though there are tons of other pirated things here. But those are mainly fabrics. There are licensed distributors here I guess (don't know what the real deal is) and retailers like "toys r us" (forgot the name cuz i never bought anything with 2-fold prices).

Hey you guys, it is my first reply on eurobricks. When it comes to new themes, I do have a lot on my list. From a marketing perspective, developing new themes would help increase market share by attracting newer collectors and boost sales but retaining existing customers is equally important if not more. You can imagine how desperate a fan could be waiting for the next set of the theme to be released . For a lego fan like myself, I surely want to have all the collections of the sets released from different themes (I can see cash flowing outta my pocket ). But to be financially realistic, I would strongly suggest TLG enriched its current existing product lines. To be more specific, the product line to be elaborated in my case is the castle theme -- the recent fantasy collections with the knights/dwarves/undead/green skins(trolls or orcs whatever you call them ) together with the Vikings and some of the Pirate sets because they are mutually compatible to be put in the same scenario in my opinion. Here are a couple of things off the top of my mind 1.Addition of new race(s): Elves should definitely be included in the theme and to balance out the goodies and baddies, maybe an extra race of the devils/demons? But six races is a perfect amount. 2.Variety of minifigs/creatures: I believe there are a lot of army building lovers out there and I have seen whole bunch of pictures showcasing the gigantic number of army. I respect that. Nevertheless, I’d rather have a smaller amount of army because for me, more than 20 minifigures will make any castles around USD100 overpopulated. You would probably need more cavalries in a field battle or more war machines in a siege but a stack of hundreds or even thousands is definitely too big in size. So various types of minifigures would be appreciated as it offers more possibilities of tactics in combats and keeps the strength of the army while not increasing the number of minifigures (you would need several knights with archers/cavalries or probably some ballista/catapult to take down a fire-breathing dragon). A lot of efforts have made recently towards that direction like ogre for orcs, dragon for skellies, or even some wagons or machines available. The existence of these adds to the playability of the castle theme. But as a castle fan, there is always something more to ask. Tons of other mythical creatures and combat units can be introduced into the theme, e.g. Ents, giants, orcs mounted on wolves and maybe some more types of dwarf fighters like the ones with rifles in WWIII because they are hell of craftsmen that can make weapons ahead of time etc etc etc.? (I definitely done played too much game.) Especially with the dwarf race, it is by far the weakest one out of the four in terms of number of army available on the market. Gosh, have some mercy and don’t let the green skins slaughter those cute hardworking short guys! 3.Possible combination of different sets: It is always cool to make up our own lego world and thus we need a lot of sets that actually go with each others. As a fan of castles, I would want TLG to release a lot more on castles but that’s probably too much to ask and unfair to fans of other themes. But there is always something else I could buy to go with the imaginary lego world. Like 7019 from Vikings could be a perfect fortress for dwarves or even orcs. And some of the earlier Pirates/Forestman sets could fit in perfectly too. And for 7036, a mountain with a mine cave at the bottom and a fortress on top would go with it and enlarge the scale of dwarf clan. 4.More sets of civilian’s buildings: Castles are supposed to protect civilians and their homelands, but unfortunately, castles don’t have many of those to protect so far. But the new set to be released in 2009 (Medieval town?) with the cows and taverns is a nice try! Keep on going! It is probably the longest writing for me in years and hope reading it doesn't bring fatigue to any of you guys. By the way, I am a lego fan from China and I have a lot of complaints about the teeny little range of available sets here and the freakishly high prices for those. Only god knows how hard it is to get some sets I want here in China! And oh, one more thing for lego, please put a baseplate in every set cuz now I have to spend more on that on top of the double price I paid for a set in China! Cheers