Future Castle Sets?

[gedren_y]

I never actually saw Visionaries, but I think I've seen some artwork from the show, and agree that LEGO borrowed heavily from it. That doesn't mean that Nexo Knights wasn't portrayed as the Castle realm set far into the future.

[BrickJagger]

If Lego is really going to be fickle enough not to make a Castle theme during "The Wizarding World"'s run, the least they can do is make another Viking theme or a Roman-type theme. Nothing too crazy, just five or so sets with a couple of creatures and stuff.

[Digger of Bricks]

6 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Suffice it to say that the world's medieval past is a big part of its backstory, and a big part of its premise is "what if the world of LEGO Castle developed futuristic technology but still held onto a lot of the hallmarks of its traditional society like castles, knights, wizards, and the monarchy?"

It's sort of similar to what the world of Wakanda in Black Panther represents for African culture, although that does something Nexo Knights doesn't in pinpointing a specific resource (Vibranium) that allows Wakanda to both make greater technological advances than any real-world country and resist subjugation by colonial powers. Nexo Knights, by comparison, doesn't dwell much on WHY Knighton developed the way it did — it's just treated as how this fantastical version of history happened to shake out. So not nearly as deep in that respect.

By the way, I haven't at all watched any of it, but how are the citizens and culture of Knighton portrayed in the theme's companion TV show? Do they resemble typical medieval peasants, only with modern/advanced technology? The only hint I've seen myself is on the sets' backdrop box art, where medieval, straw roofed tutor houses are outlined in Tron-like digital livery. 

3 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Sand Red and Sand Purple have been discontinued for years, and while they could make a surprise reappearance like teal did, I wouldn't count on it. 

I've said this before elsewhere, but between those two colors, Sand Purple is the one I'd like to see make a reappearance more so than Sand Red.

3 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Another color I'd love to see more of in the next Castle theme is Copper Metallic! 

Indeed, but I don't know why we haven't seen more usage of it beyond its introductory sets. 

[Aanchir]

21 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

By the way, I haven't at all watched any of it, but how are the citizens and culture of Knighton portrayed in the theme's companion TV show? Do they resemble typical medieval peasants, only with modern/advanced technology? The only hint I've seen myself is on the sets' backdrop box art, where medieval, straw roofed tutor houses are outlined in Tron-like digital livery. 

I've said this before elsewhere, but between those two colors, Sand Purple is the one I'd like to see make a reappearance more so than Sand Red.

Indeed, but I don't know why we haven't seen more usage of it beyond its introductory sets. 

I've only seen through the first episode of Season 2, but it's pretty varied. A lot of the peasant/commoner characters like Axl's family do act accordingly, but there's also some characters who represent more modern-day tropes like Jurgen von Stroheim, the stereotypical auteur film director who first appears in the episode "The Golden Castle". And you still have, like, farms with livestock on them (hence Lance's animal friend, Hamletta, who he bonds with towards the end of Season 1 when monsters trap him in a pigsty).

29 minutes ago, Digger of Bricks said:

By the way, I haven't at all watched any of it, but how are the citizens and culture of Knighton portrayed in the theme's companion TV show? Do they resemble typical medieval peasants, only with modern/advanced technology? The only hint I've seen myself is on the sets' backdrop box art, where medieval, straw roofed tutor houses are outlined in Tron-like digital livery. 

I've said this before elsewhere, but between those two colors, Sand Purple is the one I'd like to see make a reappearance more so than Sand Red.

Indeed, but I don't know why we haven't seen more usage of it beyond its introductory sets. 

I think the Ninjago sets from the Hands of Time wave (first half 2018) may have been developed later than many other sets that year due to the release LEGO Ninjago Movie being pushed back a year from its original September 2016 date. I don't have a source on that, though, it's just a hunch. And I realize that doesn't explain why we haven't seen Copper Metallic in this year's sets.

Sand Purple was nice, though I'm not sure if LEGO would reintroduce it now, given that they currently have not one but two lavender colors. If they were wanting to introduce another purple color I'd expect it to be something more like classic Bright Violet (Purple) that falls more in between Medium Lavender and Medium Lilac (Dark Purple).

[gedren_y]

A number of Scottish castles would be well represented if recreated in Sand Red. I'd love to create an Ideas project that might garner interest using the color, but I wouldn't be able render it with my home equipment. Bluerender won't properly process Legacy Colors, and I've never gotten POVRay to work.

Sand Purple might be able to represent marble, but wouldn't really be good for a faction color. The old color Light Yellow is actually a better color to represent limestone than Tan (Sand Yellow).

[zoth33]

I would love if they used some of the villains in concept art for Nexo Knights like the skeleton warriors or the demonic looking ones.  I think those would be great to have.  I would love a griffon faction too.  But I do agree with some of you that we need castle is different colors other than gray when a new castle theme comes back.  I must say the new armor piece for the tech vampires in Nexo Knights is very useful.  Hopefully some of our dreams come true.  

[BrickJagger]

51 minutes ago, zoth33 said:

I would love if they used some of the villains in concept art for Nexo Knights like the skeleton warriors or the demonic looking ones.  I think those would be great to have.  I would love a griffon faction too.  But I do agree with some of you that we need castle is different colors other than gray when a new castle theme comes back.  I must say the new armor piece for the tech vampires in Nexo Knights is very useful.  Hopefully some of our dreams come true.  

I think that Goblins would be a good choice for the next theme's villains. The Trolls seemed to have done pretty well, there was a Goblin in S13, and there was an entire faction of Orc/Goblin creatures in the prelim art for NK. If they made a Goblin faction in the same vein as the S13 figure I would be happy.

[Faefrost]

13 hours ago, MAB said:

It could be their future based on our current view / technology. Last time we saw castle, there were still kings and knights, so it may not need to revert back to the feudal system if that never went away.

 

Clearly they just replaced the Serf's with robots. Which could explain why the little Nexo Knight Slave robots always looked to be depressed and in hell. 

2 hours ago, BrickJagger said:

I think that Goblins would be a good choice for the next theme's villains. The Trolls seemed to have done pretty well, there was a Goblin in S13, and there was an entire faction of Orc/Goblin creatures in the prelim art for NK. If they made a Goblin faction in the same vein as the S13 figure I would be happy.

They just used Goblins as the season villain for Elves over in Minidoll land. We tend to forget, because it's colorful minidolls. But Elves is a Fantasy/Castle theme. That seems to be doing quite well on store shelves. 

[Digger of Bricks]

13 hours ago, Aanchir said:

And I realize that doesn't explain why we haven't seen Copper Metallic in this year's sets.

Well, whenever I can, I insert that color into any detail or part when filling out a minifigure suggestion fillout form on this topic; because if you need an antiquey metallic color, why opt for Pearl Gold when you could suggest Copper instead? Being posted on The Embassy subforum and all, I don't know if TLG is still paying attention to that topic (if they ever were at all); but hey, you never know. 

13 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Sand Purple was nice, though I'm not sure if LEGO would reintroduce it now, given that they currently have not one but two lavender colors. If they were wanting to introduce another purple color I'd expect it to be something more like classic Bright Violet (Purple) that falls more in between Medium Lavender and Medium Lilac (Dark Purple).

This has been stated before elsewhere, but given how little variety there is for Red within Lego's color palette spectrum, a reintroduction of Sand Red is probably much more likely than Sand Purple if anything.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

Let me tell you a thing that I haven't read anywhere here.

I may sound foolish, but to me the greatest antagonist to a serious castle theme is Ninjago.

Ninjago has to me occupied the spot in boys' imaginations that can leave room for a serious castle/fantasy theme.

I was looking the pictures of the baddies for Summer sets and I found them interesting enough, then I was struck down with the fact that, apart from a hyatus related to the first NK wave, the red guys, I always thought as Ninjago baddies as my purchases for the year.
I mean:

To me these are Nagas / Yuan-Ti:

These are wraiths:

These are Yuan-Ti cultists

I made Efreeti out of these (removing the bandana, extra torso and hook)

Not to mention the orcs that I made with this piece:


So, actually, my thoughts are that these are stealing the spot for a Fantasy Era-like theme, that would save my day.

My 2p.

[Aanchir]

The main reason I'd disagree with that is that we've seen with Nexo Knights that LEGO isn't afraid to have a second theme with various fantasy monsters as its baddies at the same time as Ninjago. And seeing as the only specific type of "bad guys" Ninjago has had in common with past Castle themes are skeletons and ghosts, I think LEGO could easily continue to come up with Castle baddies that wouldn't conflict with what they've already done in Ninjago. I think the centrality of dragons to Ninjago sets might be a bigger/more consistent way Ninjago sticks its toe into Castle's territory… and yet, even during Ninjago's run we've continued to see LEGO release dragons in various other themes, including Castle, Nexo Knights, Creator, Elves, The Hobbit, Minecraft, and even Hero Factory.

Now, are there kids out there who get everything they'd ever want out of a Castle theme from Ninjago? Almost certainly! Because people who like Castle are bound to like it for loads of different reasons. For some kids, maybe cool dragons, monsters, and swordfights are really the biggest and most important parts of the Castle theme to them, and in that case Ninjago's got those things in spades. But there are probably other kids who are especially into wizards and knights on horseback and architecture of medieval Europe, and Ninjago doesn't have any of those things.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Aanchir

[Itaria No Shintaku]

2 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

Now, are there kids out there who get everything they'd ever want out of a Castle theme from Ninjago? Almost certainly! Because people who like Castle are bound to like it for loads of different reasons. For some kids, maybe cool dragons, monsters, and swordfights are really the biggest and most important parts of the Castle theme to them, and in that case Ninjago's got those things in spades. But there are probably other kids who are especially into wizards and knights on horseback and architecture of medieval Europe, and Ninjago doesn't have any of those things.

I live in Europe so I'm not entitled to know, but what do US boys think abous "architecture of medieval Europe"?
I mean, do they find it appealing?

[Aanchir]

9 minutes ago, Itaria No Shintaku said:

I live in Europe so I'm not entitled to know, but what do US boys think abous "architecture of medieval Europe"?
I mean, do they find it appealing?

I mean, I'm sure some do. When I was a kid I greatly enjoyed the book "Castle" by David Macaulay, which was about how castles were built. And while I doubt many kids would name those specific words if you asked them their interests, that's not to say they wouldn't have a passion for building things like drawbridges or towers with crenelated battlements, which are the sort of thing I had in mind when I typed that. Medieval castles and their architecture are iconic even over here where we don't have any authentic examples for kids to marvel at.

Edited February 27, 2018 by Aanchir

[Itaria No Shintaku]

9 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

I mean, I'm sure some do. When I was a kid I greatly enjoyed the book "Castle" by David Macaulay, which was about how castles were built. And while I doubt many kids would name those specific words if you asked them their interests, that's not to say they wouldn't have a passion for building things like drawbridges or towers with crenelated battlements, which are the sort of thing I had in mind when I typed that. Medieval castles and their architecture are iconic even over here where we don't have any authentic examples for kids to marvel at.

This is very interesting. Likewise Pirates appeal here in Italy though there weren't really pirates in the mediterranean!

[BrickJagger]

3 minutes ago, Itaria No Shintaku said:

This is very interesting. Likewise Pirates appeal here in Italy though there weren't really pirates in the mediterranean!

I actually think that’s part of the appeal. Kids here in the US are interested in Castle-themed products mostly because of the imagination they inspire. We don’t have any real Castles over here, so kids generally haven’t seen too many in person. It’s more fun for some kids to play with things that they don’t see in their everyday lives.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

Still I see a lot of kids playing with fantasy/rpg-themed videogames. I really think that TLG could benefit selling FEW castle sets, but every year.

[xxix5]

As much as I would love to see Castle to return, I don't think it would happen. At least for about another 5-15 years. If they do return, my fear is stud shooters will be apleanty, and it will take away from what would be a great theme.

[x105Black]

18 hours ago, Faefrost said:

They just used Goblins as the season villain for Elves over in Minidoll land. We tend to forget, because it's colorful minidolls. But Elves is a Fantasy/Castle theme. That seems to be doing quite well on store shelves. 

Minidolls; doesn't count.  At least that's how the bulk of the male-oriented population see it.  And that doesn't mean all men prefer minifigures and all girls prefer minidolls.  My girlfriend and niece are females who really appreciate the minifigure, while many guys here will tell you how they love minidolls.  And of course some like both, but that's a smaller segment.  The majority of people who like one dislike the other.

2 hours ago, Aanchir said:

I think the centrality of dragons to Ninjago sets might be a bigger/more consistent way Ninjago sticks its toe into Castle's territory… and yet, even during Ninjago's run we've continued to see LEGO release dragons in various other themes, including Castle, Nexo Knights, Creator, Elves, The Hobbit, Minecraft, and even Hero Factory.

Those are all brick-built dragons (with the exception of Smaug), whereas Castle always has that amazing Dragon mold they continue to use.  Also, Smaug is amazing mold, and the Hungarian Horntail from Harry Potter wasn't bad, either.  Castle can differentiate itself from those other themes by giving us awesome dragons using molded pieces.  Maybe they could even use some dinosaur molds to add to the fantasy.

2 hours ago, Itaria No Shintaku said:

I live in Europe so I'm not entitled to know, but what do US boys think abous "architecture of medieval Europe"?
I mean, do they find it appealing?

Many many boys in the US love medieval European architecture.  Yes, it is appealing.  Castles and fortresses are among the first things many boys will build with bricks, and girls, too.  And while children learn about fables and fairy tales early here, the freedom to create and express ones self with a generic theme tied to nothing carries on the true philosophy of LEGO as a creative tool that can help to unleash a child's (or adult's) imagination.

[Faefrost]

3 hours ago, Itaria No Shintaku said:

I live in Europe so I'm not entitled to know, but what do US boys think abous "architecture of medieval Europe"?
I mean, do they find it appealing?

We get a lot of exposure to Castles in a non historically accurate and more romanticized for. Which Lego fits fairly well. The best example I can think of is think of the European knowledge of view of the American Old West. Such as the now classic Spaghetti Westerns. Americans views of and liking of all things Castle and Medievel is kind of like that. 

And believe it or not Americais not without Castles of sorts. There are some authentic, such as The Cloisters, on the northernmost tip of Manhattan, shipped over brick by brick. Some are recreations, ranging from moderately accurate to Disney. And perhaps most often forgotten, America actually has some of the last of the true Castle style fortifications to be really built, back in the 18th Century. The Revolutionary Era Stone Fortresses. West Point, Ticonderoga, etc. No Palaces, but we have the walls and battlements. 

[gedren_y]

The fortress at St. Augustine, FL is a regular tourist, and school field trip, destination. The picture I use on my Facebook page was taken at the top of the fort.

Edited February 28, 2018 by gedren_y

[zoth33]

There are plenty of americans that like LOTR, GOT, the vikings show on the history channel and now the show Knightfall.  Both my sons like fantasy adventure.  My youngest loves all the hobbit movies.  Whenever my kids friends come over they all want to play with my lego collections especially the knights, dragons, trolls, etc.  There are alot of those build your own civilization app games for your phone.  So I think there is a market for it.  Lego just needs to find something that will appeal to the masses and roll with it.  Although I'm sure some people here will find faults with it then complain when there is no castle theme.  So hopefully Lego can find a castle theme that most people will enjoy and flesh it out like kingdoms.  

[Itaria No Shintaku]

6 hours ago, zoth33 said:

  So hopefully Lego can find a castle theme that most people will enjoy and flesh it out like kingdoms.  

Something has to replace Nexo Knights next year.
I don't know if it will be a Castle Theme, but a new theme has to come.

[MAB]

11 hours ago, Itaria No Shintaku said:

This is very interesting. Likewise Pirates appeal here in Italy though there weren't really pirates in the mediterranean!

Yes there were. The coastline of North Africa (the Barbary Coast) had many pirates operating along it - arab pirates robbing / slaving from European ships. Just search for Barbary Pirates and you will see. Of course, these are different to the classic pirates of literature, but then so were the pirates operating in the Carribean.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

Just now, MAB said:

Yes there were. The coastline of North Africa (the Barbary Coast) had many pirates operating along it - arab pirates robbing / slaving from European ships. Just search for Barbary Pirates and you will see. Of course, these are different to the classic pirates of literature, but then so were the pirates operating in the Carribean.

Yes I know I mean those pirates with the jolly roger, hooks and peg leg and and burying treasures and you know :D

[xxix5]

So, I brought this up before in a YouTube livestream, but if they do make more Castle sets, I fear it would be filled with stud shooters acting as stone throwers. Now, I could cope with the crossbow being a stud shooter, as long as they recolor it brown or gray or something so it doesn't stick out as much, but other than that they would look just look out of place in a Castle theme. They could bring back the Lion and Dragon knights from most previous Castle themes, but could also have 4 or 5 main characters, like Knights Kingdom and Knights Kingdom II. I owned I think 2 Kingdoms sets 7948 "Outpost Attack" and 7949 "Prison Carriage Rescue." Both from June 2010, I got the 7949 for Easter. Great sets. Would I like to see Castle return? Of course. Will it come back soon? I don't think so. I think in about 10 years it could, but right now, it's highly doubtful.