[MOC] Lions' Castle

[SleeplessNight]

Hi All!

I'd like to present my latest digital MOC. I wanted to build a castle that could match the Medieval Blacksmith. As we know, there will be a 3 in 1 Creator castle, but with the piece count probably between 1200 and 1500 it can in no way be compatible with the Ideas set at over 2100.

So this is what I came up with:

It's 55 x 65 cm, 46 cm high to the top of the flag pole and uses over 7500 bricks. However I tried hard to use the cheapest colors, so the bricks should not cost much more than a new Colosseum set :D

I went as far as to put instructions on Rebrickable: https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-68151/SleeplessNight/lions-castle/#details

And here are some more pictures:

 

Even more pictures are available on flickr: 

 

Please let me know what You think!

Edited March 16, 2021 by SleeplessNight

[JintaiZ]

Wow, this is amazing!! 

[valon]

very very very very epic !!!! but 700 dollars, i cannot buy that !!!! maybe the best castle ever though, i think that is cooler then your black knight one

[Poco Lypso]

Nice!

[Pdaitabird]

That's fantastic! The minifigure legs for windows are particularly nice.

[Moexy]

Very cool build! I would love an official set like this one to match the Ideas Blacksmith 

[Lego David]

Awesome work, you should probably submit this to LEGO Ideas!

[Sarophas]

Holy moly! Just watched the interview you did for Beyond the Brick, both your style and approach to these projects is really interesting and very true to the official LEGO style. I really hope that Lord Afol's castle makes the cut, but of course this is something else entirely What I am trying to say, is that I love your work! Keep 'em coming

[SleeplessNight]

Thank You all for your comments and appreciation!

 

Of course as some of You have noiced, this project is a follow-up to my Ideas entry (which has gathered 10k votes and thus will be reviewed by Lego team and possibly considered for production).

The Ideas project (here: https://ideas.lego.com/projects/f588abaa-4dab-4a56-b7bc-a7e38d018711) was about fitting lots of details and as many features as possible in a 3000-brick build. But it was actually impossible to build with real bricks, because I used non-existent brick colors and some bricks that are extremely rare.

So here I focused on feasibility. I wanted to build a castle large enough not to look silly next to the Medieval Blacksmith and still within some reasonable cost limit (I aimed at €600, because this is more or less the top range for the official sets). I wanted it to be a honest castle with a courtyard, a gate, a keep, towers and so on. Frankly, I think it is still a bit too small. Some of the cuts I had to make were a bit painful. For instance, I would really love to include a portcullis, but this would require a much higher gate tower, which would in turn cry for more space between the gate and the corner tower... and the part count is skyrocketing. So there are some compromises. In fact, I have put a lot of effort into cost optimization. While I think the dark (bluish) grey looks really cool and I especially like that corners and details are in lighter color than the walls, the main reason why I chose this color is that on average it is just much cheaper than light (bluish) grey. You can also notice that most bricks with masonry pattern are dark tan instead of dark grey. It looks fine and provides some additional diversion but it also actually saves a few bucks.

I'm really encouraged by the reception and I hope it is just the first of a series of castles. The next one I have in mind will be smaller in size but more fancy in form, with lots of detail. While this one is more of a stronghold, the next one will be more of a fairytale fantasy. But in the meantime I'll make a small excursion into the pirate era 

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by SleeplessNight

[arselus]

Excellent castle - thank you for creating and sharing.