[Poll] What is Your Favorite Castle Faction/Subtheme?

[Yperio_Bricks]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

But then, we do constantly hear how fans of unlicensed themes are more imaginative than fans of licensed themes and don't need to have a back story or be told what should be built, so maybe this is LEGO's response to that!

Exactly!

I am surprised, shocked even, that people instantly are calling for others (BDP, LEGO Company, Rebrickable) to create a underlying story for the new factions!

[GeoBrick]

4 hours ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

Exactly!

I am surprised, shocked even, that people instantly are calling for others (BDP, LEGO Company, Rebrickable) to create a underlying story for the new factions!

I have to assume that those people are still the (quite vocal) minority.

Let the LEGO Group come out with as many generic-looking, era-specific minifig prints as they like. They'll find a place in my world for sure.

[MAB]

10 minutes ago, GeoBrick said:

I have to assume that those people are still the (quite vocal) minority.

Let the LEGO Group come out with as many generic-looking, era-specific minifig prints as they like. They'll find a place in my world for sure.

Indeed, although I do like it when there is some sort of link. For example, my boar knights and scorpion knights (Vladek's lot) are allies, for not other reason than they are red and black. I'd like to see maybe a ram's head done in similar colours. Similarly, the shields of stags (S3 elf) and the trees (Forest Maiden) go together again due to colour.

 

[Black Feather]

I love the Forestmen.  Seems others do too, since the prices and availability for the old sets are insane now.  Love LKC.  But did feel a bit like Charlie Brown  flying through the air after Lucy pulled the football when I watched the designer video heard how close we came to have a giant modern Forestman set.  I am guessing the most likely giant icon set will be Black Knights which I like too.  But I hope they at least add another Forestman to that.  I have too many modern red Forestmen.  The Forestmen are not the Forestmen without some variety.  

[hikouki]

On 5/29/2025 at 9:51 PM, Black Feather said:

I love the Forestmen.  Seems others do too, since the prices and availability for the old sets are insane now.  Love LKC.  But did feel a bit like Charlie Brown  flying through the air after Lucy pulled the football when I watched the designer video heard how close we came to have a giant modern Forestman set.  I am guessing the most likely giant icon set will be Black Knights which I like too.  But I hope they at least add another Forestman to that.  I have too many modern red Forestmen.  The Forestmen are not the Forestmen without some variety.  

I agree! Perhaps adding some variants for a leader (king, queen, etc), and warrior or knight.

[GeoBrick]

1 hour ago, hikouki said:

I agree! Perhaps adding some variants for a leader (king, queen, etc), and warrior or knight.

I never thought of the Forestmen as members of a fief/noble house. Infact quite the opposite, they are to me the epitome of the downtrodden, civilians doing their best eeking out an existence in the harsh world of nobility trying to gain advantage over one another by all means.

[Black Falcon]

15 minutes ago, GeoBrick said:

I never thought of the Forestmen as members of a fief/noble house. Infact quite the opposite, they are to me the epitome of the downtrodden, civilians doing their best eeking out an existence in the harsh world of nobility trying to gain advantage over one another by all means.

I guess most people just think of them as some kind of Robin Hoods band, which shouldn´t be surprising. But anyways, I think he actually meant the Blackknights and not the Forestmen ;). 

On 5/30/2025 at 6:51 AM, Black Feather said:

I love the Forestmen.  Seems others do too, since the prices and availability for the old sets are insane now.  Love LKC.  But did feel a bit like Charlie Brown  flying through the air after Lucy pulled the football when I watched the designer video heard how close we came to have a giant modern Forestman set.  I am guessing the most likely giant icon set will be Black Knights which I like too.  But I hope they at least add another Forestman to that.  I have too many modern red Forestmen.  The Forestmen are not the Forestmen without some variety.  

As much as I would like an blue version of the Forestmen, I don´t think we will get one in a Black Knights Set, since the original included a wolfpack bandit and wolfpack and forestmen in that set seem just highly unlikely to me.

[Black Feather]

2 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

As much as I would like an blue version of the Forestmen, I don´t think we will get one in a Black Knights Set, since the original included a wolfpack bandit and wolfpack and forestmen in that set seem just highly unlikely to me.

If they were to make a Black Knight castle to replace LKC I don’t think they would be that strict on what they included.  Don’t think it would be based solely on any one castle set.  LKC was loosely inspired by past castles but not really an attempt to be a modern equivalent of anything specific.  And they included things from all over the map.  Like all those classic castle printed shields, some completely new shields, a new queen, and even having the Forestmen there.  They were in some sets together but not the big castles unless you count the FM river fortress.  BK and FM factions were available in the same period.  Don’t think they were ever in the same set.  But there was some catalogue art showing a massive invasion of black monarchs castle.  Come to think of it.  If they made a set based on that picture that would be awesome.  I would spend a ton of money if they did that.

[SpacePolice89]

5 hours ago, Black Feather said:

But there was some catalogue art showing a massive invasion of black monarchs castle.  Come to think of it.  If they made a set based on that picture that would be awesome.

As a kid I used to look at this catalog page a lot. It gave me inspiration to build a lot of Castle stuff and it is simply fantastic and very well made. I still like to look at the these kind of fantastic displays in the old catalogs. I don't understand why they stopped making these for the catalogs because people want to recreate these scenes when they see them and that means sales for Lego.

[Black Falcon]

8 hours ago, Black Feather said:

If they were to make a Black Knight castle to replace LKC I don’t think they would be that strict on what they included.  Don’t think it would be based solely on any one castle set.  LKC was loosely inspired by past castles but not really an attempt to be a modern equivalent of anything specific.  And they included things from all over the map.  Like all those classic castle printed shields, some completely new shields, a new queen, and even having the Forestmen there.  They were in some sets together but not the big castles unless you count the FM river fortress.  BK and FM factions were available in the same period.  Don’t think they were ever in the same set.  But there was some catalogue art showing a massive invasion of black monarchs castle.  Come to think of it.  If they made a set based on that picture that would be awesome.  I would spend a ton of money if they did that.

My point was less that they would keep to strict on the original, just more that both those factions would be unlikely to happen in the same set. And yes, if it would be one of them I would give the wolfpack the higher chances - with them beeing in the original set, beeing the main, but not the only reason. Forestmen were around for quite a few years now in the GWP and then in the LKC, while the Wolfpack was only around for less than two years - and if you want to get a shield, you had to hunt for the CMF. 

[Artanis I]

5 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

As a kid I used to look at this catalog page a lot.

You're not the only one!

 

2 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

My point was less that they would keep to strict on the original, just more that both those factions would be unlikely to happen in the same set.

Once upon a time this was the case. But the set it would replace on shelves had 3 factions in it (never been done before?), so it's possible!

[Black Feather]

22 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

My point was less that they would keep to strict on the original, just more that both those factions would be unlikely to happen in the same set. And yes, if it would be one of them I would give the wolfpack the higher chances - with them beeing in the original set, beeing the main, but not the only reason. Forestmen were around for quite a few years now in the GWP and then in the LKC, while the Wolfpack was only around for less than two years - and if you want to get a shield, you had to hunt for the CMF. 

I don’t know.  Wolfpack was later, but they are pretty much done and complete as they made the torso and the shield.  So they could reuse them like they did with the falcons in LKC.  But there’s nothing really new or interesting about adding them other than making the shield more available.  But they barely scratched the forestmen.  There are three additional torsos, another color hat, three feathers.  That would be something new and interesting to add.  Though they could do both and have Wolfpack as a previously used torso to fill up minifigures without costing an additional print and still have a new FM as one of the new additions.  

On 5/31/2025 at 10:39 PM, SpacePolice89 said:

As a kid I used to look at this catalog page a lot. It gave me inspiration to build a lot of Castle stuff and it is simply fantastic and very well made. I still like to look at the these kind of fantastic displays in the old catalogs. I don't understand why they stopped making these for the catalogs because people want to recreate these scenes when they see them and that means sales for Lego.

Hope they let me recreate a modern version of this scene someday.

[Yoggington]

On 5/31/2025 at 7:17 PM, hikouki said:

I agree! Perhaps adding some variants for a leader (king, queen, etc), and warrior or knight.

This would be my hope for any faction. A few variant Black Falcon torsos, a few for Wolfpack a few for... xyz. 

[Doddsino]

Easily Black Knights...always been my favorite castle.

But this is how I'd rank the factions I grew up with;

1. Black Knights - 6086 is my favorite castle ever

2. Royal Knights - 6090 is like 6086 on steroids, there are a ton of great sets in this line.

3. Fright Knights - while the smaller castle is one of the worst sets ever made, the tower is an all time great.

4. Dark Forest - I owned every set here, loved these guys!

5. Black Falcons - good, but everything that came out after it was mostly a step up.

6. Dragon Masters - big sets use way too many big pieces, loved this series as a kid but grew to think most sets didn't look good as I got older.

7. Wolfpack - should have had more sets to really balance it.

8. Crusaders - some underrated sets in here, but as a whole I don't like plain gray castles.

9. Forestmen - I don't hate these guys, but none of the sets were really sleek, and felt Dark Forest was a better representation.

 

[TeriXeri]

As far as an overal theme in a single wave, I think Royal Knights had one the best lineups of sets in 1 year, easily accessible figures/horses via ,  king+horse in a tiny set, king + 2 horse + 3 generic soldier carriage "battle pack.

And for buildings, Skeleton surpise small tower,  and the drawbridge set easily adding parts to the already large castle on a 48 wide baseplate.

In Europe Royal Knights would probably be fighting 1993 factions, officially they got Dark Forest to fight in 1996 but only in North America.

Can't really say for later sets as things like 2000 style of castle did not interest me in the slightest at the time, and I did not follow product released for like 15 years afterward.

 

That said, I don't think Royal Knights will happen anytime soon, Lion Knights had their big castle, Black Knights likely to show up next, and with a new factions like Horse and Serpent Knights, and Krakens/Gryphons are probably still more likely too, I think the Batlord is probably more popular too.

(not saying Royal Knights are bad, just that their trope of a "lion king" has been repeated numerous times afterwards, so it's not really special anymore)

 

Edited June 10 by TeriXeri

[DonQuixote]

Black Falcons, Lion Knights , Forestmen and the new Griffins and Vipers/Snakes.

In my lore, the Griffins are former Black Falcons and Lion Knights who joined together and formed a new house because they were tired of all the wars between Black Falcons and Lion Knights . They are calling themselves as the Lords of Griffindor aka Griffin Lords. The Griffin is half lion, half falcon.

The Vipers/Snakes are former Black Knights who refused to work with Majisto who had taken over the Black Knights and transformed them in Dragon Masters. The Black Vipers are lead by Edmund Blackadder who swore to destroy Majisto and his Dragons/ Dragon Masters. 

Edited June 21 by DonQuixote

[Triceron]

On 5/31/2025 at 9:39 PM, SpacePolice89 said:

As a kid I used to look at this catalog page a lot. It gave me inspiration to build a lot of Castle stuff and it is simply fantastic and very well made. I still like to look at the these kind of fantastic displays in the old catalogs. I don't understand why they stopped making these for the catalogs because people want to recreate these scenes when they see them and that means sales for Lego.

This particular pamphlet was one of my favourites that I lost days of time looking over.

I wish Lego would bring back this tradition.

[MAB]

4 hours ago, Triceron said:

This particular pamphlet was one of my favourites that I lost days of time looking over.

I wish Lego would bring back this tradition.

The tradition is alive and well. I spend ages looking at LEGO sets that I won't buy as they are too expensive and take up too much room. 

[Triceron]

On 6/21/2025 at 11:00 PM, MAB said:

The tradition is alive and well. I spend ages looking at LEGO sets that I won't buy as they are too expensive and take up too much room. 

I meant the tradition of making large scale diorama scenes of their themes/sets for promotional material.  They don't really do that any more.

[Artanis I]

I feel that those images made the 'world' more immersive. More fuel for the imagination. Even Town (as it was called back then) looked interesting in those old catalogues.

[MAB]

21 hours ago, Triceron said:

I meant the tradition of making large scale diorama scenes of their themes/sets for promotional material.  They don't really do that any more.

I guess some of that is down to "honest" advertising now, in that catalogues show what you can buy as individual sets rather than a huge diorama that could cost 1000s in whatever currency. I think also shelf life of sets has changed. Whereas they used to be available for multiple years, so chances are they would still be available to purchase when used in a big montage, whereas now I imagine they'd get complaints if they showed a retired set in an advertisement piece. A bit like the Modulars, where they typically show it in a line with the past two as they will be available at the time of release, but don't go further back. And of course, there is no Castle theme to do it with anyway.

Plus with the rise of the internet since then, there are plenty of people building huge dioramas and showing them off, probably better than LEGO's own ones. LEGO relies quite a bit on partially independent fan-produced content, as we also see with all the freebie-based review sets they send out.

[SpacePolice89]

I think it would be pretty easy to build a diorama for marketing purposes with available sets even if they would only use it for a year. It's pretty boring to show all sets separately when they could show them together instead. Even the old catalogs had small boxes with the sets listed separately so I don't see the dioramas as being misleading in any way. Other companies do it all the time, car companies often show all available models together and sports gear is often shown on a player even if all individual pieces of equipment are sold separately. 

[Triceron]

I'd figure a popular line like Ninjago would still be able to carry the tradition.  Even with quicker turnover, much can be done to display a full wave diorama style.  That being ssid, it would probably be costly in man hours for something that is 'cheaper' digitally today.

[Mr. Elijah Timms]

This is like asking a DJ to name his favorite song or a requesting a librarian to choose her favorite book.

I favor some more than others, obviously… but truly, I love them all.