Is the medieval theme as popular as it used to be?

[DonQuixote]

7 hours ago, HawkLord said:

 

That said, while Castle doesn't appear to be as big, there are some great themes that contribute to Castle, like Ninjago.

I am a castle fan and I find Ninjago discusting. I do like the original ninja /samurai theme from the late nineties (I think) without the tech, robots and stuff. 

57 minutes ago, GeoBrick said:

I feel we can't really complain about a lack of medieval/castle set opportunities in the last 5 years. Since the Medieval Blacksmith was released there's always been something out the for castle fans, and a reasonable variation in the heraldry and fief represenration. We started with a resurgence of the Black Falcons, followed by a return of the Lion Knights and Forestmen. Then came for the afficiado's a variation with the Silver Falcons and a Dragon Knight torso, not to mention several medieval CMF's. For those favouring medieval civilian life came a Medieval Town available, followed by no less then 4 (four!) brand new fiefs with unique heraldry which will potentially.keep us occupied for the next couple years collecting.

Yes, I am happy with that. But now I need/want horse bardings for those new factions. Ok, the Krakens don't need one but the horse faction defenitely needs horse bardings

[SpacePolice89]

5 hours ago, DonQuixote said:

I am a castle fan and I find Ninjago discusting. I do like the original ninja /samurai theme from the late nineties (I think) without the tech, robots and stuff. 

I feel the same way. Ninjago tries to be too much at the same time for my liking. I am happy for those that like Ninjago but for me it is the complete opposite of what makes a theme good.

[karrit]

Glad I'm not the only one who doesn't like Ninjago. I didn’t even like the samurai sets.  That's what made me stop buying castle sets back when those came out. And Nexo Knights was too out there for me.

[MAB]

6 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I feel the same way. Ninjago tries to be too much at the same time for my liking. I am happy for those that like Ninjago but for me it is the complete opposite of what makes a theme good.

I think that is the point of Ninjago. It contains pretty much everything that a non-realistic theme would have covered in the past, whereas anything realistic would go into City now. That way, everything goes together even if produced years apart.

[Lord_Tyrannus]

I don't like the Ninjago sets either. But recently I've noticed that some minifigures from that line have interesting parts for those who like to customize Dungeons and Dragons characters. So I bought some random minifigs for this purpose.

[SpacePolice89]

2 hours ago, MAB said:

I think that is the point of Ninjago. It contains pretty much everything that a non-realistic theme would have covered in the past, whereas anything realistic would go into City now. That way, everything goes together even if produced years apart.

Yes, but the end product is not to my liking. It's like merging Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings into one single movie. It's too messy and too over the top. Castle and Pirates were mostly based on real things and that is something Ninjago is missing.

[Renny The Spaceman]

I wonder if most Castle sets retiring this year is because they weren't as long term sustainable as LEGO hoped or because they wanna do new castle stuff with new factions

[MAB]

4 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

Yes, but the end product is not to my liking. 

As LEGO keep doing it, presumably it is to the liking of the target audience.

3 hours ago, Renny The Spaceman said:

I wonder if most Castle sets retiring this year is because they weren't as long term sustainable as LEGO hoped or because they wanna do new castle stuff with new factions

I imagine they analyse sales data as a function of time and know what the decay is like for sets bought by adults vs for kids. If there is anything I want, I tend to buy in the first year and like most adults wouldn't need to save up. If they stop selling a set then release another, I am more likely to buy something in what would have been the second (or whatever) year. 

[Wardancer]

I wonder if the decline of castle themes has deeper cultural reasons. With Lego becoming more and more global, maybe, eurocentric themes lose power. Typical castles are after all, mostly located in only in a part of the world.

Another reason might be a general Shift in kids upbringing. As a German kid, it was normal for me to visit real castles, then to go home and try to build the same castle with bricks. Do kids still do that? Castles are made for war and conflict, maybe modern parents shy away from that. Also some decry that modern kids stay indoors too much (Jonathan Haidts famous Book Generation Anxiety for example). This again might lead to less visits in real castles and therefore less interest in them in General.

[SpacePolice89]

2 hours ago, Wardancer said:

I wonder if the decline of castle themes has deeper cultural reasons. With Lego becoming more and more global, maybe, eurocentric themes lose power. Typical castles are after all, mostly located in only in a part of the world.

Another reason might be a general Shift in kids upbringing. As a German kid, it was normal for me to visit real castles, then to go home and try to build the same castle with bricks. Do kids still do that? Castles are made for war and conflict, maybe modern parents shy away from that. Also some decry that modern kids stay indoors too much (Jonathan Haidts famous Book Generation Anxiety for example). This again might lead to less visits in real castles and therefore less interest in them in General.

That sounds very plausible. Today Lego sometimes feels more like a American company that than a European one. Too focused on American movies and tv series. I wish Peter Eio never got so much influence over the company in the late 90s. Him and Poul Plougmann were a disastrous combination.  

[DonQuixote]

12 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

That sounds very plausible. Today Lego sometimes feels more like a American company that than a European one. Too focused on American movies and tv series. 

That's because the US is their main market now. Especially with Starwars. 

[Triceron]

On 10/31/2025 at 8:27 AM, Renny The Spaceman said:

I wonder if most Castle sets retiring this year is because they weren't as long term sustainable as LEGO hoped or because they wanna do new castle stuff with new factions

More a planned lifespan to generate demand.  The difference today is they know AFOLs will buy large quantities out of a fear of missing out

[Renny The Spaceman]

5 hours ago, Triceron said:

More a planned lifespan to generate demand.  The difference today is they know AFOLs will buy large quantities out of a fear of missing out

Yeah, true. I think we expected Medieval town square to last longer though as all the other recent castle sets have

[Black Falcon]

On 11/1/2025 at 1:41 PM, SpacePolice89 said:

That sounds very plausible. Today Lego sometimes feels more like a American company that than a European one. Too focused on American movies and tv series. I wish Peter Eio never got so much influence over the company in the late 90s. Him and Poul Plougmann were a disastrous combination.  

Might be, because most movies come from the US but are often famous and known around the whole world. 

19 hours ago, Triceron said:

More a planned lifespan to generate demand.  The difference today is they know AFOLs will buy large quantities out of a fear of missing out

That planned livespan was reduced at least for the Medieval Town Square though - and the Lion Knights Castle had quite a long run.

[MAB]

8 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

Might be, because most movies come from the US but are often famous and known around the whole world. 

That planned livespan was reduced at least for the Medieval Town Square though - and the Lion Knights Castle had quite a long run.

Different types of sets have had different shelf times for a longbtime now, especially when there are no longer individual themes. It makes sense that a large and expensive flagship set gets a long time on shelves whereas a cheaper one does not, especially if the big one comes first. LKC can stand alone on shelves and doesn't really need other castle sets to help sell it. While MTS looks like it is missing something if it is the only castle set available. I think this is an issue now that individual themes are no longer a thing, and sets are not released and retired together. 

[TeriXeri]

2026 will be a key year to see how dedicated LEGO is to classic (= Non Licensed) themes tbh. 

Like everything "classic" Pirates, Vikings, Space, and Castle will be retired except for 1 set.

I really hope that it's not all relegated to licenses, GWP and BDP sets. Also remember how BDP is also indirectly influenced by what figures/prints are available.

I mean, I think City Space was a cool concept, but even those have some questionable quick retirement dates with the 2025 spaceship being a 1 year ordeal (but no differerent to Blacktron Renegade)

 

But I really hope the 3-in-1 Castle (2025 version), gets a nice long lifespan, and a second followup set with the Serpents.

And perhaps more future content with the Krakens/Gryphons and not just via BDP.
 

Also themes like Monkie Kid and likely Dreamzzz might be gone (especially in 2027) , so a proper theme of sorts could still appear for 2026/2027.

Edited November 16, 2025 by TeriXeri

[Black Falcon]

6 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

I mean, I think City Space was a cool concept, but even those have some questionable quick retirement dates with the 2025 spaceship being a 1 year ordeal (but no differerent to Blacktron Renegade)

Which isn´t a that unusual lifespan though and beeing a single set of the second wave (if we are not counting the Paperbag) it isn´t really surprising. Eitherway I am glad we got it, because a bigger ship was really what was missing in the first wave.

6 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

But I really hope the 3-in-1 Castle (2025 version), gets a nice long lifespan, and a second followup set with the Serpents.

And perhaps more future content with the Krakens/Gryphons and not just via BDP.

The creator Castle is said to retire 2028, which of course doesn´t mean it can´t retire sooner (or even later) since those dates seem to move more lately anyways.

I actually doubt we will see more official Sets with either Krakens or Gryphons though.

6 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

Also themes like Monkie Kid and likely Dreamzzz might be gone (especially in 2027) , so a proper theme of sorts could still appear for 2026/2027.

Well hopefully it does.

[SpacePolice89]

On 11/16/2025 at 8:03 PM, TeriXeri said:

2026 will be a key year to see how dedicated LEGO is to classic (= Non Licensed) themes tbh. 

Like everything "classic" Pirates, Vikings, Space, and Castle will be retired except for 1 set.

I really hope that it's not all relegated to licenses, GWP and BDP sets. Also remember how BDP is also indirectly influenced by what figures/prints are available.

I mean, I think City Space was a cool concept, but even those have some questionable quick retirement dates with the 2025 spaceship being a 1 year ordeal (but no differerent to Blacktron Renegade)

 

But I really hope the 3-in-1 Castle (2025 version), gets a nice long lifespan, and a second followup set with the Serpents.

And perhaps more future content with the Krakens/Gryphons and not just via BDP.
 

Also themes like Monkie Kid and likely Dreamzzz might be gone (especially in 2027) , so a proper theme of sorts could still appear for 2026/2027.

I share the same hopes and fears but I think it is plausible that we'll get a new large Castle Icons set in 2026, maybe a modern version of the Black Knight's Castle.

[MAB]

On 11/16/2025 at 6:03 PM, TeriXeri said:

2026 will be a key year to see how dedicated LEGO is to classic (= Non Licensed) themes tbh. 

I think LEGO are still very dedicated to non-licensed themes, but not necessarily the classic ones that people used to play with 30+ years ago. And for the people that did play back then, they know nostalgia sells well and so I reckon we will continue to see single expensive sets every so often but not full themes composed of small, medium and large sets.

Classic may equal non-licensed, but non-licensed doesn't equal classic (at least, not yet, but give it time and no doubt we will see the terms Classic Ninjago and Classic Friends.)

Edited November 17, 2025 by MAB