[Mod] Horse Knight Castle Glow-up

[AmperZand]

When images emerged of set 31168 Medieval Horse Knight Castle, I had mixed feelings. I love a cool LEGO castle as much as anyone but this wasn't it. It had potential but I felt the designer was being too ambitious with his budget. It's as if it was built to the wrong scale, had too few fun features and not enough minifigures. I set about modding the set, not with a view to completely redesigning it as you see on Rebrickable, but to enhance it as if the designer had more freedom.

If the images look familiar that's because I've posted them elsewhere online. Hope that's not a breach of EB rules. 

   

[SpacePolice89]

Nice! I like your changes. It makes the set look much better and like a real castle.

[AmperZand]

@SpacePolice89, Thank you for saying so. I feel sorry for the set’s designer. He would have known that he was creating an implausible/unusable castle but was no doubt compelled by management to act against his judgement. I feel that there’s been a lot of corner cutting/shrinkflation at LEGO during the last couple of years. It’s such a shame.

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

This version is definitely better than the official set... disproportionate and simplistic (I know it's a Creator set...but the horses are terrible).

This one, on the other hand, is a real castle!

[AmperZand]

@LEGO Train 12 Volts, Thanks for your kind words.
 

One of the aspects of the hobby that I particularly enjoy is modding, so I don’t mind having to do so to make sets into what they should have been. But for anyone new to AFOLdom who may not have a spare pieces inventory or be familiar with sourcing additional parts, LEGO’s corner cutting could be a real turnoff. It may be good for LEGO’s financials in the short term but it’s not a sustainable strategy for the hobby or the company.