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Posted

I for one liked the fact that the vikings were against big bad creatures. But the monotony of the beasts they were fighting (A wolf, then dragon upon dragon upon dragon. Oh yeah, another dragon-ish creature in the water) was just plain bad.

  Quote
I think that the Vikings was a really good theme. But they could have made more Historically Acurate sets.

Why? You want to see kids playing with vikings going...

"YEAH!!!! BURN!!! PILLAGE!!! TAKE THE WOMEN AWAY!!! LET's DRINK WINE TIL WE PASS OUT!!!"

Now that wouldn't be child friendly.

I know these were not all they did, but they were notorious for these acts.

Posted
  Raven Brickroft said:
I for one liked the fact that the vikings were against big bad creatures. But the monotony of the beasts they were fighting (A wolf, then dragon upon dragon upon dragon. Oh yeah, another dragon-ish creature in the water) was just plain bad.

Why? You want to see kids playing with vikings going...

"YEAH!!!! BURN!!! PILLAGE!!! TAKE THE WOMEN AWAY!!! LET's DRINK WINE TIL WE PASS OUT!!!"

Now that wouldn't be child friendly.

I know these were not all they did, but they were notorious for these acts.

I didn't mean THAT acurate. More like Vikings vs. Knights. And there was a wine keg in The artillery wagon set

Posted

Do you mean things to revive it? Or things that would have been better the first time around?

I agree that a more "man vs man" motif would have been a huge improvement. And seeing as kids need clearly defined groups, perhaps two factions - "Good" Vikings vs "bad" Vikings? The baddies having more reds and blacks in their outfits, different and angrier faces, maybe red horns?

The new cow horns from the Mediaeval Village set look excellent on the Viking helmet (historical accuracy notwithstanding!), so that would be an improvement!

What about more varieties of helmet? A more pointed one with a chainmail neck protector? One with an eye mask? Or if we're going nuts here, even the (inaccurate) fanciful winged Wagnerian/Marvel Comics variety?

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/p...den-Posters.jpg

http://www.yourprops.com/norm-45149d15037e...del+(2005).jpeg

http://www.comicboards.com/avengers/attach...er%20copiel.jpg

Perhaps including the mythology of the Norse gods would be good? Could include dwarves, trolls and frost giants; sets of Asgard, Valhallah, etc?

Posted

Do we have any real evidence that the line was 'killed' because it failed?

My impression was always that it simply ran its course. One year with a major release of sets and a follow-on minor release. And they weren't even going to bring it to the US originally because we wouldn't be interested at all.

But anyway, I loved the vikings. I liked the brick built monsters. The whole theme was a little over reliant on the spring shooters but to me that was better than just having one piece shooters everywhere. As with all the themes I would've liked some non martial sets but again, I understand what they are doing in the market. And compared to Knights Kingdom II which was the Castle theme at the time, the solid designs of the Vikings sets really shone.

Lastly, it was something different. Like Ninjas before it, it added new pieces and minifigures to a Castle landscape that usually gives you the same castle, drawbridge, and cart sets with the same swordsman, axeman, and bowman.

I do wish they would've had beards like the prototypes. But now I have them from the dwarves. Its all good.

-Tohst

Posted

I would have liked to see the old Gods (Odin, Thor, and a dramatic Death of Baldur set with Loki as the bad guy...) but I know it ain't gonna happen of course.

Posted

I loved the Vikings - it remains the only theme of which I own every set (not that I wouldn't like to own every set of pretty much every other theme :wink: )

One of the highpoints was the return to (relatively speaking) large numbers of minifigs per set

cheers,

timbutnice

Posted

I didn't like the monsters. Beyond that, they were good. I'd have liked to see them continue with more variation among the figures.

Steve

Posted

Historically accurate vikings could include only three things:

-fishing

-farming/village

-war/slaughter

The only one that fits the current trend of battle is the last one and I think it fits quite nicely. The theme overall was excellent and if I could change anything it would have been to include the spiffy beards from the prototype pictures and to work more of the mythology into the series instead fo just battling monster sets.

Posted

Interesting question, as I have heard about a upcooming Vikings series, I was really lucky...

...but when I saw the pictures of these sets my opinion changed.

I think because of these points:

-No really human foes

-To many dragons

-Not normal houses, like this one-> CLICK

-To many sole ships, without e.g. dangerous rocks and cliffs

So it's really bummer, to see how a good theme could be missdesigned!

Greetings 'Bricks'

Posted
  SuvieD said:
Historically accurate vikings could include only three things:

-fishing

-farming/village

-war/slaughter

The only one that fits the current trend of battle is the last one and I think it fits quite nicely.

Eeh, I don't really agree with you there.

A really important part of the vikings were the trade and exploration and IMHO that would fit very good in the theme. Unfortunately TLG focus too much on conflicts and battles, some say that it is what the market wants but I doubt that the difference would be that big.

I think the best thing with the theme was the minifigs (despite the awful helmets) and the large amount of wooden structures. I didn't like the big catapults and machines. The beasts was ok but it was too many dragons. Giants, trolls and Norse mythology gods would have been much better.

Posted
  Etzel said:
Eeh, I don't really agree with you there.

A really important part of the vikings were the trade and exploration and IMHO that would fit very good in the theme. Unfortunately TLG focus too much on conflicts and battles, some say that it is what the market wants but I doubt that the difference would be that big.

I think the best thing with the theme was the minifigs (despite the awful helmets) and the large amount of wooden structures. I didn't like the big catapults and machines. The beasts was ok but it was too many dragons. Giants, trolls and Norse mythology gods would have been much better.

Ya, Maybe a Boewulf Vs. Grendel set.

And more shield designs to.

Posted

I do agree, the Vikings were amazing, but I don't know why TLC stopped making Viking sets. It would of been cool if TLC had released a special set involving the Knights battling the Vikings.

Posted
  Tohst said:
I do wish they would've had beards like the prototypes. But now I have them from the dwarves. Its all good.

Ooh, I've never seen the prototype beards! Are they exactly the same as the dwarven ones?

I loved the Viking line. It's pretty much what brought me out of my dark age. In fact, twenty years ago my brothers and I came up with the two lines that we'd most like to see Lego produce - Feudal Japan and Viking age Scandinavia. :wink:

More shield designs would be fairly easy - no new parts, just another sticker sheet. They could even recycle the same designs in different colour combinations if they wanted.

I've switched all my Vikings over to the traditional Lego swords, as I think they're immeasurably better than the KK ones. That being said, Lego could have included normal swords in pearl silver, and pearl silver daggers too to fill the role of a seax.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seax

The knorr is a great idea, and I'd like to see a long house or a mead hall. Perhaps some kind of island/rocky outcrop to dock the ships at?

Posted
  ED-209 said:
Ooh, I've never seen the prototype beards! Are they exactly the same as the dwarven ones?

I loved the Viking line. It's pretty much what brought me out of my dark age. In fact, twenty years ago my brothers and I came up with the two lines that we'd most like to see Lego produce - Feudal Japan and Viking age Scandinavia. :wink:

More shield designs would be fairly easy - no new parts, just another sticker sheet. They could even recycle the same designs in different colour combinations if they wanted.

I've switched all my Vikings over to the traditional Lego swords, as I think they're immeasurably better than the KK ones. That being said, Lego could have included normal swords in pearl silver, and pearl silver daggers too to fill the role of a seax.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seax

The knorr is a great idea, and I'd like to see a long house or a mead hall. Perhaps some kind of island/rocky outcrop to dock the ships at?

those are some nice ideas. i like the rock outpost/dock idea

Posted
  Etzel said:
Eeh, I don't really agree with you there.

A really important part of the vikings were the trade and exploration and IMHO that would fit very good in the theme. Unfortunately TLG focus too much on conflicts and battles, some say that it is what the market wants but I doubt that the difference would be that big.

I think the best thing with the theme was the minifigs (despite the awful helmets) and the large amount of wooden structures. I didn't like the big catapults and machines. The beasts was ok but it was too many dragons. Giants, trolls and Norse mythology gods would have been much better.

I agree with that, TLC had some great viking sets but too much monsters and unusual big war machines in it. But the reason for that is to make the sets more playable.

Posted

I loved the Vikings, and I think too that it never was schemed to last that long.

The MFs´re lovely, the man-against-beast plot was not bad at all, but it was a little overused I guess.

Some more variety would´ve been wise, there´re too much shooting vehicles and the beasts could´ve looked better in a more

bruickbuilt design instead all these Bionicle parts, they got quite boring after some time, it seems TLC tried a bit to save money in the

wrong place with that set conception.

However, the longship´s a real beauty and the Fortress´s nice and serves as a useful parts pack as well.

Overall a pretty charming line.

Posted

Yes, the large beasts and giant missile launcher things are obviously there for younger builders (which is perfectly understandable of course).

This thread has got me all worked up into a Viking kinda mood! So I went out to pillage and burn a village, then came home and designed a couple of new decals. Two torsos and two shields. And thanks to isaacbrockthebuilder for pointing out that we can never have too many shield designs! :classic:

http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=25343

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