What would make Castle 2007 better than Classic Castle

[BearHeart]

This question is somewhat related to this poll: Castle 2007 Poll

Over 80% of the responses said that the new Castle line is not as good as CC. So, what do you think LEGO could do to make the new Castle theme better or at least in your mind, on par with CC? (Im suggesting future releases, not altering the upcoming sets)

[gylman]

Get rid of any wall piece bigger than this:

Get rid of all catapults

Get rid of all stickers except maybe shields/torsos.

No BURPS, LURPS or TURDS

Get rid of any piece that has ever been or might ever be, in a Bionicle set.

(no offense to Bionicle, which I like just fine... but not in my castles)

Recognize that shiny bluish gray is not an appealing colour for a castle wall.

For a start, anyway.

Then we can talk about design details.

[PSPguy]

A grill helmet. *wub* *wub*

[BearHeart]

A grill helmet. *wub* *wub*

They have those.

[Shakar]

Return of minifig packs (even tough this isn't going to happen) , Black Falcons and Black Knights (either the return of them or -good looking- redesgins). Then more females, more horse bardings, an hammer, return of spaniard breastplate and....can't think of more right now. I'll eventually add more to this post.

Get rid of any piece that has ever been or might ever be, in a Bionicle set.

(no offense to Bionicle, which I like just fine... but not in my castles)

Same here. While I love Bionicle and I'm fine with Viking like dragons, I think that there shouldn't be Bionicle pieces in castles.

Shakar

[highlandcattle]

Get rid of any wall piece bigger than this:

Get rid of all catapults

Get rid of all stickers except maybe shields/torsos.

No BURPS, LURPS or TURDS

Get rid of any piece that has ever been or might ever be, in a Bionicle set.

(no offense to Bionicle, which I like just fine... but not in my castles)

Recognize that shiny bluish gray is not an appealing colour for a castle wall.

For a start, anyway.

Then we can talk about design details.

The small balista-like catapult set looks aces to me.

I think that the new chateaux looks aces aswell. It is the best castle since 1988, and that says a lot. I spit on those ninetees castles like the Montain refuge!

[Norro]

Well, castles in grey (not bley) would be essential for my purchasing, but leaving that aside I would have to say emulating CC in actually capturing the spirit of a castle, not cartoon, play-scape, fantasy, etc... all the other things that urk me would follow this correction...

God Bless,

Nathan

[blueandwhite]

Honestly, this year's castle suffers from many of the same flaws that made many of the more recent sets so lackluster. Once again, in an attempt to make a set look bigger than it really is, LEGO's designers have again given us a set that features cheesy towers made out of columns and arches, rather than a smaller, more coherent design. To make the castle as tall as possible, arched facades are piled on top of each other giving us a flimsy-looking back portion that looks as if it was thrown together by a young child. Yet again, the front drawbridge features a sliding gate without a proper gatehouse (for a real gatehouse see 6080, 6085, 6086 or even 6090). In otherwords, this castle lacks the substance that made the 80s and early 90s sets so great.

Ogel's castle fairs even worse, looking like something from Alpha team, rather than a castle (even a magical one). The skull drawbridge gimmick will undoubtedly appeal to a younger crowd, but it certainly doesn't appeal to me. This is another big knock on this line for some fans. While fans of zombies and monsters are surely thrilled with a skeleton faction, for many of us these guys are purely throw-away. Unfortunately, to collect the good guys, we are forced to collect the bad guys as well. This was something that didn't happen with classic castle. Most sets featured predominantly one faction.

The biggest difference of course was that the 80's castles were modular. This was great because designers weren't forced to make the castles too big. If you wanted to increase the size of your castle, you needed to collect a variety of smaller sets that literally "plugged into" the castle. By making everything modular, the designs could be kept relatively coherent. The big empty towers we've come to expect today simply didn't exist. Its something as an AFOL that I will always miss.

In short, this new line has some nice minifigs, but its no classic-castle.

[SWMAN]

Even though I never had any CC sets, I think that nothing could be better than CC from what I have seen. They jsut have that air of playability and simplicity that sets don't have anymore.

[highlandcattle]

The only thing they should really get rid of are those horrible dragons! I would love to own both castle but the fact that I will also by paying for those dragons makes me think twice before buying them. I think the best thing for lego to do right know is release an AFOL oriented set on shop at home once a year , like the BNSF or the black smith shop.

[Lord Admiral Helden Ravensdorn]

Purely throw away? Allright, hows this:

I will take any and all Skeleton figures any of you guys dont want, and will PAY YOUR SHIPPING! :-D

^^^ me being serious ^^^

[Starwars4J]

Purely throw away? Allright, hows this:

I will take any and all Skeleton figures any of you guys dont want, and will PAY YOUR SHIPPING! :-D

^^^ me being serious ^^^

I will gladly give you any and all of those zombies (not skeletons, I could never part from my skeleton babies *wub* )...for a price X-D

As for what I dislike about this line?

-Bley. Yes, it's a fact of life now, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

-New skeleton-zombie things. Ick. Eew. I want normal skulls. I want the old versions. I WANT MY FLOPPY ARMS *sing*

-The new horses. If they're gonna give us a new horse mold, why not make it so that the legs can move? It's 2007 people. I would've preferred brick-built skeleton horses anyway...since I've been planning on making my own.

-The dragon. Don't get me started. It's just...it's megabloks.

-Details. While they try to go out of their way to make things LOOK grandiose, they are forgetting to add ANY realism (such as the aforementioned gatehouse...

-Plain torsos. I hope this changes.

Other than that I have no real complaints. Not even with the evil castle. Who knows, it may be a great parts pack for...something? I don't know, but I do know that this was at least a step, a huge step, in the right direction.

[blueandwhite]

Purely throw away? Allright, hows this:

I will take any and all Skeleton figures any of you guys dont want, and will PAY YOUR SHIPPING! :-D

^^^ me being serious ^^^

No freebies :-P !

Well, right now I'm probably going to do alot of my collecting for this line via bricklink. Furthermore, figs that I don't want are still better off being sold. I'm not rich, so charity isn't in the cards when it comes to minifigs. I won't have any undead skeleton army in my house, but I know that I probably can fetch a good trade at Classic-Castle when these guys it the shelves.

[Capn Frank]

Honestly, this year's castle suffers from many of the same flaws that made many of the more recent sets so lackluster. Once again, in an attempt to make a set look bigger than it really is, LEGO's designers have again given us a set that features cheesy towers made out of columns and arches, rather than a smaller, more coherent design. To make the castle as tall as possible, arched facades are piled on top of each other giving us a flimsy-looking back portion that looks as if it was thrown together by a young child. Yet again, the front drawbridge features a sliding gate without a proper gatehouse (for a real gatehouse see 6080, 6085, 6086 or even 6090). In otherwords, this castle lacks the substance that made the 80s and early 90s sets so great.

Ogel's castle fairs even worse, looking like something from Alpha team, rather than a castle (even a magical one). The skull drawbridge gimmick will undoubtedly appeal to a younger crowd, but it certainly doesn't appeal to me. This is another big knock on this line for some fans. While fans of zombies and monsters are surely thrilled with a skeleton faction, for many of us these guys are purely throw-away. Unfortunately, to collect the good guys, we are forced to collect the bad guys as well. This was something that didn't happen with classic castle. Most sets featured predominantly one faction.

The biggest difference of course was that the 80's castles were modular. This was great because designers weren't forced to make the castles too big. If you wanted to increase the size of your castle, you needed to collect a variety of smaller sets that literally "plugged into" the castle. By making everything modular, the designs could be kept relatively coherent. The big empty towers we've come to expect today simply didn't exist. Its something as an AFOL that I will always miss.

In short, this new line has some nice minifigs, but its no classic-castle.

I agree with all that blueandwhite said, so i'll just say dito. :-)

[Minifig Lecturer]

Get rid of any wall piece bigger than this:

Get rid of all catapults

Get rid of all stickers except maybe shields/torsos.

No BURPS, LURPS or TURDS

Get rid of any piece that has ever been or might ever be, in a Bionicle set.

(no offense to Bionicle, which I like just fine... but not in my castles)

Recognize that shiny bluish gray is not an appealing colour for a castle wall.

For a start, anyway.

Then we can talk about design details.

These are what I think so too. Not sure if you mentioned above , but I think there should be no baseplates that aren't flat. Ramps should be made using boards, raised castles should be made on foundation of bricks and boards.

Recently the crests used by the armies look very childish. The old Castle Lion/ Draco (Black falcon) crests were simply more realistic IMO.

The sets of new Castles should be bigger and have more basic bricks, not all this fancy crap that makes them look bigger than they really are.

Also, it would be good if the sets were connectable, i.e. you could connect the castle walls and sets together to make bigger castles, like the sets of the 1980s. Similarly if you could open them out...