Latest CMF series impact on Historic themes

[Vorkosigan]

That headpiece looks good but the ears seem a bit large.

[x105Black]

It looks wonderful. I already wanted the Satyr just based on the idea, but this makes me want him more, and want more of him.

I just hope the legs look good.

[Blakstone]

The rest of Series 15 is revealed.... http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=113150&st=1025#entry2397654

We get an updated Bear heraldry on the latest shield.

[thetang22]

I'd say it's a pretty good series overall, and a decent amount of stuff that could be used for Castle/Fantasy.

[soccerkid6]

The new knight fig looks superb Great torso and legs, excellent armor piece, plus a new weapon and shield

[Ql97]

That queen just blows all previous ones out of the water. You thought the NK queen looked plain before? It doesn't stand a chance now.

[Dr.Cogg]

And yet with all theses new pieces, we won't see a true castle theme for quite some time.

[BrickJagger]

And yet with all theses new pieces, we won't see a true castle theme for quite some time.

Maybe not. I wouldn't put it past Lego to put out a simple-one waver during NK's run, similar to Castle 2013 and Lotr.

The Satyr is very useful for fantasy settings, and he'll look good locked up in the S13 Goblin's fortress.

Digging the Scary Knight. Wish they gave him a new helmet, but without the shield he fits right in with the Kingdoms Dragon Knights.

The Queen and S13 King will look nice together and I like how they have matching color schemes. However, with no one to rule they have no power in my Lego Kingdom......

[Blakstone]

The scary knight has his bear device printed on his torso in addition to his shield. For NK fans, it should work well with their armor.

For the rest of us, we get a classic Castle minifigure. Talk about excellent synergy.

[Artanis I]

Not sure about the red + green, but I'll take it

[x105Black]

And yet with all theses new pieces, we won't see a true castle theme for quite some time.

That's the saddest thing about this. We see the potential, but no sets.

The scary knight has his bear device printed on his torso in addition to his shield.

That's too bad, I would have much preferred him without the bear on the torso.

But for Castle, I love the Satyr, Scary Knight, Queen, and Winged Warrior. The Kendoka and Tribal Girl will fit in for me as well.

Happy to see that Egyptian shield in use again, this time pointing down. A good omen for the future of Castle.

The Farmer's pig will definitely be useful as well.

[General Magma]

Might this new knight be the most historically accurate LEGO robed knight figure yet? I do think so! I've got my eyes on getting a bunch of those for a new faction, as well as a few Satyrs.

[SirBlake]

Some great offerings in this series. Love the look of the knight and his mace and the use of the new shield mold. The queen is just perfect, I don't know what else I can say there except the dress piece is magnificent. The satyr is so cool, and I can't believe TLG created new legs. They look fantastic. The winged warrior is also pretty cool, even though that is A LOT of pearl gold. Overall, great series and I'm happy that historic themes are getting attention.

[Blakstone]

The sigal is not on the Bear Knight's torso. After seeing the hi-def image, it looks like chain mail.

[Umbra-Manis]

So hyped for the bear knight!

[Robert8]

Promobricks had the official description now

His is name will be either Dark Knight or Sinister Knight

I hope his mace will be 1 piece

Edited December 4, 2015 by Robert8

[x105Black]

The sigal is not on the Bear Knight's torso. After seeing the hi-def image, it looks like chain mail.

That's refreshingly good news! He also seems to have dual molded legs, which is a nice plus!

If only I liked his shield. I love the mold, but not the print.

I hope the mace is 2 pieces. More versatility that way.

[Rogue Angel]

This series is quite good for castle builders. IMO The best things we can get from the CMFs in order are:

1. A new race

2. A new faction (shield - a new shield means you can create an entirely new faction if you want with all the torso variety available)

3. A new helmet, head piece or armor piece (adds to the variety of the standard 7 helmets, 3 armor piece and limited hats/hoods that are available)

4. A new torso/legs (while this is nice and the scary knight has a fantastic torso and legs, this is where we have the most variety already today. Specialized commoner torsos would jump up to #3 if we got them)

5. New pieces (animals, pots, equipment)

This series comes with all 5:

1: Satyr

2: Bear shield (this differs enough from the KK2 octagonal shield that I consider it a separate faction. The unmatching small triangular gold/silver KK2 shields are some of the only shields I don't use with my factions because they look too similar and stupid IMO)

3. Winged Warrior Helmet, Mace

4. Scary Knight, Queen

5. Skunk, pig, long spear (these are so hard to come by!)

So some very nice Castle additions with this series.

BTW, I would rather get a solid CMF series for castle then a new Castle line, unless it were going to be Fantasy or LotR caliber. Another kiddie castle line is pretty low value for me, and I typically only pick up the figs.

[Darth Caedus]

2: Bear shield (this differs enough from the KK2 octagonal shield that I consider it a separate faction. The unmatching small triangular gold/silver KK2 shields are some of the only shields I don't use with my factions because they look too similar and stupid IMO)

Agreed. This sigil works as something distinct from the KK2 Bear sigil. This CMF Knight's sigil has a much more sinister look, factions that come to mind could be "Deathbear" "Darkbear" "Blackbear" "Greybear" "Doombear" "Werebear" ...lots of possibilities. Very distinct from the stoic grizzly of the KK2 sigil.

This is an excellent series for Castle fans - a significant salve for the open wound that Nexo Knights is for so very many (though personally after examining the HD pics I intend to pick up about 1/2 of the Nexo first wave).

-Winged Warrior Helm: excellent new helmet for more fantastical medieval characters

-Winged Warrior Spear: ornate spear with many applications for Castle, longspears are in short supply and any color is always acceptable, especially novel colors

-Winged Warrior Torso/Legs: these could segue right into existing Spartan/Roman collections, or be used for gods/heroes of mythology.

-Animal Control Officer's Skunk: a couple skunks can help populate a forest scene, worth grabbing at least one

-Lazer Robot's Sword: taken apart from the figure, this isn't a bad magical blade or magical blast for a wizard or mage character - love the dark blue color.

-Farmer Hat/Pitchfork: you can never have too many of these for peasant populations

-Farmer's Pig: at last, praise be the gods - a pig for dirt cheap. The livestock pens of all Castle dioramas will at last be full.

-Astronaut's Head: As far as I can tell this is a new bearded/stubble print that would fit excellently on most medieval characters

-Sinister Knight: entire minifigure is a godsend. Morningstar is an entirely unexpected a wondrous new mold. The rest of the figure is a great new aesthetic that feels more realistic than many existing figures. Castle fans will buy these buy the dozen and rightly so.

-Satyr: also spectacular like the Sinister Knight, but for different reasons, mainly being the opportunity to create hoofed factions (I'm picturing combining these legs with the Nexo Knight lava warriors to create Devil/Demon fantasy troops).

-Queen: A second fully medieval figure in the wave is a nice surprise, new dress mold is gravy.

-Ultimate Warrior: The mullet works for Braveheart, as others have mentioned.

-Tribal Mother: The papoose baby will fit right into any medieval peasant family.

-Kendo Warrior: Not a bad torso. It's one of the less interesting Oriental figures to appear in the CMF line but the wooden swords and cool coloring make it worth grabbing a couple.

-Clumsy Guy: Sadly the band-aid kills the headprint for medieval usage, but the bandage hat-piece is great and would fit in quite well to any ragtag, battleworn medieval legion.

As a Middle-earth fanatic, I personally see the Sinister Knight as a great potential addition to the forces of ROHAN. His torso with the chainmail and dark green coloring would make a perfect Rohirric infantryman. Just swap in some green/brown/grey arms to lighten it a little bit, and any bearded fleshie head and you've got a Man of the Riddermark.

[SirBlake]

That's an interesting thought. Minifigs are the most distinguishing feature of any theme. A full 16 fig castle series would be incredible. The question there would be, would you want 16 entirely different options, or a few factions that are well represented? For example. A knight, soldier and archer for two human factions and three different goblins or whatever in another with civilians and royals rounding it out?

I would spend a stoopid amount of money on something like that.

[Rogue Angel]

That's an interesting thought. Minifigs are the most distinguishing feature of any theme. A full 16 fig castle series would be incredible. The question there would be, would you want 16 entirely different options, or a few factions that are well represented? For example. A knight, soldier and archer for two human factions and three different goblins or whatever in another with civilians and royals rounding it out?

I would spend a stoopid amount of money on something like that.

While an all-Castle CMF series would be incredible, I was saying that any decent CMF series (castlewise - So every series but 1 and 8 have been pretty good) is better than some of the castle themes we have seen.

For example, the last castle theme essentially boiled down to a new dragon faction with subpar heraldry, 1 new torso (with another barely different version), 2 shields and a printed armor, and a rehashed lion-crown faction, which does not further my castle collection because I have to replace either the crownie faction or one of the lion factions to use it. This came with 2 new torsos, 2 new shields and a printed armor.

Printed armor doesn't do much for me, and new torsos are not that exciting to me unless they are signicantly different than what we already have. So this castle line gave no new races, one new OK faction, no new weapons, armor or hats, 5 new boring torsos (if you include wizard and princess) and a rehashed dragon. If it weren't for the army builder set, I would have skipped this line altogether. (If the dragon would have been a new mold instead of a recolor, the line would have shot up in my estimation.)

[Robert8]

Have you noticed how the Castle minifigures were uncommon in the early waves of the CMF's?

But, from Series 12 onward, there are at least 3 Castle minifigures per series

[x105Black]

I would rather get a solid CMF series for castle then a new Castle line, unless it were going to be Fantasy or LotR caliber. Another kiddie castle line is pretty low value for me, and I typically only pick up the figs.

That's an interesting thought. Minifigs are the most distinguishing feature of any theme. A full 16 fig castle series would be incredible. The question there would be, would you want 16 entirely different options, or a few factions that are well represented? For example. A knight, soldier and archer for two human factions and three different goblins or whatever in another with civilians and royals rounding it out?

I would spend a stoopid amount of money on something like that.

I would probably prefer a dedicated Castle CMF series to an actual Castle sets theme, mainly because the best thing a theme can offer is minifigures. Of course, there are many other reasons to have sets, but medieval structures and vehicles can be built by anyone who has a decent supply of bricks. Minifigures are harder to come by. And the CMF series minifigures tend to be more impressive than those in a theme.

Furthermore, if they did 16 for Castle it would be amazing, as it would provide a lot more variety than we would likely get from sets in a theme. I'd hope for reimaginings of some older factions we haven't seen yet. We already have newer versions of the Forestmen, Lions, Dragons, and Falcons, but more would be welcome. New Wolfpack would be the stand-out to me as what we are missing. Also, new versions of the Classic Classic Castle factions could be interesting to see. But overall, I think a few factions that are well represented would be the best way to go.

I would also spend, and 'stoopid' is a pretty good word for how much I would spend.

[Robert8]

As much as I like Castle minifigures, I wouldn't like a Castle wave

I like better regular mixed series with 2 or 3 Castle characters

[Blakstone]

I agree with Robert on that. Besides, CMF is a great place for LEGO to service themes that do not have enough audience to carry waves. Give me three years of CMF where we get multiple Castle themed minifigs instead of one wave dedicated to Castle which would like mean no more Castle in future CMFs.