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I always hope they finally do a truly modular line.

$90 - The Keep. Kinda of a 3 sided castle on its own, it has 3 furnished interior levels + a dungeon.

$50 - The Gate. Two towers, some attacking enemies.

$40 - Round tower + wall section. Alternate pieces and instructions for either trebuchet or windmill to put on top.

$30 - Square tower + wall section.

And some more historic/less <insert that tiresome argument> heraldry would be great as well.

coatofarmsbk.jpg

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Another thing I've thought about recently is something I doubt would ever happen: choosing to do castle interiors rather than full castles.

And the question is: Why? (This is more of a rhetorical question for Lego)

Eh...this gets into an entirely larger debate that could be di

Where is your sense of imagination? A lot of the "boring setting" examples that you are providing are due to not approaching it with the outside of the box mentality.

Again, I have to ask, where is your sense of imagination and thinking outside the box?

Didn't read lol.

Yo seem to be repeating yourself to seem right. Lego is not going to do a 180 and change the designs, IMO i think castle interiors are easy to add or moc yourself, yet those kinds of sets wouldnt give us the useful bricks we want..

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A falling chandelier would be easy to do. A small hallway dueling set, with a wall that has an overhanging buttress for the chandelier. Two duelists, a few spectators, and a nicely detailed wall on a base (possibly some floor detail). A nice small set with some action, but no figure defined as good or bad. Wealthy civilian attire for the figs.

Trap doors require some height, so panel pieces would be in order. This could easily be done as a dungeon set, with the king's dias above. Several prison bar window/door pieces making up the majority of the walls. There could be an escape feature. King, three guards, two to three thieves, and possibly a jester. (The Rancor set isn't a good comparison because of the big fig and movie set design made it overly large.)

A theme including these would be something like Renaissance Italy, with a 'Phantom' figure, dueling fencers, merchants, thieves guild, palace guards, lords and ladies, and an astronomer/alchemist/prophet. There is a lot to mine here. There would be plenty of room for siege machines, wall defending, carts and carriages, merchant/craftsmen stalls, castles and towers belonging to different lords, and a thieves' hideout (think Wolfpack).

This is pretty much moot, as the prevailing rumor is that the upcoming theme is fantasy. Forestmen-like sets with elves would be welcome. Tree fortresses and caves, with the possibility of rivers and boats, are something I would buy. I wouldn't mind if Lego simply leaves out a human faction. There are probably enough existing molds for Lego to do several waves of non-humans in conflict with each other.

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Hopefully less catapults. Every 2013 Castle set had catapults. Just too many and a bit of a waste of pieces.

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Lego is not going to do a 180 and change the designs

I've already conceded that even getting just 1 or 2 interior sets would be a nice change of pace without completely revamping the entire line. Most people commenting here seem to think the interior idea is great, but don't think it would ever happen, or don't think it could happen (logistically speaking).

Gedren_y just supplied a couple of ideas in more detail than I gave that are very reasonable sounding sets...it just a matter of Lego getting out of their repetitive frame of mind and doing 1-2 of these types of sets to complement their standard Castle fare.

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Wow! 16 pages. I too have heard rumor of Castle making a return. 2016 is what I heard. I did not get any exact date information, so I am not sure if winter or summer release. I do not have any info of fantasy vs only human factions. I am not going to get all worked up about this. The return only makes sense since 2015 has no new medieval /fantasy sets. Personally, I look at 2105 as a year to spend less on LEGO. I only collect Castle, a few other odd sets with good parts, and CMFs. This year bricklink is going to get most of my LEGO dollars.

I could really care less about what exact sets we get next year. I do not even build the sets any more. I MOC. I sort (not often enough). I do a lot of LEGO shows. I don't have time to build things by the instructions any more. I don't have room to display them. I only want the sets to sell well so I get more medieval LEGO the next year! This should be every AFOLs number one concern. Without sales we do not get anything at all! My one selfish hope would be a civilian set of some kind with both male and female civilians. However, I don't care what buildings they are in at all. Once again I can MOC them.

I mean no offense and know that anyone can want whatever they like in the new line. I can honestly say I am glad a lot of people here are not LEGO designers. Many of you would bankrupt this company in no time at all. I find it strange that so many have set lists that just will not sell or has 15 figs and a castle for $100. I love the Dragon Land MOCs. I would hate to see those as sets. They would not sell. They are too detailed and would cost too much. The characters are too vague. Kids would not want them vs a full castle with a bunch of guys from both sides.

Everyone should go back and read that castle designer interview. Those of us who like more realistic (human vs human) castle have gotten it for a few years now. We have been lucky that LOTR and Hobbit sets gave us a respite from fantasy factions. From now on I would expect a heavy dose of fantasy. Why? Kids like it. Fantasy baddies make the world more magical. Kids do not like ambiguity on who is the bad guy. They like it clear cut as in skeletons and trolls. It is TLGs job to sell product and if I can get what I need at the same time all the better. It does not matter that we got human factions when we were kids. When I was a kid I would have preferred fantasy if it was available! I read the hobbit and LOTR way back then and would have loved the 2007-2009 fantasy line as a kid. Hell I liked it as an adult and it brought me out of my dark age. Even though at this point I prefer human factions, fantasy will still always have one human faction and that is good enough for me. I just hope that faction is well done like the Crownie's or Kingdom's factions.

What I do care about are the things I cannot MOC or change without modifying the LEGO itself... nice heraldry, good minifig prints, new molds, and hopefully sets / battle packs I can army build with are my hopes for the new line. All of these are necessary to make the line sell well and fulfill my needs. My selfish desire would be a nice civilian set with some peasant garb for males and females.

I do not want a rehash of old factions. I have them. Everyone can get them if they really want them. I am sorry for those that have a hard time catching up on old LEGO factions. However, it is even harder for me to get factions that do not exist at all. Please LEGO, give me something new. Hopefully in some new colors and heraldry. A shield with a small castle or keep would be great. Or how about a helmet, lance, ax, bow, or sword. Not every coat of arms has to be an animal. And the bonus is if it is not an animal it can't possibly be a lion or dragon. I would love to see a faction with a bit of dark orange, dark purple, or some other new color combo. And please... no bright colors like the jelly bean knights or the new CMF king. Small amounts of color with silver and grey armors goes a long way. I hope to the LEGO gods that the castle line does not go the way of Chima/Ninjago. I think it would be like a return to KKII.

As for factions. I know elves would sell like hot cakes. Elves and a forestmen faction is kind of redundant in my opinion. I would be afraid that wouldn't sell well. So an alliance of men who are knights and elves would be great vs goblins or whatever baddie shows up. 3-5 factions in the entire line would be likely. I doubt we will be getting 7 or 8 factions in one line like some people are hoping for. As for what factions I want. Anything as long as it is well done and not &lt;insert that tiresome argument&gt;.

I am looking forward to more concrete news about next year.

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Gedren_y just supplied a couple of ideas in more detail than I gave that are very reasonable sounding sets...it just a matter of Lego getting out of their repetitive frame of mind and doing 1-2 of these types of sets to complement their standard Castle fare.

You contradict yourself though. You say that the current castles are too small to fit any sort of detailed interiors, yet you want an interior set that complements the usual Castle line up? How is say a banquet room going to complement a carriage, gate, and castle, especially if it doesn't even fit inside any of those? They are all outside/exterior buildings or vehicles. An interior would be extremely out of place if Lego just plopped down a set like that with their other Castle offerings.

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Wow! 16 pages. I too have heard rumor of Castle making a return. 2016 is what I heard. I did not get any exact date information, so I am not sure if winter or summer release. I do not have any info of fantasy vs only human factions.

Wow! Nice post.

1. I'm leaning on a winter release for the new theme, given the info we have so far and how it pieces together.

2. Who told you about the new line? I'm curious because so far it's only been store managers (the first four times), so it'd be interesting to see if the rumor is from someone higher up.

3. I think 3-5 factions is realistic and likely.

I think that the best option (that would satisfy everyone :wink: ) is this:

Year one:

Good guys: Axe Knights

Bad guys: Goblins

Year two

Good guys: Axe Knights, Elves

Bad guys: Trolls, Goblins

Year three

Good guys: Elves, Dwarves

Bad guys: Black Falcons, Trolls, Evil Druids

Year four (final battle)

Good guys: Elves, Axe Knights, Faeries

Bad guys: Druids, Black Falcons, Goblins

It could use improvement, but it's probably realistic in Lego's eyes. I do agree that we will get a VERY heavy dosage of Fantasy in the new line because I'm sure that the designers have had since 2011 to think up new Fantasy ideas because Lotr was blocking them from making new FE sets.

Bring on FEII.

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A store manager and someone who used to work on set design but not in this theme.

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A store manager and someone who used to work on set design but not in this theme.

Thanks for replying so quickly. Interesting to see how so many of us got this info a year (or more) before the theme is supposed to come out. Maybe it's bigger than we thought?

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Lego could have been holding back in house fantasy designs since before the LOTR license. The image of an unused map design believed to be from Fantasy Era leaked some time ago. The current information is promising. I will just have to be content with importing parts from other themes until we get more solid leads.

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I am looking forward to more concrete news about next year.

I pretty much agree with you, i have 0 Trolls or skellies, and 193 crown knights...

Okay Im gonna break my own rule here. The enemy I want to see, Not that many people mention, Is DARK ELVES. Its the one faction that makes sense next lol.

Okay, back to reality. Like i said there is a manager meeting march 1st so ill se what i can find out after that...

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Elves is a theme and line now. I'd be very surprised if there was ANOTHER Elf theme/line/faction a year from now, even as part of a different theme/line. Hope as I do, I can't really see it happening. My bet is: if it's Fantasy, we'll get Dwarves.

Orcs, Goblins and Trolls is a different thing; they are "just" bad guys after all. They could show up anytime.

Although Dark Elves could "break the mold", I believe it suffers from the same problem a new Elf faction does: there's an Elves theme/line already.

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I think the top priority for a new Castle theme should be to bring us the gothic arch in grey, it's long overdue.

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You contradict yourself though. You say that the current castles are too small to fit any sort of detailed interiors, yet you want an interior set that complements the usual Castle line up? How is say a banquet room going to complement a carriage, gate, and castle, especially if it doesn't even fit inside any of those? They are all outside/exterior buildings or vehicles. An interior would be extremely out of place if Lego just plopped down a set like that with their other Castle offerings.

Because Lego could build a castle that has a degree of modularity to it in the first place (which is not unreasonable to begin with). You could keep all the walls in a particular formation to simulate the enclosed castle, or you could unfold the walls to open up the inside, creating a vastly larger amount of interior space in which you could place the add-on sets.

Some of the interiors may seem more out of place than others, but if you compare that to the limited interior features of existing castles....that's pretty par for the course. Most existing interior features require a healthy amount of abstract interpretation to seem reasonable within their context. Do the add-on interior sets have to complement every aspect of the existing sets? No...but they can expand the playability options of what you can do with the sets as a whole.

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I think the top priority for a new Castle theme should be to bring us the gothic arch in grey, it's long overdue.

This. If we don't get it in the next line, we'll probably have it in fifty shades of purple first. I personally would be thrilled to get the old inverted arches in bley too.

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Elves is a theme and line now. I'd be very surprised if there was ANOTHER Elf theme/line/faction a year from now, even as part of a different theme/line. Hope as I do, I can't really see it happening. My bet is: if it's Fantasy, we'll get Dwarves.

Orcs, Goblins and Trolls is a different thing; they are "just" bad guys after all. They could show up anytime.

Although Dark Elves could "break the mold", I believe it suffers from the same problem a new Elf faction does: there's an Elves theme/line already.

The current Elves line screams "One year theme" to me. Find the keys, plug them into the portal, send the girl back home. I'm sure if the sets sell well, Lego will expand the storyline, but the storyline right now makes it obvious that Lego can just end the theme in the first year and say it was a complete story, which is technically true.

I think that we'll get Elves in the second or third year of FEII, because Lego would play it safe just incase Elves does well. Introducing Elves in Castle in, say 2017, would be alright because if Elves does well, it'll have an established fan base and the two themes by then will likely be very different from each other due to one being action oriented and the other being scenario-oriented.

I can't wait for March 1st! (Well, maybe I can...) :blush:

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Which do you consider the gothic arch? I'm guessing the 1x3x3 arch... If so I am with you wholeheartedly.

Then I have to wait a year to LUGbulk them, and 8 months for delivery. In 2-3 years I could have enough Gothic arches to do some real building!

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Because Lego could build a castle that has a degree of modularity to it in the first place (which is not unreasonable to begin with). You could keep all the walls in a particular formation to simulate the enclosed castle, or you could unfold the walls to open up the inside, creating a vastly larger amount of interior space in which you could place the add-on sets.

I guess I have trouble picturing that based on all of Lego's previous castle offerings. Usually the interior of the Castle is restricted to the very narrow, tight towers, or it's just a few random pieces pushed up against a wall. I would imagine any sort of interior set would be around 10x10 studs, minimum? That's not going to fit in any castle tower and if the castle opens up to form a gray wall, it might look silly with the courtyard/outside then a banquet hall/kitchen/chamber pushed right up against it? Unless you are talking about just PIECES from a set like that.. so instead of an actual banquet room it's just the tables and chairs, which might work better than trying to build half the room out of bricks?

At any rate I really would love to see at least 5 factions in the new Fantasy theme. Humans, dwarves, and elves vs goblins/orcs/trolls (whatever Lego decides to call them), and dark elves. Despite getting tons of elves in the Hobbit line, we never have gotten a faction of yellow elves so it might be nice? Knowing Lego though, we will prolly get humans, dwarves, undead, and trolls again. The undead are almost a given considering they use them for tons of themes as an enemy faction...

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Elves is a theme and line now. I'd be very surprised if there was ANOTHER Elf theme/line/faction a year from now, even as part of a different theme/line. Hope as I do, I can't really see it happening. My bet is: if it's Fantasy, we'll get Dwarves.

Orcs, Goblins and Trolls is a different thing; they are "just" bad guys after all. They could show up anytime.

Although Dark Elves could "break the mold", I believe it suffers from the same problem a new Elf faction does: there's an Elves theme/line already.

I'd love a return of the Fantasy non-winged Dwarf helmet... they work fantastically well with the newer "dwarf" beards like Gimli's, Dwalin's, and Santa/Classic King's, and getting that helmet in Pearl Dark Gray like the winged helmet from the CMF Evil Dwarf would be fantastic (plus more silver & copper helms). And anything else new they might introduce, of course. I'd love an expansion of both the Evil Dwarf and CMF Elf factions, but a new Elf faction would be wonderful--light or dark--if it meant some LOTR Elf hair or even just CMF Elf hair got released in new colors with appropriately-colored ears.

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Helmets... hmmm... as much as heraldry is important to me. I want a new helmet mold that would work as a Viking helmet. Vikings did not have any horns on their helmets.

But I doubt we would get any new helmet molds.

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We might get a new mold or two. However, I doubt it will be a viking helm. Perhaps something that would pass for a viking helm may be released.

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I would really go for a new nasal helm with a more natural, realistic hanging chainmail coif than the current flared helmet or the old bullet helmet has.

But any new helmet is more likely to be a more fantastical creation for some new ogre or elf.

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I don't think it's unrealistic to expect we could get a new helmet mold. Heck, even if we don't it'll feel like it's full of new molds because I bet we can expect new CMF pieces like king's crown, princess hat and wizard hat.

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Id totally go for a new, more Viking-appropriate nasal helm. Maybe if there will be a "barbarian" faction included?

A non-winged dwarf helm in gunmetal gray or pearl dark gray or dark bley, whether from the Fantasy Era or Gimlis helm, is high in my list as well.

As for the interiors debate, in the LotR line we got the Mines and the Wizard duel, which are interior sets, so they might be doable in an in-house line as well.

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