Future Castle Sets?

[Grover]

14 minutes ago, Faefrost said:

Sure they will. Just as the kids from way back still fondly talk about their Mego action figures and playsets. All the Super Heroes, Star Trek etc. or the group after them raves about those original Kenner Star Wars toys. G1 Transformers anyone? While I don’t think the Lego Movie or Lego Batman Movie will be some future nostalgic nerds Holy Grail, the Ninjago stuff certainly will. 

Lol.  I'm not sure what any of that is. :-)  I'm certainly not saying I'm normal, though!

[Faefrost]

16 minutes ago, Grover said:

Lol.  I'm not sure what any of that is. :-)  I'm certainly not saying I'm normal, though!

My theory is look at some of the toylines most prone to be banned from grade schools. The ones driving the teachers mad. The real toys, not the fidget spinner type stuff. But the stuff the kids bring to school to share with their friends. That’s the stuff that sticks and holds that nostalgia draw. 

[x105Black]

6 hours ago, gedren_y said:

... Castle lines like those in the 80s and 90s would do poorly on shelves alongside other Lego sets. The biggest evidence of this is Castle 2013.

If you just take those sets as they were and release them now, yeah, probably.  But thematically there's no issue.  Again, Castle LEGO itself fosters interest in medieval fantasy.  The Castle LEGO fans of today are the Skyrim and Game of Thrones fans of tomorrow.

2 hours ago, Grover said:

I think you could take any theme and make it do poorly with unimaginative sets.

Exactly the issue with 2013.

[Aanchir]

2 hours ago, Grover said:

Sure, it will take some effort to make things enticing, but that's the same issue they have with the City line now.  I think that Castle 2013 was a bunch of rehashes of old sets which is why it didn't do well.  How many King's Castles have been released over the years?  Meh.

The thing is, from a sales perspective, "making things enticing" ISN'T an issue they're having with City. City thrives on rehashes. Police stations weren't always a yearly fixture in City, they became one because they tend to be some of the best-selling sets. If Castle is to be any bigger than it was in 2013, it needs to be able to appeal to kids who weren't old enough to be playing with Castle sets when the 2010 and 2013 Castle waves came out, and who consequently aren't likely to care much if LEGO had a similar set six or more years ago. Also, generally, when LEGO keeps revisiting certain ideas over and over again, it's usually because they continue to test better with kids than other, less conventional ideas.

29 minutes ago, Faefrost said:

My theory is look at some of the toylines most prone to be banned from grade schools. The ones driving the teachers mad. The real toys, not the fidget spinner type stuff. But the stuff the kids bring to school to share with their friends. That’s the stuff that sticks and holds that nostalgia draw. 

Amusingly, this was actually brought up in reference to Ninjago's development (particularly the spinners) on pages 276–277 of Brick by Brick:

"'The best way to rank a theme is to see if kids keep talking about it,' said Nonneman*. 'If they keep coming up with stories about how they'd play in the world you're showing them, you know you're onto something big.'"

…"The ninja theme elicited waves of stories from kids, but not enough to convince the team that the concept, by itself, would propel the line to its sales target of 10 percent of the company's revenue. To clear that bar, the team would have to come up with an element that would give it 'schoolyard currency,' as Schou** put it. 'We needed something that was competitive and cool. Something the kids would talk about at school.' In fact, the Ninjago concept team's goal — left unstated to upper management — was for the toy to be so popular it would be banned from schools."

…"'When we tested the spinners with kids, they almost blew the roof off the place,' Legernes*** continued. 'They were so excited they started screaming. The moderator told us we were sitting on a treasure. She'd never seen such a strong response to a test.'"

*marketing director Henrik Nonneman
**senior vice president Poul Schou
***creative director Erik Legernes

[Grover]

Just now, Aanchir said:

The thing is, from a sales perspective, "making things enticing" ISN'T an issue they're having with City. City thrives on rehashes. Police stations weren't always a yearly fixture in City, they became one because they tend to be some of the best-selling sets. If Castle is to be any bigger than it was in 2013, it needs to be able to appeal to kids who weren't old enough to be playing with Castle sets when the 2010 and 2013 Castle waves came out, and who consequently aren't likely to care much if LEGO had a similar set six or more years ago. Also, generally, when LEGO keeps revisiting certain ideas over and over again, it's usually because they continue to test better with kids than other, less conventional ideas.

Yes, City has been churning out the same thing for 30 years from one perspective.  However, these sets are not the same designs over and over.  Sure, it's a lot of police stations over the years, but the design changes.  I think that castles are awesome, but they don't vary the design.  Take a look at these:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=6080-1&name=King's Castle&category=[Castle][Lion Knights]#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=7946-1&name=King's Castle&category=[Castle][Kingdoms]#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=70404-1&name=King's Castle&category=[Castle]#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

There's no variation beyond the superficial there.  Look at some of the actual castles out there:

http://www.carneycastle.com/index.htm

All the different regions have completely different styles.  It doesn't even take that much imagination to make variations like that.  Certainly didn't to make these variations that kept police stations from going totally stale:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=381-2&name=Police Headquarters&category=[Town][Classic Town][Police]#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=6384-1&name=Police Station&category=[Town][Classic Town][Police]#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=6636-1&name=Police Headquarters&category=[Town][Town Jr.][Police]#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=7744-1&name=Police Headquarters&category=[Town][City][Police]#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?S=60174-1&name=Mountain Police Headquarters&category=[Town][City][Police]#T=S&O={"iconly":0}

So, does City thrive on rehashes... but not really.  The Castle rehashes are just that.  The old castle line did well because there were things like the black falcon's fortress, the knight's castle, and others that were in fact just what you are talking about in variations on the police stations, etc.  Unfortunately, the rehashes of the King's Castle (and others) are not that exciting at all, as they are just color changes with no real design modifications.

[BrickJagger]

I was just browsing Castle-Castle, and I came across this, from a few days ago in the "End of Nexo Knights" topic: 

Quote

So just as an observation, we all would like to see new castle sets produced, and I really do think and wonder that we may have something big on the horizon. The reason I say this is the fact the there have seemed to be quite a few well known castle MOCers, whom have been steadily vanishing the last couple of years. I know they are still Building and alive, but there castle mocs have all but dried up. And I remember a couple saying that they were going to be designers at Lego... So mabye something is in the works ☺

I haven't seen this anywhere else, but I have noticed that a lot of strictly Castle builders seem to have disappeared over the past few years. If this is true... we could be in store for something special 

Again, this is far from confirmed but it's certainly interesting. Thoughts?

[zoth33]

1 hour ago, BrickJagger said:

I was just browsing Castle-Castle, and I came across this, from a few days ago in the "End of Nexo Knights" topic: 

I haven't seen this anywhere else, but I have noticed that a lot of strictly Castle builders seem to have disappeared over the past few years. If this is true... we could be in store for something special 

Again, this is far from confirmed but it's certainly interesting. Thoughts?

That is certainly interesting now that you bring that up.  The castle builders are some of the most creative and talented people I've seen.  They are constantly trying new building techniques so it wouldn't surprise me if Lego tapped into that group.  If this is actually what has happened they could be creating something epic and that would be great.

[x105Black]

1 hour ago, BrickJagger said:

I was just browsing Castle-Castle, and I came across this, from a few days ago in the "End of Nexo Knights" topic: 

I haven't seen this anywhere else, but I have noticed that a lot of strictly Castle builders seem to have disappeared over the past few years. If this is true... we could be in store for something special 

Again, this is far from confirmed but it's certainly interesting. Thoughts?

Don't tease me like this!

But seriously, that could be great.

[Robert8]

Plot twist: It's Nexo Knights II

[fred67]

4 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

Plot twist: It's Nexo Knights II

"Yay! More Nexo!" said no one.

 

Edited February 14, 2018 by fred67

[Digger of Bricks]

10 hours ago, BrickJagger said:

I was just browsing Castle-Castle, and I came across this, from a few days ago in the "End of Nexo Knights" topic:

What's "Castle-Castle"?

[BrickJagger]

1 hour ago, Digger of Bricks said:

What's "Castle-Castle"?

*Classic-Castle, my bad.

[x105Black]

43 minutes ago, BrickJagger said:

*Classic-Castle, my bad.

I tried to register there, but I keep getting this message when I try to log in:

"The specified username is currently inactive. If you have problems activating your account, please contact a board administrator."  I don't know how to contact an administrator, so I just keep trying to log in every once in a while...

[SirBlake]

16 hours ago, fred67 said:

"Yay! More Nexo!" said no one.

 

LOL

17 hours ago, x105Black said:

Don't tease me like this!

But seriously, that could be great.

Yes. Yes that would.

[Artanis I]

Not getting my hopes up. If it happens and happens well, then it happens.

But if it sucks or it doesn't happen I won't feel let down

[SirBlake]

8 minutes ago, Artanis I said:

Not getting my hopes up. If it happens and happens well, then it happens.

But if it sucks or it doesn't happen I won't feel let down

I’ve been living in a constant state of let down for the last 3-4 years. 

[Artanis I]

Okay, I won't feel more let down than what I'm already accustomed to

[BrickJagger]

9 hours ago, x105Black said:

I tried to register there, but I keep getting this message when I try to log in:

"The specified username is currently inactive. If you have problems activating your account, please contact a board administrator."  I don't know how to contact an administrator, so I just keep trying to log in every once in a while...

That's too bad. Maybe try another name that's slightly different? I'm going to join right now, hopefully a few other people will as well. CC isn't too active these days but there are a lot of users over there who aren't on EB that I'd like to hear from. 

[x105Black]

1 hour ago, Artanis I said:

Okay, I won't feel more let down than what I'm already accustomed to

That's fair.

1 minute ago, BrickJagger said:

That's too bad. Maybe try another name that's slightly different? I'm going to join right now, hopefully a few other people will as well. CC isn't too active these days but there are a lot of users over there who aren't on EB that I'd like to hear from. 

I might have to give that a try.

[Klaus-Dieter]

Very interesting discussion!

I'm hoping that much for the Castle theme returning, too! But only if TLG did design the sets in a classic way. Imo Kingdoms was the best Castle theme ever because firstly it gave us the classic feeling the sets of the 80s and 90s offered and secondly it did offer many civilian sets and even an exclusive tournament!

But I hope that if TLG brought back the theme, they will offer us even something new or since long before not seen: e. g. one fraction could be forest people, we could see the long awaited siege tower with the enemies entering a castle wall, there could be an attack on a watermill, a modular style huge exclusive Castle set (going with the tournament set from 2012) would be very appealing, too etc. etc. etc.

Plus it would be cool it TLG gave us new fractions since always only lion knights vs. dragon knights is really boring. The best would be to offer forest people. Otherwise give us shields with armorial bearings or at least since long before not seen animals like a wolf or a bear.

Which I for sure do not want to see are a fantasy theme like the one(s) before Kingdoms, crazy designs and unfitting colors like in the last Castle theme or only the always repeating king's castles with only a bit additional stuff.

If TLG didn't plan to bring back a (nice and "realistic") Castle theme, then at least an Exclusive would be very nice - a huge modular Castle fitting the tournament from 2012, a medieval village fitting the Village Raid from 2011 or a new market place fitting the Medieval Market Village from 2009.

Edited February 15, 2018 by Klaus-Dieter

[MAB]

9 hours ago, Klaus-Dieter said:

Very interesting discussion!

I'm hoping that much for the Castle theme returning, too! But only if TLG did design the sets in a classic way.

 

But what do you mean by design the sets in a classic way? After all, most Classic Castle castle sets were fairly "square" castles, with towers and a gateway. That is actually what the last King's Castle looked like, just modernised. So they were giving us modern versions of Classic Castle but AFOLs didn't want them.

[x105Black]

I don't mind fantasy elements and fantasy factions, but I don't really care for things like this:






The designs of these things are a little over the top for me.  I also don't like the oversized swords.  That said, I can really appreciate the colors used in all of these images.  And I wouldn't mind seeing an updated troll bigfig.

[Bricked1980]

3 minutes ago, x105Black said:

I don't mind fantasy elements and fantasy factions, but I don't really care for things like this:

The designs of these things are a little over the top for me.  I also don't like the oversized swords.  That said, I can really appreciate the colors used in all of these images.  And I wouldn't mind seeing an updated troll bigfig.

Those designs are a bit over the top for my liking too. However saying that, I'd still take those sets over Nexo Knights any day.

[gedren_y]

The second of those sets was actually great for parts. And it is based on a real siege device.

I agree about the "scimitar" from those sets. Since some of the LOTR weapons have appeared in non-licensed sets we can hope that they might replace the cartoonish pieces.

[Digger of Bricks]

30 minutes ago, Bricked1980 said:

However saying that, I'd still take those sets over Nexo Knights any day.

I like Nexo Knights, but not really as a Castle theme, so I definitely agree with you on this point. This at least is what crazy vehicles should look like in a true Castle theme, as at least they are just mildly hyperbolic takes on real medieval weaponry.