Future Castle Sets?

[gedren_y]

The level of diversity among Castle builders is probably only matched by Space fans. We're hard to satisfy as a whole, and that is when they actually consider us an important enough block to want to appeal to.

I'll be okay with some Harry Potter sets for now. The recent reveal of that carriage set makes me hopeful for more useful parts. I'm cool with fleshies, and I build for BOBS as well, so the figs won't go to waste.

It will probably be another three months before we get leaks, if Castle will get its re-launch in January 2019. If it comes even later in the year we'll have an even longer wait for news. In any event, any 2019 theme will have already been in development for some time. All we can do right now is speculate, and hope that the current developers visit this thread.

[x105Black]

22 hours ago, zoth33 said:

You do realize its a toy for children.  I know they have some sets for us afols but its mainly for a younger audience.  I get that we all want what we want.  And they said they have adult study groups but that also depends on their preferences and what they like to build which alot of afols build city, trains, modular, star wars, etc.  Not all afols like castle.  I mean the people at LEGO aren't stupid they have a solid product that reaches millions. I think they know what they are doing.  Look at some of the new FB/Harry Potter sets coming out, I think they are pretty sweet looking with alot of great parts.  I think if we are just patient we will see something special for us castle fans.  These things take time to develop just give it time.  

Oh, LEGO is a toy for kids?  This is the first time anyone told me that.

Not all AFOLs like Castle.  Yes.  I'm not talking about AFOLs, I'm talking about AFOL Castle fans.

LEGO is not a stupid company, and I do assume that they know what they are doing.  Then again, to me Nexo Knights looks like it was conceived by people who have no idea what they are doing, so I'm not always sure.

In my own small way here on a forum dedicated to LEGO, populated by an AFOL audience, in a thread about Future Castle Sets, I will continue to speak my mind about what I would like to see in such sets along with other like-minded people.  This helps me to wait and be patient while these things take time to develop.

So now I've responded to your post, but I don't think you really responded to mine that much.  I was talking about how the Creator Expert designers think that the modular buildings will appeal to castle fans, and how there is a bit of a disconnect between that way of thinking versus what actually appeals to Castle fans (or satisfies any AFOL in a way that relates to the Castle theme).

[gedren_y]

2 hours ago, x105Black said:

I was talking about how the Creator Expert designers think that the modular buildings will appeal to castle fans, and how there is a bit of a disconnect between that way of thinking versus what actually appeals to Castle fans (or satisfies any AFOL in a way that relates to the Castle theme).

Agreed. Piffle!

AFOLs that build MOCs that require a huge number of bricks tend to either get LUGBulk orders, or buy from the reseller market. Modulars don't really provide the kind of parts value that can be gotten elsewhere.

[zoth33]

2 hours ago, x105Black said:

Oh, LEGO is a toy for kids?  This is the first time anyone told me that.

Not all AFOLs like Castle.  Yes.  I'm not talking about AFOLs, I'm talking about AFOL Castle fans.

LEGO is not a stupid company, and I do assume that they know what they are doing.  Then again, to me Nexo Knights looks like it was conceived by people who have no idea what they are doing, so I'm not always sure.

In my own small way here on a forum dedicated to LEGO, populated by an AFOL audience, in a thread about Future Castle Sets, I will continue to speak my mind about what I would like to see in such sets along with other like-minded people.  This helps me to wait and be patient while these things take time to develop.

So now I've responded to your post, but I don't think you really responded to mine that much.  I was talking about how the Creator Expert designers think that the modular buildings will appeal to castle fans, and how there is a bit of a disconnect between that way of thinking versus what actually appeals to Castle fans (or satisfies any AFOL in a way that relates to the Castle theme).

I understand what you are saying I just think its funny that now that there is no true castle theme out people complain that we don't have one but when we have one people complain its to childish or the colors suck, or the heraldry is boring, etc.  I can't wait for a new castle theme to come out so people can trash it then complain when there is no castle them.  

[x105Black]

3 minutes ago, zoth33 said:

I understand what you are saying I just think its funny that now that there is no true castle theme out people complain that we don't have one but when we have one people complain its to childish or the colors suck, or the heraldry is boring, etc.  I can't wait for a new castle theme to come out so people can trash it then complain when there is no castle them.  

Fair enough.  That's why there's a thread here discussing what we would all like to see in a new Castle theme.  LEGO is going to make what they want to make, or what they think will appeal to their core, but we are suggesting things that we would love to buy.  And modulars are arguably aimed at more of an AFOL market, so many of us are hoping for some Castle themed attention there.

But I will definitely discuss what I do and do not like about any Castle theme that surfaces, or any theme that is similar.  There are many things I do not like about themes like Elves, Nexo Knights, and Harry Potter, for example, despite the fact that they are similar to Castle.  So if the builds are childish and the colors are horrible in the next Castle theme, yes, you can expect to see my words expressing that opinion.  People will trash the new Castle theme if the new Castle theme is trash.

[zoth33]

1 minute ago, x105Black said:

Fair enough.  That's why there's a thread here discussing what we would all like to see in a new Castle theme.  LEGO is going to make what they want to make, or what they think will appeal to their core, but we are suggesting things that we would love to buy.  And modulars are arguably aimed at more of an AFOL market, so many of us are hoping for some Castle themed attention there.

But I will definitely discuss what I do and do not like about any Castle theme that surfaces, or any theme that is similar.  There are many things I do not like about themes like Elves, Nexo Knights, and Harry Potter, for example, despite the fact that they are similar to Castle.  So if the builds are childish and the colors are horrible in the next Castle theme, yes, you can expect to see my words expressing that opinion.  People will trash the new Castle theme if the new Castle theme is trash.

Fair enough.  I totally agree a modular castle theme would be great.  I was a kid in the 80's and a lot of the old castle sets from the 80's and 90's.  And after I got out of college and started building again Lego came out with fantasy and I bought a lot of the sets,  Then when kingdoms came out I also bought alot of the sets.  Even when the 2013 castle line came out I bought a bunch of those.  Yeah it wasn't the best castle line but I used alot of the parts and figs for my own builds.  Believe me I want a castle theme as bad as you but it will get really old if a castle theme does come out and people trash it, then if the theme ends and people start complaining again why we don't have a castle theme.  It just turns into a never ending cycle of whining.  

[x105Black]

Just now, zoth33 said:

Believe me I want a castle theme as bad as you but it will get really old if a castle theme does come out and people trash it, then if the theme ends and people start complaining again why we don't have a castle theme.  It just turns into a never ending cycle of whining.  

Then they had better give us something good next time!

[gedren_y]

8 minutes ago, zoth33 said:

I understand what you are saying I just think its funny that now that there is no true castle theme out people complain that we don't have one but when we have one people complain its to childish or the colors suck, or the heraldry is boring, etc.  I can't wait for a new castle theme to come out so people can trash it then complain when there is no castle them.  

That was what my point about the diversity of Castle fans was all about. What appeals to some will not appeal to others.

3 minutes ago, x105Black said:

Fair enough.  That's why there's a thread here discussing what we would all like to see in a new Castle theme.  LEGO is going to make what they want to make, or what they think will appeal to their core, but we are suggesting things that we would love to buy.  And modulars are arguably aimed at more of an AFOL market, so many of us are hoping for some Castle themed attention there.

But I will definitely discuss what I do and do not like about any Castle theme that surfaces, or any theme that is similar.  There are many things I do not like about themes like Elves, Nexo Knights, and Harry Potter, for example, despite the fact that they are similar to Castle.  So if the builds are childish and the colors are horrible in the next Castle theme, yes, you can expect to see my words expressing that opinion.  People will trash the new Castle theme if the new Castle theme is trash.

I see nothing wrong with expressing an opinion on any given theme. I could agree or disagree, depending on what we get. If we disagree, let's try to not argue each other into submission over differing opinions.

[zoth33]

4 minutes ago, x105Black said:

Then they had better give us something good next time!

I hear ya there.  I just try to take what Lego is turning out now and buy the sets i think I can use for my builds.  I just love expanding my own castle universe and love finding new parts and figs.   I'm not trying to argue here.  I just think its interesting how people think sometimes.  

[BrickJagger]

On 3/16/2018 at 7:15 PM, x105Black said:

In my own small way here on a forum dedicated to LEGO, populated by an AFOL audience, in a thread about Future Castle Sets, I will continue to speak my mind about what I would like to see in such sets along with other like-minded people.  This helps me to wait and be patient while these things take time to develop.

I think that having several threads to discuss Castle in general (This one, a few of Itaria's, Wardancer's, etc.) is a good thing for this forum. It keeps it alive and draws more people in here not only to discuss Castle, but also to look at some of the amazing MOCs on here. In the meantime, I doesn't hurt to sit around and speculate for the next few months until we get something concrete. 

[Artanis I]

Meanwhile when I got back into Lego (via vintage Space from eBay & BL), Fantasy Era had wound down & Kingdoms came out. I went mad and bought the whole theme & every old Castle bar the yellow one and the uninspired 2006 one.

I actually liked 2013, apart from the underwhelming dragon tower. Most functional castle of recent times. I got so many of the 4 minifig set (for like $9 each) it was the best army builder ever. I never cared for the civilian stuff so it didn't bother me that there weren't any of those sets, and the heraldry was fine to me. But everywhere I turned I heard "it's nowhere near as good as Fantasy/Kingdoms/LOTR/Classic". Then there was rumour of Fantasy Era 2 but it turned out to be minidoll Elves. Then there was another rumour of Fantasy Era 2 but it turned out to be NK. I bet if Castle 2013 came out now after NK that we'd all have liked it.

I'd very happily settle for the same-old-same-old 2013 rehashes 6 years later. Big grey/black castle, medium fortress, gatehouse, carriage, small army builder. 2 uninspired factions.

[Klaus-Dieter]

On 15.2.2018 at 9:55 PM, Aanchir said:

What was unfitting about the colors of the 2013 Castle sets compared to the Kingdoms sets? From what I saw the main thing they did was use blue in place of red and red in place of dark green. And to be honest, if it weren't for those brightly-colored accents, those sets would have been even MORE repetitive. I know I've started to get extremely bored at LEGO conventions seeing grey castle after grey castle after grey castle.

Imo the 2013 Castle sets had colors and a design like from a video game (only remember the flags at the king's castle). In contrast, the Kingdoms sets had a more realistic color palette and didn't look like a licensed set from a video game but more like myth sets with a lot of realism.

[x105Black]

10 hours ago, Artanis I said:

Meanwhile when I got back into Lego (via vintage Space from eBay & BL), Fantasy Era had wound down & Kingdoms came out. I went mad and bought the whole theme & every old Castle bar the yellow one and the uninspired 2006 one.

I actually liked 2013, apart from the underwhelming dragon tower. Most functional castle of recent times. I got so many of the 4 minifig set (for like $9 each) it was the best army builder ever. I never cared for the civilian stuff so it didn't bother me that there weren't any of those sets, and the heraldry was fine to me. But everywhere I turned I heard "it's nowhere near as good as Fantasy/Kingdoms/LOTR/Classic". Then there was rumour of Fantasy Era 2 but it turned out to be minidoll Elves. Then there was another rumour of Fantasy Era 2 but it turned out to be NK. I bet if Castle 2013 came out now after NK that we'd all have liked it.

I'd very happily settle for the same-old-same-old 2013 rehashes 6 years later. Big grey/black castle, medium fortress, gatehouse, carriage, small army builder. 2 uninspired factions.

I agree.  Dragon Mountain was the worst set of the line.  Still, had to get it at the time for the dragon.

I came out of my Dark Ages while 2013 was still in stores, along with the Tolkien themes, and I thought I was coming into a Golden Age.  Hindsight is 20/20.

I would certainly take another 2013 Castle theme today, though.  I know I'm in the minority of Castle fans in that opinion, but I think it's because I missed out on the Fantasy Era and most of Kingdoms.  Going back to those types of themes would be even more welcome.

And the 2013 factions may have been relatively uninspired, but it was nice to finally see the Dragons in black and red (although dark red still would have been better).  I'm personally getting a bit tired of Lions and Crowns as the 'good guys' all the time.  But I also appreciate the attention to classic factions, and loved seeing the Black Falcons get a role in Kingdoms.

8 hours ago, Klaus-Dieter said:

Imo the 2013 Castle sets had colors and a design like from a video game (only remember the flags at the king's castle). In contrast, the Kingdoms sets had a more realistic color palette and didn't look like a licensed set from a video game but more like myth sets with a lot of realism.

I agree that the colors were bright in 2013 compared to what had come before, but I believe it was to set it apart from the concurrent Tolkien themes.  Still, it would have been great to see the colors of Fantasy Era, Kingdoms, and Tolkien in the 2013 sets.

I think a theme that does much of the same things done in 2013 with the colors of previous themes would be much more well received.

[SirBlake]

13 hours ago, Artanis I said:

I bet if Castle 2013 came out now after NK that we'd all have liked it.

I can guarantee you that if 2013 came out today, I would have been critical of the lame faction heraldry and still bought most of the sets.

Oh wait, that's what I did in 2013.

[ElectroDiva]

On 16/03/2018 at 3:02 AM, gedren_y said:

It will probably be another three months before we get leaks, if Castle will get its re-launch in January 2019. If it comes even later in the year we'll have an even longer wait for news. 

TLG seem to have tightened up on leaks recently. I wouldn’t expect any leaks for a Jan ‘19 launch until a couple of months beforehand. In any  case, I think they may skip 2019 and reboot Castle for 2020.

 

Hopefully I’m wrong,

 

[Agent Kallus]

Someone said something about new pirates in 2019, Its not been valided by a trusted source, but if it is true then it would show that lego still will make these 'classic' themes.

3 hours ago, Robin_IV said:

I am very excited when they are going to release the new pirate packs in 2019!

[BrickJagger]

1 hour ago, ElectroDiva said:

TLG seem to have tightened up on leaks recently. I wouldn’t expect any leaks for a Jan ‘19 launch until a couple of months beforehand. In any  case, I think they may skip 2019 and reboot Castle for 2020.

 

Hopefully I’m wrong,

 

Since Nexo was always planned to end in 2018, I don't think that they would need a year off for new Castle. The last Nexo wave coming out this January would make it a year and a half between Nexo ending and another Castle theme starting in June 2019, I think that's fair. 

1 hour ago, Agent Kallus said:

Someone said something about new pirates in 2019, Its not been valided by a trusted source, but if it is true then it would show that lego still will make these 'classic' themes.

I hope we aren't dogpiling that poor guy. 

He could just mean that he hopes there will be Pirate packs of some kind, but something Pirate themed coming out next year is not unlikely.

[Agent Kallus]

1 hour ago, BrickJagger said:

I hope we aren't dogpiling that poor guy. 

I might have gotten a bit carried away in my optimism.

[BrickJagger]

Amazon has just announced that they will be rolling out a new Lord of the Rings show within the next two years. The budget is expected to be over 1 billion dollars and five seasons are guaranteed. Here's an article for those who haven't seen it already.

Do you guys think that this will cause Lego to go after the LOTR license again? If they do, how will that affect future Castle sets? Personally I'm not too worried, as this article sums up what I think about the new show, but anything backed by Amazon is bound to make a splash.

Edited April 8, 2018 by BrickJagger

[zoth33]

It will be interesting to see what amazon does and where they go with LOTR.  Hopefully they can expand on the movies with creative writing and production.  We won't see an affect on lego castle sets for awhile considering that the show won't be out for at least 2-3 years.  Still could be promising we will have to wait and see.  

[rodiziorobs]

I would be surprised if we see Lego tie-ins to the Amazon LOTR series, mostly because Amazon's in-house content tends to be exclusively for mature audiences; rumors are that Amazon wants a Game of Thrones clone (not sure how the Tolkien estate would appreciate the gratuitous sex, but I imagine the violence and gore would not be too far a stretch). Anything lower than TV-MA is limited to pretty much The Grand Tour or the occasional kids-only show that makes grown-ups vomit.

Plus, the only times I can think of getting sets for a TV show before are for superheroes (DC Girls, Spider-Man) or a Lego original (Ninjago, Elves, Mixels, etc.)--again, squarely aimed at the target market.

I suppose no one can stop you hoping, though.

[Bricked1980]

I'm very exited about this new LOTR amazon series. Do we know if it is supposed to compliment the Peter Jackson movies or will it be an entirely new approach and reboot of tolkiens stories?

It would be great to think it could spawn some future lego sets but even if it doesn't it might popularise castles and medieval fantasy enough that lego could relaunch a Castle theme of some sort.

 

[Lyichir]

I think a big question about whether Lego would make sets based on the Amazon LotR series is not just how successful the show would end up being (since it may well have a more limited audience than the Lord of the Rings or even the Hobbit movies did), but also whether Lego's physical retail partners (Wal-Mart, Target, etc.) would be keen on stocking sets licensed from one of their biggest online competitors. If they objected to that then even if the series were a resounding success, we might not see much more than a single D2C set or the like since a good portion of Lego's distribution channels might be unwilling to carry the products.

[x105Black]

As great as the prospect of a new Lord of the Rings series is for LEGO in theory, it would likely get in the way of actual Castle sets.  So, considering this, I actually hope it does not happen.

[MAB]

On 08/04/2018 at 2:35 PM, Lyichir said:

I think a big question about whether Lego would make sets based on the Amazon LotR series is not just how successful the show would end up being (since it may well have a more limited audience than the Lord of the Rings or even the Hobbit movies did), but also whether Lego's physical retail partners (Wal-Mart, Target, etc.) would be keen on stocking sets licensed from one of their biggest online competitors. If they objected to that then even if the series were a resounding success, we might not see much more than a single D2C set or the like since a good portion of Lego's distribution channels might be unwilling to carry the products.

I think this is a really good point. It is like amazon not selling officially selling google products (chromecast, etc). Unless, of course, they make the LEGO sets Amazon exclusives too!