Future Castle Sets?

[Lyichir]

1 hour ago, Poco Lypso said:

tbh - i think you are doing exacly what you are accusing the other side of, lol

I

i just went to lego shop

monkie kid

yes, they have that location based island set

and it is followed by about 9 - 10 vehicle/mecha based sets

 

But why act like that's a new phenomenon for themes? I mean, I grew up with Aquazone, which was mostly the same—a given faction generally got one "base" (usually at the biggest price point) and a ton of smaller vehicles. The same applied to most space themes, if they had a stationary "base" to speak of at all (many, like Monkie Kid, largely opted for mobile bases or motherships). This was especially common in that era because of the use of baseplates defining the scale of so many location-based sets—a really substantial location would generally have to have a baseplate included in the box.

And sure, there were themes like Castle that often weighed more toward location-based sets—but today there are themes like Friends, City, Minecraft, or Harry Potter that do mostly the same. There's really no reason to assume that a modern Castle theme would always opt for a vehicle-heavy format, just because that's one of many types of play that kids are into.

[Poco Lypso]

17 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

But why act like that's a new phenomenon for themes? I mean, I grew up with Aquazone, which was mostly the same—a given faction generally got one "base" (usually at the biggest price point) and a ton of smaller vehicles. The same applied to most space themes, if they had a stationary "base" to speak of at all (many, like Monkie Kid, largely opted for mobile bases or motherships). This was especially common in that era because of the use of baseplates defining the scale of so many location-based sets—a really substantial location would generally have to have a baseplate included in the box.

And sure, there were themes like Castle that often weighed more toward location-based sets—but today there are themes like Friends, City, Minecraft, or Harry Potter that do mostly the same. There's really no reason to assume that a modern Castle theme would always opt for a vehicle-heavy format, just because that's one of many types of play that kids are into.

Im not saying its a new trend - on the contrary.

Just to clarify: this is a lighthearted discussion for me. While I would greatly appreciate any new castle theme with tons of civilians in it - the lack of it doesnt change too much for me. There has been quite a number of suitable minifigs coming out in the last couple of years that I even missed some of them :). In fact I dont mind having sets/figs released at a slower pace. This year I am already spending way beyond my lego budget - thanks to the black falcons. With a potentially useful 3in1 creator castle coming up I honestly hope there wont be too much more this year.

[AmperZand]

On 3/22/2021 at 4:58 PM, Roebuck said:

Looks like the next Harry Potter D2C is a 250$ Chess set, so maybe some useful parts for Castle like horses

If the set takes its visual cue from the film, I wonder how the bishops will be portrayed. LEGO has a general policy against religious subject matter but the bishops in the movie are pretty ecclesiastical. I realise there is some flex in that policy: there are Christian buildings in the Venice Skyline set for example. Could be tricky though. A fudge may be required.

[Aanchir]

3 hours ago, AmperZand said:

If the set takes its visual cue from the film, I wonder how the bishops will be portrayed. LEGO has a general policy against religious subject matter but the bishops in the movie are pretty ecclesiastical. I realise there is some flex in that policy: there are Christian buildings in the Venice Skyline set for example. Could be tricky though. A fudge may be required.

In the past they've been willing to include stuff like gravestones with angel statues in licensed themes, so I don't think they'd be opposed to portraying bishops from a chess scene in a movie, either.

Plus, movie screenshots and merchandise portray the bishops from that scene in full armor. They do wear a mitre, but it's over top of a helmet, which I think is a substantial enough difference from actual bishops' outfits that it wouldn't create any sort of controversy. In fact, it leads me to wonder whether the filmmakers designed the chess pieces specifically to avoid anything that might present this sort of issue for merchandise.

I do wonder whether they'd make a new mitre+helmet mold for this figure, given it's a design so specific to this scene rather than to either knights OR clergy (and unlike more character-specific molds, it might be hard to find other uses for it even within the same licensed theme). That said, there are various knight helmet pieces they could approximate it with if they didn't mind it looking slightly inaccurate to its on-screen counterpart.

[MAB]

3 hours ago, Aanchir said:

In the past they've been willing to include stuff like gravestones with angel statues in licensed themes, so I don't think they'd be opposed to portraying bishops from a chess scene in a movie, either.

Plus, movie screenshots and merchandise portray the bishops from that scene in full armor. They do wear a mitre, but it's over top of a helmet, which I think is a substantial enough difference from actual bishops' outfits that it wouldn't create any sort of controversy. In fact, it leads me to wonder whether the filmmakers designed the chess pieces specifically to avoid anything that might present this sort of issue for merchandise.

I do wonder whether they'd make a new mitre+helmet mold for this figure, given it's a design so specific to this scene rather than to either knights OR clergy (and unlike more character-specific molds, it might be hard to find other uses for it even within the same licensed theme). That said, there are various knight helmet pieces they could approximate it with if they didn't mind it looking slightly inaccurate to its on-screen counterpart.

They would also presumably be rather monochromatic parts as well. So lego could always do them black and LBG if they didn't want them to be so useful as, say, white for reusing for more realistic figures.

[gedren_y]

I don't expect the chess pieces to be minifigure sized, but rather bigfig or larger scale. A $250 set depicting the scene in the movie could easily have Ron, Harry, and Hermione as minifigures, and the chess pieces appropriately scaled to them. For the helmet/miter on the chess pieces Lego could make it as a single mold with the head, and limit its internal use as License specific. (I have long wished Lego would release the baldric part for non-Disney license theme use.)

[Itaria No Shintaku]

I spent some time reading all the recent posts.

My idea is diferent.

Kids aren't attracted and interested in pirates and castle? That's quite true. And false in the same time.

Kids do NOT have a real preference. How can they? How can a peruvian 6 years old relate to a norwegian 9 yo?
Easy: they do NOT.

Kids love what is told them to love. And that's it. Period. If you make a lot of advertising in the right place in the right way about how cool is something, kids will say "Oh dad ! I so much want that thing, that's too cool!"

You just have to present something that isn't entirely a mess. 

I think that the sets today must tell a story. When I was a kid I loved when I got some inputs to tell my story (i was mainly into pirates) 
I needed to know who they were and what they fighted for. Then, the way this battle was going to happen, that was entirely upon my will.

Ninjago is a good example of things done right, and Nexo Knights of things done wrong.
In NK they said "This stuff is working for Ninjago. Let's do it again" and no, that didn't work. 

What I think that would work today are sets based on history. Every wave a different culture and some different vehicles and buildings.
With some baddies. Some time travelling heroes. And some neutral factions, like civilians dressed in the fashion of the time.

That would SO MUCH work. You get the adults (historical sets are interesting and being demanded since a lot of time) and the kids (you have the conflict, you have the story, you have the playsets).

[gedren_y]

27 minutes ago, Itaria No Shintaku said:

What I think that would work today are sets based on history. Every wave a different culture and some different vehicles and buildings.
With some baddies. Some time travelling heroes. And some neutral factions, like civilians dressed in the fashion of the time.

That would SO MUCH work. You get the adults (historical sets are interesting and being demanded since a lot of time) and the kids (you have the conflict, you have the story, you have the playsets).

That's why I think Fables would go over quite well. You get your historical aesthetic, you get your fantastical adventure, and there is enough room in interpretation of the storytelling to allow for creative play. And there's enough to do this for years. If television in the late 90s (& early 2000s) can develop 12 seasons (6 of Hercules, 6 of Xena) of adventures in the mythological past, then Lego can do plenty.

Edited March 24, 2021 by gedren_y

[Alexandrina]

18 hours ago, Aanchir said:

They do wear a mitre, but it's over top of a helmet, which I think is a substantial enough difference from actual bishops' outfits that it wouldn't create any sort of controversy.

There's never been a mitre piece, right? I can definitely see why Lego would avoid the risk of controversy, but dammit if I don't want a piece for the full brickfilm adaptation of Les Misérables I dream of making

[leafan]

Does anybody have an idea when we can expect the first official/unofficial images of the Creator 3-in-1 Castle?

It should be soon right?

[valon]

1 hour ago, leafan said:

Does anybody have an idea when we can expect the first official/unofficial images of the Creator 3-in-1 Castle?

It should be soon right?

the set if it is real will be able to buy in june https://www.promobricks.de/lego-31120-ritterburg-erste-details/118308/

the article talks about what it looks like if ti exists

[Alexandrina]

5 hours ago, valon said:

the set if it is real will be able to buy in june https://www.promobricks.de/lego-31120-ritterburg-erste-details/118308/

the article talks about what it looks like if ti exists

Have I missed something? The set definitely exists, right? 

[AmperZand]

2 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

Have I missed something? The set definitely exists, right? 

Yes. I think @valon is just being coy.

From the Promobricks site with some paraphrasing by me: ‘The LEGO 31120 Knights’ Castle will cost Euro 100 (RRP) in Germany and is thought to consist of about 1,500 parts. The set is scheduled for release in June 2021.’

Promobricks has a solid track record of describing sets accurately before their official reveal. So it’s a pretty safe bet that the above - and indeed the rest of what it says about this set - is right.

[Robert8]

The Harry Potter set chess will be $60

I'm back into thinking there won't be actual horses in the set. 

[MAB]

12 minutes ago, Robert8 said:

The Harry Potter set chess will be $60

I'm back into thinking there won't be actual horses in the set. 

Similar to the recent pirates and more distant Kingdoms one then. It makes much more sense to be that scale.

[TeriXeri]

3-in-1 Castle certainly will be my most anticipated set of the year, and the benefit of 3-in-1 are usually good price/discounts and alternate build options adding more value, among more generic pieces to build with, downsides could be the lack of animal moulds/horses.

Looking forward to see if this will be worth getting multiple sets.

Wonder how big it'll be, compared to some more recent Castles (Hidden Side / Elves / Nexo etc)

Edited March 27, 2021 by TeriXeri

[valon]

17 hours ago, AmperZand said:

Yes. I think @valon is just being coy.

From the Promobricks site with some paraphrasing by me: ‘The LEGO 31120 Knights’ Castle will cost Euro 100 (RRP) in Germany and is thought to consist of about 1,500 parts. The set is scheduled for release in June 2021.’

Promobricks has a solid track record of describing sets accurately before their official reveal. So it’s a pretty safe bet that the above - and indeed the rest of what it says about this set - is right.

i hope that it is a set and the that promobricks is right, they are alot, but lego has not said i really hope it is a set

[zoth33]

Hopefully some pics come out soon as it drops in June.  At 1500 pieces it should have a really nice design.  

[Roebuck]

On 3/26/2021 at 11:11 PM, Robert8 said:

The Harry Potter set chess will be $60

I'm back into thinking there won't be actual horses in the set. 

Yes 4 horses for 60$ sound unlikely today, while back in 1985:


however the part is perfect for the scene so I have not given up hope completely

[Aanchir]

On 3/26/2021 at 7:30 PM, TeriXeri said:

3-in-1 Castle certainly will be my most anticipated set of the year, and the benefit of 3-in-1 are usually good price/discounts and alternate build options adding more value, among more generic pieces to build with, downsides could be the lack of animal moulds/horses.

Looking forward to see if this will be worth getting multiple sets.

Wonder how big it'll be, compared to some more recent Castles (Hidden Side / Elves / Nexo etc)

17 hours ago, zoth33 said:

Hopefully some pics come out soon as it drops in June.  At 1500 pieces it should have a really nice design.  

For my part, I still suspect that the Creator 3-in-1 castle will roughly resemble the one that's portrayed at around 53 seconds into the video in this LEGO Ideas blog entry (the part captioned "no drawbridges"). It's possible that modifications were made to it for use in this video, of course. But even so, that model seems to closely resemble a "Creator 3-in-1" style of build (for instance, most of the walls being built from smaller bricks rather than panels, and some brick-built landscaping in addition to the main structure).

If we assume that the front of the castle structure from that video is roughly symmetrical, then it looks to be about 32 studs wide. So between these glimpses shown and the rumored price point and piece count (100 USD/EUR, and over 1500 pieces), I think we can arrive at a reasonable estimate of the castle's size: decidedly larger than the Fortrex, but with a smaller footprint/perimeter (and higher walls) than the 2010 or 2013 "King's Castle" sets.

As a parts pack, it seems like it'd have a lot of potential, with large quantities of grey slopes, inverted slopes, arches, and masonry bricks. The low price-per-piece would also work in its favor in this regard. And hopefully it might also help to lower the BrickLink price of a lot of those sorts of useful and desirable pieces. Unfortunately, from what we can see so far, it seems somewhat lacking in more specialized sorts of Castle parts which tend to command a high price on BrickLink, like wall panel, window, and portcullis pieces.

[zoth33]

6 hours ago, Aanchir said:

For my part, I still suspect that the Creator 3-in-1 castle will roughly resemble the one that's portrayed at around 53 seconds into the video in this LEGO Ideas blog entry (the part captioned "no drawbridges"). It's possible that modifications were made to it for use in this video, of course. But even so, that model seems to closely resemble a "Creator 3-in-1" style of build (for instance, most of the walls being built from smaller bricks rather than panels, and some brick-built landscaping in addition to the main structure).

If we assume that the front of the castle structure from that video is roughly symmetrical, then it looks to be about 32 studs wide. So between these glimpses shown and the rumored price point and piece count (100 USD/EUR, and over 1500 pieces), I think we can arrive at a reasonable estimate of the castle's size: decidedly larger than the Fortrex, but with a smaller footprint/perimeter (and higher walls) than the 2010 or 2013 "King's Castle" sets.

As a parts pack, it seems like it'd have a lot of potential, with large quantities of grey slopes, inverted slopes, arches, and masonry bricks. The low price-per-piece would also work in its favor in this regard. And hopefully it might also help to lower the BrickLink price of a lot of those sorts of useful and desirable pieces. Unfortunately, from what we can see so far, it seems somewhat lacking in more specialized sorts of Castle parts which tend to command a high price on BrickLink, like wall panel, window, and portcullis pieces.

I hope what you think comes true.  Regardless I am definitely getting the set.  Just waiting for those leaks.  

[Roebuck]

Last time I checked there was no piece count for the set, the 1500 parts are just a guess so I do not understand why a lot of people keep mentioning it all the time

[eldiano]

ewwww i'm starting to hate creator sets because they lack pre fab parts, i'm in the middle of trying to convert my pirate ship creator 3 and 1 set to a something more prefab I guess, plus 1,500 is over kill IMHO for building.  

Curiously enough I went to Legoland Discovery center in my city and if you ever been to one, you know the theme is mostly old school castle and I got massive nostalgia because I want a set related to it, there was a lot of castle inspired rides that would make it worth a pretty legoland discovery center set, heh.  Now funnily enough, the pirate set has a lego horse with a bricks, and no kidding right now i'm literally looking to update my kingdoms "horses" and to get a horse for the pirate set, but omggg those prices 

Edited March 29, 2021 by eldiano

[Lego David]

12 hours ago, Aanchir said:

For my part, I still suspect that the Creator 3-in-1 castle will roughly resemble the one that's portrayed at around 53 seconds into the video in this LEGO Ideas blog entry (the part captioned "no drawbridges"). It's possible that modifications were made to it for use in this video, of course. But even so, that model seems to closely resemble a "Creator 3-in-1" style of build (for instance, most of the walls being built from smaller bricks rather than panels, and some brick-built landscaping in addition to the main structure).

I'm not so sure about that... The Castle shown in the video looks way too good for a Creator set, with some pretty advanced building techniques that look way ahead of what Creator 3 in 1 usually offers. On top of that, that Castle also clearly used one of those pre-fab Castle walls, which there is no way they'd use that sort of piece in a Creator set, and on top of that, the mold hasn't been used in almost a decade, so it may well be discontinued by now. 

I'd say the Castle showcased in that video was probably just a MOC the designers made, and not a glimpse at the upcoming Creator set.

[morthaur]

7 hours ago, Lego David said:

the mold hasn't been used in almost a decade, so it may well be discontinued by now. 

The wall part in the video was just used this year (in white) for the temple in the Raya & Sisu Dragon set.