Future Castle Sets?

[1974]

Understandably. This is the way modern LEGO sets look like. However, the chocolate parts could have been dark brown, which would have been much better, imho. Some of the parts in this set and the new blacksmith set probably do not exist in that colour but now would have been the perfect time to add them

The roof parts and the yellow (or is that flame yellow?) wall parts look very basic and could probably be switched very easily to white walls and black roof if one fancies that

Same with the banners ... (and the dragon could be turned into a shrubbery - "Bring me the shrubbery!")

Very nice set all in all!

11 hours ago, INTENSS said:

I think the Medieval Blacksmith has given a pretty good indication that an expert level castle can sell well.  The MMV and Joust sets were created over 10 years ago - that is an eternity ago when considering the current Lego market and offerings.  After all, they’re now making 18+ sets consisting of flowers, character heads, and art.

MMV looked very basic when it was released, like a MOC pre 2000. Nothing fancy about that, except the whole idea. It was pretty much civilian CC condensed into one set. The Raid was somewhat better (goats!) but the windmill was grossly out of scale and should have been swapped with a decent farm house

I think the Joust still holds up today, especially if you get two as intended by TLG

18 hours ago, Aanchir said:

I think if expert-level castle sets were guaranteed money-makers, LEGO would've figured that out after the Medieval Market Village and Kingdoms Joust. Certainly, their 12+ age marking was several steps below today's 18+ sets, but they were on par with the Winter Village sets of their time — and unlike MMV and KJ, those were successful enough to become an annual series.

I do think that there'd likely be a market for an 18+ castle with an optimal design, but I also think that even today, it would be less of a surefire hit than stuff like the Modular Buildings or Winter Village Collection which have a well established track record of reliably strong sales.

I would certainly love to see LEGO create more sets along those lines in the future, though, especially after seeing the amazing work some of their designers have done with the Medieval Blacksmith or with castles in themes like Elves, Disney, and Harry Potter!

MMV was a very basic build, the Joust much better. i'm sure an expert level Castle would sell quite well compared to say the Colosseum or that football stadium as long as it not the same scale. A succes needs the figs

Many of the HP sets are basicly proper Castle but in tan, Elves and Disney are too much fantasy (for my liking) and I'm not sure TLG should go down that road with Castle

[GeoBrick]

1 hour ago, TeriXeri said:

I actually don't mind the colors, as it'll work well with other Creator 3-in-1 sets parts.

Yeah. And I won't mind a bunch of extra yellow bricks one bit.

[RichardGoring]

14 hours ago, Csc167 said:

Is there a photo of the green knights you are referring to?

I need to find a way to properly do this on Eurobricks, but for now, link to an image on Reddit - 

Nice arm printing on the knights too. And there's a matching torso that I've got as a wizard, but could be something else. Then the red one is somewhat king/leader like. Maybe a bit pirate-y, but still feels in line with the others to me.

[Jack Sassy]

2 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

Nice arm printing on the knights too. And there's a matching torso that I've got as a wizard, but could be something else. Then the red one is somewhat king/leader like. Maybe a bit pirate-y, but still feels in line with the others to me.

That makes me hope that if they'll release more castle sets, hopefully we'll get a second faction of dark green knights like these, they were so cool and should have more recognition.

[RichardGoring]

10 minutes ago, Jack Sassy said:

That makes me hope that if they'll release more castle sets, hopefully we'll get a second faction of dark green knights like these, they were so cool and should have more recognition.

That was my hope too. I don't generally like big armies, so four is probably enough for me, but six would be better, and I'm hoping they'll come in a set relatively soon. If not, they should look good alongside my old Forestmen if the Castle in the Forest gets through the BrickLink program.

[Jack Sassy]

6 minutes ago, RichardGoring said:

That was my hope too. I don't generally like big armies, so four is probably enough for me, but six would be better, and I'm hoping they'll come in a set relatively soon. If not, they should look good alongside my old Forestmen if the Castle in the Forest gets through the BrickLink program.

Then again, Lego could pull something similar to what they did with Pirates theme - make one Ideas set and one Creator set and that's about it.

 

(It's still possible, and I'm hoping, that they will release more than that from both themes.)

[Csc167]

I believe those are the same as the frightening knight from a cmf series

[INTENSS]

10 hours ago, 1974 said:

MMV looked very basic when it was released, like a MOC pre 2000. Nothing fancy about that, except the whole idea. It was pretty much civilian CC condensed into one set. The Raid was somewhat better (goats!) but the windmill was grossly out of scale and should have been swapped with a decent farm house

I think the Joust still holds up today, especially if you get two as intended by TLG

I understand and agree with the Joust but the MMV looked very basic? It’s not technical marvel, but there is some nice texturing on both buildings along with great little details on the blue one.  I remember being impressed by this as well as the fact that we were actually getting a civilian set in Castle at the time.  In the midst of the full blown fantasy theme, this set was definitely geared towards AFOLs.  The Mill Village Raid doesn’t come close and as you said should have been a bit smaller.  The Joust is a gem - I remember that set going on sale towards the end of its run on S@H and I kick myself for not getting more at that good discount.  I try to remember that when a good set gets introduced nowadays...

[Lord Insanity]

The green knight shirt and pants in the "build a figure" bins at LEGO brand stores was originally from the Minifigure Series 15 Frightening Knight back in 2016.  It is quite nice that they still put those parts in the "build a figure" bins.  The print is suitably generic enough to use for several factions.

[zoth33]

23 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

If you're near a LEGO Store, the Build A Minifigure selection is pretty good at the moment, with several elements related to castle-type figures. I've had two wizards, several knights (all in green though), and what could be a mayor, or maybe king torso.

The Lego stores here don't have the BAM areas out since covid.  Hopefully soon they will come back out.  

[RichardGoring]

1 hour ago, zoth33 said:

The Lego stores here don't have the BAM areas out since covid.  Hopefully soon they will come back out.  

All the stores around Boston do have them, but in pre-built form. So they make them all up, and you can choose the three figures that you want. In some cases they have fixed accessories, but with some you can choose. However, recently they seem to have relaxed it a bit, and I was able to choose 15 pieces (although it was just accessories, so I don't know if they'd break down the figures to just get torsos). But I suspect it's a mix of LEGO policy and local restrictions. In Boston they're going to open the Pick a Brick wall for self-serve, but it's one person at a time an sanitizing between uses. Didn't see it, but that was the plan to start this last Monday.

[eldiano]

This one hit 10,000 votes!

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/f7743e0f-cfbf-45b0-a89f-8e72680f7a02

[1974]

8 hours ago, INTENSS said:

I understand and agree with the Joust but the MMV looked very basic? It’s not technical marvel, but there is some nice texturing on both buildings along with great little details on the blue one.

Let's take a look :

It's build entirely studs up, the roofs uses parts we've had since the 50's. The Tudor work is also very basic. The set does look good but it's a very boring build. In fact it's very similar to 3739 released in 2002. That set was made by an AFOL and designs like that dates all the way back to when AFOLs first started sharing MOCs online

Heck, you can even see similarities from this building in IDEA Book 6000 from 1980! :

Even though 2009 (when the MMV was released) seems ages ago and in LEGO terms much have happened since it was the same year TLG put out Grand Carousel, The Firebrigade, The Winter Toy Shop and number of cool Indiana Jones/SW sets so they could indeed have spruced up the NPU and fun building eperience, imho

Cheers,

Ole

[MAB]

14 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

 

Nice arm printing on the knights too. And there's a matching torso that I've got as a wizard, but could be something else. Then the red one is somewhat king/leader like. Maybe a bit pirate-y, but still feels in line with the others to me.

The red one is a Castle one. It has been used as a prince / king during Kingdoms, as well as a snake charmer, an Aladdin type character and this guard back in 2016.

 

[KristinnK]

I've been googling "Lego 31120" for months now waiting for a leak, but now that it has arrived I'm unfortunately very disappointed.

1. The minifigs are basically 100% uninteresting to me. I prefer to populate my MOCs with neutral, early-medieval, semi-period-appropriate minifigs. So I don't use figures with heraldry, meaning the knights are out, and the civilian figure in this set looks like a pirate minifig, and is certainly far from period-appropriate for anything earlier than the early modern period.

2. I don't like the color scheme of the tudor parts. I just don't like the color in this context aesthetically, especially since it's combined with brown framing and a blue roof. Bright yellow is such a 'strong' color that in my opinion it needs more muted ones around it. It would have looked much better to my eye if for example the roof and/or framing was black. Black framing would also have had much better contrast to the infill compared to brown.

3. I don't like that the main color of the stone parts is dark bley. I personally only use medium bley for masonry.

4. I feel the castle lacks a sense of solidity. One corner of the watchtower on the right is propped up on a stalk, the window on the left-side gate-tower shows the landscape behind instead of showing into an enclosed space, the curtain wall is two stories lower than the towers, the tudor parts are too predominant rather than just being occasional highlights, the castle (at least in this configuration) doesn't actually close in the back.

I would have much preferred if the castle would have saved on the height and stuck with two-story towers, only have tudor sections in one or two places, and made everything a little bit more bulky and solid-looking.

The layout of the castle still wouldn't necessarily have been a problem, I could still have bought the set for the figures and bricks. But because neither the figs nor the colors (neither tudor parts not dark bley stone parts) appeal to me, this set is unfortunately a hit and miss for me.

Edited April 29, 2021 by KristinnK

[1974]

It's a Creator set, those sets are not a showcase of the coolest figs and it would have been foolish to expect that. There's probably only BFs in it due to TMB

We'we known for quite a while it would be a _castle_ Rarely are castles populated by civilians and there would definitely be a outcry if it came with four peasants

LEGO sets needs colours that pop out, at least for the non +18 range. Black roofs, black timber framing, white (?) walls and all light bley stonework would look very drab

It's not for me either (I only do CC) but I cen see the appeal and I think it's a great set for a undred bucks. A much better castle than anything in the last +25 years

 

[Rockstaremcee]

On 4/27/2021 at 9:22 PM, RichardGoring said:

If you're near a LEGO Store, the Build A Minifigure selection is pretty good at the moment, with several elements related to castle-type figures. I've had two wizards, several knights (all in green though), and what could be a mayor, or maybe king torso.

I wish, we don't even seem to get the pre-boxed minifigure selections.  Previously, that was my first stop at least once a month.

On 4/28/2021 at 7:24 AM, 1974 said:

...i'm sure an expert level Castle would sell quite well compared to say the Colosseum or that football stadium as long as it not the same scale. A succes needs the figs...

I agree completely. As neat or interesting as many other builds are, they are made to stand alone.  I love having all the interwoven aspects of multiple sets all displayed together - much akin to the 90's images displaying all the sets in one large diorama.

16 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

That was my hope too. I don't generally like big armies, so four is probably enough for me, but six would be better, and I'm hoping they'll come in a set relatively soon. If not, they should look good alongside my old Forestmen if the Castle in the Forest gets through the BrickLink program.

I will have to go look that up, and support it.  Forestmen Forever!

8 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

All the stores around Boston do have them, but in pre-built form. So they make them all up, and you can choose the three figures that you want. In some cases they have fixed accessories, but with some you can choose. However, recently they seem to have relaxed it a bit, and I was able to choose 15 pieces (although it was just accessories, so I don't know if they'd break down the figures to just get torsos). But I suspect it's a mix of LEGO policy and local restrictions. In Boston they're going to open the Pick a Brick wall for self-serve, but it's one person at a time an sanitizing between uses. Didn't see it, but that was the plan to start this last Monday.

I found this to be more of a disadvantage, simply for the time involved.  when the employees went and did it for you at least multiple people could have their bricks picked at one time.  This makes it so only 3 individuals per hour can get their bricks, if they take their full ~15 mins to pick their bricks + sanitizing time in between.  I was buying three large cups, comprised of only 3 parts total, I had to wait while people fished out a few bricks out of every container and then the employees weren't very strict on the time (which I can understand normally) but when people are waiting it really starts to agitate.

[KristinnK]

3 hours ago, 1974 said:

LEGO sets needs colours that pop out, at least for the non +18 range. Black roofs, black timber framing, white (?) walls and all light bley stonework would look very drab

Take a look at the the 3-in-1 Pirate Ship. The hull is a uniform solid reddish-brown with only small black highlights. The captain's cabin is a conservative red with small gold highlights. The sails are a simple white with black decorations. I think this is very comparable for what I would have liked this castle to look like, with uniform medium bley walls, a conservative tudor infill color and neutral roof color.

And that ship looks good as all hell, precisely because it's designed with restraint and elegance. This castle not so much.

[1974]

That ship does pop a lot. Bright colours, contrast colours, gold trimmings, white sails, stripes in various colours. Very comparableto to the new castle, I'd even go so far as to say it's even more colourfull

I really do not think it's designed with "restraint and elegance". That combo goes to the new Barracuda which for a modern rendition looks good as hell, imo that is

 

[eldiano]

I’ll go as far on a limb to say that I disliked building the creator 3 in 1 pirate ship by a lot. They throw in 1264 bricks into a lot of small bricks that were unnecessary just for necessity of making it fit, i found myself questioning why they just throw in small 1x1 bricks in the hull all over the place, i mean 75% of the manual is just the hull itself. 

Is it vibrant, yes, colorful and detailed for such a small ship, some people liked it I guess but i bought it for just being a pirate ship, but the build was certainly annoying, just by looking at the leak of 31120 I can honestly see as a fact this set will be the opposite of 31109 and I cannot wait! 

The creator series is a slap in the face for us pirates and castle fans

[zoth33]

4 hours ago, eldiano said:

I’ll go as far on a limb to say that I disliked building the creator 3 in 1 pirate ship by a lot. They throw in 1264 bricks into a lot of small bricks that were unnecessary just for necessity of making it fit, i found myself questioning why they just throw in small 1x1 bricks in the hull all over the place, i mean 75% of the manual is just the hull itself. 

Is it vibrant, yes, colorful and detailed for such a small ship, some people liked it I guess but i bought it for just being a pirate ship, but the build was certainly annoying, just by looking at the leak of 31120 I can honestly see as a fact this set will be the opposite of 31109 and I cannot wait! 

The creator series is a slap in the face for us pirates and castle fans

What do you mean by slap in the face?

[TeriXeri]

22 hours ago, eldiano said:

The creator series is a slap in the face for us pirates and castle fans

31084 Pirate Rollercoaster and the 31078 Treehouse might not have been fully fledged Pirate sets, I agree with that, but I don't see the ship set as a slap in the face.

I got back into LEGO after the 2015 Pirates (and 2013 Castle)  were retired, so having IDEAS + Creator at least provide something nice in 2020/2021 is still much better then a pseudo theme-park Pirates attraction via earlier 3-in-1 or Friends sets in the last couple years.

I didn't get 2 or 3 of the ship set since Barracuda Bay existed, but this Castle looks to have much more potential, for the 3 builds to display together, and 3-in-1 isn't uncommon to get a decent discount.

Harry Potter doesn't interest me much in terms of LEGO , but I can see how that theme would be better suited for a cohesive look over many years, but personally I don't mind the more colorful style of 3-in-1 sets.

I also didn't mind the colors on Knighton Castle, so that might've helped me get used to it, Darkblue parts from Nexo Knights and various Creator 3-in-1 roofs certainly can go together in MOCS.

Overall, it seems LEGO likes Dark Blue roofs in recent times, as they appeared quite a bit in Friends as well.

In LEGO Masters NL Season 2, the Brickmaster even called Darkblue a color mainly only used as "accent color".

Personally Darkblue and (Light)Yellow go much better together compared to regular blue+yellow, except when it's mean to be an overly Classic design like the Benny Spaceship House.

Edited April 30, 2021 by TeriXeri

[eldiano]

20 hours ago, zoth33 said:

What do you mean by slap in the face?

 

1 hour ago, TeriXeri said:

31084 Pirate Rollercoaster and the 31078 Treehouse might not have been fully fledged Pirate sets, I agree with that, but I don't see the ship set as a slap in the face.

I got back into LEGO after the 2015 Pirates (and 2013 Castle)  were retired, so having IDEAS + Creator at least provide something nice in 2020/2021 is still much better then a pseudo theme-park Pirates attraction via earlier 3-in-1 or Friends sets in the last couple years.

I didn't get 2 or 3 of the ship set since Barracuda Bay existed, but this Castle looks to have much more potential, for the 3 builds to display together, and 3-in-1 isn't uncommon to get a decent discount.

Harry Potter doesn't interest me much in terms of LEGO , but I can see how that theme would be better suited for a cohesive look over many years, but personally I don't mind the more colorful style of 3-in-1 sets.

I also didn't mind the colors on Knighton Castle, so that might've helped me get used to it, Darkblue parts from Nexo Knights and various Creator 3-in-1 roofs certainly can go together in MOCS.

Overall, it seems LEGO likes Dark Blue roofs in recent times, as they appeared quite a bit in Friends as well.

In LEGO Masters NL Season 2, the Brickmaster even called Darkblue a color mainly only used as "accent color".

Personally Darkblue and (Light)Yellow go much better together compared to regular blue+yellow, except when it's mean to be an overly Classic design like the Benny Spaceship House.

I mean I guess I just want full fledged waves just as much as everyone else I guess.  Paying 99.99 for a creator set and only getting 2 Minifigures is incredible sad IMHO and hence why I called it a slap in the face.  

[Aanchir]

On 4/28/2021 at 7:18 PM, INTENSS said:

I understand and agree with the Joust but the MMV looked very basic? It’s not technical marvel, but there is some nice texturing on both buildings along with great little details on the blue one.  I remember being impressed by this as well as the fact that we were actually getting a civilian set in Castle at the time.  In the midst of the full blown fantasy theme, this set was definitely geared towards AFOLs.  The Mill Village Raid doesn’t come close and as you said should have been a bit smaller.  The Joust is a gem - I remember that set going on sale towards the end of its run on S@H and I kick myself for not getting more at that good discount.  I try to remember that when a good set gets introduced nowadays... 

It was definitely very basic compared to modern adult-oriented sets (such as the Ninjago City sets; Ideas sets like Medieval Blacksmith, Barracuda Bay, Saturn V, and Tree House; or the Creator Expert/18+ Fairground Collection sets), or even compared to recent themes aimed at older kids like Ninjago, Monkie Kid, and Elves.

Nearly all of MMV (the walls, roofs, tree, market stall, etc) was overwhelmingly "studs-up", with very little use of more advanced building techniques using parts like SNOT brackets or hinges. The main aspect that really set it apart from ordinary kid-targeted City, Castle, or Pirates playsets of its time was the use of small basic bricks instead of larger column, panel, or mountain pieces that would help speed up the build and reinforce the structure for more intense play scenarios.

Mind you, this is not a criticism of the designers' capabilities! At that time, I feel like LEGO was a lot more cautious about what type of building people of ANY age would be able to manage without becoming bored, confused, or frustrated. So I think they designed MMV expecting much of the audience to be made up of builders who were ready for something just slightly more ambitious than the KFOL-oriented Castle sets of that time, and adults/teens emerging from a "dark age" who did not have a whole lot of highly advanced building experience, and so would be most comfortable with fairly traditional/"old school" building techniques using fairly traditional/"old school" parts.

Back in 2009, sets as wildly innovative and unorthodox in their construction as Ninjago City, the Saturn V, Welcome to Apocalypseburg, or the Creator Expert Roller Coaster would have been practically unimaginable. Since then, however, LEGO has apparently gotten sales data and other customer feedback indicating that builders are willing and able to handle less traditional techniques, so I suspect designers today get a lot more freedom to incorporate advanced, non-traditional, and/or geometrically complex building techniques.than they would have back then. And furthermore, lots of wonderful new hinges, brackets, curved slopes, tiles, wedges, and connectors have been introduced since 2009 to enable even MORE advanced building techniques than even the most advanced MOCists had access to back then!

12 minutes ago, eldiano said:

I mean I guess I just want full fledged waves just as much as everyone else I guess.  Paying 99.99 for a creator set and only getting 2 Minifigures is incredible sad IMHO and hence why I called it a slap in the face.  

It might be a bit of a letdown, but calling it a "slap in the face" seems like an pretty severe overstatement when you previously said you "cannot wait" for it. I know I wouldn't be that eager to pay a hundred bucks for a slap in the face!

Edited April 30, 2021 by Aanchir

[DaleDVM]

I wouldn't call this set a slap in the face. 

After 8 years of no castle... I think this is more like TLG is Lucy, the 3in1 is the football, and us castle fans, we are Charlie Brown.  Good Grief!

I might consider the 8 years a slap in the face though...