Future Castle Sets?

[DaleDVM]

Unfortunately, the news from over a month ago that classic themes were only going to get the occasional nod in creator and ideas, instead of getting themes of their own means... we are not going to get battle packs, rarely to get horses, other animals, or many new medieval prints/molds at all.  Hence the pirate torso and a skeleton in the 3in1. 

Needless to say, if you are trying to build a castle faction with these sets you are in for some serious hurt.  We got two "castley" sets for a combined $250.  While I do like the designs, we got 4 soldiers, one horse, one good civilian, one okay civilian, a skeleton, AND... a pirate.  

By comparison, in 2007 you could buy the entire castle line for $325 with 43 castle minifigs, 5 horses, 5 skele horses, 2 dragons, a large troll, and all of the armor, shields, weapons, and heraldry to arm and dress up all of those figs.  Not to mention a castle, a skeleton fortress, a dwarf mine, a large ship, plus a host of the smaller sets.  When you put the two years releases side by side, and read the fan reactions, it really shows how desperate we history fans have become.

I understand what we all want.  After 8 years of waiting I feel castle fans deserve more.  All I can say is buy up what castle you can get, keep voting for castle, and keep contacting TLG with your concerns/desires.  2021 offered me something, and I am thankful for that.  However, I am far from satisfied.  I also refuse to lower the bar so far that this years effort is what is considered acceptable for castle collectors.  

[Aanchir]

22 hours ago, DaleDVM said:

Unfortunately, the news from over a month ago that classic themes were only going to get the occasional nod in creator and ideas, instead of getting themes of their own means... we are not going to get battle packs, rarely to get horses, other animals, or many new medieval prints/molds at all.  Hence the pirate torso and a skeleton in the 3in1.

I'm not so sure the skeleton has anything to do with those limitations — I mean, back in the 90s when I was growing up, skeletons were every bit as common in Castle sets as in Pirates ones! So it's quite possible the designers just figured that a skeleton would be a feature that kids would really enjoy, and a natural fit for sets like this castle or last year's pirate ship.

Otherwise, though, you're correct about a lot of the stuff that's less likely to show up in Creator 3-in-1 sets than in "play themes" like City, Castle, Pirates, Ninjago, etc. Creator sets in general are a lot more focused on brick-built detail and the building experience itself than about figures and accessories. And while I don't think it's a bad thing from a set design standpoint, it's definitely not meant to satisfy the same tastes/interests/expectations as "play themes" are.

[INTENSS]

On 5/5/2021 at 6:18 PM, DaleDVM said:

I understand what we all want.  After 8 years of waiting I feel castle fans deserve more.  All I can say is buy up what castle you can get, keep voting for castle, and keep contacting TLG with your concerns/desires.  2021 offered me something, and I am thankful for that.  However, I am far from satisfied.  I also refuse to lower the bar so far that this years effort is what is considered acceptable for castle collectors.  

I agree with your sentiment.  We’ve gone so long without any Castle that there should be some genuine appreciation for these two sets.  Pretty damn good ones, too.  There’s also some truth that we haven’t been completely ignored - there have been a good number of medieval/fantasy minifigs in the CMF line.  There’s also Harry Potter for parts (the minifigs are mostly useless) and one off castles that have popped up every now and then.  The Hidden Side castle was particularly good - finally giving us inverted 2x2 corner slopes in LBG.  Those things were a small fortune on BL previously.  I bulked up on B&P.

All of that said, I too want new weapons/prints/barding/dedicated parts to MOC with.  We’re just not going to get that with Creator sets.  I think it’s a safe play for Lego to release an additional Creator Expert level medieval set in the $200 plus range once a year.  The Blacksmith has been sold out online since pretty much day one.  I will continue to voice my opinion in every survey and every time I walk into a Lego store - but I’ll also speak with my wallet by supporting the medieval sets they do release.

[GeoBrick]

Wow, this Medieval Blacksmith is really popular in the USA. Just sampling a couple cities I've been to in the past gives an out of stock note every time.
Over here, it is quite readily available.

[Roebuck]

I like the 31120 Medieval Castle for what it is, but I will probably not buy it. I do not make MOCs so the parts are not very useful to me and the minifigs I got already. Something I never thought I would say about a Disney set, but 10775 Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck's Farm are more useful to my Castle collection than the 3in1 set. It has a new sheep mould, how many years have we been waiting for that?! No only that we also get a horse, hen and rabbit in addition to some other useful parts
Since the parts are in other sets the same year it is a shame those animals do not come with the blacksmith set, that just tells you how low budget most ideas set get 

[elfprince13]

31120 is definitely going on my wishlist. I've been needing some new Black Falcon knights to go with my dual-10223 setup, and I bet I could retool + reskin the model a bit to integrate into the modular castle wall around my jousting arena.

[AndreMW]

BTW. Medieval Europe was very colorful and a far cry from the grey and mud you see in many movies. The castle would fit right in with the reconstructed painted castle walls all around here. Houses were also painted in lots of colors and painting mainly white and black/brown is a rather modern thing.

[1974]

However, the colour pallete was rather limited. No blue/purple buildings (the colour of the plaster) and many red/tan buildings (bricks/local stones). Lots of drapes, cloth and flags to offset the boring grantie/limestone as well

But it really depends on the location. Rich merchant cities we're way more fancy decorated and had much more interesting architecture

Jeremy Irons is restoring a very nice castle back to it's former glory, not grey and boring

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/09/inside-kilcoe-castle-jeremy-irons-irish-castle

[AndreMW]

Not true for the continent. There were lots of colors and limited palette was the exception, not the rule.

[Lacdaran]

On 5/7/2021 at 8:02 AM, Roebuck said:

Something I never thought I would say about a Disney set, but 10775 Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck's Farm are more useful to my Castle collection than the 3in1 set. It has a new sheep mould, how many years have we been waiting for that?! No only that we also get a horse, hen and rabbit in addition to some other useful parts

I like the 3in1 and am going to snag probably two, but I'd be hard pressed to disagree with you about the Disney set.  That thing is gold.  The only thing I'm trying to figure out is if it will be easier to buy three or four and sell off the Disney figures or purchase all the animals.

[Lyichir]

3 hours ago, Lacdaran said:

I like the 3in1 and am going to snag probably two, but I'd be hard pressed to disagree with you about the Disney set.  That thing is gold.  The only thing I'm trying to figure out is if it will be easier to buy three or four and sell off the Disney figures or purchase all the animals.

It'd probably be safer to at least hold off on stockpiling a whole bunch of that set until later this year. While nobody wants to miss their chance in case this sheep pulls a goat and never appears again, this set will likely stay around at LEAST until we start getting rumors of what's in store for next year's sets. For all we know Lego City could return to a farm theme and the sheep could appear in a cheaper set (or in a set in greater quantities), making investing heavily in this pricy 4+ set just for one sheep per set possibly risky. There's also a strong likelihood of the sheep on its own being cheaper if it shows up on Bricks & Pieces.

[gedren_y]

6 hours ago, Lyichir said:

It'd probably be safer to at least hold off on stockpiling a whole bunch of that set until later this year. While nobody wants to miss their chance in case this sheep pulls a goat and never appears again, this set will likely stay around at LEAST until we start getting rumors of what's in store for next year's sets. For all we know Lego City could return to a farm theme and the sheep could appear in a cheaper set (or in a set in greater quantities), making investing heavily in this pricy 4+ set just for one sheep per set possibly risky. There's also a strong likelihood of the sheep on its own being cheaper if it shows up on Bricks & Pieces.

The sheep isn't the only chase part in that set. It also incudes the tan horse from the Medieval Blacksmith set.

[Chiaroscuro]

39 minutes ago, gedren_y said:

The sheep isn't the only chase part in that set. It also incudes the tan horse from the Medieval Blacksmith set.

I bet the tan horse will become the standard in sets from now on, substituing the redish brown one.

Besides, the tan horse is easy available in BnP, while the sheep could end being marked as IP and may now appear for sale there.

[unclejeffie]

The horse is never in supply when i check.

then i see some clips of a bloke receiving 200 + horses and torsos which is kinda sad.

[KristinnK]

On 5/8/2021 at 9:10 AM, AndreMW said:

BTW. Medieval Europe was very colorful and a far cry from the grey and mud you see in many movies. The castle would fit right in with the reconstructed painted castle walls all around here. Houses were also painted in lots of colors and painting mainly white and black/brown is a rather modern thing.

Paint was very expensive in the Middle Ages, and the exterior of houses most certainly wouldn't have been painted except as an explicit display of wealth. Moreover castle walls where definitely never painted, I've never seen a single source indicating so. Rather they were whitewashed. On not all castles were whitewashed, and in other cases the keep or the main hall of the castle would be whitewashed while the curtain wall would be naked stone.

In any case that is all moot, Lego castles conform to their own logic mostly based on aesthetics and the conventions that have been established over the years. If we would go by historic logic the 31120 castle would be get an F- straight away by having exterior-facing half-timbered sections.

[jtooker]

I had expected that an entry for the 31120 castle would have appeared on LEGO's store by now, but all I've found is it having a mention on the crocodile's description:

Quote

Look out for other great new-for-2021 LEGO® Creator 3in1 playsets: SpaceShuttle Adventure (31117), Ferris Wheel (31119) and Medieval Castle (31120).

Since the Crocodile set is slotted for an August 1st release, I wonder if that is when the castle will be released too.  I'm assuming "Medieval Castle" is the official (English) set name.

[1974]

2 hours ago, KristinnK said:

Paint was very expensive in the Middle Ages, and the exterior of houses most certainly wouldn't have been painted except as an explicit display of wealth. Moreover castle walls where definitely never painted, I've never seen a single source indicating so. Rather they were whitewashed. On not all castles were whitewashed, and in other cases the keep or the main hall of the castle would be whitewashed while the curtain wall would be naked stone.

In any case that is all moot, Lego castles conform to their own logic mostly based on aesthetics and the conventions that have been established over the years. If we would go by historic logic the 31120 castle would be get an F- straight away by having exterior-facing half-timbered sections.

Houses would quite often be painted, there are many examples of houses still standing today from the middle ages. Just look at the wikipedia article on "timber framing" :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_framing

Castles are another issue

[Smw]

1 hour ago, jtooker said:

I had expected that an entry for the 31120 castle would have appeared on LEGO's store by now, but all I've found is it having a mention on the crocodile's description:

Since the Crocodile set is slotted for an August 1st release, I wonder if that is when the castle will be released too.  I'm assuming "Medieval Castle" is the official (English) set name.

Very little of the 1st June releases are on the store yet. Only Vidiyo and Harry Potter as far as I can think. There is a lot more coming out, but they haven't put it up yet

[TeriXeri]

Aquarium and Crocodile are Coming Soon (June 1st) on the European site.

[AmperZand]

I reckon that the B-build of 31120, the one that includes the windmill shown at the top of the back of the box, is not really intended by LEGO as a standalone construction. You can, of course, use it that way but I suspect you would be left with lots of spare parts. Instead, I believe it is intended to extend the back of the A-build and/or allow all three builds (A, B and C) to be combined into one super castle.

What I would like to know but can’t figure out from the existing images is if the A- and C-builds can be combined without B. Any thoughts?

[AndreMW]

You should really brush up your knowledge about painted castles and houses. Only certain colors were expensive others were quite common. Just around Stuttgart we have literrally hundreds of city Walls, castles and timbered buildings that are proof to what I wrote.

There is even a city wall tower with an timbered upper part that more resembles a fully-grown house and though the more colorful original paintjob no longer exists it has been verified by tests.

Edited May 10, 2021 by AndreMW

[Lion King]

5 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

Aquarium and Crocodile are Coming Soon (June 1st) on the European site.

I’m sorry but i don’t know what that means? Is it new lego set or what? 

[AndreMW]

Yes, both are new 3 in1 sets.

[AmperZand]

Links: 
Crocodile

Aquarium

 

[jtooker]

Well, it finally posted on the US store: https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/medieval-castle-31120

1426 pieces, $99.99 available August first.