Classic Castle Parts?

[evancelt]

I'm starting to pull together some light/dark bley classic castle parts to make a DIY castle set to give my kids for xmas.

Am I missing anything obvious that would be super awesome?

Also have some gate doors and minifigs set aside to include

[LettuceBrick]

Maybe some hinges so the castle can open?

[evancelt]

17 minutes ago, LettuceBrick said:

Maybe some hinges so the castle can open?

Yeah that'd be fun! Good idea.

[MAB]

For Classic Castle, surely you are missing lots of yellow bricks or at least use old greys! :-)

 

I'd add reddish and dark browns and parts for leaves so they can build some trees, some cart wheels and a horse, blue plates for a river or moat, black and white 2x2 plates for tiling a floor, lots of flame parts, and then a king, soldiers and a wizard and other appropriate minifigs and accessories such as goblets,  treasure chest (and treasure or gems), swords, etc.

[evancelt]

34 minutes ago, MAB said:

For Classic Castle, surely you are missing lots of yellow bricks or at least use old greys! :-)

Haha definitely steered clear of the old greys and most true classic parts due to price. These newer light/dark bley versions are relatively cheap in bulk on BrickLink. Would have loved if the newer bley panels / windows came with the stone print available on the classic versions.

34 minutes ago, MAB said:

I'd add reddish and dark browns and parts for leaves so they can build some trees, some cart wheels and a horse, blue plates for a river or moat, black and white 2x2 plates for tiling a floor, lots of flame parts, and then a king, soldiers and a wizard and other appropriate minifigs and accessories such as goblets,  treasure chest (and treasure or gems), swords, etc.

Great points! Both boys I am aiming to give this to have a bunch of vegetation and accessory-type items already from their massive collections of Pirate sets. Looking to give them a set of new (to them) Castle-y things that can help them reuse their existing non-Castle LEGO bins to make sweet castles.

[MAB]

Something else my lad used to use a lot of in castles - trap doors.  

[The_Cook]

Steps and ladders - usually in black or reddish-brown.
Barrels, Chests, Crates - again reddish-brown.
Flags and flagpoles - lots of colours are available.
BURPs and LURPs - much maligned but for younger builders they're a quick way of building rocks

For inspiration use Brickset or Bricklink to look at castle sets from the past and the sort of parts that they contained. Bricklink should have inventories so you can always see if some of the old-gray parts are now available in modern colours.

Minifigs! The best part about castle was one army against another army; without the play aspect it's just an Architecture set.

[TeriXeri]

31120 uses a bunch of panels and slopes to make towers/cliffs, might be useful for some raised areas.

[jtooker]

I completely agree with throwing 31120 in too.  It has minifigures and basic landscaping pieces as well as some accessories (food and weapons).  Horses would be good too.

21325 also has a bunch of nice parts, but more details focused.  On the other hand, along with the minifigures, it comes with a horse and cart and a bunch of window pieces.

[evancelt]

Applied some dark bley decals from Brick Monarch to those light bley castle pieces - they add a lot of character!

Also per your advice ordered some hinges, trapdoors, lots of extra bley bricks and plates, and had a generous donation of raised baseplates, minifigs, and bardings. It's coming together!

[Follows Closely]

Ordering pieces is the most expensive way to get a pile of block to build a castle. Not to mention, it is not ideal when it comes to fostering creativity either.  

I would recommend buying:

• two or three of 31120
• 21325: Medieval Blacksmith

Any combination of the following:

• 80024: The Legendary Flower Fruit Mountain
• 21326: Winnie the Pooh
• 11016: Creative Building Bricks

Then stop by your local pick a brick wall and get what you can in bley. Also ask an employee if there are any other bley pieces in the back.

[MAB]

The price really depends on what the pieces are. Sometimes it can be reasonably cheap to buy wall panels and trapdoors, especially as many adults don't want them.

As to creativity, it again depends what you mean by creativity. If kids are moving on from duplo castles then large wall panels (with or without windows), BURPs and so on are great, as they can be built into a castle relatively quickly so the kid does not lose interest. A big pile of small bricks may lead to a more creative build if they are skilled enough but you don't want to put a young kid off, especially if they want to build fast then creatively play.

[evancelt]

Thanks for your feedback @Follows Closely & @MAB - I agree people arrive at creativity and fun in different ways, and I think in this point my family falls into MAB's camp! My kids are recently graduated from Duplo castle and we aren't really a "set" family (the only sets I've bought in the past few years are some minecraft sets for my kids and the new santa's sleigh for my wife). Rather than buy pre-made sets my kids have pretty much always just made their own free form things with loose pieces.

As for price, 31120 is $100 and the blacksmith is $150! I was able to pick up used panels in bulk on BrickLink for roughly $0.20 each, so when I got 36 corner panels that was $7.20! I think overall the pieces for this Xmas gift project have either been super cheap or donated (the raised baseplates) and it will come no where near the $350 that 2x 31120 and blacksmith would cost.

In the end I'm looking forward to them using their creativity to come up with different castle layouts and heights, and to working with them to try out some of the more complex features found in some sets (from loose pieces!)

[evancelt]

Some used Pirates & Castle books arrived in the mail today to include for inspiration alongside the ton of castle figs and bricks/plates/etc my 5YO and 7YO have in store for themselves this Xmas weekend

Edited December 21, 2021 by evancelt

[MAB]

10 minutes ago, evancelt said:

... my 5YO and 7YO have in store for themselves this Xmas weekend

 

And their dad when the kids have finally gone to bed! :-)

[evancelt]

Happy New Years all!

Had a LEGO-y xmas after giving my kids a ton of Classic Castle loose parts. There is a large castle under construction at the moment.

Spoiler

Some crazy fires here in Colorado meant we had to evacuate for a while but hopefully back to building soon

[Follows Closely]

This is great! Thanks for the update. Thankful you and your family is safe.

Edited January 4, 2022 by Follows Closely

[evancelt]

Thought I'd post here that I'm running a Classic Castle Starter Pack Giveaway on Instagram with some of these extras if any of you are interested!

You can see the details and enter here: 

 

 

[Professor Thaum]

Hi there doo you think about black slopes for some pieces of roof ?

[evancelt]

Yeah black slopes would work well as classic roof pieces! I opted for round tower cone roof pieces instead because they seemed easier for kids.