10305 Lion Knights' Castle 90th anniversary set

[WhiteFang]

Simply the best Castle ever released.  

I just have to shout it out. I will definitely get it once is available on the store shelf. So much details. I need to take a breather. 

[Archer]

52 minutes ago, PacificDuck said:

 Am I the only one ready for a Black Knight counterpart castle? 
 

In all seriousness though, this for me is the greatest Lego set of all time 

I bought 3 of 31120 and built this moc, Black Falcon Knight's Castle 

It's a hefty sized moc and has a decently designed interior, I think they'll display well together.

Edited June 19, 2022 by Archer

[Akbalder]

9 hours ago, kalexicon said:

One of them controls the drawbridge, but there's a second one, and the portcullis appears to be controlled entirely from small gears on the top.

It controls the 2nd portcullis which is at the back of the castle.

 

A lot of the minifigure have "fun" heads. I hope that they will be 2 sided faces to be able to build a serious army.

 

[Slave2Leia]

This set is absolutely amazing!  
Definitely a day 1 purchase!  

One of the things I like most is that it’s a reigning Queen, in armor too, and all the female knights and guards.  

[Black Feather]

Anyone know if early VIP access applies only online?  Or can you walk in the store and get it August 3 too?

[Rjbricks]

How does one know if this will be d2c or retail?

 

[GeoBrick]

1 hour ago, Black Feather said:

Anyone know if early VIP access applies only online?  Or can you walk in the store and get it August 3 too?

As far as I know, VIP access is only online.

[unclejeffie]

1 hour ago, Rjbricks said:

How does one know if this will be d2c or retail?

 

I wonder this myself.

However after a nights sleep, I feel this is more of a play set instead of display set. The new galaxy explorer is much easier to stand as a display.

Also I don't have enough funds to keep all my interests payable. So I'm torn between going castle (which is in my opinion less displayable). or big Moc spaceships UCS Star Wars style..

So I either will sell 1 collection or the other, life is expensive enough as it is.

[Merlo]

I'm very disappointed with the castle. Irregular shape is great, size is impressive, shields and figures are nostalgic. That's about it.

It's like Lego thought "AFOL's liked big gray blocky things when they were kids, so they'll like enlarged versions of it now". When actually those sets were like that because of severe limitations put on the designers, that new sets don't need to have, at least not self-imposed ones.

I don't need "more size" now that I'm older (even though it doesn't hurt), I need more sofistication. And yes, obviously Lego is expensive and you can't make a castle with MOC detail levels, but you can make it look imaginative and evocative, just like some old sets used to.

Lowenstein castle had no trouble doing that, despite the odd look that it had trying to incorporate details into such small scale.

This is just a big plain dollhouse.

The lack of imagination while making this is so striking it's unbelievable. They just remade creator castle, but bigger and more serious.

-some terrain left of the entrance? check. hey, give it a ramp, why not

-tree right of the entrance? check.

-that little window thingy on the tower? check.

-some plants on the wall to the left, followed by wattle and daub and a watermill? check.

-the shape of a couple of creator castles connected together? check.

I really don't see how can you put less effort than this and still call it something new.

And the Galaxy Explorer got the same sad treatment.

 

Edited June 19, 2022 by Merlo

[Blazej_Holen]

Thats really strange to complain obout grey “blocky things”. Show me medieval castle which is not grey and blocky / bulky? 🤔

Edited June 19, 2022 by Blazej_Holen

[Merlo]

7 minutes ago, Blazej_Holen said:

Thats really strange to complain obout grey “blocky things”. Show me medieval castle which is not grey and blocky / bulky? 🤔

If Lego had a real world castle that looked detailed and imposing then yes, it wouldn't matter much that it's gray and blocky. There are a lot of MOC's where just the detail on castle walls is enough, you don't need the shaping.

However, detail is expensive and would raise brick count too much so it's easier to play with shapes and colors instead. And, as I said, this castle already plays with a shape a bit and that I find to be by far the most interesting part.

And while it's not bad or anything, it just looks plain for what it is. Like someone was supposed to make a castle, they did a decent job of enlarging 31120 and making it more serious and that was it.

Old castle sets had a certain blocky charm with simple figure uniforms and everything was obviously brick-made on first sight.

So you could take one look and say "that's Lego". And nowadays we have amazing MOC's that don't look like Lego of old at all, but the art and presentation of it are something to behold.

And this is kinda sadly stuck in the middle. It doesn't look blocky and playful (even compared to 31120) as it lacks sharp edges and exposed studs and it doesn't look like detailed MOC's. It's kind of failing at two things at once.

[R0Sch]

2 hours ago, Rjbricks said:

How does one know if this will be d2c or retail?

Because on lego.com it has the exclusive tag. The Galaxy Explorer for instance doesn't. So the castle is a D2C with a small chance to probably come to select stores that sell such sets 3 month or so after initial release.

[Poco Lypso]

11 minutes ago, Merlo said:

If Lego had a real world castle that looked detailed and imposing then yes, it wouldn't matter much that it's gray and blocky. There are a lot of MOC's where just the detail on castle walls is enough, you don't need the shaping.

However, detail is expensive and would raise brick count too much so it's easier to play with shapes and colors instead. And, as I said, this castle already plays with a shape a bit and that I find to be by far the most interesting part.

And while it's not bad or anything, it just looks plain for what it is. Like someone was supposed to make a castle, they did a decent job of enlarging 31120 and making it more serious and that was it.

Old castle sets had a certain blocky charm with simple figure uniforms and everything was obviously brick-made on first sight.

So you could take one look and say "that's Lego". And nowadays we have amazing MOC's that don't look like Lego of old at all, but the art and presentation of it are something to behold.

And this is kinda sadly stuck in the middle. It doesn't look blocky and playful (even compared to 31120) as it lacks sharp edges and exposed studs and it doesn't look like detailed MOC's. It's kind of failing at two things at once.

Imo this is the by far the greatest castle lego has ever released, in both size and quality.

Tbh, I don't think anyone expected this to be on a MOC level of detail. Lego does not design MOCs. They design sets which follow certain rules, the lego system. There is lots of great MOCs out there but they either bend the rules or are very fragile. 

That being said I have a few gripes myself. The bland bley walls feel a bit boring, a bit dark bley here and there would have spiced things up. I don't know how to feel about the ramp. The minifigs could have been better, while I like the lion knights, reusing the bard and the blackmith torsos feels a bit uninspired. The magician is was designed with nostalgia in mind, but I prefer the one I got from BAM recently. I already disliked the forestment gwp design, I mean, why use black when you could use dark brown? Prolly nostalgia... But its been done again here, another black tree.

Overall this is still a castle I would like to own. I really hope its gonna be available in retail stores, then I will grab it at 20-30% discount. 

 

 

[Yoggington]

Of all the gripes to read this morning, 'too many female minifigs' was not one I was expecting. I can't believe people are complaining about too many minifigs of any type...  Swap the heads, ""problem"" solved!

Looks great overall - a little bland in places maybe, but easily modded to your own preferences. Can't say I'm a huge fan of that style of roof on the white sections, but better than plain slopes too. That's where my first edits will be targeted.
 

 

Interesting that the new torso didn't turn up here after all.

Despite the "Lion" in the name, for some reason I was expecting this to be Black Falcon faction. Big fan of the Falcon horse barding in particular, here's hoping that turns up on pick-a-brick.

 

 

All in all, pretty great set, 8/10. Between this and the new coaster, oof, my poor wallet.

[williejm]

16 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

This... is... BEAUTIFUL.

I don't know about anyone else, but this set is EVERYTHING I wanted in a castle - all I hoped for and more. Barding for horses, Lion Knights reborn, shields with the old Yellow Castle insignia, dark green trees, presumably a few BURPs hidden away in there - but most of all, the maid's headdress  It's honestly like Lego read my mind with their medieval offerings this year. There were two things I needed for MOCs/films that Lego had never produced - a medieval headdress and a lute - and they've delivered on both.

Day 1 purchase for me, and a contender for the best set ever imo

Is that just the existing Egyptian headdress in all-white? I did wonder if it would meet your exacting standards … knowing you wanted them 

[Rjbricks]

1 hour ago, R0Sch said:

Because on lego.com it has the exclusive tag. The Galaxy Explorer for instance doesn't. So the castle is a D2C with a small chance to probably come to select stores that sell such sets 3 month or so after initial release.

Thanks.

 

Guess that means I’ll be ordering on the 3rd then!

[Poco Lypso]

just saw a post on facebook, apparently there are stickers on the shields, smh. 

[neithan]

The new castle looks really great, but besides the 4600 pieces it doesn`t feel like a 400€ Set, more like 250-300€.

 

But hey, it`s aiming at AFOLs and they will buy it.

I will maybe buy it, but not for 400€.

[Merlo]

1 hour ago, Poco Lypso said:

Imo this is the by far the greatest castle lego has ever released, in both size and quality.

Tbh, I don't think anyone expected this to be on a MOC level of detail. Lego does not design MOCs. They design sets which follow certain rules, the lego system. There is lots of great MOCs out there but they either bend the rules or are very fragile. 

That being said I have a few gripes myself. The bland bley walls feel a bit boring, a bit dark bley here and there would have spiced things up. I don't know how to feel about the ramp. The minifigs could have been better, while I like the lion knights, reusing the bard and the blackmith torsos feels a bit uninspired. The magician is was designed with nostalgia in mind, but I prefer the one I got from BAM recently. I already disliked the forestment gwp design, I mean, why use black when you could use dark brown? Prolly nostalgia... But its been done again here, another black tree.

Overall this is still a castle I would like to own. I really hope its gonna be available in retail stores, then I will grab it at 20-30% discount. 

 

 

I mean, maybe it is if you compare it to older sets 1 vs 1. But in terms of expectations given what was possible in each era, this is rough. There's simultaneously a whole lot here, and really not a whole lot here.

Tbh Lego designs sets of various qualities and some are more inspired than the others.

I agree with all your gripes. I would buy this if it was half price because I find half of it great, and half of it just filler :)

 

[Poco Lypso]

18 minutes ago, Merlo said:

I mean, maybe it is if you compare it to older sets 1 vs 1. But in terms of expectations given what was possible in each era, this is rough. There's simultaneously a whole lot here, and really not a whole lot here.

Tbh Lego designs sets of various qualities and some are more inspired than the others.

I agree with all your gripes. I would buy this if it was half price because I find half of it great, and half of it just filler :)

 

Thats true, all castles that came before where nowhere near this size and detail. Hard to make a fair comparison.

 

 

 

[aabdguy87]

2 hours ago, Poco Lypso said:

Overall this is still a castle I would like to own. I really hope its gonna be available in retail stores, then I will grab it at 20-30% discount. 

 

 

Where's the discount coming from?

[Poco Lypso]

5 minutes ago, aabdguy87 said:

Where's the discount coming from?

huh? wdym? obviously from the retailer, xD

I mean, I got the blacksmith shop from lego.com, thought its an exclusive, only to see it at 30% off a couple months later online.

 

Edited June 19, 2022 by Poco Lypso

[unclejeffie]

since its exclusive the chances are very slim.

[aabdguy87]

2 minutes ago, Poco Lypso said:

huh? wdym? obviously from the retailer, xD

I mean, I got the blacksmith shop from lego.com, thought its an exclusive, only to see it at 30% off a couple months later online.

 

I wasn't aware that discount for Lego sets were even a thing, let alone a 30% discount. I thought that everything Lego related, especially important sets like this, went out of stock immediately or didn't need to be discounted considering how popular Lego is. Do you mind PMing me the store that had a 30% discount on the blacksmith?

[jodawill]

 I'm really surprised by all the negative comments about this set. Please, everyone, just buy this set. Buy multiple copies. If you don't, we likely won't see another castle ever again.