10305 Lion Knights' Castle 90th anniversary set

[Archer]

I like the set, but it is really annoying that Lego once again is going to make me shell out $400 and then I'm going to have to shell out more money fore a big bag of fertilizer to dunk the figures in to give them that historically accurate smell! I mean its completely ridiculous that lego is trying to promote this idea that Medieval Knights wouldn't have been filthy and smelly! How do i suspend my disbelief if the figs aren't coated in at minimum two millimeters of grime? I should be able to smell this set from the next room over. I'm tired of this shoehorned woke representation of cleanliness, and unoffensive odor!

 

[Poco Lypso]

1 hour ago, Withacee said:

Well, my wife and I are long-time LEGO-fans, but she was so p*ssed off with the "dragged in there by the hairs" female representation malarkey of this castle set that she decided on two things: 1. We're definitely not buying this one, out of sheer principle (sod being able to change the fig heads). And two, she went straight over to BlueBrixx to buy Burg Eltz :-) First non-LEGO set we ever bought in 50 years. For the life of me, I could not stop her. I can live without this castle set, though, so we saved a lot of money.

haha, if she can live with inferior brick quality and the total lack of minifigs...

 

[dilligan]

There's an independent Lego retailer in Australia who has this set listed as "Coming Soon".

[Roebuck]

6 minutes ago, dilligan said:

There's an independent Lego retailer in Australia who has this set listed as "Coming Soon".

That sound like good news, hopefully it will be widely available so we can get a better deal on the price

 

[SirBlake]

15 minutes ago, Archer said:

I like the set, but it is really annoying that Lego once again is going to make me shell out $400 and then I'm going to have to shell out more money fore a big bag of fertilizer to dunk the figures in to give them that historically accurate smell! I mean its completely ridiculous that lego is trying to promote this idea that Medieval Knights wouldn't have been filthy and smelly! How do i suspend my disbelief if the figs aren't coated in at minimum two millimeters of grime? I should be able to smell this set from the next room over. I'm tired of this shoehorned woke representation of cleanliness, and unoffensive odor!

 

Hahah! Thank you. I needed this. 

[unclejeffie]

If you go to the lego site through a link from brick watch , you can see the MSRP price of this set (25 euro)

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Withacee said:

Well, my wife and I are long-time LEGO-fans, but she was so p*ssed off with the "dragged in there by the hairs" female representation malarkey of this castle set that she decided on two things: 1. We're definitely not buying this one, out of sheer principle (sod being able to change the fig heads). And two, she went straight over to BlueBrixx to buy Burg Eltz :-) First non-LEGO set we ever bought in 50 years. For the life of me, I could not stop her. I can live without this castle set, though, so we saved a lot of money.

Surely you could have swapped a couple of heads and been happy?

Although if it was done out of principle, I guess you haven't bought much LEGO over the past five years or so since more female representation (in traditional male roles) in sets has been going on for a little while now.

 

3 minutes ago, unclejeffie said:

If you go to the lego site through a link from brick watch , you can see the MSRP price of this set (25 euro)

Not for the castle. I guess you are confusing it with the promotional set.

 

[unclejeffie]

1 minute ago, MAB said:

 

Not for the castle. I guess you are confusing it with the promotional set.

 

Yeah indeed! wrong topic!

[Merlo]

4 hours ago, Akbalder said:

More neutral faces allows to put the minfigures in a fight or not. When the minifig has a very special expression, it's harder to do it.

Agree. First thing I noticed. Lego is not historically accurate so if they want to give me an entire castle populated by fighting women, I don't really care.
But it's weird how the female minifigures always look like they have make up on. It's like Lego is saying: "Girls can grow up to be whatever they want! Assuming they're pretty enough, of course. We don't want no unshaved women here in Lego, yuck."

 

2 hours ago, Withacee said:

 And two, she went straight over to BlueBrixx to buy Burg Eltz :-) First non-LEGO set we ever bought in 50 years. For the life of me, I could not stop her. I can live without this castle set, though, so we saved a lot of money.

Nice try, BlueBrixx :)

[MAB]

8 minutes ago, Merlo said:

Agree. First thing I noticed. Lego is not historically accurate so if they want to give me an entire castle populated by fighting women, I don't really care.
But it's weird how the female minifigures always look like they have make up on. It's like Lego is saying: "Girls can grow up to be whatever they want! Assuming they're pretty enough, of course. We don't want no unshaved women here in Lego, yuck."

If they don't have makeup, lipstick or curled eyelashes then some people accuse them of being male and want more female representation.

Maybe this was one male and one female after all.

[Alexandrina]

On 6/19/2022 at 1:00 PM, williejm said:

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

It's a close enough approximation without getting into the uncanny valley of too-realistic-given-its-plastic-bricks.

2 hours ago, Withacee said:

Well, my wife and I are long-time LEGO-fans, but she was so p*ssed off with the "dragged in there by the hairs" female representation malarkey of this castle set that she decided on two things: 1. We're definitely not buying this one, out of sheer principle (sod being able to change the fig heads). And two, she went straight over to BlueBrixx to buy Burg Eltz :-) First non-LEGO set we ever bought in 50 years. For the life of me, I could not stop her. I can live without this castle set, though, so we saved a lot of money

Honestly, this makes no sense to me at all. There are all sorts of reasons to decide not to buy this set - too expensive, don't like the build, not a castle fan - but being angry at the amount of female minifigures is a really weird one imo. Especially when it's entirely in keeping with standard Lego practice for gender representation in the past few years. I don't remember anybody having an issue with the female knight in the Blacksmith or the 3-in-1 Castle last year. What exactly is the issue?

1 hour ago, Archer said:

How do i suspend my disbelief if the figs aren't coated in at minimum two millimeters of grime?

Common misconception - Medieval Knights were very rarely covered in grime. The sheer amount of sweat from being covered head-to-toe in steel and swinging swords about tended to wash the grime away 

[GeoBrick]

9 minutes ago, MAB said:

If they don't have makeup, lipstick or curled eyelashes then some people accuse them of being male and want more female representation.

Maybe this was one male and one female after all.

Nope. It was a female and male. 
Males are taller, and evidently have larger plumage. 

[MAB]

12 minutes ago, GeoBrick said:

Nope. It was a female and male. 
Males are taller, and evidently have larger plumage. 

One is just standing slightly further away.

[Poco Lypso]

43 minutes ago, Alexandrina said:

It's a close enough approximation without getting into the uncanny valley of too-realistic-given-its-plastic-bricks.

Honestly, this makes no sense to me at all. There are all sorts of reasons to decide not to buy this set - too expensive, don't like the build, not a castle fan - but being angry at the amount of female minifigures is a really weird one imo. Especially when it's entirely in keeping with standard Lego practice for gender representation in the past few years. I don't remember anybody having an issue with the female knight in the Blacksmith or the 3-in-1 Castle last year. What exactly is the issue?

Common misconception - Medieval Knights were very rarely covered in grime. The sheer amount of sweat from being covered head-to-toe in steel and swinging swords about tended to wash the grime away 

I seriously doubt gender representation is the issue here. Its about role assignment imo. They want to steer away from traditional gender roles, aka men defending the defenseless princess and some such.

NGL this one here feels very tacked on. 

[dimc]

Having been away this weekend, firstly...I NEED THIS. I've been collecting castle and Lego since the early 90s (missed the 00s though), and heavily so in the past few years. It's always been amazing to get old castles, the minifigs are great, but having only the 3-in-1 and blacksmith felt good but not great. This, however, is just incredible. I love every bit of it. I love the throwback to the yellow castle, the old shield designs, the horse barding in the rarer colors (I have way too many yellow/red), the black sword (throwback to the armor shop), the closing helms, the breastplates, 3 factions represented, amazing play functions, more details inside the rooms, ladders (sometimes) to get around, the cloth flags and that cape(!), a variety of civilians, the thatched roof and half-timbering. It's all just so damn good. I will buy one early, and maybe another with 2xVIP later on. I love the female representation; female-presenting figs were SO rare back in the day, at least in castle garb. King's Mountain Fortress, Knights Challenge, Forestmen's Crossing, and that's basically it until the 2000s I think. It's easy to change if you care, and it just feels so much better.

What I am hoping for: some battle packs OR a redo of the classic 5 or 6 minifig packs. We have falcons, lion knights, and forestmen factions now, so 1 of each plus a civilian and civilian child would be awesome. Or even a squire type figure. Plus some spare weapons, shields, and flags. I'd even take a medieval line of CMFs, especially if one came with a cloth falcon flag.

While a new line of castle would be great, as someone else mentioned, just doing a classic remake every few years would make me (and my wallet) really happy. Barracuda Bay, the 3-in-1 for pirates and castle, this, the new Galaxy Explorer, these are all fantastic. I'd go nuts for a redo of Eldorado or the Trading Post to compliment PoBB, and then a remake of a Black Knights castle. Even a non-raised baseplate Eldorado could be 3-in-1'd to allow for building things like Lagoon Lockup, Sabre Island, and Broadside's Brig, and potentially all at the same time. That way 2xEldorado would get you basically an entire line (minus a big ship) of Imperial sets. I understand that the chances of Islanders coming back is basically nil, for good reason.

Anyway, my thoughts can be summed up as such: YAYYYYYYY CASTLE!

[Poco Lypso]

1 hour ago, dilligan said:

There's an independent Lego retailer in Australia who has this set listed as "Coming Soon".

got a link?

[Yoggington]

11 hours ago, TakeaBrick said:

The fact that in the 10305 set the knights are women and there is only Queen but no King obviously upset some people. I bet there are going to be a lot of people buying up male minifig heads in LEGO stores just to swap the female ones in 10305. Whether people like it or not, they need to accept the fact that the castle theme (as in all things actually) is no longer male-centric. Heck, even the gender binary concept in LEGO is probably getting out-phased, yet we are still arguing about the women taking the dominance from men.

I watched the whole video and can't tell if it's satire or not.

Complaining that it's an entirely female cast (even the males). Preceding every line with "I've nothing against diversity but.."

Please be satire.

[Alexandrina]

1 hour ago, Poco Lypso said:

NGL this one here feels very tacked on. 

It really, really doesn't. The Forestmen, Lion Knights and Black Falcons all have an even gender balance, in keeping with recent Lego policy on all in-house themes (and aligning with the gender balance of the knights in last year's Castle offerings and this year's GWP, none of which came in for criticism). There are two soldiers (the Black Falcon with the full-face helmet and the Lion Knight with the bugle) who could be male or female, I can't tell from the images. There's a Queen but no King, sure - but there are three male civilians (one kid, the baker and the guy with the oxen cart) compared to two female civilians (one kid and the maid) and none of those roles are out of place. If anything, the fact that we've never had a maid before is a pretty egregious omission.

I honestly fail to see how Lego doing the same as they've done for years can be seen as being 'tacked on'. There's no controversy here apart from the controversy bigoted minds want there to be - I don't believe any serious-minded reviewer is going to see this set and go "hmm, build's good, interesting animals... too many women"

[Poco Lypso]

1 hour ago, Yoggington said:

I watched the whole video and can't tell if it's satire or not.

Complaining that it's an entirely female cast (even the males). Preceding every line with "I've nothing against diversity but.."

Please be satire.

Doesn't like satire to me. 

I mean, he has a point. Personally I don't look too much into it, and should I end up buying the castle I will simply replace the 'knights' heads.

I think this set might also hint at why we didn't get too much castle in recent years. Maybe some woke people complained to lego about the old gender roles and lego didnt wanna upset them further.

8 minutes ago, Alexandrina said:

It really, really doesn't. The Forestmen, Lion Knights and Black Falcons all have an even gender balance, in keeping with recent Lego policy on all in-house themes (and aligning with the gender balance of the knights in last year's Castle offerings and this year's GWP, none of which came in for criticism). There are two soldiers (the Black Falcon with the full-face helmet and the Lion Knight with the bugle) who could be male or female, I can't tell from the images. There's a Queen but no King, sure - but there are three male civilians (one kid, the baker and the guy with the oxen cart) compared to two female civilians (one kid and the maid) and none of those roles are out of place. If anything, the fact that we've never had a maid before is a pretty egregious omission.

I honestly fail to see how Lego doing the same as they've done for years can be seen as being 'tacked on'. There's no controversy here apart from the controversy bigoted minds want there to be - I don't believe any serious-minded reviewer is going to see this set and go "hmm, build's good, interesting animals... too many women"

ehhh,

controversy bigoted?

serious-minded reviewer?

is this some sort of a good vs. evil kind of thing where you get cancelled out if you don't pick the right opinion?

 

 

[Alexandrina]

7 minutes ago, Poco Lypso said:

Maybe some woke people complained to lego about the old gender roles and lego didnt wanna upset them further.

Hang about... why are you making a strawman about "woke" people complaining about gender roles (something which there's literally no evidence for) when it seems to me that the only people complaining are those who don't want women in their Lego sets?

Honestly, you can tell it's either satire or made by someone who needs to live in the real world, because the title includes the phrase "woke problem"

10 minutes ago, Poco Lypso said:

controversy bigoted?

serious-minded reviewer?

is this some sort of a good vs. evil kind of thing where you get cancelled out if you don't pick the right opinion?

I don't know where you got that from. There's no good or evil - just the pattern that complaints are coming from Youtube and individuals who for whatever reason are unhappy with the amount of female minifigures, whilst most people are more interested in the quality of the set rather than getting hung up on the amount of female knights there are.

[Poco Lypso]

7 minutes ago, Alexandrina said:

Hang about... why are you making a strawman about "woke" people complaining about gender roles (something which there's literally no evidence for) when it seems to me that the only people complaining are those who don't want women in their Lego sets?

Honestly, you can tell it's either satire or made by someone who needs to live in the real world, because the title includes the phrase "woke problem"

I don't know where you got that from. There's no good or evil - just the pattern that complaints are coming from Youtube and individuals who for whatever reason are unhappy with the amount of female minifigures, whilst most people are more interested in the quality of the set rather than getting hung up on the amount of female knights there are.

when you use those words, bigoted amd serious, you pretty much tell the audience who is good and who is evil. its a simple technique. meaning, if somebody complains about female knights he is bigoted and cannot be taken serious, and its better to cancel.those people, thats how it works.

I have never heard anyone saying they didn't want women in their lego, where did you get that from?

Ofc there isnt any evidence, thats why I said MAYBE. we got woke movements all over the place, its fashionable to be woke these days and I honestly would be surprised if the largest toy company in the world wouldnt get pressure by woke groups to become more woke.

 

[Rand Holindale]

Wow, didn’t expect to see today’s politics creeping so much into a post about a Lego castle.  You have the right to not buy this because of female representation.  That’s okay, it’s your choice.  To me, that’s close-minded, as a number of girls and women do in fact buy and play with Legos. While this set is catering to 80’s and early 90’s Lego children, it doesn’t mean fathers (or mothers) wouldn’t let their children play with this and girls (and boys) like to see girls in roles other than a peasant wife or servant.   Even if that’s not the case, it’s Lego, swap heads.

As for the Queen, I get a little Queen Calanthe vibe from her.  I’ve got plenty of kings from other sets,  no problem with a warrior queen.  

I’m excited for the set and only wish it came with a few more horses and barding.  

[dimc]

LOL at all these woke complaints. If anything, in a world where males fight and die in the wars, there should be more female figures.

If this bothers you, swap the heads instead of complaining weirdly about it.

[jodawill]

4 hours ago, Archer said:

I like the set, but it is really annoying that Lego once again is going to make me shell out $400 and then I'm going to have to shell out more money fore a big bag of fertilizer to dunk the figures in to give them that historically accurate smell! I mean its completely ridiculous that lego is trying to promote this idea that Medieval Knights wouldn't have been filthy and smelly! How do i suspend my disbelief if the figs aren't coated in at minimum two millimeters of grime? I should be able to smell this set from the next room over. I'm tired of this shoehorned woke representation of cleanliness, and unoffensive odor!

 

Everyone has different opinions on what takes it too far from the verge of realism. I think pretty much everyone thinks Nexo Knights are incredibly stupid, or at the very least, completely separate from the classic castle lines. For me, it's not only the female knights, but also the inclusion of Majesto. I mentioned that in my original comment, but that's not really a controversial take, so it was lost in the comments. Majesto doesn't belong in this set. He belongs to a complete different castle era, and to me, it isn't similar enough to the original to make me think it's actually supposed to be the same character.

Still, to me, both of these points seem nitpicky in light of everything that is great about this set. I love the "dollhouse" aspect and the non-realistic tree colors. To me, this is the first set in a long time that's actually looked like Lego to me. I'm pretty old school. I like the old, simple designs of forts and castles. This set looks to me the same way the early '90s castles looked to me when I was a kid (and yet they don't appear that way to me now, looking back as an adult). It's pretty much exactly what I was hoping for - it even gives the feeling of being built on a raised baseplate with the rounded green corners and so forth. I remember I was very underwhelmed when I built the Helm's Deep set because it didn't feel complete. I think this set completely solves that problem.

I'm really hoping that Black Monarch's Castle gets the same treatment very soon. I think that's probably the best castle Lego ever made until now. A Dark Forest set would send chills down my spine.

[Triceron]

1 hour ago, Poco Lypso said:

when you use those words, bigoted amd serious, you pretty much tell the audience who is good and who is evil. its a simple technique. meaning, if somebody complains about female knights he is bigoted and cannot be taken serious, and its better to cancel.those people, thats how it works.

I have never heard anyone saying they didn't want women in their lego, where did you get that from?

Ofc there isnt any evidence, thats why I said MAYBE. we got woke movements all over the place, its fashionable to be woke these days and I honestly would be surprised if the largest toy company in the world wouldnt get pressure by woke groups to become more woke.

 

Well, the video you're arguing in favour for literally talks about 'pushing men aside' and that 'all the knights are female'.  I think that's quite a reach.

The set has 50/50 male and females, these are the facts.  We can talk about it one way or another, but to make an argument that it 'pushes men aside' or that 'all the knights are female' is quite a focused argument, one that undermines any reasonable means to have female representation in the set.  What amount of female knights would not be considered 'pushing men aside'?  Well the only answer is zero female knights.  The argument itself is rooted in bigotry.   It goes out of its way to paint a picture of it being politically wrong, and questions whether it's worth upsetting the AFOLs by 'pushing men aside'.  I personally don't think this is a reasonable argument.

And anyone using the 'historically knights were only male' argument is a non-argument, because Lego Castle has never intended itself to be historically accurate.  It's always incorporated elements of folklore and fantasy, to all of its themes.  I think it's fair if people would prefer more male guard heads than females, but it's pretty clear to me the video went further than simply expressing a preference.

I honestly don't think this needs to be criticized any more than the trees being black instead of brown.  The trees are not historically accurate, and we don't have to define the trees being black by any measure of 'wokeness'.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Triceron