10305 Lion Knights' Castle 90th anniversary set

[jodawill]

What parts did they use for the thatched roof? Is it available in red and dark red? (I want to recolor mine to yellow and red.)

[Merlo]

5 hours 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.

It's quite possible to make a more female-looking figure without exaggerating much.

[SirBlake]

All of this tribalism and argument has finally won me over. 
 

Make Lions great again! All you Black Falcon lovers are just woke snowflakes! Sad!

 

/s

3 minutes ago, Lyichir said:

I've been fiddling around on Stud.io trying to recreate parts of this set to figure how they fit together. There's some real neat geometry in the staircase up from the kitchen—a 3/4/5 triangular area with a finished (gapless) floor.

Can't wait 'til reviews of this set start to show up—I get the feeling there's a lot of neat details we still haven't seen from the limited number of images that are available so far.

Yeah, there some cool stuff hiding in there. I can’t wait to see the details of that courtyard. 

[BTappel]

Would love to see a pic of the back of the castle when closed.  From the pic showing the back of the open castle, there is a section in the middle that looks like the outside of the castle.  This makes me think the outsides fold in, but do not quite meet in the middle on the back.

[Triceron]

15 minutes ago, jodawill said:

What parts did they use for the thatched roof? Is it available in red and dark red? (I want to recolor mine to yellow and red.)

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=27261#T=C

Looks like no red, only reddish-brown being the closest color.

-Edit-  Oops, looks like I was wrong.  There IS a dark red, just no bright colored red if that's what you were looking for.

Edited June 20, 2022 by Triceron

[jodawill]

11 minutes ago, Triceron said:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=27261#T=C

Looks like no red, only reddish-brown being the closest color.

Thanks. That's too bad. Maybe I can find another part that will work. Maybe some cascading, rounded tiles? Like the Playmobil thatched roofs.

Edit: That piece does come in black, so you could make a Black Falcon's castle with a black roof, just like Black Falcon's Fortress.

Edited June 20, 2022 by jodawill

[Triceron]

27 minutes ago, jodawill said:

Thanks. That's too bad. Maybe I can find another part that will work. Maybe some cascading, rounded tiles? Like the Playmobil thatched roofs.

Edit: That piece does come in black, so you could make a Black Falcon's castle with a black roof, just like Black Falcon's Fortress.

Darn it, now you're really having me consider making a moc for that....

Now I really wished they made some big Black Falcon banners

[Lyichir]

44 minutes ago, Triceron said:

https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=27261#T=C

Looks like no red, only reddish-brown being the closest color.

-Edit-  Oops, looks like I was wrong.  There IS a dark red, just no bright colored red if that's what you were looking for.

Dark red for that part and bright red for this one could work if you want to recolor the roofs to red. Though to be honest I always interpreted the red castle roofs as shingles of some sort, rather than thatch like these.

[SirBlake]

50 minutes ago, BTappel said:

Would love to see a pic of the back of the castle when closed.  From the pic showing the back of the open castle, there is a section in the middle that looks like the outside of the castle.  This makes me think the outsides fold in, but do not quite meet in the middle on the back.

Yeah it seems like that half bley/half dark bley section to the right of the gate (when viewed from the back) is technically the back of the castle. 
 

This is the first hinged castle where the courtyard isn’t enclosed in a square by the outer walls. Instead, the courtyard is static, and kind of in the front of the castle. 

[Dr.Cogg]

 

1 hour ago, BTappel said:

Would love to see a pic of the back of the castle when closed.  From the pic showing the back of the open castle, there is a section in the middle that looks like the outside of the castle.  This makes me think the outsides fold in, but do not quite meet in the middle on the back.

watch the last video to see the courtyard.

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/lion-knights-castle-10305

[Poco Lypso]

1 hour ago, Triceron said:

Historically, there were no known female knights.  Even Joan of Arc was never knighted, she merely fought as a soldier.  There were women who fulfilled chivalric duties, but none formally in history recognized as a 'Knight'.  So for any argument that this 'pushes men aside' as well as being 'historically accurate' would be regarding this role as an exclusively male title in history and wanting to keep it that way.  I don't think that Castle has ever really presented itself to historic accuracy, which is why I think this is a non-argument.

And considering the set has 50/50 representation and not 'more females knights than males', I don't really consider the points being true at all.  "Knight" is also quite a loose definition considering it could mean anyone wearing armor.  The guy who made the video even clarifies that he thinks X guy in armor is only a squire while Y girl in armor is clearly a Knight which is what he's using as his argument to say all Knights are female.  It's a stretch, to say the least.

Except I haven't made any arguments against this, because that's how I feel as well.  I prefer a male-centric army.  My argument is that making statements beyond expressing a preference is needlessly politicizing something that (IMO) isn't that big of a deal.

I absolutely agree, but it's a bit hard to take seriously when you used 'Woke' multiple times in your own post.

You didnt originalky relate your zero knights statement to any historical/cultural circumstances. it came across as if there were two groups of people, one being 100% in favor of the set and the other only satified if there was none at all. maybe I got you wrong...

TBH the term woke has become a delicate subject and I tend to have a rather critical approach. Sometimes people come up with ideas to rewrite fairy tales for the sake of wokeness or bring  wokeness into history when its historically inaccurate for the sake of teaching children inclusiveness or representation. At the very least its a debatable subject!. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody came up with a theory that the castle has no king and queen, because that would imply the dame of the castle was married to the king in the traditional sense, and who knows... but I digress :)

 

[SirBlake]

21 minutes ago, Dr.Cogg said:

 

watch the last video to see the courtyard.

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/lion-knights-castle-10305

Ah, very nice! I somehow missed that the first dozen times I watched it, lol. 

[jodawill]

I'm curious to hear other people's opinions on this. I just sorted all of the castle sets on Brickset by year in descending order to see when the last great castle was made. This is highly subjective, of course, so I'd like to hear everyone's take. But I would argue that the last truly great castle was Black Knight's Castle 6086 in 1992 - exactly 30 years ago. All of the subsequent castles were a bit too frilly for my personal taste, although there were a lot of great castle themed sets between those years, of course. This set really evokes images in my mind of a war, good versus evil.

I've been waiting my entire life for this set. I'm really glad it's being released now when I can actually afford it. (I missed out on a lot of great sets in the past like the Imperial Flagship and the Medieval Market Village just because I couldn't afford them at the time.)

[karrit]

I think I'm going to swap horses when I build this set.  I think the brick yellow one is better suited for the Queen's horse and I'll use the dark orange one for the Black Falcon knight.  

Personally I'm glad to see the mix of male & female heads in this set.  Whether historically correct or not I hated that the early Castle sets didn't have any female representation.  I think I only own one castle set with a female figure and it's a pretty lame looking figure.  The same can be said for the early Pirate sets too.  I don't recall any female figures In them either.  Those were the themes I collected along with classic Space.

And that jerk in the "woke" video is the prime example of why I detest "social media infuencers" and rarely waste my time watching any of that drivel.

[Mr. Cube]

When I'm looking at this set, it's like the travel through the time into my childhood. LEGO knows what they're doing, hehe.

I don't understand complaints about black trees. Yesterday I was i forest and many, many trees are very dark grey or nearly black. Having all trees in brown is more innacurate than having black tree there and there. It's also more fitting to the theme.

[dimc]

5 minutes ago, jodawill said:

I'm curious to hear other people's opinions on this. I just sorted all of the castle sets on Brickset by year in descending order to see when the last great castle was made. This is highly subjective, of course, so I'd like to hear everyone's take. But I would argue that the last truly great castle was Black Knight's Castle 6086 in 1992 - exactly 30 years ago. All of the subsequent castles were a bit too frilly for my personal taste, although there were a lot of great castle themed sets between those years, of course. This set really evokes images in my mind of a war, good versus evil.

I've been waiting my entire life for this set. I'm really glad it's being released now when I can actually afford it. (I missed out on a lot of great sets in the past like the Imperial Flagship and the Medieval Market Village just because I couldn't afford them at the time.)

I have a fondness for the raised baseplates; Eldorado and Imperial Trading Post, King's Mountain Fortress, even the Aquanauts base. I have not yet acquired 6086 but have all of the others mentioned. 6086 is so big, has more details than some earlier castles, has the half-timbering, the best horse barding colors, so many knights with varying pieces, and a ghost. The side and back walls can stand to be upgraded a level, but that's not too hard if you have some other castle pieces.

That said, I dislike having to be careful with the raised baseplates. They're all around 30 years old now and while I haven't broken any yet, it's not fun. The 90th is just so great looking, has so many interior details, tons of play functions, three factions, barding, even the damn box looks right. Lego knocked it out of the park.

[1980-Something-Space-Guy]

11 minutes ago, jodawill said:

I'm curious to hear other people's opinions on this. I just sorted all of the castle sets on Brickset by year in descending order to see when the last great castle was made. This is highly subjective, of course, so I'd like to hear everyone's take. But I would argue that the last truly great castle was Black Knight's Castle 6086 in 1992 - exactly 30 years ago. All of the subsequent castles were a bit too frilly for my personal taste, although there were a lot of great castle themed sets between those years, of course. This set really evokes images in my mind of a war, good versus evil.

I've been waiting my entire life for this set. I'm really glad it's being released now when I can actually afford it. (I missed out on a lot of great sets in the past like the Imperial Flagship and the Medieval Market Village just because I couldn't afford them at the time.)

Since I recently got into Castle, I completed the same exercise as you and came to the exact same conclusion (6086)! I was sad to feel that I couldn't afford a new copy of a castle that satisfied me. All of that changed with this release!

I am curious why you have been waiting. Have you been a castle fan for years, only to find the castles that were released while you were collecting didn't satisfy you? Or was it a matter of missing out on the Castle years altogether?

[jodawill]

13 minutes ago, 1980-Something-Space-Guy said:

Since I recently got into Castle, I completed the same exercise as you and came to the exact same conclusion (6086)! I was sad to feel that I couldn't afford a new copy of a castle that satisfied me. All of that changed with this release!

I am curious why you have been waiting. Have you been a castle fan for years, only to find the castles that were released while you were collecting didn't satisfy you? Or was it a matter of missing out on the Castle years altogether?

I was born in 1989. My family was never able to afford any of the large or even medium sets when I was a kid. I got a few small castle sets. Black Monarch's Ghost was my first Lego set ever. As an adult, I bought a few of the smaller sets, like the king's carriage. The castle sets they made during this period weren't appealing enough to me to warrant saving up for them. I actually did buy Helm's Deep, but I didn't like it once I put it together, so I sold it.

It's only been the past few years now that I've actually been able to afford things like this easily. I've considered buying the Black Knight's Castle or the Black Monarch's Castle, but I feel like I couldn't truly enjoy them if I had them because I'd be so afraid of breaking or losing pieces after paying so much for them.

With this new castle, I'm going to stock up on all the great parts so I'll never feel stressed out about pieces breaking or being lost. (And I have to tell you - when you grow up poor and not having access to Bricklink, losing a piece is absolutely heart wrenching. I think I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with having backup copies of everything now. If I like something, I always buy at least two, whether it's records, Playmobil, Lego, or whatever.)

Edited June 20, 2022 by jodawill

[Triceron]

22 minutes ago, jodawill said:

I'm curious to hear other people's opinions on this. I just sorted all of the castle sets on Brickset by year in descending order to see when the last great castle was made. This is highly subjective, of course, so I'd like to hear everyone's take. But I would argue that the last truly great castle was Black Knight's Castle 6086 in 1992 - exactly 30 years ago. All of the subsequent castles were a bit too frilly for my personal taste, although there were a lot of great castle themed sets between those years, of course. This set really evokes images in my mind of a war, good versus evil.

I've been waiting my entire life for this set. I'm really glad it's being released now when I can actually afford it. (I missed out on a lot of great sets in the past like the Imperial Flagship and the Medieval Market Village just because I couldn't afford them at the time.)

My dark ages started after Fright Knights, when they jumped to the Ninja theme and I focused my efforts straight into PC gaming.  I never had any big castle sets, only having mid-sized 'Fortress' style sets and a whole bunch of small sets to make up the rest.  The biggest set I had back in the day was the Magical Witch's Manor, which IMO was a terrible looking 'castle'.  Black Monarch's Castle is still one of my white whales, but I'm slowly moving past it since I have more than enough Black Knights sets to build my own version of a large castle.

I just got back into Lego a couple years back, so I'm slowly building up again and adding a whole bunch of stuff I missed out on.  I now have a couple Fantasy era sets, some Harry Potter sets that have interesting mythical creatures, the Monster Fighters Vampyre Castle, and some Ninjago dragons and big sets.  Also a whole bunch of CMF, Facebook Marketplace and bricklink  orders to build a wider 'fantasy' theme.

The Vampyre's Castle is one of my favourite recent sets.  I modified it with a bunch of the new Fright Knight shields and every CMF monster and evil wizard to build a sizeable army.  I've got everything from Chima wolf dudes to the Ninjago Bone Dragon here.

Since I never had an official large Castle from the 80's-90's, this Lion Knight's Castle is something I've been waiting a long time for.  I've even returned the 3-in-1 castle on an impulse purchase when I heard news of this Castle coming over the horizon.  The only thing that sucks is gonna be the wait for a discount.

[MAB]

42 minutes ago, karrit said:

Personally I'm glad to see the mix of male & female heads in this set.  Whether historically correct or not I hated that the early Castle sets didn't have any female representation.  I think I only own one castle set with a female figure and it's a pretty lame looking figure.  The same can be said for the early Pirate sets too.  I don't recall any female figures In them either.  Those were the themes I collected along with classic Space.

And that jerk in the "woke" video is the prime example of why I detest "social media infuencers" and rarely waste my time watching any of that drivel.

The classic smiley was used for both male and female. So if there were no female figures in the early sets it is because you did not view them as female. Take this figure:

If you can put a modern female head on it and make it female then why was it a male when it had a gender neutral head? If you hated it, why not just pretend it was female rather than assuming it must be male?

[karrit]

But the 3-in-1 Castle was a great build.  I got it knowing this Castle would be coming.  I'm just sorry I didn't buy 2 from Costco when they had them for sale at a discount.

[Rand Holindale]

23 minutes ago, jodawill said:

 I've considered buying the Black Knight's Castle or the Black Monarch's Castle, but I feel like I couldn't truly enjoy them if I had them because I'd be so afraid of breaking or losing pieces after paying so much for them.

With this new castle, I'm going to stock up on all the great parts so I'll never feel stressed out about pieces breaking or being lost. (And I have to tell you - when you grow up poor and not having access to Bricklink, losing a piece is absolutely heart wrenching. I think I have a somewhat unhealthy obsession with having backup copies of everything now. If I like something, I always buy at least two, whether it's records, Playmobil, Lego, or whatever.)

I highly suggest investing in 6086 despite your concerns. I didn’t get it until I was older but it is such an amazing castle.  I also really like 6081 too.  They made such good use of the raised plates with this sets.  
 

Although flawed, King’s Castle Siege, 7094, is another castle I like, probably because of the added fantasy element. 7046, King’s Castle, is a nice call back to older castles.  Both are pricy to get and wouldn’t be worth it over 6086.  The creator castle is actually a nice small castle too. 

[karrit]

Just now, MAB said:

The classic smiley was used for both male and female. So if there were no female figures in the early sets it is because you did not view them as female.

If you can put a modern female head on it and make it female then why was it a male when it had a gender neutral head? If you hated it, why not just pretend it was female rather than assuming it must be male?

At the time I never thought about making any of the provided Knights females so no I didn't view the basic smiley faces as being interchangable in that way, I was going by the torsos & legs/slopes that were supplied with the sets to determine that none were female.  What I hated was that there were no Princess or Queen Figures in most of the sets with the appropriate at the time dress slopes & obviously female torsos and female wigs.  I didn't hate that there were no female knights just that there were no obviously female minifigures in the sets pre-woke culture.

[SirBlake]

1 hour ago, jodawill said:

I'm curious to hear other people's opinions on this. I just sorted all of the castle sets on Brickset by year in descending order to see when the last great castle was made. This is highly subjective, of course, so I'd like to hear everyone's take. But I would argue that the last truly great castle was Black Knight's Castle 6086 in 1992 - exactly 30 years ago. All of the subsequent castles were a bit too frilly for my personal taste, although there were a lot of great castle themed sets between those years, of course. This set really evokes images in my mind of a war, good versus evil.

I've been waiting my entire life for this set. I'm really glad it's being released now when I can actually afford it. (I missed out on a lot of great sets in the past like the Imperial Flagship and the Medieval Market Village just because I couldn't afford them at the time.)

That’s a great question, and probably one worth it’s own thread. 

Of the classic era, 6086 is surely the last great one. 

For my collection, which started with 6080 as a kid, I would offer that the Kingdoms Castle 7946 is quite good, if comparatively simple, and is made great when paired with Kingdoms Joust 10223, though I understand if that’s breaking a rule by combining two sets. 
 

Also, the new Creator Medieval Castle is still pretty great a year later. It would qualify as my favorite modern castle, especially when fully built out with all 3 of the builds. Again, bending rules here.

But of course, the new Lions castle is going to win any popularity contest hands down for the foreseeable future. The new GOAT has arrived. 

[jodawill]

26 minutes ago, Rand Holindale said:

I highly suggest investing in 6086 despite your concerns. I didn’t get it until I was older but it is such an amazing castle.  I also really like 6081 too.  They made such good use of the raised plates with this sets.  
 

Although flawed, King’s Castle Siege, 7094, is another castle I like, probably because of the added fantasy element. 7046, King’s Castle, is a nice call back to older castles.  Both are pricy to get and wouldn’t be worth it over 6086.  The creator castle is actually a nice small castle too. 

I might do that eventually, maybe when my kids are a little older. I love that entire faction. I wish they were more common.

17 minutes ago, karrit said:

At the time I never thought about making any of the provided Knights females so no I didn't view the basic smiley faces as being interchangable in that way, I was going by the torsos & legs/slopes that were supplied with the sets to determine that none were female.  What I hated was that there were no Princess or Queen Figures in most of the sets with the appropriate at the time dress slopes & obviously female torsos and female wigs.  I didn't hate that there were no female knights just that there were no obviously female minifigures in the sets pre-woke culture.

This has always bothered me too, ever since I was a kid. I mentioned in a previous comment that I only had two female minifigures when I was a kid. Back then, the gender was assumed based on the clothing and role. I don't think adding female heads to soldiers and knights solves the problem of a lack of female minifigures. I still want more female castle and pirate minifigures, but I want actual females. All of the female roles are still very under-represented. I would like to see more female nobles, a milkmaid, and a forestwoman torso, among others. Just including female heads seems like a band aid to me, or they're just checking off the box because each department is required to meet a quota of 50% female minifigures.

Edited June 20, 2022 by jodawill