10305 Lion Knights' Castle 90th anniversary set

[TeriXeri]

There is a  skeleton baby head in a 2022 Harry Potter set 76398: Hogwarts Hospital Wing

 

[leafan]

17 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

There is a  skeleton baby head in a 2022 Harry Potter set 76398: Hogwarts Hospital Wing

 

 

I hear that set is really bare-bones.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Darkdragon
please don't quote pictures

[DaleDVM]

It took me a couple of days to read all of the comments on this thread.  Lets just say a lot of them were not worth reading.

My take on the set.
The encumbered squire, the classic castle yellow box art, and the kids playing with the yellow castle are just sweet additions that don't affect the build at all, but still touch me in the feels.  Very nostalgic overall.  

Pros

- The design of the castle is absolutely brilliant!  The secret passages, that folding bridge walkway, the defensibility, the interiors, the grain mill, the arrow slits, the rounded battlements, the thatched roofs...  It is like 75% a play set and a 75% a display piece.  That is a 150% perfect balance of awesomeness IMHO!
- Shields.  OMG, all of those shields!  So useful.  I hope somehow we could get them in numbers.  The Queens shield in particular is just plain fantastic.  I have faith that they will be printed.  
- Barding.  While not the best barding prints ever made, they are pretty darn nice.
- Minifigs.  The maid is just incredible.  I will need dozens of her hat.  The farmers torso is generic enough that it could be incredibly versatile just by changing the arms to other colors.  I hope his torso is available on B&P.  The lion soldiers prints are very nice as are the forestmen, and black falcons.  I can't wait to see the queen's torso.  
-Animals.  Those that are included are quite nice.
-Cloth.  The cape is absolutely gorgeous.  The two different flags are exactly what I wanted in this set.  Great heraldry to add to the flags from the classic Lions era.
-Helmets, Armor, Weapons.  There is a nice variety of helms, armor, and weapons included.  For those new to the theme, welcome to the world of visors.  Not sure how I feel about the gold visor until I see it in person.  However, I welcome the variety for sure!
-Parts.  That new 1x4x3 arch is just incredible!  Not enough can be said about how parts like this can change the way people MOC altogether!  I can't wait until it is made in reddish brown for better tree construction! The 1x4x5 arch always left a strange gap in tree branches where this one will blend right in with the trunk!  The new inverted round support piece is baller as well!  The dark green spruce trees are pure love.  Almost all of the parts in this set are very useful for castle MOCing.  Impressive menu of parts.

Cons 

- Design.  Nothing is perfect and any complaints I have would be nitpicking.  I will leave it at that. 
-Shields.  Just one forestman shield would have been wonderful.
- Minifigs.  All Lion knights, forestmen, and the black falcons have a singular torso/leg design.  While those designs are kewl as hell, I would have liked a pair of torsos for some variety in each faction.  The baker and the prince are repeat torsos and I was really hoping for as many new civilians as possible.  This hurts the most for me personally.  Majisto is as plain, as plain can be.  A mistake in such an awesome set.  An opportunity missed for a robed torso that could be used for civilians, nobles, merchants.  Very unfortunate.
- Animals.  Another horse or two wouldn't have hurt to match old sets that have 4 in sets 25% the cost of this one.
-Helmets, Armor, Weapons.  One or two of those shoulder armor pieces from the "medieval blacksmith" on the BFs would have been kind of nice to include here just for some variety and to make the BFs stand out. It would have given the squire guy something really heavy to trudge around as well.  Muahaha
-Parts.  The cart could have been done in a more neutral color (Blue rhymes with eww).  Like many have said, I prefer trees in brown, and would like the pieces in that color.  The giant tiles used for the drawbridge are not very useful to me.  Not a fan of POOPs.
The cons are pretty small in comparison.

Overall
As I expected... this set by far surpasses any offering TLG has ever given us in the castle theme.  However, it also surpassed my expectations by even further yet.  Previously, I thought MMV was the best castle themed set because of just how groundbreaking it was in 2009.  IMHO this takes castles beyond the level MMV took civilian sets.  And after all, the castle theme is about castles right? IMHO, this set didn't need a goat because it is the GOAT!  

I will buy in multiples for the parts and as a serious castle collector of course.  Surprisingly, I will also build this set, which is really saying something!  Sad to say, I haven't built a non-Christmas set in over a decade now.  In fact, I think the Kingdom's joust was the last (non-Christmas) set I actually built?  And then... will this castle be the only set I have on display at my house?  I am approaching 2 million parts at home and it takes up a LOT of space.  I don't have room to display sets as well.  However, I still say it is very possible that I may have to make room for this!  Why?  Simply for inspiration to build more often! 

Thank you to TLG!  I have bitched at you for years because of the way you put my favorite theme on the back burner.  In this instance, you went a long way to making up for that, and I commend you for this incredible set!  Looking forward to seeing it in person.

Well played LEGO!... or is it play well?

[SirBlake]

Lots Of good thoughts there, Dale. 

Regarding the wishlist for armor, I have two things I wish I could magic wand into existence:

1. Dark Pearl grey shoulder armor like the part that came with the Ideas blacksmith. The silver helmets and armor just don’t look right to my eye on the Black Falcons. However, my small army of new BF’s look great with dark pearl grey conical helms. Matches their arms well. 

2. Printed chest armor. The plain silver does nothing for me. Kind of seems like a give-up like a plain blue Majisto. 

[natesroom]

i wish at the BAM i could just choose all torsos for my 15 piece limit

[Shroffy123]

Anyone else can't stop looking at this castle? Aug 3 can't get here soon enough. 

[DaleDVM]

2 hours ago, SirBlake said:

Regarding the wishlist for armor, I have two things I wish I could magic wand into existence:

1. Dark Pearl grey shoulder armor like the part that came with the Ideas blacksmith. The silver helmets and armor just don’t look right to my eye on the Black Falcons. However, my small army of new BF’s look great with dark pearl grey conical helms. Matches their arms well. 

2. Printed chest armor. The plain silver does nothing for me. Kind of seems like a give-up like a plain blue Majisto. 

Agreed on both points.  The silver shoulder armor certainly wouldn't look very good with the black helmets.  

I also wanted to comment that I think the Medieval Blacksmith wouldn't look terrible next to this castle.  Only the roof top would be as tall as the castle and the shop is a three story building after all.  

[BrickJagger]

There's an interview with the designers out now for those who haven't read it: https://brickset.com/article/78892/interview-with-milan-madge-designer-of-10305-lion-knights-castle

A couple of interesting takeaways:

- They considered a giant Forestman hideout instead of a castle because of how well the faction did in the poll

- They spent a lot of time making the structure as realistic to defend as possible, without any weak spots for attackers that smaller-budget sets and even previous flagship castles have. That's something that stuck out to me after I saw it closed up for the first time.

- We almost got a new knights' helmet, but they went with the new arch piece instead

- The lead designer was inspired by Kingdoms!

[MAB]

2 hours ago, natesroom said:

i wish at the BAM i could just choose all torsos for my 15 piece limit

In some stores you can. I once got a couple of packs of 15 of the key and lion shields, for example.

[R0Sch]

I think I have a good idea of how the drawbridge works now and it's so cool that they made it that way. That's why the portcullis is raised so far up. That way the attackers slide directly into the dungeons.

Yet another realistic feature that was never done before in a LEGO set.

[Roebuck]

1 hour ago, BrickJagger said:

They considered a giant Forestman hideout instead of a castle because of how well the faction did in the poll

I think it is good they did not do that, would not look very nice with a lot of black trees I think. I voted for forestmen in round 1 to get some figs etc included since they are different from a lot of the other subthemes within Castle. However what was missing most from the line up was a big D2C castle so I am happy they went for that and included the GWP forestmen to go with the set.
Next time we get a Castle set, if it is next year or in 10 years I hope for a expansion of the MMV and MVR

[Doddsino]

Slightly off topic but...growing up, Castle was the Lego theme I bought the least amount of sets of.

I didn't have a lot of money as a kid, and I always viewed Castle as an extravagant affair where it's large warring parties. So to me I never had money to buy the big sets and found it mostly impractical to get the little sets ($3 to $10), especially since I thought Pirates and Space in particular almost always had the best smaller sets.

That being said, I always appreciated the big castles, however it was the castle theme that made me realize the great potential of modular sets far before Lego adopted it. 

I don't know if anyone remembers this but when I was 11 years old, I saw a custom in a Lego magazine under the Madness section in 1996 called "Ed Boxer's Lego Castle". Unfortunately I can't upload a picture of it since it says it's too large of a file, but if you Google it, you'll know what I mean.

It completely blew my mind. I'd seen other 'big castles' before, but nothing at that level. Even after I grew out of Lego in my mid teens, I still had a fondness for the idea of much bigger sets. 

It wasn't until Cafe Corner came along that I decided to get back into Lego. This is the kind of stuff I dreamed about since I was a kid. Now this new castle set is kind of bringing things full circle for me.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Doddsino

[leafan]

40 minutes ago, Doddsino said:

Slightly off topic but...growing up, Castle was the Lego theme I bought the least amount of sets of.

I didn't have a lot of money as a kid, and I always viewed Castle as an extravagant affair where it's large warring parties. So to me I never had money to buy the big sets and found it mostly impractical to get the little sets ($3 to $10), especially since I thought Pirates and Space in particular almost always had the best smaller sets.

That being said, I always appreciated the big castles, however it was the castle theme that made me realize the great potential of modular sets far before Lego adopted it. 

I don't know if anyone remembers this but when I was 11 years old, I saw a custom in a Lego magazine under the Madness section in 1996 called "Ed Boxer's Lego Castle". Unfortunately I can't upload a picture of it since it says it's too large of a file, but if you Google it, you'll know what I mean.

It completely blew my mind. I'd seen other 'big castles' before, but nothing at that level. Even after I grew out of Lego in my mid teens, I still had a fondness for the idea of much bigger sets. 

It wasn't until Cafe Corner came along that I decided to get back into Lego. This is the kind of stuff I dreamed about since I was a kid. Now this new castle set is kind of bringing things full circle for me.

This one? (more here).

[Doddsino]

^

That's the one!

I fell in love with it when I saw it and emailed the guy on his page back in the day but never heard back. 

[Alpha Draconis]

Kind of late to the party but I also think this castle moves the ante up for the theme (as it should have for the occasion). I'm very pleased with how it turned out and I'll be getting it even with no real attachments or nostalgia for the theme. I've been saving 100€ discount on lego.com and I think I now know what I'll use it on 

I'd love to see builds with similar modern approach as this set but on smaller scale. Bring back the castle theme in full! 

Edited June 24, 2022 by Alpha Draconis

[jan kusters]

Late to the party as I spend a lot of time looking for info, so I might have little to add to this thread.

One thing in this video that realy surprised me, at 14:45, the castle is split into two 'towers' with very little trouble. Both towers look, at least from this side, as rather complete buildings.

I think that is awesome, it opens up so much possibilities; two castles? Or throw in a low MOC castle wall and create a much larger castle with as much inner court as you like?

On 6/21/2022 at 1:23 PM, Triceron said:

Just came across this interview. Full breakdown of the castle, and we finally get some clear shots of the back!

And a neat little hint at something more at the end.  Good to know there's still some secrets they're keeping for later reveals!

 

I do love the overall design of this castle, walls high enough, awesome entrance with draw bridge and portcullis, fantastic small timber frame building. The fold in and out system looks fantastic, and I do like how the interior can be displayed and hidden at wish.

I also love the fact that it is mainly brick build, no large number of big panels to make up walls.

Great selection of minifigs and animals. I am very happy with the two horses in different barding and the two faction included. It will allow for a simple MOC build tournament in the fields in front of the castle... (and what an awesome background this castle will make!). Similar, the ox(?)cart will allow for a small peasant cottage outside the castle and the goat begs for a witches hut in the woods (witch not included, but I am sure the wizard needs a friend!).

O dear, my minds already starts drifting towards all that could be added once I have this set...

For my own use, I see only one real downside; the rooms inside look very nice, but all are rather small for 'story telling'. The rooms are more or less all 'one trick ponies', useful only for the interior and vignette placed in the set. I would have loved a bigger 'great hall' somewhere. But I also realise that would have made the castle a lot bigger and even more expensive (and as is, it is already not cheap, I am still trying to decide whether I can afford it).

Minor disappointment -again, just for me- is the full grey wall thing. I loved the 3in1 castle from last year for its colours. But I can see how many nostalgic Castle fans would balk at that. Besides, it can be easily remedied with a few additional bricks.

Anyway, still up to my ears in Space 2019, I've got a year or so to save up for this beast...

Edited June 28, 2022 by Darkdragon
please don't quote videos

[SirBlake]

24 minutes ago, jan kusters said:

…the castle is split into two 'towers' with very little trouble. Both towers look, at least from this side, as rather complete buildings.

I think that is awesome, it opens up so much possibilities; two castles? Or throw in a low MOC castle wall and create a much larger castle with as much inner court as you like?

Great idea!

[dimc]

5 hours ago, Doddsino said:

I don't know if anyone remembers this but when I was 11 years old, I saw a custom in a Lego magazine under the Madness section in 1996 called "Ed Boxer's Lego Castle".

Having just searched for it, I remember this! It was the first time I ever saw a fully tiled floor and so many details, and it blew my mind.

I do appreciate that Lego at least made modular wall sections. I have a MOC'd version of Guarded Inn next to Armor Shop next to the Blacksmith, and they all fit together nicely. I assume some of the other wall sets also fit. My big gripe is that 6059 Knight's Stronghold does not attach in front of 6085 Black Monarch's Castle as a guardhouse. Even more annoyingly, 6059 is on plates while 6085 is on a baseplate. I still can't reconcile those two, so I'll have to build 6059 on a smaller baseplate in front.

[Triceron]

The Throneroom in Ed Boxer's moc looks pretty awesome.  I might consider putting in a throne, probably in place of the top 'armory'.

Tiled floors make quite a bit of difference too.

I'm also starting to think of ways to light up this set now, and where to hide the lights.  The Blacksmith looks great with some LED's inside.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Triceron

[JamesBenjamin]

11 hours ago, natesroom said:

i wish at the BAM i could just choose all torsos for my 15 piece limit

This is not specifically aimed at you, but i've seen many people say similar things...

 

But look at this from a Lego Store point of view. They want their BAM sections to be for kids to build minifigures, and the price is set up to do that If they let adults come in and by 15 torsos instead of 3 figures with an accessory each (so 5 parts total) then they end up with 15 heads and 15 legs with no torsos. If enough adults do that, the ratio is waaaaay off and kids will have 1000 legs and 50 torsos to choose from.

[SirBlake]

26 minutes ago, JamesBenjamin said:

This is not specifically aimed at you, but i've seen many people say similar things...

 

But look at this from a Lego Store point of view. They want their BAM sections to be for kids to build minifigures, and the price is set up to do that If they let adults come in and by 15 torsos instead of 3 figures with an accessory each (so 5 parts total) then they end up with 15 heads and 15 legs with no torsos. If enough adults do that, the ratio is waaaaay off and kids will have 1000 legs and 50 torsos to choose from.

Increasing the volume of obvious army builder parts seems like a pretty simple fix for this. 

[Triceron]

Having them available online or through Pick-a-Brick would be even better.

So anyways, is there actually a Build a Minifigure online thing?  I saw some people talking about it before but was never aware if this was actually a thing or not.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Triceron

[dimc]

13 minutes ago, Triceron said:

Having them available online or through Pick-a-Brick would be even better.

So anyways, is there actually a Build a Minifigure online thing?  I saw some people talking about it before but was never aware if this was actually a thing or not.

It does exist. BAM However, it's nothing like the bins in stores, at least not yet. It's like 15 different possible torsos and legs and heads.

[woodford86]

7 hours ago, Doddsino said:

^

That's the one!

I fell in love with it when I saw it and emailed the guy on his page back in the day but never heard back. 

I'm pretty sure 12 y/o me emailed him asking if he'd sell it lol

I remember staring at those pics for hours and hours, it just blew my mind how big/detailed it was.

14 minutes ago, Triceron said:

Having them available online or through Pick-a-Brick would be even better.

So anyways, is there actually a Build a Minifigure online thing?  I saw some people talking about it before but was never aware if this was actually a thing or not.

I believe its only in Europe for now (in beta)

[Triceron]

11 minutes ago, dimc said:

It does exist. BAM However, it's nothing like the bins in stores, at least not yet. It's like 15 different possible torsos and legs and heads.

Ahh, yeah.  That won't help at all, since we can't really get access to a mix of accessories or torsos.

Heads are so cheap it's not even worth counting towards the limit if you can avoid em.