10305 Lion Knights' Castle 90th anniversary set

[R0Sch]

The cow representing an ox is pulling a cart so there is no room for it in a stable. I guess you can put the 2 horses in the area between prison cell and kitchen, if not there is plenty of room in one of the other chambers. And the little lamb will end up as dinner for all the hungry lions anyway.

[zoth33]

3 hours ago, Sir Dano said:

Series 9, in 2013. Last time the piece was released was in blue in a Nexo Knights set in 2017.

I want some in black though, and the cheapest seller with multiples on BL wants almost $6CAD each and that's highway robbery as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah I only have on black visor.  They are hard to find. I got mine from my old black knight set.  

[Poco Lypso]

2 hours ago, Mr Maniac said:

I think I'm with you there. Not too many nits to pick with the (rather broad) outline of the actual set we've gotten so far, but having a small alcove to tuck however many horses we get here would be nice. (Not that it's a deal-breaker for me or anything, although stables would be nice to see in a large-ish Castle set seeing how I'm running into similar horse-storage problems on another Castle MOC I'm working on right now.)

think promobricks mentioned the area behind the portcullis doesn't serve a particular purpose and you can park your horses there :)

[Lion King]

Oh yeah, and i did predict that this castle would include a skeleton. I’m not surprised that a skeleton is counted as minifigure. 

[dilligan]

Images of forestman GWP 40567 on legoleaks

[INTENSS]

I’m really looking forward to this set, day one purchase for sure.  I’m just fine with there only being a queen too because, as others have mentioned, we are severely lacking in medieval female characters.  I have enough kings, crowns, and assorted male parts to make kings for every castle faction 5 times over.  Female characters are rare.  I do hope though, that they don’t reuse the bard torso from the cmf 22 series, and at least do a recolor or something different.  Hopefully the video had the cmf torso as a stand in.  Either way, no complaints from me because I’ve been collecting this theme since day 1 of the grey castles and have wished for a castle of this size for years.  It’s going to be awesome seeing this thing on the shelf in the store and on display.  I do hope it leads to an annual large medieval set in the same vein of the modular city buildings.  

[RichardGoring]

1 hour ago, dilligan said:

Images of forestman GWP 40567 on legoleaks

Forestmen have the most nostalgia for me in the castle series, so perhaps with that great expectation in mind, the set feels like it lacks something. Maybe I'm wanting a more modern take, but that looks like it could be an original set.

And that being the case, it suggests that the castle might be somewhat simpler than I was hoping for. Closer to the 3 in 1 castle than the highly detailed projects on Ideas, for example.

[mirkwoodspiders]

1 hour ago, INTENSS said:

I’m really looking forward to this set, day one purchase for sure.  I’m just fine with there only being a queen too because, as others have mentioned, we are severely lacking in medieval female characters.  I have enough kings, crowns, and assorted male parts to make kings for every castle faction 5 times over.  Female characters are rare. 

Good point. I was puzzled at the lack of a king, mostly because Promobricks teased the name as "King's Castle" or something close to that. A medieval queen will be a welcome addition. I have King Leo from 6098 who should fit nicely in the set anyway. 

Edited May 22, 2022 by mirkwoodspiders
Spelling

[Roebuck]

10 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Yeah, more horses would have been nice IMO, but I think two is enough to satisfy me as long as they're both decked out in full barding. The bigger animal-related worry I still have is that Promobricks hasn't made it clear whether there's any stable or other place to keep the horses and their accessories when nobody's riding them. Not having any sort of shelter for the horses would be a real missed opportunity, especially with so much space in this set. I'm still holding out hope that maybe one of the lower-level chambers will include a space to keep the horses, even if it's fairly plain/unadorned like the stable from 6067 Guarded Inn.

No stable was a huge missed opportunity in my mind

4 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

Forestmen have the most nostalgia for me in the castle series, so perhaps with that great expectation in mind, the set feels like it lacks something. Maybe I'm wanting a more modern take, but that looks like it could be an original set.

And that being the case, it suggests that the castle might be somewhat simpler than I was hoping for. Closer to the 3 in 1 castle than the highly detailed projects on Ideas, for example.

It is a nice GWP, but I would have preferred they made the tree in brown this time, never liked that the forestmen trees was black back in the day

[kodlovag]

Do you think 10305 will be compatible to the 3 in 1 Creator castle in look and/or attechment points?

[Alpha Draconis]

I'm really liking what I'm seeing with this Forestmen GWP - it is both modernised with concurrent parts yet retains the overall nostalgic design. I can't wait to see the Galaxy explorer! 

Edited May 22, 2022 by Alpha Draconis

[Follows Closely]

1 hour ago, kodlovag said:

Do you think 10305 will be compatible to the 3 in 1 Creator castle in look and/or attechment points?

No. Just look at the sketches.

[TeriXeri]

7 hours ago, mirkwoodspiders said:

Good point. I was puzzled at the lack of a king, mostly because Promobricks teased the name as "King's Castle" or something close to that. A medieval queen will be a welcome addition. I have King Leo from 6098 who should fit nicely in the set anyway. 

Agreed a Queen leader isn't a bad thing.

Even in Nexo Knight the Queen was said to be from a Warrior family, and the Princess (macy) rather wanted to be a Knight instead of a fancy princess, and I like to pretend that Nexo is from the same planet as Castle is, just way into the future (one TV episode even had a theater re-enactment with a yellow castle backdrop)

Edited May 22, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Lion King]

14 hours ago, mirkwoodspiders said:

Good point. I was puzzled at the lack of a king, mostly because Promobricks teased the name as "King's Castle" or something close to that. A medieval queen will be a welcome addition. I have King Leo from 6098 who should fit nicely in the set anyway. 

Yeah just like Queen Elizabeth I in real-life Middle Age.  Same, I was puzzled by the early information about the name set.

but I have been wondering about King - what if he would show up in CMF Series 23. More better, he comes with a goat! Lol. 

Edited May 22, 2022 by DBlegonerd7

[danth]

I would argue that a queen is more representative of the original classic Castle sets than a king.

The first Knights Joust set had what looked like a noble couple, possibly a king and queen -- they sit on throne-like chairs, but have no royal head wear.

However after that, the guy disappears forever, but the woman returns in 1986 with not only her pearls, but a princess hat, and her own guarded cart full of treasure. She sure seems rich and important now!

That same year she can be seen hanging out an an expensive resort, guarded by a full security team.

Then in 1988, she's back watching another joust, with her royal head wear, but no male consort. Or maybe both warriors at her side are her new consorts! Anyway, it seems she ousted the king from the original joust set and seized power as queen. I think it was her revenge for making his throne bigger than hers.

[kalexicon]

Overall I think I’m satisfied with the look of the GWP. My main source of excitement is the inclusion of two forestman shields, seeing as the cheap used ones go for $7-8 each at a minimum on BricklInk these days! I think we can assume the big castle has that print too.

I’m pretty neutral on the use of black for the tree - I do prefer browns overall, but it’s a key part of the retro look and they made it look organic enough. Dark brown (a color not available at the time) might have been a good compromise.

I’m disappointed that it only has one hat, but one is enough to label the whole group of characters as forestmen so it’s alright. The red arms look good enough with the torsos, but it would have been nice if one of them had blue or green arms instead to make them more varied like in the original theme. Four identical forestmen torsos (if one gets both the castle and the GWP) seems little too uniform for a band of forest outlaws, but it’s still better than not having them at all! I am mostly pleased, though, that it seems to include a better volume of plastic and prints relative to a lot of recent GWPs at similar rumored spending thresholds. Looking at you, vintage taxi. 
 

23 hours ago, Sir Dano said:

I'd love to see some of the other factions represented in the CMF wave, maybe a Black Knight, or a Wolfpack thug, hell a new version of Cedric the Bull would be neat.

The series 16 Rogue had a wolf brooch that I think was generally believed to be an allusion to Wolfpack, though I’d love something more obvious. Really, any shield with a matching color scheme, even if the wolf is posed differently (i.e. howling in profile rather than a forward-facing head). They’ve done it before for sure, like with the series 19 Ghost Knight having heraldry clearly inspired by Fright Knights. I do think Wolfpack is the one remaining super-iconic retro Castle theme that hasn’t gotten an update, now that they’ve taken care of both Black Falcons and Forestmen. I do like the heraldry of the Black Knights and Knights Kingdom Bulls, but I wouldn’t have any strong preference either way for a CMF remake of those characters over just a new dragon or bull heraldry design. I love that they’re reviving old favorites, but I don’t want it to come at the cost of creating new favorites (like the CMF crow knight).  

Edited May 22, 2022 by kalexicon
formatting

[GeoBrick]

38 minutes ago, danth said:

Then in 1988, she's back watching another joust, with her royal head wear, but no male consort. Or maybe both warriors at her side are her new consorts! Anyway, it seems she ousted the king from the original joust set and seized power as queen. I think it was her revenge for making his throne bigger than hers.

It is a nice story, only too bad the last link (imgr picture) doesn't show up in my browser.

[Aanchir]

55 minutes ago, danth said:

I would argue that a queen is more representative of the original classic Castle sets than a king.

The first Knights Joust set had what looked like a noble couple, possibly a king and queen -- they sit on throne-like chairs, but have no royal head wear.

However after that, the guy disappears forever, but the woman returns in 1986 with not only her pearls, but a princess hat, and her own guarded cart full of treasure. She sure seems rich and important now!

That same year she can be seen hanging out an an expensive resort, guarded by a full security team.

Then in 1988, she's back watching another joust, with her royal head wear, but no male consort. Or maybe both warriors at her side are her new consorts! Anyway, it seems she ousted the king from the original joust set and seized power as queen. I think it was her revenge for making his throne bigger than hers.

Good observations!

Mind you, the characters you mention were treated differently in magazines and catalogs from country to country. In the United States and Great Britain, the maiden from set 6023 was indeed identified as "the new queen" in some places, and simply as a noblewoman/damsel in others. The characterization as "the new queen" is in captions accompanying the big diorama-type images from 1986 catalogs, suggesting that she is a noblewoman/damsel who has only just ascended to the throne in this story scenario.

In "De LEGO Krant" from the Netherlands, the maiden from set 6023 Reiskoets (Travel Coach) was treated just as a young noblewoman/damsel named Jonkvrouw Machteld Eleanora (Lady Matilda Eleanor). She is the daughter of Ridder Pieter van Blankevoort (Sir Peter Whiteford), the lord who rules over set 6080 Slot «Wittenburg» (Wittenburg Castle). Funnily enough, her first written appearance was two years earlier in a short story meant to promote the 1984 sets! A later issue in 1986 expressly identified this new maiden minifigure as the same character as that earlier story, and also featured a new story featuring her.

By comparison, "De LEGO Krant" identified the other female Castle figure merely as the "waardin" (landlady) of set 6067 Herberg «De Gulle Hap» ("The Generous Mouthful" Tavern) — a commoner without any noble status. Likewise, the UK "Bricks and Pieces" identified her simply a "mediaeval (sic) maiden". German catalogs identify her as "Burgfräulein" (castle damsel), which is the only example I've found so far that expressly identifies her as a member of the nobility.

Both maiden minifigures from 1986 had entirely different characterization in a series of comic pages that ran as ads in kids' magazines/comic books from several different European countries (including The Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Norway, and probably others). These comics treated the maidens from sets 6023 and 6067 as the same character, variously referred to as a damsel, dame, queen, or princess depending on the country. But in every translation of these comics, she is eventually revealed to actually be an evil witch in disguise, attacking the lords of both the Lion Knights/Crusaders and Eagle Knights/Black Falcons and transforming them into stone blocks/bricks using a wicked curse.

There are a few female Castle minifigs from this time period that have been more consistently treated as royalty, at least from what I've seen so far:

• The female minifig from set 383/6083 was identified as a queen or princess in every catalog/magazine I've seen so far, though that isn't a whole lot since most of the scans I've encountered from that far back don't list any details about the set beyond its name and number.
• The minifig from set 6081 is usually identified as a princess in the story blurbs from 1991 catalogs (presenting a mystery scenario in which she was recently kidnapped by an unknown captor), regardless of their country of origin. However, the set description from German 1990 and 1991 catalogs refer to her instead as a "Zofe" (Lady's Maid/Handmaid), and Dutch catalogs refers to her as a "Jonkvrouw" (Damsel) in both story blurbs and set descriptions.
• I've seen very little print material that describes set 1584/6060 in detail, but the US Shop at Home catalogs identify the maiden from that set as the Queen of LEGOLAND.

Needless to say, none of this diminishes your point! I agree that a lot of female Castle minifigures in the 80s and early 90s clearly and specifically depicted nobility/royalty, whereas most minifigs from that time period depicting male nobles/royals were nearly identical to other mounted knights (mostly set apart only by accessories like their number of banners or the color of their shields). Just felt like sharing some of what I'd learned about this stuff, since I find vintage LEGO story and worldbuilding materials (and the ways they varied from country to country) so interesting!

[Lion King]

59 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

Good observations!

Mind you, the characters you mention were treated differently in magazines and catalogs from country to country. In the United States and Great Britain, the maiden from set 6023 was indeed identified as "the new queen" in some places, and simply as a noblewoman/damsel in others. The characterization as "the new queen" is in captions accompanying the big diorama-type images from 1986 catalogs, suggesting that she is a noblewoman/damsel who has only just ascended to the throne in this story scenario.

In "De LEGO Krant" from the Netherlands, the maiden from set 6023 Reiskoets (Travel Coach) was treated just as a young noblewoman/damsel named Jonkvrouw Machteld Eleanora (Lady Matilda Eleanor). She is the daughter of Ridder Pieter van Blankevoort (Sir Peter Whiteford), the lord who rules over set 6080 Slot «Wittenburg» (Wittenburg Castle). Funnily enough, her first written appearance was two years earlier in a short story meant to promote the 1984 sets! A later issue in 1986 expressly identified this new maiden minifigure as the same character as that earlier story, and also featured a new story featuring her.

By comparison, "De LEGO Krant" identified the other female Castle figure merely as the "waardin" (landlady) of set 6067 Herberg «De Gulle Hap» ("The Generous Mouthful" Tavern) — a commoner without any noble status. Likewise, the UK "Bricks and Pieces" identified her simply a "mediaeval (sic) maiden". German catalogs identify her as "Burgfräulein" (castle damsel), which is the only example I've found so far that expressly identifies her as a member of the nobility.

Both maiden minifigures from 1986 had entirely different characterization in a series of comic pages that ran as ads in kids' magazines/comic books from several different European countries (including The Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Norway, and probably others). These comics treated the maidens from sets 6023 and 6067 as the same character, variously referred to as a damsel, dame, queen, or princess depending on the country. But in every translation of these comics, she is eventually revealed to actually be an evil witch in disguise, attacking the lords of both the Lion Knights/Crusaders and Eagle Knights/Black Falcons and transforming them into stone blocks/bricks using a wicked curse.

There are a few female Castle minifigs from this time period that have been more consistently treated as royalty, at least from what I've seen so far:

• The female minifig from set 383/6083 was identified as a queen or princess in every catalog/magazine I've seen so far, though that isn't a whole lot since most of the scans I've encountered from that far back don't list any details about the set beyond its name and number.
• The minifig from set 6081 is usually identified as a princess in the story blurbs from 1991 catalogs (presenting a mystery scenario in which she was recently kidnapped by an unknown captor), regardless of their country of origin. However, the set description from German 1990 and 1991 catalogs refer to her instead as a "Zofe" (Lady's Maid/Handmaid), and Dutch catalogs refers to her as a "Jonkvrouw" (Damsel) in both story blurbs and set descriptions.
• I've seen very little print material that describes set 1584/6060 in detail, but the US Shop at Home catalogs identify the maiden from that set as the Queen of LEGOLAND.

Needless to say, none of this diminishes your point! I agree that a lot of female Castle minifigures in the 80s and early 90s clearly and specifically depicted nobility/royalty, whereas most minifigs from that time period depicting male nobles/royals were nearly identical to other mounted knights (mostly set apart only by accessories like their number of banners or the color of their shields). Just felt like sharing some of what I'd learned about this stuff, since I find vintage LEGO story and worldbuilding materials (and the ways they varied from country to country) so interesting!

Oh wow, you have a very nice research! 

[Aanchir]

5 hours ago, DBlegonerd7 said:

Yeah just like Queen Elizabeth I in real-life Middle Age.  Same, I was puzzled by the early information about the name set.

but I have been wondering about King - what if he would show up in CMF Series 23. More better, he comes with a goat! Lol. 

Actually, on the topic goats… it might be kind of neat to get a CMF of Hans Christian Andersen's "Klods Hans" (Clumsy Hans/Blockhead Hans/Jack the Dullard) either for the anniversary series or a future series. After all, they're a character with considerable ties to both The LEGO Group's Danish heritage and its early history!

Dagny Holm, Ole Kirk Christiansen's niece, first worked for LEGO as a toy designer in the 1930s, and one of the products she created during that time was a wooden pull-along toy of Clumsy Hans riding a goat (as he does in the original story). In the 1960s, she rejoined the company as the first Master Model Builder, she built a larger brick-built version of the character on his goat. More recently, her Clumsy Hans models have been referenced both in the 2015 LEGO Inside Tour exclusive set and on one of the lower shelves in this year's Dagny Holm - Master Builder tribute set.

I realize that a generic minifig-scale goat (even if it had a different design than the original 2011 version) would not allow a minifigure to ride on it comfortably like they can on a horse, but frankly, that's part of why Hans riding a goat as if it were a horse is such a comically absurd sight to behold in the original story! So in a CMF blind bag, forcing Hans to sit awkwardly atop a single stud on the goat's back would be very fitting.

I dunno how realistic this would actually be, mind you. "Clumsy Hans" is not really one of Hans Christian Andersen's best-known stories among modern kids, at least not in America. From my experience, kids are more likely to know other stories of his like "Thumbelina", "The Princess and the Pea", or "The Emperor's New Clothes". "The Little Mermaid" is also very familiar, although a lot of kids today would know it mainly from loose adaptations like the Disney one that replace the original tragic ending with a more conventional "happily ever after" ending.

A more generic medieval king feels like a much more plausible CMF archetype for future series, including the anniversary series — regardless of which of the classic factions they tie in with.

10 minutes ago, DBlegonerd7 said:

Oh wow, you have a very nice research! 

It's kind of a hobby for me, honestly — I haven't really made much practical use out of this stuff, though I do have a spreadsheet of international names for sets, characters, locations, themes, etc. and a text document where I've got my amateur translations of short stories, comics, and blurbs from various old-school LEGO print materials. So if anybody else thinks that info would be useful to them for creating their own MOCs, stories, etc, you're free to look through some of that stuff.

I can't promise my translations are all that great, though. I'm mostly relying on online dictionaries and translation tools for a lot of this stuff since I don't know any languages aside from English, Latin, and a limited amount of Spanish, and I'm only really fluent in the first of those three. What i've gathered so far is also not at all comprehensive! It's limited to whatever print materials I've both been able to find online and had time to really pore over and translate.

Edited May 22, 2022 by Aanchir

[TeriXeri]

Maybe the King of the Castle is on a Crusade? Like King Richard I (Richard the Lionheart).

The first Lion Knights are often called Crusaders.

In catalogues, the original 1984 Castle is called Castle Lion in UK, but in US it's was named King's Castle.

Unless the King was one of the Knights (like King Richard for example), we only see a Queen/Maiden/Damsel figure.

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Aanchir]

42 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

Maybe the King of the Castle is on a Crusade? Like King Richard I (Richard the Lionheart).

The first Lion Knights are often called Crusaders.

Perhaps! On that note, the leader and main character of the Lion Knight/Crusader faction (this minifigure from 6080 Castle Lion) is named Sir Richard in the UK, and Prinz Löwenherz (Prince Lionheart) in Germany. There's a strong implication that this character is later crowned king and depicted as such in the Royal Knights sets from 1995, since that character is named King Richard Lionheart in the UK and König Richard Löwenherz (King Richard Lionheart) in Germany.

However, the British "Bricks and Pieces" magazines from 1995 also make it very clear that the LEGO character NOT the same Richard the Lionheart from actual medieval history, via a short story in which he tells his knights about the historical king that he happens to share a name with.

Other names given to the leader of the Lion Knights/Crusaders and lord/ruler of set 6080 in various European print media include:

• Le Chevalier des Lions or Le Chevalier du Lion (The Lion Knight) in France
• Il Cavaliere del Leone (The Lion Knight) in Italy
• Ridder Løvefod (Sir Lionfoot) in Denmark
• Ridder Løvehjerte (Sir Lionheart) in Norway
• Vita Riddaren (The White Knight) or Lejonriddaren (The Lion Knight) in Sweden
• O Rei Cavaleiro (The Knight King) in Portugal

Set 6080 is of course called King's Castle in the United States and Castillo del Rey (King's Castle) in Spain, but I haven't yet found any print materials from either country that clarify whether or not that title is meant to belong to any of the minifigures from that set, or if all simply depict the king's knights/guards/soldiers.

Obviously, I doubt that LEGO would ever try and connect any Castle characters with the actual historical Crusades in this day and age, since it's hard to really decouple that sort of "Holy War" from religious prejudices of that time. And obviously, the Crusades are not viewed very fondly today by Muslims or other people from the places that got looted/pillaged. But of course, none of that keeps fans from using that as a historical framework for this set in their own stories if they're so inclined.

23 hours ago, Poco Lypso said:

think promobricks mentioned the area behind the portcullis doesn't serve a particular purpose and you can park your horses there :)

Oh, okay. That probably works for me as long as they can be situated there without blocking the entrance or anything like that. I might consider throwing down some Brick Yellow/Sand Yellow (tan/dark tan) pieces as hay to make it look a little more "fit for purpose" if I decide it's too plain looking. Or I might just end up designing a separate stable expansion to the set using Stud.io. But the most important thing to me for the official set is that the horses aren't just required to stand awkwardly off to the side of the set if nobody's riding them.

Edited May 22, 2022 by Aanchir

[eldiano]

14 hours ago, kodlovag said:

Do you think 10305 will be compatible to the 3 in 1 Creator castle in look and/or attechment points?

I’m pretty sure we’ll find a may to make them attach haha.

Here’s another question, will the queen come with the puffy skirt via CMF? Or just the usual angle roof skirt? Hehe, or will she come with a second pair of legs for some throne action?

[R0Sch]

8 hours ago, eldiano said:

Here’s another question, will the queen come with the puffy skirt via CMF? Or just the usual angle roof skirt? Hehe, or will she come with a second pair of legs for some throne action?

Who said anything about a skirt? She'll be battle ready with a yellow cape, armor, sword, shield and helmet or alternatively haripiece+crown.

[DaleDVM]

Three days late on the news and much to discuss. 

I was truly hoping as I read about the forestman hideout that they would make the tree in brown this time.  The original is one of my favorite sets of all time, but implemented in brown would make it literally perfect!  It still looks good though.  I am glad I delayed purchase of a few of the modular buildings so I can get a few of these sets as free with purchase.  

The description of the castle sounds good to me.  I look forward to the barding as well as horses in rarer colors.  20 figs is an appropriate number.  A lot of us longtime collectors agree, civilians are the real prize in this set, and are the rarest medieval figs to come by.  I will buy the set in multiples, but I really hope I can get some of these civilian figs in much greater quantities from Bricks and Pieces because 3-6 of the civilian figs would never be enough to fill my MOCs.  

I am hoping the tudor areas on the castle are white and not yellow.  Also hoping the trees have brown bark and not black the way they are drawn on the castle illustration.  

Looking forward to official photos.