40567 Forest Hideout (GWP)

[SirBlake]

6 minutes ago, jodawill said:

I think the real irony of the forestmen is how quickly the theme would have gotten old if they had given us as many sets as we thought we wanted. The entire idea only lends itself to a handful of small sets. I wish we didn't have to wait over 30 years between waves, but I think what they've done here is the most tasteful way to represent the faction - this GWP and a little hideout in the castle. I would love to get a new version of Forestmen's Crossing though.

Interesting. I can’t agree with that, because I think there was plenty of life left in it when it fizzled, but always good to hear a contrary perspective. 

[eldiano]

On 7/5/2022 at 1:33 PM, Aanchir said:

I'm surprised to see so much hate for 31120 Medieval Castle! Honestly, I feel it looked pretty outstanding, myself — at least by the standards of the Castle theme! And it's packed with authentic features that were rare or absent in earlier LEGO castle sets, such as machicolations, arrowslits, a moat, a millwheel, and even a garderobe — notably, all of which are features making a return appearance in the new 18+ Lion Knights' Castle.

Even from a parts standpoint, I feel like 31120 was a pretty outstanding parts pack for medieval builds, and the sort of set that is well-suited to buying in larger quantities. While it lacks a lot of specialized parts like the large castle wall panels, arched doors, parapet bricks, raised baseplates, and BURPs that characterized many LEGO castles of the 90s and 2000s, it compensates for that with loads of other useful Castle-building parts like grey arches, slopes, SNOT bricks, masonry bricks, palisade bricks, and of course basic bricks in large quantities. And it also has some great parts in other colors, like arches and ingot tiles in Reddish Brown or slopes in Olive Green, Earth Green, and Earth Blue.

The biggest drawbacks of its 3-in-1 theming from a parts standpoint, as many folks here have rightly mentioned, are its relative lack of minifig parts, minifig accessories, and molded animals compared to similar-sized sets from "play themes" like City, Castle, Pirates, or Ninjago. And the main design complaint I've seen about the castle itself is that the Bright Yellow and Reddish Brown parts used for the half-timbered portions feel too bright, and that it should have used a darker color for the wood and/or a less saturated color for the infill.

It goes without saying that a set like 31120 could never measure up to many MOCs from the AFOL community — no KFOL-targeted Castle set could ever reaolistically be expected to do so. And many of the negative responses to the 2013 Castle wave on this very forum should amply demonstrate that a lot of the frustrations people have with its design (such as its bright colors and simple, rectangular structure) are in no way specific to the Creator 3-in-1 theme! That said, one of the other big complaints about the 2013 King's Castle was that it was over-reliant on castle wall panels in place of more elaborate building techniques that would give it more complexity and textural detail — an area where the 3-in-1 castle excels.

 

All this aside, one of the main reasons I think a 3-in-1 forest hideout set would be fun to see in the future is how conducive it'd be to the sort of alternate builds that define the Creator 3-in-1 theme. Honestly, I find 31120's alternate builds immensely charming in their own right — after all, they feature many of the same design strengths as the main model such as their complexity and textural detail, and also full compatibility with the main model's modular segments!

And given the tendency of old-school Forestmen sets to use very similar sorts of parts (lots of black slopes, arches, and corner panels for trees, green limb elements for leaves, and grey bricks and panels for natural rock formations and/or stone fortifications), I can't help feeling that you could easily come up with a selection of bricks that would allow for a single set to build a similar variety of different structures. Between that uniformity and the apparent popularity of tree houses/tree forts among Creator 3-in-1 buyers (e.g. 31010, 31053, 31078, and 31116), it seems like a very natural choice for a future Creator 3-in-1 set.

Of course, a 3-in-1 forest hideout would probably differ from the recent 18+ ones in a number of ways — for instance, I expect it'd use a couple different shades of brown for the trunk/branches/bark instead of monochrome black, both because kids associate brown more with tree bark and because it'd make the instructions easier to read without extra accommodations like outlining parts in red as they're added. But I doubt that'd completely spoil the appeal of a 3-in-1 forest hideout, especially considering how many people wanted/expected the 18+ GWP set to use Reddish Brown or Dark Brown for the bark instead of the classic black.

The Pick-A-Brick wall selection has varied at times in the past, but LEGO usually tends to revert back to a selection of basic parts in assorted colors since "average" buyers (e.gg. parents of young kids) often just DO want just the sort of standard bricks you'd typically find in a generic brick bucket. The most "out there" the selection got was a brief window of time in 2011 when they added an assortment of Hero Factory parts as a promotion/tie-in for the "Hero Recon Team" spin-off of LEGO Design byME.

I love the Medieval Castle for the entire reason that it’s a modern castle from lego, it’s a combination of two castles from the 80’s but I do agree with the main complaint that lego uses all kinds of colors to make it work, the creator 3 in 1 castle is perfect for MOC and mods, I have seen some intense and amazing setups. 

My main problem is that for some reason Lego decided to switch up the black falcon helmets to black and made it impossible to get them at the moment, I wanted to upgrade all my soldiers before the Lion Knights castle came out. 

On 7/8/2022 at 10:25 PM, jodawill said:

I haven't seen anyone creating MOCs from this set yet. I just spent some time trying to come up with my own forestmen set from two copies of the GWP, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. I'm afraid I'm not much of a photographer, unfortunately. This MOC is somewhat inspired by Camouflaged Outpost, but re-imagined as a waterfall. Here's the full album. You can't tell from the photos, but the secret hideout under the waterfall is quite deep, extending more than half of the baseplate (which is the only part that isn't included in two copies of the GWP).

I never had a forest set growing up but I saw some of them, I’m understanding that a lot of the forest sets were close to 200 bricks so I feel it should be no issue recreating the old sets, I’m just having a hard time finding the old manuals for me to see I think! Haha 

I bought my GWP for 30.00 usd I would love to get another one via the upcoming August Promotion if it’s true! 

[BrickJagger]

16 minutes ago, jodawill said:

I think the real irony of the forestmen is how quickly the theme would have gotten old if they had given us as many sets as we thought we wanted. The entire idea only lends itself to a handful of small sets. I wish we didn't have to wait over 30 years between waves, but I think what they've done here is the most tasteful way to represent the faction - this GWP and a little hideout in the castle. I would love to get a new version of Forestmen's Crossing though.

I feel like they could have pulled off an Ewok village-style set that would serve as their home base. The River Fortress is pint-sized for a flagship set, even in the 90's. 

[jodawill]

10 minutes ago, SirBlake said:

Interesting. I can’t agree with that, because I think there was plenty of life left in it when it fizzled, but always good to hear a contrary perspective. 

What kind of sets do you imagine they could have done? To me, there's only so many variations on "hideout in the woods" you can do. They're a small minority of the public by definition, and a large fort doesn't really make sense (although they did make one). Including some new minifigures in other castle sets would be a great way to keep the theme alive. (If we could keep the castle theme alive!) I really want some new b

I'm not at all saying I don't like the theme. It's one of my favorite Lego themes. But I don't think we would appreciate it the same way if we hadn't gone so many years without new sets.

1 minute ago, BrickJagger said:

I feel like they could have pulled off an Ewok village-style set that would serve as their home base. The River Fortress is pint-sized for a flagship set, even in the 90's. 

Perhaps, and that could be really cool. But it doesn't really fit into the idea of outlaws living in Sherwood forest. It wouldn't take the foresters long to catch onto that. That's why the River Fortress never made sense to me. The idea of putting shields and flags on their secret hideouts doesn't make sense either, but it's Lego after all, and you have to take some liberties to make it look cool. So maybe an Ewok village style set could work too.

I'm going to make a big castle display after the Lion Knights Castle comes out, and I hope to build a forest of black trees with the forestmen hiding in the middle of it. I love the idea of them being just a small portion of the display, almost an easter egg.

[SirBlake]

The “Ewok Village” idea is a perfect example. So perfect, when Robin Hood Prince of Thieves came out in the early 90’s, Hasbro repurposed the Ewok Village set for the action figure line. 

I could also see a “bridge toll” set, fitting the original Robin Hood concept (meeting Little John), Archery Tournament for the same reasons. There would be room for a river boat, a noble’s wagon holdup, a soldier ambush set, a cave hideout behind a waterfall, etc. that’s with about 3 minutes of thought. With more time spent, I’m sure plenty of other opportunities would present themselves. 

[jodawill]

5 hours ago, SirBlake said:

The “Ewok Village” idea is a perfect example. So perfect, when Robin Hood Prince of Thieves came out in the early 90’s, Hasbro repurposed the Ewok Village set for the action figure line. 

I could also see a “bridge toll” set, fitting the original Robin Hood concept (meeting Little John), Archery Tournament for the same reasons. There would be room for a river boat, a noble’s wagon holdup, a soldier ambush set, a cave hideout behind a waterfall, etc. that’s with about 3 minutes of thought. With more time spent, I’m sure plenty of other opportunities would present themselves. 

Those are some good ideas. I like the "bridge troll" idea. I think a lot of these things could fit in as a small bonus to a larger castle set though. For example, a bridge set (like the ones they had in the '90s) could come with a couple forestmen hiding under the bridge.

[iragm]

The idea book 260 has a good number of excellent concepts that were never fully explored.  There's a hollow tree with a barrel in it that is one of my favorite forestmen builds, as well as a little forest "city" - forge, water wheel, hitching post and grindstone built on the 6071 base plate.  And a bunch more, without instructions.

I suspect one of the reasons that forestmen are so well loved by adults is that they offered us an insight into civilian life under the crusader's rule - but usually with an interesting twist or some fun play features: see sets like the crusader's cart that allowed the forestmen to be smuggled into castles.  There's still plenty of room for stand-alone sets like a lord's manor with a secret bookshelf for the forestmen to escape through, a windmill with a compartment in the top to allow the forestmen to keep an eye out for crusader patrols, or a forest dock/market like the imperial trading post with cranes for them to swing between and treasure to steal.  It all depends on the execution.

[Khargeust]

Hello there,

Are we sure that the set will come back in early august as GWP ? Any official information about it ?

[jodawill]

6 hours ago, iragm said:

The idea book 260 has a good number of excellent concepts that were never fully explored.  There's a hollow tree with a barrel in it that is one of my favorite forestmen builds, as well as a little forest "city" - forge, water wheel, hitching post and grindstone built on the 6071 base plate.  And a bunch more, without instructions.

I suspect one of the reasons that forestmen are so well loved by adults is that they offered us an insight into civilian life under the crusader's rule - but usually with an interesting twist or some fun play features: see sets like the crusader's cart that allowed the forestmen to be smuggled into castles.  There's still plenty of room for stand-alone sets like a lord's manor with a secret bookshelf for the forestmen to escape through, a windmill with a compartment in the top to allow the forestmen to keep an eye out for crusader patrols, or a forest dock/market like the imperial trading post with cranes for them to swing between and treasure to steal.  It all depends on the execution.

I hadn't looked at that book in a long time. I completely forgot about the forestmen stuff in it. That's really a wonderful book. There's a lot of great ideas for both the forestmen and the castle stuff there. I think that hollow tree you mentioned is a great example of why the forestmen theme is so much fun to do MOCs with. This theme really gets my imagination reeling when I look at the photos.

I think, though, that this theme is a rich topic for MOCs, but that doesn't necessarily mean we need dozens of sets, or even large sets. I'm very content having just a few sets that give us the parts we need to create our own stuff. I hope we get more torso prints soon, as well as brown hats. Black feathers would be amazing too. And imagine how fantastic it would be to have those plumes in black again!

[Black Feather]

Yes.  If they would give us those things (brown hat, black feather, blue feather, yellow feather, black torso, blue torso, plain green torso from the new peasant version) I really don’t care what theme they put it under or how they build it.  I just thought the 3 in 1 would be a good fit with the way they are doing things.  While I agree with the criticisms of the castle (pirate minifigure, brick built animals, etc.) I still like the set.  I guess I just have lower expectations or a more glass is half full outlook that some others.

[jodawill]

There was some speculation either in this thread, or maybe the castle one (I can't remember) that the GWP is the only place the forestmen's shield is available. It actually is in the castle. It's just hidden away and we can't see it in the photos.

[Black Feather]

4 minutes ago, jodawill said:

There was some speculation either in this thread, or maybe the castle one (I can't remember) that the GWP is the only place the forestmen's shield is available. It actually is in the castle. It's just hidden away and we can't see it in the photos.

That’s good news.  Did not make sense to me that they would make a part just for one GWP.  But I don’t track GWP close enough to know if that would be unprecedented.  Hopefully it means I will be able to buy way more than I could possibly need from online PAB then.  I already have an insane number of BF shields… and will probably get more since they are only ones available for a while apparently.

[Something_Awesome]

On 7/13/2022 at 9:08 AM, Black Feather said:

That’s good news.  Did not make sense to me that they would make a part just for one GWP.  But I don’t track GWP close enough to know if that would be unprecedented.  Hopefully it means I will be able to buy way more than I could possibly need from online PAB then.  I already have an insane number of BF shields… and will probably get more since they are only ones available for a while apparently.

Yes, I can confirm the shield is in the castle set, as I have seen it. I fully expect this shield to be purchasable from the online pick-a-brick site (or whatever it is called). My concern though isn't the moc builders, it will be the Bricklink stores that buy them all up to see on their stores. There are two possible reasons this would happen (1) to increase traffic to the stores which will definitely make them buy up the stores inventory of other items, (2) to sell at grossly inflated prices. I'd imagine reason 1 to be the main reason though.

[Pchan1983]

I just built mine and this is one of the best GWP in recent times.  I'm surprised at the use of small pieces which made the building experience way more interesting than expected.  Looks good too.  Can't wait for the castle!

 

[natesroom]

my only disappointment in this set is the green pieces on the bottom dont stay connected that well.

Edited July 16, 2022 by natesroom

[jodawill]

Just now, natesroom said:

my only disappointment in this set is the green pieces on the  bottom dont stay connected that well.

That's easy to fix. I built mine on top of two 16x16 baseplates. My only complaint is that I can't go buy 50 of these at $25 each.

[natesroom]

TWO 16X16? or x2 - 6x16

Edited July 16, 2022 by natesroom

[jodawill]

1 minute ago, natesroom said:

TWO 16X16? or x2 - 6x16

I used two of these. It folds into a half sized baseplate either way.

[natesroom]

weird so you have a big baseplate then when its folded together

[jodawill]

Just now, natesroom said:

weird so you have a big baseplate then when its folded together

Right. It forms a 16x32 baseplate. If you want to make a full castle layout with this set, it's convenient because you can display it either opened or closed in the same spot. It just takes the space of half a (full size, 32x32) baseplate either way. You just have to put the hinge at the back center corners of the two baseplates.

[Black Feather]

My biggest disappointment is it’s the only forestmen set where you get two of the same minifigure.  But I am still going to have a bunch of these before all is done.  Two already.  At least two next round assuming rumor is true.  And then wait and see.  Would be nice if they had sold it on site for their suggested retail price.  Don’t know if they have ever eventually sold a popular GWP on site.  This is one of the reasons I kind of don’t like LEGO owning bricklinks.  Maybe they feel like they have some kind of obligation to resellers that they otherwise wouldn’t have.

[Hive]

On 7/16/2022 at 6:32 AM, Black Feather said:

My biggest disappointment is it’s the only forestmen set where you get two of the same minifigure.  But I am still going to have a bunch of these before all is done.  Two already.  At least two next round assuming rumor is true.  And then wait and see.  Would be nice if they had sold it on site for their suggested retail price.  Don’t know if they have ever eventually sold a popular GWP on site.  This is one of the reasons I kind of don’t like LEGO owning bricklinks.  Maybe they feel like they have some kind of obligation to resellers that they otherwise wouldn’t have.

If you could just buy all the GWPs, there wouldn't be anything special about them anymore. Part of the allure that makes people spend x amount of money to get GWP y which is set at a much lower price point is the exclusivity of it all.

That said, some physical LEGO shops have actually been seen selling leftover GWPs.

[MAB]

On 7/16/2022 at 5:32 AM, Black Feather said:

My biggest disappointment is it’s the only forestmen set where you get two of the same minifigure.  But I am still going to have a bunch of these before all is done.  Two already.  At least two next round assuming rumor is true.  And then wait and see.  Would be nice if they had sold it on site for their suggested retail price.  Don’t know if they have ever eventually sold a popular GWP on site.  This is one of the reasons I kind of don’t like LEGO owning bricklinks.  Maybe they feel like they have some kind of obligation to resellers that they otherwise wouldn’t have.

They haven't really changed anything about how bricklink works and haven't really changed much about the GWP offerings, so I don't think they feel any obligation to resellers.

[jodawill]

The Harry Potter GWP has already sold out a week before the promotion was supposed to end, whereas this set was available the entire week. Is it possible that castle really isn't as popular as I'd like to believe? I stayed up until midnight to order this GWP because I thought it would sell out immediately.

[Black Feather]

2 hours ago, jodawill said:

The Harry Potter GWP has already sold out a week before the promotion was supposed to end, whereas this set was available the entire week. Is it possible that castle really isn't as popular as I'd like to believe? I stayed up until midnight to order this GWP because I thought it would sell out immediately.

40567 did sell out on the last day in the US.  I kept loading my cart every day just to see if/when it would sell out.  Someone earlier posted that there was error in getting the GWP and LEGO said it was sold out for now but would be sent when they produced more for the second round in August.  I don’t think you can extrapolate the popularity from how fast the GWP sells out.  Because there are two factors we don’t know.  How many were produced and how many were bought.  I mean maybe LEGO thought they produced enough for two rounds and now have to make more for August. Or they always planned two productions and just did a really good job estimating what they needed since it sold out the last day.  And maybe they just guessed wrong with Harry Potter.  Certainly possible Harry Potter is more popular.  Just saying selling out faster doesn’t prove it.  Also, fair to point out with Harry Potter GWP you were asking Harry Potter fans to buy Harry Potter in order to get a Harry Potter GWP at time when lots of new HP sets just came out.  With 40567 you were asking castle fans to drop $150 to get it when most of us already bought 31120 and 21325 and people were on here complaining there was nothing available they wanted.  I ended up buying a fourth and fifth 31120 to get it online and at the store…  And just remembered the rumor came out that 40567 would be available again when 10305 comes out in August when 40567 had just become available.