Lego Icons 10332 Medieval Town Square Discussion Thread

[Triceron]

Medieval Square is definitely still on my list, but I think it's dropped a bit lower on priority than Viking Village.

It's great, but still flawed.  I know I set myself up with disappointment with higher expectations, but I really would have liked to see more animals, more shields, and at the very least a cross axes guard torso print.  Wolfpack dude is a glorious addition, but not enough to make up for what it seems to be lacking.

The left side of the building is definitely the weakest part of the set to me, and that's what doesn't justify it as a $230 set ($300 CAD).  I can probably PAB all the torsos and animals pretty easily a few months down the road.  To me, this feels more like a 'nice to have' than a must have.  It's a decent build, but the roofing on the left side, the mismatching color scheme and the lack of 'life' in the set makes it feel underdeveloped.  I'd need to add a lot of extra figures and mini builds to really make this place shine.  The large buildings are a nice start, but that's about it really.  I'm also not too fond of the trees since they wouldn't exactly fit nicely with the Lion Knight's Castle.

On the plus side, we'll get new LK shield and new Civilian/Peasant and Wolfpack torsos down the line.  I'm leaning towards getting Viking Village and some Wolfpack torsos and converting it to a new Wolfpack base.

Edited February 7 by Triceron

[DonQuixote]

14 minutes ago, Roebuck said:

Which I gladly would have paid, but apparently not enough of those taking the survey feel the same

Me too. Rather a more expensive yet impressive set then a cheaper but underwhelming set.

Or Lego should make more seperate medieval buildings so everybody can enjoy medieval sets with the budget they have.

So instead of an entire medieval market set, Lego should just sell all buildings seperately but more detailed and polished. 

5 minutes ago, Triceron said:

Medieval Square is definitely still on my list, but I think it's dropped a bit lower on priority than Viking Village.

It's great, but still flawed.  I know I set myself up with disappointment with higher expectations, but I really would have liked to see more animals, more shields, and at the very least a cross axes guard torso print.  Wolfpack dude is a glorious addition, but not enough to make up for what it seems to be lacking.

The left side of the building is definitely the weakest part of the set to me, and that's what doesn't justify it as a $230 set ($300 CAD).  I'd have to wait for at least a 25% discount before I even consider this considering most of the appeal seems to be in the buildings, and I can probably PAB all the torsos and animals pretty easily a few months down the road.  To me, this feels more like a 'nice to have' than a must have.

I'm leaning more towards getting Viking Village and some Wolfpack torsos and converting it to a new Wolfpack base.

The Viking Village is way better then this new medieval market. Nice printed torsos, new shields and new leg printing! And for 125€ at the local toy stores it is a bargain! 

[GeoBrick]

19 minutes ago, Roebuck said:

Which I gladly would have paid, but apparently not enough of those taking the survey feel the same

I'll grant you that. Luckily, over the years I purchased enough animals through PAB and BrickLink to populate any kind of market square you can imagine.

[Triceron]

2 minutes ago, GeoBrick said:

I'll grant you that. Luckily, over the years I purchased enough animals through PAB and BrickLink to populate any kind of market square you can imagine.

I wish we would have known sooner about this though.  I held off on getting Sheep and Calf (and piglet) just because I expected them in this set, and now they're retired with the Barn and Animals city set.  My own fault, definitely, but Lego pushing the retirement 'early' certainly doesn't help.  I really hate how they manufacture FOMO.  Animals should really be a long-term standard, not something we have to hunt down at Build a Minis or wait for a perfect window to get on PAB.

Edited February 7 by Triceron

[Yperio_Bricks]

7 minutes ago, DonQuixote said:

So instead of an entire medieval market set, Lego should just sell all buildings seperately but more detailed and polished.

Oh yes, that would be great!

[jodawill]

Just now, Yperio_Bricks said:

Oh yes, that would be great!

I agree. Imagine how much better this would be if it was half a dozen $50-$75 sets instead.

[GeoBrick]

4 minutes ago, jodawill said:

I agree. Imagine how much better this would be if it was half a dozen $50-$75 sets instead.

I'm afraid in the end you'd pay more for packaging and transport then. You'd be better off downloading the plans and ordering on PAB and/or using parts from your existing collection.

[Doddsino]

54 minutes ago, DonQuixote said:

The original medieval market from more then a decade ago looks so much superior. 

Agreed. Too bad it's super pricey now.

[Triceron]

21 minutes ago, DonQuixote said:

The Viking Village is way better then this new medieval market. Nice printed torsos, new shields and new leg printing! And for 125€ at the local toy stores it is a bargain! 

I had a chance to get the set at 20% discount when Toys R Us had their boxing day sales.  I kind of regret not doing so now, since I was mostly saving up for this set.  Oh well, no regrets, the Viking Village will still go on sale again one day.  At least it's not a Lego exclusive, and I can find better deals.

[Horation]

I'm not sure we are allowed to post leaked pictures on these forums... 

Looks good (for an official set and not a MOC, that is).

1 minute ago, jodawill said:

I agree. Imagine how much better this would be if it was half a dozen $50-$75 sets instead.

I agree, but they are unlikely to do so...

Let's say each set costs (all things included : machinery, insurance, employees, storage, free shipping on orders over 100$, the factories, etc....) 200$ to produce and is sold for 300$, an employee will need, say 5 minutes total to get the order from the warehouse to the shipping area. Now if you decide to split the set in 4, good now you have 4 75$ sets, for a total of at least 100$ of profit. Same margin, right? Not so fast, now they have to make 4 orders (3 minutes each, for instance), which takes more than double the amount of ( somewhat expensive) labour. Then they have to spend money marketing ALL 4 sets, which is significantly more time consuming and expensive than just one. Then you have shipping : one large set would cost say, 60$ to ship, but 4 smaller ones would cost say, 20$ each, and customers will likely purchase another small set to get to 100$, so shipping is more expensive, marketing is more expensive, labour is more expensive. And I didn't even mention the fact that some people would only purchase one or two vs all four (arguably this would be partly cancelled out by the larger volume of sales, but still...). So yeah, better, but not for the bottom line.

Then again, one can still wish...

[Triceron]

There's also the fact that their design is kind of all over the place, and even if we break up this one set into a half-dozen different ones, people would be clamoring to buy 2-3 of the good ones, and the weaker designed buildings just sit there warming shelves.  Like I'd buy the right side buildings and that's it.  I don't need the trees, I don't need the left side buildings.  The left buildings are just weaker design, and I don't think many people would outwardly prefer just getting those ones while skipping the Inn and Tower.

As one large product, it's a complete take-it-all approach that most Castle collectors and AFOLs will get anyways.  Easier for Lego to distribute their product in one 'premium' set instead of splitting it up.

Edited February 7 by Triceron

[DonQuixote]

So of topic : some people here with BDP experience? Have paid for the Mountain Fortress an hour ago. My Insiders account says : waiting for stock. What does this means? Have I got it or not? 

9 minutes ago, Horation said:

I'm not sure we are allowed to post leaked pictures on these forums... 

Looks good (for an official set and not a MOC, that is).

I agree, but they are unlikely to do so...

Let's say each set costs (all things included : machinery, insurance, employees, storage, free shipping on orders over 100$, the factories, etc....) 200$ to produce and is sold for 300$, an employee will need, say 5 minutes total to get the order from the warehouse to the shipping area. Now if you decide to split the set in 4, good now you have 4 75$ sets, for a total of at least 100$ of profit. Same margin, right? Not so fast, now they have to make 4 orders (3 minutes each, for instance), which takes more than double the amount of ( somewhat expensive) labour. Then they have to spend money marketing ALL 4 sets, which is significantly more time consuming and expensive than just one. Then you have shipping : one large set would cost say, 60$ to ship, but 4 smaller ones would cost say, 20$ each, and customers will likely purchase another small set to get to 100$, so shipping is more expensive, marketing is more expensive, labour is more expensive. And I didn't even mention the fact that some people would only purchase one or two vs all four (arguably this would be partly cancelled out by the larger volume of sales, but still...). So yeah, better, but not for the bottom line.

Then again, one can still wish...

I think you underestimate how much profit Lego has on each set and how low the costs actually are. Allmost everything in the Lego factory is automated I saw in a documentary. Also, Lego buys raw materials in huge bulks with huge discount. For an example, it's just 200€ to produce Rivendell I estimate and the rest is pure profit. That's how the Lego family has become richer then the Danish royalty. 

[JohnTPT17]

7 minutes ago, DonQuixote said:

So of topic : some people here with BDP experience? Have paid for the Mountain Fortress an hour ago. My Insiders account says : waiting for stock. What does this means? Have I got it or not? 

If you got the order confirmation e-mail, you should be good. The pre-orders for these send odd messages (you may even get an "out of stock" email - I did with previous waves), and there may be some weird shipment changes as July gets closer. I would just ignore most of them, until your credit card gets charged or you get a shipping number. 

I do wonder with as lukewarm as this set is being received here, if that will trickle down into less sales of this set. I hope Lego doesn't take the wrong message in that we don't want medieval peasant sets - just that this done did not match out year-long pent up expectations. 

[DonQuixote]

11 minutes ago, Triceron said:

There's also the fact that their design is kind of all over the place, and even if we break up this one set into a half-dozen different ones, people would be clamoring to buy 2-3 of the good ones, and the weaker designed buildings just sit there warming shelves.  Like I'd buy the right side buildings and that's it.  I don't need the trees, I don't need the left side buildings.

As one large product, it's a complete take-it-all approach that most Castle collectors and AFOLs will get anyways.  Easier for Lego to distribute their product in one 'premium' set instead of splitting it up.

Well if it were 4 seperate buildings, Lego has to put more effort in their designs. No they think they can get away with it with one decent building and one lame building. So it's up to you, the consumer. I spended my money on the BDP program instead of this half complete set. 

[mark1991t]

11 minutes ago, DonQuixote said:

So of topic : some people here with BDP experience? Have paid for the Mountain Fortress an hour ago. My Insiders account says : waiting for stock. What does this means? Have I got it or not? 

Yes. There is no stock because the sets are not produced yet. That is a standard message.

On topic: I like the set, but it is not a must have. The lack of animals and the stickers aren't a good thing, but the buildings are superior to the decades old medieval market.

[Yperio_Bricks]

23 minutes ago, Horation said:

I'm not sure we are allowed to post leaked pictures on these forums... 

Looks good (for an official set and not a MOC, that is).

I agree, but they are unlikely to do so...

Let's say each set costs (all things included : machinery, insurance, employees, storage, free shipping on orders over 100$, the factories, etc....) 200$ to produce and is sold for 300$, an employee will need, say 5 minutes total to get the order from the warehouse to the shipping area. Now if you decide to split the set in 4, good now you have 4 75$ sets, for a total of at least 100$ of profit. Same margin, right? Not so fast, now they have to make 4 orders (3 minutes each, for instance), which takes more than double the amount of ( somewhat expensive) labour. Then they have to spend money marketing ALL 4 sets, which is significantly more time consuming and expensive than just one. Then you have shipping : one large set would cost say, 60$ to ship, but 4 smaller ones would cost say, 20$ each, and customers will likely purchase another small set to get to 100$, so shipping is more expensive, marketing is more expensive, labour is more expensive. And I didn't even mention the fact that some people would only purchase one or two vs all four (arguably this would be partly cancelled out by the larger volume of sales, but still...). So yeah, better, but not for the bottom line.

Then again, one can still wish...

Yet Harry Potter can have ~10 Hogwarts sets that can be connected. And last year they got 76422: Diagon Alley: Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and it seems this year Ollivanders & Madam Malkin's Robes will follow. So if they can do seperat Diagon Alley buildings, it should be possible to have other (medieval) seperate buildings too.

[DonQuixote]

2 minutes ago, JohnTPT17 said:

 

I do wonder with as lukewarm as this set is being received here, if that will trickle down into less sales of this set. I hope Lego doesn't take the wrong message in that we don't want medieval peasant sets - just that this done did not match out year-long pent up expectations. 

Well it's allready funded and almost sold out. I really like the design. Great job Sleepless Night!

For 340€ it's expensive yes but I think it's way better value then the Medieval market. But that's just my opinion. 

Thanks for the info! 

[TeriXeri]

I like this set a lot, the smaller scale is nice and I will certainly adapt my IDEAS Blacksmith into 2+ buildings.

Red walls on the building with the tower definately has "guarded inn" vibes.

Need to see more details / interior / backside , but I don't think this is disappointing.

Edited February 7 by TeriXeri

[DonQuixote]

4 minutes ago, mark1991t said:

 

On topic: I like the set, but it is not a must have. The lack of animals and the stickers aren't a good thing, but the buildings are superior to the decades old medieval market.

Oh yeah, the stickers.... Terrible! 

[Triceron]

5 minutes ago, DonQuixote said:

Well if it were 4 seperate buildings, Lego has to put more effort in their designs. No they think they can get away with it with one decent building and one lame building. So it's up to you, the consumer. I spended my money on the BDP program instead of this half complete set. 

That is fair.

Personally I think Bricklink Designer Castle is a bit overpriced too for what you get.  Literally $20 more and that's LKC price with many more figs, animals and some unique molds to play with.  But I do like the concept of the Castle and the BDP, it just doesn't appeal to me as much now since I know Lego is pushing forward with making new Castle elements in new Castle themed sets.

Edited February 7 by Triceron

[zoth33]

2 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

I'm in love! Proper peasant cowl for medieval women, and plenty of great looking torsos. And is that a grey goat?

Day One buy for me. Cannot wait.

That's just the current hood piece it's on PAB in red and white.  

[JohnTPT17]

10 minutes ago, DonQuixote said:

Well it's allready funded and almost sold out. I really like the design. Great job Sleepless Night!

For 340€ it's expensive yes but I think it's way better value then the Medieval market. But that's just my opinion. 

Thanks for the info! 

I was referring to the Medieval Town Square getting a lukewarm reception - Mountain Fortress seems to be pretty well liked, based on the sales (I even got one myself). Sorry if that was unclear!

[sonofasubmariner]

I'm not as down on the left side buildings as some folks here, but I don't think either of the buildings works completely for me. I definitely don't feel the need to buy this day one, especially with the number of nostalgia button pushing sets coming out this year. I'll have to mull this over.

[zoth33]

It's a very nice set.  I'm like most on here I wish it had a few more figs and animals but oh well.  Some nice new prints on torsos and the shield is great.  The return of the wolfpack will be a welcome addition to my collection and hopefully the new torso's and shield will end up one PAB to be able to get more.  The grey goat is great too.  I like the buildings and that the one with the tower folds open.  Definitely buying this one.  I still have yet to build the viking village, probably going to start building it this weekend.  It will be interesting to see how the viking village and this set look next to each other.  

[jodawill]

21 minutes ago, Triceron said:

That is fair.

Personally I think Bricklink Designer Castle is a bit overpriced too for what you get.  Literally $20 more and that's LKC price with many more figs, animals and some unique molds to play with.  But I do like the concept of the Castle and the BDP, it just doesn't appeal to me as much now since I know Lego is pushing forward with making new Castle elements in new Castle themed sets.

I think it's an amazing MOC, and I could even see that design being an official set. But there's no point in buying someone else's MOC. The main reason I buy sets is for the unique parts, and the Bricklink sets don't have any. I would rather see it in someone's display at a show than build it myself.