Lego Icons 10332 Medieval Town Square Discussion Thread

[Cyprinus]

1 hour ago, R0Sch said:

It's funny how Lego enforces these minifigure limits based on part count for BDP submissions, but fails to keep this guideline in their own sets.

I mean, this time they managed to do so, and you're still complaining :P

[Black Falcon]

1 hour ago, R0Sch said:

It's funny how Lego enforces these minifigure limits based on part count for BDP submissions, but fails to keep this guideline in their own sets.

Those limits are maximum limits, so I don´t how Lego failt to keep this guideline in Sets when they have less ;). Anyways for BDP those Limits do make sense, since they are made to prevent People from making Minifigure-Packs instead of Sets.

I still agree with the fact that there are just not enough Minifigures in this set though.

[MAB]

1 hour ago, R0Sch said:

It's funny how Lego enforces these minifigure limits based on part count for BDP submissions, but fails to keep this guideline in their own sets. This should be the bare minimum for every LEGO set. 10193 had 8 minifigures and 1601 pieces, 10305 had 22 at 4514 pieces so this set should have had at exactly 16 minifigures by the same part count metric. And I wouldn't have complained to pay 20€ more for those 8 extra.
 

It is a limit. It doesn't mean a design has to have that exact number, just that it cannot go over the limit. It is there to stop the minifigure pack submissions, with minimal parts and all minifigs.

[DonQuixote]

It's sad they use stickers for the window shutters. Where is the time Lego had actually windows with working shutters back in the 80ies.  Remember those red window frames with white opening windows and green shutters? Sometimes old Lego is better. You could buy them in part packs in every toy store. Good old classic Lego.

[iragm]

9 hours ago, R0Sch said:

Now looking back at 7189 Mill Village Raid with 663 pieces, 6 minifigures and 7 animals feels like a real bargain and it wasn't exactly cheap at the time costing 70$. 

PAB didn't exist in the same way back then.  I'm fine getting fewer minifigures here given how many excellent torsos there are, and that I can load up for like $2-3 per minifigure from PAB.

 

Plus, for an extra $10 you can get another minifigure, an extra goat, and pay $5 to a reseller!

[hikouki]

I just realized that there is only ONE goat in this set?!?!?

[Cyprinus]

3 minutes ago, hikouki said:

I just realized that there is only ONE goat in this set?!?!?

Looking at all the other corners it cut, that should hardly be a surprise ;)

[Aanchir]

Gonna copy and paste my first impressions/thoughts from Brickset:

Quote

 

Very excited for this set! I've spent the last couple days reverse engineering as much of it as I can digitally (my digital model is still over 100 parts short, but as far as I can tell those are mostly internal structural elements of the roofs and staircase which aren't visible in any of the official pics), and I can definitely tell it will make a beautiful companion piece to my Lion Knights' Castle!

I feel like the designers did a really nice job with the selection of characters and animals, ensuring that they would complement those from 10305 without feeling too repetitive. Even some of the most generic animals, the frog and songbirds, appear in different colors than those from 10305 (although the same can't be said for the single black bat nestled inside the tower).

While I understand the complaints about the lack of a cow, I feel like it could have been tricky to include one in a way that complements the build — an ox-cart would feel repetitive after the one in 10305, and a dairy cow would have called for a MUCH larger pasture behind the farmhouse!

The Lion Knight tower guard is the most generic of the minifigs, but his lavish mustache helps set him apart nicely from his compatriots in the castle. The tax collector is also a great medieval archetype that we've never seen in sets before. And the fearsome-looking Wolfpack crook contrasts nicely with the merrier-looking Forest People who served as outlaws in previous throwback sets.

While the set has no emphasis on "army building", the variety of peasant and merchant garb here seems like it will be very conducive to mixing and matching with other minifig parts for builders seeking to create a larger civilian populace. It's certainly much more variety of dedicated civilian clothing than we ever saw in Castle sets of the 80s or 90s!

But my own main interest is in the build, and what a build it is! The variety of roof, wall, and timber colors really helps create the feeling of a large and bustling community, and yet even when the buildings are folded closed into two compact "city blocks", they form a fairly coherent-looking composition.

The inn feels very authentically medieval with its half-timbering, thatched roof, and jettied construction, and its interior is beautifully furnished (although the cast-iron stove is a glaring anachronism). The shieldsmith's workshop is riddled with colorful paint splotches that turn what could otherwise be a rather gloomy space into a creative and colorful one (and it's neat that the fireplace seems to be used not only for light and warmth, but also for preparing pigments). And the red-walled bedroom with adjoining watchtower is a charming callback to the Guarded Inn!

The carpenter's house is the simplest of the buildings in terms of colors and textures, but still boasts fun details like the upstairs storeroom with hoist, trapdoor-style collapsible ladder, colorful awning, and cheese slopes representing piles of sawdust collected in the corners! I also love the farmhouse/dairy's flagstone floor and marvelous variety of cheeses, as well as the stylish dormer window and arched rafters in the weaver's workshop. And the tapestry loom is amazingly intricate in its construction!

One drawback of the set compared to 10305 is the lack of stair/ladder access to the uppermost rooms of the inn and tower. There are also a few historical inaccuracies that bother me (even with the understanding that LEGO Castle is based on an imagined version of medieval history, inspired as much by popular culture and folklore as by real history). It especially frustrates me that we keep seeing pumpkins in medieval-inspired sets — I feel it would be relatively simple to include a different vegetable in their place such as lettuce, cabbage, or even some type of old world gourd like a melon or calabash.

Overall, though, this was already one of my most anticipated sets of this year, and these pictures have only reinforced that! I'm eager to add it to my collection, and to use it as inspiration for even more medieval builds in the future!

 

After catching up on comments from this thread since the reveal, I see a lot of frustrations with the lack of printed shields, which I hadn't considered but seem very fair. Even without a lot of new shields, the shieldsmith's shop could've certainly reused some of the one-off shields from the Lion Knights' Castle. 

I myself don't care nearly so much about prints vs. stickers, so from my perspective it could have also sufficed if stickers had been provided to allow different optional patterns for unprinted shields. Maybe the set might surprise us by actually doing that, but currently nothing suggests it, and I guess that would only really boost the appeal of the set for those of us who don't mind stickers.

 

For my part, my interest in the set is less about what new parts it offers than about how well the build, figures, animals, and accessories complement my copy of the Lion Knights' Castle. In that regard I'm very satisfied with the final design, which seems to do a good job including fun and interesting features that 10305 omitted, while avoiding too much repetition of features or archetypes from that set. Even the one uniformed Lion Knight manages to stand out from the ones in that set without relying on new elements that could have gone to the civilians, thanks to his big bushy mustache!

And the set also seems like a great starting point and source of inspiration for MOCs that add on to the medieval setting. On the simpler end of the scale, some more stalls could be added to expand the market scene, like a fishmonger, potter, or basket weaver, or candlemaker. But it also wouldn't be out of the question to add entire buildings such as a stable house, sawmill, or glass blower's workshop to grow the community even further!

[BrickMatit]

31 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

It especially frustrates me that we keep seeing pumpkins in medieval-inspired sets

Well, not so out of logic, considering that LEGO put Eldorado Fortress in its Medieval dedicated sets category on LEGO.com 

[Cyprinus]

36 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

Very excited for this set! I've spent the last couple days reverse engineering as much of it as I can digitally (my digital model is still over 100 parts short, but as far as I can tell those are mostly internal structural elements of the roofs and staircase which aren't visible in any of the official pics), and I can definitely tell it will make a beautiful companion piece to my Lion Knights' Castle!

Would you happen to also have a digital build of the LKC to showcase how they work together? Also, what are the base dimensions of the buildings? I could play around counting the studs in the images, but if you already have a full digital model...

[upliftingbricks]

1 hour ago, BrickMatit said:

Well, not so out of logic, considering that LEGO put Eldorado Fortress in its Medieval dedicated sets category on LEGO.com 

On the Go Medieval section they have a picture of the Blacksmith even though its retired and not listed within that section at all. 

I want to hope that means they plan to build out the Medieval dedicated sets more in future

Edited February 10 by upliftingbricks

[eldiano]

10 hours ago, DonQuixote said:

It's sad they use stickers for the window shutters. Where is the time Lego had actually windows with working shutters back in the 80ies.  Remember those red window frames with white opening windows and green shutters? Sometimes old Lego is better. You could buy them in part packs in every toy store. Good old classic Lego.

That was my biggest complaint from Majisto's workshop. stickered shutters that doesn't work the same because of the brick tile's thickness. 

3 hours ago, hikouki said:

I just realized that there is only ONE goat in this set?!?!?

The Lego rep mentioned that the ones that comes with the blind boxes should be plenty for this set. lol. I've only seen them once in retail. 

[Christmas Jack]

I wish the set had more play features, or at least more potential for emergent narrative -- I like that the tax collector has a little hidey-hole for his stolen coins, but apart from that I'm not seeing much of a story. Why doesn't the tax collector have a proper chest for the wolfpack crook to steal? Why doesn't the crook have his own hidey-hole inside the tree? Why doesn't the shield painter have an illicit wolfpack shield hidden behind a secret wall?

Maybe that's not the point of an 18+ set, but the Lion Knights' Castle had oodles of play features, so I'm disappointed they didn't broaden that appeal again here.

[Aanchir]

3 hours ago, Cyprinus said:

Would you happen to also have a digital build of the LKC to showcase how they work together? Also, what are the base dimensions of the buildings? I could play around counting the studs in the images, but if you already have a full digital model...

Well, stud.io on my laptop REALLY starts chugging when I have that many bricks are on screen at once.  So it'll be easier to test all possible layouts when I have the sets in real life (they don't physically connect together, so they can essentially be arranged any way you like). But since you asked, I did throw together one very simple layout with both a standard screenshot and a top-down screenshot showing one way the sets could be arranged and how much space they'd take up this way. This specific layout is probably too deep for the shelf I currently have the castle displayed on, so I might personally have to go with more of a side-by-side layout.

The base dimensions of the buildings with hinges removed (counting the full bases, including grassy areas) are as follows:

• Inn: 20x10 studs
• Shieldsmith + guard tower: 24x12 studs
• Weaver's workshop: 12x24 studs
• Carpenter's workshop: 8x24 studs
• Farmhouse: 16x26 studs

And when actually connected together by their hinges, as in the official build, the base dimensions are:

• Inn + shieldsmith + guard tower:
  • 24x22 studs when fully closed
  • 44x12 studs when fully opened
• Weaver's workshop + carpenter's workshop + farmhouse:
  • 36x29 studs when fully closed
  • 50x40 studs when fully opened (but this makes an odd T-shape with huge empty spaces between the open sides of the buildings, so is not an ideal layout for long-term display)

Edited February 10 by Aanchir

[TeriXeri]

Those screenshots do help a lot with judging the size of this, much larger then first expected from first impression box art, and the color scheme looks a lot nicer with castle in the background as well.

But I will likely still adapt the IDEAS smith to a somewhat smaller scale, perhaps 2 buildings, one with blue , and one with dark blue roof, or something that hinges in the middle.

The actual smith room isn't that big  (16x13 at quick glance of a picture, little bit more with the forge and wood storage) so can be preserved in a smaller building, it's the stairs + overhangs that make that Blacksmith set seem so large.

 

Edited February 11 by TeriXeri

[Cyprinus]

54 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

Well, stud.io on my laptop REALLY starts chugging when I have that many bricks are on screen at once.  So it'll be easier to test all possible layouts when I have the sets in real life (they don't physically connect together, so they can essentially be arranged any way you like). But since you asked, I did throw together one very simple layout with both a standard screenshot and a top-down screenshot showing one way the sets could be arranged and how much space they'd take up this way. This specific layout is probably too deep for the shelf I currently have the castle displayed on, so I might personally have to go with more of a side-by-side layout.

Many thanks! Looks like the weaver/woodworker/farm may cause me some space issues as well... Probably will need to set up some plates to physically check how it can work out... Maybe if I split the tavern/guardhouse into two parts and tuck the other building into a corner...

[jodawill]

It looks really good sitting in front of the castle like that. It would be really cool if they'd make promotional materials putting them together in the classic style, with a physical backdrop.

[Black Falcon]

13 hours ago, DonQuixote said:

It's sad they use stickers for the window shutters. Where is the time Lego had actually windows with working shutters back in the 80ies.  Remember those red window frames with white opening windows and green shutters? Sometimes old Lego is better. You could buy them in part packs in every toy store. Good old classic Lego.

Yeah, I would have loved if they would have made a new part for this, something that looks like those stickers. 

And actually, if I could choose one part to be a print instead of a sticker it would be those. In the end most of the stickers are pretty specific to this set or refering to past Lego Sets, but those shutters could be well used for other themes as well, like Harry Potter for instance.

[AnonymousAnonAnon]

6 hours ago, Christmas Jack said:

I wish the set had more play features, or at least more potential for emergent narrative -- I like that the tax collector has a little hidey-hole for his stolen coins, but apart from that I'm not seeing much of a story. Why doesn't the tax collector have a proper chest for the wolfpack crook to steal? Why doesn't the crook have his own hidey-hole inside the tree? Why doesn't the shield painter have an illicit wolfpack shield hidden behind a secret wall?

Maybe that's not the point of an 18+ set, but the Lion Knights' Castle had oodles of play features, so I'm disappointed they didn't broaden that appeal again here.

Yes, the same for me. I was hoping this line would be the play-friendly Icons sets, since LKC has so many play features. As it is, it is certainly more playable than, say, a modular--but nothing sets it apart, playwise, from any other open-backed set. It's funny. If it was $280 and truly spectacular. it might be a Day One for me. But at this price, and with all the sacrifices clearly made...I will wait for it to go on sale.

Edited February 11 by AnonymousAnonAnon

[Roebuck]

10 hours ago, Aanchir said:

I feel like the designers did a really nice job with the selection of characters and animals, ensuring that they would complement those from 10305 without feeling too repetitive. Even some of the most generic animals, the frog and songbirds, appear in different colors than those from 10305 (although the same can't be said for the single black bat nestled inside the tower).

While I understand the complaints about the lack of a cow, I feel like it could have been tricky to include one in a way that complements the build — an ox-cart would feel repetitive after the one in 10305, and a dairy cow would have called for a MUCH larger pasture behind the farmhouse!

I know you are mostly positive to what Lego do and that is fine, but no one buys a medieval village set because they include, frogs, bats and small birds it's all about the farm animals! I like the pasture included, but if the set had a cow or two like it supposed to it's not like they where forced to make a pasture for them, they could be free-ranging like the ones in MMV. Both the designer and we got the short end of the stick in this set, he made a masterpiece and a dream set that was reduced to a nice set because of budget cuts

46 minutes ago, AnonymousAnonAnon said:

If it was $280 and truly spectacular. it might be a Day One for me. But at this price, and with all the sacrifices clearly made...I will wait for it to go on sale.

Yes me too, the decision to reduce the price on this set with 50$ and remove a lot of the sought after parts from the prelim has personally made me loose a lot of faith in the Lego company. They do a lot of things right these days with offering a lot of new sets for adults, but in regards to remakes of classic sets they are going in the wrong direction after a fantastic start. (I have no interest in Space so will leave that out since I do not know enough about it). Pirates and Castle started more or less with perfection in B-bay and LKC, but the sets after that are heading in the wrong direction. We will see in a year or two when we get the next set if they are back on track, but I rather be positivity surprised then with low expectations than disappointed with a lot of them like now

[AnonymousAnonAnon]

27 minutes ago, Roebuck said:

I know you are mostly positive to what Lego do and that is fine, but no one buys a medieval village set because they include, frogs, bats and small birds it's all about the farm animals! I like the pasture included, but if the set had a cow or two like it supposed to it's not like they where forced to make a pasture for them, they could be free-ranging like the ones in MMV. Both the designer and we got the short end of the stick in this set, he made a masterpiece and a dream set that was reduced to a nice set because of budget cuts

Yes me too, the decision to reduce the price on this set with 50$ and remove a lot of the sought after parts from the prelim has personally made me loose a lot of faith in the Lego company. They do a lot of things right these days with offering a lot of new sets for adults, but in regards to remakes of classic sets they are going in the wrong direction after a fantastic start. (I have no interest in Space so will leave that out since I do not know enough about it). Pirates and Castle started more or less with perfection in B-bay and LKC, but the sets after that are heading in the wrong direction. We will see in a year or two when we get the next set if they are back on track, but I rather be positivity surprised then with low expectations than disappointed with a lot of them like now

Yes, I do not understand the thought process with the cuts on this set. There is nobody buying this set who is not already a castle fan. It is expensive and has no real appeal outside of being a companion to the castle. So why do they think dedicated castle fans are willing to pay $230 for a meh product but not willing to pay $280 for a fantastic one? It makes no sense. If they were trying to keep it ~$100, ok, that is a different matter. But $230 is a lot of money. It is not "meh" money.

Edited February 11 by AnonymousAnonAnon

[DonQuixote]

6 hours ago, AnonymousAnonAnon said:

Yes, I do not understand the thought process with the cuts on this set. There is nobody buying this set who is not already a castle fan. It is expensive and has no real appeal outside of being a companion to the castle. So why do they think dedicated castle fans are willing to pay $230 for a meh product but not willing to pay $280 for a fantastic one? It makes no sense. If they were trying to keep it ~$100, ok, that is a different matter. But $230 is a lot of money. It is not "meh" money.

I completely agree! 

7 hours ago, Roebuck said:

 

Yes me too, the decision to reduce the price on this set with 50$ and remove  Pirates and Castle started more or less with perfection in B-bay and LKC, but the sets after that are heading in the wrong direction. We will see in a year or two when we get the next set if they are back on track, but I rather be positivity surprised then with low expectations than disappointed with a lot of them like now

So far we have gotten 5 retro sets : pirates of Barracuda bay, Galaxy Explorer, Lion knights castle, Eldorado Fortress and medieval market. Only the first 3 are masterpieces. Eldorado Fortress and medieval market are very meh... 

But that's just my opinion. I'am happy for the people who do enjoy Eldorado Fortress and medieval market. Still bought the Eldorado Fortress because a Black Seas Barracuda cannot without it. That's the only reason why I still bought the set. I don't need the medieval market to acompany the Lion knights castle. I have the great looking Mountain Fortress for that over 6 months! 

[GeoBrick]

2 hours ago, DonQuixote said:

I don't need the medieval market to acompany the Lion knights castle. I have the great looking Mountain Fortress for that over 6 months! 

And I'll have the LKC, MF, and MTS for the former two to squabble over in 6 months. 

[Aanchir]

15 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

Yeah, I would have loved if they would have made a new part for this, something that looks like those stickers.

LEGO did have a dedicated "modern" shutter mold for 1x4x3 windows up until a couple years ago (https://brickset.com/parts/design-60800), but sadly even if that one were still in use, it wouldn't be as effective here — the shutters are larger and a full stud wider on either side when opened, due to the hinge placement being half a stud away from the window frame on either side instead of flush with the edge of the window frame.

For that matter, I can't imagine them bringing back an integrated "frame + shutter hinge" mold like the old 80s/90s ones since the offset shutter hinges on those were really prone to breakage. Not really sure what the best solution for hinged shutters like that would be in the modern era…

10 hours ago, Roebuck said:

I know you are mostly positive to what Lego do and that is fine, but no one buys a medieval village set because they include, frogs, bats and small birds it's all about the farm animals! I like the pasture included, but if the set had a cow or two like it supposed to it's not like they where forced to make a pasture for them, they could be free-ranging like the ones in MMV. Both the designer and we got the short end of the stick in this set, he made a masterpiece and a dream set that was reduced to a nice set because of budget cuts

I get that, and your perspective is 100% valid, I was just appreciating that the set has such a different variety of animals than 10305. More farm animals could definitely have been nice — if not horses or cows, I could certainly imagine there being room for a few chickens. But overall, my impression of this set is that it focuses more on "town life" than "farm life" to me, so the relative lack of farm animals doesn't bother me too much.

Hopefully if this sells well, we might get future medieval sets that focus more on "farm life"… perhaps with features like a barn, windmill, chicken coop, plow, haystack, and even a larger fields of grain/veggies (as opposed to this set's small vegetable garden).

9 hours ago, AnonymousAnonAnon said:

Yes, I do not understand the thought process with the cuts on this set. There is nobody buying this set who is not already a castle fan. It is expensive and has no real appeal outside of being a companion to the castle.

I'm not sure I totally agree with this. I feel like there are a number of casual adult fans who would appreciate sets like this, the Viking Village, the Medieval Blacksmith, or even the A-Frame Cabin as much for the rustic architecture and quaint, old-fashioned vibes as for whether they fit in with an ongoing themed collection.

And even on its own, this set presents a charming and varied town scene with lots of varied colors and architectural elements, which could make it a good "entry point" to medieval building in its own right. I know that some people (even some Castle fans) really didn't care for the Lion Knights' Castle due to its abundance of flat, gray walls, so this may be closer to the sort of set that could appeal to buyers with similar tastes.
 

Moreover, we gotta keep in mind that there are a lot of adult LEGO buyers who don't follow news or rumors about future sets at all, or at least not to the degree those of us here on Eurobricks often do. These sorts of buyers might not even realize a set like this exists until they see it in a display case or window display at the LEGO store, or see a post about it on social media. So they are a lot less likely to judge these sorts of sets based on how well they compare to earlier sets or earlier stages in their development.

I feel like this is particularly relevant to LEGO Ideas, where it is the norm for us to see an "earlier version" of the set long before the final set is unveiled or released. A lot of new Ideas set announcements get intense negative feedback on AFOL sites like this one for deviating from the expectations people had about the original project proposal, but then end up a lot more positively received among general audiences on social media and/or once they hit store shelves.

Edited February 11 by Aanchir

[kuzyabricks]

off topic but can someone please link me to the thread for the new D&D set, I can't find it. Images just leaked