[OFFICIAL] 10320 Eldorado Fortress - Available NOW

[eldiano]

53 minutes ago, Roebuck said:

I think that was because of COVID, but the B-bay was sold out more or less a half year before it retired

It is nice to see the set in its full glory for the first time and not a bad picture taken with a potato-camera
I guess a lot of LAN influencers have gotten the set and kept it secret as they should, the focus group was apparently not under NDA (even if I find that strange) and we do not know it we get any sets from that survey. I hope we do at least the amazing medieval village, but could have just been sketch models they do not plan to release anyway 

Captain Redbeard is one of the all time best Lego minifigs however he is very distinct and in the first original waves he was almost like Harry Potter and showed up in most sets. While great it is not a very good army-builder since you only need one, the bluecoats was much better in that regard with normal soldiers or lower officers added in smaller sets so happy they did not include him in the set

I do not see much of a problem since they never choose any of them anyway. I guess the creators miss out on some money when it hit 10 000 but the BL program do not take any sets directly from Ideas anymore (I have no interest in the BL sets so do not follow it closely)?

I was more worried about the set being canceled as many were, because it was so under wraps that not even a peep out of anyone or pictures, I’m glad I was wrong but you are right, although I was bit obsessed that I legit started having nightmares about this set being canceled, and checking the internet daily for pictures, nothing prepared me for finally seeing the full set at least.  It all ended in tears because I wanted to see this set pull through finally. 

Now I’m juts looking at this set and starting to nitpick this in a good way. Like for example the admirals wooden door in the tower is made out of bricks, LOL i need to start preparing for this set! 

I’m also curious on why LEGO did reuse a lot of the faces, they could had made a new one for the admiral at least I think, but I’m not complaining I’ll face swap them anyways or buy more figures when it hits PAB in a couple of months.

27 minutes ago, Sir Dano said:

Same here, I didn't even know about any of this supposed lore until I got online 15 yearse ago so none of it means anything to me.

I grew up in Central America, I never heard of it either but I remember having spring loaded cannons, at least we had that! Haha 

I mean not even the lego website has names for them anyways, we can seriously make it up as we go, I mean brick beard is wearing a disguise because of his wanted status by the imperial army that Lady Anchor needed him to steal the gold to fund and repair the shipwrecked black seas barracuda. 

I know people get hung up on not having brickbeard physically wearing his normal outfit, but since the LEGO group reused his face anyways, it’s easy to say he’s just wearing a different outfit?  Either way it’s not the same gray haired brick beard from the barracuda bay so it can be a younger version 

Or it can be a prequel story to how he became brick beard in the first place by stealing the gold and started to conquer the seven seas.  

 

I am curious though ,if Neils mentioned that LEGO lost money using the base plates, why did LEGO continue to make them until the 2010’s?  I mean it’s gone now but I’m just thinking out loud here. 

Edited June 15, 2023 by eldiano

[Roebuck]

About the lore or lack of it it is still possible it is explained in the instructions, we will see soon I guess

[CaptainMoore]

16 minutes ago, LordsofMedieval said:

No, it really isn't. But using hyperbole to try and silence people who are making criticisms definitely is crossing a line. Nobody is attacking real women here - they're criticizing a decision made by a company; a decision that was born out of a specific ideology. And trying to cow people into reticence over expressing their feelings on that decision is the very antithesis of free thought. 

This is a forum. The very word was invented to describe a place of debate. Not all views expressed in debates have to be positive. 

I wasn't trying to silence people complaining. They have the right to complain and please do.

Arguing about some minifigs being trans, cis or whatever and Lego being woke is out of the line. Those minifigs are what you want them to be. Lego is caring about the market and wants a better representation of half of the world population, they don't care about politics.

And again, a little girl might be happy to have a character to identify with, might it be a pirate queen or an officer/soldier.

[LordsofMedieval]

7 minutes ago, CaptainMoore said:

And again, a little girl might be happy to have a character to identify with, might it be a pirate queen or an officer/soldier.

I dunno. To be honest, I'm a heterosexual male, and if I were a kid these days, I think I'd almost exclusively be buying Friends sets. They're just so much better than city (in terms of complexity and value). Plus the minidolls are both pretty and cool (and, in a lot of ways, more interesting than traditional minifigures). I believe it's kind of unpredictable what people are going to want to play with when they're young... and it doesn't actually say anything about their sexuality. 

And this isn't a round-about way of saying PURGE THE GIRLS! One of the greatest pirates who ever lived was a female. It's more just saying - I think adults obsess over these gender/play things more than kids do. Kids just want a neat toy. 

Edited June 15, 2023 by LordsofMedieval

[Classic_Spaceman]

3 hours ago, Time77 said:

Try buying POBB for 200 bucks now..

That is not what I said - I said that PoBB was $200 when it released three years ago (and, therefore, would have been accessible to the same people who are buying this set now). 
 

36 minutes ago, eldiano said:

I’m also curious on why LEGO did reuse a lot of the faces, they could had made a new one for the admiral at least I think

All of the heads are reuses (the female soldier on the ramp has a new head, but it is already being used in two of the City exploration sets). 
 

14 minutes ago, LordsofMedieval said:

It's more just saying - I think adults obsess over these gender/play things more than kids do. Kids just want a neat toy. 

I actually was irritated by the lack of female heads available when I was growing up, so I personally welcome the variety that we are now getting. 
 

BTW, all of this arguing over female Minifigs has caused us to overlook the biggest flaw with this set - There is no frog!! Seriously, where is the frog? 
 

[CaptainMoore]

27 minutes ago, LordsofMedieval said:

I dunno. To be honest, I'm a heterosexual male, and if I were a kid these days, I think I'd almost exclusively be buying Friends sets. They're just so much better than city (in terms of complexity and value). Plus the minidolls are both pretty and cool (and, in a lot of ways, more interesting than traditional minifigures). I believe it's kind of unpredictable what people are going to want to play with when they're young... and it doesn't actually say anything about their sexuality. 

And this isn't a round-about way of saying PURGE THE GIRLS! One of the greatest pirates who ever lived was a female. It's more just saying - I think adults obsess over these gender/play things more than kids do. Kids just want a neat toy. 

I completely agree with you. I just want to be able to share my passion with my future kids whatever gender will they be.

To be honest, I care more about female pirates because soldiers are all look-alike too me, except for the chief. This and that I grew up without soldiers, only pirates so they are my heart faction.

My pirate character never had a lover because I've never liked the lego females at this time. The pirate one always looked sad to me, I can't explain why... I'm glad we now have varried faces and hairs

Edited June 15, 2023 by CaptainMoore

[LordsofMedieval]

14 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

BTW, all of this arguing over female Minifigs has caused us to overlook the biggest flaw with this set - There is no frog!! Seriously, where is the frog? 
 

The palm trees have my vote for biggest flaw. I used to love bending those things into different shapes as a child - even using them as crude make-believe catapults. Now they're just lifeless. 

[MAB]

9 hours ago, F1stzz said:

Dude, THIS. I swear, I've been talking to lots of people in YT comments & Insta DMs about it — this is just insane. I'm struggling to grasp how TLG created a literal copycat of 6276 build-wise (I'm really starting to think it's more of a replica than a true modern take on the classic like 21322) — and managed to basically drop all the original characters out of it, lol. They had ONE JOB, kek.

The ONE JOB they had is to make a set that sells. There are many factors behind what makes it desirable to different people, other people's wishes may not align with yours. I'm a bit surprised at the lack of a pirate captain given the original but not all the other named characters that were not in the original set. But I also imagine people that will be after this will also have BB and might complain about getting another Red Beard and the waste of a figure. 

[CaptainMoore]

3 minutes ago, LordsofMedieval said:

The palm trees have my vote for biggest flaw. I used to love bending those things into different shapes as a child - even using them as crude make-believe catapults. Now they're just lifeless. 

It's probably a wink to the original but compare to PoBB or the recent GWP, it's looking a bit outdated

[Cynath]

1 hour ago, LordsofMedieval said:

No, it really isn't. But using hyperbole to try and silence people who are making criticisms definitely is crossing a line. Nobody is attacking real women here - they're criticizing a decision made by a company; a decision that was born out of a specific ideology. And trying to cow people into reticence over expressing their feelings on that decision is the very antithesis of free thought. 

This is a forum. The very word was invented to describe a place of debate. Not all views expressed in debates have to be positive. 

I couldn't express it better myself. To me it comes off as try-hard and bending the perception of history. Changing the heads is of  course no issue to me and many others, but people have the right to criticize that since it's based on a very concrete period of time where, simply, female uniformed soldiers did not exists. People that seek historic accuracy (mind you, not talking about Nobushi or even much debated female Vikings) should not be demonized. 

On another hand, I actually feel like it's a shame they spend so many pieces on the raised baseplate and I'd prefer just another simple boat instead of the merchant ship.It's a nice callback but i would prefer a bigger fort structure. 

[Yperio_Bricks]

13 minutes ago, Cynath said:

female uniformed soldiers did not exists.

Guys, do some research. There always have been women disguised as men in the big european armies. Of course their percentage is next to zero, but you will find quite some historic accounts.

And btw, do we have to go through this discussion every time a castle or pirates set releases that has female soldiers? Just swap the heads! I know for some people it is impossible to change the heads or anything else in a official set but the vast majority of people should be able to do it and everyone also should have a lot of spare heads. Just create the characters you would like to have on display or in your layout...

[Roebuck]

48 minutes ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

BTW, all of this arguing over female Minifigs has caused us to overlook the biggest flaw with this set - There is no frog!! Seriously, where is the frog?

No need to worry I am pretty sure I saw a green one in the dungeons, they have apparently stopped use them as selling points since it is not mentioned in the text (a future selling point could be this set do NOT have have any frogs)

[CaptainMoore]

31 minutes ago, Cynath said:

I couldn't express it better myself. To me it comes off as try-hard and bending the perception of history. Changing the heads is of  course no issue to me and many others, but people have the right to criticize that since it's based on a very concrete period of time where, simply, female uniformed soldiers did not exists. People that seek historic accuracy (mind you, not talking about Nobushi or even much debated female Vikings) should not be demonized. 

On another hand, I actually feel like it's a shame they spend so many pieces on the raised baseplate and I'd prefer just another simple boat instead of the merchant ship.It's a nice callback but i would prefer a bigger fort structure. 

I didn't want to demonize anybody, just intolerance, sorry if by a lack of vocabulary or else I did wrong. I get the historical problem, but Lego is clearly not aiming at that...

 

 

About the raised base, it is a model problem. The raised baseplate will probably never come back. As it was reminded in previous comment, they were a hell to develop and costed a lot to Lego. Moreover, they break really easily.

I guess they could have created something new like with PoBB but this was an Lego ideas set, which they changed to make a nod to the past sets.

This one was a tribute to the original, so the goal was different. It's possible that Lego is testing between recreating old sets with a new take or to create completely new one.

I like both. PoBB is clearly above this set in my mind, but I never got the original Eldorado Fortress and it is a proper replacement.

We'll see in the future of Lego choose to continue on this path or they let it down.

Edited June 15, 2023 by CaptainMoore

[Arjo]

Are the soldiers supposed to be French or British? The latter are known as redcoats but I believe there were times they wore blue. Just curious. To me they are French (though I bet I am wrong :) ) and the handful of cmf nutcrackers I bought in anticipation will be Brits. Also bought some black and gold torsos from BAM last year which will stand in as the Spanish.

I am somewhat pleased with the set, then again I start from scratch such that I am less demanding than others. It’s not perfection in my eye but TLG has taught me to keep my expectations in check… I have one concern though: as and when we see people put together multiples of the set, I bet it will be hard to resist the temptation to go down this rabbit hole.

In terms of value, the overall volume of bricks might be less than a modular but the scarcity of sets from this theme and being able to get this type of minifigs at retail prices more than make up for it imo.

[TalonCard]

1 minute ago, Arjo said:

Are the soldiers supposed to be French or British? The latter are known as redcoats but I believe there were times they wore blue. Just curious. To me they are French (though I bet I am wrong :) ) and the handful of cmf nutcrackers.

They *can* be whatever you want them to be. :) The bluecoats were based more on the French and the redcoats more on the British, but according to the lore both are from the same intentionally unidentified fictional European empire that has elements of both armies/navies. The blue coats are the colonial military that serve the governors, while the redcoats are the Imperial Guard who explore and protect in the name of the King. They are often used interchangeably too, blurring the lines somewhat.

[dilligan]

Is the large flag at the top of the fort the same as the one on the original Eldorado?

Last year I paid more for a replacement flag for my childhood OG Eldorado to make it complete again than I think the whole set cost brand new.

If the flags are the same I'll be picking up a spare or two from Lego if I can. Also the prices on the Bricklink ones will have to drop considerably.

[Arjo]

Thanks Talon, a minifig like a soldier will do as it is told! They might be French today and British tomorrow;)

Looking forward to seeing a built copy at the store, interiors look limited in pics but hopefully it nonetheless has good visual presence. It is competing with Rivendell for my lego money (and in the back of my head I am also benchmarking value against 10305 which was generous in accesdories).

[LordsofMedieval]

34 minutes ago, Yperio_Bricks said:

Guys, do some research. There always have been women disguised as men in the big european armies. Of course their percentage is next to zero, but you will find quite some historic accounts.

But, I mean... that's kind of the point. You're talking about maybe one woman per army per major war (if that). 

Look, it is what it is, and I'm not personally bent out of shape about it. I just don't think people should be stomping on other people for the latter group's sometimes visceral reactions to the sex-of-minifigures issue. We all view this hobby differently - for some people, it is very historically-grounded; for others, it is just a freeform fantasy. Nothing is wrong with either perspective. But people in the historical camp shouldn't find themselves getting hammered by the fantasy one for holding the views that they have - especially when those views are, with a few extremely rare exceptions, accurate to how things were IRL.

[Pirate_King_1982]

As a kid I figured that Blue Coats and Red Coats were of the same nation. However, after returning to Lego after a 25-30 year Dark age, I now see them as being two separate nations, based on the French and the British respectively. The fact there’s  a simplified Fluer Di Lis on the Blue Coat flag has me thinking that have been Lego’s intent. I also see the Musketeer CMF as being part of the Blue Coat nation, albeit that they’d not likely end up in the colonies as I see them as a bodyguard type unit for the Monarch. If I ever decide to explore the Europa sub theme as a concept, then Blue Coats from the Pirate range will appear alongside Musketeers.

Edited June 15, 2023 by Pirate_King_1982

[LordsofMedieval]

3 minutes ago, Arjo said:

Looking forward to seeing a built copy at the store, interiors look limited in pics but hopefully it nonetheless has good visual presence. It is competing with Rivendell for my lego money (and in the back of my head I am also benchmarking value against 10305 which was generous in accesdories).

Speaking of this, do we have any shots of what the backside of the 'giant rock' looks like? Is there something down there, or is it just dead space?

[CvS]

28 minutes ago, TalonCard said:

They *can* be whatever you want them to be. :) The bluecoats were based more on the French and the redcoats more on the British, but according to the lore both are from the same intentionally unidentified fictional European empire that has elements of both armies/navies. The blue coats are the colonial military that serve the governors, while the redcoats are the Imperial Guard who explore and protect in the name of the King. They are often used interchangeably too, blurring the lines somewhat.

The Bluecoats in the Insta-promo for this set, have quite a distinct British accent... 

[Agent Kallus]

I'll be honest, I'm a little disappointed. I still like the set, I'll still probably get it. But it doesn't really wow me. It doesn't do anything more than it needs to like. Like for Ninjago city markets it works as a Ninjago city expansion but it also has the best minifigure selection for any Ninjago set, and the cable car and the functioning toilet and Dareth's karaoke club, yes that whole set is beautiful but these extra details go above and beyond. Or the bowser where not only does it look perfectly on model but you can actually puppeteer it. Or the castle where yes it is reminiscent of older model but without looking too basic and square.

This set is too basic and square. It is too much a set based on the old set than a set based on the same idea as the old set. They are trying to recreate a bland 80's set just as much as they are trying to recreate the idea of an imperial soilders fort. the minifigs on the other hand are almost perfect. There is one flaw ( and no it's not female heads) and it is the unprinted shakos. Though imagine a new shako mold that included hair, that would've unfair to expect but it would've been great.

Like I get the nostalgia angle but I feel like that should've come second, it should've been a pirates set first and a nostalgia set second. The galaxy explorer and lion knights castle do not suffer from this problem.

1 hour ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

That is not what I said - I said that PoBB was $200 when it released three years ago (and, therefore, would have been accessible to the same people who are buying this set now). 

A lot can happen in three years, three years ago I'd have to save almost all year to be able to bugdet a single £200ish Lego set, whereas nowadays I can pretty much buy every Lego set I want ( within reason ofc). 

Though saying that I do agree with you about Redbeard, not every pirate set should have a captian, or else you'd have a very captain heavy crew. The new female pirate is very much preferable to *another* captain ( this coming from someone who doesn't own PoBB , but still has plenty of captains) especially because her torso is easily reusable for civilians, which is a great boon as we don't get many civilians. I'm hoping it (along with the bluecoats ,( I want some to fight my 2009 redcoats)) makes its way to PaB.

[Sir Dano]

45 minutes ago, dilligan said:

Is the large flag at the top of the fort the same as the one on the original Eldorado?

Last year I paid more for a replacement flag for my childhood OG Eldorado to make it complete again than I think the whole set cost brand new.

If the flags are the same I'll be picking up a spare or two from Lego if I can. Also the prices on the Bricklink ones will have to drop considerably.

Not quite:

old flag:

New flag:

Pretty close, though!

[Jack Sassy]

I just realised, this fortress is a perfect beginning for a colonial town. @Mister Phes and I had a debate some time ago about tudor buildings in the colonies, but alas, we can use those medieval sets for civilian buildings.  Only thing this set lacks is a pirate pub. 

[Dreamweb]

I must say, it is not what I had expected. I thought the new Eldorado Fortress would be to the old Eldorado Fortress what the 10210 Imperial Flagship was to the 6271 Imperial Flagship. Same name, but a lot bigger, improved, etc. Well instead we are getting a remake of sorts, with new parts and obviously without the raised baseplate. I will most likely get it anyway, though it feels too similar to the old one, and thus also brings back the memories of numerous Eldorado Fortress-based MOCs and MODs we saw here over the years. I like the way it unfolds into a long structure instead of the default square shape. If I get it, the unfolded version will probably be my 'official' one, just to make it look more different from the original EF which I also have (albeit disassembled).