[OFFICIAL] 10320 Eldorado Fortress - Available NOW

[Khargeust]

1 hour ago, Arjo said:

How do you know the review embargo lapses tomorrow? Is it always 2w prior to vip release date? If so tomorrow is going to be a great day:D

The release for VIP is July the 4th, so tomorrow it will be in two weeks. I don't know if it is the same deadline for each new set.

Here you can see a french blogger that say on his IG account that he will publish his review tomorrow, look at these two fantastic boxes side by side  : 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CtrTJ6qoTgh/

 

Edited June 19, 2023 by Khargeust

[F1stzz]

49 minutes ago, Khargeust said:

Here you can see a french blogger that say on his IG account that he will publish his review tomorrow

Alright-alright, then fr there's a good chance we'll see some vids from other reviewers tomorrow as well, thanks for a signal, m8 

[Arjo]

Exciting:) Leaving Monday behind, and looking forward to a Tues reveal... that's as good a start to the week as can be:)

[jodawill]

I haven't seen much discussion on the new parts. What's new here besides the minifigures, sale, and flag? The one that stands out to me is the arched gate in reddish brown.

I've really missed the old castle doors. I can't lie though - those brown gates, I don't hate them. That's actually a surprisingly good substitute. I'm going to buy tons of them when they become available on PAB. That may be my new go to for castles.

Next question: What parts would you most like to have seen come back for this that didn't?

The monkey is a big one for me, obviously. They're not too expensive on Bricklink, but that new one is just so sad compared to the articulation on the old one. Part of the classic Lego aesthetic is how they reused parts in the '90s. The monkey used minifigure arms and the dragon shared the tail and face with the crocodile. I'm not a huge fan of how the pieces are so specific for animals now. I would like to see a lot more animals that are so abstract they share body parts with others.

I would like to see the original flag come back, but thankfully, that new flag isn't a prominent feature like it was in PoBB.

It's interesting how the built the angled walls, but I can't help thinking it would have looked better if they brought back the original corner panel. I could be wrong though. I'll have to see it in person.

Not to beat a dead horse on this topic, but as good as a job they did with the parts they had available, it would have been better if they brought back the original palm trees. But the original design was poor because they wore out. So that has me wondering, why not redesign them to use ball joints? Could you fit a ball and socket into the same amount of space? That would give the same level of articulation without having a mechanism that wears out.

The torches also - the new design is probably the best you can do with the current parts selection, but I like the original better. That old black torch piece with a flame in it would have been cool.

One more that comes to mind - and this is really nitpicking - is the color of the stem on the palm trees. I always preferred green and I wish they would bring that back.

[GameTime]

Why is the wooden dock black? It should be brown.... it looks terrible.

And what is the deal with the extra thick giant crane made of steel instead of wood?

And the Palm trees are crap, should have used the ones in PoBB.

Edited June 20, 2023 by GameTime

[dilligan]

1 minute ago, GameTime said:

Why is the wooden dock black? It should be brown.... it looks terrible.

At a guess, I would say it was to match the original. Brown might be better. I'll probably see what it looks like in brown once I get the set.

[Lion King]

Please excuse my “weird” question. Is that ship having a molded hull or is it built out of bricks? I’m visually impaired so I could not tell if it’s a single hull piece or just made out of bricks.

2 hours ago, GameTime said:

Why is the wooden dock black? It should be brown.... it looks terrible.

Oh it happened to Forest Hideout GWP lastyear -tree is black instead of brown. 

[brimbolet]

6 minutes ago, Lion King said:

Please excuse my “weird” question. Is that ship having a molded hull or is it built out of bricks? I’m visually impaired so I could not tell if it’s a single hull piece or just made out of bricks.

It's brickbuilt; it even uses identical parts for the hull as in Smarath's MOC in my opinion.

[Lion King]

6 minutes ago, brimbolet said:

It's brickbuilt; it even uses identical parts for the hull as in Smarath's MOC in my opinion.

Thanks for confirming it!

[brimbolet]

6 hours ago, jodawill said:

The monkey is a big one for me, obviously.

BTW what happened to the "Ninjago monkey" mould from 2016? Is it lost or something?

Honestly I think it's better that Lego didn't bring some old parts back from the vault - with the exception of the mentioned monkey perhaps. The asked price would skyrocket and I'd have to skip the fortress just like the anniversary castle. Anyway we get new sails and that's a great bonus!

Edited June 20, 2023 by brimbolet

[Mister Phes]

31 minutes ago, brimbolet said:

BTW what happened to the "Ninjago monkey" mould from 2016? Is it lost or something?

You mean the "Pirate monkey" mould from 1989 since the mould debuted in the LEGO Pirates theme.

But the reason is;  it's more cost effective to produce a single moulded piece than a figure with posable limbs.

[dimc]

Brickset review is up: https://brickset.com/article/97564/review-10320-eldorado-fortress

Edit: it is claimed that this is a renovated version, which accounts for the differences. I guess we'll see if the minifig lore is also updated.

Edit 2: Without seeing it, but per the review, it's a new commander and officers. Which is fine by me, but I totally get that people will change heads to make for more interesting stories.

Edited June 20, 2023 by dimc

[F1stzz]

7 hours ago, jodawill said:

I've really missed the old castle doors. I can't lie though - those brown gates, I don't hate them. That's actually a surprisingly good substitute.

I've already decided that I'm swapping those for a 4194 Whitecap Bay brick built gates design in a heartbeat, lol  I'll see if any slight modifications are needed in order to fit the size of a gateway in 10320 or I can just assemble an identical build (even tho a bit different in colours) & call it a day. I expect it to do A LOT better job imitating the original Eldorado's gates design than what we've got with 10320 👌🏻

 

4 hours ago, GameTime said:

Why is the wooden dock black? It should be brown.... it looks terrible.

And what is the deal with the extra thick giant crane

Well, the dock being black is one thing, but the fact that its build copies the one from 1989 literally picture by picture is kinda underwhelming for real, as a 34 years old design had its obvious limitations which are absolutely unnecessary to bring back into the $/€200+ remake in 2023. The crane in its current proportions is quite an extra indeed, I think it's widely agreed with. 

[Arjo]

Yep brickset review up… and as supportive of the set as I have been here, I am very disappointed in the torso bad printing. The washed out blue instead of crisp white will make me enjoy these a lot less than unfortunately. Reserving comments about the rest of the set for now, more reviews inc videos may help accepting this or that apparent shortcomings.

[F1stzz]

18 minutes ago, Arjo said:

Reserving comments about the rest of the set for now, more reviews inc videos may help accepting this or that apparent shortcomings.

And speaking of video reviews — here's the first one I've managed to find in the space:

I'm gonna hold off my judgement up until I'll look through the Brickset review in its totality, cuz I'd really like to discuss everything they've mentioned by theses 👌🏻

 

[dimc]

Jay's review is up too, and has comparison photos against the original. I did notice that he has the wrong head for Broadside.

Honestly, if the printing on torsos is too bad, I can swap originals. I have plenty of them by now.

[JohnTPT17]

Brickset's photo of the fortress next to Pirates of Barracuda Bay makes the fortress look almost comically small. I know PoBB gets a lot of volume from the masts/sails, but it would make displaying them together look a bit funny to me. It's now gone from a "get with the right discount/GWP" to "possible pass" for me.

Edit: I think Jay's Brick Blog nailed it by calling it "a bit too faithful to the original." Odd dimensions, colors that don't always work, the old school ramp taking up a large amount of space... It does mirror the old one, to be sure, but almost to a fault.

Edited June 20, 2023 by JohnTPT17

[jodawill]

6 minutes ago, F1stzz said:

And speaking of video reviews — here's the first one I've managed to find in the space:

I'm gonna hold off my judgement up until I'll look through the Brickset review in its totality, cuz I'd really like to discuss everything they've mentioned by theses 👌🏻

 

Well, we got the answer about the ramp. There's nothing underneath it.

Just now, JohnTPT17 said:

Brickset's photo of the fortress next to Pirates of Barracuda Bay makes the fortress look almost comically small. I know PoBB gets a lot of volume from the masts/sails, but it would make displaying them together look a bit funny to me. It's now gone from a "get with the right discount/GWP" to "possible pass" for me.

That's how the original line was also. And do you really want to spend $500 or more for a larger fort? If you don't like the scale, you can buy multiple copies of this one and build your own. That's what I'm going to do, although I'll also keep one copy separated forever because I love the set itself so much. With it being $215, we get a lot more bang for our buck. If you buy two copies, you get two sets of sails for $430 instead of just one, like the flags in 10305.

5 minutes ago, dimc said:

Jay's review is up too, and has comparison photos against the original. I did notice that he has the wrong head for Broadside.

Honestly, if the printing on torsos is too bad, I can swap originals. I have plenty of them by now.

I'm glad they included more photos of the instruction manual. It says they have a new governor, so the website is wrong in calling him an admiral. I think the designer put a lot of attention to detail into this, but the marketing people flubbed this up (big time in my opinion). It's not a huge deal, but it's definitely annoying when you look at the website and see minor details that are just factually incorrect, even when the instruction manual got it right.

[dimc]

10 minutes ago, jodawill said:

That's how the original line was also. And do you really want to spend $500 or more for a larger fort? If you don't like the scale, you can buy multiple copies of this one and build your own. That's what I'm going to do, although I'll also keep one copy separated forever because I love the set itself so much. With it being $215, we get a lot more bang for our buck. If you buy two copies, you get two sets of sails for $430 instead of just one, like the flags in 10305.

It's true, if I put the Clipper or Red Beard Runner next to Eldorado, it really is kind of silly the scale difference.

Depending on what sales I can find, or if there are good GWPs, I might get two copies. It'll feel better having a big crane, and I can have the higher dock to serve the Clipper and my custom flagship. Plus you can mess with the officer/soldier ratio, which isn't great here. Should be 1 governor, 1 officer, 4 soldiers, and then some sailors. I guess I'll be digging around for more Steves, I know I have one on display and plenty of striped "pirates" who can easily become merchant sailors.

Edit: If you buy this and got PoBB at MSRP, that's $415 out the door. LKC is nearly that by itself. So how's the play or display value for those, comparatively? Up to everyone to decide, but it seems pretty solid. I think with a good GWP, I'm fine grabbing this. I'm hoping it'll be the Majisto one, whenever that hits.

Edited June 20, 2023 by dimc

[F1stzz]

17 minutes ago, jodawill said:

Well, we got the answer about the ramp. There's nothing underneath it. 

We've also got the answer about the bigger dock — it's indeed meant for 2020 BSB as being pointed out straight in the instruction manual, just like somebody mentioned earlier in this thread.

[Alexandrina]

That review from Brickset was a good read. Seems like the crane is a little oversized but there's a few good recolours (how have we not had a dark brown rowboat before?)

I know the black dock has a lot of people confused but I used to live in a house with exposed black timbers from the 1600s so it doesn't faze me in the slightest.

[TalonCard]

I really love the little escape hatch in the prison, that looks great and I'm a big fan of secret passageways and trap doors.

I did raise my eyebrow a bit at the assertion in the instructions that the Eldorado Fortress came packed with the Golden Medallion comic--that's the first I've heard of it; anybody remember this? There were lots of similar promotions that I had no idea existed like the treasure island game, so it's not impossible. Eldorado Fortress was off the shelves in my area by the time I got into Pirates.

[JohnTPT17]

21 minutes ago, jodawill said:

That's how the original line was also. And do you really want to spend $500 or more for a larger fort? If you don't like the scale, you can buy multiple copies of this one and build your own. That's what I'm going to do, although I'll also keep one copy separated forever because I love the set itself so much. With it being $215, we get a lot more bang for our buck. If you buy two copies, you get two sets of sails for $430 instead of just one, like the flags in 10305.

I think my thoughts can best be summed up in a comparison of castles: King Leo's Castle and the Fantasy Era Castle. I personally prefer the Fantasy Era castle because it focuses on the outer walls, leaving the interior area open for more free display/play of minifigs and smaller builds. In comparison, King Leo's Castle feels much smaller to me and offers less "play" due to the smaller interior. Same with the Eldorado Fortress: by being tied to a "baseplate," everything gets squished together and it doesn't feel as big/imposing to me. It doesn't have to be fully, densely built for me to like it - I'd rather it have some open space in the middle/back behind that I can fill with my own imagination/builds. (Hopefully that made sense!).

That being said, I do think the fortress is very dense with details, and overall it is still a good set. If I were to get it, I would probably display it in one of the more linear/open configurations so it looks and feels bigger.

[jodawill]

38 minutes ago, JohnTPT17 said:

I think my thoughts can best be summed up in a comparison of castles: King Leo's Castle and the Fantasy Era Castle. I personally prefer the Fantasy Era castle because it focuses on the outer walls, leaving the interior area open for more free display/play of minifigs and smaller builds. In comparison, King Leo's Castle feels much smaller to me and offers less "play" due to the smaller interior. Same with the Eldorado Fortress: by being tied to a "baseplate," everything gets squished together and it doesn't feel as big/imposing to me. It doesn't have to be fully, densely built for me to like it - I'd rather it have some open space in the middle/back behind that I can fill with my own imagination/builds. (Hopefully that made sense!).

That being said, I do think the fortress is very dense with details, and overall it is still a good set. If I were to get it, I would probably display it in one of the more linear/open configurations so it looks and feels bigger.

Honestly, I think King Leo's Castle is an exceptionally bad set, even by 2000s standards. I actually just watched Jang's video about it yesterday. It's not even as well designed as the 4+ sets are today. I could go on for a long time about the flaws in that set because, to me, they outweigh the positive elements by a lot. The thing that always strikes me is that random sail in the back of the set. It's cool that it exists because you might be able to make a really cool ship with it, but the way it's just draped over the back of the set is one of the most bizarre things Lego has ever done in my opinion. I do love the baseplate though. I know some people who collect those for MOCs.

7094 was also heavily <insert that tiresome argument>, but it mostly retains the shape and features of the older, brick built castles. It only came in one other set, 10176 Royal King's Castle, which is actually a very similar looking set, although I think it's a slight improvement over 6098/6091.

I get what you're saying though. One of the great things about Fort Legoredo is how it had that huge empty space in the center. I've always enjoyed filling it up with wagons, houses, etc. That set was also really easy to extend. There's a lot of play value in that. I like that approach. But I also like the kind of build we get with Eldorado Fortress because it's such an imposing structure. I love how compact it is because it looks so imposing and it has some great forced perspective. The beauty of 10320 is that you can use the modules to spread it out and you can build your own wall modules to space it out. I don't think it will be that difficult, especially compared to 10305, which is just completely beyond my level of skill. That's actually one of the reasons I'm glad they didn't do the Lion Knights Castle treatment to this. I want it to be simpler because I want someone with a lower level of skill like me to be able to add onto it. The Lion Knights Castle is just way too complicated for that, although it's an amazing set. I can only wish I had the skill to build something like that.

Edit: Apparently you're not allowed to say jun1orized on this forum?

Edited June 20, 2023 by jodawill

[RichardGoring]

1 hour ago, jodawill said:

I'm glad they included more photos of the instruction manual. It says they have a new governor, so the website is wrong in calling him an admiral. I think the designer put a lot of attention to detail into this, but the marketing people flubbed this up (big time in my opinion). It's not a huge deal, but it's definitely annoying when you look at the website and see minor details that are just factually incorrect, even when the instruction manual got it right.

Isn't this always the way?