[POLL] Medieval Town Square

[Yperio_Bricks]

 

The official pictures for the Port Royal Expansion Pack (aka 10332 Medieval Town Square) have been released last week!

Is this something that Pirates fans are interested in?

Could you imagine to integrate the medieval buildings into your pirate layout?

Or have the set on display next to Eldorado Fortress and Barracuda Bay?

How do you rate the set, judging by the pictures?

Feel free to share your opinion!

 

[zinnn]

Great set, hate the amount of stickers there. Not planning to buy it. May get a couple of torsos from this set on Bricklink, as they should fit the Pirates theme.

[Ruthin Road]

I think it looks like a thoughful and polished set that is evocative of the medieval period but still feels like a Lego set. The main issue is that it feels like at least 3 separate sets: a farmhouse, a fortified tower and a townhouse/inn. Subsequently there is a slight lack of refinement on the building exteriors and an incoherence to some of the interiors as the designer tries to fit everything in and on budget. I suspect the designer did as well as possible given the brief.

I dislike the preponderance of big expensive sets in recent years although I suspect I should actually be thanking Lego for making it easy for me to decide against buying! I agree all the stickers are an issue especially given the price. It looks like a good set to MOD. Equally it is sufficiently simple that even a limited builder like me could create something vaguely comparable with my current bricks.

There seems to be reasonably versatile selection of parts. However I think the set would need a fairly comprehensive rebuild to seem pirate-ty.

[CaptainMoore]

For me it's too organized, too European. It could work for the army port, at home, not in the Caribbean.

And I would have imagined more two levels building, like the original, or the green/brown one in the the new.

The tower is too much medieval (not built/modified for guns) and the houses feel more countryside.

In my mind I either have the more Spanish style in my mind for imperials (Eldorado Fortress and port already went this way), or something more random for pirates (maybe like it was in Tropico 2)

Edited February 13 by CaptainMoore

[BrickPerfection]

Thanks for making a poll for this! The Minifigures and details are certainly fantastic, I can think of many MOC ideas making use of them! There's also some very neat storytelling relating the town to the castle!

The set itself excites me a lot less though; it looks too simple in terms of how it is built - more like a set designed for kids. On the other hand, the colours are rather realistic historically, but they sure aren't pretty! Even if historical accuracy had been a goal, more beautiful colour combinations could have been chosen! I am really not fond of the olive green, bright red and light blueish grey. Also, why have a stone castle tower inside of a village?

As many others have pointed out, there's also a distinct lack of animals, not even a single cow! The 10193 Medieval Market Village had 2 cows, and those are really expensive on pick-a-brick!

Overall, I voted 7/10 because I really like the Minifigures and small details.

[thewatchman]

Ah I’ll give my thoughts here, but they probably deserve to be on the historic forums thread. 
 I don’t hate this set but everything about it feels like a compromise. I watched the video with the set designer and he was clearly very unhappy with the stickered elements and even made a snarky comment about the parents of the cheese maker being at market because they arnt present. 
 What I think hurts the most about this set and the same applies to the d&d set, is seeing the “early drafts” of what they were to be. 
 The leaked images of the market had a grand tree, plenty of animals and a jester on stilts, that made it feel a lot more alive. 
 The d&d set looked incredible in the early submission, people voted on a product that they saw and liked, only for lego to bait and switch the majority of the design and absolutely butcher the dragon in the process. 
 

 Nostalgia baiting fans with “look and exclusive torso for a faction that you had as a child” will only go so far in terms of selling sets, and it’s a pretty gross business model to work from, and that’s all this set is.
 

 A poor remake of a better set, built ten years ago with more limited part selections. 

[zinnn]

4 hours ago, thewatchman said:

 The leaked images of the market had a grand tree, plenty of animals and a jester on stilts, that made it feel a lot more alive. 

Haven't seen those, could you post them here / link to a website where I can view them please?

[thewatchman]

2 hours ago, zinnn said:

Haven't seen those, could you post them here / link to a website where I can view them please?

 

[Horation]

Interesting data, the average rating is 7,4 (with a median of 7), and while we have no rating on brickset, it was 55%-20% for those who wanted to buy against those who don't and 48%-28% here, suggesting it has a less receptive audience on these more niche boards.

[Aanchir]

I love it! It's a 9 for me, and I definitely plan to buy it!

There are a few areas where I see room for improvement — I think shingles might've been better than thatch for the angled roofs to better differentiate them from the more elaborately textured studs-up thatch roofs, the shieldsmith's shop could have used a little more variety of shields, and if the farm had one or two sheep in addition to a goat it could have created a nice narrative connection between the farm and weaver's workshop.

Also, while I can accept some historical inaccuracies (since LEGO Castle and Pirates have always been based more on those time periods as popularly imagined than as they really were), it's a little frustrating to see a pumpkin (a new world vegetable) in yet another medieval set — cabbage, lettuce, calabash, or melon might be a more appropriate substitution for that particular garden plot.

That said, the model is still a gorgeous companion piece to the Lion Knight's Castle which offers a wonderfully varied snapshot of medieval town life. Several occupations are showcased that have never gotten this much focus in previous medieval sets (such as tax collecting, cheesemaking, weaving, carpentry, and decorative shieldsmithing), and it includes several animals that complement those in the castle without a whole lot of repetition.

The guard tower and back room of the inn are also a lovely callback to the classic Guarded Inn. And there are several very clever building techniques used for details like the weaver's dormer window and loom, the carpenter's trapdoor-style ladder and lathe, the inn's wrought-iron signpost, and the bird's nest made from a minifig beard!

On 2/13/2024 at 11:16 PM, thewatchman said:

 The leaked images of the market had a grand tree, plenty of animals and a jester on stilts, that made it feel a lot more alive.

Honestly, I don't miss the big trees from the prototype version much. They seem rather primitive and blocky compared to the curvy organic shaping of the trees in sets like this, the Lion Knights' Castle, or the Forest Hideout. The one big conifer tree from the prototype was very nice, though (the final set replaces it with a small spruce tree).

Also, while a jester or more animals could have been nice, I don't think the set feels incomplete or lifeless without them. As mentioned, I miss the sheep a bit for the narrative connections they could have added, but the cow and horse feel less relevant to this specific town scene (and also are exact repeats of those from the castle), and the owls mainly seem like they were there to liven up the extra trees that the final set omitted.

Edited February 15 by Aanchir

[Yperio_Bricks]

20 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Also, while a jester or more animals could have been nice, I don't think the set feels incomplete or lifeless without them. As mentioned, I miss the sheep a bit for the narrative connections they could have added, but the cow and horse feel less relevant to this specific town scene (and also are exact repeats of those from the castle), and the owls mainly seem like they were there to liven up the extra trees that the final set omitted.

I feel quite different about this. A medieval town set without a horse is a shame! It feels like the designers had to cut everything everywhere to meet the excel table numbers they got from the white collars I can feel the pain of the designer when he speaks about "too many stickers".

Speaking about pirates: While the civilians buildings may not fit a spanish colonial style town or a caribbean setting, they maybe fit New England? Bar the "guarded" part of the Guarded Inn that is. That part of the set looks too European. I don't buy expensive sets like this on principle and since i rate it as a 5 i would not have bought it anyway. Though i wish we would get history themed civilian buildings for around 80€ or so.

I'll get the boy's tan torso and maybe the goat from PAB (Depends on the price of the goat and if i feel it is justified...). The new door piece also looks interesting! Btw, it is not possible to buy the sticker sheets from PAB, right? Because the small ones that are pinned to the tree are fun. If only they were printed tiles available at PAB

[Jack Sassy]

Lovely set, would be useful for a pirate town. It does require few more animals. I haven't made the decision of purchasing it or not.