LEGO Castle 2013

[SirBlake]

Where have you seen such pictures?

Post #1690 in this thread.

[qiadris]

It's not just a matter of comparing the type of sets and number of bricks, though; I (and many others, I believe) find the Kingdoms minifigures and colourschemes FAR superior to that of the current Castle line. And for the most part, I think the builds themselves were better as well.

A matter of taste, I guess.

[SirBlake]

A matter of taste, I guess.

Perhaps, but this is a widely held opinion in this community.

[Hive]

Post #1690 in this thread.

Oh right, that one.

Isn't that supposed to be for the new Junior line though, and not per se a part of the actual Castle theme?

Either way, the picture does little to impress.

[Artanis I]

The 2nd minifig on the cart is wearing a crown, but it looks to be dark grey. It certainly doesn't look gold.

Although there's a white horse, there's no saddle for it. That is a downer.

[Erathor Pridenar]

I think the Kingdoms figures and sets were better, and I reckon these sets are aimed at slightly younger children. I still get them, just to build up my armies ;)

[Blazej_Holen]

I think that those actual castle (Lion) knights are far more better than those fols from Kingdoms/fantasy era series (I mean those blue crownies)... These has good heraldry on their coats (the soldier with white and blue tunic, or those crossbowman with chainmail or scale mail with plate gorget) and has nice pieces of armours. Sure these lion emblems are boring and too childish and a bit repetitive. So many versions of Lion knights (Royal one, Leo´s knights, those red lions from Kingdoms, and now we have some more of them :D) Models of actual castle sets are boring as well. Nothing new. Childish prefab castle without proper throne room or any other barracs for soldiers, empty Gatehouse full of holes and almost without any sign of practical defense..and just ugly Dragon mountain wtih some really weird folks with weird armour :)

I would like to see more realistic heraldry like a lion with two tails, falcon or even a english lion or french lily...new helmets (like the great helmet form kingdoms) and maybe some molds or printings like chain cape... Also some nice variation of plate armour, tower shields pavise, pikes etc..

These storylines about good knight vs evil knights are just boring and repetitive.

So TLG should create a proper Castle (or some stronghold) set with Duke, or some lord and his men at arms

Part of medievall village, such as Town hall, shop, bakery, armoury, barracks, proper tawern, jhouse of the lord or nobleman

Proper medieval ship with one mast and big sail including about 3-4 soldiers and 2 civilians (lord and or princess)

Small joust (on foot maybe) with square arena etc... more civilians

Kind of Defense tower with 3-4 guards and maybe a cart with civilian as well

Some bandits hideout (like wolfpack and or forestmen)

...

this are just my wet dream... :(

[David Thomsen]

I don't collect all of the Castle sets, just the special ones like MMV and KJ, so I come here occasionally to check whether Lego are keeping up with their pattern of 'three years of Castle with a D2C set in the third year, and then start over'. Rumours of Castle sets in 2014 would suggest that maybe I'll get something special in 2015. Maybe like, a barracks of a medieval sailing ship, or a wide bridge with a market fair on it, or any number of things that people could speculate on endlessly.

Reading the discussion about Kingdoms sets versus Castle sets from the last few pages, I have to say, comparing the equivalent sets between 2010 and 2013 as a relative outsider, and having not really studied them before, there is almost no difference between them. The only reason I would prefer the 2010 sets to the 2013 sets is the dragon in one of the latter sets, because I have never liked large figurines. Other than that, it baffles me why people think one year is superior to the other.

[SerenityInFire]

Small Structure -> 70402 The Gatehouse Raid vs 7948 Outpost Attack

Evil Lair -> 70403 Dragon Mountain vs 7947 Prison Tower Rescue

Outpost Attack + Escape from Dragon's Prison = The Gatehouse Raid

Dragon Mountain is more comparable to Skeleton Tower from the fantasy era but does carry over elements from Prison Tower Rescue.

[kabel]

it baffles me why people think one year is superior to the other.

I think most people like them so much because the second wave had two very nice civillian sets in them, something people really want and got used to. As for the first wave you are probably right.

[Lord Butters]

I think most people like them so much because the second wave had two very nice civillian sets in them, something people really want and got used to. As for the first wave you are probably right.

I do think the first wave of Kingdoms were more complex builds. Similar builds, yes. But the sets generally looked better because of the style of build.

In addition the Dragon Knights in Kingdoms just happen to have a very unique look, which worked very well. Combine that with the unpopular Lion Kinghts of this series (undeserved imo, as I think they are an improvement over the blue Crownies colour scheme), and add a bit of internet rage, the second wave that you mention, and you suddenly have a huge swing of favour.

[Artanis I]

I stood and looked at my Castle 2013 sets for a while last night. Gotta say, I prefer the new castle to the previous. You might say "that's because you've augmented it with 2 gatehouse sets" and that's because you're absolutely right but have missed the point.

It's up there in my favourite castles of all time, and I have all of them except the 2006 "Legends" abomination and the yellow one. It's like the 4 from the 80s but bigger, and more detailed. It has a functioning drawbridge & gate that mounted knights can go through. It doesn't have silly looking sections like the Crownies castle or Fright Knights. It doesn't rely on a raised baseplate. Unlike the Kingdoms castle it doesn't have a ridiculously oversized pointy roof. By expanding it out a bit with the other set, it becomes far more spacious with room for activity, even better than those early "modular" castles.

It only has 1 mounted knight with the set, that's a bit disappointing, but as a castle it's awesome. They just took most of the things that annoyed us about previous castles and fixed them. They even added a ladder and stairs. Just get rid of the king & "throne room" garbage and I'll be happier.

For reference, my favourite 5 castles are the 2 Black Knight castles, the original King's Castle, Vladek's Dark Fortress and this new one.

[The_Cook]

These storylines about good knight vs evil knights are just boring and repetitive.

They may be repetitive to you but they're not repetitive to Lego's target audience. Ever year another bunch of 5 year old kids comes along for which the sets are new and exciting because they've just got into Lego. They don't care that it's almost the same design as the previous castle because for them this is their first castle ever. It's the same reason why Fire and Police is perennial in City, every year there's a new bunch of kids who would love to have a Police station and it's all new to them because they're new. There are a lot more new kids coming into Lego than there are AFOL's returning, therefore TLG chases the child audience.

Sets shouldn't cannibalise the sales of other lines. At the moment if you want detailed fantasy/castle builds then the LOTR/Hobbit line is where you'll find them. The reason that the current castle line has been simplified is because Lego needs to cover the whole breadth of their market. They need a product to cover the 5-7yr old age range who weren't being catered to by the LOTR/Hobbit sets. I doubt we'll see a return to the level of detail of MMV and previous era's whilst the LOTR/Hobbit line continues.

[andhe]

Yay, cheap set with white horse!

This is exactly what I see. If it's a cheap way of acquiring the Crowned Lion King as well then the set is win win in my opinion. Prelim set pics are always dodgy looking, hence why TLG don't like them circulating (amongst other reasons). But I'm not to bothered about the set if the horse and King are decent.

The 2nd minifig on the cart is wearing a crown, but it looks to be dark grey. It certainly doesn't look gold.

Although there's a white horse, there's no saddle for it. That is a downer.

It's a prelim picture. I'm pretty sure the crown will be gold. And there is usually a spare saddle included.

[Blazej_Holen]

They may be repetitive to you but they're not repetitive to Lego's target audience. Ever year another bunch of 5 year old kids comes along for which the sets are new and exciting because they've just got into Lego. They don't care that it's almost the same design as the previous castle because for them this is their first castle ever. It's the same reason why Fire and Police is perennial in City, every year there's a new bunch of kids who would love to have a Police station and it's all new to them because they're new. There are a lot more new kids coming into Lego than there are AFOL's returning, therefore TLG chases the child audience.

Sets shouldn't cannibalise the sales of other lines. At the moment if you want detailed fantasy/castle builds then the LOTR/Hobbit line is where you'll find them. The reason that the current castle line has been simplified is because Lego needs to cover the whole breadth of their market. They need a product to cover the 5-7yr old age range who weren't being catered to by the LOTR/Hobbit sets. I doubt we'll see a return to the level of detail of MMV and previous era's whilst the LOTR/Hobbit line continues.

Yes, I understand that facts, but TLG can give us something more sophisticated like I said previous time.. instead of Two factions fighting each other for a treasure they can create a story about some random Named Duke or Sir from a small county which can be a part of this current castle kingdom. Then TLG can provide some more new heraldry prints in colors like green, brown, blue and red, etc., and give us some new storyline... There can be a medium sized strongold, or castle, focused on detail like audience room with throne, library, barracks, stables, then a proper watchtower with some crossbowmans, and some village, which can be used along with the current MMV and VMR. The other faction could be a different Lord as a vassal to the current king with his own men at arms, like regular pikeman, crosbowman, squires etc.

Next sets may be focused on general population with some kind of outsiders like Robin hood/Forestmen. Also there should be some port, with a merchant ship, some medieval university and yes, then there could be some cave with dragon and heroic knight who want to rescue a princess...

I can imagine that those new sets could be relased 1 wawe per 2 years, so there will be a plenty of scace to expand these basic plots in Castle theme as we know.

[Illegalsecondaccount]

Yep i know tha but I am interested into some other sets like Medieval market Village, or Kingdom Joust and something like that :) Those are really great addictions to the Castle theme.. I just recently saw this short stop motion...and thats encourages me into the Castle theme once again after decades.. :D

This is beautiful!

I sincerely hope that they make more sets in this theme, as I love LotR, but I have always had a soft spot in my heart for Lego original themes, which they seem to be doing less and less. I hope at least, if this was the only wave, that they make one of the large sets that they did for the previous two recent castle themes. I loved the original heads introduced in this theme.

[DungeonsAndFlagons]

I second that Illegalsecondaccount. Those stop motion videos are great.

Edited January 20, 2014 by DungeonsAndFlagons

[TeufelHund]

Well there don't seem to be any new Castle sets directly continuing the 2013 series shown at the London toy fair according to reports. There are 3 Duplo castle sets and a Juniors "Knight's Castle" set that seems reasonably substantial at 450+ pieces.

Unless we see a big castle D2C set released this year I suspect we will have to wait until 2015 for a new range to be released once all the LOTOR/Hobbit sets are done with for any new "core" castle stuff.

[Artanis I]

This is how my Crown Lions castle layout looks. (Siege weapons don't fit through the gates, so they are parked out the front.)

I intend to get more horses and more soldiers on the walls. When I get the movie set, I'll probably sit the gate mode in the middle of the court, and the mounted knights can train/race/joust around it. Use it as some sort of keep.

Also, I was very unsatisfied with the size of the Red Dragons base, so I thought about building a more substantial fortress to augment it. It originally started as a "what could a real set look like" and turned into a "what can I even build with what I have to make it slightly enclosed", but anyway... I wanted the gateway to be wide and high enough to fit the carriage, siege weapons & also mounted knights through. Turned out the gate pieces aren't wide enough, so I had to change that a bit.

If I can get some more green plates, red cheese and dark grey stuff I will go the rest of the way around and make it a bit more substantial.

More photos of my Castle 2013 setup at the bottom of this page.

[Hive]

Well there don't seem to be any new Castle sets directly continuing the 2013 series shown at the London toy fair according to reports. There are 3 Duplo castle sets and a Juniors "Knight's Castle" set that seems reasonably substantial at 450+ pieces.

Unless we see a big castle D2C set released this year I suspect we will have to wait until 2015 for a new range to be released once all the LOTOR/Hobbit sets are done with for any new "core" castle stuff.

I can live with that. Fingers crossed for Kingdoms II in the summer of 2015!

[Infernum]

THAT is a really impressive layout, Artanis! I'm impressed by the evil castle, I wish something like that would have been a set!

[Artanis I]

THAT is a really impressive layout, Artanis! I'm impressed by the evil castle, I wish something like that would have been a set!

Yes, unfortunately the last "bad guys" castle was in 2005. When I can get all the rest of the shelves I want and reorganise the Lego storage, I'll get out the other castles again and try to put something decent together for the Kingdoms Dragons too. Should be a lot easier, as it will really only be tying the Dragon Prison & gate together, as opposed this one needing to go a long way around.

[just2good]

Better picture of the Castle Juniors set on Legoleak's channel. It's a decent Castle.

[Amazing Bricks]

Better picture of the Castle Juniors set on Legoleak's channel. It's a decent Castle.

Shouldn't you put this in the Juniors theme section? It looks like a great set!

[Hive]

Shouldn't you put this in the Juniors theme section? It looks like a great set!

Honestly, what's so great about it?

It's not very detailed, it's extremely child-like due to it's "junior" nature (even more so than the already way too childish 2013 castle line) and it doesn't seem to include any new or interesting bricks...