LEGO Castle 2013

[Aanchir]

I just took another long look at the prototype castle to see where my disdain comes from. What I see is a smooth flat front made up almost entirely of this piece http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=60808. It is nearly an entire wall make up of those pieces! "Uninspired" is a great word. It is highly unattractive when compared to the last two castles.7946 and 7094. Before those castles (and this is the tie in to the KKII comparissons) we had 8823 and 8781 as the flagship castle sets. These sets were awful designs. The design of the 2013 castle is a step up from these, as at least it has four walls, but I can still see an overuse of the big pieces reminiscent of KKII and illogical spaces. 7946 had some great rooms, with doors even, and nearly everything had an access. The prototype picture seems to look more like the Fisher-Price TRIO castle than a Lego castle.

Still, it is a prototype picture and should be appreciated as such before writing off the look of the sets completely.

I disagree about it being unattractive compared to 7946 and 7094. I think the smooth front columns on either side of the gate give it a nice, refined look, plus their width makes the whole thing look very substantial rather than having thinner columns like 7946 (which isn't to say 7946's gate didn't look gorgeous in its own way; I just like the sturdier look here).

"Overuse of big pieces" is an overstatement IMO. Castle sets have almost ALWAYS used large wall segments, at least in my lifetime. And this set, IMO, uses them well, relying primarily on basic wall segments rather than more specialized ones like KKII tended to use. The designs here (particularly on the King's Castle) are also not nearly as gappy as KKI, KKII, and even Fantasy Era castles tended to be. There's certainly no way I would consider this design weaker than 7094, which had a tremendously gappy and unrealistic keep as well as sloppy-looking, irregular shaping on its columns and similarly irregular wall segments. This looks much more like a realistic castle than 7094 at any rate.

[Kliq]

I really can't see how this new castle and Kingdoms' 7946 differs much.

I think being of this mindset (not seeing the difference) might be one reason you and some of the others are having a hard time understanding the issues those of us not too keen on the pictures we've seen are having. Trying to be specific, compare the gatehouses. The prototype has those tall flat walls. Kingdom's castle has more depth and detail. It is a stylistic thing. For one of my more major complaints, look at the tall back tower in the prototype. You can see two empty rooms. Compare that with the tall back corner tower in Kingdom's castle. One is much more appealing than the other. I have to stress, though, that I understand the prototype will change, and I am still very hopeful it will eventually look much nicer.

Also, the comparisson is not to KKI (except for the lion logo) so much as KKII, where the style of the sets were so open and without logical design. These prototype sets aren't THAT bad...seemingly.

[Haltiamieli]

I just took another long look at the prototype castle to see where my disdain comes from. What I see is a smooth flat front made up almost entirely of this piece http://www.bricklink...tem.asp?P=60808. It is nearly an entire wall make up of those pieces!

King's Castle from Kingdoms had 16 of those pieces, Fantasy Era castle 10 of its predecessor, 4444 (in addition to three BURPs and even this piece). After the Yellow Castle every single castle from Castle line has had walls built with prefabricated pieces like these. Even the Battle of Helm's Deep, widely revered for mostly brick-built walls, has 14 prefab wall pieces (straights and corners added together).

In the frontside of the new King's Castle, there seems to be 5 straight wall pieces (four showing and probably one behind the royal knight). The upper levels of the portcullis seem to avoid wall pieces, though there could be two on the sides of the second level. The round corner towers use corner wall pieces in similar style as 7946, but are one level higher and as such of course use more of them. On the side that we can see there's 4 straight wall pieces, or maybe 3 if the liftable play feature part (for sneaky robbery) is done in different style. In the worst case scenario there'd be around 24 straight wall pieces (5 for front, 2 for upper portcullis, 4 for both sides, ~7 for backside, 2 for the rectangular tower) at most. It's considerably more than in 7946, but frankly I doubt the whole backside of the castle is made of monotonous wall of prefab wall pieces. The unseen corner is probably similar to its opposite, the one closest to the viewer (they try not to hide interesting builds/features in the cover pics, obviously). It's hard to say anything of the rectangular tower in the back, it isn't clear enough.

Edited December 28, 2012 by Haltiamieli

[Brickington]

Call me crazy, but I actually don't mind these pieces. They are quite useful to me.

[Weil]

I think despite all the negativity (mine included) we would do well to remember that most of us weren't convinced that there would be any classic castle at all in 2013 not so long ago and some of us even thought there may be none at all for the duration of The Hobbit and LOTR themes liftetime.

Given the choice of no castle or these sets I would gladly take these. It looks like there will be some great new parts or varieties of old ones to pick up, especially if the theme continues for more than these sets. 'Forest Ambush' also looks like it could be a great little army builder allowing us to pick up large numbers of new knights while also picking up a lot of useful foliage/plant pieces at the same time.

My immediate reaction was of a bit of disappointment but I'm still very keen to see the final versions of the sets now.

[Kliq]

There's certainly no way I would consider this design weaker than 7094, which had a tremendously gappy and unrealistic keep as well as sloppy-looking, irregular shaping on its columns and similarly irregular wall segments. This looks much more like a realistic castle than 7094 at any rate.

When you're going for realism, sure that floating tower on 7094 is NOT realistic, and neither are many of the other spaces. Does the front of 7094 look much more appealing than the prototype we've seen, though? I have to say yes! The prototype gives another example of the classic phrase often used to describe unfortunate building techniques, "big gray wall". Yes, 7094 has many illogical spaces, but I can forgive that because at least the 'fantasy design' appeals more to me than six of those flat, blank walls stacked up and next to one another. It just screams laziness.

King's Castle from Kingdoms had 16 of those pieces, Fantasy Era castle 10 of its predecessor, 4444 (in addition to three BURPs and even this piece). After the Yellow Castle every single castle from Castle line has had walls built with prefabricated pieces like these. Even the Battle of Helm's Deep, widely revered for mostly brick-built walls, has 14 prefab wall pieces (straights and corners added together).

Don't get me wrong, my problem is not the piece itself. I am actually a fan of it, and the piece castles used before it. I even like BURPs! I think they look nice when used right. That's my problem, though. These prefab wall pieces are not used well, in my opinion, in the prototype castle. They just stacked them up and around eachother. I've never seen such a bland forewall, and that includes, unfortunately, the awful KKII Castle of Morcia. Like I said, this prototype castle looks so much like the Fisher-Price TRIO Castle. I can't say that enough, look it up using Google Images.

Castle is my favorite theme, above all else. I just don't want to see it taking a step backward, which the prototype seems to suggest. Like I've said, though, I'm looking forward to the final product because I'm sure it will turn out pretty good. I'm going to buy all of these sets, including multiples of some, no matter what, though. I can never get enough Lego castle.

Edited December 29, 2012 by Kliq

[Mahtion]

Can anyone tell me what is happening or included in the Forest Ambush set? I can only make out one Minifig jumping from a tree onto something or someone.

Depending on what's included I will get that and probably either the Gatehouse Raid or the Dragon Mountain set. Might have to wait to see better pics to decide on which is better.

Also does anyone know if the saddles on the old horses work on the new ones and vice versa?

[Kai NRG]

Can anyone tell me what is happening or included in the Forest Ambush set? I can only make out one Minifig jumping from a tree onto something or someone.

Depending on what's included I will get that and probably either the Gatehouse Raid or the Dragon Mountain set. Might have to wait to see better pics to decide on which is better.

Also does anyone know if the saddles on the old horses work on the new ones and vice versa?

Saddles, yes. Barding no (or it doesn't allow the legs to rear). At least that's what I've heard. Seems like in the Forest Ambush there are two figs, like you said one jumping out from a tree and it seems like the other is on/near a cart. I hope there's a horse pulling it but who knows.

[Brickington]

Yeah, usually there is a guy jumping out and a good guy near an object or something. As for me I will probably get the castle, just for the bulk pieces.

[Crownie]

Depending on what's included I will get that and probably either the Gatehouse Raid or the Dragon Mountain set. Might have to wait to see better pics to decide on which is better.

Wait. You're already deciding what to buy and what not to buy based on this one lousy promotional shot from a retailer's catalog? Talk about putting the cart before the horse.

As far as the Forest Ambush set, I can't imagine anyone can make out much of anything. We get hints of shapes and some colors. Not enough to 'paint' a very good picture at this point.

I'd say 'wait' is indeed the word.

Edited December 29, 2012 by Crownie

[Gatekeeper]

I'm just hoping we can get some better preliminary images soon. I'm pretty interested in what this line will end up looking like. While these are only prototype sets they are likely close to the end product. I think that those here who said that it is likely a very specific marketing tactic to make Castle like LOTR but more kid friendly are on to something.

That being said, the design isn't really that bad. The Kingdoms castle has many of those panels too, and if the castle turns out to be rather modular it will be easy to make it look any way you want.

[The_Creator]

Do you think it's possible the guy on the Forest Ambush set is jumping on a mounted knight…?

[Kai NRG]

Do you think it's possible the guy on the Forest Ambush set is jumping on a mounted knight…?

I hope so. If that set has a horse (especially in brown, as it's my favorite color even if it's the most common) I'd love to get it. Especially since it seems to have some nice foilage too.

[The_Creator]

I hope so. If that set has a horse (especially in brown, as it's my favorite color even if it's the most common) I'd love to get it. Especially since it seems to have some nice foilage too.

Yea, eaither a brown or black horse with barding.

If it had that and the barding and minifig designs are good I might just end up buying multiples of that set amd skipping the rest of them.

[Nicker]

While these are only prototype sets they are likely close to the end product.

I would suspect these are the end product since I have never seen any sets get changed at all from leaked preliminary images to the final release. The box art is more likely to be tweaked a bit if anything but I highly doubt even that. TLG seems to design and finalize most sets well in advance of there release to allow enough time for production etc.

[mattb483]

Well it looks like I can stop dreaming of falcons and forestmen returning... Even though the pictures are small and are hard to see all the details the sets dont look that promising. Also when i looked at the kings castle at the top of the box it looks like it only has 7 minifigs... 3 bad and 4 good, i wish lego would start putting more figs in those large castle sets like they use too. Oh well before i really judge these sets I, like many of you want to see some better pictures. From what I can see now the line looks ok and im sure i'll pick up most of these sets anyways, some castle is better then no castle.

[Kliq]

I would suspect these are the end product since I have never seen any sets get changed at all from leaked preliminary images to the final release. The box art is more likely to be tweaked a bit if anything but I highly doubt even that. TLG seems to design and finalize most sets well in advance of there release to allow enough time for production etc.

I have to disagree, at least a bit. The most recent preliminary images I can recall being changed are the LotR sets. There were new pieces introduced and small set alterations for the final product. Also, don't say that too loud, some of us still have hope for these sets!

[BrickG]

Ninja Turtle leaks changed a decent amount. Though most of that was the minifigures and not so much in the builds.

[Piranha]

Looks like a fusion of Fantasy Era, Royal Knights and KK1.

Too early to judge, but from these pics, the sets aren't looking so great. The new barding and horse helm parts look good though.

I guess it will be evil knights vs the lion knights (again). If the smallest set has a Forestman though, that would be fantastic, and promising for more sets involving them. Looking for new parts, torsos, leg and shield prints, which could make these decent parts packs and easy expansion sets.

[1974]

I would suspect these are the end product since I have never seen any sets get changed at all from leaked preliminary images to the final release.

The castle in Battle of Alamut (Prince of Persia) was considerably different (sorry, don't have the pic at hand, but with some google foo you can find it) and looked awful. The finished product was quite nice though. The leaked pic was a poster (I think?) and not a shot of the box

But I guess these new Castle sets are probably close to what we're gonna get

And I say no thanks. They look like utter crap. I've gotten spoiled by MMV, MVR and Joust I guess

Besides, I've bought every Castle set from '84 to '87 plus some thousand old grey bricks, minifigs and weapons

I got my Castle sorted

[1974]

Found the pic

Prototype (with lots of ugly panels) :

Actual released set :

[Mr. Elijah Timms]

Y'know, I was just looking very closely at the Kings Castle set, zoomed in super close at the shield sigil in the logo. And the more I look at it, the more I see a HAWK. The background is split down the middle, left is white and right is blue. And right there in the middle is a hawk, perched with its wings folded at rest, his head turned to the right. His chest is a goldfish/copper and he is trimmed in black. Anyone else see it? Or is it just me?

I could live with that-- although the castle may still go to my Crown knights and their new Order of White Knights!!

Edited December 29, 2012 by Mr. Elijah Timms

[Brickington]

Interesting!

[The_Creator]

Y'know, I was just looking very closely at the Kings Castle set, zoomed in super close at the shield sigil in the logo. And the more I look at it, the more I see a HAWK. The background is split down the middle, left is white and right is blue. And right there in the middle is a hawk, perched with its wings folded at rest, his head turned to the right. His chest is a goldfish/copper and he is trimmed in black. Anyone else see it? Or is it just me?

Since you mentioned it… It does look like a copper colored hawk. If it turns out to be a 'Hawk good guys fraction' this theme might become irresistible to buy.

[Sir Walter Maugham]

Do you think it's possible the guy on the Forest Ambush set is jumping on a mounted knight…?

Ah, now that would be nice. I would pick up many copies of that set if it had one of the new horses in it.

Y'know, I was just looking very closely at the Kings Castle set, zoomed in super close at the shield sigil in the logo. And the more I look at it, the more I see a HAWK. The background is split down the middle, left is white and right is blue. And right there in the middle is a hawk, perched with its wings folded at rest, his head turned to the right. His chest is a goldfish/copper and he is trimmed in black. Anyone else see it? Or is it just me?

Hmm... Hey, I see it too! I wasn't too sure that it was a lion; It looked too gaunt.

A hawk would make a fantastic logo. I hope that it is in fact a hawk.