CM4Sci

LEGO Castle 2013

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The thing I will like the most is that for the price we pay for a Gandalf arrives, we can get 4 decent soldiers here!

Finally some army building again :classic:

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And keep in mind with these new Castle sets. We're GETTING NEW CASTLE SETS!! And ok maybe not as detailed as Kingdoms, they still look really good comparred to just about everything else. They have a very classic Castle look and feel. Yes they are kid friendly, but that doesn't mean they are bad sets. Look at our poor friends over on the Pirate forum. They are sitting there beating their heads against the wall. LotR's gets a nice boat. Chima gets a boat. Friends gets a gorgeous boat. And for them. Nada!

I'm both a Castle and Pirates fan, and I'd personally much rather add the LOTR ship to my collection than seeing eg. another release of the Pirates Junior line. Baby-Castle is not necessarily better than no Castle.

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That castle is SOOOO becoming a home to my Crown Knights. I've already put aside the shields and lance with the colored 1x4 flags....

Wish we could.get more detailed pics of the torsos. I see at least two styles that are sporting the Crown only, and no Lion. Personally, the more this is the case the better!!!

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Hello!

As I promised a few days ago I have the photos from retail catalogue. Can I upload on imageshack.us and post the link here? Otherwise I send the link via pm.

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I will be mocing this castle into a dragon knights castle since the lion knights already got one. I do wish however, that the design was different from the kingdoms one. Does this mean that we will get troll sets as well or could this be a one wave theme.

Hello!

As I promised a few days ago I have the photos from retail catalogue. Can I upload on imageshack.us and post the link here? Otherwise I send the link via pm.

Can you pm me the link.

Edited by kermit

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That's not true about the CMF elf. There was a forestman in CMF series 1:

I'll gladly take "homage" figs like him and the Kingdoms Joust falcon knight, if TLG isn't willing to make a full-blown faction redux for us.

Yeah, you are right! I had forgotten about him! (Even though he spends his days watching me from his forest hideout)

Hello!

As I promised a few days ago I have the photos from retail catalogue. Can I upload on imageshack.us and post the link here? Otherwise I send the link via pm.

Feel free to PM me if you can't post them here -- although I don't see any reason why you could not. :sweet:

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Thanks for the pictures. They show an earlier stage I think, because the dragon is the older version and some of the torsos are just plain blue.

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What? imageshack wants me to register to view the files. Stuff that. Anyway, from what I've seen of these castle sets I think it's great that younger kids will get some decent castle stuff. All this LOTR stuff is fine for TFOL and AFOL people but it's not for that group of kids beyond DUPLO and searching for something with dragons and wizards. This years castle stuff fills that role.

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So the question is: Was Kingdoms aimed at AFOLs?

I don't think so.

Of course it wasn't. But when Kingdoms was released, there was no other LEGO product/theme that competed with it, so it was an all-inclusive theme that was stylish enough to appeal to older kids (and AFOLs) as well as the younger ones. Now that Castle has the older-skewing LOTR/Hobbit sets to compete with, it makes a lot of sense for LEGO to do a Castle theme with a more childish tone/appeal to it, and that's what we're getting.

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Of course it wasn't. But when Kingdoms was released, there was no other LEGO product/theme that competed with it, so it was an all-inclusive theme that was stylish enough to appeal to older kids (and AFOLs) as well as the younger ones. Now that Castle has the older-skewing LOTR/Hobbit sets to compete with, it makes a lot of sense for LEGO to do a Castle theme with a more childish tone/appeal to it, and that's what we're getting.

Completely agree with you on that. And from what we have seen from the German toy fair pictures, I actually think it does a good job at it as well. If it weren't for LOTR, I would probably buy these and tweak some stuff.

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I hope the treasure (or at least the coins) will be the chrome gold rather than pearl gold. The treasure chest the dragon is holding in the castle set seems tyo be chrome gold while the small ambush set has pearl gold by the looks of it

Edit: Yay 100 posts! It's only taken me 6 and half years :blush:

Edited by Slobey

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Also, everyone should stop comparing this to King Leo's Castle. I own King Leo's Castle, and it's totally different from this in every possible design aspect other than somewhat similar heraldry.

Yeah, i don't get the comparison aswell. The only similar thing is the use of blue colour, that's it. King Leo's castle basically is just a baseplate with some towers put on it, while the new castle is an enclosed building.

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I don't get from where that comparison to KK always comes from. Has anyone ever compared any KK set with the pictures from this new castle. I don't see much similarities, if any, even. The castle has an enclosed structure, and looks like a solid building, unlike the KK sets which mostly looked like a thrown together mess without any real architecture design. There are not more big parts, than in any other castle from the last 5 years. The only bigger parts i can see are the wall elements, which have been used in all castles from the last 5 years, so there's no difference. The ONLY thing that looks a bit strange is the catapult, but as far as the castle itself goes, it looks like a "normal" castle to me, nothing extremely exciting, but it doesn't need to be. Also remember that the bigger castles from KK and KK2 both used raised baseplates, which this one doesn't. So please tell me, what excactly are the things that remind you of KK.

I agree almost entirely with this post. There are no KK2 similarities in this theme as far as I can tell, other than vague similarities in the color schemes, and very few KK1 similarities. Knights' Kingdom 2 was heavily stylized, many of the castles were very gappy, and of course the Castle of Morcia was heavily reliant on a BURP. In contrast, this model looks nothing if not solid. The throne room is enclosed on three sides, in contrast to the Kingdoms throne room which was OPEN on three sides and the Fantasy-Era throne room which was open on ALL sides.

I will concede that this model uses more wall panels than Fantasy Era or Kingdoms, but frankly they are used for a very good purpose: enclosing as much of the castle as possible and allowing for a much bulkier gatehouse. Doing that out of regular bricks would have probably required cutting corners elsewhere in the model or bumping up the price. The end result is that this castle is incredibly formidable in appearance.

It should be noted that there's one spot I find extremely lacking: the two octagonal corner towers. The problem I have with these is that they seem far too plain. But I think the fix for this would have been fairly easy: lower those windows on the corners a bit so they're not sitting right underneath those inverse slopes. That way it breaks up the surface a little better. More stickers could also have helped, but then the AFOL community would be whining even more than they already are.

^^I think people might be refering to the colour? At first glance there seems a predominance of bright blue for the goodies and red for the baddies (similar to KK). There doesn't seem to be many new parts (someones pointed out a sloped corner brick, in blue), but as noted on flickr, there seems to be good parts in new colours ie. the new highlander sword in pearl gold, the flame/plume in regular blue and the great helm in black (currently only available with the Kingdom's joust).

Another new part is a 4x4 45-degree facet brick on the towers. Previously we had only had 2x2, 3x3, and 5x5 versions

May I also say that I much prefer the new lion emblem to the classic Royal Knights/KK1 version? The new one is simplified and slightly geometric in appearance, much like how an actual LEGO lion might appear if it were to show up in a set. In contrast, the lion from Royal Knights/KK1 was a lot more organic and detailed in its appearance. It always baffles me how so many AFOLs decry the increasing detail and complexity of LEGO molds, whether they be for animals, minifigures, or what-have-you, and yet demand a disproportionate amount of detail when it comes to printed patterns.

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That's the same picture that has been posted already twice in this topic. Anyway, while the Dragon's printing makes it look better than the fantasy ones, it's still kind of disappointing. One day, LEGO will have to make a dragon-centric theme. Vikings doesn't count; most of it's sets focused on the Viking vehicles. Anyway, the Evil Wizard 2.0 looks rather nice, just like the dragon-headed catapult from the lion castle. What I like the most? The new (red) horse armor, which looks like it would be great for some small dragons. Great job with that one, LEGO.

The bulking up of the gatehouse works much better than bulking up the walls, which tend to look rather pathetic even in sets where they are bulked up. Lots of details here, and I believe LEGO has finally figured out that you need ladders to climb walls.

Edited by DraikNova

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The evil knights' heraldry actually looks quite nice to me, although the colours of the minifigs and the good guys in general are not what I like.

But the baddies' shield reminds me of the wolfpack, whose shields I loved.

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Thanks for the pictures! All the sets remind me of the simplicity found in the first wave of Kingdom sets. The smaller set with the Dragon looks fun, and I really hope it is $30-$40. I wonder if there will be any Special Edition store exclusives sets, which is something Kingdoms did not have, except the D2C Joust set.

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If you resize the image from the pic with the dragon to its original, you can get a good look at the lion faction large shield. It incorporates the metal edging look from the CMF Evil Knight's shield. I'm also glad that this theme also makes use of the crown emblem, as I have quite a few fantasy era toros and armor that have no place with my other themes. With these you can also use the Vikings and plain footsoldier Kingdoms torsos. Even some of the Prince of Persia torsos would work. Don't let the provided heraldry stop you from enjoying what is there under it.

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It should be noted that there's one spot I find extremely lacking: the two octagonal corner towers. The problem I have with these is that they seem far too plain. But I think the fix for this would have been fairly easy: lower those windows on the corners a bit so they're not sitting right underneath those inverse slopes. That way it breaks up the surface a little better. More stickers could also have helped, but then the AFOL community would be whining even more than they already are.

I can agree with that. Last night I had a half asleep vision/dream where I took all the foliage pieces out of the MMV and used some 1x1 jumper bricks to create hanging green all up the front and left side of this castle, and let me tell you-- in my vision it looked spectacular!!!

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The more I see these, the less interested I am. Which is a good thing, will save some money. Although I'm sure I'll pick up the dragon set and maybe the cheapest set just to try out the theme. Naturally...darn TLG and making me buy stuff I'm not thrilled about.

But as far as I can tell, that barding isn't too appealing. It's great that it will work with the new horses, I'm meaning the pattern. But since I don't care for the patter on the shields/torsos either, then it makes sense to not like it.

It's good that younger audiences will be able to build castle too (and non-licensed on top of it), but I definitely did prefer Kingdoms (even though they are lions vs dragons again). As much as I like blue and would want blue in my armies, there is something off about this. But I guess Kingdoms was around when I came out of my dark ages, so I must have a soft spot for it.

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The one thing that's grabbing my attention here is that this wave seems to have a higher "minifig to part count ratio" than Kingdoms had. Or at least it has more side perks like the dog and dragon. The dragon tower has 5 minifigs (and that dragon). The cart ambush one has 4 minifigs (and a dog!). The guard tower one has 4. The carriage one only has two (and a horse). And the big castle set has 7, if I'm counting right. That's a lot of minifigs, right?

The dragon tower set and the smaller one with 4 minifigs are the two that really speak to me so far. Gotta get that princess/wizard/dragon, and a small set with 4 minifigs is just too good to pass up.

Those catalog shots give a better view of the bad guys' shields. It's definitely a dragon head with a bit of flame coming out of his mouth at the narrow end. Someone probably already pointed that out though.

The one thing I don't get is that dragon. It's so huge. It makes me think of the short lived Dino theme from last spring. He'll probably come to grow on me.

Ahh, I can tell I'm going to buy this entire line already. Well maybe this time around I'll actually wait for some discounts and sales. I'm just a sucker for minifigs with swords, is basically what it boils down to. Lol. Any sort of knight, pirate, or swashbuckler of any kind and I'm all in. :enough: <- Perfect emoticon!

Edited by Zeya

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I hope the Dragon set to be 35 dollars.

And the small battle pack is great. :thumbup:

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