Artanis I

3 waves + D2Cs (Joust, chess, & battle packs) and a TLM set. And in that time there have been 4 waves of Space + nothing, and 1 wave of Pirates just coming out. 4 sets is a normal 2nd wave: Space Police 3, Galaxy Squad, Kingdoms, LOTR, The Hobbit etc. And Kingdoms 2nd wave sets weren't spaced out over a year. From 2004, we have only had 4 years (of 12) without a wave of Castle sets, including 2015. 10 years without Pirates.

The belt ruins it.

The Pirate Bay 2: VERY Far Away From Keyboard?

There's a new one every year or so. But only about half as frequent as the "I hope the next castle theme is Kingdoms2/FantasyEra2/BlackFalcons2/Forestmen2" topics.

I forgot about the 2006 guys. The castle was a rehash of the not-great 2000 & 2004 ones, and the minifigs very similar to some from KKI & KKII. I'd throw them in the forgettable pile. Morcia Knights is a good name, it covers those guys tidily. That updated second list looks a lot better (obviously I disagree here and there). What was up with the Bulls' faces? I can't figure out what is supposed to be the eyes, nose, mouth... Sounds like LOTR...

I recall a catalogue with Robin Hood in it too. Many of our catalogues didn't have any faction names, rather just the heading "Castle Folk" and all of the sets under one banner regardless of which faction was predominant. But some said Lion Knights & Black Knights. Most of the names came from AFOLs needing to label everything, or American catalogues where for some reason they believe that kids need to be spoon-fed all of the details & backstory. I think too much "canon" is made of TLG media where I believe most of the time someone is just making it up as an example. "Black Falcon's Fortress" for example, was a suggestion to name the little castle belonging to a guy called the Black Falcon, not a canon reference for the entire faction of knights to be called the Black Falcons. 2nd part of that sentence is true, 1st part (that it's only a suggestion) is my hunch.

Dark Forest never appeared outside North America so I never count that one! Perhaps I could. It was an obvious (disappointing) rehash of the green guys & the brown guys, so I don't really want to anyway! The Royals tower bridge had a Dragon knight with the (I call a continuity error) Black Knight ovoid shield, so there is some cross-over there. I would actually split it into 2 phases. 1: Lions, Falcons, Black Knights, Forestmen. 2: Wolves, Dragons, Royals, Fright Knights (& throw in D*** F*****). Although the Blackies had 2 slightly different styles of appearance (pre and post 1990) and the latter had a bit to do with the 2nd of those phases. But their 1988 castle came out before most Forestmen sets so I think they belong more back then than later.

Another question is whether you're comparing minifigs, heraldry or sets. That was the point!

Another limitation with them is the colour & printing. A blue & yellow one is great for seaside pirate mocs but no good for icy mountains. A black one with grey craters is great for space, but no good for underground fortresses due to the craters.

If it's factions then separate the 2000- subthemes. The shadow knights are a lot better than that. And Castle 2013 is nowhere near that bad. Post 2000 factions: KKI Lions, Bulls, KKII power rangers + others, Shadow Knights, Crownies, Dwarfs, Skellies, Trolls, Kingdoms Lions, Kingdoms/Green Dragons, Crown Lions, Red Dragons. That's not including any CMFs. Otherwise if it's by theme I think "Castle" (everything prior to KKI but not Classic Castle - ie Lion Knights, Black Falcons, Black Knights, Forestmen, Wolves, Dragon Knights/Masters, Royal Knights, Fright Knights, & Ninja(?!)) is runaway winner...

These forums are named not so much for the sets TLG released but for the MOCs posted. Notice there isn't a "Space" forum, it's called Sci-Fi. Anything Sci-Fi goes in there, even though most of it is related to the Space themes. Same with Castle/Historic, most of the posts in Historic Themes are related to the Castle themes, but not all, and the Middle Earth stuff is lumped in here too. If there was a separate forum for Castle, where would the other historic stuff go? Why should it be separate?

Prior to 2000 it was factions, from that point onwards it was subthemes. How would you define the 80s & 90s "themes/subthemes" where there were concurrent factions that overlapped each other? If it's factions then KKII isn't a faction. And if the poll was just for the subthemes (ie 2000 onwards) you are left with KKI, KKII, Fantasy Era, Kingdoms & Castle 2013. I don't see KKII winning that one.

I got an email the other day from Toyworld, they have the new Friends sets and the City starter sets in.

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogList.asp?catID=243 I liked them as a kid. I agree that there are limitations, but also that when done properly they look really good.

You are showing your age there, no one (young & cool) says that anymore! The hawk shield was Jayko, the monkey was Rascus, the wolf Danju, the bear Santis & the scorpion Vladek. A bit later 4 more were introduced: dragon Draco, snake Karzon, unicorn Kentis & bull Adric.

Thanks! At my old place I had the monorail set up with the original trains, and I'd turn on all the flashing lights & sirens, and just watch the trains go around & around in the dark... This train has turned out better than my SP2 one, I'll have to work on tidying that up. It looks a bit shabby, but this one isn't bad.

Just to add a little bit more weight to the treading on Lego thing: last night I trod on a container of Lego and cut my toes open. Yes, it did hurt. And Lego went everywhere.

Almost. Get rid of any potential competition. Like those crime movies, when someone becomes too powerful or popular they "disappear", no matter how long or hard they were working for you.

A day after telling someone that "monorail is dead forever" I post my latest in-denial manifestation: Monorail Train This train runs just as the original monorail trains from Futuron, Unitron & Airport in the 80s & 90s, using the 9V battery box and electric connectors. Ice Planet (released in 1993) vehicles & structures had uniform colours: white, blue, black & trans neon orange. The construction of the train has attempted to follow the general colour scheme appearance. I have not tried to limit the construction to parts available from the same period, but at the same time have tried not to make it look too far removed from the 90s set aesthetic, in an attempt to integrate the train into the original theme's setup. I also built it so that replacing the 9V battery wouldn't require much disassembly. Original sets: Monorail train: Unlike the Unitron train (whatever purpose it served), but like the Futuron train, this one is made to carry cargo & personnel. The cargo for Ice Planet is satellites for their rockets, which are launched from the base Ice Station Odyssey (set 6983 above). I would've liked it to carry rockets but that would sacrifice the 2nd cockpit - and we can't have that! Why would the Iceys use a train to transport their satellites instead of their other vehicles? Well obviously it's faster this way! However, the bubble wheeled & ski/sledded vehicles are better at snow travel, so the rail wouldn't take the direct route through the rougher terrain that they would. The extended cockpit seats 3, with the battery box located behind it. Inside the cockpit is a (non-flashing) LED that is lit up when the power is on. Above the box is a twin flashing LED that is also active when the power is on. The shorter cockpit seats 2, with an enclosed sides cargo tray. The satellites are placed on 2x2 jumper plates, which then slide on & off from the rear. The tile/plates are held in securely by bricks with slots. See below for illustration. The cockpit also houses a modern light brick, which is activated independent of the other electrics by pressing down on the chainsaw pieces at the rear of the windscreen. Thanks to friction the light can stay on until the chainsaw pieces are pressed down again. On either side of the cargo is a hend-held chainsaw. On both sides of both cockpits (plus on the motor) a pair of skis are in place for the occupants on departure. The motor section also has a (non-flashing) LED that lights up when the battery power is on. 1/3: The satellites are held in place by hose nozzle parts. 2/3: Turning the nozzles to the side allows them to slide out onto the black curved slopes. 3/3: Up to 3 units can be stored. Well at least it's more than the official sets had. 6 or 8 would be better (something like those battle droid carriers), but would probably reduce the aesthetics & aerodynamics or make it too bulky. Replacing the battery: The windscreen is only held on by 2 studs, and is easy to deliberately remove without causing catastrophe. The battery box (and the assembly on top of it) simply lifts off (the bottom corners of the battery box don't clutch to studs, but they sit without moving horizontally). A sneaky look at the light "switch" for the 2nd cockpit: By request - additional detail Here are some close-ups of the front section: Here is the back section: Yes, the lights work. In motion! I don't have much track out to demonstrate it in full swing, or the other Ice Planet sets out to compare with. I may update this post when I get a chance to do those. Comparison with my other trains: From the top is the Unitron train from 6991, Futuron train from 6990, Space Police II train (version 2, just finished) & Ice Planet 2002 train. More/bigger photos on Flickr

I also think it looks too much like a space shuttle. But the CTT looks like a real thing? That never occurred to me. What does it look like?

Good points from both of you. Middle Earth sets were definitely restricted by the source material, there were just too many main characters. If there were only 5 dwarves instead of 13, that would've opened up a few minifig slots for generic soldiers. A fellowship of 9 also put restrictions on slots for generic or secondary minifigs in LOTR. We were doomed to disappointment before we started.

I would suggest that anything smaller than that one would possibly be getting too small. A lot of AFOLs commented that it wasn't very much Lego for a $20US set, so the smaller you go the less value-for-money it looks, when you [take into consideration / ignore] the extra presentation. I think he was talking about the new 1 year limit for gaining support. Did it take longer than that? The 2 at the top of the list for next review both took longer.

Sadly, monorail is dead forever, and Seatron (besides the alien minifigs) became Space Police, M:Tron & Aquazone. I'd say about 1 in a Brazilian.

We've talked about an upper size limit, but we haven't really talked about a lower size limit. Is the piano too small? Think about it, the extra cost put towards Ideas sets with the booklets and nice boxes etc may make it appear too expensive for what it is. People already baulk at Ideas sets due to price. I was keen on the birds out of principle (it's a nice original idea) but for $70 I'm not so sure. I think that's the thing. Who's going to vote for a sketch or paragraph? Certainly not 10000 people. Besides, the whole point of Lego is to build. I agree. Every time on Eurobricks there is a competition for "design a set" (ie not a MOC, but something TLG might actually make), the submissions with the most votes are amazing MOCs that look nothing like what TLG would ever make, barring a few exceptions. So good luck with that...

Apparently the green dragons were led by the green wizard. His torso was plain dark green. Not very exciting. Did you use the princess from the Joust? I put her in with the green dragons, as well as the bar maid. There was also a green evil witch from a calendar. There is also the troll king & sorceress. And evil queens from chess games for the red dragons. If you are happy to have a queen in white for the crown lions, there was a princess in a junior set that you could give an older looking face, and the CMF purple princess may like a home somewhere?