Artifex

Very nice ToO! Everything working for me.

You are all welcome. We all love Lego, so I'm just doing my part, I guess When I talked to the manager, I already knew that there is no Castle coming in the summer (or so I believe, from the Internet...), so I assumed we may be a little more well-informed than he is, or that he has some info that we don't. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

So is this is for Pirates 2015? Lego usually releases a chess set by the end of a line, isn't it? I do hope I'm wrong. =/

Great collection! How come I didn't know there's a Red Tornado minifig...? Hawkman is definitely one of the best minifigs ever!

Great! I'm not a fan of the flesh space minifigures, but the build looks great.

Just back from a Lego Store in London. Talked to pretty much every employee. Not much till I talked to the manager, and he said there's a Castle theme on the horizon, probably later this year, 2016 definitely. He could NOT confirm if it it's going to be Caste or Fantasy. Not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't know it for sure.

My biggest fear is that expectation turns any set released, however cool, into a no-no. My second fear is that we get something akin to Castle 2013. In other words, that the new theme is indeed a no-no.

Thans for sharing, L@go! Also, I love your post office.

Starbucks can only with they had such an AWESOME place!

Not entirely related to Castle 2016, hence the new thread. So: Should any new castles have baseplates? And should they have raised baseplates? I was (re)reading some reviews and I noticed that some castles do have baseplates, and some don't. Some are raised. A case could be made that the "flagship" castles did have baseplates but the smaller castles (shall we call them "fortresses"?) didn't, but I don't think that's really the point. The point is: Does having a baseplate, especially a raised one, make a castle better in any way? On the one hand, it seems to me that not having a baseplate makes castles more modular, because you can add and add from official sets, while baseplates tend to limit that. On the other hand, (raised) baseplates add detail and possibilities, like 6081 King's Mountain Fortress, 6086 Black Knight's Castle, 6090 Royal Knight's Castle and 10176 King's Castle, for example. Compare, for instance, with 6080 King's Castle, 375/76075 Yellow Castle and 6085 Black Monarch's Castle. Yes, I know that some of these castles have baseplates, like 6080, but it seems you could just swap those for plates and all would be the same. Not that the "(raised) baseplate castles" are better, but there seems to be "more to the eye". Not sure about playability, though. Any thoughts? WOuld you like to see raised baseplates in any new castles?

These "Castle minifigs" are absolutely brilliant! If the new Castle theme follows those, it sure is a win!

I was expecting Duke Nukem,,, But great Ash MOC nevertheless!

Beautiful, awesome, amazing! But... Are those tracks made of metal? (Sorry about my ignorance on the topic)

Very nice, LT! NM is looking good. PS: I love that ladder!

I love Playmobil. Lego came later for me, because Playmobil was released a few years prior to Lego in Brazil. I remember that pirate ship, which I call "THE Pirate Ship", because I don't think any of the ships that came after that one were as good (but that may be nostalgia, even though I keep up-to-date with Playmobil). I never had that ship, though, but a friend did and we spent hours playing with it. Good memories! I never owned the BSB, but that very same friend did (his parents were divorced and would give him as many toys as they could afford). Another great ship! I love both ships. They are both very good at what they are "supposed to do". They are awesome sets, and they got everything you could expect at the time. I'm especially fond of the old Playmobil Klicky (the Playmobil minifigure), which was so "modular": a plain figure could be virtually anything, from cavemen to astronaut, from peasant to king, from cowboy to pirate... Not so much with modern figures, full of colors and color schemes that "state" what a klicky "should" be. Yes, there were some klickies back at the time that had printing on them (like the sheriff with his star), but nothing like what we have now. All in all, both Playmobil and Lego are great toys. Of course Lego lets you build whatever you want, but that's better only if that's your thing. Some people just want to open up a box and start playing right away (not that building is not playing, mind you...). It all comes down to your preferences, I guess. Thanks a lot for sharing your pics, Norton74. They brought back some fond memories. On the side: I like these threads showing Lego and Playmobil side-by-side, especially these days when one is not that far away from the other. Some Playmobil and Lego sets are so much alike that one could imagine they were both owned by the same company.

I love your town! It's truly inspirational. I love it that there's so much going on. Lego towns are great, but the ones with a backstory or a story going on.

Sorry, but you can't MOD that set. It's already too perfect a set for anyone to MOD. KIDDING! I like your MOds. The sails look nice, even if they are just place-holders. The stern looks good. So does the gun deck, although I think you should add stairs or something =P

I use AdBlock too and don't get nothing like that. Maybe you guys had an unwilling install?

Thanks fr sharing! I love old catalogs. They are such a sweet trip down the memory lane!

Awesome!

The Theory of Everything. Good, solid movie. Good story, great acting. The editor deserves an Oscar.

I want to believe this so much. *crosses fingers* I hope it's true. Here's my wish list: 1) Less j.u.n.i.o.r.i.z.e.d arms and flags, like Kingdoms and Black Falcons. Kids love what kids get. They love the beautiful, big lion from the last Castle theme, even if they can't see it's just j.u.n.i.o.r.i.z.e.d. But what they really want is a flag they can carry on when they grow up, even if that only means a couple of years. That's because they want to be adults like knights and heroes and stuff, but we know they should be kids for as long as they can. So balance that all -- throw them toys, but make their flags at least look like "adult stuff". Like Kingdoms Lion Knights, or more neutral like Black Falcons, Forestmen, Wolfpack, the Bull... 2) Meaningful sets. Learn from previous medieval and fantasy themes, like Castle, Kingdoms and LotR, and give us meaningful sets. Who didn't get multiples of 9471 Uruk-hai Army? Now that was a great set. Great add-on, awesome army builder: Not only did your castle grew larger, but so did your armies (both the good army and the badies' one!) Now, who got multiples of 9472 Attack on Weathertop? As important as that set/location is lore-wise, it was not good even as a parts pack (yes, I am looking at its price too). 2a) Give us great add-ons. We love our castles and towers and fortresses, but we also want great add-ons for those. Check 6061 Siege Tower, for instance. Or 6062 Battering Ram. Or 8813 Battle at the Pass. Great add-ons: The ones you can use to expand other sets from the same theme, and that you can also use to army-build. With minifigures and maybe a siege weapon. 2b) Great polybags. We love big sets, and great add-on sets, but we also want polybags with figures, items (weapons, shields, treasure chests), maybe a tree or target or something, like 30062 Target Practice or small sets like 1695 Treasure Cart, 1480 King's Catapult and maybe 6011 Black Knight's Treasure. 2c) Castle CMF. Lets face it, it's got to happen. 3) Give us more than 2 factions. In the good ole days we had Crusaders, Lion Knights, Black Falcons, Wolfpack, Forestmen... And we loved them all! Who were the good guys? And the bad ones? It was up to you. So on to (3a). 3a) Let us decide who the good and the bad guys are. As much as making the distinction between who is good and who is bad makes it all the easier for the kids, let them decide who they want to support, and who they think the good/not so good/the bad should be. Or maybe they are all good but there's some misunderstanding between them... 4) Give us more than soldiers and knights and kings and wizards. Let there be a civilian faction. Or at least half-civilian, like 6040 Blacksmith Shop, 6041 Armor Shop and 6067 Guarded Inn. Make them interesting like 1680 Crusader's Cart or maybe 1974 Smuggler's Hayride. 4a) Give us ruins and history. And let them be meaningful. "The knight left King's Castle and went on an errand. Crossing the woods, he came by this strange ruins. Ruins, yes, but inhabitated nevertheless...". Yes, I'm talking 6066 Camouflaged Outpost and 6054 Forestmen's Hideout. Great add-ons. Not city/village, not castles or fortresses. But they added so much nevertheless! 5) Give us more than buildings. You know what made previous castle lines so loved? They were not restricted to a few -- or a lot -- of buildings. There was more: There were carts and boats too. There were convoys and coaches. 6) Battlepacks. I can't stress this enough. Soldiers, knights, civilians (don't forget the civilians!), and (why not?) animals (like cows and horses). Last, but not least: 7) Make it last. I know it all comes down to sales. So please plan far and wide. Give us more than one year worth of sets. Think more like 3. And by that, I don't mean some sets in the first year, a few more in the second year and then big, beautiful set like Kingdoms Joust. I mean the basics on the first year (big castle, a smaller fortress, a tower or two, multiple add-ons), then balanced waves in the second year (a big castle for the faction that didn't get one in the previous year), meaningful add-ons, and then, in the third year, a big "showdown", "display" set if it has to come to that. I know most of this sounds like wishful thiking. And it is. But I do hope it can be made somehow. Pax! EDIT: Spelling I'd love it if it were a Black Falcons or Crusaders reboot, or maybe a Kingdoms continuation, but I think I can settle with a well-done fantasy theme (see above). Whatever is coming for Castle this year, the next, or in the near future, there's one thing I ask: Do NOT change the old factions. Don't make the Black Falcons the bad guys, nor the heroes. Don't change the Dragon Knights or the Crusaders. Let those factions be. Kingdoms Lion Knights were a great tribute to previous Lion Knights. The Black Falcon from Kigdos Joust was another great homage, even if he was supposed to be a Dragon Knight (you didn't think we would be fooled by all that black and green, right?). He was clearly the challenger, but he was never stated to be bad, as the princess-kidnapping armies of Kingdoms Dragon Knights were.

A very nice set! Just because someone has to complain: I think a Bruce Banner figure would have been more iconic than a Hawkeye one. Remember in the movie when the helicarrier takes off?

Thanks. I tried looking for a discussion on the helicarrier alone and I couldn't find it, so I decided to post is. Maybe some moderator can please merge this topic? Thanks in advance.

Can anyone confirm if this is the real thing?