thetang22

This gave me a good chuckle :)

But that's just the thing - for many classic Castle fans, the examples you mentioned aren't throwing us a bone (LotR may be the exception). Simply making some sort of castle doesn't necessarily scratch that itch for some people. For a good deal of Castle fans, it's about the factions along with the structures. Minifigures, and new heraldry to make that castle feel like it belongs with the classic Castle universe. Just being given a random castle that might be part of another theme isn't necessarily going to make Castle fans get excited. In all honesty, it can almost come off as a negative, as it could be seen as Lego not understanding the Castle fans, and thinking Hogwarts or Disney Castle will appease them in the absence of a real "Castle" set.

For people who talk of buying sets specifically for parts...is it really that efficient to do so? Ive looked at this myself, versus something like Bricklink, and it seems ungodly expensive to buy full sets for parts, when you can usually get exactly what you need from a place like Bricklink for considerably cheaper. i know some people will say things like wanting to support the Lego brand, but the reality is they are doing VERY well with or without your support. As has been said many times before - AFOLs make up a supposed small % of the audience. i suppose I'm more interested in supporting my own wallet than a company that isn't hurting financially in the slightest....and using places like Bricklink seems so much more efficient than buying sets for pieces (with some exceptions). Thats why I am confused by people who buy sets for general parts collecting, instead of appreciating the set itself.

I'd say what makes Castle truly "castle" for many AFOLs is the presence of factions in a way that is familiar to those we grew up with. Sure, we don't need the exact factions (while that would be awesome), but we want something that feels like it fits in with our existing collections from years back. When I buy a set, that set (or even theme as a whole) doesn't exist in a vaccuum - it will join my existing collection to expand on my overall Lego Castle realm, so to speak. If a set doesn't include Minifigures, then I have to ask if the building feels appropriate within my overall collection. A lot of the offerings from other themes like Nexo and Minecraft are simply too stylistically different to have any place within my overall collection. Elves can to some degree, but the Minidolls definitely don't. That said, what I really look for is a theme that offers both main selling points for me: new minifigs that feel appropriate within my existing collection, as well as structures that do as well. If they don't offer one or the other (preferably both in a new theme), then that theme just doesn't have much value for me. I hated the buildings and good guys in Nexo, but felt some of the fantasy villains offered something positive. The problem was that they always came in sets with a bunch of extra junk that just didnt show value for me (junk that helped inflate the price), so it kept me from buying those sets.

What makes Skyrim popular? I'd say its due to the Elder Scrolls series being known as the big medieval sandbox series, where they give you pretty extensive flexibility to play the game however you want. (Sounds a bit like what Legos are supposed to be). Beyond that, the series has encouraged mod support almost more than any other well-known game, which is huge for its popularity. (Hmm, doing player mods also sounds suspiciously close to what Lego encourages). In regards to the NK app, saying its between 10-50 million downloads....come on - that is a MASSIVE range, with drastically different implications on each end. That's like describing a suspect to a police officer and saying "well, he was between 5ft and 9ft tall." Beyond that, the app is free, isn't it? There is no investment needed....so anyone can check it out whether they care all that much or not.

Video games are a GREAT indicator that medieval settings are still relevant in 2017-2018. I've been playing video games since the mid-80's...and games in medieval settings have always been pretty popular. Sure, these days Call of Duty type games reign supreme, but that doesn't mean medieval/fantasy don't also find notable success. Heck - look at Skyrim. It is one of the best selling games of the past decade, and it is a fantasy setting. And it still sells respectably after 6-7 years. Medieval/Fantasy games have always had a healthy following in the video game market...and as such, should be reason enough to have confidence that the same genre should be viable with Lego. They simply need to put creative efforts into it that don't result in the staleness of Castle 2013, or the bizarre'ness of Nexo. There are countless ways to do something new and compelling within the classic castle genre. Lego just chooses not to, but rather goes with TOO different, or the same 'ole, same 'ole.

I don't think it is either. It will come back, but in the meantime, we have to tolerate Nexo. We have a limited time on this earth, and an even more limited time in which we are "in" to Legos. I don't like that during this time, I'm presented with new blah stuff such as Nexo, when themes such as Fantasy Era were alive and kicking when I was in my dark ages. (yes, yes...I know I can still collect out of print sets, but we all know it just isn't the same as being part of the excitement of a new theme that is actually compelling). And again - to the comment about the sales dropping -> there's some rational reasoning (mentioned in above posts) why sales dropping very well could have been Legos own fault, and should not necessarily be used as a definitive gauge about the potential financial success of a theme.

I'm not in a place at the moment to be able to source this, but I'm almost positive Lego has said that Nexo IS the current "castle" theme...to which the logical conclusion would be that yes, it is taking the place of a more traditional castle iteration.

To take it a step further, there's a lot of rationale that could be applied to why previous Castle lines might have faltered from a sales perspective, from competing with similar concurrent lines (LotR/Hobbit), as well as a Castle iteration that felt uninspired (2013 Castle). When you figure in those sorts of things, Lego wasn't exactly doing the Castle brand any favors with the set of circumstances they put the traditional theme in.

Warhammers are pretty common to see made from more than a single mold. There are also varieties of axes that use different blades that need placed onto a pole. Is this the sort of thing you are talking about, or are you looking for some out-of-the-box type weapon? If it's the out-of-the-box idea...I've got nothing at the moment.

I have that game, and your builds definitely look familiar to the game....good job. The weird thing - I found the game really addictive (as you mentioned) for about 2 days, then felt like I hit the ceiling for what the game offered. It went from quite addictive to "eh, I'll probably be ok never playing that again" in a very short period of time. Not many games do that for me.

Lol - that actually went through my mind: "he has stubble, whereas the other is clean shaven...so naturally they intend the stubble-wearer to be the bad guy".

I can definitely get a Breath of the Wild vibe from it, and it's well done. The glass is neat, but looks so darn delicate that I'd be afraid of it breaking.

I agree that certain ones are the most iconic...but for me - they are ALL iconic enough that if it even looks remotely like a Batman emblem, it may as well be one...because that's what I'm going to associate it with.

Pretty much how I view it. Every time I would look at it, I would think of Batman...which would break my sense of immersion when dealing with a medieval/fantasy setting.

They could make individual sections of a castle that exist on their own, or could combine them to make a bigger structure. They have already done this in a small way with castle gates being separate from the proper castle...just turn it up to 11 with more sets representing different parts of a castle.

I was going to say the same thing. I think Griffon is one of the more requested faction mascots.

Sounds like a spin on Monster Hunter (video game). I don't have an opinion on if that's good or bad, just that it reminds me of it. My only concern with something like this (as you sort of started going into) is that I would envision Lego taking that sort of theme in a vehicle-heavy direction, which is precisely what I don't want from a Castle theme. If they could do it more location-based, I'd be more interested. I don't mind vehicles altogether, but I do mind the way Lego has approached vehicles in the past several years. It seems they either go WAAAAY overboard with a ton of vehicles, with plenty of them being over-the-top concepts....or they recycle the same old handful of tired concepts from previous themes. There has to be a nice middle ground of a couple classic vehicles, along with a couple new vehicles (that are not too outlandish) , to complement a theme with several location-based sets (not to forget minifigure-based sets as well).

I really like the dollhouse-like approach to the interior. Really gives it a "I can play with this thing" feeling, rather than simply being a showpiece.

I agree. While those sets are always neat to think about, they are mega-impractical for a wide majority of people (even AFOL's). Since becoming an adult and getting out of my "dark ages", I have not bought a single set that was over $100, let alone the $200-500 range. I just can't justify that sort of spending with my disposable income. I have other hobbies I need to support as well, and Lego isn't my "main" hobby. However, if there were lots of sets in the $10-50 range, I could justify several of those. And if there was a really special set that was $100+, I might consider it.....but I wouldn't even come close to touching the $200-500 price range. It just isn't going to happen, no matter how cool and desirable the set is.

To be fair, "magic" can be used as an excuse for ANYTHING in fiction....even the examples you provided as being Steampunk. Magic isn't exclusive to medieval fantasy fiction. Harry Potter is a great example of that.

Within the realm of fantasy entertainment, Steampunk has always felt like a small niche style when compared to the powerhouses like medieval fantasy and sci-fi. I've always thought it was best when subtly integrated into medieval fantasy, rather than trying to be the main attraction by itself.

Just gotta say that I agree with pretty much all of what you just said. We've all thrown out tons of great ideas over the years, and these remind me of some good ones that many of us could get behind. Wolfpack, anyone? I've been working on a Lego RPG'ish boardgame for use with friends and family (think of the map image linked earlier)...and the Wolfpack were going to be a faction that was located IN the main city. They would represent something similar to a thieves guild...a collection of people down on their luck that secretly organized to bring some balance of power back in their favor.

Marketing is a massive part of the success of any product (overall promotion: printed, commercials, internet, media tie-ins like games and tv shows, etc...). When you give classic Castle a bare-bones approach to those things, it's going to struggle in today's environment. And then when you give Nexo-Knights the full-on treatment of all those things, of course Nexo is going to do better. I'd be willing to bet if you completely reversed the marketing approach of those 2 sub-themes, you'd likely see results indicative of that switch. Give a new classic Castle theme the "Big Bang" approach: give it some factions with a few named individuals within their ranks...give them a tv show, give them a video game, commercials, internet promotion, etc.....and you'd likely see sales result quite comparable to how Nexo did. And if they released Nexo with the minimal marketing that classic Castle traditionally receives, the theme would likely do about as well as classic Castle did last go around.

I still don't understand why they don't just make something inspired by World of Warcraft, or Dungeons and Dragons. (key words: "inspired by") Those sorts of brands still have pretty mass appeal and would fit within the Lego Castle genre. There are many, many, MANY other successful examples of entertainment that follow in the same stylistic footsteps as these examples. Castle, as a stylistic theme, is NOT irrelevant with the youth of today. Anyone who tries to suggest otherwise is simply wrong. There are way too many examples of entertainment out there that prove that idea wrong. You can find countless examples in video games alone, which are more popular with kids than Lego is. This isn't to say that kids don't also like other things too, or possibly even more, but that's why Lego would always have multiple themes going at the same time...to cater to the different interests of customers.