KristinnK

Take a look at the the 3-in-1 Pirate Ship. The hull is a uniform solid reddish-brown with only small black highlights. The captain's cabin is a conservative red with small gold highlights. The sails are a simple white with black decorations. I think this is very comparable for what I would have liked this castle to look like, with uniform medium bley walls, a conservative tudor infill color and neutral roof color. And that ship looks good as all hell, precisely because it's designed with restraint and elegance. This castle not so much.

I've been googling "Lego 31120" for months now waiting for a leak, but now that it has arrived I'm unfortunately very disappointed. 1. The minifigs are basically 100% uninteresting to me. I prefer to populate my MOCs with neutral, early-medieval, semi-period-appropriate minifigs. So I don't use figures with heraldry, meaning the knights are out, and the civilian figure in this set looks like a pirate minifig, and is certainly far from period-appropriate for anything earlier than the early modern period. 2. I don't like the color scheme of the tudor parts. I just don't like the color in this context aesthetically, especially since it's combined with brown framing and a blue roof. Bright yellow is such a 'strong' color that in my opinion it needs more muted ones around it. It would have looked much better to my eye if for example the roof and/or framing was black. Black framing would also have had much better contrast to the infill compared to brown. 3. I don't like that the main color of the stone parts is dark bley. I personally only use medium bley for masonry. 4. I feel the castle lacks a sense of solidity. One corner of the watchtower on the right is propped up on a stalk, the window on the left-side gate-tower shows the landscape behind instead of showing into an enclosed space, the curtain wall is two stories lower than the towers, the tudor parts are too predominant rather than just being occasional highlights, the castle (at least in this configuration) doesn't actually close in the back. I would have much preferred if the castle would have saved on the height and stuck with two-story towers, only have tudor sections in one or two places, and made everything a little bit more bulky and solid-looking. The layout of the castle still wouldn't necessarily have been a problem, I could still have bought the set for the figures and bricks. But because neither the figs nor the colors (neither tudor parts not dark bley stone parts) appeal to me, this set is unfortunately a hit and miss for me.

My thoughts about this set is that it's overall fine. We must keep in mind that the original model was 3000 pieces. TLG decreased that by more than 30%. Assuming same price per piece the set would have cost more that 220 dollars if they hadn't changed it. Having said that I still have some gripes about the changes. I don't like the green moss on the roof. Just from a straightforward point of view of aesthetics. Also I don't like the tree. I know many here express their appreciation for the tree, but I would have preferred a "normal" tree like in the Ideas submission. These aren't big problems, they can be solved by Bricklinking Nexo shields for the roof and subbing in whatever kind of tree you like. However I think the minifigs are a big problem. Quality medieval minifigs are rare, simply because there haven't been medieval sets in almost a decade! There have been some nice CMF figs in this period, like the CMF 15 Frightening Knight and the CMF 20 Viking. But when an actual medieval set is released, especially a 150 dollar one, I expect multiple great figs. The 100 dollar Medieval Market Village had a full 8 figs, with two great female figs with torso+skirt printings, three copies of a nice commoner torso print, a so-and-so blacksmith and two normal soldiers. In comparison this set is 50% more expensive (lets say ~25% if you count inflation), but has only half the minifig count! The blacksmith and the two soldiers are admittedly better than the corresponding MMV figs, but Lego has improved their minifigs a lot in the intervening years, so the difference is to be expected. The archer fig however is not very interesting at all, the torso print doesn't look medieval and there is no leg printing. Subbing that one out for a female fig with printed skirt would have been a significant improvement. Preferably there should just have been more figs in general.

I agree with Klaus that almost certainly the alternate builds will be distinct builds rather than components of a larger castle. What exactly they'll be however I'm far from sure. I don't think a village square makes a lot of sense since medieval houses generally won't be made of stone like a castle. It could be some sort of stone manor I guess. Another option is a stone church/temple. Another possibility is that the castle isn't overwhelmingly constructed out of stone. Early medieval castles were generally made out of timber. For example a timber curtain wall around a stone keep would allow alternate builds that also use both stone and timber. Another question is the minifigs. Will they be more similar to classic castle figs, focused on heraldry, or more like CMF and LotR minifigs, more focused on armor and period clothing. Personally I much prefer the latter.

This is probably my favorite roofing technique. When built like this the angle of the shingles/cheese slopes is absolutely perfect, and the gently rounded corners of the cheese slopes gives such lovely but effortless detail.

The Viking is absolutely fantastic! Might be my all-time favorite CMF figure. His torso+legs are perfect early-medieval clothes. The spear with the metal tip is my absolute favorite weapon, which 90% of my martial minifigures use. The shield is fine, although I prefer the 3x3 technic disks from the Viking line (but those are cheap and plenty anyway). The helmet if it's a separate mold will be perfectly nice, but if it's a combined mold with the beard it will be much more limited as others have said. Unfortunately to me from this pictures it all looks like one mold, but we'll find out soon. The pirate torso isn't interesting to me though, and neither is the knight. And that sword is just comically oversized. But that Viking is really everything I wish for every time there is a new CMF series. I'll be buying at least 2-3.

I am very excited about this series. I'm a fan of medieval Lego, and depending on how the actual print looks like the Knight, Female Pirate and Viking can all be a-go. In fact, it would be the first time since the series 16 Rogue a full four years ago that I buy a CMF.

First I thought I was looking at Gideon's Nordana Castle. The genealogy is clear.

It's that time of year again. I'm a castle fan and I always look out for (historically realistic) medieval minifigs in CMF series. Last few series have been a disappointment, with the last properly good one being the series 15 Frightening Knight. What I'm really hoping for this time around is a medieval peasant, blacksmith or other civilian figure. While I wouldn't be disappointed by some sort of warrior figure, the medieval civilian figure is in much shorter supply.

6034 was my first castle set when I was a child. It was the first spark to a life-long love of castle lego, real world castles and the medieval period in general. Nothing among all my lego as a kid was as cool to me as that Black Knight with his plate armor and visor helmet.

Thank you for the answer. The fig works out very well as a medieval woman.

Where is the female minifig from?

Where are the torso and legs of the Drakkenhiem Merchant from?

What minifig is that?

As a counterpoint to the "medieval settings in media mainly appealing to older audiences" point, a TV series adaptation of The Wheel of Time is currently in development. For those that are not familiar, The Wheel of Time was the most popular fantasy series of the 90's, has a pseudo-medieval setting and plenty of warrior culture, castles and fortresses. And importantly to this discussion, the themes and story elements are much more kid-friendly than Game of Thrones. If the TV series success level is anywhere near Game of Thrones, TLG might very well decide to ride the show's coat-tails. It could be what the Lord of the Rings theme could have been had it been released in concert with the films. Just like in LotR there are plenty of named and beloved characters, the world is even larger than that of the LotR, with various different nations with different aesthetics (making it easier to design a large range of sets that are not redundant). Also, the series is even longer than Game of Thrones (and importantly, complete), so the TV-series and the accompanying Lego theme could last for many years, with many waves of sets. But the series is still in pre-production, it will still be 2-3 years at least before it is released, and another year before it becomes popular enough to draw business (if all goes well), and then another year to develop sets. Ideally Nexo Knights will be replaced with a more classic Castle line in 2019 or 2020 to relieve the pent-up demand, and then it could be replaced by the more fantasy-oriented Wheel of Time line in 2022 or 2023. This would appeal to TLG by cycling through different aesthetics (technological-classic-fantasy) and thereby capturing the widest range of consumers.

Regarding the suggestion that TLG could or should release Creator Expert like Castle sets, their reaction to medieval Ideas sets suggests that their marketing team doesn't believe this to be viable. I would have loved sets like this one and this one, but TLG keeps rejecting them. Still, Lego Ideas is an avenue for us as consumers to communicate our desire to TLG, and I will keep supporting AFOL oriented medieval Ideas. Right now I have hopes that this, this and this set will reach 10,000 supporters, showing TLG that the consumer interest continues to be there, even if they probably will reject all of them. Even if it just makes them release something of their own like Mill Village Raid or Medieval Market Village. Just remember not to make unrealistic estimates of the cost of the sets in Ideas. If TLG sees potential costumers expecting this kind of size and detail under 100 USD they will not see a way to make a profit on them.

This is the Elf. Just take his hairpiece (with the Elf ears) off, and he's just a man with scale armor. This is the Elf Maiden. If you remove her hairpiece she looks like a Disney princess or someone in a Halloween costume. That dress is certainly not accurate for the Medieval period. As to the Gladiator, he is specific to one aspect of one specific time period, a far cry from the series 3 Elf, which is a staple in Medieval MOCs as one of the best torso+legs combo to represent a medieval warrior in armor.

I agree with the people complaining about themed series. I don't ask for much, just one minifigure (or at least torso + printed legs) per series that can be used in (non-fantasy) medieval MOCs. Like the Elf from S3, Hun Warrior from S12 and Frightening Knight from S15. The S16 had the Rogue which has a nice enough torso+legs. But S17 was a bust (the Gladiator, Battle-Dwarf and Elf Girl are all unsuited for MOCs imitating realistic medieval life), so between that, the Batman movie series, Ninjago movie series and this costumed series at least a year and a half will pass between me buying the Rogue and my next collectible minifig.

The castle/fortress is very reminiscent of this MOC (link to Eurobricks post).

As a castle-fan I had high hopes for this series, with the Battle Dwarf, Gladiator and Female Elf. The figure themselves however disappoint me. For medieval (not fantasy) creations, bare-chested and colorfully ornate figures don't fit very well in. Tridents, golden swords and large hammers are also a no-go. I would have liked new armored torso+legs combos, round shield designs or medieval helmets. Now back to waiting. Either CMF 18 or a new castle line. *Shrug*

It seems that the biggest ambiguity right now is whether A(C) refers to Astronauto (Cosmonauto) or Australiano (Canguro). The astronaut fits hint 15 very well, while the Australian fits hint 10. Just to get a sense of what people think I set up a poll here. I will be interesting to see what people think is more likely.

Are there higher resolution images somewhere? I would love to examine the details, but the small photos make it difficult.

This castle has to be one of the best I've ever seen, right up there with the Bluewater castle. I understand that necroing is against the rules, but I saw this castle only because it was necroed, and I am very happy to have seen it.

I would love an expert level/ultimate collectors series castle. 2000+ piece count, real thick walls, not thin panels, a central keep, maybe with an interior. Slap a $200 prize tag on it and I'll take two.

I like the double towers flanking the main gate, very authentic.