BrickJagger

Sorry for not clarifying. Obviously that's all true, but we're going off of what Lego thinks. Lego thought the Nexo was a Castle theme. I agree, but you can see why most traditional Castle fans wouldn't. Nexo was a great theme, but it isn't really a true Castle theme. In your post you also laid out why HP isn't a Castle theme. I agree with that as well. Whether or not I take an extended break from Lego hinges on what their plan is going forward, and we'll be able to tell by mid-next year.

Taking that info with a grain of salt, but if it's true than Lego will have completely sold out their own basic values. The roster going forward would be this: Castle Harry Potter Space Star Wars City Assorted Police Officers Pirates POTC CMFS Licensed Themes Bonanza Every Action theme ever NINJAGO and one crap"Big Bang" theme every three years. If Castle isn't ever coming back, they should just be upfront about it because I would like to stop funding them as soon as possible. I'm totally fine with Harry Potter existing, if fact I like the series and I own a few of the 2010 sets. However, if they replace Castle with it then I have no problem buying old sets secondhand and not giving Lego a single penny for the next decade.

that truly is a sight to behold. Have you been working on this in stages for the past few years or did it all come together at once?

Welcome, Dan! Enjoy your stay.

Excellent work as usual, @norlego ! I appreciate landscaping in a model more than anything else, and you've done it quite well here.

Seconded! This is certainly important enough. Yeah but no one really does that. I just liked how it was before, that's all. Those are always the hardest to find. Do you have any to recommend?

Great work! For a second there I thought that the fish were being used as ammunition. Possible inspiration for your next build?

This topic is a lot to read through (in a good way!) but I haven't had time to type up my thoughts. Here are a few things that I've identified: 1. One of my favorite things to do on Eurobricks is to look through old threads. Once you look through an old rumor thread from 2008/2009 or so, you'll realize just how much the site has changed. We don't have member numbers anymore, but I'm pretty sure that we're currently closing in on 200k if we haven't hit it already. That's great for the site, but not great for the community. In those old threads, it's pretty clear that everyone knew each other and didn't just shout into the void. People were genuinely friends. They cracked jokes, they even went off topic sometimes, but it just made for a more welcoming and engaging environment. Again, I only started browsing in 2011, so I'm just basing this off of what I can glean from those threads. Nowadays, threads are an absolute disaster. That's not the mod's fault at all, in fact I think that they're doing a great job. Some threads get out of control and have over 10,000 replies of mostly useless gibberish and one-sentence posts. Everything is a wishlist, there are a million people typing the same things in a thread for weeks at a time etc. It makes for a boring read and I see no reason to check some of these threads more than two or three times a year. 2. The actual content. In the past, insight and constructive conversations appeared to be the norm. Granted, you'd come across the occasional preteen using l33tspeak, but it wasn't really that much of an issue. Old threads were full of well-thought out speculation and a general feeling of *contained* excitement that makes them serve as a time capsule of what EB used to be. New threads are entirely disposable. I don't know when the trend of running up a thread's post count for the heck of it started, but it's one of the most confusing things on here for sure. If I had to guess, an old thread (ex: the Castle 2008/09 thread) probably has as many or close to as many words as last year's Star Wars thread despite having a quarter of the posts. Depending on who you are, that could be a good thing or a bad thing, but I'd rather not read a thread filled to the brim with "fake news" cycles that take up hundreds of posts apiece. One guy a few years back made like seven different accounts and probably accounted for a thousand posts of speculation in a single thread. If you're just casually reading that thread, would that make you want to keep checking back? 3. The atmosphere. EB is a Lego forum. EB is not a Marvel, Star Wars or Harry Potter forum that just happens to relate to building blocks. Years ago we really just had Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and a splash of HP, but the influx of casuals in the past few years is simply astounding. A lot of that is Lego's fault, as they seem to be pandering to people who like the license more than the brand, and that's caused a lot of new licenses in recent years and the forums to become bloated and watered-down. Now you may be reading this and I'm sure that it sounds like a "cranky old man" ranting, but only half of that would be true. 4. LEAKS. That used to be what made EB. Leaks used to be an integral part of EB, and I only have to go back to 2011 or so to see mods actively discussing leaks with the regular users. I completely understand why the leak policy changed, but in my opinion it's not for the better. The leaks really brought people together for some reason. Maybe it was because you were looking at something you weren't supposed to be seeing yet (on second thought...yeah that's probably why). I have to admit that's it's quite fun to try to make out individual pixels taken by a potato-quality camera and hotly debating the meaning of Green Speck #17 with other members. Now, I have to drag myself over to Instagram to check Mario Power 122.0's leak bonanza, and tell fellow Eurobrickers that the images can be found there. Whopee. I have no idea where the site stands on this as a whole but the "Leak War" a few years back was hilarious and caused people to actually start talking to one another again instead of typing "I want a Thanos bigfig" eleven times in the Marvel thread because it keeps getting buried with other people's wishlists. The whole "leak war" was proof that that can work on the larger platform that EB currently is, and although Lego has obviously tightened the grip on us in recent years we're essentially falling on our own sword. People used to come here for leaks, but now there's significantly less reason to do so. It's hurting site traffic in a big way. 5. MOC disrespect. This is truly a shame. We have hundreds of bonafide artists posting MOCs in Pirates, Space, Historic Themes, etc. and they get barely any replies because all of those forums are now largely dead. The variety in those less-used forums is astounding, and I would strongly encourage anyone who has been viewing those MOCs and not replying to leave a comment saying that you appreciate their work. EB's purpose is for News, Leaks (formerly) and MOCs, and once again we're undercutting our own site. I obviously have a lot to say about the current state of the site, but I don't have any answers. A complete overhaul would only be possible if we had significantly fewer members, and I think the current format is fine as it is. Obviously, the Leak ship has sailed as well (pun?). I guess that the best way to fix this in the short term is just to...talk, actually talk. Not Morse code or smoke signals, an actual conversation. A paragraph, even (the horror)! I think that if people got to know each other, that would help the community greatly. If you want a modern example of what I'm talking about, the best one I can think of is Historic Themes. There hasn't been a Castle theme in years and yet we have several threads with hundreds, even over a thousand replies on there just discussing our favorite theme. That's all I have. EDIT: Apparently not! Whoever added the Member numbers back, thank you. Also, @LegoModularFan this is a great thread and I'm happy that you started a discussion about something that's needed to be discussed for years. EDIT 2: I think that re-adding each member's join date under their avatars would be a good fix. It was easier to identify longtime members and it didn't make the profile information that cluttered anyway.

I agree that it's very important to keep old pictures on these boards. Without them, many of the reviews would be useless, and a lot of old discussions would lose their meaning. There's gotta be a way to keep the pictures no matter what, right?

Hate to hear that. Frankly I feel the same way that you do, and I've scaled back how often I'm on here in the past year or so. I'm not at the point where I'm nearing a dark age because I'm *almost irrationally* confident that Lego has something of actual substance for us Historic fans coming next year, but I'll be sorely disappointed if they don't. Nexo really has kept me interested for the past couple years, but I'm primarily a Castle guy and if Castle isn't around, I'm not around. I think a lot of us feel the same way you do. It's been a pleasure talking to you for the past three years, hopefully you'll come back soon and we'll have new Castle sets to discuss.

^ I am so looking forward to seeing some of those molds in future Castle themes.

Welcome to Eurobricks!

Welcome to the forums, Martin.

Great work as always, Mark. I love the front towers, but the back could have been a little bit bigger to include a living space or something for the knights. Again, very well done.

Personally, the Docks set is ill-advised as is not going to sell well. The original Ninjago City was spectacular, and this one comes off as a second-rate rendition of it that only people who bought the last one would consider buying. The price is also not doing it any favors.

The Arctic sets look a lot better than they did in the prelims, IMO. I'll be getting the starter set at the very least. The tracked vehicle with the polar bear cave is tempting, but if it's $40 it's probably a no-go.

That looks great! Might have to try this. A few have been posted here on EB but other than that I haven't seen too many. There are a few people who plan on building Vyro Vampire Castles if/when Season 5 comes out, so I would be on the lookout for that.

That looks a little too futuristic for a regular Castle though, even in those colors. I'd have to see it used in a MOC or something first.

I saw that awhile back, it's really amazing isn't it? I agree that Clay's ship is the best build, but the Axl flyer with the tricked out mechsuit is a strong contender.

Personally I haven't seen those magazines anywhere, but if they're coming to the US now, isn't it a little late?

Is there a reason why these still don't have official images yet? Aren't they supposed to come out in June?

Welcome to the boards!

Love it! I like how you're continuing the story from your previous NK MOC. Will you be making more of these?

Amazon has just announced that they will be rolling out a new Lord of the Rings show within the next two years. The budget is expected to be over 1 billion dollars and five seasons are guaranteed. Here's an article for those who haven't seen it already. Do you guys think that this will cause Lego to go after the LOTR license again? If they do, how will that affect future Castle sets? Personally I'm not too worried, as this article sums up what I think about the new show, but anything backed by Amazon is bound to make a splash.

LOTR Lego did not sell well the first time, so exactly what is the rationale for bringing it back? Yes I know they missed key features of the story, I read through those threads while they were active. However, just because they're pouring money into a new show doesn't mean that it will translate well to Lego's market. We already got three full years of LOTR/Hobbit, expecting it to come back just seems a bit irrational to me. Also, I'm sure that Lego is considering the stuff that is talked about in this article.