gedren_y

The US version of the site still has the Kingdoms Joust and Chess Set at their normal pricing. It is likely that those will go on sale to clear away stock before we see the new Castle line. If that happens, my money for the new Castle line may be eaten up by remaining Kingdoms Joust.

I'm a little disappointed about the YCF reviewer's lack of knowledge about what parts are new and what are not. I like that the crown is metallic gold rather than chrome gold. As I've stated before, I'm more interested in the parts for MOCing, so I will buy. I reiterate, this is nothing like KK(I or II). The panel pieces people keep decrying are actually smaller than the classic 5x6x2 panels that made up most of the beloved castles.

Those do seem to be the only purist solutions, though the middle one is a female torso. For the non-purists, there is a custom decal retailer on bricklink Kingdom of Custom Creation that does Civil War designs. They go beyond the general army look to include some rank uniform differences. They do have strange alternate variations, though. This is a Canadian retailer that only takes Paypal.

If I had some means of travel, I would likely attend a Florida or Georgia event. Anything farther is out of my budget for at least a year. I do have Skype, with the same name as here. For nearly half a year my uncle had to use my account to talk to his daughter in Germany. It is way better than trying to make an international call, but we usually needed advance notice so I would be logged in at a given time.

About LDD builds, I did one (http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=78643) just because I had some ideas about making plants with parts in colors they don't appear in. I didn't give much thought to scoring, but I did get some good responses about the techniques I used.

I agree that the fire coming out of the chin doesn't look right, but that is an easy fix with any number of parts with a 3mm connection point. I intend to use one of these (http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=55236). This dragon will be a step up for me, since I wasn't able to get a Fantasy Era dragon. I have a couple of technic built Vikings wyverns (from the small boat set), the green brick built dragon Creator set and the Harry Potter Hungarian Horntail. I do have some large dragon wings from a KKII set.

My nostalgic feelings come from remembering Royal Knights. Despite this, I see this as being Fantasy Era 2. I am so baffled by AFOLs who still focus on the TLG provided designs. While I have extolled the virtues of this line when compared to previous iterations, these sets are always going to be simplistic. Yes, the lion heraldry makes me nostalgic, but what's important for me here is the parts. I will probably build the sets as depicted once (minus any stickers). I do this to see if any part of the provided designs could be adapted for use elsewhere. If I like a piece of a set, I strip away everything else and leave it intact for testing with my existing builds. With this line, there are some structures that I see in the pics that look adaptable. I do this with non-Castle sets to adapt for Castle, e.g. the Legends of Chima sets. This Castle line gives us so many useful parts to create so many wonderful new designs. What's not to love?

@josykay: What you're calling 'new coins' are just pearl gold 1x1 round tiles. In Forest Ambush you get a crossbow which might be black (only in one SW set before) or pearl dark grey. The way it was lit makes it hard to tell.

People keep comparing this to KK, but look at the sets and series as a whole. They are nothing alike. I find this King's Castle is actually superior to the Kingdoms one. Despite the heraldry, the structure of the building is more realistic. The Fantasy Era version was even more unrealistic. The idea that we should have had a Forestmen or Black Falcons nostalgia theme is patently ridiculous. That would have appealed to AFOLs more than newcomers, and would have drawn sales from the movie set inspired LOTR/Hobbit theme. Licensing costs money, so TLG is going to do what it can to gain from it's investment. That license will eventually fade. Much of the draw for TLG is to get non FOLs to have an interest in Lego. Pre-movie Tolkien fans will probably help draw this out till at most a special edition DVD/BluRay release of the complete Middle Earth sagas, if that happens. Most of these fans are after depictions of their favorites scenes in the movies and/or books. MOC building AFOLs are not really the target here, so TLG has to put more detail into these than they normally would for a Castle line. This theme is intended for children who are a little young for the epic Tolkien books and movies (movie rating). These may appeal less to the AFOLs who keep sets the way TLG designed them, but the kids playing with them will likely be happy. Comparing this version of Castle to LOTR is going to make some disappointed. This theme does have some more logically realistic detailing (underneath the heraldry and fantasy elements) than the previous four Castle themes. I have repeatedly expounded upon the new parts and new colors of existing parts. The 4x4 facet brick should be a big deal to any Castle MOC builder. For me, these sets will help in my castle building and increase my overall collection.

I have Visiting Herbologists on the way. 64x48 with lots of interesting plants. Anticlimax: What By Goddess Were We Thinking will be my little addendum story. I know I won't get it finished in time for Challenge VI, so will probably end up as four to five freebuilds. I'm hoping my plan to use a page from my Cosmos book as a backdrop will work out.

I think this qualifies as Sci-Fi as it is fictional science for the time period. Nice though.

Visiting Herbologists and RL issues force me to miss the deadline for Ch VI, but I will try to have a story and some small builds up this coming week. I have decided my characters actually don't know what Victor Revolword looks like, so they will be destroying a body that may or may not be him. As far as I can tell, no one has killed Victor's brother in their Ch VI stories. He will be included in my story. Also, one of the dwarves from Petraea will be driven mad by an ancient weapon he hopes to use to destroy Victor's helmet. I'm considering calling it Anticlimax: What By Goddess Were We Thinking?

A coordinated plan to drop so many builds at once. It may have backfired a little, as I had trouble loading SC's images. Great builds though.

Looks good if you build LOTR. As I don't build LOTR, this is too just much for what amounts to a mound black pieces for me. I may just bricklink the pieces that are important to me, and spend the bulk of my Lego budget elsewhere.

As expected, Hugh Hos died in battle. If there are any Nestlands warriors left, or just someone who knows the customs, his weapon and armor will be returned and his body fed to birds, as befit a warrior of his stature.

Yeah, Liverpool won their game, but their striker Luis Suarez was banned for ten games for that bite. His FC even fined him an undisclosed sum. And Dortmund just trounced Real Madrid.

I, myself, am a big fan of the shields the soldiers are using. The best thing to come out of KKII. About the single plate height difference for some of the trans-plates: water does not always spread out to fill the width of the bottom of a gully when going downhill. DC, you are a master.

There is so much more to enjoy. New parts, and newer parts in new colors. Look past the heraldry and minifigs to the awesome range of pieces. This is an MOCer's dream. I've been waiting for a long time for the 4x4 facet brick. The King's castle has lots of 'brick' bricks. The Crown Lion faction's siege machine in Dragon Mountain has reddish brown 4x4 round bricks w/o side pin holes (new color). The Forest Ambush has a green 4x6 cut corners wedge plate (as yet only available in 5868-1 Ferocious Creatures). It is hard to tell, but the crossbow in Forest Ambush may be black (only seen before in 3342-1 Star Wars #3 - Troopers/Chewie Minifig Pack). Look closely at the shields and you'll see a new style of 'metal edging' detail. Hopefully this little design feature will continue through future factions. I keep seeing this being compared to KKI and KKII. The Lion heraldry is more like a blue angular version of Royal Knights. KKI's big flaws were the over use of large prefab parts, trying to give every fig names, only three Bull characters, and no base for the Bull characters. KKII still suffered the large prefab parts issue (but a little less so), and added some ridiculous play elements. It gave us 'jellybean knights', which would have worked if they had used neutral under colors. They did this later on. Some of my favorite shields come out of KKII. The only real connections to KKI I can draw are the use of siege machines, and the fact that KKI used the crowned lion face from Royal Knights (but over a field of blue crossed with yellow). The KKII crowned lion is in profile, and the first king's color is blue-violet. The biggest similarity here is the use of a then new angular helmet. I actually like this as it allows the fig's face to be visible, but is also a logically sound defensive helmet. The only set that comes close to this current design is the 8874 Battle Wagon, but this type of set appears in just about every Castle theme. This theme uses the name Castle, and given the use of the newer prefab dragon, I still say this should be called Fantasy Era 2. The architecture of this King's Castle is more logically sound than its counterparts in Fantasy Era and Kingdoms. Don't believe me about the Kingdoms one, put images of each of these next to one another and compare closely. On the whole, I enjoy what I have seen of these, and will likely try to pick up the whole line with multiples of some. Good thing it is an August release, so I can set aside enough money.

"poorly illustrated" and "head off" LOL. Hugh does have a good dislike of those who skulk in the shadows.

Thanks, Damaximus. 　 To avoid the gap issue, I would simply use plates to make the space for the horizontal bar, as you don't really need two perpendicular stud spaces. 　 Other than that, I would like to say that I'm not fond of using the theme name 'Technic' in place of the English word 'technique'. But that's just the writer in me wanting the language to be correct.

My story is supposed to be anticlimactic, as the heroes get there too late. So Uurd Huurg not getting to do the deed then and there is just fine. It will add to his frustration, and ultimate vehemence later (possible corruption by the hammer). I figured Rikhard 'Redbird' Greisun would be tending to the home guard. Wahl and Lohp are who I really want to see. If you need help portraying them, they have Indiana Jones heads.

I'm with Damaximus on the fleshies issue. I even have the old Lando head on a custom medieval fig as a nod to the Moorish invasion. The LOTR/Hobbit sets are detailed because the movie sets they represent are detailed, but with that copying of design elements you loose some of the creative play aspect. This theme is about creative play. Who's doing what and why is not already set. Sure, TLG may come up with a story, but it is doubtful that kids are going to truly follow it as faithfully as fans of the LOTR/Hobbit movies and books.

I have planned on having my story for Chal. VI connect with yours, so if you want to mention seeing my characters, go ahead. I say 'mention' because most of my characters are made from uncommon or custom parts, as well as some hard-to-find/unique weapons. My commenting about Qarkyr in the Kaliphlin thread was to have my characters avoid the city and stumble on Uurd Huurg and his quest to find the Hammer of Onng'Ng. It is a weapon that may be able to distroy the helmet controling the elementals, and possibly release the questing heroes inside. My story would have the brother of Victor get away with an ancient golem in Kaliphlin armor, from the time that the Kaliphlin seat of power was at Cedrica. (So we can have some other storylines.) My plan was: your guys kill Victor, but the helmet ends up on the street near his body, and Uurd Huurg distroys it. Now, seeing as you plan to sieze the helmet, maybe Uurd Huurg just distroys some small elementals with it, and then leaves with DaMaximus' forces to see if he can be of some assistance undoing it's magic. I really hope to see the characters from Battle at the Ruins of Mehd (http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=79546) though.

Last I heard of Qarkyr, they were only letting in small groups of travelers at a time. A small trade caravan that passed through there on their way to Cobalt Vale were thoroughly searched. They reported that a group of orcs that camped for the night too close to the northern gate were riddled with crossbow bolts by morning. Theft is down due to the heightened tension. The Nestlands forces that are readying for the fight against Victor Revolword may simply travel around Qarkyr on the Mountain Mummies' routes.

As an AFOL who actually does custom builds, I like this theme for its part selection, including the new 4x4 facet brick. I am also very fond of the Royal Knights emblem, and this angular redesign with blue instead of red suits me just fine. I also have plenty of Crownies that would fill out the ranks. Yes, this new Dragon faction could be better, but considering the variety of shoulder/upper torso armor available now, I am confident I can do something with them.