Haltiamieli

Oh my, I hope the king doesn't have a drinking problem. It seems the fish stayed in the set - bizarre! The spider web with the long bar attached is a new mold, isn't it?

Wait, what? Aren't you talking about this set?

I suspect you are not looking at the same picture as tedbeard - he was refering to another picture I linked to. If you can't see blu-tac there either, I suggest vision tests.

Poor frog is clearly jealous, damned guy stole the attention of his potential kisser.

No need to reinvent the wheel, heh-heh. Somehow blacksmithing tends to be viewed as a much cooler profession than other medieval crafts. There is surely many reasons for that - blacksmiths' percieved strength and masculinity, working with fire and weapons, the concept and necessity of blacksmithing still being more or less understandable to modern people (compared to, like, barrel-making) etc. Thus it's no accident that, for example, a protagonist in The Pirates of the Caribbean is a blacksmith instead of a cooper, and Orlando Bloom has the same occupation also in another historical epic, The Kingdom of Heaven. I'm sure there could be other examples too. There's also more obvious possibilities of play and conflict with a knight and a blacksmith facing each other. Knight may want to steal the weapons, or maybe they are friends and he's buying them - nevertheless a knight wanting to buy/steal a bowl or a bread or a keg wouldn't sound so exciting. And the blacksmith can even defend himself with his weapons (or try to, at least). Not so much the baker, with the bread in his/her hand. I'm afraid it's a very slim chance that we would ever see any other craftsmen (or -women) as a focus point of any Castle set except more blacksmiths. Unless in some future exclusive targeted to the AFOLs...

All Heroica weapons seem to produced in a single mold attached to each other like classic Castle plumes and Islander head accessories, or small knives for that matter. Thus, they have to be all of same colour.

This picture from FBTB's photostream shows how the pirate sword fits the baldric. There's some room left, but not much - I'm not sure if it's enough for Castle swords. I certainly hope so, of course.

Well, there were some links to the individual pics on the last page, but these pics (let alone the sets) are so great they merit some repeating! Also, welcome to the forums. Looking at this picture again, it seems that my original (if unvoiced) suspicion was correct: the winch is lifted and lowered by turning around the weather vane!

Speaking of interiors... Gotta love the insides of the windmill! EDIT: There's certainly a hatch on the second floor of the barn. Yay!

Well, it's kinda like if TLG would decide to do Grawp as a normal-sized minifigure. Ok, that would be more strange but still: Nagini is pretty big and imposing. It sort of downplays the epicness of Neville beheading the snake, one of the few highlights of the last book, if he could instead stomp it dead by accident. Frankly, I didn't even notice the snake before someone here pointed to it.

None of the new weapons of Blacksmith Attack looks very good in my opinion (the bow being the worst by far). But on the other hand, I'm reasonably certain that we will not be seeing these often in System sets - they seem to be designed mainly with the upcoming Heroica board games in mind, and they fit to that role well enough. Still, quite frankly I'd have been happier with even just one normal quality weapon or tool instead. Especially as I'm intending to buy Heroica too in due time, so I'll be getting the new weapons anyway.

A trapdoor between the floors? Sounds plausible, and it would be nice - it's always great when TLC bothers to "explain" how minifigs get from one floor to the other, even if it's not a big problem here anyway, considering the open ends of the second floor. While pondering the meaning of this technic pin I started to wonder where is the mechanism for lifting and lowering the winch? It's got to be somewhere, right? In the middle part of the attic, necessitating opening the building from the middle before it can be used?

Wow, the king's new torso is fabulous! There being a cross hanging from his necklace, maybe the torso could be used for a high-ranking church official, like arch-bishop of the Lion kingdom? Hmm... I'm liking the MVR more and more everytime I see new pictures of it. Granted the barn needs a floor (no sense growing grass inside) and a few barrels and such things to fill the insides, but those are only minor quibbles. I wonder what that mechanism under the ladder does - pushes it down? These villagers are crafty!

Even with the initial disappointment when it was confirmed that the set wouldn't contain centaurs or unicorns or such, it seems that, in the end, Forbidden Forest still turned out to be a good set for its price! A nice, small tree! A mushroom! A new dark dress-piece and hair! A lich (err, I mean, Voldemort)! I'll definitely buy this one, even though I don't collect HP and dislike fleshies.

Good point, didn't think of that. I have a bad habit of thinking I know things better than I really do.

Ha! I thought I forgot some idea when I posted last time. Great that someone else brought it up, kudos to you! Plague doctor would be great, even if it would be probably too morbid for TLC's taste ("next in line: suffering plague victim"). Dunno how they would do the mask and hat combo, supposing it wouldn't be all one part like, I suspect, some upcoming PotC headpieces? Maybe the mask could be added with a ring around the neck like the beards. Also second the idea of a minstrel. That would be great, and Lego world really needs more musicians/musical instruments.

Apart from the door itself isn't the house part made of stone? Also, it seems that the said door cannot be fully opened if the lamp is hanging above it. I suppose good looks go over playability in Creator... Still a very nice looking set, however. If I was more into themes set in the modern times I would certainly buy this. It seems that there's a hinge part above the door of Hillside House? Doesn't make sense to me - even if the ground floor was hinged, it could open only a little because of the grill and the tree.

Mill Village Raid being 69.99 USD will likely convert to €84.95 in Finland, that being the price of Garmadon's Fortress too. I think I will have to buy MVR and Blacksmith Attack straightaway, but I will hopefully endure without King's Carriage Ambush and Escape from Dragon's Prison until the sales season. Still waiting for the right price to buy Prison Tower Rescue and Outpost Attack of the last wave, too.

I'm pretty sure that the source is just referring to the fact that there's 48 new CMFs (three series) coming out this year, including the already released Series 3. They say "never-before-seen" not in the sense that nobody has yet seen them but only meaning that such figs have not existed before CMF.

Fauns Such a fig would be great to have, but the goat legs could be a very hard piece to get to look right and not just stupid/unlegoish. Also second the snake-headed medusa that was mentioned a while ago, in addition to other mythical creatures like centaurs and minotaurs. Also also second the idea of Joan of Arc figure, that would kick some butt (if it was done better than Princess Storm, at least). Dunno if these have already been mentioned, it's some time since I read through this topic. I suppose these would probably fit better as impulse sets than as parts of the CMF series, though: Occupation/print on torso: medieval herald (a pic) Gender: male Type of headgear: the sort of saggy hat like in the pic, don't know what's its name Type of facial expression: Solemn Colour on torso/legs: A printed red-white tabard (extending to legs) with the Lion Kingdom sigil Accessory: a long trumpet (cf. the pic) with a Lion Kingdom flag attached Occupation/print on torso: medieval post rider / courier Gender: male Type of headgear: something medievalish? Type of facial expression: determined Colour on torso/legs: nothing too fancy or colourful, but still looking "official" Accessory: Well, he would kinda need a horse, which automatically rules out this being part of the CMF series, I suppose. Besides the horse, he should obviously have a post horn and some sort of bag for the letters. A post horn could be a little bit anachronistic I guess (apparently they were mostly used in 18th and 19th centuries), but who cares?

It is still quite probable that the first pictures of the Black Pearl set will leak to the internet before the release date of QAR and other sets of the first wave in May.

Yeah, at least two people (me and someone else) has already voiced in this thread their happiness in that the king is getting a new torso. Of course, I might not be as happy if I didn't already own the king from the King's Castle and the prince from the Advent Calendar. But such is life. Dunno, I think the king's new torso may even be somewhat more "martial" than the last year's version, which is (excluding the breastplate, obviously) imo quite perfect for the said throne room audience scenes etc. with its the rich colours, fur linings and heavy jewelry. We just have to wait for a frontal pic to know what this year's version really looks like.

I'd say it's quite possible that we will, if the collectable minifigure series continue on beyond five series, sooner or later get a knight figure that at least nods towards some old Castle faction - we've already got sort of reimagined Classic space and Blacktron II guys, after all. And that would be a happy day for quite a bunch of AFOLs. And if they do it well, kids will be happy as well. I think I already voiced this dream somewhere else on the forums, but I hope you don't mind little repeating. I'll get to the old factions in time. Anyway, I would very much like to see Lego doing a full-fledged tournament sub-theme/wave some day. Considering how iconic part tournaments are of the Age of Chivalry legends, the main inspiration of Lego Castle, it is surprising how little Lego has exploited it. In my dreams this sub-theme would include a big set with two opposing knights, tournament rounds and spectator stands with a few high-borns and peasants, and some middle-size sets with training grounds etc. In addition to that, the theme would have some packages a little like the NinjaGo ones of this year, each one containing a mounted tournament knight with a distinct heraldry. This would be a perfect opportunity to please the AFOLs with one or two reimagined versions of classic factions, obviously besides some brand new designs too (has Lego ever done a Griffin heraldry, for example?). I think Black Falcons especially would be perfect for this, as we haven't seen birds in Lego heraldry for a long time, their colour scheme is great (and clearly distinct from new Lions and Dragon Knights) and they are still loved by nostalgic AFOLs.

I was expecting a play feature to "blow up" one of the towers, but it doesn't seem like that is happening. Funny that the box art seems frankly quite peaceful compared to the burning fields, flying fire-missiles and intimidating death eaters of the last year's Burrow. Maybe TLC has come into a conclusion that it wasn't a wise choice marketing-wise and now they're instead playing down the seriousness of the scene depicted. Including Neville is great, he's by and far my favourite HP character, but it's sad there's no giant snakes included for him to decapitate.

Personally I'm happy that they didn't try to squeeze everything in the same building, though obviously it would be great if we would ALSO get the actual farm house (in another set, otherwise this would be too big/expensive). I'm planning to use the Siskind's Blacksmith Shop (built from spare bricks, not the real one) as the farm house. I think it will fit well for the role.