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That's a good point, and I agree it would be great. I think LEGO will continue to put things like cows into bigger sets, because people will still buy multiples to get the cows.

But that love of Disney does take kids beyond interest in Disney and fosters an interest in the medieval fantasy and fairy tale genres. So while there may be less direct interest in Disney LEGO, there is no less interest in many of the genres and themes it presented. Also, most Disney LEGO is catered towards girls. There are a lot of minidoll sets, most with pink. The CMF series seemed to do well with all fans, and the Castle was well received. Maybe Castle fans would respond better to Disney LEGO if it was made to appeal to them.

Exactly, stories about Castles and Knights and Royal Families are ubiquitous. Any pre-schooler is immersed in that kind of content from Fairy Tales, Fables, Disney, and King Arthur. I don't think they need a hook to bring kids into a medieval setting. Castle is so accessible that they've made waves of Duplo Castle sets.

Using the parallel dimensions is an interesting concept. Nexo Knights is already an alternate universe version of Castle or Space.

Again, I see where you're coming from. And it's true, there is a lot of media out there these days. But I remember being absorbed in media as a child in the 80s, too. There were a lot of choices from books, movies, TV, cartoons, comic books, and video games to get lost in. Still, I found that LEGO drew me in. And I agree with Hive's statements about City. The ambiguous, generic nature of a non-licensed theme like Castle allowed me to connect with and fostered my interest in all of that media.

Possible, but they are both under 10. One niece moved on to DC Superhero Girls primarily. The other enjoys Star Wars. But you're right, the Elves fandom may have just been a phase for them.

I get what you're saying, but I don't know if that's necessarily true. When I was a kid, Castle LEGO was what got me into the fantasy genre. After building with Castle LEGO, I started reading books like The Castle in The Attic, The Hobbit, and Dragonlance novels. I started looking into Dungeons & Dragons, played Magic the Gathering, and other such things. Because of my childhood love for Castle LEGO, I'm into the Lord of the Rings movies and Game of Thrones.

One idea for a Castle set or subtheme that fits in with the City theme would be a Renaissance Festival. There could be several medieval market booths with salespeople in medieval garb, a stage with a jester, a small joust between 2 armored knights, and then a few City folk wandering around and taking in the sights. Maybe some of them are dressed up to fit the theme, or are wearing / carrying some item that fits. They could even throw in an animal or 2. I just have to straight up disagree with this statement. But for me, the minifigure is central to my enjoyment of LEGO. I don't care for micro-builds (although some people do fantastic things with them). I don't care for Architecture for the same reason. The Creator Expert Modulars appeal to me the most, but don't cover the subject matter I am most interested in for my LEGO collecting and building (medieval fantasy). A well-built $250+ Castle build at that scale could be much more worth the money than the King's Castle was for $100 in 2013. I would have purchased the Disney Castle for more if it wasn't branded to that license. I feel the same way about the rumored Harry Potter set, a massive Hogwarts. It will probably be a great set, but will not appeal to me as a Castle fan because of the branding and license.

The core concept here, small sets with animals based on geography, is itself a great concept. I don't think it is likely to happen, however. LEGO knows the appeal of these animals, and want to keep them relegated to the sets as a selling point. They did it with Friends, but there were a limited number of those, and they were very small boxed sets. I did purchase a few of those, as I'm a big fan of the LEGO animals myself. I liked the little bunnies the most, the baby bunnies are just adorable. If they were to do this, I wouldn't expect much more than 1-3 small animals in each set. The likelihood of getting larger animals is pretty small, so bears and cows might not appear. Still, that's not to say that they couldn't. In all, I'd say that while this would be great, just releasing sets with animals in them more often is a great idea. They have been doing this, as evidenced by the Jungle sets last year and the Arctic sets this year, along with an increase in animals through CMF and People Packs. I'd like to see that focus continue, and there are so many sets they could produce with the animals that are already available.

My nieces, who were very responsive to the first year of Elves, have liked each wave less and less, and are now not very interested at all anymore.

Oh, you went there.

As great as licensed sets would be, they aren't Castle sets. Also, take all that other stuff out of Game of Thrones and you still have complex characters and mature themes.

I don't believe so, but I don't actually have the piece so I couldn't tell you for sure.

I assume it's this one. And yeah, it'd be great to see it in greys, among other colors like black and browns.

In that context, it's a fine dragon.

That kitchen scene is very dark, and I'm sure the lighting influences the way the colors look. If you were to build out a kitchen MOC and put the raptor in it, then use the same low light level, it should look very similar (aside from textural differences).

Don't like minidolls, but Noctura is a good looking example. Also, I like the lavender leaf pieces.

Yeah, it doesn't look bat at all.

Yeah, not really into that part of the stories, so it didn't mean much to me. In reference to the Solo sets, I'm not a fan of the way they did the print of Lando's scarf thing hanging down onto his pants. It's probably accurate, but it just looks wrong on a minifigure.

So I heard a rumor about the minifigures that will be available in the Advent Calendar, and I must say that the selection seems disjointed and without focus with a bunch of side characters like Rose Tico and a Guavian Death Gang member. It's pretty disappointing, if true. Although I do appreciate the Guavian Death Gang, I've already got 2 from the Rathtar Escape set, and none of the other minor characters appeal to me.

Yes, it looks great. I'll definitely be wanting that one!

Some of them would make fantastic factions in a Fantasy Castle type theme. The forest monsters were particularly well received, I'd love to see a take on that.

Yeah, the dragon and horse in the first 2 leave much to be desired. The third one is of course intended for girls and came before minidoll themes like Elves and DC Superhero Girls got big. Aside from that, they're great. They could benefit from a different faction, but they're still passable. This one was a promotional item. In that sense, I wouldn't count it. But that was the last time LEGO really threw Castle fans a bone, and they did the same for Pirates and Space.

LEGO should skip the first year and go straight into the year 2 ideas, when it gets interesting. I doubt they would, but it'd be great if they did. Honestly, we didn't get Forestmen until after a while into Castle, and they are the most well loved factions in the theme as a whole. I'd love to see a new take on Fantasy Era. Something that introduced a cool new faction in the way that Fantasy Era introduced Dwarves, Trolls, and Skeleton army, or how Nexo Knights introduced the lava-based villains. And I'd love it if they added a story to it. I think that the Fantasy faction should be filled with something new, however. The Gnomes, Lizardmen, Gorgons, and whatnot above could all work. I wouldn't mind a race of bigfig Giants, as long as there are a few cool designs. Then they could just make the normal medieval kingdom one of the Classic Castle factions like Black Falcons or one of the 1978 Castle factions. Having said that, if we get Trolls vs Lion Knights I'd still buy it.

I agree, and feel for the Space fans myself (including me as I love Classic Space). However, I really think you've got a point about Castle and LEGO's tendency to repeat itself. Castle fans got tired of repetitive Castle sets, and they took a break and made Nexo Knights. Fair enough. But they will come back to it, and we will likely get a Castle, a Tower / Fortress, a Carriage, a Gate, a Siege Engine, maybe a small set or battle pack of some sort.