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Gosh, I really hope not. Minecraft is so specific that I feel it can't really fulfill the same things that Castle can.

That could be an interesting Historic Theme unto itself, but hopefully it wouldn't take away from more traditional medieval fantasy Castle themes. It'd be nicer to see both.

Siddartha was a fantastic book. However, I disagree. I think that you can have an innate potential with the force but no real understanding or control (Anakin), but you need training of some sort in order to reign it in and use it to perform actual force powers. This is different from sword fighting because any idiot can pick up a sword and swing it around without practice, and they could still potentially be a viable threat. And if that person is a decent fighter in a skirmish already (Rey), it wouldn't be too hard to extend that to a lightsaber battle. Empire Strikes Back does it well. That's the difference. We are left wondering what will happen next because everything is in such disarray. I don't feel that with The Last Jedi. Instead I feel they added the broom boy scene to talk about hope and give it an uplifting ending, almost as if it was the last movie of the trilogy. The good guys got away because Rey used her untrained and implausible force abilities to lift a bajillion rocks and then fly them away, and Luke fades into the force after pretending to fight his nephew. Bad guys have died, good guys are going off to do good things. So while Empire was successful with its themes of failure, The Last Jedi fails.

I agree completely. It can be hypocritical at times, and I can find myself on both sides of an argument depending on which aspect is being discussed at a given time. I honestly base my LEGO purchases off of roughly 3 main criteria. Do I want the minifigures? Will the parts be useful to me in terms of MOC? Do I like the final set? I have been enjoying my Old Fishing Store as a complete set, and the same is true of many Ideas sets that I own. It also strikes a great balance between being a great set, having a phenomenal parts list, and having decent or relatively useful minifigures and accessories. But for the most part I buy a set if it fits the other 2 criteria. If it only hits the first criteria, I buy the minifigures on BrickLink or Bricks & Pieces. If it only fits the second criteria, I do the same and but the pieces I like most from another source. I don't think there's anything wrong with a little repetition, but there should be a bit of a balance. Don't repeat the set concepts too soon, and try something a bit different from the last time, or include a cool unique minifigure or two the next time. I think this is true as well. Unlikely to see it today, but true.

Look, I enjoyed the 2013 line. I bought the Dragon Mountain set (even though I considered it one of the worst sets of the line). I love those dragons. I have 3 out of the 4 color variations. I also bought the carriage set (Gold Getaway), the Forest Ambush, The Gatehouse Raid, and the Battlepacks. The only set I didn't get was the Castle, it was expensive and offered nothing too great to me (lots of wall panels and a throne room big enough to hold only the throne). I'm also a bigger fan of the Dragon faction than the Lions / Crowns. But there were still a lot of complaints from other people about the repetition of sets, and those seem to be the biggest reasons that people disliked Castle 2013. Yes, out of the 2 sets you pictured, I bought the Castle set (Gatehouse Raid). It was one of 2 out of 3 gate sets I purchased (the other was actually a LEGO Movie product, and the one I didn't purchase was a Juniors set). Mostly, this was because I could only afford smaller sets at the time, and those gate sets were less expensive. But there were probably more gates than necessary, even if they were spread across a couple of interrelated themes. I'd also like to point out that the Gatehouse Raid set is the only set from Castle 2013 to feature the Dragon faction horse barding, making that set in particular more desirable. But I believe that the Tolkien set itself is a better one. I like the design of the structural piece much more than that of the Castle set. That said, I am turned off by the size of the siege machine, and I'm not really into the villains in the Tolkien set. And I will say that you make a great point about the target audience. Tolkien and Nexo Knights sets were aimed at the 8-14 year old audience. Castle targeted the 6-12 year old audience. Perhaps Castle could target the same 8-14 year old audience that is targeted by these other media driven themes. If you need to, include media to help drive it along. But to answer your question, yes, themes designed for younger audiences tend to have weaker / simpler designs than those designed for older audiences. And this is by design, I understand that. That's why I'd love to see Castle target an audience only a couple of years older, the same audience they target with other great sets and themes. And there will always be complaints, but I think you'll find that the Tolkien sets were much better received than the 2013 Castle line despite any complaints. However, I'll say that there are consistent complaints about siege engines. People either don't like them much to begin with, or they don't like the fact that they take pieces away from the main build of the set. Those are complaints that should be considered. I'm sorry if I'm derailing this thread with all of this discussion, but I find it to be a very interesting topic that relates to how Nexo Knights and other actual Castle themes are produced and perceived.

Do these buildings have interiors? I'd love a shot inside some of the buildings if so.

It's evidence to the contrary, in my opinion at least. I think that this was an important factor as well. The Castle 2013 sets were also not as well designed as those of the Tolkien themes, thereby making them perform poorly in comparison. No. It means that they should work on doing a medieval Castle theme in a way that is inspired and satisfying. There are ways to make Castle feel fresh without making the knights fly in jets. It felt like the 2013 line was not intended to do well. It almost felt like it was designed for failure. That said, I enjoyed much of the line. The carriage had a really good design. Of course, people complained that it was the millionth carriage and that they always do a carriage. So maybe the next Castle theme can skip the carriage, or find a way to make the concept of a carriage more appealing (without making it a tank).

Lots of people forget that the Ewoks lived on the forest moon of the planet Endor. The moon is also known as Endor, confusing the matter.

I can buy that Rey can use a lightsaber. I can't buy how well she handles the force with so little training (much less than Luke). And she did beat Kylo Ren in that lightsaber battle, but I can buy the whole injury angle for why Kylo wasn't able to fight to his potential, as well as the idea that he wanted to turn her rather than kill her. So, I had no problem with her holding her own in the Last Jedi fight scene with Ben versus the guards. I did have a problem with the fact that there were no lightsaber battles where 2 people with lightsabers fight each other and blades clash. The fight of Luke versus Kylo Ren was an astral projection dancing with a man to buy time. I believe Palpatine sent his guards out of the room. I didn't think Rey was too overpowered in The Force Awakens. She did a mind trick on a weak minded Stormtrooper, and she fought a severely wounded man. JJ Abrams did a great job with that film, and set up a lot of story threads. Unfortunately, Rian Johnson clipped all of the most interesting threads and added a lot to Rey's force capabilities with no real training. She had a couple of lessons, but even those were brief and essentially useless. She lifts a hundred rocks with ease, and Luke had trouble lifting his X-Wing out of the swamp. I just think Johnson's decisions to make a failure-themed movie, and to specifically make the characters face the most difficult element he could think up, were bad decisions. He should have focused on telling the story in a logical and satisfying way instead, because to me and many others, his theme of failure failed.

I disagree, actually. The Cat doesn't look very good, but I prefer the Gorilla and Panda style to the Elephant and Unicorn. The Dragon will be great, regardless.

2013 was a failure to most people. I enjoyed the theme, but I was returning from my Dark Ages at the time and it was a Castle theme. But the short-lived 2013 wave was uninspired and offered little that was of interest to most Castle fans. It was repeating everything every other Castle theme had done. The duration or number of waves should not be the indicator of success or failure. It is indicative only of how much LEGO wanted to release. Nexo Knights ended before the planned end of the theme. It was cut short by half a year. That indicated that it failed to perform on some level. It was, therefore, a failure. I'm not trying to say that all of my favorite themes and sub-themes were huge successes, I'm merely pointing out the above fact. You reinforced their point. The fact that he also designed the 2 largest and best sets of the theme notwithstanding, LEGO put what is essentially a very talented mech and vehicle designer in charge of what was ostensibly a Castle theme.

On the topic of the "Classic" label, this thread breaks it down quite well: And, according to the polls in that thread, "Classic Castle (Crusaders/Falcons/Forestmen/Dragon Knights/Wolfpack Renegades)" is a clear winner as far as favorite Castle themes, with "Fantasy Era (Crownies/Skellie/Dwarves/Trolls)" coming in second with roughly half as many votes, and "Kingdoms (New Crusaders/Green Dragon/Leo/Black Dragon)" coming in third with half as many still. As far as factions go, Forestmen are in the lead, with Falcons and Wolfpack rounding out the top 3 in votes. I don't think that LEGO could go wrong with a medieval fantasy theme that included the Black Falcon faction as the knights, Forestmen as another good faction, and some fantasy enemies as the villains. Throw in a couple of elves fighting with the Forestmen, and add in a Dragon Knight riding a nice big dragon. If you wanted a unique King, he could still have Crown / Lion heraldry if necessary. They could even go one step further and make sets with Wolfpack bandits and villagers. Maybe leave that for the second wave. Even a 1 year theme could have 2 or 3 waves. Those are just my thoughts, and I understand the concept that this is a poll with votes from the AFOL community. But I also get sick of hearing how these are 'kids toys' and that we aren't the 'target audience' because kids do love this medieval fantasy stuff. The only thing decided by AFOLs in this poll is essentially which logos adorn the uniforms, shields, and flags.

That is a very bad feeling. Let's hope that is not the case (for both Castle and Space).

I agree it was an uphill battle, but I posit that the theme itself would have done better if it was designed in such a way that it was preferable to those themes. Some things come out of nowhere in a world filled with media and become instantly successful because they are great. Think of Stranger Things among all of the other competition as far as televised media. Had Nexo Knights been a better theme, it would have taken off instantly. That's my argument. Nexo Knights is highly compatible with Space.

I imagine he would really enjoy a return or Castle, then! Nexo Knights would have competed better by being a better product than others available. To many, it was not. And it seems that you agree that it did not compare favorably to the other themes you mentioned.

Those are great points. It may not have lost money, but it was a failure in other ways. I'm afraid of this as well, as that is what many sets have been. I would say no to the brick-built monsters and instead point them towards Smaug from The Hobbit and the Jurassic World dinosaurs for creature inspiration.

This is stunning, I love it! Lots of detail, and such a huge build! Great work!

I think there's also a bit of a disparity between those old themes. People will say Fantasy to refer specifically to that era. I usually don't mean sub-themes like KK / KK2, Fright Knights, Vikings, Ninja, or Fantasy when I refer to classic Castle. That said, I'd prefer any of those to another Nexo Knights.

Same. Although I often do talk about a revival of Classic Castle, I also usually capitalize as such when talking about the original factions and sets.

No, I meant what I said when I called Nexo Knights a failure. And it was to many people. And it was truncated from 3 full years to 2.5 years. So yes, failure is an appropriate word to describe it. I don't think anyone thought it would be the end of Castle forever. But there was definitely a sense of urgency on the part of myself and others to get Nexo Knights over with so that we can return to Castle-like Castle themes rather than experimental sci-fi-like Castle themes.

It looks pretty nice from what I've seen so far.

This is one of the reasons why I get frustrated when people try to say kids don't like medieval fantasy stuff. There is a sizable audience of kids as well as adults who love this stuff.

It may have technically been a Castle theme, but it was so far from it, and really did fit better as a Space theme. And I wouldn't be so sure that this will make the case for a real Castle theme any less likely. It would be something completely different. And hopefully they've spent these couple of years observing and understanding the mistakes they made with Castle 2013 and Nexo Knights, and can improve upon them to make something that the fans will actually appreciate. That said, I wouldn't mind Space or Pirates either. But Space would likely be much like Nexo Knights. I'd love some dragons. The dragon from the 2013 line was great, as were the previous iterations in dark red, black, and green with armor (from Vikings). I also love Smaug. More of those would be welcome. They could definitely do something using their dinosaur molds from Jurassic Park / World as well. I just hope they avoid brick-built dragons. And yes, more females would be great. Especially females that aren't royalty or peasants. A female warrior, we don't get those often enough, but there are some good examples in the CMF line. Sounds about right. It's hard to please everyone, and if they try they may end up pleasing no one. Still, any mix of those things would be cool. I'd love an old faction, Forestmen, and goats. Just those 3 would make my day. 1 set a year that did any 3 of the things you mention would be a huge boon to Castle fans, even if it was a $20 set. I wouldn't be surprised to see them avoid Castle. That said, I don't think the failure of Nexo Knights means a failure of Castle. I think it means a failure on the concept of making a futuristic sci-fi infused Castle theme. Hopefully the good people at LEGO understand this.

It would help if you could mention what the piece is as well as the number.

Very happy indeed. Agreed 100%.