x105Black

Give the King and Queen the classic 1978 purple with gold crown color scheme and you've got a winner on even more levels. True, many are talking about that. I've been talking about that. I've also thrown out ideas for a much more scaled back, low risk solution (Battle Packs and Brick Bins) that would be much more affordable and suitable for any age. I wonder if Nabii could tell us how viable that approach is.

Or even to cycle through those themes year to year would be a huge win.

Just placed a huge order. It was the time to place it, before the panthers are gone...

So the magic powers the technology? I guess I never really got that it wasn't just technology. At least on the side of the knights. And subtly additions of steampunk could work well in a fantasy environment, just don't go overboard. No need to have propeller spaceships in a fantasy Castle genre (I know, it was just an example). No! Turn-based! I can't stand real-time strategy!

I would think that, with the aim towards an older demographic, the minifigure quality would increase along with the build sophistication. So even a battle pack of minifigures targeting the slightly older crowd will be much more to our liking than one that targets the little children.

I think that aiming towards an older (7-16+) demographic will enable the team to keep that tone that you (and most of us) are looking for. I'd really like to see that, as opposed to the sets aiming towards the younger, little child demographic (4-5+).

I really appreciate the time you've spent discussing this with us. And I appreciate the tone taken in this message, though I do understand where the frustrations come from. Seeing some more concept art is always fun. As a creative person, I'm a huge fan of the conceptual process, and hope to see more of it for themes like Nexo Knights as well as for any upcoming themes like Castle. Glad to hear that Space and Castle will return. It makes sense to take a break or try something different after an unsuccessful iteration, as it allows you time to absorb feedback, to understand why the theme didn't perform and to make improvements. I am hopeful that Space and Castle themes can be made to target the 7+ or 9+ age range rather than the 4/5+ range (although I welcome sets in this range as well). I'd really love to see something in your 16+ range, like the Creator Expert Modulars or the Ultimate Collector Series. So hopefully the powers that be will choose to target the older kids with the next iterations of Castle (and Space & Pirates). I am curious to know if this is a realistic possibility, or an expectation that should be dispelled. I agree on all points here. I don't think there's anything to worry about with LEGO breaking their position on content. And as much as I'd love to see Game of Thrones in LEGO, I know it's not going to happen. I'd be really happy to see LEGO create an in house Castle theme that took notes from Game of Thrones and Tolkien, though, with a more serious, darker tone (while still being attractive to the target audience). And I agree about the tone that a lot of us take. There can be a fine line between being passionate about Castle and sounding entitled. Occasionally, we can be perceived to be speaking from the latter position, but I think that most of us just feel very strongly and want to discuss both our frustrations with choices like Nexo Knights and our ideas for improving the Castle theme. So I definitely apologize if I come across as a whiny brat, as that is certainly not the intent, but I do want to be able to continue to express my opinions openly about the product that I enjoy spending my money and time with.

New City sets with a Jungle subtheme have come out. There are a few new pieces that could be of use to Castle fans: This new machete piece. These new big cats. I'm looking into getting some of these, myself. The machete and panther are currently available on Bricks & Pieces.

As much as I would love to see a full-fledged theme, I'm still rather partial to the idea of minifigure packs and possibly brick boxes with relevant colors and pieces (like windows and wagon wheels). I agree, LEGO's in house concept for Castle this time was to try something new, stir things up, and take a calculated risk, and I'm sure there are many valid demographics to back up that decision, both before making it and after looking at sales figures. I'm glad they did, in some ways. I like to see them trying new things, and many Castle fans were wanting to see something different after the last few iterations. It actually fed into my Castle fandom in some ways, because the less I saw it, the more I wanted it back on the shelves. I'm not a fan of their Nexo Knights theme, but there are things to appreciate. I look forward to whatever replaces it, even if it is zanier than Nexo Knights, because it might still be the source of the types of pieces I want. I'd love to see more weapons. I'm happy to see the new machete piece in the new City sets, I will be making use of that.

I would imagine so. And I would really hope that it would be good enough to distinguish arms, hands, and legs as separate and not always part of a pair (which I believe is the case in LEGO Worlds). At any rate, it does not look like we will ever really find out as it seems Dimensions is ending. Perhaps a future digital LEGO product could incorporate this concept.

I'd like to point out that the real "Purple" color gets called 'Dark Purple' (BrickLink) and 'Medium Lilac' (LEGO). In this case, I think LEGO has the better name. There is also 'Purple' (BrickLink), known as 'Bright Violet' (LEGO). I'd really like to see a selection of parts in 'Dark Lilac' (I guess BrickLink would call it 'Dark Dark Purple'), or 'Dark Violet' (Not sure what BrickLink would call that, maybe 'Earth Purple?'). In the case of Pinks, BrickLink has the better names, as Pink (Bricklink) is called Light Reddish Violet (LEGO), and Bright Pink (BrickLink) is called Light Purple (LEGO). But naming conventions is a completely different issue altogether. I just want a true Dark Purple.

I think Castle and Nexo Knights could exist simultaneously, as they are completely different. I'm not sure Space could exist along with Nexo Knights, I find those themes to be much more similar. That said, I don't expect them to do either Space or Castle as long as Nexo Knights is around, because of how LEGO sees these themes internally. And I think I'm right in that LEGO is more interested in bringing kids in and getting their money than they are about producing sets that appeal to people who enjoy medieval fantasy. I agree. It would be nice if LEGO created more products to cater to the AFOL fanbase beyond $200 - $500 sets. We do exist, and while our numbers may be small in comparison to their child fanbase, we do still represent a large number of people. This is great, and I have a similar view of the factions over the years. The Wolfpack are pictured, but there is no mention of them. There are some factions that are newer from the CMF series that could help spice this up, like the Frightening Knight's Bear faction, Evil Knight's Hog faction, Evil Dwarf's Dragon faction (at least, that's what BrickLink calls that image), and more. I'd assume that the Forest Maiden's Tree faction would pair with the Forestmen under the Stag heraldry. I would personally combine the Forestmen and Elves under the Stag heraldry. And I would use the Elf Girl's Flower heraldry as either an elite royal guard for the Elves, or as a different kingdom. Perhaps the Stag heraldry represents Wood Elves, but the Flower represents High Elves. There are some other factions as well, like the Unicorns and the original 1978 factions, and other versions of factions, like the recent black and red Dragons, or the Black Knights with the blue Dragon heraldry, that could flesh out the story even more. Anyways, the concept is wonderful, and I would love to see how LEGO would put all of these factions together in a world, while perhaps adding more new factions over time. I can see where you are coming from with that view, and I largely agree, but I would really like to see updates to bring the classic factions into the modern era of detail that we enjoy in the CMF series. There has been an updated Forestmen in the CMF series, and there was a revamped Black Falcon knight not too long ago (although they gave him a dark green feather rather than dark blue). I'd love to see all of the old classic factions get this treatment. But yes, more new factions would be fantastic. I'd love to see a Griffin faction, personally. Unfortunately, none of this will happen if LEGO refuses to produce a medieval fantasy styled Castle theme.

I absolutely agree. Given the same media treatment, a traditional Castle theme could be very successful. And yes, there are indeed many medieval fantasy properties that are very popular right now. In video games, there's the Witcher series. In television, there's Game of Thrones. That's just the first two that come to mind. These types of properties are aided by the past approach of LEGO in regards to medieval fantasy. As someone who grew up with Castle LEGO, I am more inclined to get into these things. Without Castle LEGO, I feel that medieval fantasy would be less popular now than it currently is.

Absolutely agreed!

All the good pieces! I will have to finalize an order ASAP!

I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with the TV shows. I was a huge fan of many cartoons growing up, and still am to this day, and I'm a functioning adult. To me, it is the mixture of sci-fi and fantasy. LEGO is not interested in Castle as a theme, as far as I can tell. They are interested in how they can use that term to market to children and gain money. Which is fair, they are a business after all. I just hoped that LEGO would want to produce products for people who are in fact interested in Castle and all of the trappings of medieval and fantasy stories.

LEGO should certainly try new things. They should try them in tandem with the traditional, classic things. 1 or 2 Modulars every year, in addition to the City Modulars, shouldn't saturate the market by a noticeable amount. I think the offset would be more than made up for in the sales of these other themes. This is a good idea, but I don't think the sets should be quite so specialized. Rather than each being part of a castle, they could be independent sets that can combine to build a castle if you buy them all. This way you don't have wall sections, you have a stable or a barracks that have a wall attached. And yes, siege weapons should always be stand alone sets. They effectively reduce the piece count of the set that they appear in when they are packaged with something else, rendering that other build less impressive than it could have been at that price point. I really wish Uruk-Hai had sold that poorly in my area. A 40% discount would have been fantastic. As it was, I had trouble finding that set and ended up buying a lot of the minifigures via BrickLink. The set I didn't really like was Dol Guldur Ambush. Agreed. I really wish I could have gotten 2 Helm's Deeps as well. Absolutely. Anything would be better than nothing. And right now, there is basically nothing. Nexo Knights, while the designers like to call it Castle, just isn't Castle.

OK, so this post has pushed me back from my optimism about the future of the Castle theme into a general negativity about the people running LEGO and how their minds work. I'd love to see some of the ideas that tested worse than Nexo Knights. I have to imagine that there are flaws beyond simple thematic elements. I also don't think Nexo Knights would have tested as well as indicated here if there were actually a current Space and Castle themes available. But really, I have so little to go on that I can only trust my own gut. Agreed. There are some things about Nexo Knights and Elves that are really cool. I applaud the lava monster concept, something I think LEGO would have been unwilling to use in a traditional Castle theme. I also love the concept of stone monsters, even if I personally think they didn't work as well in practice due to color and printing issues. And I really do appreciate the effort to go out on a limb with the Castle theme. It can't be easy to take such a risk. I just personally don't like where the theme went as a whole, despite the best efforts of talented designers and dumb little kids -- er, play testers. This is a fantastic post. Unfortunately, my wallet is still around for a couple of Star Wars sets a year, and the occasional Marvel set. That said, I would invest much more heavily in LEGO for myself, my brother, my nieces, and others (like I did a few years back) if there was more that I was interested in. Ultimately, I'm glad that Nabii came here to share with us, because it's rare to see designers actually interact with their audience in a public forum like this. And Nabii has done it more than most, so I definitely thank him for his time. But I do have to admit that his post came off as, well, as someone who was just told that their work sucked. It came off as bitter. I can understand that. Many people have been saying very negative stuff about the sets that he created, so it's a perfectly reasonable reaction. But I would hope for a more tempered and cool-headed discussion. Perhaps Nabii could look over some of the ideas that people have posted here and tell us what would / wouldn't work, or what can / can't be done, and why, so that we could offer better ideas and work together to make Castle the best that it can be. Because isn't that the goal we all have here, fan and designer alike? Here are some other relevant threads: Thank you.

Maybe it will push Castle into high fantasy, as LEGO will see that it sells well. Agreed on both points.

I would welcome these things. I'm particularly wanting to see the wargs return. Wolfpack warg riders would be so much fun to see. But yes, bigfig trolls would be great as well.

Even if Castle goes Fantasy again, I'm really hoping that they don't push it over the top. And as I said above, I'd really hope that they didn't keep the races completely segregated. I do think that using colors to differentiate the factions would be helpful. So the Forestmen faction would all wear dark greens and browns, whether they be human, elf, or otherwise. The Black Falcons would all wear dark blues, whether they be humans, dwarves, or otherwise. The colors don't have to be bright for this to work, there's an easily visible separation between dark red and dark purple. Giving each faction a different building style is also a great idea. Maybe such a theme could explore things like Greco-Roman and Nordic styles along with the standard medieval builds.

These look beautiful. I really like the concept of building these elemental dragons out of translucent pieces. Translucency works so well with the ice and fire types, which themselves are both interesting opposites to work with. You've done a fantastic job of bringing them to life, and the stone base that you've built for each is a great addition to an already wonderful build. Good work!

That's a reasonable observation, as well. I'm up for either, although I would prefer more human-based sets. I've never been too big a fan of the elves and dwarves (I might feel differently if the dwarves could bend their legs, or if there were more than a couple of elves), but I'd be open to it if the pieces were worthwhile. I'm more interested in rehashing and revamping the Classic Castle era from 1978 - 1997, as that's what I grew up with. I'd love to see Forestmen come back, as has been discussed before, and I'd prefer a co-operation element with some (but not all) Forestmen being elves. I think, overall, I'd like to see the races more inter-mingled like this. Maybe the village has a dwarven blacksmith. Maybe there are a few goblins that fight with an evil-oriented faction. To be completely honest, I'd rather not have the alignment of the factions be so completely obvious. I like the ambiguity, with the possibility that the knights in black can be the good guys, and the knights in white could be evil. In Game of Thrones right now, I'm rooting for the Dragon faction to defeat the Lion faction (maybe with the help of the Wolfpack).

Not a bad idea. There could be something for everyone in this pack.

These would have fit in so well with what they've created, and I would have purchased them instantly. Sadly, it seems that the chance will never come with Dimensions ending.