kalexicon

M E R M A I D M E I D D E I M D E N I M I don't understand what's so confusing about this.

Oh, very nice! That torso matches the catrina parts even better than the old one I linked! Also quite fond of that new music note jacket torso, and while it's not unique it's very nice to have a cheaper way to acquire the Bellatrix hair. Depending on what previous parts carry over, this could very well be a two-trio wave for me.

I mean, if you consider $45 for a set with one copy of the minifig "cheap." I would expect Bricklink prices to still be at least $6-7 per fig. It's four years old now, but 76102 had a teen Groot minifig as well, for less than half the price per set. The advent calendar is only a better option (setting aside aftermarket inflation) if you really prefer the new dark tan version. (That said, I did see some advent calendars marked down to $14 at Costco in the last months of November last year - at that price, throw in the full turkey mold, sure. Resell the two unique sweater prints and you've almost paid for the set.)

I believe so! Same for the black skirt with the white frills at the bottom. I hope they're putting this BAM piece from last year in the same assortment, because they definitely pair well. (I mean, technically, lots of the pieces in that photo are new, but the two I commented on are the two I haven't even seen pictures of before.)

That torso with the scouting badges looks new to me! Anyone recognize it? My bricklink searches didn't turn anything up. The striped aqua top and sailor shirt also appear new, though I didn't try any research on those yet.

One of them controls the drawbridge, but there's a second one, and the portcullis appears to be controlled entirely from small gears on the top. Looking closer at the front of the box, it looks like there's a small dock leading to a side gate with flat gears on the side that lines up with the second knob. That's delightful and great for siege scenes where they have to protect the weaker entrance. This keeps getting better and better; I love that they can't even fit all the features onto the box.

Has anyone figured out what the knob on the side tower is for? I don't think it controls the drawbridge or the portcullis; does it have to with the hidden cave?

I think this is everything I realistically could have hoped for, and certainly much better than the prototype from the BTTF video. Good balance of display value and functions / play value / story elements. It really feels like a toy to bring back childhood nostalgia in addition to a gorgeous display piece. The price, while certainly dear and likely to cut some fans out entirely, still feels like it represents good value in USD relative to the rest of the year's portfolio, and I'm happy to forgo several medium-priced sets in order to save up for this castle. I especially like the thatched roofs (and I love that they appear to line up when the set is folded in) and as someone who received a bulk pack of spruce trees within their first two years of playing with Lego, seeing them newly cast in dark green is a delightful treat. I even like the new lion knight torsos, and that was one of my biggest "eh" points when we only had rumors. I love that the water wheel goes to a millstone instead of yet another automated hammer for an anvil. My true complaints are very negligible - as others have mentioned, more forestmen torsos would have been nice, and Majisto is bland compared to the BAM wizard. I also would have loved a non-combat outfit for the queen, as much I like the battle armor version we got, just to have another civilian outfit for nobility. But all things considered, as an actual manufactured product, it's wonderful, and perhaps most surprisingly, I think it looks equally good collapsed and folded out. I am VERY curious to see if the queen has a unique torso print under her breastplate or shares it with her knights, since her legs do appear to be different. It's new this year, first introduced with the Dots message boards and still relatively rare.

New Kenobi set (75336) has a new hairpiece mold that looks like it could get a lot of good use on historical minifigs.

I would be delighted if we got a new dual-molded piece like this one but with longer hair, instead of the same tired tiara-into-a-plume-hole combo that seems to have been used for every queen since 2009. Not that I haven't used the linked part for female characters anyway. At the very least, please don't use this piece again! Steal one of the many Friends hairpieces that has an accessory hole!

Overall I think I’m satisfied with the look of the GWP. My main source of excitement is the inclusion of two forestman shields, seeing as the cheap used ones go for $7-8 each at a minimum on BricklInk these days! I think we can assume the big castle has that print too. I’m pretty neutral on the use of black for the tree - I do prefer browns overall, but it’s a key part of the retro look and they made it look organic enough. Dark brown (a color not available at the time) might have been a good compromise. I’m disappointed that it only has one hat, but one is enough to label the whole group of characters as forestmen so it’s alright. The red arms look good enough with the torsos, but it would have been nice if one of them had blue or green arms instead to make them more varied like in the original theme. Four identical forestmen torsos (if one gets both the castle and the GWP) seems little too uniform for a band of forest outlaws, but it’s still better than not having them at all! I am mostly pleased, though, that it seems to include a better volume of plastic and prints relative to a lot of recent GWPs at similar rumored spending thresholds. Looking at you, vintage taxi. The series 16 Rogue had a wolf brooch that I think was generally believed to be an allusion to Wolfpack, though I’d love something more obvious. Really, any shield with a matching color scheme, even if the wolf is posed differently (i.e. howling in profile rather than a forward-facing head). They’ve done it before for sure, like with the series 19 Ghost Knight having heraldry clearly inspired by Fright Knights. I do think Wolfpack is the one remaining super-iconic retro Castle theme that hasn’t gotten an update, now that they’ve taken care of both Black Falcons and Forestmen. I do like the heraldry of the Black Knights and Knights Kingdom Bulls, but I wouldn’t have any strong preference either way for a CMF remake of those characters over just a new dragon or bull heraldry design. I love that they’re reviving old favorites, but I don’t want it to come at the cost of creating new favorites (like the CMF crow knight).

Agreed on both counts. I did personally prefer the BB pirates to the CMF one, but it wasn't bad by any means and it was exciting to get more colors for the tricorn/ponytail combo. Likewise, the castle doesn't need a king to be "complete" - there have been plenty of queens and queen regents (queens regent?) ruling throughout history, so it's not on the same level as a pirate ship without a captain, and I don't think kids opening a CMF packet to find a king would think it was defective because it didn't come with a queen (there are plenty of things kings did without their wives, such as wars). They could make a king which works perfectly well alone but shares enough colors or heraldry to work alongside this set's queen IF one so desires. Would it be my first choice for a medieval CMF slot? No. Like I said, I think the queen for this castle works on her own, plus I'm still trying to find a narrative purpose for the existing CMF king and queen (both gorgeous). I'd rather have a nobleman/noblewoman without a crown (heck, even a prince) or another army-builder figure. But kings are exciting and easy for kids to understand, so I certainly don't think it would be a business mistake.

Nooooo! I forgot about that! Maybe they'll open up pre-orders in time, but I doubt it. I suppose I may be buying that Friends community theater a little earlier than planned. Especially since the "Standard" PaB service in the US is still "paused" and "expected to resume in May." Fingers crossed that maybe the pause is a sign of 2022 parts being added and not just an effort to catch up on orders? Pretty please? It's possible that it's an unfinished sketch model of the anniversary set. That would explain broad details being similar while some details don't seem to add up. Especially if you factor in the lead time needed to prepare the animation compared to the release schedule of the final set.

Wow, okay, lots to contemplate here... just going to put out a bunch of disconnected thoughts in no particular order: 1) It does not contain all of the new livestock in this year's City barn 60346. No piglets, no calf. No extra wool for sheep, but it still contains a lamb? Seems odd to have a baby animal without the parent so I'm wondering if that's a translation error. I'm certainly not going to complain about getting a cow, but for my budget it seems more likely to replace "buying an extra cow off Bricklink" than buying the farm sets to use its animals in a medieval village. 2) I am getting really, really, really bored of lion heraldry. We've had Crusaders (which seems to be the model for this new set), Royal Knights, Knights Kingdom, Knights Kingdom II, Kingdoms, and the 2013 Castle line. Plus the BAM shield that hybridizes keys and the Crusaders-era lion design. None of this would matter if they all matched, of course, but generally they're too different to form a single faction. Of those, I only personally own Kingdoms and Knights Kingdom II; I've managed a sort of story where because the lion in KK2 is wearing a crown (denoting him as king), the fantasy era crown knights are his royal guard and the Kingdoms lion knights are the noble house he comes from. But I specifically avoided buying sets from the 2013 line (back before it became clear that it was the end of regular castle themes as we know it) because I didn't want more than half of my castle factions to be different kinds of lions. Is that alone going to stop me from buying this new deluxe castle? No. The blue/red color scheme is different enough and I suppose my realm can support two lion factions. "A coat of gold or a coat of red, a lion still has claws," to quote a certain song. To be clear, I do not mean this as a criticism of this set specifically - it's an intentional throwback, after all, and if we're trying to complement Black Falcons in the current lineup then it's probably the best retro choice. But if I'm looking for reasons to not spend money, this is something that could impact my decision. I just hope that following this throwback set we get some fresh, new iconic heraldry (like the Kingdoms dragon knights) to add to classic favorites like the Black Falcons. Even if it's just in Creator sets or BAM or Collectible Minifigures, as seems to be the case these days. Of course, "I want new heraldry [without having to feel through five boxes of minifigs]!" is a broken record for Castle fans by now, so I'll leave it at that. 3) FORESTMEN!!! Not sure if I'm sold on the red/green color scheme, but it's better than nothing and I'll withhold judgement until I see pictures. Nice to have the GWP to look forward to in the meantime. Honestly, Lion Knights + Black Falcons + Forestmen seems like the perfect way to celebrate the history of Castle themes, so personal taste aside, I have no complaints about the factions included. 4) Very, very excited for a Black Falcon barding piece to lead my Bricks & Pieces army! It's been too long since we've had new barding, so I'm glad they didn't lose the mold like they did the goats. 5) The civilian minifigures sound decent, especially the maid. One of the figures in the BTTF preview video seems to reuse this year's troubadour torso, and it strikes me as odd to reuse a CMF print (only other case I know of is 80015), so that would be a bummer, but I'm still going to treat all of that as a prototype. Frankly, I'm just glad there are ANY civilians. 6) I could see the queen minifigure being very nice, especially if it reuses the wider skirt from the CMF queen. Majisto is fine; he's from before my time so I don't have much nostalgia, the Kingdoms blue wizard that I own is near-identical, and I'm much more excited for the latest BAM wizard. I'm glad he's there for those with more connection. 7) Absolutely none of this is as exciting as it would be if Pick a Brick online was still getting new parts as they came out. There's a big difference between "here's a new, very expensive set with some new prints" and "here's a gorgeous new set to debut some new prints and if you want more civilians or forestmen or soldiers to supplement it you can go buy them online too." 8) Does anyone know if this trumpet is brick-built or a new mold? 9) I'm not too bothered about the lack of a throne room since every other castle ever made seems to include one. Conversely, I'm quite excited by the "queen's chambers," depending on execution - we don't see too many private living quarters in castle sets and it has the potential to be gorgeous. 10) The sketch looks very pretty. Lots of good signs such as inlaid masonry textures, climbing foliage, and extra-large flags. The tudor-still huts overlooking the wall seem nice too. But as far as builds go, I really don't have anything to say (shocking, I know) until I see actual pictures and a final price point for my region. The glimpses I saw in the BTTF video did NOT inspire confidence.

Sorry, that’s what I was trying to say in the first place, though in reading back over my previous post I can see that it wasn’t clear. It’s just nice that those default limitations create a sub-section within Ideas where original concepts don’t have to compete against licenses. Trying to frame it as a positive thing, when I’m sure many fans are disappointed that there isn’t a second chance for their favorite IP. I certainly wish The Princess Bride had a shot at a do-over, for example. I think that’s totally fair, although I also don’t think it has to be an inherent feature of the program. Obviously they’re still trying to gauge demand - look at how they doubled the production run for Round 1 after it blew the previous style of Bricklink Designer Program out of the water. Some of those sets were on sale for a month with hardly any takers. Round 2 only had one set sell out on the first day, as I recall, and some designs from both Round 1 and Round 2 didn’t even hit their production cap. The future of the program hasn’t been announced yet, but I can imagine that having every Round 3 set sell out the first day will impact how they do this in the future. It’s frustrating to be on the bad end of the process of figuring out something new, but that doesn’t mean the end result of that trial-and-error process will be awful. What concerns me is that, like with concert tickets, the rapid sellout may well be a product of scalpers hoping to resell at a huge markup. Hopefully increasing production runs to match demand would take care of that, but I’m not an expert on the limitations of running a small-batch program through Bricklink like this.

Wow... times like these it's difficult being a fan of multiple themes. I have enough of a castle preference that I'll probably be voting for the viking village, especially since I just saw The Northman, but any of these sets would entice me to buy them even in their present form. Neat to see that TLG is exploring multiple options to bring rejected Ideas projects back from the dead - first the BrickLink designer program, now this... I especially like that these revivals are limited to original concepts. I understand the business reasons for choosing popular licenses like The Office to become sets, but as a Lego fan first and foremost, it's nice to see the creativity of actual builds being rewarded. Fingers crossed that one of the other castle ideas rejected in anticipation of the 90th anniversary set might find a similar small market revival... at the very least, I think the single-day sellout of the latest BrickLink designer program selections bodes well for a future crowdfunding cycle over there.

Well, third time's the charm, I guess - my local store finally had the full lineup of Easter/spring designs in stock. Got myself three pairs of Vidiyo fairy wings plus a few odds and ends to complete the figures - this rare singing head was a nice surprise, as was Tattooga's head. I didn't see too many severed limbs, though there was definitely a missing catcher's mitt from one torso and I think one of the latest clown torsos was missing an arm. Was nice to see some older exclusive prints - namely, the cutoff denim legs - show up again. The store employee I spoke to knew of the upcoming wave with the wizard and pirates from the same online sources as us but had no idea when the shipment might arrive. Guess I'll check back in when the June 1st releases are out.

No, Robert8, say it isn't so! These have been a consistent source of joy since I discovered them a few years ago, and it's sad to see them come to an end, but I'm glad you're taking a well-deserved rest. Especially as non-licensed minifig series have become rarer and rarer in the real world, your designs have shown off the best of the creativity that made this product line so beloved to so many of us. It's hard to pick from so many masterpieces, but I thought I'd leave some of my absolute favorites here... perhaps in a little bit of hope that TLG will see and turn something vaguely similar into reality! Or at least hire you onto the official Minifigures theme design team. Series F - Celtic Battler Series K - Pirate Queen Series K - Nymph Series Ñ - Writer Series O - Hippie Girl Series P - Peasant Woman Series P - Dark Fairy Series Q - Mobster Series R - Park Ranger Series X - Enchantress And I won't repost the image because it's so recent, but the Series Z Phantom Thief definitely joined this list. I'm sure it's been a lot of work, but I hope you know just how happy your designs have made so many people. You're a true treasure of this community. ...even if I never was going to go to the trouble of collecting all those chess pieces if they were real.

Not a whole lot of new reveals today that excite me for castle projects. Mildly interested in the hare if it shows up on BnP/PaB, but not enough to get the whole set. I also like the lavender kimono/dress in the Monkie Kid Heavenly Realms set, but again not enough to purchase the whole thing. I look forward what others build with the Ninjago crystal villains, but I'll personally be taking a pass. The new tiled roof with window hole mold in the Cinderella set seems likely to appear in the Lion King's Castle when it eventually comes out. I'll probably be buying the City grocery store on its own merits for use in my modern town (plus more stunt bikes), but there's nothing here as exciting for Castle as the triumphant return of the cow in medium nougat earlier this week. Fingers crossed the BaM wizard shows up near me soon; I went by my local store on Friday and they still only had half of the pieces from the spring/Easter wave.

Mythica is apparently a new-ish area of Legoland parks. Most of images I'm seeing (just type "Lego Mythica" into a search engine) feature a sort of albino lion pegasus creature that actually looks halfway decent for fantasy builds... and a multicolored, out-of-proportion unicorn that does not. I'm assuming this set is meant to raise awareness of and promote the new addition to the parks? Either that, or it will be exclusive to the parks in the same way as sets like these.

Not necessarily. The post I saw indicated it was found in the wild at BAM, so it could be exclusive to that. Would make sense given that they're reusing a faction logo with different colors.

Posted this in the BAM topic as well, but I'm really loving this wizard. Lots of nice little touches that make it feel more grounded, like pouches and scarves for travel, but still with a very lighthearted and LEGO-y color scheme. As for the viking ship, I'm still just in awe that we got (THREE!) new torsos instead of more reused pirates. Shame the new online pick-a-brick will make acquiring multiples harder, because they seem like wonderfully generic medieval torsos not tied to any one faction.

Oh I adore that wizard! Wanted poster tile is nice too. And it looks like they used Greef Karga's torso for the female bandit plus a Jawa torso for the sheriff? Aside from the printed white skirt, is this the first time SW prints have shown up in BAM?

The helmets may not be historically authentic but the rest still looks great! This may end up being a day one purchase for me, and there aren't many sets I don't wait for a sale/GWP with anymore.

Ooh very nice! Shame it probably won't be coming out for ages on the updated B&P/PaB, but 4 to a $50 set should help with Bricklink prices. And perhaps it foreshadows inclusion in the 90th anniversary set, although the botanical sets do tend to come with recolors that stay unique so I don't think it's guaranteed or anything. It's a beautiful piece and I was very excited to find it at my local Lego store last month, but the color makes it a little less useful for population building en masse than, say, dark tan or medium nougat would be. Or olive green . Still, for young kids visiting the store who will probably only get one pack of three figs, I think the lavender is quite nice, and it's muted enough to not clash in a village setup. I wouldn't even mind seeing the exact same print re-used with only a color swap, I just crave more peasants and townsfolk!