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Great to see the 5 space marines and Black Knight's per box. Maybe TLG are finally realising the value of actually putting the most of the ones people actually want!

This is a picture I took of the Black Knight from the back of my Lego Magazine. Should get some army builders excited. The helmet is nothing new, but nice printing on the breastplate as well as the dark grey long sword. The Aztec warrior also looks amazing, and should be easy to feel with the giant helmet. A couple of the figs seem to be missing accessories (from memory) but the 'computer programmer' does seem to have a laptop next to him so I assume the CMF will come with that as well. The Space marine seems to have the normal ADU/space police helmet just without the visor (so I'm guessing his face is printed orange... His armour is also being used for an exclusive Lex Luthor fig (game pre-order giveaway) if you've seen that. The whole game/advert is viewable on legoclub.com using the clubcode GAMEBOARD, but the quality isn't great.

I think it's still relevant to Castle builders. I've only highlighted the points of interest relating to this theme. But I was planning on surfing over to the special themes forum and joining the conversation anyway.

This was being debated when the first pictures of series 7 CMF's were revealed. The Black Knight's shield was hidden but now it can be seen in a new advert/game page at the back of the current Lego Magazine (my copy arrived yesterday). Should get some army builders excited. The helmet is nothing new, but nice printing on the breastplate as well as the dark grey long sword.

I discussed that site on another forum a while back, we tried contacting them but I think the site is dead, or at least hasn't responded to any communication.

I'm sure I read somehwere before the forest sets were released that we would see a number of new animal moulds (I'm talking about leaked information). We've seen a great new bear, but I'd hope to see maybe a generic deer mould that could transfer into a castle or christmas setting if required. A different bird mould, like the one stud chicken, would be great. It could be a pigeon for the city builders and different colours for forest/jungle settings. I picked up a clone brand 'collectable' pack that are making animals, out of interest. And it's dreadful. As people seem to be attempting to copy TLG's success with set's of collectable figures, why dont they do their own range of animal packs? Or at least use the CMF series' to make some new small animal moulds, as accessories for various figures.

I love these retro MOCs of yours. I used to spend ages as a kid pouring over the lego catalogues with their scenes of forestmen attacking castles and your MOCs really give off the same nostalgic feel. I like the thought that you've put into each one, and it really shows in the cohesiveness of them all, as well as them not looking out of place against other 'real' retro castle sets. I'd love to see some of these mocked up as boxes with the classic yellow packaging and background. Thanks for building and sharing, I've enjoyed everyone so far! Any plans for some carts etc? p.s. Don't they throw bread rolls off the roof of the town hall in Abingdon for some random festival?

Great MOC. Gives a real sense of a happy celebration. The fig combinations and use of the friends hairpieces (as mentioned by others) is fantastic. I almost forgot to look at the detailing of the house, plants etc!

I can see how more weapons give you more options to kill monsters (from further away etc) but I can't see how it benefits your hero, rather than just killing them when you are next to them? And even then another hero can jump over you, after you have done all the hard work fighting :D I am also trying to develop a rule that allows you to use magic even when not rolling a shield. Would be interested to see what you suggest. - andhe

So I finally got round to trying out my rules variant. Which in a nutshell involves having a 'magic bar' or 4 gold cones, the same as the standard health bar. Magic is used when you roll a shield (ranged or melee) and you can use up to 4 magic points (if you have them) to inflict the same amount of damage to a monster (monsters have health to the value of their strength). Magic can be restored when rolling a shield in a movement go. Restore magic points up (up to 4) and use the remaining points to move your hero (eg restore 2 magic and move 2 spaces = 4). Now, my problems with the game. Let me know if you have found the same, and if so how you solved them. 1. It's a race to the end. Meaning it's not really worth stopping for chests, wasting a go and potential losing a life for little reward. I attempted to solve this by putting ALL potions in chests (and in the case of my map, also a piece of the bridge so you need to find it to cross over). 2. Not much gold. If gold is the only way to buy weapons/potions it's easy to finish the game without having accumulated enough gold to buy anything. I attempted to solve this by monsters giving out gold to the value of their strength when hit/killed (this obviously weakens the rogue's power, he still gets +1 on a shield roll though). 3. No point in buying extra weapons. If on a shield roll any hero can kill a monster in battle the 'melee' weapons offer little advantage. Having a ranged weapon seems to involve killing the monsters from a distance so the heroes behind you can pass by freely. 4.You can't choose when to use your power. eg I got stuck behind a rock (in Nathuz) for a number of bad dice rolls, whilst my friends (who had gone a different route) got to the prize. It would be nice to be able to 'activate' your power, but perhaps meaning that you risked having less power later on. Is this just me or am I missing something? Is this just the nature of 'roll and move' game scenarios? - andhe

I think a lot of people would buy this just for the jumper plates! But nice idea, though as someone said it would need explaination of the triple word scores etc. Open up another interesting idea for tie-ins with existing games, eg Lego Monopoly, Lego Cluedo (Clue for you American cousins), Lego Battleships etc

This is just the ideas I guess that they wrote down before making it a whole lot more simpler. The page of characters also gives them different abilities (wizard gets +1 health, ranger gets +1 move) before they gave them weapons I guess. It's interesting to see where their ideas started from though. And I was hoping to find some hidden clues to future sets/characters, but other than the sketches of the king I couldn't really find anything :(

Thanks for sharing the Minitaurus/MinoTAUR video (seriously, how many times was he going to pronounce it 'My-na-tar' :P). Looks like a great little game with some cool pieces and microfigs. Might have to try pick this one up. I've got the larger version, and have played it with adapted rules for a greater/longer challenge. Some of these Minitaurus rules and rule suggestions would make good changes (being able to move the Minotarrr as far as you can in one direction for example). Also found some really intetresting early concepts and visual ideas by the designers of Heroica on the Lego site. Interesting to look at for concept art fans as well as heroica fans. http://cache.lego.com/upload/contentTemplating/HeroicaDownloads/otherfiles/download2E46B2F982B4358B0319A52F3B80D71F.pdf

These are great, have you applied them to any figs or know of anyone who has? My favourites are the first 2 and last 2. I'd love it if TLG did an update of the wolfpack, either directly or just a subtle nod like the Falcon Knight. But with the arrival of LOTR, any dreams of castles updates seem a long way off.

I was thinking a wookie based kashyyk (sp?) level would be amazing... But pricey! Roll a shield, chewie rips their arms off, receive 2 gold :p

The 'Castle' Drawbridge defense was/is one of the best sets for selection of figures I have seen in recent times. I've seen the exclusive gold knight sell for almost the same as the set cost new. Combined with a great jester (one of my favourite figs ever) and Queen and fun build and play factor, this is the type of set that the Kingdoms line never really lived up to (IMO). You've done a great job of making it look like an official Kingdoms set, though maybe a bit too much red like others have said. But a set like this, with two knights (I've never really counted skeletons as 'proper' figs) would sell really well.

Wow they look nice! But $60 seems steep so hoepfully I can just find the instructions online somewhere after release. Loving the haunted theme to them all and nice selection of colours.

This unwatermarked picture of the Ilrion box art was posted on facebook. Makes it clearer that the boss is a vampire (possibly turns into a giant bat?) and the monsters are some sort of zombies. Can't wait!

Well done Dakar. This definately displays the differing attitudes. You could also have 'What my friends pretend to think, but then are just jealous and show a mssive interest in my collection of figures' :P Shared on Brickset, and credited to you. Hope you don't mind.

Yes I have definately done this. Mainly because when buying figs on ebay you aren't guaranteed 'original' figures. You may see a rare torso or head in one lot and have the pieces, or be able to buy the remaining pieces on bricklink cheaper than it would be to buy the whole figure. I managed to complete both these figures this way http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=973p3bc01&in=M as they have a rare torso, but everything else is common. You can always part out or sell the pieces in an ebay lot that you don't want!

I love this. It brought a real smile to my face, all the colours and designs. It looks like a fun place to live or visit. It really reminds me of a place I visited called Port Merion (it was where they filmed the original TV series of 'The Prisoner', google it). The colours may have been a bit more muted in real life than your MOC but the cute architecture styles and fountain details etc fit right in. The boat is a nice touch as well. I've been wanting to build a smalescale boat for my layout for a while. What pieces have you used for the bow of the ship? It does seem to have more of a Kaiphlin feel than Mitgardia, but who know's, maybe the Kaiphlins settled and had an influence on the architecture (thinking of the North American Moorish influence in Spain)!! Nice work. Thanks for sharing.

Here's hoping you're right, in response to a post on the Lego Games facebook page requesting more Heroica sets Lego posted "This is your year! You will not be disappointed." If it's just Ilrion, that would be a major overstatement...

This is great. It's good to see that you are being inspired by Derfel's great techniques, rather than just copying his style. The brick wall and simplicity of the roof are some of my favourites. I also like your choice of figures, and the use of the CMF Island girl shaker thing as a wineskin is a fantastic idea! I thought it must have been a custom part at first.

As mentioned in the Star Wars forum, looks like Battle for Hoth WON'T be appearing in the USA due to licensing issues (guessing with other companies claiming rights over star wars themed board games?). Seems a shame if true, but guess us europeans need to stock up then!

The film bombed, so they may choose to wait for the air to clear before releasing sets based on a lesser known (to the wider world) hero, I iamgine that's why they stuck with the tried and tested batman sets, and only given us two other heroes in the superman set. In other news, I guess the appearance of that Captain America fig being sold on ebay from Mexico tells us that the figs are at least being made their, and not in China etc.