John Cromwell

Concerning 6081, even though I don't own it, I like to think of it as a keep to a larger castle complex. i.e. the last line of defense if the castle were to be sieged. If you had collected all the previous Crusader sets that came before you could make a huge castle with 6081 being the center piece. However, I don't like the fact that it seems Black Knight troops have infiltrated the Crusader ranks (the chainmail and flags). To quote a section from Steve's Lego Blog highlighting some of the positives from this set: After six years of waiting for a new Castle the Crusaders are finally rewarded with a new castle (on a raised base, which was something of a novelty at the time). The Black Raven and Princess are unique to this set but whereas the previous castle featured 30 wall panels this set only featured four, the ghost should also be noted as a nice inclusion at the time. I always saw this as the keep and the previous castle as the outer wall and they go very nicely together, it should also be noted that this was the first moulded castle (many of which were to follow) and as such it was a trendsetter, the green added a great variation to the grey and as such this is one of the nicer looking castles from this era. Better accessibility?

Yes, I agree, the Dragon Masters started to focus on gimmicks and dragons a little too much. But don't even get me started on the Fright Knights and 'Royal Knights'. The HORRENDOUS and disgusting builds of the Fright Knights that look like something a five-year-old would build, for one thing!

You mean me? Or @GalacticTremor?

Oh... I thought you meant you had made a decision to not collect the Black Knights... My bad!

You WHAT??? What don't you like about the set designs?

Awesome! I really like those big candle stands!

That would be cool! I have kind of done that in my own headcanon, as you can see if you read the descriptions on my various Flickr posts. I might just have to make up my own 'story' for Classic Castle, complete with a hand-drawn map(which I have done in the past). First of all, thanks @Aanchir for the lengthy post! I like reading other people's thoughts on the matter, and yours is well-written and enjoyable to read! Concerning Classic Space and Futuron, as well as the Forestmen and Dark Forest, I completely agree, but with the classic red and bluecoats (ignoring the 2009 and 2016 reboots, respectively) I do think they are two different colonial powers. Historically, many countries used extremely similar uniforms in that period of time, and it also helps create more enemies for the swashbuckling freebooters! That's a splendid idea! But, there must have been a feud between Majisto and the Black Monarch sometime in their past, since they battle each other in the Lego catalogs and commercials. In that specific instant, I just think Lego screwed up, since there is also a Dragon Master minifigure included in 6078 Royal Drawbridge, yet he has a Black Knights shield. So, I think one of the designers at Lego just mixed up the shields and 6078 became a set before anyone noticed.

Reinforcements have arrived! Well, technically, I already owned the yellow knight in the middle, but his side plumes just arrived, so I thought I'd include him since he is now complete! Now for some pictures of the entire 'army'. Left flank: Center: Right flank: Enjoy!

Very wonderful! Unbelievably incredible! This shall go on my bookmarks tab!

You're welcome! I'm just the opposite, since I like to collect official 'Lego factions', instead of making up my own (faction) and using certain torsos and shields to depict that faction. Speaking of which, I just got another shipment of Black Knights, so I'll have to post updated pictures of the army.

I was sitting around not doing much yesterday and decided to build a small outpost for my Black Knights. I also decided to limit myself to using the bricks from Skeleton Surprise and Black Monarch's Ghost to build it. I broke that rule to include one light gray 4x4 plate and a dark gray ladder and black 1x2 with side bar. (and the baseplate, obviously.) So, without further ado, here's what I came up with after about an hour of redesigning. Right side view: Rear view: Left side: Interior, and a callback to the original Skeleton Surprise: And the overhead view: It includes around 120 pieces, (not including minifigures) and three minifigures, a mounted knight, a swordsman, and a crossbowman. If it was an actual set from 1992, being similar to the 6057 Sea Serpent, it would probably clock in at $15.50 retail price. Highlights would be the printed wall panel, brown bird, and blue plumes on the knight. Side note: Lego never released a set for the Black Knights that included the full blue dragon plumes (side ones as well). We had to wait until the Dragon Masters. I included it in a short story that can be seen on my Flickr page. Feedback appreciated! Let me know what you think!

Thank you very much! Keep me posted!

You are welcome! Of course they do!

Actually @The_Cook, if you don't mind, I would like at least the images of your retro MOCs. I looked at them in the past before mocpages went the way of the dodo, and liked them very much. Thanks!

Yeah, Lego likes to do that often. I don't know of any other M-Tron easter eggs, but the violin boy in the upcoming series 21 minifigures appears to be a serious Blacktron fan:

Thanks! You'll find the answer on my Flickr page. Spoiler, it's nothing interesting... Thank you!

I like it! Nice use of the hero factory core piece!

My first try at a post-apocalyptic MOC. I wanted to do something simple with a little bit of backstory, so I present: The Mystery. A survivor of the apocalypse stumbles across a dead space traveler. It appears the shiny device it carried is slowly killing the surrounding vegetation... The scanner he is holding detects radiation. That scorpion better not get too close to the shiny, or it could be killed! A old, crumbling, dilapidated wall is a testament to better times, before They arrived... Hope you like it! (This was also posted in the Sci-Fi forum.)

My first try at a post-apocalyptic MOC. I wanted to do something simple with a little bit of backstory, so I present: The Mystery. A survivor of the apocalypse stumbles across a dead space traveler. It appears the shiny device it carried is slowly killing the surrounding vegetation... The scanner he is holding detects radiation levels. That scorpion better not get too close to that shiny, or it could be killed! A old, crumbling, dilapidated wall is a testament to better times, before They arrived... Hope you like it! (This was also posted in the Special Themes forum.)

Ah... Thanks for clarifying!

Very nice! This reminds me of that small Vulcan ship from the new Star Trek movies by J.J. Abrams, the Jellyfish.

Very nice! Are the bombs 'gravity bombs' i.e. they fall down or are they shot out like torpedoes?

Hoooooolly Hovercraft! I wouldn't want to run into one of those! Amazing!

Thanks! I might post it in both. Don't get your hopes up, it's a very small MOC.

I have a post-apocalyptic MOC I would like to share but don't know where to post it. I assume the Special Themes forum, right, since it's kind of the miscellaneous forum? Thanks!