Triceron

It's all on Lego making CMF foster artificial demand. If these minis existed in box sets, we would PAB them as we please just like we already do for LKC parts, Pirates and Town Square wolfpack. No competition or artificial price gouging. Lego has chosen to lock molds and prints behind CMF. That is not the fault of collectors who have no other choice to obtain what we want. If I could PAB paladin armor, I would, but I can't. I don't want to have to scan any more than I want to stand there feeling up bags for an orc. They aren't making Castle sets with these minis. They're forcing all Castle collectors to go this route. If kids want a full collection they gotta do the same as any collector, buy 6-packs, full boxes or find one in the aftermarket. Let's not pretend we all have equal chance of finding all 12 purely from blind box picks. Kids learn quick about the nature of 'blind boxes'. This is all on the system Lego has chosen to distribute their supply. They control the demand by limiting supply in this very way. For the record, i bought a full set in the aftermarket to get my first Paladin. I also bricklinked an arakocra for $7 before that. I also saw them out early at Walmart before street date and had 5 in my hand, scanned all of em and knew rangers and paladins were missing. I didn:t buy at the time because i was with my kid and it was getting late ( long lines), i didn't know they were out early cuz i went the next day and they were all gone. Finding a fresh box recently was just happenstance, and I have no regrets getting to em first. This is the way the game is played.

I see it now thanks! Yeah that is a must buy for my plans for an expanded town square once I get the set.

Is there a clear image of the print? I can make out some goats that's about it. I might PAB that with my eventual Wolfpack torso order

I just hit jackpot at my local supermarket in my city. 2 fresh boxes of D&D figs just sitting on the shelf. I snagged 6 paladins! My city and area is mostly elderly, so not much competition for CMFs.

It's still a major FOMO gamble for whether they bring em back at all. Like even now a whole bunch of pirate torsos are going away soon. Which will be coming back in new sets? No one will know and for how long, and their retirements are all quite sudden even if we can predict it coinciding with retiring sets. PAB orders aren't as simple to make as a mere bricklink order either. They split stiff up to bestsellers and muck with product availability which also affects the shipping thresholds. If a piece happens to sell out in your cart they just remove it entirely. So you gotta watch it like a hawk and keep track of what is still in stock while trying to make the most out of a gwp or double vip deal. And then sudden retirements add more chaos. I'd been looking for sheep for almost a year since they retired last nov. It was just pure luck on my part that i was able to find all I wanted on bricklink for reasonable prices and luckily, free shipping.

Red fits better on D&D anyways since red dragons are typically the viIlainous poster boys of the franchise, being the meanest types of chromatic dragons in the lore. They've graced the covers of their sourcebooks and even appear in the classic logo. Red Dragons are the typical fire breathing variety we associate classic dragons to. Green dragons in D&D don't even breath fire.

I just got me some sheep off Brickkink since I missed em on PAB... I hate how they retired them just to bring it back. Just keep the animals around!

IMO it's more about finding a way to make it relevant with modern Lego. There is charm to old molds and styles, but at some point there is a fairly clear separation between classic and current looks. I think an update would be warranted if nothing but as an option. Look at how Harry Potter creatures have been modernized to fit current styles. We have old buckbeak that was made like the old style horses and didn't even have eye prints, and we have new buckbeak that fits a much more modern style. Or Fawkes being quite an abstract piece, while the updated version looks more appropriate alongside other current birds. I even have a classic polar bear and wish I had a newer one because the classic lacks play features, not even a stud on top or a movable jaw. Articulation is important too. A new Dragon that is as good as Buckbeaks remake could be a good thing if nothing more than just being a new option. It doesn't have to be a 100% improvement, that is always subjective, like how people are divided over Basils new helm design. It's just different and I think it's better to have more options than not.

The creator set looks solid for each of the builds. If someone makes a moc out of that creator set that looks like the Classic Dragon that would be icing on the cake

It's a tricky thing to discuss. Like the old horse, it only has relevancy with classic, and wouldn't necessarily fit with modern castle. I'd say if it could be updated to the on the level of the new dragonborn heads in style, detail and print, I might be interested. The new crocodiles may be a step in that style and snd direction, something with cleaner panel lines but still carefully homaging classic. I guess the best example is how Basil's hrlm is completely updated to fit modern Castle while still being recognizable as Basil. It's new, it's different yet undeniably familiar. That being said, I might take a crack at this idea. If anyone here wants to collaborate on a revamped classic dragon concept, hit me up.

I'm super excited about the wolfpack but also the pterodactyl costume. It will fit perfect in my savage cyclops army

If they do kraken knights, I'd love a return of Black Knights Sea Serpent to match up as a naval rivalry. I'd prolly enjoy that more than a large scale tournament set.

My bad, I mixed up it being an Ideas set with it being GWP. But yeah, I still doubt any new molds for armor bits. Printed torso, printed shield, and standard helm/armor is still what I'd expect.

We can only hope that they do more with the faction beyond this GWP. I see that more being the standard soldier helm, and something more unique for a leader like a modified DnD Illithid head. I can only wish they make a helm like Lokhir Fellheart's

Well this is for a prize machine GWP, so it's not very likely they will get their own molds. I would think it would be along the lines of the Majisto's Workshop knight having a new torso, and otherwise standard soldier bits.

For whatever reason I selected both kraken and griffin, and it let me submit that as my answer. I'm not sure if it counts my vote or throws it away. I'd prefer Griffin, but overall want it all. There'a literally no lack of room for new factions, especially with how CMF has been keeping Castle relevant.

I dropped $100+ easily on PAB to build up an army. It's the best time for any castle fan to army build. I know people want small box castle sets, but I think PAB is the best alternative And with D&D under way, I don't think Castle will be in very low availability. We have always had alternatives, while Lego can play the long game and focus on making one premium Castle set every 2-3 years and keep Castle fans satisfied. I think that is their best solution for the theme. I would also like a Castle CMF line but also dread it for the sake of my wallet. I had very little interest in wave 25, and I still ended up dropping $60 easily on em, I'd hate to see what I'd spend on a series I wanted every figure for. And the upcoming D&D stuff is already looking like it might be a must-have for Castle army building, with all the new accessories it is bringing

Honestly if you want a Monk... Ninjago's got em in spades. Plenty of torsos you can use to customize your own Monk figure. And I'm not just talking Master Wu; all of the Ninjas have torsos from different seasons that can be used. Monkie Kid torsos are also an option, but I find them too specific to the brand's characters.

Funny enough, Lego was my proxy for Warhammer when I was too young and Warhammer wasn't widely available and quite expensive at the time. Gotta say, the customizeability of Lego has come a very long way since the 90's!

Doubt anything specific like unique character heads, but any reused parts for other sets like maybe the mushroom people (already in Dreamzzz) could be put up there.

Jut my thoughts on the budget since we're on the topic - This set is designed to appeal to the whales; the AFOLs who grew up with Castle and have the coin to spare. It's very simple to see that this isn't your average kids playset, even if it's designed with some of those features in mind. It's not just a display set either, but it's meant to be somewhere in between, in order to best capitalize on the people who want more of what they had as a kid. The budget is probably taking into an account a lower amount of sales than say a small set that can go on retail. They know this is a niche market, which is why it's a Lego Exclusive as well. If we follow the pattern they have with most exclusive releases, they're not really designed for mass market appeal, they're designed to be specialized to a niche. So in a ways, it's a give and take. We Castle Enthusiasts will always have criticisms because WE are the niche being appealed to. So it's absolutely valid to voice what we want, because at the end of the day this isn't being made for kids or to grandparents or as a wedding gift. It's a premium set aimed at Castle collectors. We might not always get what we want, and sometimes our expectations could be considered too high to be realistically met, but they're not invalid for wanting, especially if we can reasonably compare said expectations to other products they have released. I'm totally on board with more animals. But seeing it written here like this, I'm not sure if it would justify a jump to $280. To be very honest, I'd rather them not retiring the barnyard animals on PAB immediately after the Barn and Animals set retired. That was probably the biggest blow to me. I'm not as frustrated that this set doesn't have animals as much as I am at losing access to them on PAB after knowing they are not in the set. At least we could have continued having that option and throw in $50 ourselves and pick and choose whichever animals we wanted to fill in the gaps. I already have the animals from LKC, plus 4 brown chickens and 2 pink pigs. I would have liked to have the piglet, the calf, and a couple sheep with removable fur. I wouldn't necessarily need another bunch of pigs and cows and horses since I have plenty of em, so I think having the choice outside the set would be better than just tossing them in there. I'm just sad that Lego decided to ninja-retire that last year, with very little time to react.

Well the designer has said there were concepts for many unused characters too, but wouldn't go into detail since those could appear in future sets (not something directly said, but implied) And we kinda saw from the leak that there were some archetypes that didn't end up appearing, like the Forestman on the horse or the Jester on stilts. I'm happy this does have mostly new prints though, and not reusing a bunch like LKC did (and whatever can be said about Majisto)

I mean honestly, Ninja is kinda left in the dust and forgotten. It's kind of up there with the Bull Knights or Knights Kingdom 2. You're not gonna hear Lego putting in many Bull Knights references in new Castle themed sets, or bring out a Knights Kingdom 2 Icons set any time soon.

The new D&D set coming out was part of a fan design submission for 50th anniversary D&D celebration; the big castle with the dragon and other D&D creatures and characters.

Do you mean it's way too late and past prime? Or just that you can't believe it's happening? I'm sure Fortnite could have CMF's down the line, there's so many characters in the game already. Not sure about Animal Crossing, since a lot of the figs are already part of sets like the Sonic series. Also, D&D is great! It's about darn time! We'll be getting tons of Fantasy and Castle-related minifig parts finally. Not just new prints, but actual head molds, armor molds and weapons!