Triceron

I always thought that to be a squirrel, since we see the same shape and color figure on the far right side of the image, on top of a tree. And we know that there are squirrels confirmed in the set. I had not heard of any mention of chickens at all. I'll be happy to see some chickens in the set if they add em though.

The minifig and factions are definitely the biggest thing I'm looking for news on. The mystery of what knights/guards/faction will be represented is the biggest piece of info I want clarified. Otherwise, I think we already have plenty of info on this set from the various rumors and leaks, like the cheese stall or the shield vendor or an Inn being present. Also, I don't remember there being any Chickens in this set? Not even mentioned in rumors?

I'm literally refreshing daily on Discord for any info on this bad boy. Hype is real.

I'd expect if Black Knights or Dragon Masters ever return, it'd have to be in the form of CMF like the recent Basil. The budgets for CMF seem a lot more flexible for custom molds and prints, whereas we see even big sets like LKC without new minifig part molds and reusing a lot of prints from CMF and GWP sets. But I do think Cross Axes print is very possible since it's just a new torso print and doesn't require new molds. It would be nice to get a slightly varied clothing design as well, more than just a different insignia on top of the Lion Knights torsos. Something akin to how the Falconer CMF has a slightly different torso from the regular chainmail Black Falcons. Cross Axe torsos should look more appropriate for a guard.

Is that a custom figure? Where does the hair come from in that color and I haven't seen most of those parts before.

They're great builds, but not for me. They're sort of presented like big mocs. They can't offer new prints or molds, and that's mostly what I look for in new Lego sets. That and I don't have the budget or space for another set of giant castles. Market Square is even going to be stretching it, and at least it's coming in the form of multiple buildings I can try and space out. Interesting, didn't know the shields were more expensive. Where did you hear this?

Also one thing to note, if you are looking to collect Castle just for the minis, you can always look towards Collectible Minifigures and Pick a Brick instead of buying the big sets. It's still quite an expense, but at least you don't need to drop $300+ on a large Castle set if you're just looking for army building some Knights. I tend to do this with the CMF line, and get 1-3 of the ones I really like, and supplement with PAB orders to fill out bigger armies of knights. Or it also works out if you just want to collect one of each faction just for the sake of having them. I do this with some of the more special Monkie Kid characters, and buy parts directly from PAB instead of buying all the sets. That way I focus mostly on Castle, without completely missing out on other themes I'm interested in like Monkie Kid or like you said, the Hidden Mountain Ninjago wave that had a lot of great Orc and purple Goblin parts that can be bought straight off PAB. You gotta be on the ball though, the PAB parts retire and the lists change on the regular.

I really hoped they would have gotten a new shield, something that fixes the simple green recolor of the Black Knights shield. Something like the custom shield print that Cult of Bricks has. Maybe for a future CMF, one that has a new custom helmet too. Since they don't do the dragon plumes, I could see them dual-molding something straight onto the sides and top of the helm. New cape with Dragon print would be awesome too.

I don't see LOTR coming back as a full theme. There's always a chance, but it's slim, considering it's not really back in demand in general. A new theme would have to have kid appeal, and there's nothing really in public domain that appeals to a new generation of kids. I think that all the LOTR fans are going to be AFOLs who can afford to get the big sets, which is what TLG seems to be aiming for. I really doubt the return of normal sized LOTR sets. On that note, I had the same debate about Classic Castle coming back as a full theme, and I have my doubts over whether TLG will do it. Maybe one day? But it's difficult for me to see it happening considering the slow release of big sets and high-priced GWPs that says otherwise. Meanwhile, we get full new waves of something completely radical and new like Sonic sets, and that kind of turned around pretty quickly after the Sonic Greenhill Ideas set, which came out about 6 months before the LKC. I feel like if Lego were really gung-ho on any smaller sets, they would have already done it instead of just making one-offs for GWPs.

I agree. Most of my castle sets are all combined from smaller sets to make one bigger display, and I cram as much as I can together to make use of the space. Kinda like my profile picture, which is a moc'd up Wolfpack Tower with Majisto's workshop added, and the Black Knights are assaulting it from land and sea. I have that as one of three displays done like this, the others being a fuller Hemlock Stronghold with forest creatures around it, and a volcanic valley battle between Dragon Knights escaping with the Dragon Wagon and some chima Wolf dudes I converted into an extended Fright Knights army.

Good assortment, but considering modern Lego, half of em will probably be female. So I'd take a princess or queen into consideration, as well as handmaidens. It'd also make sense in general for tournament knights to fight for the hand of a lady. Also a personal hope, but I'd like them to throw in extra color options of tiles, banners and flags so we can customize the pageantry to fit whatever knights are fighting at the time. Sorta like some of the Harry Potter sets that have customizable tiles for each house.

An updated Kingdoms Joust would be perfect for Classic Castle, especially if it can tie in some of the CMFs like a return of the Raven Knight torsos and prints and some updated Black Knights, maybe even Royal Knights through a new king figure.

I collect Classic Castle over all other themes, so I have a bias towards sticking towards Classic Castle personally. I don't own many LOTR sets aside from a Dimensions one-off and some parts here and there from Thrift Store bulk purchases. If you are coming at this from money and space limits, I'd say LOTR might be the better pick just because there is more consistency to expectations for future releases. They did Rivendell, they are doing Barad Dur, and we may get an Osgilliath/Minas Tirith in the future if the map is any hint. Maaaaybe a Helms Deep remake further down the line. Either way, I see em sticking to big sets, and spacing em years apart so it's reasonable. For Classic Castle, being an unliscenced theme makes it much more unpredictable for what they could release. They could suddenly make a whole theme out of it like what they seem to do with Space Moments. Or they could do nothing at all for years, like we had before the Medieval Blacksmith. We're kind of counting our blessings with Castle, and I'm not sure if it's worth starting if you don't have space. I know I don't, and I still collect, and it's kind of frustrating because every Castle collector wants the subthemes like Wolfpack and Fright Knights and Dragon Masters and Black Knights to also come back, and if Lego ever does do em, there is going to be a LOT of sets and a LOT of new space needed. TLDR; LOTR may be more stable with consistent big releases every few years. Classic Castle is higher risk/reward for many more sets or no sets in the future.

Well hopefully with that set, we will see white horses back on PAB. Fingers crossed.

I'm hoping there are new prints for animals, but I'm also wary of how that affects the budget. Minifigs still come first, and I don't want yet another repeat of Majisto or the CMF Minstrel torso in this set. I don't mind reusing parts, but these are $200+ sets....

I guess I'll just say I'm still surprised they don't do Horses in black and white regularly at all. Those were the two most common colors in Classic Castle, and should still fits well enough for city/farm or other sets with horses. They even have horses in these color for Friends sets.

I'd love to see Lego branch off into different prints and colors for animals like gray (with stone printing) so we can have lion statues or horse-rider statues

Bricklink Designer Program was nice when we didn't know if Lego was still going to continue Castle. But they really miss out on all the exclusive new bits that new Lego Castle sets would get, and that's half the reason I get em.

I have a feeling it might be designed with 3q exterior and 1q open to access an interior, similar to this:

Oh wow, I never knew about this. Would you happen to know where this is from? I'd like to check that out

Very cool moc! The balrog looks just like the one from the 1970's animated series :D

Amazing build, as always! Absolutely inspiring. I love the large banquet hall look. Great build for the dragon too, very creative use of the green legs haha

If I'm not mistaken, there are hole connections on the other side as well, part of the chimney for the small building. The tower could connect to there. The one you pointed out could connect to some of the other buildings, so if you have the castle displayed open there would be buildings on both sides of the castle framing it. Just my hunch at how it could be modular. They seem to be going in a modularity with Harry Potter diagon alley sets, so I figure Market Square might be able to connect to itself, and the LKC. It depends on what the final design looks like.

The one thing that ties it to the LKC the tower that looks exactly like the ones you see on the Lion Knight's Castle. That makes it classic castle to me, at least in spirit. I'm not sure if they will be tying further references like with shields or knights, but the tower alone, IMO, makes it a companion set to LKC. For that reasoning, I can see it having a yellow box, even if it wasn't a true Classic Castle original theme. I even hedge my bets that this has direct connection points to the LKC, since there are some unused slots on the side of one of the buildings where that tower would connect perfrectly into. I could see TLG having planned an expansion set like this very early on. Was it exclusive? I got mine on Amazon directly, the year it was released on Black Friday. I can't imagine that was the only retailer that had the blacksmith.

There is a 12-pack that has 1 of each mini? What the crud! Wish we had that here in Canada. I think we're like one of the only countries that doesn't have that. All I can do is gamble with a 6-pack.