Breakspear

Yes, I’m hopeful they will do a fig which will tie-in with 10320 in some way. IMO the most egregious omission from that set was a Captain or sailor for the merchant ship. Lego has never given us proper naval or merchant seamen before meaning soldiers have always had to crew the imperial ships. As the next cmf series will be in boxes rather then blind bags, and Lego knows that this move is unpopular with collectors, I’m also wondering if Lego will a) try to win over collectors by stacking the series with popular tropes (Knights/Pirates/Space etc or b) include some sort of chase figure e.g. a Heidi-inspired goatherd?!.

Regarding the new Disney Castle, the new Prince Charming minifigure has a new torso print dress uniform which may have some interesting possibilities. I think its suposed to be modelled on the uniform of the Austrian/Hapsburg Emperor. The design of the print is rather simple, but (I think) not too cartoonish. The shoulder braid/aiguillette and golden detail around the neck/collar are perhaps more suited to Napoleonic era Mocs then the golden age of piracy, but could perhaps be used as a govenor, general, aide de camp, cavalryman or drummer boy.

This might be old news to some, but the recently announced 76419 Hogwarts Castle and Grounds includes a new minifigure of the Hogwarts Architect featuring a really interesting new beard mould. Currently the new beard is exclusive to this set and only confirmed in one colour (pearl gold?). However, I presume it will be released in other colours in coming years. If recoloured in white it would be perfect for a modernised Majisto/Cerlin figure (perhaps in the rumoured upcoming Majisto GWP). It could work well in dwarf or viking mocs.

I wonder if much of the perceived ‘lazy’ design of this set stems from Lego’s own decision to primarially brand and market the set based on its similarity to the original Eldorado Fortress? Imagine if – rather than promoting the set as a faithful remake – Lego had instead chosen to place the current main alternate build on the front of the box as an original creation (complete with its own unique name/identity - e.g. Eldorado Redoubt/Landing/Trade Post?) and placed Eldorado Fortress on the back of the box as an alternative build/Easter egg? In other words, the same approach as Pirates of Barracuda Bay. While this switch would address none of the substantive design critiques (e.g. black vs brown docks, 'gappy' parapet walls, simplistic palm trees, lack of art/lore in the instruction manuals etc), the psychological effect in terms of perceived total creativity/innovation would, I believe, be reasonably profound. There are some hints that Lego may have considered taking this approach – for example the lifestyle video on Lego.com focuses almost exclusively on the alt build. Ultimately, they clearly decided that appealing directly to the traditionalism/nostalgia of the original Eldorado Fortress was the safer choice.