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Yep, that's the one! Thanks for the comments on the figures, I had a lot of fun Bricklink shopping for their pieces. I also made a few others for special heroes/generals among the generic soldiers. I also love the torsos on the soldiers in the Cavalry Builder Lone Ranger set. I've bought several of those and hacked them up for medieval guards. @ Faefrost: Haha, I wish that's all it took. As a stand alone castle, I do prefer the one from the Kingdoms line. The rooms in the towers had nice doors, and actually seemed to have purpose. In the 70404 castle you have tower rooms that are just open, one of which has part of the catapult firing mechanism thrust up through the middle, so it isn't like you could really do much with that room unless you disassembled it. I still like it though, obviously. I don't think it would take much (a modular civilian set that would fit along the wall?) to make this castle superior to that one, at least in my eyes. I am glad to hear the comments about sets, seemingly, selling well locally. The Target closest to me keeps selling out of 70403, and there are only ever a couple of 70404s around at any given time. They don't even stock 70400, though. I thought that was odd. I found them at my local TRU, but they were a dollar more per set than online. I still scooped up 10 at once because you can only buy 5 at a time online. I think I took about half of what they had on the shelf. The sets overall didn't fill up the shelves, but they were pushed toward the front leaving a big gap to the back of the wall. I haven't bought up a bunch of LEGO sets like this since the first Galaxy Squad line came out. Just a few hours ago I purchased the Tower of Orthanc and a 79007 to go with it. I was going to save the big tower as a future birthday present, but I really want it for an opposing faction's headquarters and I can now just ask for 10236 (Ewok Village) for my bday instead, and strip it of SW figures and make it a forestmen-like village. Anyway, I am going to go nuts from when I finish building my new sets until I see pictures of the next wave of Castle sets. Of course then I am going to go even crazier until I am actually able to purchase them.

So far I've acquired two of the 70404 King's Castle, one 70403 Dragon Mountain, four 70402 Gatehouse Raid, one 70401 Gold Getaway, and ten 70400 Forest Ambush. In the end, I'd like to have one more castle, two more gatehouses, and at least five more Forest Ambush sets. I combine two gatehouse sets per castle, with each layout being different, and split the soldiers that come in the Forest Ambush sets among them evenly. I wasn't even that big on the dragon faction, but with all of the purchases, I've ended up with nearly 40 figures which I'm calling the Crimson Knights and have taken a liking to them. I'm calling the good guys the Trinity Kingdom, which explains why I want three castles, and made my own lords for each: Does anyone know how well the sets are selling? I really want them to be doing well enough to warrant another wave. I am already craving more sets. I'd especially love it if there was at least one set that had the modular ability to connect somehow to the castle/gatehouse combo. Anyway, I really love the latest castle line. It has far exceeded my initial expectations.

Thank you! Yes, excellent, that is great to hear. I hope these sets sell well enough and that LEGO gets decent enough feedback to continue with modular sets in the future. :] I am really happy with it!

Wow, I was so happy to see that my local Target had three of the five new Castle sets (one was sold out [70403] the other just wasn't being sold at all [70400]). It's too bad about 70400 not having any shelf space, I would have happily picked up as many as I could. Either way, I purchased one 70404, two 70402, and one 70401. I have to say, the new castle has become one of my favorites of all time, and this is coming from someone who vastly prefers the castles of the '80s and early '90s. The modularity of the new castle is awesome. I bought two of 70402 so I could attach it to the castle. I didn't realize that 70402 came apart in three sections. That way I could attach each section in a separate part of the main castle. The resulting layout is pretty cool. Everything fit together perfectly, including the ramparts along the top of the walls. One of the big castle set and two of the gatehouse sets combined leave a nice footprint and create an awesome castle. Also, because each wall section is attached to one another both at the top and the bottom, it makes it easier to transport. Even with all of the extra sections added, I can still lift the whole castle and move it around just by holding it by either of its diagonal towers. You do have to be a bit careful, though, but it is still a pretty strong connection. Oh man, what I wouldn't do for LEGO to release just one modular civilian set to fit right in... Edit: I thought I would add a quick pic... As you can see, I put one of the crossbow wall sections from 70402 on either side of the portcullis, a gatehouse on either side wall, and the two prison wall sections together in the rear next to the dungeon tower that came with the castle. You do have a lot of freedom about where you put each section as long as each opposing wall has the same number of that size of section.

I hope the fast LEGO.com sell-out of sets 70403 and 70404 lets LEGO know that Castle has a lot of fans, and we're here with wallets open! Unfortunately that means for slow-pokes like me, we can't get these sets until nearly July. :[ Hopefully they don't sell out so fast again when they restock!

Was LEGO not expecting the success they've already gotten with the new Castle line? How short of time has the new Castle line been out in the USA and already they've sold out of 70404 King's Castle online, with a restock not arriving until July. I wanted at least three of those. I didn't know that I had to make my purchase on day one to guarantee I get some. lol Also, is it common for a new line to already have a set limit put on it? There are a few of the new sets that I want more than five of.

Honestly, this "rip off" looks better than the castle set we ARE getting. More minifigs too.

Does anyone have any thoughts (or hopes) that you could combine a couple of the new castles to make one really big castle? And I'm not talking about MOCing, but with the way the walls and towers connect with technic pins, perhaps it is possible?

Yes, you are certainly right about that. It'll be interesting to see how that works. The only issue I might have with that is the fact that the mechanism will be taking up some space below the tower. More figs would be nice, but I am so happy about the forest ambush having two figs from each faction, which is just wonderful for army building.

You are excused. I honestly don't know how someone comparing the two castles couldn't see how the throne room in 7946 is far superior to the new castle. The openings in 7946 are for playability. If ANY throne room was completely closed, how the heck would you get the king in there, rip off the roof? 7946 had a couple of nice windows facing the front. The new castle has the king sitting in what could be described as more of an open air alcove than a throne room. He has to tip toe in there around that ridiculous ridge, otherwise he'll fall back down to the ground floor. I would have preferred a throne room like 7946 where the back or sides were open to get him in there, but he was at least protected from the front. As for the rest of the towers, it is no comparisson. Obviously they need to be open for playability, and them opening from the back is preferable because when you look at the castle from the front, as I am sure no one displays their castles facing the wall, you can see all of the glorious detail. The towers in the new castle are extremely underwhelming. They have openings, but that is it. 7946 had nice doors that created actual rooms. Despite all of that, though, I will end up buying more of this castle line than Kingdoms. Mainly that has to do with my current financial stability, but also because I have a castle collecting urge, and this new line is not by any means horrible. I just think when you put the two castles next to one another, I prefer 7946

Yes, you're right! Good on LEGO to include those stairs! I saw that weird cage in the corner before, but I don't understand its use quite yet. Perhaps that is the dungeon, and that room at the top of the tower is locked because it contains some secret.

What I like about the Kingdom's castle was the fact that the two rear towers were actually enclosed rooms with doors and decorative windows. Also, one had a nice roof and the other was a great turret on which someone could stand upon. The new castle has open towers that are pretty bland. With the Kingdom's castle, you had a nice set of stairs to get up to the ramparts, whereas the new castle has a ladder. Yes, your majesty, you must climb the ladder to get to your throne, which by the way is not an enclosed throne room, it is wide open for an enemy archer to pick you off. Now granted the Kingdom's castle actually had no way up to the throne room, but at least the throne room wasn't below the jail cell like in the new castle. I do love the drawbridge mechanism in the new castle, though.

So far what I'd like to do is get one of each set, multiples of smaller sets, and maybe more than one castle. I want to piece together a few minifigs from various collectible figs and other figs to create an aristocratic council of lords (replacing the king) that will rule this new nation to arrive in my LEGO universe. After they destroy the new dragon knights, they will shift their focus to the other nations on my shelves in my LEGO universe. I am holding out hope that the castle has SOME kind of modularity. That gatehouse has to connect to something, as there are pin holes on the bottom on each side and further up the wall as well.

Well of course, a few of them stand on top of eachother and press down from above. I think...

We're just having a good time poking fun at the silly designs. I'm sure we're all perfectly aware that children are the focus. That said...every Black Falcon siege engine was perfectly usable and miles more logical than the catapult in the gatehouse.

Seriously! The one in the gatehouse is pathetic. It shoots those small stones. Really dragon knights? You seriously pushed that thing all the way to the gatehouse so it could lob those pebbles? They might as well use their hands. But obviously logic has taken a backseat. I mean, how do the good knights operate the catapult in the tower the gatehouse? The arm that you lower to launch the rock is sticking forward outside. How do they use it!? But I have to disagree with you on the catapult the good knights get to attack the dragon mountain. It just looks so unnecesarily big to me. Also, that one soldier pushed it all the way there himself?? And a King's castle with only a knight a two foot soldiers?? We are a long ways away from the days where a castle would come with four knights and like six soldiers. I still like the sets though, it just means I'll have to buy a bunch of the army builders.

They probably had another one of those playtest groups full of those darn children who get to make all of the decisions on which direction LEGO goes with their future sets and pieces, and the kids decided they liked the look of the older fire better. On a more serious note, I like the shape of the new fire for plumes, but I prefer the older fire style for fire. A mix of both doesn't hurt, though.

I would LOVE it if that were the case.

I am loving the better pictures. The small set is going to be a truly amazing army builder. My only complaint is that I really do not like that flail weapon, but I have plenty of spare weapons for them. :] I reaaaaaally want to know why there seem to be connection points on the sides of the gatehouse. Lego has done that before with other castle sets and they didn't connect to anything. I hope this is not another one of those teasers. :[

Yep, it looks like you're correct. The Kingdom's Castle had 8, though, but a couple of the medium sized sets only had 3 as compared to 4 in the new line.

Eeeeeeek! *excited scream* Man wave 2 is impressive. I sense another wall of GS Lego sets in the future.

I like the looks of the gatehouse and the dragon mountain, as well as the dragon knight's prison carriage! That said, I am not a fan of the dragon itself, nor the catapults in the gatehouse and dragon mountain sets. I love the figs, though. I wish I could see a better pic of the Dragon's wizard.

Blech, what an awful color scheme and heraldry for the good guys. The bad guys aren't so bad. I actually like that the bad guys have a variety of different helmets, it makes them seem like more of a bunch of mercenaries or something. I'm still not a huge fan of the design of the castle, something about it just rubs me the wrong way. Maybe it is just all of those damn lions everywhere. Being a castle collector, I have no choice but to purchase it. I'm sure it'll be fun. I really don't like the King's sword. That design doesn't look right amongst the standard castle weapons. I also realize I don't like the new horse being in the castle line, either. With its barding on, it looks like a Duplo horse (all angles smooth and rounded). I also don't like the bad guys' catapult. Why must siege equipment resemble some kind of animal? The more I look at the castle, the more I think I will like the way it looks in real life.

A beautiful MOC. I'd also like to say how much I love the official LEGO goats. :]

Excellent, Micronian! I especially like the Space Swarmer-like mouth. :]