questforcastle

I recently visited a LEGO Click Brick (an official franchise partner) store in Japan and found out that they sold various customized 40004 Heart models there, I even brought one home as a souvenir. I have not seen this anywhere else. I was wondering how common this practice is, selling customized models at LEGO retailers, and what other kinds of custom models have been on sale? They also sold pre-made and build-it-yourself custom minifigures at the store. Any insights? Anyone wanting see my photos and read my experiences, I've blog posted about them here: http://questforbrick...ick-brick-mocs/ & http://questforbrick...k-brick-stores/ & http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/lego-in-japan/

Great work, Candia! I especially loved two touches: the fact that there is a family living in there and that you'd left practically no LEGO studs visible. The cost in flat bricks must have been substantial, though. :) Well worth it!

Thank you for the review! Interesting to see the brick separator included with the kit, any reason for that? Does it come with other LOTR sets? A nice addition, nevertheless! Here is my review of the orange brick separator, BTW: http://questforcastle.wordpress.com/2012/03/19/630-brick-separator/

Simply mind-blowingly fantastic! It does put the 9474 The Battle of Helm's Deep to shame. :)

Thank you, SirBlake! :) Great to see your photo and hear your feedback. I especially liked the way you used a combination of other classic LEGO Castle sets as a back wall!

So, I've reached a bit of a halfway point in building, with most of the "first floor" of the castle in place. Today's blog update catches up with my building: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com Next up is some brick purchasing I guess, still quite a bit of bricks needed that I don't have. This time I will try to come up with a list of what else is needed before order. :) I do have some bricks to continue with in the meanwhile, though.

Thank you for the review Captain BeerBeard! The new horse looks amazing. :)

Good news (for me), I have finally started building the castle and expect to update you with the progress in a few blog installments over the next couple of days or a week: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com I still lack the full complement of bricks to complete all of it (I will acquire those later), but I'm thinking by end of next week I should still have a substantial part of it done.

Thank you for the tips in this thread! :) I managed to dismantle parts of my 1980s LEGO keyrings, you know the older stapled kind (before the screws). Pictures here, if you want to see: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com/2012/04/28/dismantling-keyrings/

Thank you for an interesting poll. I am torn and would like a middle-ground option as well. As is stands, though, I am voting more classic castle. Yeah, I think many people may be torn on this one for various reasons. Many LEGO Castle fans may be genuine LOTR fans as well, I know I was both as a child and am both as an adult. So I am interested to see the LOTR sets, especially as the selection continues to grow. The first LOTR LEGO wave does not seem all that impressive, I guess I am waiting for an iconic castle (how about Minas Tirith) and perhaps some larger Shire sets. Having said that, my own LEGO loyalties lie closer to the classic castle, for which the LEGO Kingdoms was a worthy successor. I guess the best someone like me can hope for is a solid LOTR run, followed by a mighty return of LEGO Castle few years down the road. I'd hate to see LOTR replace LEGO Castle permanently, but for the time being it is interesting.

Just a quick message to let you know I have not forgotten about the 6080 King's Castle project. There still remain unexpected delays in my brick deliveries, so progress has been slower than I had originally hoped. I am trying to sort these out and get more bricks and plates, but who knows when I am able to proceed further. I will update the blog on these in the future. I have, however, managed to build the portcullis piece and many of the minifigures. I have posted some photos on the blog, including one where I tried to use a few colored cardboards to recreate that 1980s LEGO Castle look and feel: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com Sorry for the noob question, I am sure many of you have done similar photoshoots with yellow/orange backgrounds and other catalogue-like simulations. Any recommended links?

I am still waiting for my BrickLink delivery, but in the meanwhile I have made a couple of updates on the blog. :) Including some pictures of my 1960s LEGO, if anyone is interested: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com

Thank you very much. :) Good luck with your own projects. I can say, at least so far, it feels really nice to start building a set from childhood (one that I missed in this case). I'm hoping to get some new parts next week to move things along!

New updates! :) My 6080 King's Castle project has so far been more narrative than actual building, but I am enjoying the experience of learning about AFOL and LEGO, and there certainly is much to learn and reacquaint myself with. So this process is as much about that learning, as it is about the castle itself. I finally managed to start digging some bricks and have made a few new blog posts this week about my old LEGO collection and first building steps: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com More posts and pictures of my journey to come in the coming days/weeks as I gather steam and, more importantly, castle pieces...

Thank you very much for the excellent suggestions and response. It feels nice to be welcomed! As for the minifigures - good question, I haven't come to any firm conclusions yet. I think my own stash will be able to furnish a couple of them, but for the rest let's see. I am trying not to hang myself by too strict expectations, so as to actually get something built. :) I hope to post tomorrow a couple of photos from my dusty LEGO storage boxes in the blog and hopefully get some exploratory building going next week by actually digging into them...

Hello from a newcomer - and thank you for all the quality reading over the years. This is a great forum. I wanted to share my little re-entry into the LEGO world - I have started to reuse my old bricks to build a set I never had, the 1984 classic, 6080 King's Castle. I set up a little blog to (mostly for myself) document my likely very slow progress on putting those old bricks into use. Opening words are here: http://questforbricks.wordpress.com Certainly I will need more bricks than just the ones I have (even though I intend to customize a little where necessary), so any pointers to suitable online pick-a-bricks are welcome? I'll post here as well, when I make significant progress. Let's see how I fare in the world of AFOL. :) Wish me luck...