gogobig

Perfectly said. Completely agree with your post. As for Elves, Im really looking forward to see what changes and parts will be featured. Many custom elves can be seen on Brickshelf, so it will be interesting to see how similar or different the real lego elves will be.

No offense taken whatsoever. Here is a little introduction from one of the ancinet mythology books from my personal library: "...However, much of Roman mythology was borrowed from the Greeks. But while he stories remain essentailly the same, then names have been changed. The Romans also have myths on their own, completely separate from those of the Greeks..." I have never said anything about Romans copying every aspect of Greeks culture, so I am not sure how did yopu get that idea, but I want to clear that missunderstanding right now. All I am trying to say is that Greeks and Roman arent so different. With thats said I agree with yopu that Etruscans were important infulence on Roman culture. "Etruscans lived in the city-states just like the Greeks and they "addopted" human looking gods from the Greeks." Also, look at the gods and their specialties: Zeus-Jupiter, Poseidon-Neptune, Athena-Minerva, Hades-Pluto and the list goes on, it is easy to obsreve similarities... Again, Greeks or Romans for the new lego faction falls strongly with the personal prefference,; you vote for Romans, I vote for both, regardless which one comes first. Both cultures have their pros and cons, with similar factors in between. Hopefully we will see both factions, or even one would do it, Greek or Roman.

Me, i would prefere a romans for the following reasons: 1. Romans would have a better chance of being parred against other humans, Like generic barbarians (Lego could get a chance to reuse those old viking helmets) And Greeks couldnt? Didnt they fight against barbarians, other Greeks and Persians? 2. Gladiators (Maybe even a gladiatris ) Existed in Greece as well ;) 5. Romans seems too roll of the tounge better. No Comment I wouldnt mind either one. Im a huge fan of Roman and Greek mythology so I'd like both. I think that both choices have interesting soldiers, weapons , and buildings....

It was def. brown. How about you? Oh did you also get that extra orc battle pack inside it for free?Nah Im just kidding, no battle packs here neither haha

Just built mine today and I might say that building is pretty repetitive and that was the olny downfall. Besides that the minifigs are great and the fortress itself isnt that bad. I like it how there are 4 good knights and 6 evil warriors-it gives you a chance to battle. BTW, if possible make sure you pick up drawbridge defence, got it too today ;)- it is simply nice and small, but amazing sets.

HAHAHAHA! Either that or the one with the blue stripes

Wooooooooaaahhh! Check that soldiers fort and how detailed it is. 36 cannons on only one side ;) Amazing presentation. The only thing that I dont like is that it has too many ships, I would take out that skeleton ship, but thats my personal preference. Overall, this truly is a masterpiece.

Posedes, they might be eye appealing, but what I did to my minifig armies, I took away those wooden spears and gave'em to forestmen minifigures. The royal knights, dragon knights, scorpions, bulls, elves, vikings and even orcs have those lonk pikes ( a bit customized), but they look much better then old, small wooden spears....

I think that a knight from older sets would be a perfect minifig. The minifig from black knights sets, that knights in dark gray (european) armor and helmet with a visor, usually shiled and a sword, you guys know what I am talking about Similar to the knight posted above, but older version.

Very interesting concept, esspecially because it doesnt require minifigures, weapons and accesories. Not my personal preference, but definatelly creative and fun for collectors that dont have a lot of minifigures.

Wrong my friend, You will see my pics in the upcoming days/weeks. I have around 1000 minifigs and barely any have the same face from the same faction and line (archers, light infantry [that this breaks down], heavy infantry, cavalry, and elite units). The only exception that I have for this are orcs, some forestmen and some wolfpack.

1,3,7,9 and 19 I dont agree with at all. I cant beleive that you dont find dwarf minifigure to have a spot on that list. I dont think I saw ninja/ shogun minifig either. With that said, nice picks with others. Judging from your list Id say that you are Older Space and Blue Falcon fan along with being Inidiana Jones fan.

I liked your realistic approach to this set. Even though I liked the chariot idea (reminds me of ancient Roman and Egyptian chariots) I dont find it appealing as much whatsoever. The figures are ok. I dont like the king being part of this set, no crowny shields, and wooden spears for orcs...My troll's fortress and drawbridge got shipped today, I gladly passes up on this one.

Oh no worries about delay mate. Absolutely like it and appreciate your hard work. Thank you so much.

Very interesting entry CL. Some things I would like to point out; I love the way you designed your walls-extremely unique and interesting apporach, minifig movement and emotions can be felt through the pic-great job on that as well, and the woman charging with the broom is hillarious :) Great MOC I really liked it

What a great topic I do consider myself an army builder. In the past 3 years I have been working on the castle project that cost me quite a bit of $$$. My minifig collection is around 1,000 minifigures, of which about 95% are castle themed (16 factions). The other 5% is pirates, theme that I will pursue in the upcoming years I purchased various old sets, such as Wolfpack, Forestmen, Dark Forest, Royal Knights, Dragon Masters, Black Knights from Ebay and the last 3 years of castle sets from LEGO S@H not for the minifigs themselves, but because I could not have these sets when I was growing up. Besides that, I use BL a lot for various parts such as torsos, heads, legs and weapons. I do A LOT of custom work and most of my minifigs are custom-you will see in the upcoming days some pics. I enjoy collecting minifigures for various reasons from displaying large quantities of minifigs to creating diveristy among my army lines. This also alows me to have several factions and make it more interesting. However, there is a fine line between building an army and stocking on minifigs-I saw some pics on Brickshelf of 100s of exactly the same minifigs and Im thinking "Oh how fun". I dont prefer that. I Change heads so that not to many figures look alike. I also try not to have 100s of the exactly same unit, such as swordsmen. I diverisfy with weapons and 40 soldiers is my max for one weapon. For example, the royal knights have 40 pikeman, 40 archers, 20 swordsmen, 15 cavarly and so on. Personally, I would not want any faction to have more then 200 minifigs. Im planning this interesting project for the castle and hopefully pirate themes in the upcoming years ;)

As AFOL and a collector I dont MOD any LEGO sets. However, when it comes to creating MOC I will gladly use any parts neccesary Some of the figures that come with the sets I might MOD and I might add a few minifigs to a set, but thats about it. As soon as I get my camera back I will take some pictures of my 3-year-castle-project :)

I was a bit neutral about this set. I did not want to get it originally, but now after this review Im debating. Son of a gun haha! I just spent $500 on LEGO, and while my budget would def. allow me to buy this set, I might wait for ebay prices to godown a little. With thats said, I really liked your review as I didnt know some of the cool features of that castle and all accessories it came with.

Im pretty impressed with this set and its design and colors dont bother me as much. Yeah I noticed only one orc shield which is lame, but oh well, no set is perfect. The way I see it, if you really dont like it, you can still use it for parts to built another orc fort or even expand this one. Very nice review and def. processing the order for this and drawbridge tonite :)

Your last comment saying "hey, where did my poll go?" thats why I put it in bold ;)

You welcome Im thinking of using the same code on new troll's fortress and drawbridge...

U dont have to make them yourself eiher, there are pre-made ones, just give the credit to the original author and thats it. I bought around 500 torsos simple , heads and legs from bricklink and now they are all turned into castle soldiers. Pretty neat ;)

Nice. Mad props for your craziness here haha - $1200 for these sets . Looking forward to see your port. I just got mine yesterday. About 3.5 hrs to build it, but it is worth every penny!

Just spent $250 on LEGO last week. Oh well, off I go again Thanks for this news mate!