SirBlake

And, he’s saying that because this isn’t the appropriate thread for a rant (no matter how justified) about the packaging change that doesn’t affect this series.

Looks good! That’s the great irony of Forestmen. Three outstanding sets and a bunch of carts, when the possibilities are really endless. It does leave the door wide open for MOCs though.

That’s pretty amazing, not only in execution, but the concept is killer. You picked some great cars for it too.

That’d be nice!

Once again, the tier system for ranking shines. I feel like it’s more indicative of our thoughts on these. Here’s my tier ranking: Tier 1: Lions/crusaders (new and old), Kingdoms, Black Falcons (new and old), Forestmen Tier 2: Black Knighs, Wolfpack, Fantasy Era Tier 3: Fright Knights, 2013 Castle Tier 4: KKI, Dark Forest, Royal Knights Tier “shouldn’t have happened”: KKII

Rather than judge or condemn, I appreciate your honesty. I completely ignored Vidyo, so I can't really say to what degree I might have encountered opened or partially opened packaging. That whole theme didn't sit right with me, and with the boxes, that sealed the deal. Put the theme on ignore and moved along.

Yeah, the main reason I separated them was due to the nature of the builds. Original Lions and Black Falcons were all "system" style, and therefore roughly comparable in parts and complexity. The newer versions are definitely more sophisticated. For example, no big wall panels on any of it. I really like your tier system. That's a nice way to look at it.

I would guess those chances would be slim.

That looks really good. For myself, I just put pearl dark grey kettle helms on them to make them archers. They go better with the BF’s that I put pearl dark grey conical helmets on. Otherwise, the red doesn’t bother me at all.

Great responses! It makes sense not to separate new/vs old Black Falcons/lions. I separated them on my list because they are so far removed from each other in time, and the builds/minifigs are quite different in sophistication. I didn’t have either Black Falcon castle when I was a kid and didn’t feel like I was missing too much. The falcons always felt like somebody my Lions could fight with. I’ve since acquired both of them in adulthood, and I’m glad I got them. Though neither hold a candle to 6080 or King’s Mountain Fortress. In my heart, anyways. I debated on including LotR, simply because I love Helms Deep and the Moria set so much. I figured it’d be best to leave licensed out of it, but it’s fun to see it added in someone’s list.

Since we’re often talking about the past themes and the associated factions, I thought there would be some fun to be had talking about our favorites and least favorites. There are a lot of ways to organize this, but it seems fair to lean on the Bricklink organization system with some tweaks. Some of them are listed as themes, others split out into factions. I can’t explain it, but it does help keep things more manageable. Here’s how I see the list, roughly in order of release: Classic Castle Original Lions/Crusaders Original Black Falcons Forestmen Black Knights Wolfpack Dragon Knights Royal Knights Dark Forest Fright Knights KKI KKII Fantasy Era Kingdoms 2013 Castle New Black Falcons (Ideas Blacksmith/3-in-1) New Lions (90th Anniversary) And here’s my personal ranking: 1. Lions/Crusaders 2. New Lions 3. Kingdoms 4. New Black Falcons 5. Black Falcons 6. Forestmen 7. Black Knights 8. Wolfpack 9. Fantasy Era 10. Fright Knights 11. 2013 Castle 12. KKI 13. Dark Forest 14. Royal Knights 15. KKII Now for the fun part: Why? 1. 6080 was my first castle, and there were so many sets for the theme, this one was always my home base. Love those lions. 2. Though I don’t have it in hand yet, the parts, techniques, size, asymmetry, minifig selection puts the 90th set way up there. 3. Kingdoms was just really well done. Great heraldry, basic concept sets that were well executed. A solid civilian set and the joust is just wonderful. 4. Love both the blacksmith and 3-in-1. These two sets seem to have ushered in a new golden age when it comes to referencing the good old days, and providing fun builds. 5. Original falcons are just good. Not nearly as many sets as the lions, but solid offerings. 6. The three large forestmen sets are all excellent. Wish there were more. 7. It could easily be argued that the Black Knights should be higher. Two amazing castles and fun supporting sets. I think I have to remove a few points for the basic nature of the red/blue scale armor. It’s fine. 8. Wolfpack is a fun concept, but there’s not enough of them. 9. Fantasy Era is special, especially when it comes to the minifigs. I would like to rank them higher, but aside from the MMV, it’s a bunch of sets I just don’t want that badly. Couple of cool boats though. 10. Classic Castle. Nostalgia goes a long way, and as much as I like the old visor helmets, the "armor" pieces and the pink of the yellow castle knights are a tough one. 11-15. Everything else is just lackluster.

Yeah, those kinds of crossovers are fun. As far as official names for characters in old castle themes, I never really cared about that stuff, and don't really care now. In general, the more character driven the theme, the less I tend to like it. (KKII for example) The sets themselves inspire enough story telling to be fun.

Fair enough. :)

I know you have a soft spot for Nexo, and I have a lot of respect for you and your presence on this forum, so please don't take it as disrespect when I say that I (and probably most of us here) don't consider anything that has to do with Nexo Knights relating to real castle. Though I wouldn't mind having some of those forestmen shield 1x1 tiles just for fun. lol

@Aanchir thanks for the thorough description of your findings. Certainly some details I hadn’t discovered. Can’t wait to build this thing!

Yes, but it's location (the hideout) and how it relates to the rest of the castle was kind of a secret. The image showing the trap door kind of spilled the beans on that part. I do think there are going to be more than a couple details that we'll really only see, or at least, have a more complete understanding of, once we build it. For instance, we don't truly understand how the secret entrance by the tree connects, if at all, to the rest of the castle. Presumably it connects to that jail cell under there, but I haven't seen photos that can confirm that.

At worst, the brittle brown parts are an annoyance. Certainly not a big enough issue to alter purchase decisions. MMV is a great set.

Super cool! The lighting is really nice.

Funny, I was just looking at the 3-in-1 castle this morning, and musing that it was a good fit for creator. I recognize the concessions made for the line, but there’s cool detail in there too, and I think it is is a fine addition to what has been a very sparse castle landscape for a long time. It’s not perfect, but it’s also good, and I can do what I want to make it great.

I love it! All the stuff that should have been made.

Preach! That’s exactly what I’ve been saying.

Nice! I like how deep those shelves are. My Helms Deep ramp hangs off of the shelf. EDIT: is that an Osgiliath MOC I see? Looks cool. Nor can I. Which is part of the reason I started this thread.

Consider the perspective of someone who’s not going for the whole series, but every series has 2-4 that are very desirable for their own tastes. Knowing that any blind selection you make is much more likely to result in something you didn’t want. It’s enough to remove CMFs from the regular retail picture.

Yea and no. With the drought of castle over the last decade or so, TLG had to assume that a lot of us into old castles were going to dive head first into the blacksmith, often being our first foray into that sort of thing. I know it was my first and only larger scale Ideas purchase. But I really can’t be bothered by the scale thing. The blacksmith is great in its own way, and I would hate to break it apart to downscale it.

I don’t presently, but I should take some more pics. Yes they are MOCs, a magic shop and an armory, built to fit with the MMV. I think I haven’t made them public because more than a few compromises were made due to parts availability, but I should do it anyway. They were fun to build and have a lot of fun details in the interior.