SirBlake

Nice pack of rogues! This fig responds really well to head and headgear swaps to make for a nicely varied group. I suppose. I think the rogue fits nicely in the spirit of the Wolf Pack. Back in the day, as cool as the Wolf Pack is, it's still a bunch of dudes in brown shirts with a giant logo on them like they're a hockey team or something. Great for the time, but the rogue is a nice spiritual successor, for me anyway.

Yeah, I got lucky and came out of my dark ages just in time for MMV and MVR. Those sets offered all of those figs. Part of the reason that they are two of the sets held in highest regard. Two of my favorites for sure. Edit: it's worth noting that the guy on the far right is the "nobleman" from the Kingdoms Joust set (which is amazing). He had no predecessor and wasn't part of the royal family so I put him there.

That LotR photo is great. The rogue works really well for that. After having put together the Photonomicon evolution thread, I have a better idea of what we have and haven't covered in the CMF line. The most obvious blanks are: 1. Prince. Lots of royalty, but no male heir to the throne. We've only gotten two princes so far. One in the classic joust set and one in an advent calendar. Neither are great, so we're due for an upgrade. 2. Tradesmen. The obvious go-to here is the blacksmith. We've really only had three, and the CMF could provide new parts like a new head piece, hammer or anvil. Additionally, we could use a cook, baker, tailor, stable boy, generic peasant, anything like that. 3. Elves. We've got the one elf from series 3, but he could use company in the form of a female elf, elf warrior (in armor as opposed to the ranger type we have now), elf nobility or sorcerer. Additionally this could include dark elves and high elves like the Alexandre Boudon sketches. 4. Sorceress. The Ice Queen from series 16 comes close, but not close enough for my taste. Traditional witches are fine, but a fantasy sorceress would be nice. This could be covered in the elf category above or a regular human. 5. Dwarves. We've got an evil one, but why not a good one? Maybe a female dwarf? 6. Undead. Fantasy had a bunch of skeleton warrior options. It would be nice to see what the CMF line could do with this concept. 7. Trolls/Orcs. The series 13 goblin is cool, but really it's a different character. An update of the fantasy troll/Orc would be welcome. 8. Past faction soldiers. We've gotten a freshened crownie knight, forest men and now the wolf pack. How about a black falcon soldier or archer? Maybe one of Basil the Bat Lord's troops? We are fortunate that a lot of the basics have been covered, but I think you could easily get another 15-20 just from this list. What do you guys think? What did I miss?

Can't agree with you there. 2013 was uninspired, but there were plenty of good parts, some decent builds and some great and very usable minifig prints and parts (lame dragon heraldry notwithstanding).

Fair enough, no speculation here. I'm just glad to hear that Speed Champions should be continuing. It's been a wonderful theme so far. There are so many I'd like to see, but one aspect of the theme that isn't necessarily dependent on make/model is the parts. This theme has opened up a whole new way and type of car to build with the wheels/tires and wheel arches alone. Not to mention that they're a great source for tiny curved slope parts at an affordable price, for the most part. More styles and colors would be very welcome for more MOC possibilities.

So does that mean we're looking at series 17 around April-May? Dang, that's a long wait.

Man, that is a really good point. Hadn't thought about it that way, but you're absolutely right.

Great point. That is true. 2013 compared to Kingdoms is pathetic. Compared to NK, 2013 is much preferred. I have learned some perspective in this experience and a not-so-small amount of humility as well. I'd take another round of 2013 Castle any day at this point, but it would be much better received if they managed to mix in some commoners. Farmers and barmaids and that sort of thing. This has been covered many times, but you and I have a great history of friendly discourse from opposite sides of the aisle. So with that said, I think the main difference and the reason that NK is not represented in this subforum comes down to the audience. Swords and castles are very much a historic theme. Tanks and hover boards remove it from that category from an audience perspective. Yes, but I'm preferring to remain optimistic. The new parts that have come out of the CMF series provide a ray of hope for what castle could be in a post-NK world. I could also see an option C. (A being Kingdoms-like, B being like Pirates is now). City modular type sets with more detailed builds that don't have to follow the standard (1 big castle/smaller bad guy castle/tower/blacksmith like 2013) theme formula.

Good call, see below. I took another round of photos and also included some non-royals or soldiers: First up is one of my favorites. There is a great metamorphosis from classic to modern in the blacksmith. Classic, fantasy and kingdoms. The Jester. Fantasy, kingdoms and CMF The common folk. We're starting to see a trend here. Maybe a single example from the 80's in a category and then nothing until it's done very well in Fantasy and Kingdoms. Now for some soldiers. Lions Dragons. My apologies for swapping positions. The red 2013 Castle figs should be to the right of the green Kingdoms figs. Crownies. This one is tough because the 2013 figs are also lions, but they've got the same crowns on these guys, so I put them here. Now the villains. Ghosts! Two things here: my 11-year-old-self decided that the ghost needed to be scarier, hence the red paint in the eyes. I can't seem to get the red paint off, plus I kind of like it so there you have it. There's another very similar ghost to the classic version appearing in the Monster Fighters line from a few years ago, but I don't have one. The other two are the specter and the banshee from the CMF line. I thought I had Cedric the bull, but it turns out that I only have some of his lackeys, so aside from his absence, we have Basil the bat lord, Vladek and the Troll King. Lastly the green guys. The CMF goblin may not be a true evolution of the fantasy troll (Orc), but they're green and they come with ludicrously ugly swords, so I put them together.

Good thoughts y'all, thanks! I had considered the middle earth options, and have all those figs but opted to stick with the yellow. I may try a version with the LotR/Hobbit stuff added though. As for the bad guys, I do have Basil, Cetric etc. but since they're essentially one-offs with no evolution, I wasn't sure if they belonged. I probably need to include them just to make for a more thorough pictorial reference. Thanks again for the feedback!

I'm pretty sure the "love letter" he's referring to is this one: http://www.eurobricks.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=133047 ...and it's inclusion of NK on the packaging.

I'm so glad you guys are enjoying the pics! https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=4151b#T=C

Ah, thanks for settling me straight. The wait and speculation begins!

Very well said, sir. I see your point. It's never a personal attack when a giant corporation ignores an individual preference. Especially when that individual is not part of their core audience. I doubt there's a significant number of 10 year olds lamenting the lack of traditional castle sets at the moment, if for no other reason, they just lack context to understand how integral it is to Lego in the big picture. With that said, die hard AFOLs have a voice for a reason, and I personally side with anyone who is reserving their right as a consumer to voice their concerns. As with most things in life, the reasonable stance is somewhere between the extremes.

Hah! I wasn't sure anyone would notice. My 10yo daughter snuck that in. I thought it was appropriate. Yeeeaaah, there will be no Nexo purchases on my part. :)

Crownie Knights Wolf pack Forestmen Forest maiden Dwarves Witches

January is far away. If memory serves, we've got a history of getting good leaks for the January waves, so hopefully we'll have a list by September and photos of some sort shortly after.

As I was comparing updated versions of CMF to older versions, I thought it would be fun to set them up together to watch them change through the years. This is by no means complete. There are some factions I either just don't have, or don't really care for. That said, it's a nice general comparison dating as far back as the classic Joust from the 70's until today. One last note, please forgive me if I have a mismatched face or accessory or whatever. I tend to mix things up for display. Starting with the royals, we have a line up of kings. I cheated a bit here because the fig on the left is actually labeled as a prince in the aforementioned joust set, but it was years before we saw a proper Lego King. I have identified one hole here in the CMF line: we could use an updated prince. Next up, the queens. I know I'm missing some, but here's a nice sample from fantasy, kingdoms and CMF. Princesses get much better representation in Lego form. Perhaps so there's a damsel to rescue. Wizards. Blue Evil/necromancers Dragon Lion Knights Black Falcons Knights Dragon Knights

I shot a photo of some of the castle/fantasy parts that we've gotten out of the CMF line. I forgot to include the highland warriors large sword and the heroic knights' new short sword mold. Can you think of any other parts I've missed? Obviously there are many more historic and mythological unique parts, but that's for another photo. Also, just for fun, here's a fun shot of a group of rogues.

:-) http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Fantasy+Rogue

That would be fantastic, but we've got so many characters from the last 4 or 5 regular CMF series that would be good indicators for that, and so far, nada.

Another target sighting here. Got everything on my and my daughters lists.

To be fair, there's nothing wrong with consumers expressing an opinion. Call it "whining" if you want, but that's a loaded term.

Those look great! Definitely prefer the pauldrons, but with that lighting, can't tell a difference between them.

Yeah man, happy to share. The CMF series is kind of all we've got these days for straight historic fans. Speaking of... The rogue fits right in with the rest of the best historic CMFs.