SirBlake

I take umbrage with this statement, sir. I'm happy for you that you're happy, but to foist your apologist outlook on the whole of the community is not appreciated. We owe it to ourselves to praise the victories and decry the failures, and the overwhelming majority of this forum sees the failure in some foundational elements of this line. Are we fortunate to be getting LotR/Hobbit? I think so. Are we therefore obligated to smile and cheer when we're force-fed inferior castle product because of it's proximity to the aforementioned licensed themes? I think not. As I said before, in general, the builds aren't bad, but the very bones of a castle themed line are the heraldry/factions. Kingdoms took a tired concept (Lions and Dragons... AGAIN!?!?) and made them great with fantastic artwork. TLG then follows this up with a direct (though admittedly, somewhat improved) call-back to Royal Knights/KK1 heraldry that virtually no one cares for on any aesthetic level, and a pathetic representation of a dragon. To back this up, I would put good money on the assumption that if the 3 variations of Dragon shield designs were ranked by the community, this one would finish a distant last. Likewise, if the same were done with the 4 main Lion shield designs (Royal/KK1 is basically the same except for the background) were put to the same test, this new one would barely beat Royal/KK1. So to bring this home, I would say this: I refuse to be grateful for inferior design. I have supported TLG off and on for 30 years, and I believe that it profits no one to to be a cheer leader of bad decisions. I reiterate, I'm happy for you that you do not share my disappointment, but reserve the right to express mine. Note: I've worked hard to keep any inflammatory language out of this post. I'm certainly not mad, just engaging in what I feel is a healthy debate. Cheers.

This is great! Thanks for the pics and the thorough write-up. I had a very similar event a couple of years ago except I never took my castles apart. Kept them in boxes, assembled all through my dark ages so all I had to do was take them out of the boxes and reattach things like flags. It's a lot more fun to see them assembled on the shelf than have them sitting in the dark in a closet at my parents house.

Terrible. As others have said, the basic construction isn't too bad, but the heraldry is just awful, and that is hugely important. Kingdoms was enough to bring me out of my dark ages, and if not for LotR/Hobbit, this theme would be enough for me to re-enter the dark ages.

Links aren't public, fuav.

This set marked the beginning of my dark ages. Pretty terrible.

I absolutely love this set! As you noted, the curves really make this car, along with some of the finer details. After building it, I spent about 10 minutes admiring it, and another 2 hours modifying and improving it. The first thing to change for me was the engine, adding two more grey 1x1 rounds for a V8 look, and red 1x2 cheese grater slopes for the valve/cam covers. After getting it as close to perfect as I could, I then build another one in black to sit next to it. This is fabulous, thorough review. Really nice work. One minor criticism: the doors are "scissor doors" made famous by Lamborghini. "Gull wing" doors hinge at the middle of the roof like a Mercedes 300sl or DeLorean. Thanks for this great writeup. This makes me want to go buy another set and build it again. Maybe change the red accents to blue and add blue stripes for the American race team livery.

Kings mountain fortress is a fantastic set. I still have mine from when I was a kid and it's one of my all time favorites. Enjoy!

Heroic knight, 2 forest maidens and a fortune teller. Very happy with all of them. Now that I have it in hand, I would prefer some color on the knight, but it would make a great statue as it is, so thats kinda cool.

Speculation on retail sales for Lego seems pretty useless to me. It's not that it's not a worth while topic, it's that Lego, as a product in general, doesn't play by the same distribution rules as other properties. They only offer so many different sets in a year, and they're available for months at a time, if not a full year in most cases. Noteworthy exceptions being small polybags like the elf. Compare this to something like Hasbro Star Wars where a store might get one case of one wave of figures (ever!) and it's easy to tell what sells and what is a "peg warmer". I haven't seen any large scale clearancing of LotR or Hobbit, so maybe that says a little something.

Series 9 finally made it to the Fort Worth TRU. Bad news is that they only had one box and I got both Forest Maidens (one for my daughter, one for me). Also got two knights and a fortune teller, so the other 55 are waiting for someone else. Happy hunting!

Well that's good news. Came up dry at the Fort Worth TRU yesterday. Hopefully that means they'll hit this week. Thanks for the report!

This is wonderful! Great details and unique ideas. It's really cool how it splits apart, and I like the tunnel on the stairway and trap door to the dungeon.

Hahah, that's great! You had me going for a second before I scrolled down. Thanks! It's wonderful to see these in context with each other.

I think you did a great job. I'd like to do something very similar. Great inspiration.

Cool! Love it. Now how about the connected sets pics? ;-)

I found the Highway Speedster at Walmart. Really fun build and the final product is spectacular. I had no idea it had scissor-up Lambo doors. So cool. I highly recommend picking this one up. Even if you don't leave it built, there are lots of good parts including plenty of white slopes, which are always useful for snow.

Terrible. Luckily, it's scientifically proven that kids respond to poor design by begging their parents to throw money at it. /sarcasm

That would seem more likely, and infinitely more disappointing. :-/

Has anyone found the white sports car? I've seen everything else at retail (TRU/Lego store), but no white car.

Excellent, thanks for the update!

You read my mind, Artie.

This is one incredible build! Aside from the multi-color roof, I like your use of color. It's much more brave than I would attempt, but it's working for me. Keep going! I can't wait to see how this turns out.

This is superb! Love the scale and colors.

Another wonderful addition to the series! I wish I could see the oven, and I'd really love to see it connected to other sets. Keep up the good work.

Very cool, I like this a lot. As far as criticism, more color on the tiles he's standing on and on the wall so there's more contrast. Easier to see the armory collection that way. Also, add arch pieces above the windows. Small knits to pick though. This is a fun MOC. I can't wait to get my hands on that knight.