Norro

I still haven't started story MOCing yet, in the meantime I've been building 'practice' MOCs, each for how I envision a particular line of castle citizens to live behave... this is the wealthy, no-longer war hardened Royal knight/lion empire... as opposed to the rugged, still heavily defended Cliffton Castle, an outpost of the Black Knights... God Bless, Nathan

Try the bleys in person Mr Phes, that is the only cure for the delusion that they will interact with/are better than the greys... God Bless, Nathan

What do you mean by continuity of characters like pirates? After 1994 there were no more named characters. Red Beard was still there, but more importantly by my way of reckoning it was still clearly the same 'world'... God Bless, Nathan

I would also like to add to the adventurers debate that some of the catalogues trailed Orient Expedition as 'The adventures of Johnny Thunder continue...' but even without this, the line is stylistically similiar and inhabits the same 'world' as the original line, to me that makes up a theme... God Bless, Nathan

From my stand point at least, you are mixing two arguments here (slightly). The continuity of the castle line was not in named characters (like pirates or adventurers) but in a world that, despite stylistic ebbs and flows each line could interrelate ie set a 'fright knight' next to a royal knight, or black knight and you say, 'hey different team but could be the same world'. Chuck in a jelly bean and you say 'nope, not the same world'. You also had an absence of rigid story upto and (barely) including KK1. KK2 snapped and became 'playsets' for a set of mega knights who clearly inhabit their own very much non-system world. That is the difference for me. Also I would like to add it isn't about set quality, FK is the worst thing Lego produced for many years, KK2 is better for building. Yet I'll still draw the line to include FK and not KK2.. I also hold it is not neccessarily what you grew up on... Take a poll on cc (which has a lot of younger users) and you'll still get the usual suspects toping the list, not KK2 anyway ;) God Bless, Nathan

Except that these 'rocks' are shiny and reflective ; ) God Bless, Nathan

Thanks much, God Bless, Nathan

I know they had a name... so did many old pirate/castle sets. The issue is a rigid renactment of a story... I wasn't aware of the online comic, but the comics in the sets themselves seemed to be starters rather than a complete story... God Bless, Nathan

Hey, 1) I like it... what more can I say, I guess it's a taste thing... 2) The castle looks better in person... but I do like the gatehouse. What does 'many' construe? 3) The bases are plain to provide contrast to the excessively detailed rest... 4)It is a wealthy city (it was built with that in mind) and a lot of the interiors are pretty stocked.. God Bless, Nathan

Orient Expedition includes characters/story in a slightly heavier, but still traditional Lego way (give them a name and off they go, orient expedition adds a goal...) KK2 is based on a fully developed story (no real freedom of events or outcome...very Bionicle...) God Bless, Nathan

Are you going to want that grey? God Bless, Nathan (acts innocently)

Well... Here is my humble opinion: KK2 is distinct from castle. (Not just because of the bley.) All previous castle themes interrelated (the brochures showed the factions fighting each other) but even when you picked the figs up they could fairly easily stand next to each other... In my MOCs I use castle figs that span the whole range of the castle theme (except the yellow castle figs because I don't have any) and it looks good. I don't use the multi-colour men because it would look terrible. Then there is the Bionicle connection, all previous castle themes (Including KK1 which I consider castle) started from a traditional lego theme based vaugery (ie not actionfigures with stories of which they were merely the playsets). I hate to disagree with SuvieD but what I consider to be the best themes has very little relation to what I grew up on... I know kids now who are growing up on KK2 but complaiin about the colours, they bring a BFF out of the closet (the legend) as their most treasured set... I (that's right me) define a theme as an lines of sets that interrelat, ie WW is independant, adventurers includes Orient Expedition (it is the same characters). Rock Raiders is obviously distinct etc... God Bless, Nathan

I prefer grey in space MOCs as well (when you're stubborn, you're really stubborn :-D ). I just meant that while an SW builder might not see a huge difference, a Castle fan certainly does! God Bless, Nathan

How will the Armarda respond?! I await an equally excellent MOC phes... God Bless, Nathan

1) Why not? It's a valid point :-D ! 2) This is where castle and SW fans seperate 'ever so slightly'* (* understatement warning ;) ) God Bless, Nathan

I have to disagre slightly with the sentiment that bley goes with a wide range of colours... put it next to green, brown, blue,yellow, or any colour you use for scenery and it looks pathetic. I hate the bley...personally I would advise collecting old grey, the old sets are better anyway. New brown I can tolerste, but never as trees... I used it here (pic=link) to what I think is good effect... God Bless, Nathan

Actually I wasn't back on EB when I started constuction so I only remembered you as Red Beard... how was I to know you'd shaved to mere black stubble? God Bless, Nathan

A nice rare selection of pirate sets there... I tried to hunt some of these down a while ago but couldn't get over the minimum price barrier (I'm not cheap, I just don't have the money :-D ) If you don't want the castle 1/2 of 1723 be sure to throw it my way (it probably won't make it over the ocean if you just throw it so you may want some form of catapult or cannon, please be sure to take in the rotation of the earth or it will miss me...) On a note about 'rubbing in' someone on Lugnet posted this comment re 1729 "One of my only Pirate sets"... God Bless, Nathan

'ready to play' lego is my own nickname for those sets that show the model in a few stages on the back of the box (rather than alternate designs) to convince parents it will be easy to build. Some of these sets even had the stages of the model in different bags, open bag 1 to build _ , open bag 2 to build _ . They were mostly characterized by poor design and an emphasis on 'playing' with the finished model rather than 'building' with the pieces... JoJo assocciates it with the change of Lego's slogan to 'Play On' (like we don't build now, we just play). It also fits in with the movie lines, where it is important to re-enact the scene, rather than build with the pieces... God Bless, Nathan

Castle ended when they brought in the bley*... so I'll reluctantly have to allow FK (although I don't own any and don't think of them as castle domain...) But a good case could be made for Lego (or at least its best era) ending the FK year anyway... *you're welcome to disagree, but it is just different in bley (even if the sets were still decent.) God Bless, Nathan

I like to make MOCs loosley based off of my own star wars plot about smugglers bounty hunters and sith lords and Castle of course :-D God Bless, Nathan

I had to go with Sheriff's Lock-Up because it so simple and brilliant. It is the WW equivelent of Lagoon Lockup. It has a huge amount for the price and is a nice representitive of the theme as a whole. GSJ and FL are also good... but not as Legendary ; ) God Bless, Nathan

Hi and Welcome! By 'customs' do you mean MOCs or custom bricks/figs? God Bless, Nathan

To an old fashioned Lego purist like myself this statement is incomprehencible :-D God Bless, Nathan

This is more an appraisal of how I see them rather than an accurate statement... It is so easy to fall below the high standard that is Castle (like pirate did, he says innocently taking the post back on topic :-D ) God Bless, Nathan