ogami_ito

I think that history is generally unknown to most people. Even with Lego Castle themes, we see a mix of weaponry and styles that have little to do with real history. That being said, certain story elements do seem fairly known, such as Kungfu fighters, Journey to the West, and Three Kingdoms (among video-game enthusiasts anyway). There are two sides to this: the sets themselves and the theme-story about the sets. The sets can be just cool China-themed castles. Using some different building styles and such. This can include a small and large "junk" style ship (using the common English name for it). I actually want this more than the castles. The theme-story, on the otherhand, can and should be completely made up. For example: The standard option is to have a few factions (ie. Phoenix Kingdom, KungFu Heros, Fox-Spirit cultists), mirroring what Castle is usually about. Non-Licensed Ancient Chima ... which is just Chima with ancient Chinese characteristics in Castle sets Licensed Kungfu Panda series - which is just Chima with ancient Chinese characteristics in Caste sets, and names from the show slapped on the same mini-figs. This would be very cool, and Kungfu Panda seems to be very popular. Just my thoughts on how that could work OK. I'm sort of sorry for bringing that up. It seems there is a movement among many Asian - Americans to change they way they are portrait in media (google "Not your Asian side-kick"). To me, the Oriental Adventure theme seemed to go into sensitive territory in some way, but I don't think it matters as far as these discussion forum.

Asian Americans tend to find it insulting because "orient" means that they are defined from the position of the West. Or something like that. And furthermore, the set has white man as a hero... maybe an Asian girl as a sidekick, and main bad-guy being the Chinese guy. Which recalls Fu Manchu. I sort of see where they are coming from, although I actually think Fu Manchu is retro-cool. Tea farm would be a small-ish set with a hidden small shrine and brick-made vegetation. Which... actually is cool. Could be a cool "Friend's" set too. I don't see GW being good except as a architecture set. The beauty of the Wall is that it is made ontop of mountains... running with the mountains ridges. That is hard to do unless you use a lot of bricks, or you make it in micro-scale (still hard to do). Along the wall are forts... not really any civilian structure on the tops of mountains.

I think that would be cool. But I'm thinking more of a Castle-theme with Chinese castles. Journey West would have things like caves, demon mini-figs, and "heaven castles". To me, besides the mini-figs, sounds a little boring. And the mini-figs can be accomplished using Chima + some customization / addition of Asian dress from the Orient adventures themes (don't know if there is a pig-head though). Why would Chinese castles, boats, warriors, siege machines, towns, etc be less fun than what's available now? I don't know what CMF Panda is. Again, why would it not sell? I'm from United States BTW, although I live in China. What my children know of Castles they mostly see from LOTR and castles they visited in Asia. Are you saying that Westerners would only appreciate Western-style castles and mini-figs? I didn't mean make it explicit. She could be a wuxia fighter with a secret identity as a tea-house manager. It's just that in some wuxia literature, tea-houses were also sort of prostitute houses, but not exactly. I was not suggesting that Lego explicitly create that type of identity for a mini-fig. Thanks for showing me that pic. I like that temple BTW. But I think it can be updated to look more like a castle instead of a palace/temple. And it can do without the "Orient Adventure" BTW (which a lot of Asian Americans may find insulting).

Hi all, First post (I think) to this forum. The point of this thread is: I want a China theme. I just searched through brickpedia and found the "Oriental" Adventure theme. Yeah... very un PC of TLG, not that I care. I know that Ninjago is "Asian-ish" and has one or two really beautiful Japanese-style buildings. This is great, but there is a lot more really cool stuff to be found in China. For starters, the low-hanging fruit of a China theme would be the "Three Kingdoms" sub-theme. Personally I can't stand 3K as it has been done to death in video games and a stupid ripped-off card-game. But looking at it from a Lego point of view, this theme can have all sorts of named mini-figs from the 3K story. A more generalized, non-specific China theme could include: The Spirit Monks (or whatever stand-in for Xiaolin / Wudang, Kunlun): temple structure kungfu fighter mini-figs. Minifigs can have moon knives, jian, dao, etc. legends of the Wulin sets for a tournament Tea-house brawl (should have one seductive female mini-fig to imply that the teahouse is a brothel to adult lego players... as the teahouses were often brothels , in wuxia literature that is) The Imperial Faction: Castle Outpost Sea Junk (different type of large sea-craft set) River Junk (smaller version of the above) River Paddle-Boat (thinking horse-powered paddleboat with threads pushing a paddle-wheel... such a thing was actually used in war hundreds of years ago) Various army leader minifigs. A guandao weapon would be great. Imperial Temple Water town set (like Suzhou... buildings next to canals) North-town sets (grey brick mixed with red) Rescue the prince set (basically a chinese- style carriage with attackers... references the start of 3K when the prince was kidnaped) Horse Clan Faction: Horse + minifig sets with assorted yurt "bases" Usurpers faction: siege pack, with medievel Chinese rocket launchers small usurpers castle Demon cultists lair What do you guys think?

I have seen some people on this long thread say "Dynasty Warriors". That's a little silly... because they could... and should... do Three Kingdoms. (But is saying this OT in a thread about licensed themes? I will continue with this anyway as I don't think there is a non-licensed dream theme thread.)Now, 3Kingdoms would give TLG some more sales in China... but not much. Chinese usually buy cheap toys unless the toy has a "status" element or it is heavily marketed as an education learning device (not toy). But some people would buy it. The other problem with 3Kingdoms is the clone brands that already do this. And doing a 3 Kingdoms toy is OK, but a little like getting on the band-wagon. I think it would be cool to introduce the theme "Ancient China".Based off of the Song Dynasty, Ancient China could be about the conflict between the Sky Emperor (not in the sky... its just another word of "heavenly" or "celestrial") and the Horseman. We could have a lot of cool architecture with a more realistic feel. We could have weird gun-powder weapons that would seem almost steam-punk-ish. Cool paddle-wheel boats and a Junk. Castles, of course. And Asian-medieval townscape. Great cavalry mini-fig battlepacks. Lots of cool stuff. And it would be popular in both Western and especially Asian markets.

Hi, I got the transformers sets. Kreo blocks fit very snugly with lego. I don't believe the colors are the same though.