DaleDVM

I hope the set is real. Time will tell. I need more civilians.

The Fright Knights followed by Knights Kingdom threw me into my dark ages... and contributed to LEGO nearly going under. I collected all of those sets anyway. But it took me a decade to open them. And when I did. They were just as bad as I expected them to be. IMHO, it would be better if they never happened in the first place.

@ CP5670 So sorry I couldn't respond on Saturday. I was surrounded by the public. I hope you were able to find me. I should have given a description of my display. @ Peppermint I hope you can make it back to Chicago. I miss so many of our old European friends. I know it is a long way to travel. This year we had over 90 people partake in the party. It seemed like everyone had a good time and left with full tummies. Already looking forward to next year.

Hey everyone. The Europeans should be packing up and boarding flights to Chicago. I only have to drive 45 minutes, without traffic... How can I repay all those who are traveling so far to bring their LEGO here? It is a small thing to do, but it is pizza that comes straight from the heart to you! The pizza party is on again. This will be the 14th annual (damn Covid) pizza party! I am so looking forward to seeing what the Eurobricks crew has in store this year! Make sure to stop by on Saturday, say hello, and give me $5 and more importantly your preferred type of pizza. Can't wait! Edit: My display is close to the entrance this year.

I did not know that they were now compensating people 5% for their designs? Is that figure correct? If so, that is a step in the right direction. If people do not know. Several years ago TLG hired a bunch of business types that have no interest in LEGO to run their business. It used to be that if you worked for the company in any capacity you had to be a LEGO fan. Those suits fired a bunch of experienced set designers because their salaries were considered too expensive. I know a couple of those set designers. They were middle aged people in the prime of their earning potential. And yet... their salaries weren't even 6 figures in USD. The new management thought those people wanted too much and they were let go. TLG then hired a bunch of young twenty something AFOLs on the cheap to save money. This saved the company a few million dollars when they were already making billions. But hey, the suits justified themselves getting hired by cutting company costs. I know this is typical corporate behavior, but when I started collecting LEGO, this company was family run, and it did make a difference. @MAB I also imagine for some people it is an honor to have your set made by TLG. That is the problem IMHO. When people feel honored, they do not properly value their labor, then they may get taken advantage of, and somebody loses their occupation. Just my opinion.

I am not certain how I feel about these sets. I am not exactly a fan of "unofficial" LEGO sets floating around. I also do not like how TLG is (IMHO) taking advantage of AFOLs to do their set designing for them. I am a LEGO castle collector. I am only short 6 tiny sets from having a complete collection a few times over. And yet, I don't feel the desire to get these sets at all. They are hard to get, pricey, and really do not offer anything that makes them unique. They are well designed and beautiful. But I feel like I am buying somebody's MOC. Just my opinion.

Those Donkey Kong leaves can certainly be used for more than just palm leaves. They could be used to make a large variety of foliage. Definitely a tropical vibe with those large leaves though.

I suppose I could use a couple of the Maleficent and Princess dresses. The Robin hood body can also be useful if you can cover up the white fur in the front. The outfits are not the best for medieval MOCs, but are passable as long as you don't have too many in a scene.

Give me minifigs. Of course, I like when a set looks good. However, a set does not have to be big to be of quality. Small and detailed sets with more figs is what I desire. Like what others have said. I can get cheap brick anywhere. Few sets TLG is going to sell are going to match the quality and scale that an AFOL can achieve anyway. Therefore I need a quantity and variety of minifigs and unique parts to occupy the world that I make for them. After all figs, medieval gear/accessories, heraldry, barding, weapons, armor, animals, fabric items, etc. are things that I can't MOC. I need to be provided with those crucial parts in any medieval set that is released. I will say that as long as LEGO keeps making medieval minifigs available on B&P, I will be able to obtain medieval figs in the numbers that I need for a reasonable price. Thank you LEGO group! However, I still want more figs in sets just so we get a greater variety of figs. Especially for civilians. It is OK for an army of soldiers to all look similar. The peasants, workers, merchants, artisans, royals, need a more varied appearance. Historically there are just not a lot of medieval civilian minifigs. I am saying this, and it is likely I have one of the largest collections of medieval civilian figs in the world. Sadly too many of them look similar... There is only so much you can do with hair and faces when the clothes look identical.

Nice work Shroffy. I hope I can mix the fantasy era trolls, CMF orcs, and this Master of the Mountain Ninjago guy. I got a ton of these pretty cheap in a polybag. What is that torso on the orc with the Jack Sparrow hairpiece? Love that look!

Great thread to read! Thanks to all that have been discussing this. I am only a month behind on this news. I am curious if any better pictures ever leaked of this set? I only see the small grainy photo currently up on the internet with the two confidential stamps on it. I am really looking forward to seeing this set when it is finalized. As I always say in these threads the real value will come with the new civilian prints, new molds for medieval builds, and other hard to get parts. Obviously many of the animals fall into this category. If the civilians torsos are taken from the blacksmith set, and/or the LKC peasants, I will be very, very disappointed. I've already obtained 50ish of each through B&P and/or LUGbulk. Civilian prints closer to the fantasy era, or even better, robe-like similar to Jedi torsos would be incredible! It does appear that the new LOTR torsos will add some fantastic variety for merchants and casually dressed nobles now that the flesh part of their torsos is notably absent. I just don't know how I will obtain a fair number of them. Do we think the Rivendell set will ever make those torsos and legs available on B&P? I haven't really purchased licensed stuff on B&P ever. Finally, I obtained about 150 orcs and 50 ish Falconers. I resorted to Bricklink and paid a premium (around $7.50) to get most of them. Some I got in store by feeling them out... Army building with CMFs is getting too hard and very expensive. Even at the LEGO store they come out to be $5.50 with tax. I'm kind of an idiot for collecting them in numbers. But I guess in a decade they will be worth double or more than what they are now. When they go to putting the CMFs in boxes, Bricklink will be the only place I obtain them.

It is an amazing looking set. MOC worthy by an AFOL and certainly one of the best TLG has ever released. The only part not truly MOC worthy are the trees. There is only so much a LEGO designer can do to make great trees before the costs of the set balloon into the stratosphere. So the trees included look good enough to complement the rest of the design. As for the minis some are better, some are worse than the originals. However, all of them look pretty good. The legs and parts for making the minis sit is just perfection! I am most excited for the new molds. The weapons look great. The leaf pieces are going to be the most useful. And damn, that is a lot of printed floor tiles! They are beautiful! Boromir's shield is literally perfect as a generic round shield for so many factions! I hope I find a cheap way to obtain hundreds of them. I will get a pair of these sets to go with my 2 complete collections of the previous sets. The set is certainly expensive. However, my heirs can sell them for more than double what I bought them for 20-30 years down the line. It is an investment, and in the meantime I can enjoy them.

I literally read this post and it did not register in my brain about the 10305 minifigs. They are sold out now but it is good to know this may be an option in the future! Thanks for the post! AND I got the final two Viking torsos that I was missing. Thanks again!

I look forward to the finished design. I hope we can get a variety of generic figs that fit in with the castle theme. I also hope that they might have some generic looking heraldry and shields.

This is the first series that adds two figs to existing factions. The tough part is at $5 per fig, it makes army collecting them rather painful. So many of my large armies were obtained by collecting chess sets and other inexpensive purchasing methods. And yet... I will get as many as I can of both. At least 50 of the Falcon and 100 of the Orc. Absolutely love the new tan bow! I will LUGBulk that if it becomes available as a part. I could use many hundreds of them!

I would love for a flat round shield with planks printed on it. Perhaps both with and without a small metal studded rim printed around the outer edge. These would be fantastic shields to give to all of the rogue type factions...

I am waiting to see if the minis make it onto bricks and pieces. I have 3 castles now but will get 3 more if I can't get the minifigs.

I also bit at double points and the two GWP sets. That will be two castles. Now, I will await a similarly good sale for my third, fourth, etc. I had viking torsos in my cart Friday and forgot to get them. Now they are out of stock... ugh...

Are there any good promos happening at LEGO stores soon so I can buy multiples of the castle with either max VIP points or giveaways?

At $500 (if the rumors are true) it will be, almost certainly, a playset. 5-6 thousand pieces... There is nothing in the LOTR except locations for that much brick to be sunk into. Minas Tirith would be my guess. It is the set everyone is clamoring for.

I kind of abandoned any historical context for my LEGO castle collection when the dragons and Majisto appeared. From then on I figured pretty much anything goes.

Many LUGs have stopped using email and are now using slack and discord to communicate. email is so 2000s... hehe... This is about 25 of my second favorite breastplates on one of my most obscure and smallest factions. I loved the speckled silver and black of these breastplates. They weren't offered on a lot of minifigs so they are a bit expensive to obtain in numbers. The copper and black speckled breastplates are my absolute favorite. Those only showed up on one minifig ever... This guy. These things are absolutely gorgeous! I have about 25 of these too...

I may not even display this castle set once it is done. I might just take it apart. My loose parts for MOCing (one and a half million pieces) and currently built displays for LEGO shows takes up half a room, half of my garage, AND fills a moving truck that I bought just for moving my LEGO from show to show. So, I get it that having space to display 4 of these castles would be mind boggling. I currently don't have any sets on display in my entire house. Built sets take up a lot more room than the parts alone. There just isn't enough room for assembled/displayed sets with all of the LEGO I have collected. Perhaps I need a bigger house? But a bigger house would severely cut into my LEGO budget! One has to keep their priorities straight!

I bought one castle today. No GWP, as they sold out on the 1st of August in all 5 Chicagoland LEGO stores. I will open and build this set and am excited to do so. As for the other 2-5 I am planning on buying, I will wait for double points or a good giveaway before buying them. This set will be on shelves for at least a year and I can afford to be patient. Why TLG let the GWP run out before the castle came out is beyond me. As I have said before. Most people who got those forestmen sets with their purchases won't care one bit about them. I know one thing for certain... That GWP set is not going to sway a single "non castle" person to now buy the $400 castle just to go with their 250 piece free forestmen set.

More like 4-5 hundred. However, I have over ten thousand castle/fantasy army figs. So the number with breastplates is actually a small percentage. However, all of them do have printed castle torsos since I have not gone about making customized figs from parts. So... I should replace them some day since blank torsos and legs are pretty cheap to buy. I also have about 600 civilian/royalty/merchant/peasant figs. The civies are my real prized possessions. I agree that the pointed visor helm really looks out of place without the breastplate armor. Although, I have not tried it with the shoulder armor yet. I think the great helm works both with and without the breastplate. But I still think it looks better with the breastplate armor. Even the grill helm looks better with the breastplate. Another trick that makes the helms look a little better without the breastplate is adding a cape. It makes the shoulder area look larger so the helmet doesn't make the minifigs look too top heavy.