DaleDVM

Unfortunately if you want a troll army that is large and well armed you have to pay decent money for them right now. I just picked up 30 troll impulse sets from a lego store for half off as well. My current troll army numbers at about 100 figs but I am looking to triple that size. I agree that the troll impulse set is disappointing for the lack of a shield. Right now I am being patient and waiting for the best sets for army building to go on sale later. I still have hope that a troll battle pack will come out in the future. If I ever catch the large chess set on sale at 50% off I will buy 10 on the spot. I want to expand my dwarf army as well. Since my armies number in the 3250 to 3500 fig range right now. I can only say that I am a sick sick man. I have armies of 50 to 400 figs from every faction lego ever released in the castle line. I also have a bunch of custom factions in smaller army sizes from 25 to 50 members each. What do I do with them... I am making a huge diorhamma in my garage of a castle kingdom and they will be the figs to populate it. In the meantime I have them all lined up on green 16 x 32 plates in units of about 25 troops each. I keep them in boxes so they don't collect dust. Can you imagine cleaning them all? You might ask if he has 100 trolls why would he need more? Well I am kinda crazy about keeping my factions in similar sizes. My skeles number about 300 and the crownies are about 350. I want a troll army to be somewhat the equal of the skeles and crownies. I just wish they would stop selling the crownies in all of their sets as I keep getting more and more of them and I don't want their faction to get any larger. As for selling my extra minifigs. This is out of the question. I get almost all of my figs in sets and the resale value for the sets drops if they are not complete. If I sell off my lego someday it will be as sets so I can get the most money back for them. In the meantime I use the figs and the sets for the parts they contain. I have been collecting figs and the castle line as a whole going on 20 years now. It took me a couple of months just to set up these figs into cohesive units with varied weaponry and heraldry. I agree with many that it doesn't take as much talent to put together vast armies as it does a good MOC, but it does take some imagination to put them together and make them look good. It also takes a great deal of money, especially if you are collecting older figs that are not in current production. I do have to admit I love that my armies catch the eyes of children and some of the adults as well at the conventions. I think if it brings a smile and its lego it must be a good thing.

Is this a big hint. Well... time will tell... I am convinced the elves will come out eventually. I think it is even possible for a late fall release similar to the dwarf mine two years ago. I know, I know, an official in the lego group said no elves in 2009... Again time will tell... The forestmen coming back is much less likely right now imo. This is called the fantasy era for lego castle after all. I am absolutely certain about one thing, TLC will continue the good vs evil factions they have been making recently. I attended a lecture by a Lego company designer at one of the conventions last year. In that lecture he said that children really connected well in focus groups with the good guys vs obvious bad guys in the castle line toys. He said the preference was something approximating 90% of children preferred this to two sides where neither side is obviously bad. He also noted that TLC was surprised by the overwhelming results and that is why they came out with the skeletons in the first place. As has been noted it is relatively obivous to tell who the bad guys are in all of the current sets. That being said, I do not think that an entire new evil faction will come out with the elves when they come. Although it is a possibility. The skeles are still going strong after 2 years and the trolls are only a bit over a year old at this point. That evil witch has yet to come out in a play set. I could see her leading some more skeletons in the forest vs the elves. Whatever happens isn't it fun to speculate...

Well I am impressed with the pictures. Thanks for posting them. Is the catapult next to the witch made with some new container type of piece. It looks rounded like a big bowl of some sort. The new flames look great!. I can't wait to put those to use. Although I agree the seaweed pieces look a little out of place, I am glad they are now making them in dark green. Very useful that! The golden knight does look pretty flashy. He's all pimped out! I like him. Not at all rainbow like... Hmm... That troll king's torso may be new, but looks awefully similar to the grey troll torso from last year. I would have thought TLG would have changed it up a bit more if they were gonna make a new one altogether. I wish I could see a closeup of that. I also note the large trolls don't seem to have made an appearance yet.

Looks like the Greeks and Romans have over 50% of the responses. Romans in the lead by quite a bit. Either of those periods would be lots of fun. I don't expect it anytime by the lego company however. I'm just not sure kids today are as engrossed in ancient greek mythology as we were when we were young. They seem to have their own mythology altogether. Seems to me that kids are more involved in current Japanese mythology like Pokemon, Dragonball Z, etc.

Nice idea Oswald. Although it won't happen any time soon. Heck we got the market this year I wouldn't be looking for any more groundbreaking sets in the castle line. As for whining about the kings included. I will whine till the cows come home. Hey... the cows did come home (in the market set) didn't they?! Well I'm gonna keep whining anyway. I tend to collect many copies of lego sets and also army build. I think lego should keep the king to two types of sets. Big ones like KCS, and impulse sets with only the King included. That impulse set would sell great... I think lego really loses business when they put individual character figs in cheaper sets that some would buy many copies of for army building. Although I am a great fan of lego castle, (I have multiples of almost every set ever made) I will never be a blinded fan. Should I just be happy they are releasing something for me to spend my money on. I think not. They want my money and therefore I have the right to give my feedback on the products they release. It is your "just release anything castle" type of attitude that gave us Knights Kingdom. TLC should not just release castle sets but they have to be well designed and desirable to the masses. I think they have done well over the last 2 years, but I do worry about the near future. I don't just want something to buy this year, I want a great product line that will sell very well and therefore go on for years to come. I think your comments are rather short sighted. Buying extra helmets just to make the king some sort of guard is something I already do. However, I don't want to do it for every set i buy. So far this year all three sets have figures I do not need too many of. I hope the final models will change but I have no great hope for it. Please let there be battle packs later in the year so I don't have to buy all those extra figs...

The Troll Fortress: Did anyone note that the troll King's crown is a different color than the crownie King's? It looks to be a more copperish color. Now that would make me happy as I have oodles and oodles of regular crowns. The large flames on the Orc fortress could be very useful. Overall the fortress looks like a decent one. I think they had to go with light grey to differentiate between the built parts of the fortress and the rock underneath. The large trolls have a logo on their helmets. Makes me wonder if they are going to go in this direction with them... I hope the clubs also stay dark brown like that. Much better than the light bley clubs. There is a nice mixture of choco and reddish brown parts included. The drawbridge defense: This structure is slopetastic! The architectural detail is nice and even nicer because of all of the light bley slopes included to make it. I see that the gold knight is pearl gold and not yellow. Much better. His helm looks to be gold plated. That would be something new and exciting. I can't really make out the queen in the photo. The chariot: this looks overly large for one horse. That can be easily fixed. I love that the trolls have shields. This set would make for a fantastic army builder except for the fact that you would get a crapload of kings! The red plume also doesn't go well with the rest of the heraldry but I could give it to my other factions! Someone asked about the grey thing on the front of the chariot. It is a crossbow.

I want to see a dwarf battle pack. Any single dwarf in numbers looks silly because they all have the same beard color. I already have way too many with the red beard from last years releases. The advent calendar had a brown beard. Only could pull off two of those sets though here in the US. If the chess set ever comes down in price I will buy them in spades to build up my dwarf army.

Hey everyone. It has been a while since I checked the boards. Holidays and all. I am rather confused about this thread? A german poster comes on the boards and types a few lines of what I would consider jibberish. The last line saying atleast 6 castle sets, and all of a sudden only 6 sets are coming out next year total? Wow, I don't know who this person was, (I am new here) but I am guessing it must have been the lead designer of lego? I firmly believe there will be more than 6 castle sets this year. As for the 14 sets that were mentioned to me earlier. I, of course, cannot be certain of this but my source has been right in the past every time. As for 14 sets being outlandish, I would note that last year there were 12 castle sets. And most of the 2007 sets were still in production. I am still hopeful for a glorious year of castle. I do agree completely that the castle sets will wait until later in the year mostly due to the pirate lineup. As for the photos. I hope to all that is magical in castle that these are not the final versions. I have little to comment on the troll mountain fortress as it does look big and thats fine by me. I have to wait for better pics to get any idea of the quality of the set. (I do note the 2 kings included) What the heck is the jester doing in the drawbridge defense? The structure itself looks fine. I agree more royal knight-like than KK. The gold Knight looks ridiculous, atleast in that fuzzy pic. I admit I may have been wrong to trust lego on minifig design if this is the character that is released! (Also note the queen and jester are in this set) The chariot does look way overly large, but the pic is fuzzy so better analysis will be needed. (note another King fig) Special comment: The king fig included in the chariot ruins that set for me. It is a cheap set that I would usually buy multiples of. I already have way too many King figs. The last thing anyone wants is an army of crowned kings. Even when you modify these figs you have to buy a helmet and often other gear seperately for them. Putting individual characters into the castle sets keeps people from buying multiple copies for army building. I thought TLG learned from this in the past. Last year they limited certain special figs to only a few sets. Now we are getting atleast 1 or more special characters in every set we know about this year including the queen, jester, and gold knight figs. I am afraid that this will really hurt sales. Lego really needs another good faction to be released. The dwarves were a welcome relief to me as allies of the crownies. No dwarves to be seen in this years sets is a total disappointment. I really expected the dwarves to be the foe of the trolls in the troll mountain fortress set. The crownies are now in their third year and by all accounts still going strong. I am an army collector and I think I've got too many of these guys. I will have to wait patiently for better pics and future releases before I can get excited about the 2009 lineup.

I love everything lego has been doing with castle over the last couple of years so I will go on a little faith if they make a gold knight. All of the minifigs released lately have had great color schemes. I don't think lego will ever make the Jelly Bean mistake again. I'm with Kim T fantasy is great. It is so easy to strip the fantasy elements out of the castle sets and make them more historical if you like. But it is very hard for kids to add in fantasy elements like skeletons, orcs, dragons and the like if lego doesn't make them. The Fantasy element is what makes these sets sell and it is what is going to keep castle going for years to come. I am one who believes it is the success of the current fantasy based castle theme that finally alowed a pure civilian set to be released to us. The medieval market will be a great seller amongst fans but I doubt the average lego consumer would be as interested in it for their kids. So keep up the great work TLC. The more castle sells the more sets that will be made for the theme and that sounds good to me! Lastly I have heard from a very reliable source that 14 castle sets are coming out next year. This is just the first bunch to be released. So everyone relax the info will come out when it is supposed to. Or when it is leaked

I am very much doubting the troll mountain fortress will be a castle at all. I am thinking it will be more like a troll mountain fortress! The Hag will certainly be in this set. She looks incredible. I am thinking the fortress will be rocky (some burps and lurps) with lots of sharp spiky protrusions (spears, teeth pieces, etc.) The fortress itself likely a combo of rock and wooden fortifications. I imagine it kind of random and not an organized defense at all. I don't think this will resemble the skeleton tower at all. The piece count is much more substantial so it will be much bigger. I am very excited about it. I am hoping the dwarves are facing off with the trolls in this set. Goodness knows I've got too many crownies by this point already. I'm gonna have more because I collect all of the sets and there seems to be no end of the crownies being released. I am surprised by this as the crownies as a faction are in their 3rd year now. The King's battle chariot. Hmm... I don't really see the queen being released in this set. If the set was called the Kings carriage I could see it... but a battle chariot. I just hope this isn't released with a King minifig. I hate when small sets that you can buy multiples of, come with figures that you only need one of. Lastly 105 pieces for a chariot seems like a lot, unless something else comes along with this set. Drawbridge defense. Sounds interesting. I am hoping again that this is a dwarf set. But I doubt that. It will be a valuable addition to most peoples Kings castle sige. I will likely use this as a parts set. Again more crownies I do not need. The queen may show up in this set? I am looking forward to more dwarves and trolls. These figs are rare and expensive to obtain in mass. If you don't have a lot of crownies by now you don't really want or can't afford to get a lot of them. They are plentiful everywhere. I would love to see another human faction released this year. If that happens I will jump for joy! This is not the full release of the 2009 castle sets. These will be spring release sets. The majority of the sets will be released in the summer like they were last year in the USA. We must all be patient. Although it must be harder for people in other countries. The 2008 sets were released much earlier for you folks, and hence a longer wait between product lines. Lastly KimT is right those sets are not likely to be released. Being a veterinarian I would have to confirm that there is no puppy in that photo. However, I thought it was a puppy too!

I am somewhat confused by people calling this type of piece <insert that tiresome argument> or blocky and in the next breath praising old classic castle sets that were chuck full of wall pieces. I think many people have glorified the old sets in their minds eye. Go back and rebuild some of those classics that you love and then build the Kings castle siege. The new sets have more brick not less than the old. I also like to use brick instead of POOPs. However, I think TLC should be given credit where it is due. The new sets are easily as detailed and as good as the older sets. Now back on topic. The new piece will be stable enough. It is only 5 high and 4 wide. Being smaller it will be much easier to add brick around and even in front of this piece to disguise it. This will make it much more versatile. I find it to be a vast improvement on the old castle wall piece. The biggest difference will be the lack of the rearward protrusion. This "shelf" while sometimes useful was also difficult to hide when doing interiors to your buildings. I am looking forward to this in grey, brown, and black.

I for one do believe the price will be stable. If you look at the pieces included many of them are very small. There are a bunch of 1x1 round plates and bricks and more 1x2 bricks than I can count. These pieces can be obtained for a couple of pennies each. I think people get too caught up in the piece count. Don't get me wrong I think this is a good deal and I love all of the small pieces as it is great for MOCing. However, as far as TLC's pricing is concerned; Legos are some of the most expensive toys on the market. With a global economic slowdown on the way I think prices like this are going to be needed to move the product in volume.

I do not want an orc castle. However a mountain encampment would be great. This is the way I voted. I know the elves will come eventually. I am patient. More village stuff would be great but I think they should do 1 set of village stuff per year. Kids will not be as excited for the village stuff and it is important to keep castle selling plenty of copies. I could do alot with a few of the market sets. Long live castle!

I posted this on the Classic castle website and only modified it a bit for this site. First I have to say this set is better than my wildest expectations. I would like to say that it left me speechless... but I got better. (no I was not turned into a newt) However, as I am now over that... there is just too much to talk about so here goes... I see several other pieces (not mentioned already) that I have never seen before. Maybe they are parts from non-castle sets, as I collect mostly castle stuff I don't really know. Please let me know if I am mistaken and what type of part they are. The part holding the waterwheel together. I do not recognise it. The tubes holding up the roof on the market stand and next to the windows in the tavern. These look like they are a hand held telescope.? The red plume on the Rooster is not transparent. Now we will have new plumes for our knights. The arch over the entrance and windows to the tavern. I think it may be a vehicle fender but I have never seen these except maybe on a box cover?. If those are Choco brown tiles they are new as well. This is a MOC builders dream set. All of the animals are incredible. The peasants are unbelievable! (somebody pinch me) I never would have believed they would come out with 4 new peasant torsos this year. 2 female and 2 male. I am including the blacksmith as it looks very useful as well. The two new faces (old man and blacksmith) are perfect as well. I have been told that the wench does have a green dress by a Lego company official. This set has so many small accessories, brush, knife, plate, cheese wedge, whole turkey, apples, carrot, barrels in choco brown, the signs, etc. These are the usually very expensive items that make MOCs stand out. The new plumes look better than the old ones in my opinion. They make great looking flames. The old long thin flames are fine for magic and such but too large for a small fire. I often thought the old plumes would have made great flames if made in a transparent color. I guess TLC thought so too. I just hope the new plumes eventually come out in plenty of colors. Look at the number of windows included in this set. It is insane! There are an incredible number of brown slopes and arches for tree building. I'm not talking about the tree itself but all of the extras used in the buildings. I can now make a nice forest without going broke on bricklink. Lots of black slopes, tan and bley brick for castles. Brown log type bricks for supports and wooden buildings. Please someone stop me before I melt down. I imagine I will ge getting atleast 5 of this set and likely more. This is the only current set. Turkeys used to go for over $30.00 USD because they were so rare. They were available in the late 90's in sets designed for young girls. I think the rarity factor is about to change. In conclusion this is the best thing to happen to Lego castle ever. This makes me much happier than when I first saw the incredible chess set. I love my classic castle sets but they don't even hold a candle to this. Bravo Lego... Bravo!

I love Eurobricks. I will have to keep a close eye on these raffles.

I voted for townsfolk. I have over 2500 military type of figs and about 30 townsfolk right now, and many of them have plain, or pirate, or star wars torsos. I think I need a bit more balance in my lego kingdom. Heck I would even accept some reuse of the jedi torsos for peasants. I would kiss some serious booty for a few good castle civilian sets. The advent peasant woman is a step in the right direction. Now will I be able to get her in the USA?

I collected Star Wars sets during my Castle Dark Age during the late 1990's. However, it became evident to me that unless you have a lot of money you cannot collect the entire Star Wars line. They just come out with so many sets. To get them all is insanely expensive. On the contrary I have aquired just about all of the castle collection form the 1970's on for an expensive but not insane amount of money. Each year the entire castle line can be obtained for about $300.00. This year is the exception with the $200.00 chess set added into the total. I have now switched to solely collecting the castle line. I think I wll sell all of my 90's and early 2000's lego star wars stuff. As for holding their value. Getting old castle sets can be quite expensive. Unlike others I think collecting old castle sets is more expensive and difficult than old star wars sets. I think this is due firstly to less castle sets are sold in the first place. Number two castle lends itself a little more to children who lose parts rendering the sets useless. Three castle has been sold for a much longer period of time. Fourth and lastly castle sets lend to MOC building so the sets get absorbed into a lego collection where star wars stuff tends to stay built as is and therefore is available for resale later on.

Wow my first post and it has to be about this I understand not selling this here in North America if the stores refused to stock it on their shelves. But to not sell it through S@H doesn't make any sense. The good wizard not being available and this along with it makes me think... Maybe TLG is encouraging us to buy the more expensive chess set and probably future sets to get the witch, wizard, jester, and peasant woman. As a collector I will obtain one of these sets somehow. However, if they were available here for list price I probably would have got 6-10 of them. After all can you have too many peasants?