DaleDVM

I feel like TLG makes bad decisions with their GWP sets. Making the GWP available again on the 1st and leaving the castle to the 3rd is a shitty move. Tons of those GWP sets are just going to be sitting at the homes of people who could care less about castle sets. Only a very small percentage of people will actually put in the effort to sell and ship a small set like the forestmen set. Thus creating a false shortage...

Here in the USA the GWP is long gone online. I will be trying my LEGO stores this morning in hopes they have the GWP still available. If there is no GWP left, I will just buy a single set for actually building. I plan on buying a bunch of these sets, but it will be on the shelves for a long time. Any future purchases can wait for double VIP or another good GWP offer. After all I will not likely open the rest of the sets for quite a long time. I am currently working on sorting my Prince of Persia sets...

This is hilarious!

I am surprised the evil helm didn't get more love. I really enjoy that helm a lot for my evil factions! But I voted conical, because I was in a good guy mood when I voted. Thanks for the poll and discussion SirBlake. I really need to take my printed castle torsos out from underneath my breastplate pieces. I could have hundreds, of more castle figs if I did that.

This will likely be the first set I have built since the Kingdom's Joust set. I am really looking forward to building by the instructions again!

VIP points are nice but only 5% which for this set is $20. Double VIP $40. The value of the GWP is about $25. So I will be trying to get all of my castles with the forestman GWP and the VIP points. I guarantee that the forestmen hideout will be going for $50 within a year especially because it was never available for purchase.

I like the flip up visors to this day. I always preferred those to the grill helmets back in the day... So my knights got the flip up and men at arms typically got the grill helms. But most importantly they all got plumes, which dresses them up quite a bit. What I always thought was weird, was how I put a breast plate on my minifigs over their printed breast plate on their torso. I guess I should just order some blank torsos and multiply the number of classic breastplate figs I have by two for minimal investment!

I kind of wish I had LEGO as a child. I didn't get my first set until post college, when I was 25 and could buy it for myself. But if I did have it as a child, would I still be an AFOL? Best part is that I have every box, all of the instructions, and all of the parts because I never really played with my LEGO. I just built the sets and displayed them. They still got discolored from the sun however... This has been an interesting thread to read. So many fans come in and out of the hobby in different ways.

Thanks for the link. It looks like I will purchase a couple of castles on the first day to support my local LEGO store, plus the forestmen set, and perhaps a third castle online on the 4th to get the pirate pack plus the forestmen set. Getting those highly desired GWP sets brings the cost down for the castle a bit... Question. I do not order online very frequently... If I was to order another castle online on the 5th could I get two more GWP sets? Or does the online store limit your GWP to a one time deal?

Any further/new information about the GWP Forest(wo)men set? Is it going to be available with the 90th anniversary castle?

I voted 7946 as the last great castle. Because it was... even if it is a bit flashy with the red bits. My favorite castle of all time was 6085 Black Monarchs castle. I was not a big fan of the raised baseplates back in the day and Black Monarch's castle was pretty big considering it was built on baseplates. 2 of these sets put together made an awesome large castle with gates at either end, possibly for guarding an important road for trading/strategic purposes which passed right through the fortress. It also was easily expandable with the 6059 set as well. I am looking forward to the best castle set of all time in a week or so!

I am sure the appeal had to do with age. In 2004, 37 year old me didn't exactly like KKII either. And yet when I came out of my dark age in 2007, I bought all of the sets anyway? It was such an unpopular theme, that I was able to buy the 2004(5) sets online from stores like Target and Walmart for sale prices in 2007 & 2008. This was a good 3+ years after the sets were retired. The 2005 Vikings sets were still available and at sale prices from most retailers as well at that time. I didn't buy the KKII stuff until after I had bought up a good amount of the fantasy era castle stuff. I said to myself, no matter how bad LEGO castle gets, I am going to buy some of everything going forward so I have a complete collection. Luckily for me, everything after 2005 has been pretty good. Or at least much better than the fright knight and KKII sets which drove me into my dark age in the first place. Of course this is all just my opinion.

I have small armies approximately 25 strong of the year 2 and 3 factions. Those shields and heraldry are epic! I also have 5-10 knights of each of the year one factions in all of their jelly bean colored awesomeness??? Actually if I look at all of them at the same time my eyes bleed. But like a true castle collector, I bare the burden of owning the knights kingdom guys. I even bought a couple copies of the Kingdoms chess set. So many baby blue men at arms... A point to be made about both Nexo Knights and Knights Kingdom... The bad guys in both themes are incredibly cool IMHO! Vladek's forces as a great evil human faction. The Lava and Rock creature Nexo factions are fantastic fantasy armies unlike anything else LEGO has ever released. And therefore I bought many hundreds of all three of those factions. So even themes that don't do justice to the castle theme certainly have some redeeming qualities! Here is one of those KK2 armies. I added some dinos and turned them into dragons because they were the right color... Do my knights look like they have no pants?

As for Willa and her magical manor... I bought that set in 1997 along with the rest of the fright night sets. I hated the entire theme so much it sent me into a dark age. Some may say it is impossible, but those sets may be as ugly as Willa herself! What exactly were those flying machines anyway? The weird thing is... I bought them all, but I didn't even open any of the sets until 2007 when I came out of my dark age with the introduction of the fantasy era sets. Fantasy era is by far my favorite subtheme of castle as it gave us trolls, dwarfs, undead legions, cool new dragons, and most importantly the Medieval Market Village!!! Even though I hated the original. I know a fright knights theme now would be pretty darn awesome.

I think 10305 is just fantastic. Even though I (like most AFOLs) build on a grander scale and more detailed MOCs, I truly appreciate the SNOT techniques, unique angles, secret entrances, and the awesome way the castle walls fold up using multiple hinges and even sections of wall that are not attached. It is just brilliant. The selection of "castley" bits including the armor, shields, barding, cloth flags, and cape are just stellar! The only thing I wish we got was a couple more unique peasants. The number of lion knights could have been reduced by 1 or 2 to compensate and Majisto could have been skipped as well. The CMF wizard is so much better and easy to obtain. These are just nitpicks at this point and I am so excited to get this. I hope the GWP forestman set can be obtained with the castle. It would make it just a little more economical. Even though I do find the set worth the asking price. I am surprised so many people have 6086 as their favorite castle in the poll. The black knight's castle always bothered me that it had two walls only two bricks high using the raised baseplate as the primary defenses. Also the center of the castle wasn't flat and the dungeon was not the best design. However, to each their own... It is almost unanimous that the new castle is the best ever released!

I have been waiting for this thread to get posted. The pictures do not do this creation justice. It was absolutely amazing to see this in person! Congrats and thank you to all involved in making this awesome display. You are some of the most amazing builders in the world and even better friends. I can't wait to hang together again next year!

The 3 in 1 castle is a pretty good design IMHO. As far as it goes as an overall set, I think it is pretty awful. The castle is nice, but most AFOLs build much better. The most important component LEGO sets provide for me is good parts that I can't get cheaper in other sets. I do not want more castle 3 in 1's to come out. None, zero, never ever again. The part selection will be garbage and the price to obtain those few good minifig, accessory, armor, weapons, shields, animals, heraldry, etc. will be WAY too high, if they are included at all. People are buying the 3 in 1 because we are desperate for castle. For no other reason. If a castle theme was on the shelves, with all of the cool minifigs, animals, and medieval bits, would anyone buy the 3 in 1 castle? I highly doubt it. As far as I am concerned, if they keep castle in the creator line of sets, we will all be getting an inferior product at a premium price, and TLG will be taking advantage of castle fans... because we will buy it simply because of a scarcity TLG is causing in the first place. Worse yet, I believe the 3 in 1 castle sets will not sell as well simply because they are not as good as regular castle sets. Then TLG will simply deny us any castle sets at all for close to another decade... because they never realize the real reasons their sets don't sell is their idiotic decisions.

I will keep watching on the legs as well. Interesting information you provided about the production for the magnets.

Rehashing the set size comparison discussion. A disclaimer... Everyone can have their own preference(s) when comparing the size of different sets and MOCs. There is no wrong answer. Historically, castle/city walls primarily are not there to protect buildings from siege weapons, even if they may sometimes fill that role. Due to the firing arc of medieval siege weapons, buildings have to be very close behind a wall to be protected by it. Buildings even 50-100 feet inside the walls do not get much benefit from the protection they provide. It is just physics. Castle walls typically offer more protection to inner structures because they are more compact, where city/curtain walls often have a lot of space inside. The walls primary purpose is to prevent an easy assault of the town/city they are protecting. They are there to give the defenders the advantage in both melee and ranged fighting which multiplies the abilities of defending troops. The better the fortifications the greater the force multiplier the defenders have. If you have ever seen real life castles and their walls, they are usually only 2-3 stories tall. Buildings inside the castle walls, especially the roofs are often readily visible from outside. Only the most impressive fortified cities in history have walls high enough to hide most of the buildings inside. A $400 castle set is not going to be representative of a massive walled city/castle/fortress. Here are a bunch of photos of the most impressive walled cities still standing. In reality, most walled cities/towns were not even this well defended. https://www.touropia.com/walled-cities-in-the-world/ Hence why I don't find the blacksmith that out of whack. If it was a royal smithy, with several blacksmiths working there, the building could very well be that big... or in actuality be much bigger.

I don't think the two models look too far out of proportion. In the photo the blacksmith shop is a little closer to the camera than the tallest parts of the castle as well.

I will be interested to see how the two sides come apart. I may even be tempted to MOC an extension using only a second set. Slapping two of these identical sets together is interesting but having two entrances so close together is not very realistic of a design.

Agreed on both points. The silver shoulder armor certainly wouldn't look very good with the black helmets. I also wanted to comment that I think the Medieval Blacksmith wouldn't look terrible next to this castle. Only the roof top would be as tall as the castle and the shop is a three story building after all.

It took me a couple of days to read all of the comments on this thread. Lets just say a lot of them were not worth reading. My take on the set. The encumbered squire, the classic castle yellow box art, and the kids playing with the yellow castle are just sweet additions that don't affect the build at all, but still touch me in the feels. Very nostalgic overall. Pros - The design of the castle is absolutely brilliant! The secret passages, that folding bridge walkway, the defensibility, the interiors, the grain mill, the arrow slits, the rounded battlements, the thatched roofs... It is like 75% a play set and a 75% a display piece. That is a 150% perfect balance of awesomeness IMHO! - Shields. OMG, all of those shields! So useful. I hope somehow we could get them in numbers. The Queens shield in particular is just plain fantastic. I have faith that they will be printed. - Barding. While not the best barding prints ever made, they are pretty darn nice. - Minifigs. The maid is just incredible. I will need dozens of her hat. The farmers torso is generic enough that it could be incredibly versatile just by changing the arms to other colors. I hope his torso is available on B&P. The lion soldiers prints are very nice as are the forestmen, and black falcons. I can't wait to see the queen's torso. -Animals. Those that are included are quite nice. -Cloth. The cape is absolutely gorgeous. The two different flags are exactly what I wanted in this set. Great heraldry to add to the flags from the classic Lions era. -Helmets, Armor, Weapons. There is a nice variety of helms, armor, and weapons included. For those new to the theme, welcome to the world of visors. Not sure how I feel about the gold visor until I see it in person. However, I welcome the variety for sure! -Parts. That new 1x4x3 arch is just incredible! Not enough can be said about how parts like this can change the way people MOC altogether! I can't wait until it is made in reddish brown for better tree construction! The 1x4x5 arch always left a strange gap in tree branches where this one will blend right in with the trunk! The new inverted round support piece is baller as well! The dark green spruce trees are pure love. Almost all of the parts in this set are very useful for castle MOCing. Impressive menu of parts. Cons - Design. Nothing is perfect and any complaints I have would be nitpicking. I will leave it at that. -Shields. Just one forestman shield would have been wonderful. - Minifigs. All Lion knights, forestmen, and the black falcons have a singular torso/leg design. While those designs are kewl as hell, I would have liked a pair of torsos for some variety in each faction. The baker and the prince are repeat torsos and I was really hoping for as many new civilians as possible. This hurts the most for me personally. Majisto is as plain, as plain can be. A mistake in such an awesome set. An opportunity missed for a robed torso that could be used for civilians, nobles, merchants. Very unfortunate. - Animals. Another horse or two wouldn't have hurt to match old sets that have 4 in sets 25% the cost of this one. -Helmets, Armor, Weapons. One or two of those shoulder armor pieces from the "medieval blacksmith" on the BFs would have been kind of nice to include here just for some variety and to make the BFs stand out. It would have given the squire guy something really heavy to trudge around as well. Muahaha -Parts. The cart could have been done in a more neutral color (Blue rhymes with eww). Like many have said, I prefer trees in brown, and would like the pieces in that color. The giant tiles used for the drawbridge are not very useful to me. Not a fan of POOPs. The cons are pretty small in comparison. Overall As I expected... this set by far surpasses any offering TLG has ever given us in the castle theme. However, it also surpassed my expectations by even further yet. Previously, I thought MMV was the best castle themed set because of just how groundbreaking it was in 2009. IMHO this takes castles beyond the level MMV took civilian sets. And after all, the castle theme is about castles right? IMHO, this set didn't need a goat because it is the GOAT! I will buy in multiples for the parts and as a serious castle collector of course. Surprisingly, I will also build this set, which is really saying something! Sad to say, I haven't built a non-Christmas set in over a decade now. In fact, I think the Kingdom's joust was the last (non-Christmas) set I actually built? And then... will this castle be the only set I have on display at my house? I am approaching 2 million parts at home and it takes up a LOT of space. I don't have room to display sets as well. However, I still say it is very possible that I may have to make room for this! Why? Simply for inspiration to build more often! Thank you to TLG! I have bitched at you for years because of the way you put my favorite theme on the back burner. In this instance, you went a long way to making up for that, and I commend you for this incredible set! Looking forward to seeing it in person. Well played LEGO!... or is it play well?

And this pizza party will be attended by a pair? of awesome stars from LEGO Masters! Assuming your better half will also attend Philip. The topic of discussion at the pizza party will be the 90th anniversary sets that are due to be revealed earlier that same day. The hype is real!!

Thank you kindly for the information. By 11 AM on Saturday I will be knee deep in public attendees at Brickworld. I guess discussion will have to wait until the pizza party after the show... I wonder how many people from the public will be better informed about the new castle than I will be that day?