Aanchir

Oh, that's VERY charming, and I love that they even used Bright Purple/Dark Pink to echo the original set's sticker sheet!

Not to my satisfaction — at least, not yet. But maybe now's the time for me to give that another shot while it's on my mind!

Well, approximating the shape with plates and tiles isn't terribly hard, at least for that smaller island base. Here's what I came up with on Stud.io: The parts for this particular build would cost around $3.50 USD on BrickLink — certainly a major bargain compared to the classic part! But obviously, there's not too much need for such a specific island build unless you're trying to create a revamp of a set that used this specific island baseplate. After all, for a totally original model like the Ray the Castaway MOC and set, it makes much more sense to design the island according to the shape and size of the model it supports, rather than to design the model to fit an island of a particular size and shape. That's a big part of why I tend to prefer brick-built foundations over raised and/or printed baseplates in general! Additionally, replacing the seagull with the parrot just reminds me how much I wish they'd come up with a new parrot design with printed eyes! Simple bumps or indentations can work alright for the eyes of some animals like bugs and fish, but they tend to feel fairly empty and lifeless compared to the printed eyes of minifigures. Printing like that could also allow for patterns that are authentic to real parrots, like the macaw-inspired striped wings and white spots around the eyes of the original LEGO parrot. For that matter, if LEGO designed it with their modern 2K (two-component) molding techniques, it would allow for crisp all-over color on specific parts of the body like the feet and beak — much like the bird mold used for Cinnamon the songbird and Pepper the parakeet from LEGO Friends.

Fun set! I've played around with trying to make a brick-built equivalent to the old 16x16 printed island baseplate, and this reminds me somewhat of my efforts in that regard. Seems the final set's beach is slightly more spacious than the original MOC, as is the hut (though its roof sadly isn't quite as tightly constructed). But in general, it seems very faithful to the original contest entry. It's a nice vignette/display piece in its own right, and also a great parts pack for seaside MOCs in either historic or modern settings!

I mean, even "official" alternate builds usually don't perfectly measure up to the main build. But I think there's still a lot to appreciate about both official and fan-made alternate builds! After all, they are great at showcasing different ways the same parts can be used, offering more varied ways to use duplicate sets within a shared layout, and giving you new building experiences to enjoy even after you've finished assembling the main model. I agree this one isn't quite as strong as the original… the interiors are trickier to fully appreciate even when the castle is unfolded due to how small the openings are and how far back the chambers extend, which makes it hard for me to decipher their furnishings even well enough to comment on them. Also, the parapet wall around the back lacks crenellations to provide visual interest, and the machicolations below the parapet wall do not appear to be functional like the ones in the back of the original set's gatehouse. But it's still an amazing MOC on par with the sort of alternate builds I might expect official set designers to come up with! I particularly like the decorative wooden doors used for the front entrance instead of a porcullis. Since the original set only had one much smaller interior door, this MOC's larger and more ornate exterior doors really help give this model a focal point that stands out from the "primary" build while maintaining a similar level of detail and authenticity. I'm hardly a great Castle MOCist myself (I'm really bad at even finishing any big castle MOCs to my satisfaction), so even if certain aspects of this MOC might still seem to have room for improvement, I have to admire what an impressive job the builder did creating something new and different from this set's parts!

Oh, charming little scenes indeed! It's neat that a collection of little scenes like this can create the sense of such an elaborate world — rich in historical and fantasy elements, and populated by all sorts of heroes, villains, and common folk alike. It's awesome seeing how many different tree designs you came up with between these models. I can tell you had a lot of fun finding new ways of using parts from sets like the Bonsai Tree. The tree/shrub in the final scene, with its many thin, branching limbs, feels especially unique compared to other brick-built tree designs I've seen previously. I also like the rounded bases… they kind of remind me of some tabletop wargaming figurines, or for that matter, of the figurines from my family's old Fontanini nativity set. And it's cool how just by using subtly different colors for the ground and foliage in the various scenes, you were able to create a very different mood and sense of place in each one. I can definitely imagine re-arranging a bunch of little vignettes like this to tell different stories with the characters, such as having the brigands from the third scene attacking the shepherd's flock from the fourth! All in all, you did an awesome job making the most of such a small footprint for each model, and figuring out how to display all these exciting characters in a way that really brings them to life!

oh wow, didn't anticipate anybody making a whole concentric castle type layout with this, but that one's off to a pretty excellent start!

That looks lovely! I'm not bothered by the roof color at all — Earth Blue is a totally reasonable color for slate shingles, and it contrasts nicely with the other wall and roofing materials in the set without clashing. I also love how well you matched the motifs of the rest of the set — from the curvy edges of the outside grass, to the elaborate window and door designs, to the uneven textures of the walls — while still adding plenty of your own personal creative touches of your own, like the corner windows near the top, the winged ornamentation over the door, and the steep slopes near the base. I'm curious, does the tower have an interior? If so, I'd love to see what you put there, and for that matter how it opens up! I myself was thinking that an additional tower would be a good place for stuff like a throne room and a workshop for Majisto — though my own design efforts have been somewhat hampered by the difficulty of fitting stairs inside without running out of space for other rooms! It definitely helps me understand why even the set designers' thoughts about possibly including a dedicated "stair tower" had to be abandoned for cost reasons.

It's certainly tricky to uncover some of these answers! I can at least confirm that all of these aside from the 1998 Football sets were available in North America. However, these themes were not always 100% exclusive to North America. A few sets like 2161 and 2152 were available in Germany as exclusive promotional offers through LEGO World Club magazine. Also, while the Unitron theme was largely absent from European catalogs, set 6991 was an exception, usually appearing alongside that year's Spyrius sets. I'm not sure if the 1999 Jungle Adventurers sets were actually one of these limited release waves. Some of the sets definitely DO appear in a number of European catalogs and European LEGO.com pages and catalogs from back then (namely 5906, 5936, and 5956), despite others being absent. However, the 1999 Ninja sets (sets 3050-3053, featuring the red ninja clan and white ninja princess) DO appear to have been regionally limited. They are conspicuously missing from most 1999 and 2000 European catalogs and European versions of LEGO.com that I've seen. Oddly, a number of 1999 Jungle Adventurers and Ninja sets that I haven't seen in Western European catalogs did in fact appear in some Czech, Polish, and Russian catalogs from back then. Presumably, Eastern and Western Europe were treated as separate market regions at that time. Even today, companies (including LEGO) occasionally group these countries under the umbrella term CEEMEA (Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa).

I also suspect he may have been a fairly late addition to the set. After all, he doesn't clearly complement any particular features of the model itself like all the other minifigures do, nor is he modeled on any of the 80s factions like they are. It's even possible that the designers only got the idea to include him when thinking about who should narrate the flavor text in the instruction manual. Certainly there aren't a lot of other classic Castle characters who could be released as a recognizable modern minifigure with no new prints and only one new* recolor! After all, an unprinted torso is a lot more bearable on a minifigure whose neck accessories cover up much of their torso's printable surface anyhow. *New, as in, LEGO presumably doesn't have a stockpile of classic blue wizard hats from over a decade ago just lying around, so they would have to bring it back in production specifically for this set — which would cost the same as a totally new recolor.

That's a neat idea, though that minifig's name (at least in English) was "Evil Knight" rather than Black Knight. I also just checked the bio from LEGO.com (which you can read here) and it didn't mention any ties to the Black Knights or Black Falcons. He was just treated as a "henchman for hire" who'd worked for a number of LEGO Castle antagonists, attributing his glowing red eyes to a summer job as one of Vladek's enchanted Shadow Knights. Figuring out if this is a reference to something specific is particularly difficult since it's not clear if it refers to the Black Knights faction or the Black Falcons faction, whose leader was named "The Black Knight" in various countries. And in that case the source could be from anywhere from the mid-80s to mid-90s. It could perhaps be a reference to the Zarconian Jewel from the Captain Indigo comics (such as this one), which was used by a wizard who the Black Knight served, and sometimes illustrated in an amber color despite being described as color-changing in the text. But for that matter, it may just be a "story starter" hinting at a story that's never been told, rather than a reference to any pre-existing LEGO sets or media!

Some of these set numbers appear to be incorrect — you listed 60369 for two different sets, and the polybag numbers are both ones from previous years. I figure that may just be typos or numbers getting switched around but I'm eager to know what the correct numbers are for those sets.

Yep, this sort of stuff definitely varied a lot from country to country. If it's any help, I've been translating a number of old LEGO Magazine stories from "De LEGO Krant" (the first LEGO magazine/newsletter, published in the Netherlands) as well as other old print media of the 70s, 80s, and 90s. You can see what I've found in this document. Mind you, I'm not fluent in Dutch (or really in any of the languages I've been translating stuff from), so there may be errors. I also have a spreadsheet of different countries' character, set, and faction names which may be of interest. The Black Falcons were certainly pretty consistently established as rivals/adversaries to the Lion Knights in most countries' media that I've found, at least in their early years when those were the only two knight factions. "De LEGO Krant" issue 27 from Spring 1984 establishes Ridder Pieter van Blankevoort (Sir Peter Whiteford), the lord of Slot "Wittenburg" ("Whitemount" Castle/set 6080), and Ridder Jan Swartegeest (Sir John Blackghost), the lord of Kasteel "Donkervoort" ("Darkford" Castle/set 6073) as bitter enemies. The same is true in the 1984 and 1985 issues of Bricks & Pieces Magazine from the UK, in which the leaders of the Lion Knights and Black Falcons are named Sir Richard and The Black Knight, respectively. Generally, the Black Falcons seem to be characterized as "bad guys" in these magazine stories and blurbs, utilizing trickery and black magic to gain the upper hand. But the Lion Knights are still willing to compete in tournaments against them in accordance with social customs, and during these tournaments the Black Falcons seem to at least to put up an appearance of fair play, even if they're still scheming behind the scenes. There is also a series of single-page Castle comics that ran as ads in various kids' magazines and comics throughout Europe from 1985–1987. Several of the Swedish ones can be found in this Brickshelf folder. In these comics, the Black Knight and Sir Richard (or their equivalent in the local language) begin as rivals, with the former stealing treasure from the latter's castle, and the latter setting out to get it back. However, after Sir Richard defeats the Black Knight in a duel, they both end up double-crossed by a maiden who is secretly a wicked witch, who steals the treasure from both of them. The two rivals then join forces for the remainder of their appearances together. That said, these comics noticeably fudge a lot of details from the sets themselves. The minifig designs used for the main characters do not match any of their actual set appearances, and in two later comics the two former rivals are captured by ANOTHER group of knights that ALSO use Black Falcon designs (presumably because there were still only two factions appearing in sets at that point in time). Also, interestingly enough, there's also a lot of stuff in various countries that implies that the leader of the Royal Knights (King Richard Lionheart) and the leader of the Black Knights (The Black Knight) are literally just the Lion Knight and Black Falcon leaders later in their respective lives! Not only do they share the same names in many countries' catalogs and media, but the Spring 1988 issue of Bricks & Pieces Magazine expressly identifies the head knight from set 6085 as the same Black Knight character who was previously established — to the point of giving him a Black Falcon shield instead of a Black Knight shield in the accompanying photo! And indeed, the minifigure in question is identical to the head knight from set 6073 four years earlier. I'm still not sure quite how this gels with sets like 6059 that show Black Falcons doing battle with Black Knights. Was there perhaps some kind of schism within the Black Knight's ranks? Was he overthrown by a rival and forced to go find a different castle to lead with its own coat of arms? There's unfortunately not much that makes this clear — most comics and media I've found about the Black Knights from 1988–1990 focuses on their feud with the Forestmen rather than on their relationship to either of the previous knight factions. And by 1992 when more story blurbs about the Black Knights started showing up, the Black Falcons had largely stopped appearing in sets. My personal headcanon is that after the death of the Black Monarch, the Black Knight inherited his title and domain, after which another potential heir — a sibling or cousin, perhaps — seized command of the Black Falcons out of jealousy. That said, the "Black Monarch" doesn't really exist as a character outside of North American set names. Other countries' set names and story blurbs don't really grant the ghost from 6034 any royal or noble status, nor do they suggest any ties between set 6085 and any sort of monarchy. In the UK, for example, 6085 is just "The Black Fortress" and 6034 is just "The Haunted Tower". The document I linked at the start of my post does include some blurbs from a 1992 Swedish catalog that go into a bit more detail about the relationship between the Lion Knights, Black Knights, and other factions competing with one another in the Valley of Tarenta (which was established as the name of the setting in the rules of this LEGO Castle board game, and subsequently in the German audio dramas). The Lion Knights apparently held power in the Valley of Tarenta even before the Black Knights arrived — in keeping with them appearing in sets earlier in real life — but the Black Knights outnumber the Lion Knights and seek to seize control of the land. Some of the Black Knights sets inspired by Viking ships suggest to me that they may originally come from from overseas. Your understanding of the Forestmen and Wolfpack seems spot-on, at least from what I've seen. Of note, Forestmen set descriptions and story media in some countries like the UK and Germany explicitly identifies them as Robin Hood and his Merry Men, with the same sort of "righteous outlaw" characterization associated with those characters, such as "stealing from the rich to give to the poor". By contrast, the Wolfpack are a much more ruthless bandit faction that steals for personal gain and will eagerly attack any outsiders. The Forestmen and Wolfpack also hail from different parts of the Valley of Tarenta, according to the aforementioned board game. The Forestmen naturally hide out in the woods, while the Wolf People operate out of the swampy lowlands. The Dragon Knights/Dragon Masters have indeed been shown fighting with both the Black Knights and Royal Knights in various marketing materials, though as mentioned above, the German audio dramas suggest the Dragon Knights and Black Knights are not really at war, but merely have a tense rivalry that occasionally spills over into violence, and both are ruled by King Richard and his Royal Knights. Of note, back in 1992, some of the characters and story elements from these audio dramas were originally intended to appear in a series of Castle comics that LEGO never ended up going forward with. Development materials for those comics can be found here, and while there are some differences from the eventual audio dramas (such as some of the character names), they do give a little more insight into some of the faction leaders, their relationships, and their motivations. From these accounts, the Dragon Knight leader was originally meant to have aspirations of taking the throne — since this was before the Royal Knights existed as a faction, the intent at that point was for the King to already be dead with only one known heir, the missing prince. By the time of the audio dramas, the story had changed so that the king was still alive, and the three knight factions were at peace under his reign, with the only battles between them sparked by traitorous troublemakers who sought to disrupt the established order. A lot of other story media portrays the relationship between these factions a lot less amicably. In the US, the Dragon Knights were led not by one of their number, but by Majisto, who was presented as more of a villain than his recent appearance in the Lion Knights' Castle. A 1993 "Adventures of the LEGO Maniac" comic from the US portrays the Dragon Knights themselves as Black Knights who have been subjugated by Majisto, who commands two dragons and an arsenal of spells. And numerous 1995 and 1996 catalogs include short comics that shows the Dragon Knight leader either leading an attack against the Royal Knights' Castle (with Majisto's help) or infiltrating it to steal the king's treasure. Likewise, in the Max Timebuster comics from Klick magazine (English translations of which can be found here), Majisto/Merlin is portrayed as the villainous leader of the Dragon Knights, opposed by the heroic King Lionheart and his Royal Knights. The latter Fright Knights are obviously a gothic horror inspired faction, but I've never really seen any indication of them doing battle with any of the previously established factions — at most, they occasionally tend to abduct trespassers from other factions. I get the impression that they largely keep to themselves. I like to imagine that Majisto and his cousin Willa do not get along, but are not really enemies so much as spellcasters with different philosophies about magic and how it should be used. Also of note: in some portrayals, such as the U.S. LEGO Mania Magazine, Basil the Bat Lord and Willa the Witch are allies. Other portrayals, such as the European Time Cruisers comics and some European catalog blurbs present them as enemies. I prefer the US approach myself, since Willa is less interesting to me as a "lone wolf" with her own agenda than as a powerful ally to a larger faction. But this emphasis on internal conflict between Fright Knights characters is the main reason we don't have a very strong idea of the Fright Knights' relationship to previously established factions. Oh, I'd seen the Classic King's bio but hadn't seen the Classic Queen's before! I like that implication a LOT! And it also fits with how the first batch of Black Falcon and Lion Knight sets shared the same design language, varying only in their flags and coats-of-arms. I suspect that the practical intent behind that decision was to make it easier for kids to combine multiple sets however they liked, without worrying too much about what faction they were associated with originally — that way, all you had to do was switch out a few parts to turn a Black Falcon set into a Lion Knight one or vice-versa. But establishing the Lion Knights and Black Falcons as rival heirs to the same kingdom provides a very compelling in-universe explanation for those similarities.

Beyond that, in recent history, the Maltese cross and other symbols associated with the Crusades and Knights Templar have been co-opted by some Islamophobic hate groups, and the Maltese Cross in particular was featured prominently in the manifesto of mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik. So I imagine LEGO may wish to avoid that sort of imagery on those grounds.

Yeah, even if designers from back then have stated that they intended those sorts of forward-facing antennas and stuff to be understood as guns, it's not too tricky to imagine them as lasers to clear away obstacles. And if you prefer to think of them as something OTHER than guns… well, even all these years later, it's not too hard to interpret them as some other high-tech gadgets like LIDAR scanners, wormhole generators, communication antennas, force field projectors, repulsors to clear away small space debris, or multi-spectrum cameras. After all, this is sci-fi, and if you're willing to stretch your imagination, there's no limit to what different sorts of "beam"/"ray" can be used for!

Modular Integrated Landscape System. It's a set of fan-made standards for 32x32 bases connected by Technic pins to allow for a unified layout. It's particularly popular for collaborative displays, since everybody can work from the same "template", and also for train layouts and other displays with wired electrical components, since it allows room below "ground level" for threading wires. But it also provides a very versatile starting point for creating varied terrain (hills, rivers, etc).

As charming as minifig packs like that were back in the day, I can't really imagine LEGO making a set like this today without some sort of build to accompany the figures and accessories. Generally, modern minifig packs from other themes have at least a small side build. I suspect this is partly to push back against some parents' perception that modern LEGO sets are made up entirely of specialized pieces, and that they're now more about collecting than building. A small Castle "starter set" with three or four Castle minifigs and a small build (along the lines of sets like 40372 and 40525), or even a larger playset with 6 or 7 minifigs and a small scene (kind of like 71735) could definitely be nice to see in the future, though — and would surely be greatly appreciated by army builders! Huh, I never even thought about that as a practical reason for having the ramp at an angle! I mostly figured the designers did that so the set would fit more neatly on a shelf.

Yeah, on a lot of levels I feel like LEGO seems MORE popular with kids than it was in my childhood (90s/early 2000s) — and that INCLUDES non-licensed themes. I mean, we now live in an age where you can find Collectible Minifigure plushies or kids' Ninjago-themed T-shirts and pajamas at generic department stores like Target or Walmart. Back in my childhood that sort of merch was only available at LEGO stores or by mail-order (at a time when LEGO stores themselves were way less common), even for hit themes like Bionicle! And that's not even touching on how much more popular LEGO is among girls than it was back then. Certainly, LEGO has a lot more sets aimed at adults than they used to. However, LEGO's recent push to market to adults isn't because kids aren't buying LEGO anymore, but rather because kids are a market LEGO has already done a really good job capturing, so to speak (at least in Europe and the Americas). By comparison adults are a market where they still see a lot of potential customers they haven't reached yet — and thus, a lot more room to grow their business. They've come to understand that enjoying LEGO as adults isn't just possible for nostalgic, web-savvy former KFOLs like many of us who frequent AFOL groups, forums, and LUGs, but also for average folks looking for quiet, relaxing hobbies to enjoy in their leisure time.

The Yellow Castle was way before my time as well, but honestly I quite appreciate a lot of the recent references to it we've seen: for instance, the Troubadour minifigure, the Knight of the Yellow Castle minifigure, and the shields from the Lion Knights' Castle (for that matter, if you go back a bit further, the marble statue from 70357 Knighton Castle also references the classic coronet heraldry). And for my part, I do prefer the crown heraldry from that set over the trefoil or chevron heraldry. As common as trefoils or chevrons were in real-life medieval heraldry, the crown heraldry appears more prominently throughout the original Yellow Castle set (since it was used for the castle's own knights and guards and not just for the visiting knights). Moreover, its symbolic meaning is much more obvious than that of the more abstract symbols, in keeping with the animal heraldry of later castle factions. Even as an adult, I had no idea what trefoils or chevrons on medieval heraldry were meant to signify without first looking it up online. Whereas it's much easier even from a modern standpoint to recognize a crown as a symbol of royalty, a lion as a symbol of might/authority, an eagle as a symbol of power/ambition, a wolf as a symbol of ferocity, etc. That said, I am a bit frustrated that the crown heraldry colors are represented in the Lion Knights' Castle and Minifigures Series 23 with Bright Purple (Dark Pink), Cool Yellow (Bright Light Yellow), and Dark Stone Grey (Dark Bluish Gray) — an approximation of how the crown stickers from that set would look after years of fading. The original colors of the coronet stickers would be better represented by Bright Reddish Violet (Magenta), Bright Yellow, and Black. The Troubadour minifigure seems to have used Bright Reddish Violet for this very reason, and the other Yellow Castle shields in the Lion Knights' Castle are accurate to the colors the corresponding Yellow Castle's stickers would've had when new, so it surprises me that the graphic designer opted for this faded look for the crown heraldry in particular.

Agreed! I'm also really impressed that the new 1x4x3 half-arches appear in such substantial quantities, so it's easy to get started right away on MOCs that use those parts instead of having to wait for them to show up in a cheaper set. Yeah, that was really thoughtful of the designers. On a related note, I was really pleased that the designers included plenty of space on the weapon racks for all the knights/guards to store their weapons when they're "off duty" — though unfortunately, no dedicated spots for the already helmeted minifigs to store their helmets (or spare hair pieces to replace their helmets with). I was really charmed by that detail as well! There are two chimneys and the one in the "back" connects to the top floor's fireplace, so I suppose the one in the front is meant to be for the oven on the ground floor and the fireplace on the middle floor— but I do kinda wish that they worked some kinda flue into the design of the walls to make a clearer connection between those parts of the build.

Lovely work! It definitely fits the revamped design language of the Forest Hideout, and I really like your decision to add some lilypads to the water's surface! I kind of wish the back surface looked less repetitive/plain, but I suppose the same applied to the original set. Also, really glad to see that you added ladders and a second floor to the interior! Out of curiosity, have you thought of adding any sort of cage/jail cell for intruders, since you removed the one the original set had at its base? Or did you just decide you preferred it without that sort of detail?

I suspect the "LEGO Classic" theme is not of much interest to folks here with its general focus on basic bricks, miscellaneous rainbow colors, and brick-built figures/animals — but I was just noticing that some alternate build instructions were posted for 11022 Space Mission, including some neat Classic Space references. In particular, this manual includes a retro robot similar to the one from 10497/6809, a yellow-windowed outpost/comms station, and a brick-built engineer/mechanic with a sideways cap, who immediately reminded me of Duncan from the Jim Spaceborn comics! Even if none of this stuff is likely to be of too much interest to spacers, I always find it charming when designers get these sorts of opportunities to indulge in a little nostalgia for past LEGO themes like this. So I figured it'd be worth bringing up. The other two alternate instruction manuals include a whimsical alien planet scene with brick-built creatures and weird plants, and a deep space scene with an flying saucer, alien pilot, multicolored planet, and giant robot. So they seem more inspired by classic sci-fi in general rather than to classic LEGO Space sets/themes/media. Though they're still pretty fun and charming as basic builds go, if you want to give them a look!

Real-world practicalities aside, I feel it was a good symbolic choice to give the lady of the castle a bigger, fancier sword than her subjects. Sort of like how Royal King/King Richard Lionheart got a fancy (and by some accounts, magical) silver greatsword in the Royal Knights sets. On that note, I quite like that the lady of the castle wears white, since it feels like a nice callback to the white details used for not only the Royal King, but also for the Lion Knight Maiden/Damsel from 6023 — who, in De LEGO Krant, is named Jonkvrouw Machteld Eleonora (Lady Matilda Eleanor), and expressly identified as the daughter of Sir Richard/Ridder Pieter van Blankevoort (Sir Peter Whiteford) from 6080. Also on the subject of colors, I do find it interesting that the Black Falcons in this set carry Bright Blue and Flame Yellowish Orange banners. Traditionally, they flew either Dark Green (classic green) and White banners, or in later sets, Bright Blue and White banners. I remember there being a lot of talk about this when 31120 Medieval Castle came out and fans were talking about what colors they'd prefer to replace the Bright Red and White banners with in order to better unify their Black Falcon faction. But these banner colors certainly don't look bad, IMO! In a lot of old print materials (catalogs, magazines, etc) LEGO drew a fairly clear distinction between "knights", and "castle guards/soldiers/men-at-arms". Knights were figures that rode horses, had printed and/or molded breastplates, wore helmets that covered the face (sometimes with hinged visors), and were often ornamented with additional accessories like capes, feathers, or dragon-shaped helmet ornaments. Guards/soldiers had printed tabards and helmets with no protection for the face besides a chin guard or nose guard. Sometimes a further distinction was made between guards/soldiers and bowmen/archers— the latter, of course, had either bows and quivers or crossbows, though other design differences tended to be set-specific or faction-specific. In 6080, for example, all the guards had blue legs, grey helmets with nose guards, and crossed-axe emblems on their torsos, whereas all the archers had red legs, black helmets with chin guards, and Lion Knight emblems on their torsos. Conversely, other set descriptions (especially shorter ones) just used the term "knight" generically for ALL knight and soldier figures regardless of rank, design, or armaments! And many later Castle themes became a lot less strict about giving minifigs rank/division-specific "uniforms" I myself often prefer when Castle minifigs can be distinguished by rank/division. For one thing, it helps a lot with coming up with interesting chess set builds (something I really enjoyed doing back in the day) if you can have distinct categories of minifigs to use for pawns, knights, rooks, etc! Also, especially when characters lack individual names/identities, assigning them particular jobs or ranks can make it easier to decide on where you want them to go or what you want them to do either when playing with them or putting them on display, rather than treating all soldiers from a particular faction as totally interchangeable. But I realize a lot of builders out there do prefer less "regimented" Castle armies, and that's totally valid too! It varies. LEGO officially calls part 3847/76764 "Mini Sword", 95673/18034 "Mini Short Sword", and 98370/18031 "Mini Long Sword". Likewise, 71014/44493/99232 is "Broadsword/Battle Sword", 31073/88420/21459 is "Ninja Sword", 93247 is "Egypt Sword", 93055 is "Dragon Sword", etc. But they just call part 66964 "Sword, No. 18". They seem to have started simply numbering most new sword designs (including non-Castle ones) in mid-2012, beginning with those introduced in the Lord of the Rings theme.

I haven't seen it mentioned in this thread, but Metro UK published a new interview with the lead designers of the Galaxy Explorer and Lion Knights' Castle (Mike Psiaki and Milan Madge) and there are some neat details about the development process there that I hadn't heard before — specifically, about some of the challenges they encountered while trying to make the castle as authentic to real medieval castles as possible, while still keeping the size and cost in check: It's definitely neat to hear about some of the features they were forced to omit for practicality's sake, and could be good inspiration for folks who want to expand this castle into a larger walled city/castle town! For my part, I think they achieved a decent compromise — the asymmetric composition and many of the specific features are far more authentic and detailed than you'd be able to expect in a smaller, kid-targeted castle playset, but also compact enough to fit on a shelf and keep the entire interior accessible when opened up, even for our adult-sized hands! I remain especially impressed with the staircases of the west wing/living quarters. "Enclosed" stairwells are an EXTREMELY tricky feature to achieve while still allowing a builder to access the full length of the staircase once the model is complete, particularly with narrow castle stairwells like these ones — but here, the open-air space between the lowest and highest flights of stairs ensure you can still reach into each of the enclosed portions from both the top and bottom. IMO, the spots where the compromises on the model's authenticity still feel most obvious in the final model are the rooftops of the barbican, postern gate tower, and bell tower, which lack any sort of stair or ladder access. For some of these, I might've preferred if the designers had included some rope ladders or movable wooden ladders that could be freely moved to allow for for either rooftop or interior access. Even though it wouldn't necessarily be historically accurate for a castle as grand as this one to lack permanent ladders or stairs for its towers, it'd at least reduce the suspension of disbelief needed when moving minifigs up and down from these towers! But in any case, these are thankfully the sort of feature that can be easily modded in.

Fantastic creature build! The curved contours give it a very convincingly organic/lifelike look, and it's nicely scaled to its rider. The colors also give it great contrast with the surrounding scenery. And the flicking tongue is a fantastic finishing touch that really brings the model to life! I feel like that this critter would be not just a powerful steed, but also a lifelong companion to the knight who took the time and effort to tame it! And after seeing this, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the other dragon build you have in the works! Great work.