Aanchir

Yeah there's no reason to assume he or his prints will ever appear in sets (though slight correction — it's an illustration, not a render). There have previously been several Ninjago trading cards like this one that depict "show-only" characters. Here's a link to a site with a picture of the card, though (I can't find any images of it without a watermark). I do find it interesting that there's even a design for "Ice Planet" inspired Ninjago character that isn't included in the Ninjago City Gardens set's ice cream shop. That seems like a pretty good sign that there are going to be at least slightly more Ice Planet references in future episodes of the TV series than there were in that one set. And it's certainly possible that some of those references could end up showing up in future sets. But I'm not currently aware of any upcoming Ninjago sets that an unnamed civilian character like this guy would be likely to appear in.

According to an interview with Classic Space designer and minifigure inventor Jens Nygaard Knudsen in BrickJournal Issue 6, the release of Classic Space was supposed to be in 1979. The LEGO Castle and Town sets were effectively rushed to shelves in 1978 in order to debut the LEGO minifigure before any competitors had a chance to develop their own counterpart. But since the Space sets were much more groundbreaking compared to earlier LEGO products and were expected to generate more excitement, LEGO decided to delay their release by a year so that it could make its official debut at the 1979 Nuremberg Toy Fair and become that year's "star attraction". Those plans changed when a LEGO designer who had worked on the Space theme ended up leaving LEGO and taking a job at competing building toy company TENTE, which then began working on their own Space theme. So in order to ensure that the LEGO Space theme appeared on shelves before its TENTE counterpart, LEGO ended up releasing three Space sets in the United States in 1978, more than six months ahead of schedule. It's possible that the lack of printed LEGO Space material with a 1978 copyright date is because this was such an abrupt change of plans. Note that back in the 70s and 80s, the development schedule for new LEGO sets and themes had a lot more "lead time" than it typically would today. LEGO had actually finished developing the initial wave of Space sets back in 1976, before they had finished development on either the Town theme OR the Castle theme. So LEGO didn't actually need to rush the development process of those three sets to release them ahead of schedule.

Yeah, I don't have anything against criticisms on a general level, and while there are some forms of criticism that feel downright obnoxious, they're the sort that tend to make even the most critical comments in this thread feel gentle and refreshing by comparison. For example, I've seen some Brickset comments criticizing this set by saying it looks like a Friends or Duplo set, and Facebook comments claiming that both designers who worked on the final version of this set and any of their higher-ups who approved it ought to be fired. There are definitely times that I find other people's criticisms confusing/surprising or that I just plain disagree with them, and in those cases I usually try to respectfully share my own perspective (including links that help to illustrate that perspective), but please rest assured that I am not trying to discourage people from sharing critical perspectives. After all, if I didn't enjoy reading and responding to those perspectives, I probably wouldn't continue to do so — after all, I try not to waste my time and energy on downright unreasonable ranting like some of the off-site comments I mentioned above.

I am a little puzzled that you're this bothered by the roof color because I feel like it's not unusual for slate roof shingles to look this vivid under certain lighting and weather conditions. For example, this roof uses slate from the Penrhyn Quarry in Wales, which has been a source of roofing slate since medieval times. Here's a photo of an Australian church that had its roof re-shingled using Welsh slate. And here's one of houses in Wales (albeit not medieval ones) roofed with natural slate. Frankly, the shade of blue in some of these photos actually comes close to looking almost like Medium Blue or Dark Azur — certainly Earth Blue would be too dark to properly evoke this appearance, while Sand Blue would be too desaturated. So while LEGO's color choice might be a little idealistic (it's doubtful that any natural slate roof could look this vivid at all times), I don't feel like it's less "mature" or realistic than the roof of the original project. After all, even LEGO Friends sets aimed at five- or six-year-old kids often have Earth Blue roofs!

Yeah, I see no reason to think that if Forestmen were brought back they'd still look as plain-looking as they did back then, even if their original torso patterns didn't feature any heraldry. LEGO has gotten really good at modernizing characters and factions from older themes, even in cases where the original graphics were simple or repetitive — the various returning pirate characters in the Barracuda Bay set are good examples. And frankly, there's probably a lot of entirely new Forestman minifigure designs that could probably be created just by taking further inspiration from some of the supporting characters of Robin Hood legends and literature (like Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, and Will Scarlet), not to mention utilizing newer hair/headgear pieces and minifigure accessories that didn't exist back in the 80s and 90s. That said, one reason I find the idea of new Forestmen sets appealing has nothing to do with the figures. Rather, it's that since my childhood, LEGO has gotten really, really good at building trees. There are a lot of great forest-building parts that exist today and didn't back then, like some of the more recent cylindrical panels, triple-leaf plates, arches, curved bricks/tiles, and hinges. Moreover, today's designers have numerous shades of brown and green that can be combined to create more variegated or organic patterns and textures. Just look at the twisting, curved branches of the Elvenstar Tree, the rough-textured trunk of the Bonsai Tree, the towering height of the Jungle Rescue Base, and the sprawling branches and weaving walkways around the Tree House, and imagine how many cool Forestman hideouts could be created with so many different parts and building techniques to choose from!

Oh, thank you! Hadn't seen that video yet, and you're right, it definitely looks promising. It's surprisingly satisfying to see how smoothly the timbers and roof segments fit together after the walls are constructed. I know some people dislike build videos or overly detailed reviews because they feel like it "spoils" the experience, but seeing this one honestly makes me even more enthusiastic than before to get this set myself so I can experience that construction process firsthand! Also, spotted yet another cool kitchen detail I'd missed in previous pics/videos (the butter churn). Honestly, I'm amazed that the designers managed to pack in so many details that I find at least one neat feature I missed pretty much every time I look!

Upon rewatching the designer video, I also noticed that the shop is stocked with wrought iron in both bar form (black "gold ingots", stored in a 3x4x2 crate to the right of the table where the blacksmith keeps his latest projects) and rod form (black "lightsaber blades", stored in a barrel to the left of the same table). The sheer amount of care the designers took to ensure they included every detail a medieval blacksmith would need for his work is staggering, and it makes me hope that when this set is released, the instruction manual will include margin notes explaining each of these details. After all, one of the exciting features of many LEGO Ideas sets for me is the written material which separates their instruction manuals from the more straightforward pictorial instruction manuals of most other themes. Sometimes, this is just for added flavor or entertainment — for example, the character bios in the Barracuda Bay instructions, the short story about Pete and Yve in the Exo-Suit instructions, or the movie quotes in the Ecto-1 instructions. But in other cases it can be genuinely informative, like explanations of the role/purpose of each stage of the Saturn V rocket, or the designer and fan interviews at the beginning of all Ideas manuals. This set seems like a great example of a place where BOTH possibilities could really shine — maybe a short story or comic in the front introducing the characters (with or without names) and the business they have here at the blacksmith shop, and then margin notes throughout providing real-world historical info about the art of blacksmithing and how that is represented by different parts of the build! Some of this is just inflation (MMV would cost around $120 and KJ would cost around $135 if they came out today, judging from the current value of the US dollar). But more importantly, this set is quite a bit more detailed than either Medieval Market Village or Kingdoms Joust. Note that both Medieval Market Village and Kingdoms Joust were 12+ sets, not 18+, and they used far fewer SNOT techniques, hinges, or mottled colors and textures than this set does. All their roofs were built from standard slope pieces, and all their floors or foundations were just a single plate thick. So regardless of their size and charm, they were closer to the building level of "Creator 3-in-1" than "Creator Expert". And remember, even the year that Medieval Market Village first came out, that year's Modular Building (Fire Brigade) had a 50% higher price — even though it had far fewer minifigures or animals. This set is much closer to the Fire Brigade's level of complexity than it is to Medieval Market Village's, even though it's not quite as large (nor as expensive, after adjusting for inflation). So although this is considerably more expensive than previous Castle exclusives, that seems to be pretty much in line with its higher level of detail. Plenty of people in this very thread have mentioned the elaborate detail of the original project as a major reason they supported it, so needless to say, LEGO had a strong incentive to maintain as much of that complexity as they could without any structural defects. Mill Village Raid only cost $70, not $100, and it was aimed at a 7+ age range, not 18+. So chances are, it would have been produced and sold in MUCH greater quantities than an expensive AFOL-targeted exclusive. This is something that designers have discussed before in reference to which sets can offset the cost of new molds and which sets can't. For reference, set designer Mark Stafford mentioned in this comment back in 2012 (in response to people questioning why LEGO could justify the cost of rarely-used molds like narrow-gauge train/minecart tracks, but couldn't bring back monorail tracks): "there are just not enough AFOLs to justify the new molds. AFOL sets like the Emerald Knight number in the tens of thousands of units, Ninjago mid range sets are over a million sets produced." While it's doubtful that a Kingdoms set towards the end of the theme's life would have been produced or sold in quite the same quantities as similar-sized Ninjago sets would be at around the peak of that theme's popularity, and the number of adult LEGO buyers has risen a lot over the past decade, some of these factors still apply here. The KFOL audience remains much larger than the AFOL audience, and $70 sets still tend to sell in much larger quantities than $150 sets. And remember, Mark's the one who was trying to bring back the goat for the Jurassic Park T. Rex set up until he learned that the mold was no longer usable! So if he could have pushed for a replacement mold for an AFOL-targeted set like that, there's no reason to think he wouldn't have done so, let alone that he'd go on Reddit outside of working hours to do pro bono PR work for whichever of his higher-ups ended up getting in the way of that decision. So you're right that LEGO could introduce a new goat mold just as easily today as they could in 2011. It'd just need to be introduced in a moderately affordable set aimed at a KFOL audience, like it was back then. Not a $150 18+ set like this one. That's the key distinction in situations like this one.

Yeah, that one just came out last year in the Monkie Kid sets, so it's still very uncommon (and black ones are new for this year, having previously only appeared in this year's Chinese festival sets). Although it is somewhat similar to the lightsaber hilt piece, one significant advantage it has is that the "bar" portion is wide enough that pieces like 49563 can attach to it securely by both clips. And I agree, it's always very exciting to see all the new uses LEGO finds for existing pieces. The Ninjago City sets like the recently revealed gardens are utterly awash with clever stuff like that — one that especially caught me by surprise in that set is that one of the buildings used the black butcher knife recolor (which also appears as one of the utensils in this set's kitchen) as roof shingles! The construction of the bellows to stoke the fire and the oil lamp upstairs by the writing desk are also very impressive, especially since they only requires a few relatively basic pieces, and yet still feel very authentic. And on a side note, I'm beginning to realize how many of the features in and around the house (like the oil lamp, butcher knife, cooking pots, lanterns, wall sconces, door handles, and maybe even the chair frames) are colored Black or Titanium Metallic to suggest that they were wrought from iron right downstairs in the blacksmith shop! After noticing that, I'm going to have to look a lot more closely at the various pictures and re-watch the designer video to see how many other examples of the blacksmith's handiwork are scattered about!

Hopefully! Honestly, I'm still more curious about their thought process behind the squash patch.

Perhaps. Maybe it's meant as a reference to a pet belonging to either the set designer or the project creator? I know that's something graphic designers have done in the past. And as I mentioned in my previous post, there were quite a few Spitz-type dog breeds that this mold might be meant to represent besides a husky, including ones that were used as herding or hunting dogs in medieval Europe. Maybe designers so far have simply considered new dog breeds and other new animals more useful or interesting than goats. Or maybe sets in themes like Friends and Duplo make enough money to offset the cost of plentiful animal molds, while adult-oriented exclusives like the Medieval Blacksmith Shop, Steamboat Willie, and T. Rex Rampage sets don't (after all, it took until this year's Sesame Street set for ANY Ideas set to get a new mold without the development team of a "mass market" theme like Minifigures or Dimensions stepping in to cover the cost. All we know for sure is that so far, any designers who have had the opportunity to introduce a new goat mold have chosen not to. And as much of a bummer as that might be for fans who desperately want goats for their MOCs or layouts, I don't see much sense in acting like it's inexcusable for LEGO to prioritize other new animal molds over a new goat. After all, not only did they clearly manage to do just fine without minifig scale goats up until 2011, but they also apparently saw so little need for them over the next few years that it took until the T. Rex Rampage set's development for set designers to even become aware that the existing goat mold was no longer usable! Oh my gosh, thank you SO MUCH for this. This really brightened my day!

The traditional Castle breastplate doesn't seem to be discontinued — it showed up in the LEGO Ninjago Skull Sorceror's Dungeon set just last year. It's possible they settled on these shoulder pads instead for pragmatic reasons, like because they'd fit more neatly into the forge/onto the anvil during the smithing process, or because it's easier to fit multiples of them in the shop (since they can hang against a wall without requiring armor stands like in that Ninjago set, which would take up extra floor space). The last of these is definitely a challenge I've encountered in my own MOCing efforts… Alternatively, it could just be that the designers opted for these newer shoulder pad molds since it was an opportunity to introduce a little more novelty than reusing a mold that Castle fans within the set's target age range had already seen in other sets and themes over the years. Or it could have been a cosmetic choice since shoulder pad pieces can be used to add extra detail to the knight minifigures without covering up their printed Black Falcon surcoats. Or perhaps it was about making it possible for the blacksmith to "try on" completed pieces of armor — something that wouldn't be possible with a breastplate due to his molded beard? Regardless of the reasons, the recolor of the Star Wars shoulder armor will definitely create some wonderful new minifigure customization possibilities. And even if you're bummed about the lack of a breastplate in this set, I don't think you need to worry about them disappearing from other sets in the future. That said, I can't fault you for reading too much into this sort of stuff, though — I mean, I can imagine myself doing the same thing if the presence or absence of a particular mold caught me by surprise!

Designer Mark Stafford has confirmed on Reddit that the goat mold from the Mill Village Raid set is no longer usable, unfortunately. He'd intended to use one in the Jurassic Park T. Rex Rampage set before learning of this. LEGO could certainly introduce a new goat mold at some point, but so far all the sets and themes that have had the budget to introduce new molds have directed that budget towards other parts (including other animal molds in themes like City, Jurassic World, or the Collectible Minifigures). Whenever LEGO does decide to introduce a new goat mold, it would be interesting if it had removable horns like the LEGO cow so that it could be used for a wider variety of breeds and species. That might make it easier for LEGO to include it in a wider range of sets and themes, such as collectible minifigures inspired by different historical or geographic settings.

Since the set description only refers to it as a dog and not a husky, couldn't it be intended to represent a different Spitz breed? After all, several Spitz breeds existed in Scandinavia during the Middle Ages, and they also spread to other parts of Europe via Viking expeditions. A few of these ancestral "Viking" breeds like the Norwegian Elkhound and Swedish Vallhund have similar coat colors to Siberian Huskies, although the Swedish Vallhund generally has shorter legs, giving rise to theories that it may be related to the Welsh Corgi. The much more blatant/surprising historical inaccuracy in this set is the squash patch. Pumpkins and squash are New World produce, and while Europe, Africa, and Asia do have their own gourd species like the calabash, they do not resemble the gourds in this set. It's true that writers of historical fiction or medieval fantasy take liberties with this sort of stuff all the time — for example, the Hobbits of the Shire cultivate both potatoes and "pipe-weed" (i.e. tobacco) in Tolkien's Middle-Earth stories. However, it still feels like a somewhat unusual oversight, and leaves me wondering whether the designers considered including other sorts of produce like cabbages, carrots, or calabash before opting for a squash patch. Anyway, I'm disappointed but not surprised that the Brickset story about the official announcement of this set ended up getting locked because people were getting into arguments about the "historical inaccuracy" of including a female knight. I find it kind of telling that female knights, pirates, samurai, etc. tend to be such a consistent source of controversy whenever new historic sets or themes get announced, despite their existence being so well documented (even if it wasn't the norm for their time period). Some of the newly (or at least, more clearly) revealed details that I'm most impressed by are the bearskin rug (in the earlier leaks of the box, I couldn't tell what that black patch was supposed to represent, and my best guess was either ashes from the fireplace or spilled ink from the writing desk), the metalworking tools like the bellows and grindstone, the covered woodpile, the light brick function, and the clearer views of the roof construction (inside and out). It's hard to tell quite how many of these details had counterparts in the original project, since the builder included so few interior photos, and most were not from especially helpful angles. In any case, these furnishings definitely give the set some of the sort of "lived-in" quality that I've long yearned to see in the Castle theme, and greatly appreciated seeing in more recent themes like Friends, Elves, or sometimes even Nexo Knights and Ninjago. It's easy to envision the full and fulfilling lives of the set's humble denizens, from the long hours spent at their daytime trades to the rewarding evenings dining on vegetables and wild game! I definitely appreciate that the set makes full use of the top floor/attic space, since it was unclear whether the original project did — although regrettably, the peaked roof seems to have forced Wes to replace the four-poster bed with a more conventional wooden bedframe. I'm still longing for SOME future Castle set to include a four-poster bed, since like the medieval banquet hall, it strikes me as a very iconic feature of medieval castles! On an amusing note, I also just noticed that one of the lifestyle photos includes some tabletop gaming dice among the non-LEGO props — which probably reflects both an audience that LEGO expects the set to resonate with and one of the interests that motivated Wes and Austin's enthusiasm for this set. After all, quite a few of the non-LEGO projects in Wes's creative portfolio (from both before and after he began working in Billund) are D&D related, including illustrations of characters from his various role-playing campaigns with friends.

If it's any help, the Castle subtheme I've seen the most enthusiastic Facebook/Twitter comments about this poll is Forestmen (perhaps because it's the Castle subtheme that has the least in common with more recent ones).

That seems reasonable! It's important to keep in mind that due to currency inflation, a $150 set these days generally won't be quite "modular building sized" — after all, that might've been a typical price for a Modular Building a decade or so ago, but when adjusted to the US dollar's current value, that original RRP equates to around $180 (the cost of last year's Bookshop). So this price per piece makes sense for a build that's smaller and less expensive than the Bookshop, but still has around the same price per piece you'd expect for that level of intricacy.

As a kid, I remember Fright Knights sort of feeling like a spiritual successor to Dragon Masters/Dragon Knights. Although its architecture was quite different and building styles had changed a lot in those few years, Fright Knights had a lot of stuff that felt like darker/spookier counterparts to the milder fantasy elements in Dragon Masters: a wicked witch instead of a brightly-robed wizard, the vampiric-looking Bat Lord in place of the villainous-looking Dragon Master, and prison carriage pulled by a spooky black dragon in place of one caging a more vibrantly-colored green one. It is kind of surprising that no more recent Castle themes have really done a lot with these sorts of brick-built dragon head motifs, though, considering how much those and various other brick-built creature motifs have flourished in other themes like Ninjago and Legends of Chima in the past decade.

Depends how strictly you define "non-fantasy", I think. Even if it doesn't include any wizards or dragons or so forth, it might still reflect some modern, pop-culture-influenced ideas about what medieval castles would have been like, just like how the Creator pirate ship reflected modern ideas of what the age of piracy looked like based on iconic fictional stories like Treasure Island (including stuff that would be historically inaccurate or uncommon like skull-patterned sails or skull-shaped treasure caves). And while I expect the main model would be a fairly standard/archetypical portrayal of a medieval castle without too many uncommon or unexpected architectural flourishes, the alternate models might be more fantasy-influenced. Anyway, that LEGO Ideas poll was a really neat surprise to wake up to! Most people I saw it shared from were heavily pushing for Bionicle to win (since that's what tends to be trendy among my generation and my circle of friends/acquaintances), but I also saw various people expressing enthusiasm about the Space and Castle themes in the running, as well as some more surprising candidates like Paradisa and Time Cruisers. IDK if this is helpful to anybody in deciding what to vote, but the historic theme that I've seen the most excited comments about on Facebook and Twitter is Forestmen. So from a strategic perspective, that might be one of the easier poll options to reach a majority with. Even then, though, it might still be a challenge to compete against the popularity and familiarity of longer-running themes like Bionicle or Classic Space. I haven't really decided yet how I'm going to vote. Bionicle is definitely one I'd love both out of nostalgia and my general love of buildable, posable characters and creatures, regardless of theme. But a lot of my other childhood favorites like Aquazone, Spyrius, and Dragon Knights are from that mid-90s period that tend to be somewhat more divisive, and also don't tend to have quite as much sentimental value for me as Bionicle anyhow. Conversely, I have a lot of affection for Forestmen, M:Tron, and Blacktron on a conceptual basis, but they were all before my time, so how much I'd enjoy sets based on those themes would depend HEAVILY on how well the designers manage to elevate them to a modern, AFOL-worthy level of complexity and detail.

Nope, the Ninja Control Tower is connected to the street level by a ladder next to the swappable billboards on the back (which includes a gear to lower it). The only truly inaccessible part of the set is Christina's "Ninja Fan" apartment (the brown and tan "Old World" building on the far left) — and the issue there isn't just some need for ninja-level athletics to reach it, but that it has no door!

For my part, I do feel like it's a bit of a weakness/drawback that not all the rooms have an obvious way for civilian characters to access them. It's still an amazing set either way, but that DOES stand out as a significant way that the set could have been improved, especially in light of how attentive the designers of the previous two sets were to that particular aspect of the design. That said, as far as I can tell, the only part of the set that's entirely inaccessible on foot is Christina's apartment, since it has no obvious entrance whatsoever. And that definitely feels unfortunate, given the various possibilities the designers COULD have included to enter the building — after all, a climbing rope up to the window or a hidden entrance under the bed via the alleyway below would be very appropriate for a ninja fan! The lack of ladders/stairs/lifts to connect the "Old World" and "Street" levels is less of an issue to me, since it can be safely assumed that there are connections between these levels further down the city block, beyond the edges of this individual set. After all, both Ninjago City Docks and Ninjago City required the same sort of assumptions for the entire set to be "navigable" by non-Ninja pedestrians. The Ninjago City set included a lift in the back to connect the three levels, but there were no footpaths included to connect the base of the lift to the rest of the Old World. Presumably, either the base of the lift is connected to the Old World's main footpath further down the block (beyond the edge of the set), or Ninjago City denizens are required to hitch a ride on a "water taxi" to cross the canal. Similarly, Ninjago City Docks did not include any ladders, stairs, or footpaths that would connect Mystake's tea shop, Runde's map room, and Runde's boat house to the rest of the set. So tea shop customers would either have to approach from further down the block at Street level (beyond the edge of the set) or travel by "water taxi" to Runde's boathouse, and ascend the steps from there. Note that "water taxis" do not actually appear in any of the Ninjago City sets so far. However, the green taxi stand with black telephone headset in the original set alludes to their existence. And of course, buyers are certainly free to repurpose Konrad's fishing boat, Runde's exploration skiff, or even Takuma's merchant boat from 70610 (which, believe it or not, is identified as a "beer skiff" in the LEGO Ninjago Movie "making of" book) as a "water taxi" if they so choose. So aside from the anomalous closed-off design of Christina's apartment, I don't think this set isn't really any less "accessible" than the others we're used to — even if the pathway from the ground level to some of the higher areas like the rooftop zen garden are every bit as labyrinthine and precarious as the path to reach Lloyd's apartment in the original City!

The sets are super great! I haven't had a chance yet to watch the new TV season that goes with them since, as I mentioned, I've mostly been focused on watching some of the older seasons with my wife and helping her get caught up. She hadn't been following the series at all until after we started dating. I'm honestly kind of surprised and impressed with how much she's been enjoying it, since the storytelling in some parts of the first few seasons can sometimes feel a little rough or uneven in hindsight. Of course, it helps that she's a big fan of lots of shonen manga and anime, which are big influences on a lot of the weirder and wackier aspects of the series, like the way it blends traditional fantasy elements like dragons and magic with more futuristic subject matter like mechs and high-tech vehicles. I didn't mean for my own comment to seem judgmental either. I promise that nothing about your post was upsetting or offensive — I just mistakenly thought you were including yourself in that "generalized statement", and wanted to bring up how rarely generalizations like that tend to hold up in practice based on my own experience (I say that as somebody who's probably made all sorts of generalizations over the years that no longer seem accurate). I apologize if my post seemed to read too much into your comment or sounded needlessly defensive. And thank you for helping me understand your own perspective a little better! AFOL perspectives have honestly changed way more during my time as part of it than I ever could have imagined, which is a big part of why I'm so hesitant to make the sort of generalizations I did back then. I mean, who'd have thought ten years ago that a $300 Ninjago set would generate so much excitement here on Eurobricks? Back then many AFOLs still expected Ninjago in general to become a Galidor-level failure, and even as a fan, I didn't expect it to last more than a couple of years. But today, even a lot of the negative feedback I've seen regarding the recent Ninjago City Gardens set has been from fans who feel it doesn't measure up to the original Ninjago City set from four years ago, or that it should have focused more on scenes and characters from the TV series! I guess I was mostly surprised by your generalization about most AFOLs preferring realism because that would have felt so much MORE accurate to me 10–12 years ago than it does today. Currently, I feel almost like for every AFOL who wants the next Castle theme to be realistic, with minimal fantasy influence, there's another hoping for something more like the Fantasy Era sets, but with even more fantasy species like elves and goblins. I wonder how long it's been since anybody made a poll about that sort of thing?

Even if I'm of a "younger generation", I don't think it's fair to act like AFOLs in general prefer the sorts of grounded scenarios that you describe. I'm turning 30 years old later this year, and yet I STILL overwhelmingly prefer sets, MOCs, and stories based around fantasy characters/creatures and magical adventures compared to ones based around realistic historical military skirmishes. Just in the past week I've been getting back into writing LEGO Elves fan fiction that picks up where the "official" story left off in 2018, and I've got several MOCs in progress that I intend to accompany these stories. Meanwhile, I've been helping my wife catch up on the LEGO Ninjago TV series (she's nearly caught up to the end of season 2), and so far she's absolutely loving it, including its many cheesy jokes and ridiculous plot twists. I understand if you judge me for not enjoying stories as "serious" as the sort you're drawn to, but please take care to recognize that there's nothing inherently more "adult" about your preferences than mine! After all, think about all of the adults who have devoted their lives to CREATING fantasy stories… up to and including literary icons like Shakespeare or J.R.R. Tolkien. For the most part, fantasy writers include fantasy stuff like ghosts, witches, demons, elves, or dragons in their stories out of a genuine passion for that type of subject matter, not as some cynical compromise to turn otherwise serious historical dramas into something more marketable or "kid-friendly". And there's nothing immature about writing (or building) what makes you happy. Personally, Wolfpack, Black Knights, Dragon Masters, etc. never felt like "overlapping Castle themes" to me growing up, but rather like new expansions to one ongoing Castle theme. Sort of like how Ninjago tends to feature sets with several different enemy factions on shelves or in catalogs at the same time — like the video game inspired baddies of the "Prime Empire" sets, the D&D inspired foes from the "Master of the Mountain" sets, the Islander-like minifigures from "The Island" sets, and the wide assortment of enemy characters in the "Legacy" sets. I recognize that the Ninjago approach is slightly different since it has one "main" faction (the ninja themselves) that serve as a sort of connective tissue between the factions that aren't otherwise shown interacting within the same universe as one another. Whereas back in the 80s and 90s when themes like Castle and Space had a similar "evergreen" status to how themes like City, Friends, or Ninjago are treated today, different "hero" factions would emerge and disappear on a regular basis at around the same rate as "villain" factions (and some, like the Forestmen, couldn't be neatly described as either "heroes" OR "villains", but rather as an independent faction with their own unique motives). But my point is that all those separate factions never truly felt like "multiple overlapping castle themes" to me — the closest I've ever felt to THAT was in much more recent years, with new "castle" sets simultaneously available from themes that did NOT share a universe with one another, like Nexo Knights, Elves, and Disney.

Honestly, a lot of the faults of that set tend to be reflected in the reasons I'm not a huge fan of raised baseplates in general. They added some neat terrain to sets that could spice up their appearance and play value a bit — but reduced the amount of building that went into them and locked them into a fairly rigid square or rectangular shapes. And while the central pit allowed for "subterranean" features like dragon lairs or dungeons, I can't tell you how much frustration I experienced even as a kid trying to fish fallen figures, bricks, and accessories out of the narrow openings provided to access those spaces! In hindsight, I'm much more interested in the more "modular" approach earlier (and later) castles have generally taken using pins and/or hinges to link walls and towers together into a larger structure that allows for easier interior access. Especially since we've now seen LEGO do a much better job creating brick-built terrain in various themes without relying on prefab bases, even when it involves "shortcuts" like BURPs/mountain bricks. Some examples I'm fond of include the sets like Battle for Ninjago City, Jungle Falls Rescue, Ragana's Magic Shadow Castle, and Skull Sorceror's Dungeons, which also illustrate just how much more room this approach allows for "gear functions", hidden entrances and exits, or other play features that would be much less viable in a solid, prefab "mountain" base. I'm hopeful that future LEGO castles might take advantage of some of these possibilities to achieve a similar balance between the imposing vertical structures of a lot of 90s LEGO castles and the more elaborate and customization-friendly builds and playable interiors that have shown up in so many more recent themes.

Oh, there are also a bunch of new parts that may not have been brought up yet which I feel have tremendous potential for historic sets and/or MOCs! spiky bushes in Earth Green, rubber hose/rope pieces in Reddish Brown 3x2 shields/plates with handle in Reddish Brown 1x4 masonry bricks in Med. Stone Grey 1x4x2 ornate fences in Reddish Brown turbans in Dark Red ghost/flame swords in Tr. Flu. Green/Medium Lilac katanas in Reddish Brown (great for "training" swords) "page cut" hair in Bright Orange "princess hair" with bun and braid in Reddish Brown flames/plumes in Tr. Med. Reddish Violet 4x4 plates with 3x3 quarter circle cutout in Dark Azur and Sand Yellow (I've been REALLY eager for more colors of this part since it's great for building winding rivers or streams like the ones in the old Forestmen sets). 3x3 left wedge slopes and right wedge slopes in Sand Yellow (again, great for landscaping, especially along waterways) 3x6 left wedge plates and right wedge plates in Dark Green (same) Ninjago weapon assortments in Bright Green 1x1x2/3 droid heads in Bright Red (great for mushrooms) 1x6x7 arches in Med. Stone Grey, and glass/panes for those arches in Dark Stone Grey. 1x4x6 window/door frames in Sand Green 1x2x2, 1x4x3, and 1x3x3 (!!!) window frames in Dark Brown. cabinet doors and shutters for 1x4x3 frames in Sand Yellow. Will add more later! EDIT with a couple more: 3x3x2 round bricks/columns in Medium Stone Grey Vine with thorns in Dark Green

A lot of those gimmick-heavy sets haven't aged well, but I do think there were some redeeming aspects of those sets, like the high columns and vaulted chambers of Night Lord's Castle, or the concave rooflines which were as much of a defining part of Fright Knights sets as convex rooflines later became for Elves sets. Of course, this is also the era I grew up in, so I have a lot of nostalgia for those sorts of sets even if I recognize in hindsight that their quality was often… lacking. Plus, what a lot of 90s sets lacked in the quality of their builds, they often made up for in just how imaginative and adventurous they got with their subject matter. I have a lot of fond memories of sets like Majisto's Magical Workshop, Fire Breathing Fortress, Skeleton Surprise, King's Carriage, and Night Lord's Castle, even if I would be much less keen on buying sets like that today as an adult (especially given how expensive many of them were even at their original retail prices). The introduction of so many new fantasy elements like wizards, witches, dragons, magical crystal balls, "vampires" (even if never strictly identified as such), and airships did a lot to help make the Fright Knights theme extremely exciting to me as a child, whereas Castle factions from before my childhood (which I was well aware of from posters, catalogs, and yard sale lots) never tended to light up my imagination the same way. In hindsight, it's probably no surprise that themes like Ninjago and Elves which boasted similar fantasy subject matter but far higher quality builds would eventually emerge as some of my all-time favorites!

That's where you're mistaken — the holes in a brick with studs on all sides give the ridges of a pin just enough room to expand. Think of it this way: if you draw a circle inside of a square, the size of the circle will be limited to where it presses up against the center of each side. But if you cut a gap in the center of each side, you have room to make the circle slightly larger. Plenty of Exo-Force sets also used pins inside of a brick with studs on four sides. It definitely would never be likely to show up on a "load-bearing" part of a model because of how loose a connection it is, but it's never been an illegal connection or one that would cause the parts to become deformed like other "pin-in-antistud" connections. EDIT: Sorry, I thought I'd read to the end of the thread, but then I realized there was a whole other page of responses where other people (including my own brother) already explained this. So feel free to disregard this post.