Grand Poobah

This is awesome, if this is how your monastary looks, I'm very eager to see your castle/citadel. What sort of architectural cues are you aiming for your castle to be like? More high fantasy, more late Medieval, or are you going for a Romanesque/Dark Age Mason work?

You and DNL teaming up would certainly be something to see.

This may sound like blasphemy, but I never actually was a fan of LEGO sets in the conventional sense. I LOVE legos, no doubt, but I always found the Castle sets themselves were rather flimsy and not realistic. To this end, I would build the LEGO set, I'd leave it up for a few months, and then I'd tear it down and build something entirely new. I am a HUGE fan of MOCs, because the standard set just doesn't cut for what I want to portray. When I get my LEGOs out again, my goal is to make massive LEGO Pirate/Castle MOCs. I'll do most of it by ordering many new bricks straight off LEGO's website.

Yes I agree, although I wish there were more "variety," if that makes sense. There certainly was more variety in the ancient period.

Yes, I agree, we must see more. What are your favored eras? Ancient, Antiquity/Classical, Dark Ages, High Medieval, Late Medieval, or Renaissance?

Hah! I saw this on FlickR, and it inspired me to register on this forum. I'm surprised you hadn't been registered already. That said, it's fantastic, what inspired you to do such a piece--conceptually and so forth?

Not to be negative nancy, but none of the headgear or helmets look all that great. Don't want to discourage anyone, but still...I can see it being Hellenistic inspired, but the resemblance ends there.

Wow, that's impressive, I sort of feel compelled to buy some LEGOs now, but I can't at the moment. Maybe in a few years down the line.

Buy online. Retail is ridiculously expensive. Or move to the U.S. :D

I live in the U.S. and I love the Pirate theme but WHAT??? The European Cannons can actually shoot stuff? When? I always wondered about that, but how??

If fantasy is on the way out--which would be nice, I vote Villagers vs. Raiders--seems the most room for all kinds of sets that would dip into the best of both worlds. Personally, I'd scrap the Castle/Fantasy theme and go for Dark Ages--you have the East Romans, Italians (Venetians/Genoese), the Sassanian (Persian) Empire, and then generic Barbarian tribes. Although if LEGO did do a Dark Age theme it'd be this: Goths, Franks, Romans, Persians (this is a HUGE maybe)

I have read through this thread and I think all the ideas are interesting. Right now, I'm going through my dark ages, but I have maintained an interest in the online community focused around historical LEGOs (including Pirates). Here's my take: The Viking stuff failed because the sets were mediocre. The "main fort" thing was cool, but not appealing, it could be easily replicated, and there wasn't much color (lots of brown bricks) Secondly, adults didn't like it because Viking helmets did not have horns--and the execution of said horns was not appealing to kids either--or kids interested in Vikings who'd know that Vikings didn't have horned helmets. That said, I believe there was a 2nd variation which was the two eye protected pieces attached to a conical helm--that was cool. Additionally, the mythological creatures seemed to be the main attraction of having such sets, and if you're like me, you'd like the minifigs, not the fabricated dragon. I'm a huge fan of Vikings as I am of history, but the LEGO Vikings were sloppily executed. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case of a lot of LEGO Castle sets being put out today. There is no real substance to the sets--which is fine for me because I just order specific minifig parts and lots and lots of bricks off the web. The whole troll and dwarf theme I find to be pretty lame. The only cool thing is the winged helmets which I like quite a lot. As far as Greece vs. Rome, well seeing what LEGO does now with the Viking, Castle, and Pirate themes, they're going to make something none of us might like. They might not, but that's my gut feeling. I know if they do a Rome theme, the legionaries will have that ridiculous "lorica segmentata" that Roman troops are stereotyped as having--in reality more Roman troops wore chain mail than they did the lorica segmentata I'm afraid if they do a Greek theme, they might have the ridiculous 300 theme with no armor for the Spartans and some tight loin cloth or something. That said, a Greek theme would be more interesting imo, if they did it "right" A Greek theme has the most color, the most potential for branching into fantasy, and a more varied amount of soldiers (knowing LEGO they're probably going to just have the stereotypical "Legionary" Outfit). I remember playing the Age of Empires 1 demo back in 1997 and then constructing a Watch Tower out of Wild West lego bricks. Again, the real question is that if they were to do such a theme, would they do it right, and would they do it justice? Obviously, the fans will generally have the best interpretations of the LEGO theme, but new LEGO parts can't hurt. And gladiators don't really sell me too much--the real gladiators were nothing like they were in Ridley Scott's film.