Mr. Elijah Timms

Behold, brave readers… out of bygone forest glades and forgotten rings of mysterious monolithic stone monuments come a new, if not official faction from my Medieval collection. I give you… THE DRUIDS! The Druids are an arcane order of magick makers who gain their power from the life force of the earth itself, and although they are clearly known to congregate together at Meadowhenge, the sacred dwelling of their sect, they are rarely seen together. In fact, it is often whispered before winter fires that the Druidfolk can be seen at one end of the realm one day, and mysteriously at the opposite side the next. Their mystical arts focus on manipulating weather, or speeding up or stopping the growth of crops, or summoning the primal forces of nature in times of need. Some are healers, while others embody some of the far less hospitable traits of the natural world beyond the castle walls. Finally, a staple of all of the Druids is that they share a life bond with their spirit avatar, an animal that they can choose to inhabit with their consciousness at will. Birds, cats, spiders, and even a mighty bear accompany members of this inclusive faction. Pictured at center is Greenwood, who is said to spend entire weeks in his wild hare form, traveling the forests and gathering all of the gossip the trees are willing to share. Meanwhile, dreaded Samhain wields the sheer force of the autumn and the dying of the crops. It is said he can speak to the dead, and can even travel to their world when he is not in his wolf spider form. The mighty Feldspar is said be able to hear the memories of the very earth beneath your feet, and will fight to protect it, in either his human form or his monstrous bear avatar. These are just a few of the little personas I’ve built up around the figs, and I’m sure some of you can see how easy and fun it is to do so with a little imagination, and the right vegetation and staff pieces! Obviously I’ve enjoyed creating the backstories for this strange little figures, and I’m sure you can see there’s some ninjago and D&D figs that I’ve incorporated untouched into their mix. Even the CMF acorn boy is in there somewhere. But mostly the whole concept started with that one torso from the Viking Village, pictured above.. I knew I wanted to explore something unique with them, and at first I built up this little squad of forest archer rangers, but then decided to build them into something far stranger. I’ve kept a few of the archers, I suppose to serve as younger members of the order to serve as defensive archers, with no flint or metal arrowheads, of course haha

Anybody else pick up the Barweer Crow Knight’s Castle? I used to be more of an official Lego purist, but at that price— just over $100 USD for almost 5,000 piece—, I just couldn’t say no after reading so many people insist that the parts quality was almost on par with Lego. im now about 3 steps in (multiple bags per step, I don’t know how many total, 12 maybe?) and I must admit, I am actually a bit overwhelmed by the size of it. It’s going to be massive when it’s complete, and I don’t know, I guess because of the price I just really didn’t anticipate how big it was in person. (Or where I’m going to PUT it, bc this is not modular and does not feel like something you disassemble for storage). the quality is good.. not Lego good, but the bricks hold well and aren’t too difficult to snap down for an engineer-level of squared order. The plastic seems a wee bit harder than TLG, but nothing to worry about brittle snapping,etc. I’m also wondering how I’m going to populate it— I only have about 20 Raven knights, and yeesh, this thing could comfortably host 50!

@AmperZand Thanks man, lovin your Serpent Knightsas well, especially that crazy Cyclops! I have one of those Blacktron Mutant head on one of my Green Dragon knights… rumor has it the Goblin Witch cursed him for attacking their king during one of their battles, hehe I’ll have to get my Serpents together to share a pic at some point.. I’ve leaned into the purple a bit more than others. Keep up the good work!

Horse Knights have been a lot of fun to army build! Between being the only new faction with multiple torsos, there’s also a real opportunity to mix in some other figs from the past, such as the Dragonborne D&D fig or the blue CMF wizard. Plus the standard torso is basic enough that you can create some great variations with very little customization. My army of Horse Lords hails from the region of Equitane, under the rule of King Phillip: Pictured are Sir Destry the Daring and cavalry of knights: Lastly, here are a few pics That show off the variety of classes I’ve established for this faction. Depicted here are my Equitane archers, guards, men-at-arms, knights, ranger, and king figures: Since we already have more than a few factions that have leaned on blue, specifically from the Fantasy era, I tried to purposefully make this faction focus more on white as their primary hue. I love the archers wearing what is essentially an all white tunic and hood over their chain mail. And finally, yes, that’s a third party helm I used for the men-at-arms, but it looked so good I couldn’t help myself, felt like a perfect fit:

THE KRAKEN HAVE LANDED! Lord Leviathan leads his army of Sea Dog foot soldiers and Tridentmen. My Kraken empire features Irish names and complexions, and is easily one of my favorite factions to build out so far. Sooooo much fun!

Started my Outlaw Forest Den last night. I was a bit surprised and how different the bagging was, even to a massive set like Lion Knights Castle. I think there’s, what, 29 bags, but the piece count of each bag seems fairly small. I guess that makes it less daunting, but 29 bags could certainly be interpreted the same way to a novice builder. also found it interesting that after the first bath featuring the cart and the Lion Knight driver, there’s not another minifig until, like, bag 10. Lego does a pretty great job of spacing those out well so they serve as a bit of a mini payoff throughout a large build. still very exciting.. my first BDP set

Just saw it on Reddit. Mehhhh… so many other properties seem to have more appeal than Shrek.

That torso was around for a while…. I actually pulled a dozen or so, swapped out black arms, legs and have them set up as archers and a squad of men-at-arms to be part of the serpent faction. They look great— paired them with the Friends purple bows and quivers, I’ll have to post some pics at some point

I was wondering if the BDS palettes affected which torsos are being retired and which are not? Obviously the Lion Knight soldiers and Wolfpack parts were part of the series 6 palette and are part of the Outlaw Forest Den. But the BFs were not, nor were the Lion Queen legs, soooo is that why some are being retired from PAB yet others remain?

Some updates: in less than 12 hours, PAB supply for Griffin and Kraken figs seems to be pretty well exhausted. I thought I’d share some prices (listed in USD) as I already made the list for myself anyway: Kraken: Torso: $1.25 Legs: $0.70 Shield: $2.34 Brown Viking Helmet: $0.82 Pirate Cutlass: $0.16 BS Mini Mask No. 1 Earth Green: $0.14 BS Griffin: Torso: $1.25 Legs: $0.70 Shield: $2.34 Dark Knight Helmet Silver: $0.82 BS Mini Short Sword Silver: $0.16 (BS meaning Best Seller; if you’ve ordered from PAB before, you understand the importance of this)

They’re in there now! Griffin shield is already sold out.. happy hunting, friends

Zoth33 is correct, it’s from the Minfigure Factory feature on Lego.com. They’ve actually updated their torso offerings with multiple versions of both the Krakens and Griffins sigils. I made a Griffin one as well, I’ll share it when I get a chance. all told, you can see the downside to this process fairly evidently— the torso prints are a process 4 color print on the torso, which isn’t nearly as crisp or clean as the spot color printing that usually goes on figs. Plus the registration wasn’t great on either, meaning a sliver of the white actually shows up on the edge of the piece and takes away from the overall look. Most of all, it’s an all white torso, with white arms too, so it does lose some authenticity standing next to one of the kraken figs with his dark blue green (turquoise) base torso piece. the upside is it’s kind of nice to have an alternate version of the new factions. You can also customize them and experiment, so I actually created two designs on each fig, front and back, and chose the one that looks best, hiding the backside design with capes. And perhaps it’s a good sign that Lego is going all in with the new factions here so early, hopefully a sign that we’re going to see more of them!?

May I present Lord Caelen Leviathian, loathsome ruler of the Kraken Knights, as ruthless as the old green sea itself!

I’ve been saying his now for a decade, but especially now with so many unique parts ideally suited to it… it’s the perfect time for a ZOO subtheme. Or, more appropriately, a modular zoo wave. Lots of fencing, rock droppings and habitats balanced nicely with bigger buildings like the primate house or gift shop, etc, even a poly bag with street vendors or face painting… could be lots of fun, and DIFFERENT! and instead of a people in the park set, how about a fig pack JUST of zoo animals and park workers??

This is like asking a DJ to name his favorite song or a requesting a librarian to choose her favorite book. I favor some more than others, obviously… but truly, I love them all.