Mr. Elijah Timms

It's a great set-- pair it with the Kingdoms Castle and the MMV and you've got the centerpiece of your Castle collection.

After picking up the 70404 King's Castle for about $88USD with TRU's 20% discount, I couldn't wait to populate it with my Crown Knight faction, and all of the new blue Knights rolled out in this wave. I also wanted to see how the Crown Knights, the new Blue Lion Knights, and the CM Heroic Knight might all blend together if presented as a single faction. I thought the results were prettty successful, and thought you all might like to use this opportunity to learn about the mythology within my Castle line, to see the new Castle in the wild, and to see how the separate torsos might work when presented as a single faction. I feel an obligation to all readers to insist that this is not a MOC by any means. For the most part this is straight out of the instruction booklets (albeit after replacing the Crown Lion shields with more appropriate shields from the Crown Knight era. But you might get a closer look at said set, at perhaps some unique angles. _____________________________________________________ Friends, sword-brothers, maiden fair and all citizens of the great kingdom of Fradia... it is my pleasure to welcome you to a royal wedding within the walls of King Sebastian's own home, the great Chateau de Arsenaux: Our great King Sebastian, of the crown sigil, has recently conquered the rich coastal region of Nomeau. In a sign of solidarity, the Marquis de Nomeau has pledged his eldest daughter, the lovely Princess Bellina, to a nobleman of the King's choosing. And so, the Marquis has come with his men to present his daughter in today's ceremony. The Marquis, previous wearer of the Lion Head standard, has also arrived sporting a new image upon his men. The Crowned Lion is a symbol of Nomeau's loyalty to the great kingdom of Fradia, and its stalwart king. And so the ceremony begins... The King has chosen his most trusted knight, Sir Felix of Prewitt, to take the hand of the princess. Sir Felix is understandably a bit nervous... ... But it is certainly not for fear of the kingdom, for the King's trusted White Knights, of the Royal Order of Percival, stand careful watch beyond the walls of the keep. King Sebastian resides over the entire ceremony. It is said that our brave king loves a wedding almost as much as a battle. Weddings always make Sir Phelan the skin-changer emotional. Legend has it that the Goblin Witch cast a spell on him, and he is no longer able to revert back into his human guise... The Captain of the Guard, LeBeau, makes use of a line to get a closer look at the proceedings. The Marquis de Nomeau hopes he has made the right decision in this new agreement with the Fradian King. He could have made a similar deal with the Kents to the north, in their red tunics and carrying their own unique Lion heraldry. Sir Francois, on the other hand, is growing tired of waiting for the afternoon's epic feast. All Hail King Sebastian!! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After building the new castle, I can honestly say I really like it. Obviously there's a lot of repetition involved, but I love the design and the asymmetry is really interesting and unique. The courtyard also seems really spacious. Obviously it's inevitable that one would compare this with the previous Kingdoms castle... I might have to build that one again to give a true decision on which is better-- but the fact that it's too close to call speaks of how much I've enjoyed this set. I'd recommend it to any one who loves a good Lego Castle. And who doesn't??

Wow... I'm not much of a LOTR collector, but this is positively beautiful. I can't look at it without hearing the sound of waterfalls and the music score from the film inside my head. Absolutely one of the best small interpretations of a movie scene TLG has ever produced. Thanks for the review! Your Elven group shot is pretty amazing, too!

Good question. In terms of figs alone, if you have the Batwing set, you've already got yourself a Joker... But the Funhouse also offers Robin, Harley, and that excellent Riddler fig. On the other hand, the Batmobile set offers the love or hate orange/purple Two-Face, 2 goons, and a generic security guard you'll probably throw a yellow head onto to dump into your City collection. But you already know all this. In terms of figs alone, I'd say Funhouse. In terms of the build, I'd also suggest that the Funhouse was a very well-celebrated set, with lots of playability, adventure, and possibilities for adding onto it. The Batmobile, on the other hand, received its fair share of criticism upon release for the design... But I disagree. It's a very detailed and substantial model, and the bank itself sports a unique color scheme that would be right at home in any City layout. Only the Two-Face jeep is a fail here, and if you lose the crane and flick-fire emplacements it's a bit better. I will suggest that if you ever consider picking up the BatCave, then the Batmobile is a must-- they compliment each other SOOO well. So as far as play goes, I'd say Funhouse... But if you're looking more for display purposes, I'd suggest the iconic Batmobile. I've asked myself, looking back, if I could only have one of the two, which would I pick? And the answer is a definitive FUNHOUSE. But if you can, esp. now that the wave is nearing the end of its shelf life... I'd suggest going for all of the sets. They all look os great displayed all together.

I'm anything but a bully. I did cross the line with that whole 'narcissistic' bit, and for that, I apologize to 'BrickMario.' In the future I will follow the directives laid out by site mods and welcome any friendly discussion among fellow enthusiasts, in PM if it's more appropriate. I'll say nothing more and apologize to readers for my role in the distraction created.

Mods, if I'm out of line, I freely apologize, but I'm beginning to think this thread would be much more enjoyable if a single reader didn't vote himself its de facto moderator / host and treat it like his own personal CM blog... Is it completely necessary to personally respond to every comment or observation? I don't know if this is just the preferred method to stack up almost 600 posts in 3 months, or if there's a higher level of AFOL-related narcissism at play... But it's simply redundant and non-contributory to what is usually an enjoyable community experience. And I know I'm not the only one who's grown frustrated with it. Perhaps this reader might consider creating his own blog or web site as a more proper venue for such frequent and occasionally uninformed opinions?

I'm with TrumpetKing-- looks like a one-piece head. Look at where the sides of the blue touch the white-- looks more like a print, there's no three-dimensional depth evident in typical headwear-over-headpiece configurations. Plus, if it were a headwear piece, those two fangs would prob. be too small/thin to be successful in a injected mold.

Not just you. For 30 years I've been saying "tek-neek." Funny how something you attach to as a child just seems to build itself into your acceptable vernacular vocabulary, to the point that anything else seems ridiculous, even if it's correct.

The Popsicle has been available in no less than 6 colors, and this will be the 7th. And whether or not one would call it rare depends on, well, the magnitude of his or her collection. FWIW you can get the trans-yellow one right now in 60014 Coast Guard Patrol.

Interesting enough article. I wish the scholar from Canterbury further discussed his findings, statistics of the various expression categories, etc. I certainly prefer the differing expressions, because it creates a community of characters rather than a mindless army of hazy smiling zombies. When army building in particular I always enjoy giving each fig a unique expression to make them all individually unique-- plus it also provides a large set of heads to disperse back through other figs as well. One thing I have struggled with, and I'm curious what other readers think, is the idea of swapping out the generic smileys in vintage figs from the 80's. Aside from the Kingdoms Joust knight, my entire Black Falcons faction continue to sport classic smileys, yet the rest of my castle collection features specific and appropriate expressions. I always said I'd never swap ou their heads, but lately I have been very torn. Thoughts?

THIS YETI FIG IS CLEARLY RACIST! It's obviously meant to exploit the stereotypical image of a North Pole/Santa's Village snow monster, without any consideration of the diversity of the genus, be it the Nepalese Abominable snowmen, the Alaskan polar Sasquatch sub-species, or, well, any resident of Yellowknife, Northern Territories, Canada. I mean, really, TLG, why BLUISH-WHITE? What do you have against, grayish-white, yellowish-white, or even brownish-white???!!! (The worst part is this isn't even the most ridiculous post on the subject in this thread. Let it go, friends.)

LOVE THE YETI!!!!! And the colors used in the welder are so rich and lifelike. I'm not as impressed with the robots, but I'll take the scientist. Can't wait to see more. Great find, Alcarin!

Beautiful stuff, man! I'm curious-- how many pieces are in "The Crusader?" She's clearly my favorite of the bunch? Well done!

Hey guys, just built the 60014 Coast Guard Patrol set, and while I always feel a bit slighted by the piece count when buying a boat set, I feel the $79.99USD price point was fair in comparison to the finished product (and I feel even better using TRU's $20 off to get it for $69.99). Some other observations: -- Seems a bit strange to get 3 sharks. Would've loved one of them to be a sawfish shark, or even the manta mold. -- The tiny helicopter received heavy criticism, of course, but I like it. Who doesn't want to recreate that ridiculous scene from JAWS 2 where the shark grabs the copter by the pontoon and pulls the pilot into the drink. This entire set reminded me of that movie, in fact! -- I understand why TLG feels the need to use new pieces freely to justify a new mold, but the dog? So much more could have been built into the ship itself were it not for the dog and small shark army included. -- Speaking of which, the ship is a really eye-catching build, really authentic if not appropriate in scale... But there's one thing keeping it from being a great build. The bottom deck has, of course, NO furnishings whatsoever. Not a single bunk. A few bunks, a small galley or even a munitions closet would have made this thing truly exceptional. -- Would have loved some line and reel on the ship itself, to hook up to the raft and tow it into harbor, etc. Among the extra pieces was a white shaft (aka Gandalf's staff), some Technic pins and an extra grappling hook that I employed to create an effective boat hook. If only there were a few clips aft to hold it (or the crew's walkie talkie) when not in use!

Hhhmmmmm... Grogall drops the price, and a week later we get pictures. Can't help but wonder if we see the Opera House & Winter Market next, and soon!?

I keep looking for something negative to criticize here, but honestly... I love it. It's an extensively beautiful set with an amazing array of figs to go with it. And yet... I will not get it. That's just too much, beyond what I'm willing to spend for a single set. I used to be a Star Wars completist, and at one point had a complete collection of the theme... But once they started dropping Death Stars, enormous shuttles, and Executors on us, that trend had to end. I'm not bitter that TLG aims so high with these-- obviously there's a worthy collectors market for these monstrous sets-- but unfortunately I'm not one of them. Congrats to all of you that will be lucky enough to pick this up!

Built this last night-- the carriage is a really solid design. I'm tempted to get another simply because the 'prison carriage' has its limits... Sure, it's great for nabbing the princess to take back to Dragon Mountain, but what if the evil wizard has places to be? Doesn't make sense to lock up who is apparently the head honcho of the entire Red Dragon faction! Another incentive for a second purchase is the man-at-arms with the split white/blue tunic (pictured at far right above). I've got this thing about having an even number of guards, call it symmetry or whatever. As it stands, if one were to pick up the entire theme ey would end up with 3 of these guys. Might have to pick up a second once they go on sale before Christmas.

Just built this last night-- the dragon is BIG, and has quite a bit of articulation for a molded "Lego animal." The wizard is also fantastic-- I think I've actually decided NOT to put the black Sensei Wu beard on him because his torso print is just too lovely to keep concealed. The expression of the black bearded head also works fairly well without it. As for the tower, the scale is bad, laughably incorrect. This thing looks like it's designed to be played with the micro figs from the Games line, and even then it might still be too small. What also really bothered me from the pics was the left turret, and specifically its open 'window' face and the fact that the treasure is left wide open right out in plain view. Well, upon building it, you find a fairly interesting facade with the spider and its web on the BACK of that same structure.... So, with a few small and easy modifications, I chose to have the spider web face the front of the mountain, and have the treasure chest safely tucked away in the rear. A much stronger display, if I do say so.

I think for me, the Winter theme is so special, and becoming such a tradition with my family, that it sort of operates outside my conventional Lego budget. Yes, like the rest of you, I'm quite sure I'll be getting it... Bur it almost doesn't feel like a Lego purchase. It's more like... I dunno, Christmas decor?! So yes, as long as the price stays nice and conventional, this sort of becomes a purchase outside of my personal Lego hobby. It becomes a family thing-- so please keep it that way TLG!

Very exciting! I'm happy with the piece count... If it were up to me, the Winter sets would traditionally have a $70-80USD price point, with the occasional flagship set, like last year's house thrown in every four or five years. Keeping these affordable is a guaranteed way to keep this line successful for a long, long time.

WHOA!!!!! That Ewoks village just launched itself right out of my wish list! I'm sure it's gonna be epic but that's just too rich for my blood. ANd yet Grogall still manages to save the day with e next piece of news--, the WINTER VILLAGE MARKET!!! Sounds like a great addition, and at a price point I can willingly concede to. With my 1,000th post, I can officially begin COUNTing down the days until we see pics of this one! Thx Grogall

1. The Quinjet is first. A truly great design with an equally enjoyable build, 2. The FunHouse is second, but it's so darn close it's practically a tie. Just because that set is so, well, FUN. 3. It's really tough to nail down the third spot. Th BatCave is a great set but it needs the Batmobile to really work. Oddly enough, I think I have to go with the Batwing set. It's not a perfect design but add in the Joker's copter and the figs, and I just think it's the set I enjoyed the most after the previously mentioned two. Well worth the money spent.