Hive

Holy crap! Man, I should have gone with my first instict and have bought a second copy of that set back then... it was my first Fantasy set and one of my very first sets as an AFOL. I got it back when the line was being discontinued, and this set was one of only 2 Fantasy sets I found available still (the other being the horrible chariot). Oh the sweet memories... I've always been fond of that set, in spite of its' obvious weirdnes. The bridge is awesome though. And the golden knight, of course, as well. Get the entire set if you can!

Very nice, always a pleasure to see Kingdoms-ish MOCs - and to top it off, with the addition of one of my favourites, the Crusaders! Nice!

That is very very impressive. Such a creative and weird build. I like it.

Star Wars was a very special case though, as it has animated shows, comics, toys, games and such to prolong it's run. The Hobbit/LOTR doesn't really have any such thing going to prolong the run. I mean, LOTR seems to have ended already...

Why should I not give my honest opinion? I know that some people seem to feel that being an AFOL means blindly praising anything that LEGO throws at us, but I give credit where it's due. I praise plenty of sets, even from themes I don't collect myself - if they're good in some way or the other. If only positive comments where desired when discussing new sets, it would be a pretty boring and meaningless "discussion".

I always love a good reimagining of a classic set. Not a fan of the heraldy though, which I consider to among the very worst LEGO has ever produced - but an impressive build saves it. So many details.

A "major" parts pack? But there are only 2 figures and no special parts. What makes it a better deal than simply buying an extra Gatehouse set or similar?

I'm not saying that a kid at 4 won't love it, I'm just curious as to what an AFOL finds so great about the set. With this being a site for AFOLs, I kinda expect us to judge the sets from our own perspective, and not from that of toddlers...?

Honestly, what's so great about it? It's not very detailed, it's extremely child-like due to it's "junior" nature (even more so than the already way too childish 2013 castle line) and it doesn't seem to include any new or interesting bricks...

Well with the last Hobbit movie being out by the end of this year and thus that line presumably ending, I don't see why LEGO wouldn't try their hands on another home-grown fantasy line next summer.

Another Lake Town set sounds nice, the first one was pretty good. But very dissapointed to hear that we won't be getting any LOTR sets, with the LOTR theme having been the source of some of the best sets from LEGO in the last couple of years in my opinion. Oh well, with no Castle sets either it looks like 2014 might be an affordable LEGO year for me at least.

I can live with that. Fingers crossed for Kingdoms II in the summer of 2015!

Really? To me, the gap is both rather large and rather bothersome - to the point where I simply don't find it a suitable match.

I like it, but I think it's unrealistic to expect LEGO to ever release such a big siege weapon. I do like the functionality, though.

I think it's a very wise and understandable decision of LEGO not go get involved with religion in any sort of way. Enough people enforce religion on children without the new for it to be in toys as well, not to mention the fact that including religion x in a LEGO set might put off religions y and z from buying the set. Best to just stay clear of religion alltogether.

Yeah I came to the same discover a few days ago, to my big dissapointment. There's nothing wrong with your horns, they simply do not fit. Why, I do not understand.

I actually think it works so well exactly because the picture is a bit "blurry". Nicely done!

Well, I ended up getting this in a sale at the end of the summer - and finally decided to build it a few days ago. As I suspected judging from pictures and reviews, the castle wasn't really to my liking. But I asked myself: "do you dislike it simply because you find the colours and shields off-putting, or do you dislike the actual build as well?" So to solve that puzzle and try to judge the set solely on the merits of it's build, I decided to recolour it into a Fantasy theme dark blue castle. I had to abandon that idea pretty quickly though, due to a lack of suitable dark blue bricks in my collection. So instead, I changed it into a red Kingdoms theme castle: I made it as much of a straight conversion from the original model as my brick collection allowed me to. And I must say, I actually do enjoy this version a lot more than the official set! While liking blue and absolutely loving the Fantasy dark blue, I simply feel the blue of this line works poorly with the greys... and also feel that there was simply too much of it in the original build. I find both this red as well as the (in my opinion) far superior heraldy to make the model much more appealing. That said, I still think it falls short compared to the Kingdoms castle. I do think the central gate part of the castle looks pretty good though, and will use it to make a cross-breed between the two castles next - possibly using the two round towers from this one as well. But with the Kingdoms red, of course. All in all, I appreciate this set much more with the blue and heraldy replaced.

I was a bit "ashamed" when I first started being an AFOL and often hid my hobby from others, afraid of what they'd think of me. But nowadays, I'm pretty open about it. Sure, there are some people who roll their eyes when they learn of it, thinking me childish and crazy - but most people actually react in a positive way; lots of people find it cool and interesting, with many actually asking me if they can build something with me themselves. Others notify me when they encounter LEGO on sale and some even gift me small sets from time to time. Others again simply find it t a fun little quirky side of me, calling me crazy in good-natured jest but accepting that it's a part of who I am.

Oh right, that one. Isn't that supposed to be for the new Junior line though, and not per se a part of the actual Castle theme? Either way, the picture does little to impress.

I think it will take much longer for projects to reach 10k votes with the new rules, since the most "populistic" ideas are not allowed anymore. I think it's a good change though, as it will hopefully see more focus on the actual builds as opposed to popular trade marks and rendered minifigs.

Where have you seen such pictures?

My hopes for future Castle? That they abolish the current Castle theme ASAP and replace it with something more like Kingdoms or Fantasy Castle. In terms of sets, I'd like to see more stuff like the Medieval Market Village, Mill Village Raid, Blacksmith Shop, Guarded Inn, etc. A rare medieval boat would be very much welcome as well. Oh, and a smaller Joust set than the very expensive Kingdoms one (which I have yet to find at a reasonable price). This, I completely agree with. I'd like the factions and, especially, the faces of the minifigures to be more "neutral". While I enjoy the level of detail LEGO put on the heads these days, I think they could benefit from making them less deterministic in their cartoonish good/evil looks. My dream Castle theme would be a "Classic Castle" line with the return of Black Falcons, Forestmen and Crusaders with re-imagined versions of classic sets, with modern techniques, parts and colours. A pipe dream, I know... but man, that would be awesome.

It's not just a matter of comparing the type of sets and number of bricks, though; I (and many others, I believe) find the Kingdoms minifigures and colourschemes FAR superior to that of the current Castle line. And for the most part, I think the builds themselves were better as well.