Continuation of Castle themes?

HarryBerry

Does anyone know if Lego be bringing out any more in the next couple of years? It is really hard to get most Kingdoms sets for a reasonable price now, and I love them :( I wish the official Lego store would hold more stock. I think if they display the range on their website they should make sure they hold enough of each product to buy!

thornie

According to sources, a new Castle theme or re-released classic Castles will be released mid 2013.

HarryBerry

Many thanks, so damn excited by this :)

WatfordScottyM

Me too. Kingdoms is one of my favourite themes and since I got back into Lego there just doesn't seem to be much in the way of castles. As a kid I loved playing with knights and battling with my armies.

New castles would be a wonderful idea.

In terms of the old castle sets that are out there which are the best? I've seen a few on ebay, but haven't yet taken the plunge on buying any.

LegoFanTexas

There has been a castle line of one type or another for many years now, without any break.

Knights Kingdom I
Vikings
Knights Kingdom II
Castle
Kingdoms

That right there covers about 8 years ending last year. Now we have LOTR, which is really just licenced castles.

Some of the retired sets are expensive, but others are not. There are some bargains to be had from each line.

Dread_Pirate

After talking with a Lego rep a couple of days ago on this very subject, he stated that the 5 new sets do include a new castle and a re-release of an older castle. Also the new castle will be modular like the 2010 King's Castle was so they will be compatable with each other to build a larger castle. He could not give any other details about the sets as they are not "officially released" yet. The new series is going to be called Legends.

At first the LOTRs were supposed to fill in for the midieval era sets but as it turned out they are not as popular as Lego was expecting. This more than likely has to do with the movies being almost 10 years old now and alot of the kids building lego either have not seen the movies or were not even born when the movies were popular. The Hobbit movie and sets hopefully will bring more interest in the LOTRs sets. Lego tried this formula before with Star Wars replacing the Space series and that succeeded very well. Star Wars on the other hand is far more recognizable than the LOTRs with fans around the world.

andhe

The castle sounds intriguing. It seems an odd idea to make something compatible with a 2 year old set though. I'd be amazed if the name stays as 'legends' what with legends of chima also on release.

brickmatic

Mods, merge? http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/7582/new-legends-theme

Also, I wonder if the new 5 sets have anything to do with this survey a while back: http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/1472/legos-true-intentions-nominations-for-a-classic-set-make-over (Originally http://www.bricksetforum.com/discussion/1401/cec-team-ask-what-would-you-like-to-see-as-new-themes-for-lego-direct)

LegoFanTexas

Dread_Pirate said:

At first the LOTRs were supposed to fill in for the midieval era sets but as it turned out they are not as popular as Lego was expecting.

I could have told you that...

The books may have been ok for teenagers to read, but the movies are not.

Why TLG thought sets based off the LOTR movies would be a good idea is beyond me, the movies are very violent and filled with death as far as the eye can see.

Dread_Pirate said:

This more than likely has to do with the movies being almost 10 years old now and alot of the kids building lego either have not seen the movies or were not even born when the movies were popular.

Or... it has to do with the movies not being for kids, and LEGO is for kids.

Now... If they made a nice 4,000 part UCS set based on LOTR, that probably will sell better, since adults will be interested. But how many 10 year olds have seen LOTR? Hopefully, not too many.

thornie

LoTR is not a licensed Castle theme. There are no castles in the LoTR universe. Just because both themes have swords and shields does not mean they are at all the same. You cannot make the same argument that is made for Classic Space and Star Wars or Pirates/PoTC. Someone who likes building castles, in particular the classic LEGO castle design will not find that itch scratched by the LoTR licence. Sorry.

brickmatic

^ #9471, #9472, and #9474 are basically castle structures. The structures in #9476 and #9473 are pretty close too.

thornie

^ KIND of. I would disagree with 9472. Without knowing the reference to the book, there is nothing Castle like about it. The fortress of Helm's Deep is about as close as LoTR will ever get. IMHO the look of the classic LEGO castle has become almost iconic. For comparisons sake, the PoTC ships LOOK like LEGO pirate ships, Helms Deep doesn't in any way resemble a classic LEGO castle. It looks like Helm's Deep... Still awesome, still not a Castle IMO. :p

mathew

^ I think it's a good thing that Helm's Deep doesn't resemble a classic Lego castle. Despite the flaws, LotR brought a much higher level of detail to the table. I personally love the fractured and aged look of Mines of Moria even if the set feels incomplete (for the money). Previous Lego Castle designs relied heavily on large pieces and simplified building techniques. What would be awesome is if they merged the higher detail of the LotR sets with the classic Castle design.

thornie

^ I agree with this 100%.

brickmatic

^ Without knowing anything about the book, what would you say #9472 is? To me it looks like the ruins of part of a castle. It certainly doesn't look like anything modern. Also, who knows, you might get Minas Tirith or Barad-dur in the future, which would be pretty castle like. I don't think Helm's Deep is the limit to castle likeness. As for the classic LEGO look, I don't think classic LEGO space looks like Star Wars. Comparing PoTC to LEGO Pirate is cherry-picking an example.

thornie

^ In the book it's a ring of stones atop a hill. The movie added some additional ruins and dilapidated structures thrown about. I agree it's not something that would fit in a modern setting, I was making the argument that it wouldn't really fit in any of the classic Castle themes either. Mathew made a good point where transferring that level of set design and detail to an actual Castle theme would in all likelihood yield fantastic results.

dougts

Dread_Pirate said:

At first the LOTRs were supposed to fill in for the midieval era sets but as it turned out they are not as popular as Lego was expecting.

This has been fairly common knowledge since shortly after the LotR release, and was pretty easily predictable as well.

Thanks for the rest of the great information!

brickmatic

^ If #6046, #6075, and #6076 ( and not to mention #1596, #6024, #6034, #6036, #6066, or even #4817, #6020, and #6026 ) are legitimate castle sets, I don't think #9472 lacks in castle cred. Now, I agree that the aesthetic style of the LoTR sets is different from the in-house castle lines. However, LoTR fits squarely into the castle genre. It doesn't go with city and it doesn't go with space. In fact, I feel it fits more into the castle genre than the Ninja sub-theme of 1998-2000. It's actually pretty close to the Fantasy Era sub-theme of 2007-2009.

HarryBerry

mathew said:

^ IWhat would be awesome is if they merged the higher detail of the LotR sets with the classic Castle design.

Totally agree!. Might be expensive to purchase though! I am planning to convert the Helms deep set into a city wall for my town.

mathew

brickmatic said:

I don't think classic LEGO space looks like Star Wars. Comparing PoTC to LEGO Pirate is cherry-picking an example.

Exactly. Star Wars is more fantasy than Sci-Fi. Space to me invokes a sense of exploration more akin to Star Trek. Unfortunately, nowadays space exploration is almost perceived with rose tinted nostalgia.

Bumblepants

Although with the Hobbit coming, that should spike heavy interest in the new Hobbit line which in turn might give the LotR sets a boost as well. That said, I am all for more Castle sets to come, not sure my wallet is though...

NeilJam

Dread_Pirate said:

After talking with a Lego rep a couple of days ago on this very subject, he stated that the 5 new sets do include a new castle and a re-release of an older castle. Also the new castle will be modular like the 2010 King's Castle was so they will be compatable with each other to build a larger castle. He could not give any other details about the sets as they are not "officially released" yet. The new series is going to be called Legends.

Could a the re-release be the 2010 King's Castle if the other one will be modular like that? I certainly hope that is what they bring back as I missed it before. Kept thinking it would be around a while then it completely disappeared.

Redbullgivesuwind

@thornie Weathertop is a watch tower so would qualify as a castle, quote "in the first days of the northern kingdom, they built a great watch tower on weathertop, Amon Sul they called it" Strider pg. 244 fellowship of the rings, 1999. Helms deep is a castle as is Edoras. Tolkien was a medievalist and much of his work was based upon legends and historical events.

thornie

^ Yes, but the LEGO license is based on the movie not the books. It could be very true that Toklien envisioned the structures in his novels in a very classic medieval sense, but the fact of the matter is all of what we know of LoTR in a visual sense is based off of Peter Jackson's films. PJ decided to go in a very different direction when visualizing Tolkiens words. The structures in the films are far more fantastical and non traditional than what is described in the books.

When I think LEGO Castle I think of traditional medieval structures like #6086, #3739-1, #10223... etc etc. I know you can make comparisons of the current LoTR sets and fantasy era Castle, but IMO the aesthetic is totally different and that has been my point all along. The fact that TLG is bringing it back is proof to me that they are starting to understand that there is a distinct market for both and it can't be completely replaced by a similar licensed theme like Pirates was.

Redbullgivesuwind

^No it is true that Tolkien envisioned his world to be based on early medieval structures. He was a professor in old English. The stories are based off of those myths and legends. Weathertop is a ruined keep as stated by Strider in the passage I quoted. While in your head it may not look like the lego one, granted based off of the movies, it still stands that weathertop is a ruined outpost. You said "In the book it's a ring of stones atop a hill" and that there are no castles in the books that is what I was correcting.

In fact Helms deep is actually closest to any medieval structure than anything lego have produced on their own. I would expect any new castle to be very similar in style.

It is just a rumour that they are planning to release a castle theme. So wouldn't hold my breathe for it just yet.

Dread_Pirate

Could a the re-release be the 2010 King's Castle if the other one will be modular like that? I certainly hope that is what they bring back as I missed it before. Kept thinking it would be around a while then it completely disappeared.

I am going to say this is not likely as the set was only discontinued 6 months ago and is still pretty fresh in everyone's mind.

Making a new unique castle that is compatable with the 2010 castle is not difficult at all considering the way the 2010 castle is designed. You would simply have to use the Technic brick and pins and locate them in the same place... Done... Compatable

Massey

T_Lars

New Forestmen, please.

jimred

Dread_Pirate said:

After talking with a Lego rep a couple of days ago on this very subject, he stated that the 5 new sets do include a new castle and a re-release of an older castle.

Just thinking - next year it's 35 years since the yellow castle #375 was released.

rocao

Welcome to the forum, Jesse_mims. Unfortunately your abusive posts haven't set you off on a good start. I've removed one and edited the other.

joee

If they are really going to re-realease an older set I would pick 6085. I'm excited now to see what the set will be!

Dread_Pirate

Jim, I was thinking the same thing! Maybe the same footprint and design only in grey and with modern horses amd minifigs

StuBoy

Man, its tough picking a set that they might re-release. I'm going with 6086, Black Knight's Castle. It would mean producing that raised baseplate, so not sure how likely that will be.
If its not a castle-proper that they choose, a forestmen set seems likely, maybe 6066 Camouflaged Outpost or 6071 Forestmens River Crossing.
If its anything after 1992, then it could be a number of sets.

thornie

Here are the latest rumors from a "reliable source" originating over at classic-castle.com

70400 Forest Ambush
70401 Gold Getaway
70402 The Gatehouse Raid
70403 Dragon Mountain
70404 Kings Castle

I am super excited!

Si_UKNZ

mathew said:

LotR brought a much higher level of detail to the table. I personally love the fractured and aged look of Mines of Moria even if the set feels incomplete (for the money). Previous Lego Castle designs relied heavily on large pieces and simplified building techniques. What would be awesome is if they merged the higher detail of the LotR sets with the classic Castle design.

The Castle theme has already gone this way.
There's a complete lack of big panel pieces in the joust #10223, and a fairly interesting build.

Ma1234

I truly doubt that any sets are being re-released. But it's cool to see classic castle coming back.

mathew

Si_Dorking_Surrey_UK said:

The Castle theme has already gone this way.
There's a complete lack of big panel pieces in the joust #10223, and a fairly interesting build.

Yeah, it's too bad that the King's Castle didn't utilize the same building technique. Of course one could probably replace the panel pieces with smaller bricks.

duilim

I was just wondering if the rumoued 70404 Kings Castle could be the re-release of 6080 - the original King's Castle. If so, I'm a little disappointed as I already have this set and was more hoping for 6085 Black Monarchs Castle since I missed out on this one as a kid.
That's life though I guess. Hopefully, the re-release sells well....

Dread_Pirate

I have both the Black Monarch's Castle and the King's Castle from the 80's. I would not mind seeing either one come back. I had the 6080 from when I was a kid and using PAB and BL I have fully restored the castle to it's original condition. The 6085 Castle is complete except that I still have to get the minifigs and weapons for it. I bought this castle as an incomplete set off E-bay and I have been able to get all the other pieces for far less than a full set off Ebay. I just need about 6 more minifigs and 2 brown horses.

dr_teng

I had no clue they were planning on re-releasing some of the old castle sets! I'm just getting back into LEGO and I adored some of the older castle stuff. I'll definitely be following this thread for updates.

StuBoy

^ Going off the set names, doesn't look like they will be re-released sets, but new ones. Think the confusion came from a website that had them listed under the 'Legends' theme.

thornie said:

Here are the latest rumors from a "reliable source" originating over at classic-castle.com

70400 Forest Ambush
70401 Gold Getaway
70402 The Gatehouse Raid
70403 Dragon Mountain
70404 Kings Castle

I am super excited!

NeilJam

thornie said:

Here are the latest rumors from a "reliable source" originating over at classic-castle.com

70400 Forest Ambush
70401 Gold Getaway
70402 The Gatehouse Raid
70403 Dragon Mountain
70404 Kings Castle

I am super excited!

Looks like a nice list. I hope Dragon Mountain doesn't disappoint. It will be nice to have another chance to get the King's Castle (if that is indeed a re-release of the last one). I know many doubt such a recent set would get re-released, but it seemed to me that the Kingdoms subtheme ended a little early and maybe they are picking up where they left off. If so, they might want to reproduce a flagship set that seemed to be underproduced before.

BTW - Anyone have an extra #30061 Attack Wagon polybag to sell or trade? It's the only other set I missed from Kingdoms.

T_Lars

thornie said:

Here are the latest rumors from a "reliable source" originating over at classic-castle.com

70400 Forest Ambush
70401 Gold Getaway
70402 The Gatehouse Raid

Someone tell me that none of these sound like Forestmen sets.

Hardrada

The first definitely sounds like Forestmen. The second sounds more like Wolfpack. The third could be anything.

StuBoy

I'm hoping they might do what they did in the 80s and 90s - slowly introduce new factions into the current theme without totally ditching the 2 Kingdoms factions (Lions and Dragons).

andhe

StuBoy said:

I'm hoping they might do what they did in the 80s and 90s - slowly introduce new factions into the current theme without totally ditching the 2 Kingdoms factions (Lions and Dragons).

That's quite a good idea. If it is to be just a small release of a handful of sets it would make sense to base them in the exisiting 'Kingdoms' world, rather than trying to establish 2 new factions.

The Lion and Dragon knights could be featured in a smaller capacity, but the sets mainly involving an updated forestmen/wolfpack type.

This obviously falls down with the Dragon Mountain and Kings Castle rumoured sets.

icey117

StuBoy said:

I'm hoping they might do what they did in the 80s and 90s - slowly introduce new factions into the current theme without totally ditching the 2 Kingdoms factions (Lions and Dragons).

Agree! Nice with a chance to build up a larger castle-world during several years. Continuing Kingdoms would be really great!

NeilJam

Gotta agree with StuBoy, adding other factions would be great. I'de like to see them expand on the return of the Black Falcon from #10223 Kingdoms Joust.

joee

It would be nice if King's castle was a reissue of 6080 but I doubt that.

Dread_Pirate

I would love a new version of my classic Castle. I did just finish restoring the castle to it's original condition (all figs, weps and pieces), but I would love to have a modern version with the newer minifigs.

Another idea that was posted before and I think would be great is if they were to return the yellow castle as the "King's Castle", make it grey and add some new detals (maybe make the wedge pieces out of the dark grey) and new figs and horses. Keep the same footprint tho. The reason for re-issuing this castle is this year is the 35th anaversary of it's release.

Bosstone100

^ I like that idea. I was going to build the latest King's Castle and display it next to my yellow castle but if they remade the yellow castle in bley... that would be ideal.

Dread_Pirate

I need a sticker sheet for my Yellow Castle and then I would be a really happy camper. I doubt if they brought it back they would reissue the sheet but wow that would be the cat's meow. Right now I need the sticker sheet, 1 blue minifig, 3 light grey soldier helmets and all 4 of the knight's helms with the feathers/faceguards.