the lego castles of the present and the past

davestadel · Post by **davestadel** » Tue May 06, 2008 12:34 am

I think that the first lego castles all the way until 1999 were the best and that they have the cooler pieces. I don't know about you guys, but I will stand firmly with my opinion unless a certain post can change my mind. What about you people? Well I would like to know about you peoples' reponse. Please post your opinion below.

:

Jansen · Post by **Jansen** » Tue May 06, 2008 2:02 am

Actually, LEGO castles were good up to about '93 in my opinion. The newer ones are too... new.

Heir of Black Falcon · Tue May 06, 2008 5:48 am

I certainly like the looks of some of the older castles more but some of the new fortresses are pretty neat. I like the viking fortress. With some small modifications it is a nice fortified town or large military compound.

I am not sure where the big open fortress look came from. 2007 large castle seems to have made some moves to correct it but it still has a little ways to go still.

R

Post by **Formendacil** » Tue May 06, 2008 9:30 pm

As long as this topic is about official LEGO sets--and it certainly does seem to be--it belongs in the LEGO Castle Sets forum, and thus I have moved it hither.

~Michael A. Joosten - Moderator~

MoonCheese · Post by **MoonCheese** » Tue May 06, 2008 9:53 pm

Jansen wrote:Actually, LEGO castles were good up to about '93 in my opinion. The newer ones are too... new.

New castles are new? Really? Since when?

Well, I'm like that about most videogames, putting the cutoff around 1995 or 1996.

I like the fantasy theme of the new Castle sets, but I think there has been somewhat of a shortage of, ya know, castles in the theme.

davestadel · Post by **davestadel** » Wed May 07, 2008 12:51 am

Thanks for your opinions

metalandi · Post by **metalandi** » Wed May 07, 2008 9:00 am

i think the best castles were produced till 1993, from there it went downhill with the dragon masters castles and so on. the by far lowest point of quality was reached in 200 imo, but lego has stepped up with the new line since 2007 a LOT. if it's going on that way, it's not bad at all.

MarioDAlessio · Post by **MarioDAlessio** » Wed May 07, 2008 10:46 am

davestadel wrote:I think that the first lego castles all the way until 1999 were the best and that they have the cooler pieces.

I think that if you lined up all the Lego castles/sets in two lines one from 1978 - 1993, the other 1993 -2008:

1. I would agree that the first line is the best overall.

2. As far as the best or cooler castle pieces the 2nd line would be my choice.

Additionally I don't agree that the castle line went down hill after 1993 it just reflected what else was going on with Lego at that time as it does now with the current castle line i.e. Viking torso/head knights and kings, dino dragons, star wars grey and a jester torso because of batman.

My favourite castle years curiously are 1992, 2000 & 2007 but that does not alter me agreeing that what came before 1993 overall was better at this time.

Mario

Bear · Post by **Bear** » Wed May 07, 2008 2:38 pm

I would agree with the 93' time frame for the end of consistency in Castle. Years after that were really hit and miss. I think the problem Lego had going with the "Jelly" Knights of the early twentieth century is Lego forgot kids can be creative and come up with their own storyline. In my opinnion Knights Kingdom was marketed more as an action figure line then a building toy.

2007 and 2008 are a welcome change for me. I much prefer the generic characters that I can give personality to.

DaleDVM · Post by **DaleDVM** » Wed May 07, 2008 4:36 pm

I agree that 1993 and the Dragonmasters started the decline until last year. So I would agree that old castles are better than the last 15 years.

The pieces in the sets question is a tougher nut to get a hold on. I think the overall piece selection is much better today as lego keeps coming out with new useful pieces and rarely discontinues good pieces. However, it wasn't until last year that the actual content of castle sets contained good numbers of building bricks and other useful pieces. Every crownie tower, dock, and castle seems to have a great selection of pieces. Even some of the bad castles that came out over the years had useful and rare pieces. All that being said I like the direction the genre is taking right now.

I do worry about the apparent lack of castles in the castle sets lately.

I just hope they come out with a more substantial fortress for the trolls or dwarves. Or at the very least when they come out with the elves... I can only do so much with ginormous siege equipment and ships!

Bandit · Post by **Bandit** » Sun Jun 01, 2008 12:25 pm

Here's my general 5-star review of all of the series.

Black Falcons Sets- ***
Yellow Castle- ***
King's Mountain Fortress- **
Forestmen sets- ****
Black Knights- *****
Wolfpack sets- ***
Dragonmasters- **
Royal Knights- ****
Fright Knights- *
KK1 Sets- ***
KK2 Sets- *
Crownies- ***
Dwarves- ****
Orcs- **

*=Poor Series
**=Boring or Juniorzed Series
***=Average
****=Fascinating and Advanced Series
*****=Best Ever

davestadel · Post by **davestadel** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 11:06 pm

That last post was what i was looking for - thanks Bandit.

KH3D · Post by **KH3D** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 2:22 am

Although I do miss certain elements of earlier castle sets/series, I think they're currently at they're best level ever.

I specifically miss the ninjas and the classic green and black dragons that looked like LEGO designs. I don't miss the huge molded plastic bases and completely uniform brick colors.

I think the biggest advantage of the current castle sets is the variety of races available (humans, skeletons, orcs, trolls, dwarves and maybe soon elves). I also like that the sets are more than just the standard four walls with turrets and that there seem to be more action features to sets than ever before.

After the elves, I think the only thing really missing is some creatures like minotaurs, centaurs, pegasus, unicorns, griffons, etc. and a variety of dragons more like the classic black and green designs - hydra, Chinese (serpent), European (four-legged), etc.

In the words of Dennis Miller, "That's just my opinion, and I could be wrong."

Sir Nelson · Post by **Sir Nelson** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 8:12 am

davestadel wrote:I think that the first lego castles all the way until 1999 were the best and that they have the cooler pieces. I don't know about you guys, but I will stand firmly with my opinion unless a certain post can change my mind. What about you people? Well I would like to know about you peoples' reponse. Please post your opinion below. :

I don't know about the others, but my peoples responses are that the early castles ares amongs the bestes, evens thoughs perhaps theys haves nots the bestes pieces. Long lives the Weetabix and the Yellows Castles!!

Sir Kohran · Post by **Sir Kohran** » Tue Jun 10, 2008 10:43 am

I'm a bit puzzled as to why you put 1999 as the 'cut-off' point - firstly there were no actual sets released that year, and secondly I wouldn't quite put these from 1997 as the pinnacle of quality.

Most people would put 1993 as the end of the 'golden age', because the Dragon Masters were the first line to be widely disliked for their juniorised designs, and from here onwards there was a marked decline in Castle - sure, we got Royal Knights and Dark Forest which were good, but the ridiculous Fright Knights and later KK1 basically ended Castle. It wasn't really until about 2005 that things started improving with the Vikings and improved KK2, and then 2007 with the new Castle.

Personally I think Castle right now is at its strongest since 1995, or even 1992 - the quality is much higher than anything we've had for ages.

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