News: Death of the Classic Horse

[biglesdug]

I have to admit the new horses look pretty cool when they are in the rearing stance, it can add a new element to battle scenes. In Lego club magazine there is a photo of the Lotr attack of the uruk-hai set with a horse on it hind legs ready for attack.
Will the new horse get mixed in with my older sets, no but still a nice new element.

[bronx]

It scares me a bit to think about what the price of these things will be on BrickLink before they're featured and available outside of the LotR sets.

[rboettcherjr]

the new horses are sweet! I bought 3 Gandalf Arrives just to army build them. Sweet action poses! I hope I can liquidate my old ones lol.

[mencot]

It scares me a bit to think about what the price of these things will be on BrickLink before they're featured and available outside of the LotR sets.

Yea over priced but I don´t think it will be a long lived thing because this is the new lego horse so pretty soon they will be in all the new sets that have horses

[bronx]

Yea over priced but I don´t think it will be a long lived thing because this is the new lego horse so pretty soon they will be in all the new sets that have horses

I don't know.

I understand it's the new standard for horses, but even when more sets feature them I doubt the price will see a dramatic drop. I'd like to think people with mounted troops would like to replace the old with the new, keeping demand incredibly high until there are equally the same amount available, which I [sadly] cannot see for a long time. 'Cause, really, how many sets have horses nowadays?

Regardless, I'll welcome any price drop (and additional colors) on these new horses as they are seriously great . . . and, I'd like to replace the several hundred original horses I have. Oh, my wallet.

[Kosh]

There will be some that feel the need to replace their old horses with the new for sure, yet there are others that will either mix old and new together and others that will concentrate on collecting the old style horses. Myself I plan on merely adding any new style horses to my existing supply of the older version. But that's in part because I've been collecting them for now and it'd be horrendously painful tot he wallet to replace what I already have.

[AK_Brickster]

Hey, don't be in a big hurry to unload your classic cavalry just yet! Just think, the horses you have now are now out-of-production antiques!

I don't have hundreds of old horses, but I do have probably close to 50, and I'm planning on keeping all of them. They are a classic!

[SirBlake]

There are some newer things that just don't mix well with the classic stuff, but I don't think these new horses are one of those things. They look great standing right next to each other. I'm keeping all my old stuff for sure.

[Frank_Lloyd_Knight]

The horse is dead, long live the horse.

The Horse is dead. Long live the Horse!

[DerBum]

I could take or leave the new horse. It's neat, but I grew up on the old horses so they were the norm for me (my older brothers remembered the brick built horses from Yellow Castle and it took them a while to get used to what we are now calling the "old" horse). At any rate, the focus group Lego ran the new horses past must have been dead on the money because my 6 year old daughter can't stop talking about how great the new horse is and how much better it is than the old horse. There isnt any indication from her that she would oppose playing with both types at the same time, so I guess they will be interchangable for children who own both. AFOLs may be of a different opinion and, as adults, they are entitled to them.

[AK_Brickster]

Maybe they'll start popping up in the friends sets. My wife is not a AFOL, but when I showed her the new horse, she said, "OOOOOH! He's so much prettier than those old ones!"

It seems the new lines appeal to the ladies

[Bluesecrets]

So I have finally got my hands on one of these new horses. Its okay. I'm not overly happy with it. I'm not upset with it. I see possibilities with it. The joints on my horse are tight, and difficult to adjust. I figure that is better than too loose and won't hold its position, but I'd rather it be a bit easier. I doubt I will change over to these completely. No horse is exactly like another, variety being the spice of life and all. But I think I'm withholding my excitement.

[architect]

I have a mixed opinion of the new horse element. The functionality is a nice feature. I do appreciate that the designers incorporated certain aspects of the old horse.

I am concerned that new element designs in general have too many curves and overly rounded edges. This results in new elements that would not look out of place from other toy companies such as playmobil or fisher price.

Much of this could be due to how the new models are created. Old elements were often carved from wood or built from other cut up bricks. Relying too much on clay models and computer design results in the loss of the "classic" design aesthetics of LEGO elements.

Ben

[timber_wolf899]

Ben said it very well. He basically put my inkling into words here. I do not want to see LEGO lose its 'blocky' feel. It is after all a 'building block' toy, is it not?

Interesting that element design is tending towards a new feel whereas set design is less reliant on large un-legoy premolds than it has been in over a decade.

[Count Blacktron]

The minifigures and the animals are going through what seems like a mass-media inspired evolution. In order to represent the life forms, they are rounding the edges more to match their appearances in LEGO video games and movies.

I can deal with the changes myself as I have been there before. All my childhood sets had brick-built animals and my first time picking up a pre-fab horse was long after they had been released officially in my adult collecting/building years. Not a big deal. I have enough of all the Horse v1.0, except the patchy-grey.

The only things negative about the retirement of the Classic Horse is that (1) LEGO will not be releasing authentic classic reissue sets anymore, (2) and there will never be a Classic Horse in tan or just plain stone grey for use as a statue. That being said, I can always do my statues as brick-built horses.