ulimate castle theme

Discussion of official LEGO Castle Theme sets and products
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Magnus
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ulimate castle theme

Post by Magnus »

I think the problem with lego castle may have been that they wanted to do new things and so after the Black Falcons and Crusaders got "old", they introduced new factions with new styles of buildings. It didn't help that they moved away for the modular system either. I think they could have continued with the modular system, continuing to have buildings predominantly in light grey. The Black Knights, the fright knights, the Knights Kingdom and all that stuff made it more difficult to use everything together.

I think an ideal lego system would be something like this. Start out with two main factions, say Crusaders and BFs. Each faction gets their own castle, and a few modular castle wall type sets. Also, add more civilian type sets, peasants, merchants etc. In subsequent years, keep all the original sets, but add more stuff, perhaps a few ships, a jousting tournament, a church, watermill, etc. After a few years of this, perhaps add a new faction like the forestmen, but don't get rid of the original sets. So far this is basically what Lego Company did in Castle's Golden Age. But then what I would do differently, is perhaps bring in some new factions, without completely outphasing the originals. And don't go out of your way to give the new factions castles in completely new colour schemes. This way, someone could have say a original BF castle, a crusader's "lookout tower" wall section, and a newer couple of wall sections that all could work together and still look good. To me, the ultimate castle theme would be one that never needsto end, because it is constantly expanding, but never making the older sets obsolete.
Stephen
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Post by Stephen »

Magnus wrote:
The Black Knights, the fright knights, the Knights Kingdom and all that stuff made it more difficult to use everything together.
I agree with everything you said. It seems like every few years there's been a whole new approach to the castle line. New colors, new parts, new factions - and the new stuff didn't fit well with the previous stuff. That makes it hard to build up my collection, I can't do much with a sand green roof until I have enough for all the towers in my castle.

It would be great if TLC went back to the modular approach with sets issued over a period of years that all go together. I think that is what made the "Classic Age" classic. The reason the Black Falcon's Fortress is so popular is because every single part is useful. (How many people here bought 2 or more?)

The ultimate Castle line would include a lot of parts that fit with the parts I already have.

Stephen
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wlister
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Post by wlister »

I don't truly think we need more factions, we already have so many, it would be nice to see either reissues of the best sets from each faction or to see newly designed sets that would utilize the old factions. How about minifig packs in the same vein as the Megablok Dragon line. They have a bunch of factions and you can buy tins of figs from each faction. If lego started making minifig packs at the same price point as the Dragons line. And if they released as series well designed modular castle sets again, we could perhaps see the shrinkage of the amount of space Megabloks is taking on the shelf.

I bought several of the BFF when they were made into a Legend and I just recently bought two more. As Stephen said, not one useless piece. There are very few sets between 1984 and 1988 that I wouldn't buy multiple, multiple copies of. With maybe the exception of the 6085 Black Monarch's Castle, I would only buy two of those, just enough to make a decent sized black castle, but not so much. I always though of the Black Monarch as an upstart, so his army and castle could not be the biggest.

Will
After a long absence, I have returned. I can't wait to start building again.
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