Castle Display Alexanderplatz Berlin

Jacob C. · Post by **Jacob C.** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 4:12 pm

I saw this on brickshelf today: LINK

Quite an amazing castle diplay they have there. The base made up of all those slopes really caught my attention. There's so many!

I also like all the action put into this display, as seen in this pic: LINK

Your thoughts?

Aliencat · Post by **Aliencat** » Mon Dec 17, 2007 5:00 pm

Wow, that's really awesome.
The whole atmosphere and feel of the display catches my attention. Although I'm not a big fan of the very tall, thin towers, I love everything that's happening on, in and around the rocks of the base.

BreadMan · Post by **BreadMan** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:33 pm

I saw this and my Jaw *literally* dropped. I love it. This is exactly the kind of thing I would build with an unlimited supply of bricks. Reminds me of stuff the master builders built back in the '80s. Actually now that I say that I wonder if this is a master builder creation...

J1A3L5 · Post by **J1A3L5** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:48 pm

Thanks for posting this! I wish there were more pictures of all the little scenes going on.

I think the landscaping is very impressive - Check out the dark green cheese wedge use! The use of those big ice rock pieces for the waterfall is neat, too. I think the use of slopes for landscaping looks better the larger the MOC is. The way the light reflects off them is great!

Despite that, I think the castle is quite poor. The only thing it has going for it is it's size: It looks nontechnical and uninspired; just a collection of prefab parts. This has the feel of what you'd build if you had stumbled upon many hundreds of copies of the current castle sets...if it weren't so big, it wouldn't be very impressive in any sense.

-John.

Jojo · Post by **Jojo** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:31 pm

Hello!

BreadMan wrote:Actually now that I say that I wonder if this is a master builder creation...

It is indeed.

Bye
Jojo

Brickzone · Post by **Brickzone** » Tue Dec 18, 2007 9:59 pm

J1A3L5 wrote: Despite that, I think the castle is quite poor. The only thing it has going for it is it's size: It looks nontechnical and uninspired; just a collection of prefab parts. This has the feel of what you'd build if you had stumbled upon many hundreds of copies of the current castle sets...if it weren't so big, it wouldn't be very impressive in any sense.

-John.

I disagree. It may not be realistic, or good on detail/building techniques up close, but the abstract image of the towers is very striking when looking at the model as a whole. That's not just from the size either. Think of say a painting of a fantasy castle - one that isn't at all realistic, and this fits the bill.

Personally I think it's all the more of an accomplishment that this image is conjured simply by combining pre-fab parts and styles of the castle sets. It's also a powerful image for selling those sets - this says "look what you can do" (obviously not in the sense of a huge model, but in the sense of building new creations with the Castle sets).

I don't need to add more to what has been said about the landscaping and the action and armies. Just stunning.

I would spend ages looking at this if I came across it in real life. There was a fantastic Lego display in one of the dept. stores in Munich when I was there last Christmas, interior-lit skyscrapers, elevated operating railway, etc. How I wish we had real toy stores/departments here in Ireland like in the old days (even if we couldn't afford the contents back then). They used to have custom Lego displays (not on this scale, but enough to catch kid's interest). But now we just have the toy equivalent of supermarkets; where it's doing well if there are built sets on display in "fishtanks".

lord azreal · Post by **lord azreal** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 12:11 pm

is it me or is there some light in it?
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=2874003
look at the far left tower - it has a greeny light coming from it, and the bases of the flames seem to have light around them

If i were still a wee kiddy and saw that Id definately spnd all my pocket money on every set the shop had!

Everything seems slightly ilogical though, like portcullises leading of the edge of cliffs, and how the minifigs actually make there way around and get to the castles and stuff.

I still think its absalutely amazing though.

HeartOfDarkness · Post by **HeartOfDarkness** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 3:52 pm

How cool! This is certianly an awesome castle, and the way it flows with the spectacular landscaping is, well, spectacular. I really like the spires and arches, as it seems to be in the same style as the King's Castle. The whole thing gives a feel of fantasy, which is what this line is really supposed to be. And it does it while looking utterly awesome.

BreadMan · Post by **BreadMan** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 10:37 pm

Brickzone wrote:I disagree. It may not be realistic, or good on detail/building techniques up close, but the abstract image of the towers is very striking when looking at the model as a whole. That's not just from the size either. Think of say a painting of a fantasy castle - one that isn't at all realistic, and this fits the bill.

Exactly. It may not have any snot, rounded towers, angled walls, or any other random bits that make AFOLs go "ooh, ahh..." but the overall design, how all the tiers and towers and turrets mesh together, is incredible. Imagine the playability of this thing if it were allowed to be played on. To me, this is a "Lego" castle, whereas most of the well known fan castles out there are more like good models of castles that just happen to be built out of Lego bricks. It's the kind of thing I dreamed about building when flipping through mini-catalogs as a kid, what you dream a set would be like if Legos could be made for $0.02 a pound.

FishRfine · Post by **FishRfine** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 11:03 pm

to me it looks like the rock formation took the longest. the towers look fairly simple and straightforward. now all u need is, by the looks of it, at least 10 grand, and you can build one yourself.

Black Ranger · Post by **Black Ranger** » Wed Dec 19, 2007 11:15 pm

My jaw dropped as soon as I saw it... The rock and waterfall are amazing. And I like how there seems to be no line-up attack, they're all just running into each other and having little skrimishes. It is an a mazing work of art. (Now if only the ground had been made like that.)

Black Falcon · Post by **Black Falcon** » Fri Dec 21, 2007 7:02 am

That's intense! Wow. I cannot imagine how long that took to make. The details are amazing.

I'm in awe of stuff like that...

Blueandwhite · Post by **Blueandwhite** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 6:24 pm

I'm not as excited by this creation as some of you seem to be.

I actually agree with J1A3L5 (is your user name by chance a postal code?) about this castle. That being said, it wasn't designed to impress an adult. If anything, the greatest asset that this castle has is that it is strikingly similar to the smaller set, making it immediately appealing to young buyers. A child will no doubt look at this castle and then compare it with the smaller set, dreaming of building something this grand.

It's an imposing construction, but I don't think I would spend alot of time gazing at it.

J1A3L5 · Post by **J1A3L5** » Mon Dec 24, 2007 8:32 pm

Blueandwhite wrote:I actually agree with J1A3L5 (is your user name by chance a postal code?) about this castle.

Only my fellow Canadians consider it to be a postal code for obvious reasons (bravo!) but JAL are actually my initials...John A Langrish.

Blueandwhite also wrote:That being said, it wasn't designed to impress an adult.

That's a good way to put what I had in mind. Landscaping and figure layouts aside, I don't think that there are many "amazing" details or that it's a "work of art".

Now that I know it was intended as a marketing tool, it is, of course, brilliant and it makes a lot more sense. It serves it's purpose well as you illustrated; to show the (largely unattainable) possibilities to children who have individual smaller sets.

-John.

DaleDVM · Post by **DaleDVM** » Tue Feb 19, 2008 10:49 pm

Heck it makes me want to buy lots of sets and I am 40 years old. Personally I feel like this is the type of MOC I want to make. I like to take a castle set and alter it to fix the flaws and problems with it. If i can make it grand and massive even better.

I really like how the mountains and terrain with the green accents simulate the green BURPs that come with the King's castle siege. Sort of in the spirit of the Sets.

I am however dismayed at the skeleton tower, as my MOC is almost complete and it is similar in many ways to what they made. Then again I
was working to match the original skeleton tower and used a modified version of it in my MOC so I shoudn't be surprised.

I just wish I had that many angled bricks to make terrain like that!