7094, 6080, king leo, and the future of the portcullis

[timber_wolf899]

Greetings.

Ok my brain has been working overtime, and not set off any smoke alarms yet either! Anyway, a while back we talked about portcullisses<sp?>. And i think it was Ben who said the designers resist plate build ones because well they use a lot of plates and drive up the part count.

We've also noticed that lego likes battle damage on the more recent large castles like VDF and KKS. And a few of us have complained about the break away walls, etc.

Ok now rewind a while. I recently had a memory come to mind, of firing the ballista thingy from king leo's castle at my 6080's gate. It did indeed batter down the gate after a few direct hits.

Now here's where my mental faculties started working overtime and put two and two together. Why not use a plate build gate/portcullis as a way to incorporate battle damage?

pros
-no more lame break away walls
-we get plate build portcullis
-it would be fun for kids and AFOL's to batter down a gateway!
-battering the gate is also more realistic than making a breack in a wall that is several feet of rock irl!
-no more of those dang pre fab gates of which we have more than we can use!

cons
-possible flimsy gate

What do you think, can we sell this idea to lego?

[HeartOfDarkness]

That's a neat idea! How do you think it could it be pulled off with a relatively low piece count?

[architect]

Since this is a suggestion for what you want to see in future sets, this topic is more appropriate in the Dear LEGO forum. I will move it there.

Ben
CC Sets Admin

[timber_wolf899]

How would it be done you ask?

Well at first I thought about a portcullis that had one key part such that it was held together by one or two studs. This would let a ram shatter it, but would make for a very weak gate otherwise.

Then I thought that perhaps you could set up one of the arches with a keystone that could be dislodged by direct or indirect impact. this way you'd have the gate fall and get a nice stack of rubble!

EDIT: You can make a plate build portcullis for about ten plates, plus the bricks you need to make the double arch track.

That is unless someone else has a better track idea?

[kelderic]

I too have been thinking about this. I really like the one-piece portcullis that is curently being used. It looks great. However, whenever I am playing, I want the invaders to be able to batter it down. Instead, they hit is a few times, and then I reach down and pull it up and out. The only problem with a brick built portcullis would be, as previously mentioned, an increased piece count. So, either the price would go up, or some other part of the castle would be diminished.

Kelderic

[Blue Monarch]

I too have been thinking about this. I really like the one-piece portcullis that is curently being used. It looks great. However, whenever I am playing, I want the invaders to be able to batter it down. Instead, they hit is a few times, and then I reach down and pull it up and out. The only problem with a brick built portcullis would be, as previously mentioned, an increased piece count. So, either the price would go up, or some other part of the castle would be diminished.

Kelderic

Yes, but take the new castle set for example. Lego uses more pieces just to make it "breakable," as opposed to slapping up a wall section. All those extra piece counts could have been used to make a brick porticulis.

[Peppermint Pig]

A modified plate, 1x3? with door hinge fingers???

[Lord Tyler II]

Portculiss or gate? If you mean gate there was a plate built one in the Viking Fortress set...