Idea Book 250: Week One Review

[architect]

Our article, which will be spread out over several weeks, focuses on the castle creations of 250 Idea Book which was released in 1987. Many of the 33 creations will be discussed. Each one has been built and photographed to the best of our ability. We recommend using pieces from sets available in 1984-1987 but pieces can also be found in sets from other years.

Please share your reviews of the castle creations: Stone Wagon, Sawmill, Forge, Forge Cart, and Forge Workers.



Article:
http://www.classic-castle.com/sets/articles/ideabook250.html

[Sir Terrance]

I believe this is the Stone Wagon then. I like it, the use of the Technic pieces works well. I like how it is small and compact. 8/10

[Sir Vincent]

In my opinion,the forge is the single greatest set out of those...I'd give it a 9/10 for it's unique structure...

[Formendacil]

Looks good, and its great to have all this stuff brought more directly to my attention. Won't likely use much though, but that might be because of my limited pieceage, which I would rather use to build my own creations, rather than someone else's.

[The Josh]

I like the article and the designs for realistic things involved in making a castle. It would be cool if Lego made sets like these. These designs are castle but focus less on the militaristic part of the medieval era.

These constructions would also make a good collection of cheap (under $10) castle sets. I miss the small sets that came in tiny boxes and small plastic bags .


-The Josh

[Tycho McKorley]

The sawmill and forge illustrated what could be accomplished with very limited amounts of basic bricks. There was nothing flashy to worry about. There were no pieces designed specifically for one set or function. The ideas in that book actually inspired children to combine elements from all the themes to create something better than the original sets.

10/10

[brian]

Man I'm getting nostalgic!! I loved the sets back then. They had basic parts that allowed you more freedom to create anything you could think of. Sets now have larger bulk pieces that can oly be used in certain ways. I even like looking back at the classic space creations. Anyway, this looks like it is going to be an interesting topic here on the forum and I can't wait to see more.

[architect]

The sawmill and forge illustrated what could be accomplished with very limited amounts of basic bricks. There was nothing flashy to worry about. There were no pieces designed specifically for one set or function. The ideas in that book actually inspired children to combine elements from all the themes to create something better than the original sets.

Exactly! This is what made sets piece selection, the ideabooks, and back of box submodels so great.

Man I'm getting nostalgic!! I loved the sets back then. They had basic parts that allowed you more freedom to create anything you could think of. Sets now have larger bulk pieces that can oly be used in certain ways. I even like looking back at the classic space creations. Anyway, this looks like it is going to be an interesting topic here on the forum and I can't wait to see more.

The article will probably be in four sections which will be shown once a week until we are done. Yaron and I enjoyed making this and we hope everyone browses and perhaps builds a few of these creations.

Ben E.

[jamitjames]

There ok, could look better but there simpel, thats good .

[wlister]

The idea books were an excellent resource way back when I was a kid. There was always one or two castle I didn't quite have enough parts for or I was missing a few parts for, but one the whole they were excellent castle inspiration. The sawmill and forge really stood out as excellent designs, I managed to build them both when I bought the 250 Idea Book. This was available at Toy City in West Edmonton Mall, so it was available from more than just S@H. I am not sure why I didn't, but I never made the stone wagon or the forge cart. Seeing them now, I like them all and I would give them a collective 9/10 for back then and a 14/10 compared to the alternative builds we have seen in the last few years.

Will

[Troy T. Moore]

Having never seen this idea book before, my jaw dropped when I seen the castle models you have posted

Realism, a lost concept in recent years!

...and now we have KK2 with plenty of POOPs

[Dragon Master]

The sawmill would have been better with brown bricks.

[architect]

This was available at Toy City in West Edmonton Mall, so it was available from more than just S@H.

Thanks for the heads up on this. Now that I think of it, some of the idea books were at stores, but I dont remember all of them being in stores where I was.

The sawmill would have been better with brown bricks.

Yes, but you have to remember that brown bricks were not widely used until the Wild West sets came out in 1996. In 1986-87 only accessories were in brown.

Ben E.

[jb]

Cool idea guys! I look forward to seeing them all

James

[rogue27]

My brother had this idea book back in the 80s. We were both just blown away by how cool that forge was. The castle scene from this idea book was probably the most mentally stimulating LEGO picture I had seen until 2002 when I ended my dark age.

Sadly, Lego sets are not likely to ever come with the more simple assortments of parts that they had back in the 80s, so it would be nearly impossible for an idea book like this to ever be created again. Also sad is the fact that I missed the 1984 and 1985 castle sets, so I didn't have the parts to build the creations in this idea book. (Mostly the catapult wheels, and technic parts in general)

One interesting thing is that lots of the stuff in this idea book and from 1984 could be improved today by using brown or dark grey where appropriate, since both of those colors were not generally available for regular parts until about 10 years later.

Idea books were sometimes in stores, but very rarely. I believe my brother's book came from a large toy store like a Toys R Us, but maybe it just came from S@H. I don't really remember anymore, it's been so long.

This idea book almost makes me sad, because it reminds me of how truly great the 80s castle sets were, and it is unlikely that we will ever get a castle theme of that quality ever again.

By the way, a link to the article in this forum thread would be helpful.