Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

[Sir Bragallot]

Hopefully he won't behead him at all, because he never did that :p

[Sir Bragallot]

Is there any way to know when these sets will be released? I sure hope my shops will sell the smaller ones, too, 'cos they only seem to import the medium to big sets...

[Aeridian]

Is there any way to know when these sets will be released? I sure hope my shops will sell the smaller ones, too, 'cos they only seem to import the medium to big sets...

On the info cards for the LotR sets they said June, so maybe even late May we'll see some sets popping up.

[Thor]

The dragon and Lion images on the new castle theme look childish. I like the role realistic "Kingdoms" versions of the Lion and Dragon.

[AK_Brickster]

Are you sure Bruce? Compared to the legs on the dragon soldier the crossbow looks like pearl dark grey. And that would kinda make more sense, because it's been made more recently.... could be wrong though.

I think it also looks like black, it is the flash on the front that plays tricks. If you compare in the back and on the legs it looks black, can be wrong though, it can be the other way around also

I can say with almost 100% certainty that the crossbow in the Ambush set is pearl dark gray, not black. If anyone wants to wager a copy of the set on that, I'm game

[Aeridian]

Thank you Jordan. Glad someone agrees with me.
I thought it'd be a bit odd if was a piece in a rarer color. That'd be really cool though.

[Sir Bragallot]

The dragon and Lion images on the new castle theme look childish.

I think that's the point

[Quickblade22]

1) We are castle builders..the castle sets pale in comparison to what we want and build...big boring wall pieces..half built buildings...etc

4) If they were to build a huge epic castle for us, it would be so expensive no one could/would buy it. And it wouldn't be up to the standards we use.

These 2 points brought up by Blue are perfect. As for the figures and heraldry, that's where the real issue is. I was among most people wanting something new and fresh, but I got to thinking. Both factions emblems aren't that bad. I am disappointed that the Lions have blue on the torso, so switching out the arms won't be a good option like the last Lions faction had. They do however fit in with the crownies from the Fantasy era with minimal effort. The Dragon on the other hand are not as workable. I suppose you can't put a red boar on a faction and then include a red dragon, but I'd rather have had a red boar and no dragon. They work well for a faction by themselves, but I'd like to have had them continue the dark green color scheme if they are not giving us new forest men right away. The problem again lies with the dragon. I'd have loved the new black falcon symbol used as the opposing faction with a yellow or gold matched with black.

As far as the LOTR sets, thank god they are based on the movies and not the books. What's the point of even having a license if the source material has no visuals other than some artwork? You could easily just use existing or 3rd party items if you wanted that. I'm not a fan of licensed themes because of the price increase and the fleshies, but I am happy for this line. Like Starwars, Harry Potter, and Superheroes, LOTR needed to be done. I'm pretty happy with the new parts offered in these sets.

[Thor]

The dragon and Lion images on the new castle theme look childish.

I think that's the point

Too corny, wish they would of continued the kingdoms with different colored factions...kind of like Quickblade mentioned, like yellow/gold/black color scheme....

Thing that looks really cool are the figs from the black gate, epic.

[Justin M]

Are you sure Bruce? Compared to the legs on the dragon soldier the crossbow looks like pearl dark grey. And that would kinda make more sense, because it's been made more recently.... could be wrong though.

I think it also looks like black, it is the flash on the front that plays tricks. If you compare in the back and on the legs it looks black, can be wrong though, it can be the other way around also

I can say with almost 100% certainty that the crossbow in the Ambush set is pearl dark gray, not black. If anyone wants to wager a copy of the set on that, I'm game

I believe you and Aeridian are correct, at least that's how it seems.

[Velliscig]

For the Castle line, my concerns are that the torso prints appear to be too faction specific - both in charges and tinctures on the armor/tunics. I don't like using Lego's factions because they do not align with my own, nor do I like black or metallic helms. The LOTR sets don't look much better in terms of minifig parts. I guess the bright side is I won't feel compelled to spend any money on new sets this year!

[mencot]

Are you sure Bruce? Compared to the legs on the dragon soldier the crossbow looks like pearl dark grey. And that would kinda make more sense, because it's been made more recently.... could be wrong though.

I think it also looks like black, it is the flash on the front that plays tricks. If you compare in the back and on the legs it looks black, can be wrong though, it can be the other way around also

I can say with almost 100% certainty that the crossbow in the Ambush set is pearl dark gray, not black. If anyone wants to wager a copy of the set on that, I'm game

That would had been a good wager but I agree on that now that it is pearl dark grey
It would be cool to get more weapons black again though

[Redav]

Well, I think I'm rather disappointed with what I've seen so far. I think that TLG were on a good thing with both the Fantasy Era and the Kingdoms themes in terms of colours, sets and heraldry. But what strikes me (as others have pointed out), it seems to be a throw back to the Knights' Kingdom. What I wonder is whether TLG had a Project Manager for those two series who then continued working on this series while another PM had worked on the the Fantasy Era and the Kingdoms sets? If so, I guess this means that it might be another two years before we get another good range of sets.

[Sir Bragallot]

I believe the Fantasy Era was supposed to last longer and they wanted to do Elves, but some angry parents 'forced' (I don't know how though) Lego to cancel the theme because they thought it was 'too dark' and the Orcs were 'too much like demons'. Therefore, we also won't be seeing a Lego Balrog any time soon. And those parents should attack the Lotr theme too while they're at it if they want to be consistent.

[AK_Brickster]

Where did you get that information from? I'd think the only way they could "force" TLG to discontinue their line would be with their wallets, but I always thought that the Fantasy line was a pretty profitable one for TLG, so I'd suspect that wasn't the cause.