Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Discussion of official LEGO Castle Theme sets and products
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Azaghal
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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by Azaghal »

I don't see the LOTR ones yet, but the new Castle series is up on S@H.
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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by AK_Brickster »

I heard that some Lego stores have the new LOTR sets in stock, but won't be putting them on the floor until June 1st. Only a few days to go! :D
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Forest Ambush and Gatehouse Raid

Post by pup »

I picked up two Forest Ambush and one Gatehouse Raid sets from the Lego store last week. Although I'm not a fan of the Crown/Lion/Royal Knight pastiche, the blue guys fit in well with the Crownies. And with minor modifications, the dragons fit right in with the Kingdoms Dragons. I liked these sets.

The Forest Ambush set was a pleasant surprise -- the minifigures were a lot cooler looking "in person" than as pictured; and the little ambush site was clever. The falling tree is fun, and the use of the carrot top to attach the large frond was genius. I could have done without the flickfire missile, but it's easily ignored when you remember you get four minifigs and a dog and extra weapons in this set. My only wish: that they had included the blue tunic guy instead of the plate armor guy. This is a fun and useful set.

The Gatehouse was OK -- nicely modular, at any rate, so it will fit in with all your other castle stuff. I was sadly disappointed by the dragon horse barding. It looks so good in pictures, but is so very, very, bright red and spidery looking once you open the box. In defense of this vibrantly red horse barding, though -- it does look better without the oversized red horse helmet. The minifigures are great -- I especially liked the armored breastplates and the black great helm. This is a pretty good set -- perhaps a little pricey.

The faces on the dragon knights were new: a wonderful double-sided face with red muttonchop sideburns, a doublesided face with a gap-toothed smile (looks less silly than the Kingdoms Dragon gap-toothed guy), and two impressively maniacal-looking guys with red rims around their eyes. All the faces for the blue guys were re-treads: two cool ones from the Dino sets, and two kind of generic smiling guys.

Immediately upon opening the sets, I replaced the dragon guys' arms and plumes. Out with the bright red and in with the shades of black! My mounted knight got a black plume and dark grey arms. The guys with shoulder armor got black arms; and the guys with the larger dragon logo got light bley arms. Such an improvement!

I understand all the bright colors for younger kids -- but the bright red and black looks like Darth Maul gone Medieval. If they had made these dragon knights black and dark red (like the Scorpion Knights), it would have been perfect.

OK, perfect would have been Black Falcons vs Forestmen or Wolfpack... :D
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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by AK_Brickster »

Thanks for the helpful review! Did you take any pictures of your figs after you switched out the combos? :raiseone:
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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by mitah »

Some pictures of the figs in real life would be a treat, this must be in general the worst (or second-worst... or third... I guess it ties with KK and KK2 for worst) series of castle themed sets ever. The horse barding and helmets look wrong in colour form, but I'm still undecided about the minifigs. It is all too bright and colourful, but if the minifigs are usefull for poarts I might consider buying one or two of the new sets.
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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by pup »

Here are my new dragon knights: the Drakkar light cavalry

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new dragon knights

Post by pup »

Dismounted. The guy on the left has light bley arms. He also looks good with black arms, but I like some variation in my troops.

Center has black arms -- light bley doesn't work so well on this torso, probably because of the large amount of silver.

The guy on the right has dark grey arms and a black plume.

Much happier with them in subdued kit!

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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by OverLoad »

Despite the lukewarm reviews this series is getting, I'm actually a big fan of the new factions. I didn't think I would be, but I've learned to really love the red dragon faction, and I've been able to fit the lion faction in well enough.

I'll be looking forward to picking up more sets (I got 2 Forest Ambush sets on my last trip to the LEGO store).
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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by Formendacil »

Do those who have the new Castle sets want to weigh in on the new bardings? So far I have failed completely to warm to them from the pictures in the box-art--possibly because the poses they're given that utilise the new horse's ability to rear don't "work" in my imagination with the barding (an imagination coloured by an understanding of how the old horses and bardings worked). How do they come off in person?
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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by SSchmidt »

I've got a few of the new sets.

I bought the wizard battle with Gandlaf and Saruman and was very please (I'm a LOTR junkie).

I was not sold at all on the new Castle sets, until I saw them in person. Man they are beautiful, and those new lion knights are awesome. I'll try to upload some pictures later. I bought the $12 set with the 4 minifigs, and I was very impressed. So impressed that I went back the next day and bought another!

Anyways, I thought these Castle sets looked awful until I saw them in person. Now, I think they are sweet.
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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by Mr. President »

Has anyone heard anything about when the new Castle sets might be out in Australia? Most of the recent releases in other lines are already out here, except for Castle.
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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by destroyer4147 »

Formendacil wrote:Do those who have the new Castle sets want to weigh in on the new bardings? So far I have failed completely to warm to them from the pictures in the box-art--possibly because the poses they're given that utilise the new horse's ability to rear don't "work" in my imagination with the barding (an imagination coloured by an understanding of how the old horses and bardings worked). How do they come off in person?
I have the black/red knight with the black horse and red barding. Awesome, awesome character! The new bardings are a tad shorter in vertical height than the classic bardings.
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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by ludzik »

SSchmidt wrote: I was not sold at all on the new Castle sets, until I saw them in person. Man they are beautiful, and those new lion knights are awesome. I'll try to upload some pictures later. I bought the $12 set with the 4 minifigs, and I was very impressed. So impressed that I went back the next day and bought another!
I have to say that the $12 set is a steal and a great army builder. I'm highly dissapointed though with the sigil of the crownies on their shields. It looks like a throwback to one of the older lion factions. Anyways, I'm happy with the good guy figs cause they fit nicely with the kingdoms crownies and the bad guy figs work really well with the evil knight shields :)

From the castle line I also picked up couple of the gatehouse raids so that I could have two mounted bad guys with barding. Couple mods to them (had to steal their black helmets for a different purpose so they ended up with the shiny ones but that goes right along with their armor and the border on their shields) and they look stellar :D

I don't think I"ll get the big castle though :( Can't justify the price for whole bunch of one piece castle pieces :(

LOTR stuff... well.... there's plenty to like... but that's for a lengthier post later :)
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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by ffilz »

ludzik wrote: I don't think I"ll get the big castle though :( Can't justify the price for whole bunch of one piece castle pieces :(

LOTR stuff... well.... there's plenty to like... but that's for a lengthier post later :)
I actually like the new castle wall pieces, they will be much more usable in large creations without the bits sticking out. I love the new corner wall sections, but the new Panel 1 x 4 x 5 with Window is way more usable than the old Panel 2 x 5 x 6 Wall. I'm not an absolute fan of panels, but they can make for cheaper builds.

Frank
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Re: Castle and Tolkien sets for 2013

Post by ludzik »

ffilz wrote:
ludzik wrote: I don't think I"ll get the big castle though :( Can't justify the price for whole bunch of one piece castle pieces :(

LOTR stuff... well.... there's plenty to like... but that's for a lengthier post later :)
I actually like the new castle wall pieces, they will be much more usable in large creations without the bits sticking out. I love the new corner wall sections, but the new Panel 1 x 4 x 5 with Window is way more usable than the old Panel 2 x 5 x 6 Wall. I'm not an absolute fan of panels, but they can make for cheaper builds.

Frank
I don't know.... Granted that the smaller panels are easier to incorporate, I just wish that they made the panels http://brickset.com/parts/?part=4537056 would take window pane pieces like this one: http://brickset.com/parts/?part=3004626
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