I for one like it more than the previous Creator castle, at least at first glance. When I actually get it and build it, we shall see. The biggest improvement is giving it some horses and more figs, two things I felt the last one was severely lacking.
It's great that there's another castle, first of all. I'm not so keen on the design, which is understandable given the Creator 3-in-1 theme, but I'd rather see a nice new castle series.
Brick-built horses are wonderful, of course, but not nearly as beautiful as real horses.
The shields are really nice, though, and the minifigs are fine too.
I'm excited. The castle itself looks worse than the last one, but the pieces are great. I'm very happy with the minifigure count and selection - that was the weakest part of the last 3-in-1 castle.
Strong step up from last Creator castle when it comes to minifigs. The castle itself, hard to say, but at least I prefer the color scheme of this new one. I never bought the last one, but there's better chance I might get this.
So...the actual castle sets I have liked is very limited. I rather not see a whole line if they are going to be disappointing and full of big wall pieces or lame techniques. KK2 scarred me for any castle line. They are all juniorized but then I force myself to remember that I'm not the target audience. Now we get these bigger creator ones and I'm still underwhelmed. The only thing I like with this one is the figs and shield. Sure it's a good set of parts but nothing that makes me want to spend that amount to get. Compare it to the MMV...$99.99 with 8 figs and 1601 pieces. Inflation...blah blah blah...it just doesn't compare. But sure...it's good to be getting some attention. The Disney castles, while super spendy, are more impressive, even the mini versions.
So, I like this--or a want to, anyway. I like it more than the Black Falcon Creator castle, though I think that which one is a BETTER set is going to largely be a question of tastes. To my taste, this is a bit more like it, as far as the shape and details of the castle itself goes. And it definitely has a superior minifig selection--i.e., it has more, it has new, and it has an opponent.
Still... I wish this were the flagship of a whole line of sets. I realise that LEGO doesn't actually DO whole themes anyway, but I can wish. And I think there would be minor improvements to THIS SET if it were the flagship of a line. We'd have real horses, I think. We might have a few more new moulds, spread out over the line and used here. To be sure, that might be offset by the use of more larger wall pieces vs. the very brick-intensive version here. In a perfect world, you'd get both.
Given that it's not a perfect world, this is a good set, and I think I'd enjoy getting it--but I have a LOT of LEGO castles and limited space, so I'm not at all sure if this is good enough that I *will* get it.
