Classic-Castle.com

I always thought the Wolf Pack faction had a lot of potential and deserved more sets. What if Lego were to bring back this idea and expand on it with new elements added? Perhaps animal figures of actual wolves that hunt alongside the wolf pack warriors and live in caves or kennels littered with bones. And new characters, such as "wolf cubs" (child figures with little legs) who are training to be wolf pack warriors. I'm thinking it would be cool to see a matronly "wolf mother" figure who is either the wife of the leader or the true leader of the wolf pack. And the warriors can all have updated facial details, with claw marks and war paint, and new costume details, with ragged leather and fur, and some muscular bare skinned details with scars and wolf tattoos.

A new fortified hideout could be introduced with a large wolf skull adorning the front entrance. It can have a throne of bones, and wolf banners hanging about the walls. A wolf pit for the animals to live in, and a portcullis to let them out.

And a dive bar sort of tavern set with a hidden treasury and dungeon where the wolf pack members lay low while the knights are out patrolling the countryside. It can be run by a shady looking innkeeper and a sultry barmaid, plus a drunkard who frequents the establishment. Maybe the visiting guards come with a "wanted" poster with the leader's face on that can be attached to the wall.

And somewhere along the line there's got to be a Grond style wolf head battering ram.

This certainly would be a different kind of Lego Castle theme, but I would sure be interested in sets like that.

EKnight

I've had a google and noticed there are a lot of people who have created their own custom expansions on the old castle ranges, and they all look fabulous. I'm thinking a good way for Lego to revive the castle theme is to come up with more in depth stories for all their old sets, like what they've done with Friends and Ninjago etc. only with new characters that exist in the classic castle world. This has probably already been suggested in this community loads of times, so sorry if I'm treading old ground.

In general, I would love to see a Castle theme with a Wolfpack-flavour, but I don't know how far in that direction LEGO is likely to go while remaining "on brand." That, in general, has been the biggest issue with D&D themed suggestions in the past: rogues and drunks and villainy is something they're unlikely to take TOO far.

That said, I think both the Dragon Knights (especially the red ones of the last wave) and the trolls of the Fantasy Era show LEGO is willing to put some character into bad guys. I think if a Wolfpack theme was pitched as "cops and robbers in Castle" rather than as D&D moral grayness (not that I'm saying stone forest was suggesting that--only that I think that's where the danger of a Wolfpack pitch lies) it could work.

My biggest issue with both Kingdoms (2010) and Castle (2013) was the sheer boringness of the bad guys (good guys too...): rather than opposing factions of identical soldiers, whether human or mythical, I'd like to see something more along the line of, as I said, Cops & Robbers--or even Soldiers & Pirates. This doesn't mean you can't have ANY baddie knights (which I think is part of the reason LEGO's avoided it--knights are traditional Castle's bread and butter); it just means that instead of having a baddie knights whose livery matches a whole theme of baddie soldiers, you have one Black Knight Errant (all sable with a sable shield).

I like to think this would allow for a "different" Castle theme, by which I mean one that might allow a few more civilian figs and locations: innocent bystanders, carts to be attacked by highwaymen, forest hideouts, and the non-uniform clothes of the bandits themselves. And you'd be able to do this without LEGO having to give up its apparently precious need for clearly definied bad guys and good guys. You could even still have a flagship castle (price: $150 or whatever), except instead of having it be attacked by a pitifully small opposing force, the secret entrances and such exist to facilitate its robbery by a far more logical small bandit force.