Classic-Castle.com

THE TIME HAS COME FOR ALL CASTLE FANS TO REJOICE! Also, time to empty the wallet...

[url]https://www.brothers-brick.com/2022/06/18/le ... ore-350744[/url]


Who's excited!? The massive amount of minifigs is amazing! the size and details! I am going to have to find a way to get money for this. THERE IS A CROSSED AXE SHIELD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Also, Spaceship!

EKnight

Hope this stays for a good while - already need too much money elsewhere. I hope the demand for this set is massive so it can give some hint what themes should be released later on :D

I'll second the opinion that this better be available for a reasonable amount of time--it's not exactly cheap!

Setting aside the price tag, this is an awesome set: it's got a little bit of everything and chock full of easter eggs galore. Factoring in the price tag, it's [ALMOST] too much: I'd have happily clawed back to about 12 minifigs from 22 if it meant $300 instead of $400, but I suppose a castle of this scale wouldn't feel quite as "worth" it if it didn't completely out-do all previous castle fig-counts. It's something of an arbitrary line: how much is too much in a single set? I'd personally much rather have had a $100 set comparable to the Galaxy Explorer, but the argument is that Castle "won" the contest and that we just had a $100 Castle (the Creator one). I suppose I'm just glad it's not the Millennium Falcon.

The other arbitrary line, which I actually find more interesting, is where they made the cut-off in terms of references: approximately between the Forestmen and the Black Knights. Setting Majisto aside (and he is worthy in his own right) were there any post-1987 themes referenced?

Wow. That set is huge, and it has a little bit of everything. Are those thatched roof pieces new? Those and several other pieces I haven’t ever seen before.

!!! There are even some Yellow Castle bits in there!

Frank_Lloyd_Knight wrote:Wow. That set is huge, and it has a little bit of everything. Are those thatched roof pieces new? Those and several other pieces I haven’t ever seen before.

!!! There are even some Yellow Castle bits in there!

No, those thatched roof parts are [url=https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalog ... 5#T=P&C=85]These[/url] mixed with [url=https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalog ... =29120#T=P]these[/url]

Eknight

Elephant Knight wrote:

Frank_Lloyd_Knight wrote:Wow. That set is huge, and it has a little bit of everything. Are those thatched roof pieces new? Those and several other pieces I haven’t ever seen before.

!!! There are even some Yellow Castle bits in there!

No, those thatched roof parts are [url=https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalog ... 5#T=P&C=85]These[/url] mixed with [url=https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalog ... =29120#T=P]these[/url]

Eknight

Thanks! I’d consider 2017 still to be a newer piece. Did you see that the set also has a Monty-Pythonesque squire!? One of the mini figures looks like she is wearing a kind of wimple. Do you know if that piece is brand new or has been used before?

Best set ever.

Great set, a bit pricey but I love the updated lion knights and the barding for them and the Black Falcons. The printed cape and flags are great and the references to the old yellow castle and even Monty Pyton are nice.

Now the question remains how get multiple of the new lion knights without buying more castles, hopefully via the new pick a brick...

The new civilians are also very nice, although reusing parts of the bard from the CMF is a bit cheap.

But overall, it's a great set.

That's a very very fat price tag, although 22 minifigures! I don't know if I'll end up buying it new, but I might pick it up second hand somewhere. Very nice set though!

Frank_Lloyd_Knight wrote:

Elephant Knight wrote:

Frank_Lloyd_Knight wrote:Wow. That set is huge, and it has a little bit of everything. Are those thatched roof pieces new? Those and several other pieces I haven’t ever seen before.

!!! There are even some Yellow Castle bits in there!

No, those thatched roof parts are [url=https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalog ... 5#T=P&C=85]These[/url] mixed with [url=https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalog ... =29120#T=P]these[/url]

Eknight

Thanks! I’d consider 2017 still to be a newer piece. Did you see that the set also has a Monty-Pythonesque squire!? One of the mini figures looks like she is wearing a kind of wimple. Do you know if that piece is brand new or has been used before?

I believe that part is the same part used on the Eqyptan warrior in the Collectable Minifigure line. [url]https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalog ... =1#T=P&C=1[/url]

EKnight

This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I don't *love* it. I would really like to love it, but there are too many drawbacks in the design.
Here's a brief summary:

Building Exterior: 6/10
This is the primary drawback of the set. The exterior suffers pretty significantly from basic techniques and "big grey wall syndrome". The ramp up to the front gate is just slopes, and very underwhelming. The hatched roof is cool, and I'm glad to see they didn't use a bunch of panels. But overall, I think it's mid-level AFOL-skill quality.

Building Interior: 8/10
Seems like a decent amount of detailing and play features. The castle courtyard between the outer and inner walls is really a nice idea. I think the scale is a little small for some of the interior spaces, but I do like the Easter eggs like the vintage shields and the microscale yellow castle.

Minifigs: 8/10
The figs are generally great. I wish we had a couple variations of the new lion knight torsos. And would have liked to see something other than the CMF bard torso reused. But all in all, the variety is great and I'm excited to have an updated rival for the Black Falcons. Majisto as a plain, unprinted fig is unacceptable, IMO.

Animals/Accessories: 7/10
I'm glad that barding is back, but the designs themselves are pretty 'meh' compared to some of the ones we've had in the past. The cloth flags and printed cape are awesome. The horses are fine. I would have liked to see a new color, like dark grey, instead of the tan one. And there's no goat!

Overall score: 7.5/10 I'll still buy it day 1, but I won't be breaking the bank for multiples. Hoping the fig parts show up on B&P at some point.

My wallet is going to hurt and my wife might leave me...

But the big problem for me is how to use it. I don't want something like this to just be a parts pack, but my Castle World already has a lion knights castle and I'm not replacing it. So then what faction do I reflag this castle for? Also how will I get more of the new lion knights (PaB I guess... if they stay in stock long enough for me to get some...). I prefer to field units of 8-10 men with a particular torso.

I'm also going to really get on with techniques of interfacing non-rectangular builds with my Base-8 Plus Brick terrain system...

What hurts the budget is the new Ninjago and Monkey Kid stuff that's coming that I want to purchase also...

Beautiful! Everything I could have wanted. I can't wait to see what the cape looks like in person. It may be a little pricey but worth it as it seem like there are no stickers. Plus getting new flags and a cape. Dang boy!

I do find the forestmen unneeded as with the Forestmen Hideout we just got it feels like the forestmen figs are unneeded especially as these three and the two from the freewithgift set means all five will have the same torso. Just a nitpick.

I really can't be more happy with this.

I agree with most of AK_Brickster's comments, but would generally rate the set higher - at least 9/10. The price/piece is not terrific, but I'm sure that is due to the minifigures, accessories, flags and printed pieces.

Besides the size and figs, my favorite part is the thatched roof - it looks phenomenal while being a relatively simple build (with that claw piece in nougat). I'm glad they went with white and not yellow for the tudor portion (though tan would have been even better and more noticeable - but that is an easy switch). I would have liked dark brown in place of much of the black, but the black looks good. On my last two comments, maybe getting a more traditional look was more important than using newer colors. The raised landscaping and rockwork is a bit basic, but at least it is there (vs. just a flat build).

This will definitely be a day one purchase for me. I'm not sure if I'll be getting a second one (especially if the figs are on PAB).

P.S. I love that they included Majisto - even if there are no dragon or black knights present.

Day one purchase for me. Probably a second during double VIP.

The minifigs were always going to be the most important part for me and they did pretty well. The count is fantastic at 22 but skeletons are getting old - a ghost would have been preferred. More importantly, they loaded the new Lion Knight prints in here so that is fantastic. Also included 2 new civilians which is what I desire most. The reuse of the bard torso is a tad weak, a different color would have been nice as would the blacksmith torso that was reused. Same story for the forestmen, I’m surprised they didn’t change one to blue for this set. The barding, flags, shields are all pretty good. The black falcon barding seems like it’s missing a metallic overlay almost…a little plain but welcome nonetheless.

The castle does the trick being plain old grey from yesteryear. I’m good with it. The interior details are solid and I love the thatch roof, I’m looking forward to building it and finding all of the little details they’ve included.