10305 Lion Knights' Castle 90th anniversary set

[SirBlake]

1 hour ago, Triceron said:

Having them available online or through Pick-a-Brick would be even better.

Indeed. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the store exclusivity model stinks. 

[RichardGoring]

3 hours ago, jan kusters said:

One thing in this video that realy surprised me, at 14:45, the castle is split into two 'towers' with very little trouble. Both towers look, at least from this side, as rather complete buildings. I think that is awesome, it opens up so much possibilities; two castles? Or throw in a low MOC castle wall and create a much larger castle with as much inner court as you like?

I would have loved a bigger 'great hall' somewhere. But I also realise that would have made the castle a lot bigger and even more expensive.

Great idea to MOC a great hall in between the two towers. The interior from the Harry Potter would one be good for parts and not too far removed in style either.

[SirBlake]

3 minutes ago, RichardGoring said:

Great idea to MOC a great hall in between the two towers. The interior from the Harry Potter would one be good for parts and not too far removed in style either.

Yeah I think I’m going to have to try the great hall addition. I did the same thing for the 3-in-1, but I think this has a much better chance to really flow with the rest of the set instead of just being another tacked on piece. Nothing against the 3-in-1. The modularity of it is one of its strengths, but being able to add to this new one in a cohesive way is exciting. 

[Merlo]

I was just looking how the new castle would size up with the 3x31120 MOC I've built.

The walls on the Lego set are what? 14-20 bricks tall? The tallest part seems to be 31-32 bricks tall.
The lower walls on this set are 15-17 bricks tall, but the roof ends 45 bricks tall.

[SirBlake]

That MOC is beautiful, but I’m not sure where I would put something that tall/deep. It’d be a cool problem to have though. 

[natesroom]

2 hours ago, Merlo said:

I was just looking how the new castle would size up with the 3x31120 MOC I've built.

 

The walls on the Lego set are what? 14-20 bricks tall? The tallest part seems to be 31-32 bricks tall.
The lower walls on this set are 15-17 bricks tall, but the roof ends 45 bricks tall.

 

do you have additional photos or a link to more of this?

[Follows Closely]

13 minutes ago, natesroom said:

do you have additional photos or a link to more of this?

https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-101775/Madewithbrix/black-falcon-knights-castle-31120-medieval-castle-alternate-build/#details

[DaleDVM]

I will be interested to see how the two sides come apart.  I may even be tempted to MOC an extension using only a second set.  Slapping two of these identical sets together is interesting but having two entrances so close together is not very realistic of a design.  

[SirBlake]

10 minutes ago, DaleDVM said:

I will be interested to see how the two sides come apart.  I may even be tempted to MOC an extension using only a second set.  Slapping two of these identical sets together is interesting but having two entrances so close together is not very realistic of a design.  

They come apart on the left of the main gate (as viewed from the front/outside), opposite the tree side. 

If you go a few pages back, somebody linked a good video with the designers that shows them popping it apart. 

[Aanchir]

58 minutes ago, SirBlake said:

They come apart on the left of the main gate (as viewed from the front/outside), opposite the tree side. 

If you go a few pages back, somebody linked a good video with the designers that shows them popping it apart. 

This video from LEGO's shop site shows pretty clearly where the two sections separate: https://www.lego.com/cdn/cs/set/assets/bltd44194ba2b39c047/10305_v2.mp4

They are linked via clip-and-handle connections, similar to how the modular segments are joined together in the 3-in-1 Medieval Castle set.

This image shows how the "west wing" (bell tower, kitchen, banquet hall, bedchamber) looks when the two sections are separated to reveal the forest people's* hideout. The clip on the left and the handle on the right join up with a corresponding handle and clip on the "east wing" (dungeon/gatehouse).

There is a cave/tunnel to the left of the drawbridge that connects this hideout to the exterior of the castle. Then the trapdoor in the image above allows the forest people* to sneak up into the castle itself via the market square — provided one of the guards is slacking off as shown here!

* by the way, if anybody's wondering, my use of the term "forest people" for this outlaw faction isn't some sort of revisionism on my part — it was one of the official terms for that faction in UK print media, and I've taken to using it for these recent sets since it feels a little bit more accurate to their balance of of male and female characters.

[Follows Closely]

17 hours ago, natesroom said:

do you have additional photos or a link to more of this?

I started to build this with digital assistance from @Aanchir. It is not going to stand up the height of the rebrickable mock by Madewithbrix.

Spoiler

...but compared to anything in the official Castle line...

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An update comparison with The Castle in the Forest.

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And a comparison with Löwenstein Castle.

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Edited June 25, 2022 by Follows Closely
added spoiler tags

[RichardGoring]

25 minutes ago, Follows Closely said:

I started to build this with digital assistance from @Aanchir. It is not going to stand up the height of the rebrickable mock by Madewithbrix.

  Hide contents

...but compared to anything in the official Castle line...

  Hide contents

Nicely done! Although shorter than the 3x 3in1 MOC, it's presence is still impressive. Especially compared to the older set.

[Merlo]

4 hours ago, RichardGoring said:

Nicely done! Although shorter than the 3x 3in1 MOC, it's presence is still impressive. Especially compared to the older set.

Agreed. It should probably easily top the MOC with overall volume I imagine.

P.S. That MOC is amazing. I can't believe the author made it with a preset collection of bricks instead of choosing bricks from scratch. There was a total of 1 brick missing and I had some very minor complaints with the instructions and some trickier builds,
but the shape is very interesting and it's not too colorful like the Creator castle, yet not too bland either, just right. Not to mention 31120 dropped in price since coming out so I built the entire thing for less than €250.

I must say though, both that MOC and the new castle are too big for me. I'd enjoy a series of smaller but distinctive sets in at most half that size, but preferably even smaller.

13 hours ago, SirBlake said:

That MOC is beautiful, but I’m not sure where I would put something that tall/deep. It’d be a cool problem to have though. 

Well Gardens of Ninjago City is like... 67 bricks high with that antenna  or smth, definitely crazy :)

[Johnny1360]

15 hours ago, DaleDVM said:

I will be interested to see how the two sides come apart.  I may even be tempted to MOC an extension using only a second set.  Slapping two of these identical sets together is interesting but having two entrances so close together is not very realistic of a design.  

Great idea, many times I do this but I build the second set, reverse floor plan or mirrored. Which in itself is quite fun, building sets reversed, that is.

[jodawill]

I have mixed feelings about the series 13 king. He looks great for someone who's going to sit on a throne all day, but he doesn't look like he's ready for battle. So I'm toying with the idea of having a Black Falcon king leading the attack on the castle.

[BitByBrick]

15 minutes ago, jodawill said:

I have mixed feelings about the series 13 king. He looks great for someone who's going to sit on a throne all day, but he doesn't look like he's ready for battle. So I'm toying with the idea of having a Black Falcon king leading the attack on the castle.

Very nice! The series 13 king looks too much like the Burger King guy than actual royalty. Maybe the King for this castle was  thrown in the dungeon by the queen and is now the skeleton we see there. Just add a crown on him to complete the story. Long live the queen. LOL

Edited June 25, 2022 by BitByBrick

[Triceron]

I always imagined the Black Falcons to be commanded by a high-ranking Lord, rather than as a separate kingdom.

[woodford86]

45 minutes ago, jodawill said:

I have mixed feelings about the series 13 king. He looks great for someone who's going to sit on a throne all day, but he doesn't look like he's ready for battle. So I'm toying with the idea of having a Black Falcon king leading the attack on the castle

Agreed, I like him for a standard peacetime king but he is a little outdated. Been trying to come up with the right Falcons king using the Nexo Knights crown - too bad its red haired. I think I prefer the caped version personally, shoulder armor looks weird on a king and the two-shouldered armor doesn't fit the crown.

29 minutes ago, Triceron said:

I always imagined the Black Falcons to be commanded by a high-ranking Lord, rather than as a separate kingdom.

This guy from the Harry Potter castle just screams Lord to me (if anyone knows of a more lordly figure with blue base colors I'd love to hear)

Edited June 25, 2022 by woodford86

[jodawill]

I actually do like the red hair, but I think the blue crown is unfortunate. It would have been nice to have two choices of hair color for that crown piece with realistic crown colors.

[Roebuck]

Why not use this one from Kingdoms?

[Triceron]

I think the blue crown works with the rest of the color scheme, even if it's a bit gaudy.  Still, odd to me that the Black Falcons would have a King, even seeing it like this now.

[TeriXeri]

Nexo had a golden crown in the first year as well, the second year was the blue one.

Year 1 King's armor also matched the queen from year 2.

Meanwhile the king's formal clothing from year 2, matched the queen from year 1.

Year 3 had a  fairly "normal" Jester - Jestro , if you remove the armor.

I know the orange color scheme isn't anything classic, but the theme still had some very useful parts/prints.

Edited June 25, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Lyichir]

Personally I'm fine with the CMF Classic King and Queen not looking ready for battle—as romantic as the idea of the king leading his forces into battle personally is, it's probably more practical for the king and queen to both stay away from the front lines!

Even though I'm not even sure whether I'll end up getting one copy of the set myself (let alone two), I do like the idea of expanding the castle to include a throne room. In my digital brainstorms I had been considering simply pairing two copies of the set and refurnishing to remove redundancy, but I hadn't even considered creating a custom section that slots in between the east and west wings of the castle! I do like that idea a lot, though I'm not sure whether I'll end up coming up with anything as impressive as more experienced castle builders might be able to.

[Follows Closely]

I am slowly making progress.

[Triceron]

Just now, Follows Closely said:

I am slowly making progress.

Damn!  That is quite epic!

Do you happen to have the Blacksmith?  Curious what it would look like next to the castle if you did.