Yellow Castle #375

[WesternOutlaw]

Image Link from Brickset

I thought I would do a pic review of the 1st Lego Castle, The Yellow Castle, #375- released in 1978.

First, let me say that this set was truly "ahead of it's time". It introduced new building concepts (such as the hinge and new figs (most were still the armless, faceless mini-figs during this time).

This set introduced me to Castle which was my first real favorite theme.

I enjoyed breaking it out from the garage and building it again. The majority of the pieces are 1x1, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4, 1x6, and 1x8 standard yellow bricks. The set also includes yellow 1x4, 1x6x2, and 1x8x2 arches, yellow 2x2, 2x3, and 2x4 bricks, various grey plates, 1x2 black inverted slopes, red drawbridge pieces, two classic red castle doors, 8 hinges (2 for each corner), and a few other nifty pieces including six red 1x1 windows. A complete inventory is available at Peeron: 375 Inventory.

A view from the front. The drawbridge is 6x8. The front tower stands 12 1/3 bricks high (plenty of room for horses).

The drawbridge does work. The string (originally black) is attached to the opposite side between a plate and the arches.

The right side of the castle (identical to the left). I've always loved the 2x2x3 sloped bricks (and corner pieces):

The back. I love these red doors. A 1x4 brick attached to the other side of the baseplate keeps intruders out. That banner was the original sticker piece. Notice the wear.

The rear tower, largest of the towers:

And backside:

Two hinges at each of the corners allow the corners to open for playability:

Before opening:

Open:

Lots of arches add to the detail of the inner walls:

Inner front:

This set included 14 figs (how about that for quantity). Unfortunately, I peeled off worn stickers from the shields and the breast plates years ago.

The blue castle guards and knights are the keepers of the castle. I still think that these helmets are the best Lego ever made. They just look good.

The black and white knights:

And the red knights:

I've always prefered to use the black and red guards and flags from the knight's joust set(s):

Conclusion

The Yellow Castle is truly a classic set and I'm so glad I kept the pieces to this together after all these years. If you have a chance to buy one or even obtain the set instructions, it's worth building and wouldn't be difficult to substitute grey or other colors. I hope you enjoyed this review and feel free to share your comments.

[snefroe]

nice review! i haven't built yellow castle for many years, but i do remember the fun i had building it when i was young... Yellow castle just opened up an entire new world for me... also, i liked all the alternate models on the box :oD wish i still had that...

[WesternOutlaw]

There's two alternates on the back of the instructions and as I recall, some sort of bridge on the inner fold or back of box. I threw away the box to this set years ago- just lucky to still have all the pieces. With standard pieces, you can build all these alternates and many more. That's why I don't particularly care for the new castles (like Vladek's). They make building so difficult and duplicate pieces are so limited.

Here's an old shot of the castle in the city that it use to guard. We played for hours back in these days,

[Lost Viking]

Great review. It is nice to see an in-depth photo review of this set. I especially love the last picture of your old city! It certainly does bring back memories...

[Evil Willy]

Yup that is very very nice..I wish I had been alive back then :D Well ill never have a chance to own something like this so this is as close ill get to it! Thanks for showing me the greatness....

[WesternOutlaw]

Question for you guys, what's the best way to clean Lego? I was noticing that the baseplates and gray plates to this set are very dusty and could use a good cleaning. Mild soap water soak? Is there a better way?

[KimT]

Toothbrush and mild soap - and lots of time gently scrubbing a cleaning.

And great review - I love that set *wub* *wub* I'm sorry that You seem to miss the stickers - If You find somewhere to download printable copies of them please let me know *satis*

KimT

[WesternOutlaw]

nice review! i haven't built yellow castle for many years, but i do remember the fun i had building it when i was young... Yellow castle just opened up an entire new world for me... also, i liked all the alternate models on the box :oD wish i still had that...

I found this pic of the inner box this evening in searching for sticker sheets:

With castles like this, one could build a variety of mocs.

[WesternOutlaw]

Toothbrush and mild soap - and lots of time gently scrubbing a cleaning.

And great review - I love that set *wub* *wub* I'm sorry that You seem to miss the stickers - If You find somewhere to download printable copies of them please let me know *satis*

KimT

Thanks for the tip. I tried it on a few pieces and they look much better. Unfortunately, it does take a lot of time. I need a Lego cleaning machine with this many pieces.

[WesternOutlaw]

The original knights displaying their bright colored shields and breast plates (and a good wash helped to brighten them up).

[snefroe]

nice review! i haven't built yellow castle for many years, but i do remember the fun i had building it when i was young... Yellow castle just opened up an entire new world for me... also, i liked all the alternate models on the box :oD

[KimT]

i'm also impressed by the colors of the shields! even a good cleaning wouldn't do that with my old shields...

have you ever tried replacing the heads by modern heads, just to see how that would look?

Remember NEVER TRY TO CLEAN STICKERS! :'(

KimT

[ImperialJohn]

You might find the stickers here

[KimT]

You might find the stickers here

I've searched that page before - It doesn't have the stickers, but it has a lot of other useful ones :oD

TheBrickster send me a link to a page that has remakes of the good old classic shields and more, You can find it here [Thanks Brickster *satis* ]

KimT

[gylman]

You might find the stickers here

I've searched that page before - It doesn't have the stickers, but it has a lot of other useful ones :oD

TheBrickster send me a link to a page that has remakes of the good old classic shields and more, You can find it here [Thanks Brickster *satis* ]

KimT

Hey! Is there some reasonable way I can get these made into usable stickers?? Does someone provide this service? I am desperate to get stickers for my 5571 Modelteam Black Cat! I would guess you need a colour laser printer and sticker paper, and some fiddling around with the sizes, but I don't have any of the necessary materials.

I knowsome guy on eBay sells home made stickers, but he has never sold these ones.

Gyl

[WesternOutlaw]

You might find the stickers here

I've searched that page before - It doesn't have the stickers, but it has a lot of other useful ones :oD

TheBrickster send me a link to a page that has remakes of the good old classic shields and more, You can find it here [Thanks Brickster *satis* ]

KimT

From www.Classic-Castle.com, I opened the shield images, then copied and pasted them into PowerPoint. They do need to be re-sized. In US, I converted them to .59 inch width. You could do the same in cm by converting to 1.5 cm wide. I did the same with the torso stickers - same ratio. I ended up with a PowerPoint sheet of multiple shields and torso designs.

Printed on sticker pages from a good quality photo-printer gives you very nice stickers. The hard part is cutting them. The results are the four knights pictured above.

The web site also has Forestmen and custom torso and shield designs that are very nice.

[Jipay]

You might find the stickers here

I've searched that page before - It doesn't have the stickers, but it has a lot of other useful ones :oD

TheBrickster send me a link to a page that has remakes of the good old classic shields and more, You can find it here [Thanks Brickster *satis* ]

KimT

Hey! Is there some reasonable way I can get these made into usable stickers?? Does someone provide this service? I am desperate to get stickers for my 5571 Modelteam Black Cat! I would guess you need a colour laser printer and sticker paper, and some fiddling around with the sizes, but I don't have any of the necessary materials.

I knowsome guy on eBay sells home made stickers, but he has never sold these ones.

Gyl

A laser printer would burn the plastic sheet. All you need is a white or transparrent sticker sheet and an ink printer

[ImperialJohn]

I've tried this once. Remember?

Normal white sticker sheet in an ink jet and the transparent plastic on top !!

P.S. The one on the right is the homemade one!!

[snefroe]

I've tried this once. Remember?

Normal white sticker sheet in an ink jet and the transparent plastic on top !!

P.S. The one on the right is the homemade one!!

so you're using two layers (stickers) doesn't that make it very thick?

[WesternOutlaw]

Here's a shot of a custom forestman. These really work well:

I'm using just regular sticker paper. How do you stick transparent plastic on top?

[snefroe]

i guess it's easiest to put the entire shield on a transparent sticker and cut the edges. i would also do that with the white stickers, because now you can still see the gray edges of the shield. Perhaps you can make a bigger black, or brown in the other case, outline. you also wouldn't be able to see if the sticker is exactly in the middle...

[ImperialJohn]

so you're using two layers (stickers) doesn't that make it very thick?

Not really. I think it works out very fine.

1. Print out the image.

2. Put on the Plastic.

3. Cut out the image.

4. Apply on the part.

[Indy565]

Wasn't this the first castle Lego released?

[iamded]

As stated in the first post, over 2 years ago, yes, it is. This is a wonderful review, The Brickster, and this would truly be a great set to own. *wub*

~Peace

[Starwars4J]

Wasn't this the first castle Lego released?

Hey Indy565, we try not to revive old threads (imded pointed out how old) unless there's something to add. Now this doesn't mean you can never revive an old thread, but just do it when there's a reason :-) Yes, I believe it is the oldest.