mispeled

They had the ninjago lighthouse on the shelf at my local target in Iowa. When I brought it to the register they took it from me and told me it was a mistake and they couldn't sell it until August 1. :-(

I am also disappointed that Nexo Knights is considered a Castle theme by Lego, because I can't stand the blue/orange color scheme and the rocket horses. Since there is no real castle theme I've been picking up the Elves stuff and a few of the Nexo villain sets. Overall, I feel like the last couple of waves of Castle have been uninspired, since Fantasy, really. I would like to see Castle come back, but with more inspired set design. Where is the Volcano castle? The Ice Castle? The Treehouse Castle? I feel like there are so many more interesting things they can still do without the scifi elements beyond the same sets (big castle, tower, carriage, horse cart, skirmish) that a castle wave usually entails. The exciting thing about Ninjago, Elves, and some Nexo now is better designs - if/when they relaunch Castle they need to shake it up like that.

This was my very first lego set, when I was six. I still have it, though it's a little worse for wear. I love forestmen!

Man, I'm so torn. I can't stand all the mecha horses and stuff in this theme - it's too scifi/steampunk for me to fit into the castle stuff i normally collect, but the villain sets look so great. That volcano base looks amazing.

So, I'm sure you've all seen the angry birds images for the 2016 sets: Lord help me, I feel so starved for castle sets right now I am actually considering buying the castle and stocking it with extra castle minifigs instead of pigs. Anyone else? I'm actually interested in seeing more images - it actually looks sort of fun. The doors look interest and the walls are higher than most castles. Assuming it is a full building and not just a diorama, it might be kinda cool.

Forestmen's River Fortress - http://brickset.com/sets/6077-2 I was 6. I still have it, with 98% of the original pieces and the dogeared instructions, although there are some teeth marks on more than a few pieces. :-/

I've been collecting Lego castle and related sets since I was a kid. About 8 years ago I started making a map of what the world would look like if all the sets I owned were all together in a single world. Originally it was 36 standard lego baseplates (3x12), but over the years I've expanded it as I've bought more sets. Now it's 162 baseplates in size. I only own sets and a paltry amount of "regular" lego, so it's not something I could ever actually build, at least not in Lego. I've considered building the world like wargaming terrain, with Styrofoam, paint, paper mache, and plaster of paris, but even so, it would take up most of my basement. i'm not sure my wife would be too happy about that. So right now, it's just a map and an idea in my head. Over the years, it's influenced my set buying, because I only buy sets that seem to fit the theme of a medieval/castle/magical world, or that I can place somewhere in the world (even if that means expanding the world). Sets I plan to buy are marked on the map with an asterisk until I get them. Right now there are only two on the map. There are a couple of MOCs that I would need to make the terrain work on there, too (elevators and bridges) that aren't real sets. Here is my world: http://imgur.com/0ctsglJ Here's the grid of lego baseplates, for scale. http://imgur.com/IaNeHXJ Every time I buy a new set, I put it in the world. Does anyone else do this? Let's see your worlds! P.S. I've had my account for a really long time, but not posted very much, so I can't embed the images. :-(

"When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." - C.S. Lewis.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to give the impression that I was unhappy with it. It doesn't really matter to me either way. It was just something I noticed and thought was weird. It doesn't change the structural integrity of the tower at all, since they aren't used in places where a piece needs to span a gap. The sorting machines thing does make sense - i didn't watch closely enough to see if the bags that had steps that used 1x4s in place of 1x8's also contained 1x8s - they might not have. If the numbered bags came from different areas of the factory where only certain pieces were stocked, it would make sense to use the pieces common to that area. Balancing inventory makes sense, too. As for the idea that one piece is already in the set - that's the thing, Orthanc uses both 1x4s and 1x8s in different parts of the build. Both are already included. I was just curious why 1x4s were sometimes used in places where a 1x8 would work fine. The idea that more smaller pieces are better for MOCs and stuff like that - I'm not really convinced that goes into the thought process of the designers and Lego. AFOLs certainly consider that, but I don't see a huge reason why Lego would want to consider that unless you go so far as to say that Lego is really worried about a set's AFOL appeal.

I was lucky enough to receive the Orthanc tower for Christmas and I started building it right away because I've wanted the set since it came out 6 months ago. It’s huge, so I am only about 1/3 done, but I noticed something that made me think. In more than a couple of places when building the set, I noticed that Lego would use two pieces when one would do. For instance, in a couple of places Lego uses two 1x4 black plates in place of one 1x8 black plate. If it was a case of not making that piece in that color, or something like that, I would understand, but the set has tons of 1x8 black plates used in other places, so I know it’s not that. It doesn't really make any difference to the build – either two 1x4 or one 1x8 works here, but it seems weird to me. So what’s going on here? Does Lego do this to make the piece count look larger than it should be? Or is there some other reason for this kind of thing? What other reason would make them do that?