iragm

This is exactly my assessment of it as well. It's doubly strange given that SleeplessNight is one of the most talented designers around, consistently making buildings that feel like an official set with cool parts usage and interesting angles. I'll probably pick up the Transylvania Adventures castle of his next round, that is much more typical of his work and looks great.

That's a Dragon Masters torso. And lots of GWPs have one-off torsos. Personally, I would be fine with Black Knights not coming back if we got a new faction like the raven, griffin or kraken. I grew up in the era of Black Knights and they are fine, but honestly the dark green dragon knights from kingdoms are cooler in every way except for the plumes. If the dragon plumes came in black or dark green...

Put the birch trees at rule of thirds or golden ratio points, have 3 of them instead of 2, and put them on a Technic pin under the ground so they are slightly angled and direct your eye around the build, and they would be a lot better. The path is well detailed but the flagstones aren't flagstones, they're more like something from the giant's causeway. One other thing that jumps out at me is that the logs "supporting" the floors are too high on the left side, they're in the middle of the room instead of underneath. I don't normally comment on stuff because I have very little to add, but I like the minifigures, they are a breath of fresh air from the usual black falcon/lion knight guards in other builds, and have a sort of timelessness about them with the modern hats, the pirate torsos and the general medieval feel of the build. A lot of this build is a bit detached from reality (the Yoda quote, the angles above the stonework, the blacksmith's glasses, the chimney angles, etc.) and the minifigures really help sell this as intentional.

The video interview with the designer says that multiples of the set can be connected. The original Blacktron sets had "male" or "female" connections, but they weren't consistent about the cockpit always being either "male" or "female", which sometimes made things awkward. This looks like any connection can be attached to any other, which is much more flexible. Right -- they're available in black, a color that can be used in just about any theme. That part isn't coming back in yellow. I would have expected a ribbed hose or something, though.

Why? I've found 4 Renegades in bulk buys and all of them had trans-yellow hoses. Both this set and Battrax came with either trans-yellow with black ends or solid yellow with black ends. But the chances of that style of hose coming back was always pretty slim, I think. I would have liked to see one of the currently-in-production types of hoses used, re-colored in trans-yellow if possible, or in just yellow. The "hexagonal flag" or whatever this piece is called is awesome. It's a wing, a tail fin, part of a geodesic dome, whatever. It will make for some really amazing MOCs. Yeah, for real. Blacktron I's modular system was pretty lacking, and most of the alternative configurations just aren't as cool as what the ships look like "out of the box". This lends itself to a lot of customization. I will load up on the printed parts when they hit PAB. There are some great ones here for sure. I'm bummed that the 2x2 yellow printed tile didn't come back -- that and the space wing returning in yellow would have dropped the price of original Blacktron sets by a ton. I posted this on Reddit and I'll post it again here: Most of what makes Blacktron good is that it's aged like a fine wine. The sets at the time were futuristic, but they are now so old that they look retro-futuristic in the best possible way. I love the 8-cylinder diesel engine on the Battrax, and all the hoses. Where are the hoses on this set? But the original set designs are just not that great apart apart from the 80's-ness and the color scheme. The modularity is a great concept, but was done much better in Blacktron II. The designs are very much a product of late 80's Lego, and have a certain awkwardness about them (so do the Futuron and SPI sets from the same era). I actually didn't like the theme at all until I stumbled across the Message Intercept Base in a bulk lot, and it instantly become my favorite space set of all time (well, tied with the Mega Core Magnetizer, I guess). Anyway, my point is that this is fine, the original wasn't "best set of all time" material, and this nicely recaptures the 80's tech feeling of Blacktron. I'll buy it when it's on sale.

Yes, that's what I did. I used their contact form which required a mailing address. I have not heard anything back yet, I assume they are swamped with orders and will get to tickets after the 18th when Christmas shipping slows down.

This is absolutely, unquestionably, the case. It's much cheaper for them to ship it to the 1 in 1000 customers who request it than to go to all the extra work of including it when many people won't notice. Capitalism. But, to be honest, if I didn't hang out here, I wouldn't have noticed the issues either. Make sure to request the correctly printed tiles, too, mine had the typos. Edit: they haven't actually asked me for proof that I bought the set yet, I assume they can see that someone with my email did. So you can/should open a ticket with support now even if you don't plan to open the set until Christmas.

Same here, country also MX, the sticker on the outside of the box also said "v39". I have the tiles with the typo and the yellow stickers. I have opened a ticket. Kinda annoying to need to open the box and verify this stuff, I was hoping to keep this one sealed for a couple of years until I have space for a proper layout. Seems likely to me. Yeah, for real. This set seems like a pretty good deal to me at 20% off. 2 of the best looking 8 wide passenger coaches around, designed to the standards of an official Lego set, for just $125 each, plus a pile of free parts that you can use to MOC an engine. And if it's not selling well, the aftermarket prices should be utterly insane once this retires. I will buy whatever the limit is if it goes 40% off before retirement next year.

Are the instructions for these no longer available?

Paying $10 for a used piece of string on Bricklink is insanity. I'm mostly a purist, but make an exception where sails and rigging are concerned. Take a bit of string to your local fabric store and ask them what they have that's close. Chances are you can get a good amount there for less than the cost of something off aliexpress, plus if you see it in person, you can match it. My local store had something that's (as far as I can tell) identical and it was $3 for a roll.

Real life got in the way this year.

My favorites: B-Bay Skull's Eye Imperial Trading Post Eldorado BSB 6271 OG Imperial Flagship Enchanted Island [Eldorado redux somewhere around here] Caribbean Clipper Rock Island Refuge I like the simplistic charm of the original sets. I wasn't really into them as a kid, I got into them as an adult after completing 80s/90s castle stuff and looking for similar things to scratch the itch of guess what sets are in bulk lots on the goodwill sites. I don't consider pirates as good as castle (I know what forum I'm on, fight me!) but they share a lot of techniques and designers (Daniel August Krentz gets a special mention for also doing my favorite space set, Message Intercept Base).

All parts for Castle in the Forest (except stickers) are available on PAB/Bricklink, so it can be parted out for relatively little. Highly recommended build, it's one of the best castles of all time.

Am I the only person who thinks PAB is pretty much perfect? Any non-licensed figure you want, as many as you want, for $2-3 each? And no need to purchase stuff that you already have, like heads or weapons? For the cost of a couple big sets I have all the castle figures I'll ever need.

Cautiously optimistic. It's definitely a couple hundred years later than I'd like it to be, but a sailing ship done with modern techniques has a lot of potential to be a fun build. B-Bay is my favorite build of all time, I think. Hoping this has cloth sails and is minifig scale.