Martijn

I like this one a lot. Could easily be a commercial set. I've always liked the civilian side of the Castle theme, so it's great to see the orcs have a somewhat civilian side too.

I'm taking the "never" to mean: "never as part of the current fantasy theme". I hope Lego will still be around in 100 years, and I wouldn't find it unreasonable if they'd changed their mind by then.

Many sets from the early '80s were pretty realistic. And more recently, the medieval market village is as realistic as I could possibly hope for. Though in between it's been mostly silly junk.

I was a bit confused by that too. Originally I didn't know the lion knights as "crusaders", but when I came to this forum, I quickly learned that they were called that here. And now a big article messes up the new terminology I'd gotten used to.

Easy. City is a natural fit for Lego, and middle ages, pirates and science fiction are always popular settings, not just for Lego. Look at roleplaying games, for example. The most popular settings there are medieval fantasy, science fiction, modern, oriental and swashbucklers. (Clearly Lego still needs ninjas as a main theme.)

While I wouldn't say it really bothers me, I get where you're coming from. I always loved the civilians of the Castle theme. That first guy in the '80s with the medieval hood and a cart was my favourite minifig. I also loved designing impenetrable castles, mind you, and I definitely had my crusader-black falcon battles, but it's more as part of a world that should have been fleshed out more, than as just a story with protagonists and conflict. I really need to buy that medieval market village. It's exactly the kind of thing I love. (And of course it's going to get wrapped up in a orc-crownie conflict, but it's going to be more about how it affects the civilians than about who wins.)

Why is Sir Aldric wearing a bucket on his head? I think that helmet would be really cool in a cyberpunk running man gladiatorial thingy, but not in Castle.

That is so pimp! I love it! I completely disagree. A chariot is not a tank. It's supposed to be fast and light and maybe feature a hand bow and a lance. Scythes on the wheels and other spiky bits are okay if you want more, but it's not a platform for a catapult. In any case, I agree that the minifigs look good, and this set has a lot of very interesting pieces, but I would never use those pieces to build something awful like this chariot. It's too big, clunky and uninspired, and I really pity that poor horse that has to pull it all on its own. The chariot is a nice showcase for some funky pieces, but they were put together the way a child would do it. I admit I built stuff like that when I was a kid, but I expect a slightly higher standard from official Lego designs (although I admit that over the years they've produced tons of sets that were far sillier than this one).

Except that would also affect the position of the main sail. Also, being in port, I really hope the ship isn't going that fast. But I don't care. It's a brilliant MOC. One of the best ever!

10 years. After that we had some really weird Castle stuff for another 20 years. I too would like to see some normal castle stuff for a change. But I prefer big quality castle sets with orcs and elves over humans with flimsy castles with indefensible walls. Definitely. The '80s were the golden age of Castle in my opinion. In the '90s it started to get weird. Although the occasional ghost, wizard or dragon was kinda funny and not nearly as bad as that fright knight stuff. I don't mind elves, but I'd love it if they could double as Forestmen instead. Furthermore, my preference is towards realistic sets with lots of bricks rather than tiny flimsy sets that try to be as spectacular as possible. I'd love to see a return of the classic big trebuchet, supply carts, civilians and realistic buildings (something that goes with that market village, for example), and not just for the humans, but also for the other factions. And dare I hope for a return of the Black Falcons?

I'm very much in favour of neutral shields with only a single colour. As a kid, I loved the round coat-of-arms-less shield from the Supply Cart. I want more shields that look like they're just a piece of wood or leather with no special decoration. As for the elves & forestmen debate, I think the idea of elves that can be turned into forestmen, or forestmen that can be turned into elves, is really great. I think the only real difference is their hats or hair. Forestmen have those Robin Hood caps, whereas elves should probably have some blonde elvish hair or something. Forest elves, anyway. Tolkienisque elven warriors should probably wear scale armour and a really high helmet in an unusual shape. A set with two different kinds of hats would be perfect. Alternatively: some big forestmen sets (or elves, depending on which way TLC decides), and a small set with elvish minifigs (or forestmen, depending on which way TLC decides) with a double set of hats, so you can turn all your existing forestmen (or elves) into elves (or forestmen).

Yeah, let them play and imagine their stories! But why wouldn't you be able to that with educational toys? While your 70% false is probably accurate when you're talking about sets from the last 10 years, the first Castle sets (late '70s and early '80s) were pretty good. Sure, many real historical castles were either much bigger or much more primitive, and of course the ratio of mounted knights to peasants is all wrong (because it focuses on the romantic aspects of chivalry), but about the sets themselves, there's nothing really fundamentally wrong (the fortified inn was particularly good! not everything is a castle), as opposed to the stuff from the late '90s, which had very little to do with the middle ages at all. But it's not necessary. Or even sensible, for that matter. Yes, it's a toy, but Lego has always been an educational toy. And those are in my opinion the best ones. And the big molded pieces that can be used in only one way go against that idea. Sure, it looks nice, but lacks the creative versatility that lego traditionally has. Saying "others are making cheap crap too" is a lousy excuse. Nothing wrong with a Robin Hood line, though (wait, did we just switch positions there?). Great opportunity for adventure, and not entirely unrealistic either (depending on which interpretation you're going for). In fact, I'd love it if TLC were to make a Robin Hood line, with one big, detailed Nottingham Castle set (which is fully compatible with any other Castle stuff of course). How about: Nottingham Castle - big, details $99 or more Robin Hood's hideout - a cave, a tree, some bushes, Robin Hood and some of his men Ambush - some bushes, a tree, a cart, and some outlaws Nottingham town houses - a bit like the market village, but smaller Peasant village - huts, pigs, peasants Smaller sets with more outlaws, peasants and men at arms I think it'd sell like wildfire. What I'd like even more is a castle design contest where TLC gives us a budget in how many bricks we're allowed to use, and whichever castle is best (in terms of beauty, detail, realism, but also whether a kid would be able to build it and play with it) gets to be the center piece of a new Lego Castle line.

There's more than two ages, actually. There's Black Falcons/Crusaders, Black Knights, Dragon Masters, Fright Knights, and now Orcs & Dwarves. (And I'm definitely forgetting a couple.) It looks a bit like a sliding scale from historical to fantasy. Interesting is that the extremes of this scale seem to be the best ones. Or the favourites, at least. Although that's probably because they were simply the best executed, and TLC slipped in between those two. Falcons/Crusaders didn't have a lot of civilians, but it did have a few. But how was it during the '90s? Were there still civilians there? Or could the presence of civilians be a sign that TLC is putting more attention to the theme? I agree, but again, Black Falcons had lots of siege engines too. It's mostly during the '90s that things got a bit silly, I think. So maybe the current line is just a return to the good old fashioned quality of the '80s, but in a slightly different theme.

Uniforms are a post-medieval invention, I think. Knights did tend to wear a tabard with their own or their lord's coat of arms, but also tended to wear a lot of custom equipment. Peasants at war often wore no identifying marks whatsoever (and got slaughtered by both sides as a result). It's only the men at arms (profressional soldiers in someone else's employ) who might wear uniforms, but there it's also more likely to be a coincidence because they use the same armour, weapon and other equipment, ,ade around the same time, and with the same tabard from, the same lord over it all. But if one soldier loses his shield, he probably gets a new one that looks slightly different from those of his colleagues. When I was a kid, I always gave the shields with different edges, the different coloured legs, etc to the mounted knights, or I used them to distinguish the commander of the foot soldiers. Other than that, I think we're exactly on the same page.

This is an interesting point I hadn't considered. As a kid, I never really had a need for bad obvious guys. There were black falcons and crusaders (although I didn't know them by those names), so there were two clearly opposing forces if I needed them. And although there wasn't an official black knight, I'd quickly created my own by putting a blue/black mounted knight together. Fits the black falcon colour scheme perfectly, so he clearly was there leader. The black falcons were a bit short on mounted knights, but the one they had was really good (because he had a three-feathered plume), and they had plenty of halberdiers and siege equipment. But most of my play didn't involve opposing factions at all. Didn't need them in Space, didn't need them in Town (although in Town, my brother and I did have a complete city with city council and government and a country with other cities in it (one of them, New Hamburg, ran by two friends of ours)). Never really saw the need for direct conflict in any theme, though. Castle was for me mostly about designing even better and harder to conquer castles. Besides, castle design with walls and towers is rather meaningless if your enemy has flying dragons and witches. I think Robin Hood in particular is an excellent idea! Lots of opportunity for wild adventures, you could make big sets for Nottingham Castle, the town of Nottingham, hideouts in the forest, and assortment of carts to rob and places to hide. I think a Robin Hood line would sell like wildfire.