Bazziman

Me too. I love my black falcons with their new faces and I am thinking of upgrading them too wth new weapons and shields. It's the same (or rather the oposite) with trolls for me; I 'downgrade' their weapons to more realistic ones (I don't like the oversized fake looking troll / orc swords). There's a balance to be sought afaic.

My wife just emailed me: 'when is the lego going to stop coming in': I spent most of the weekend ordering stuff left and right and it's rolling in in big boxes now. ;) At the same time I see there is a Troll Battle Pack coming out from TLC. It's okayish (I like the cloaks) but it doesn't have the variety the human pack had though.

:(. I've just spent tens of euro's on bricklink buying these little fellers for way too much money. I want these battle packs. At least 5 or so of them.

Speaking of variety..I think the trolls kinda suck at variety. Just two types of torso and that's it for the warriors. In case of an 'organized' faction (crownies) I don't mind soldiers in a unit wearing the same uniform and helmets - but a horde of orcs looking all a like is a bit silly. Basically they all have the same helmets too. I did get a lot of the impulse sets already - just to get me going. Too bad they included a rat instead of a decent shield....I also ordered some decal paper (I have a very good printer at work) - now I need to get my hands on green-handed-torsos (haha)

Thanks for the decal tip! Never really thought of that myself. Perhaps it's a nice route - and certaintly worth a try...

Yeah..I guess it's cheaper to buy 5618 and rearm them a bit (bow / arrows, shields etc.). Well, the knights and the skellies have battle packs...it's just the orcs / trolls that seem left out. I think it would be cool to have a battle pack with 1 troll and three small orcs - one with a spear, one with a bow and arrow and one 'leader' with a shield and a sword - for the price of the skellie battle pack or something.

Hi guys...what packs are reasonable options to go for for some serious Troll / Orc army building? There are no battle packs like with the knights and the skellies. The single orc with the cart / cannon is okay-ish but it lacks a shield and buying just that kit kinda kills any variety. Ideas?

I would absolutely love it. Greeks hoplites....perhaps some Romans and barbarians too?

Nice fusion of two themes.

Speaking of which: I just finished building the Tree Hide out (the small one with the two minifigs) that I got for a decent second hand price. It was a very nice little project (took me about an hour or so). I noticed the bricks made a very different sound than the new bricks I got with the 20 boxes of Trolls & Knights (I got a bunch of the impulse packs for army building purposes...battle packs are also on the way)...the new ones were kind of 'bendy' and felt soft...a bit weird to this old-skool-grey-castle-builder. The details on the new minifigs are great though (the weapons were a bit to rubbery for my taste though, compared to the old skool hard plastic ones). I think I am going to upgrade my 'great' Black Falcon Army so it will be slightly more modern looking (perhaps a bunch of custom ovoid shields for the spear men?) A new forest faction would certainly grab my attention...with long bows and capes and stuff. I don't care if you call them Elves or Woodsmen or Men-in-tight....

Thanks people for the nice welcome! I just finished building both the old tree hide out (forrest men) and I unpacked 10 soldiers + 10 orcs. I built a nice watchtower from the parts that were intended for the weapons rack (and some parts of the troll/orc carts). I also took out all the minifigs and parts from the Advent set. I guess that should tell you I'm in full swing army building straight from the bat. I like the new minifigs (nice details) but I am rather disappointed with the swords and weapons - they are soft and bendy. Not like the old school swords. Well at least they're not ridiculously oversized like the swords on the early 2000s models. One other thing: the old tree hide out had nice, bricks that snapped into place - they have a certain sound that I remember from my youth. The new bricks from the Castle impulse set and the Advent set felt a bit soft - almost like you could bend them if you tried (less brittle if you like)....I'm not sure I like that. (this probably has been noted by the lot of you...for me this is all new).

I nearly overlooked this part of the forum. My name is Bazziman. I am from the Netherlands, an industrial designer by training but a senior marketing professional by profession. I'm married and have one son (with a girl on the way!) Until a few weeks ago I hadn't touched any Lego bricks for over 20 years. As a kid however I was crazy about lego. My big brother had some classic space lego, some technics and a train or two (both the blue and the grey tracks)....I loved the grey castles (I also had the yellow one) and miniland (town). Most of my pocket money was spent on lego and I always eagerly looked forward to reading the new 'Legokrant'. This was a newspaper you could get in the toystore...I think they ran an issue ever few months or so. Until I was about 11 years old most of my world consisted of playing with Lego's. And than all of a sudden I stopped playing with it. Just like that. Lego seemed childish, stupid. Not interesting. My mom put all the bricks (and the booklets) in two plastic containers which she stored in the attic...because 'one day you too will have kids'. 'Sure mom. Whatever'. I couldn't care less. Almost two years ago me and my wife got our first son. Caspar. For his first birthday he got his first two duplo sets (the Big Zoo and a smaller plastic bucket with various blocks). At december the 5th (Sinterklaas) he got his second set: the train starter kit. I learned to build faster than he could destroy stuff. Strangely he doesn't care much about the amount of plastic blocks: he just wants a car, a car and maybe a few duplofigs. That's all he needs. That's also the time when the tingling started. That's when I remembered those two plastic boxes that were now in my own attic. They were heavy. Dusty. And hidden behind stacks of other stuff that only waited for me to get rid of it. A month or two ago I started thinking about my lego's again. My castles in particular. Memories and thoughts ran crazy in my head. Would I still have all the bricks? Would I need to set up a big table in Caspar's new room for me - for us - to set it all up again once he turned 5 or 6? A few weeks ago I took out the plastic boxes and started washing, sorting and building my first models again and from that day onward I am hooked. I noticed most of my own bricks had been badly discoloured though, so I am hunting the web for cheap bricks to replace them.....and for new minifigs, weapons and parts to build new armies. I'm not sure if this all had happened without my mom not giving away my old lego (like she did with my Star Wars action figures!)...I'm also not sure where this will end:my secretary is giving me weird looks because the mail man just delivered a second hand Forrest Men set (the small tree), 10 orcs/trolls, 10 knights and a castle advent calender...

I really like the guys working (doing the construction). Some things I noticed are the fishing rod (it looks out of place) and the fact that some of your base plates are dirty! ;)

This is so strange. I remember building it for them. Twice. (they were a bit too young / not interested in lego themselves)...It came in a big box in which they put the piece after playing with it (which I found strange since I always left my models on a big table to play with)...I distinctly remember it being similar but not the same to my own yellow castle....the only set that comes kinda close is the street scene. It must have been real lego (I would have recognized a fake wouldn't I?) This is so weird. I guess I am getting too old! It's been more than 20 years after all (gosh, I AM getting old.) Thanks guys for trying to help me out with this one.

Nope. It was a different yellow castle. Hmmm...nothing that seems to be the one I am looking for. Here's what I recall. 1. It was (largely at least) similar to the yellow castle (yellow bricks, those slopes in the walls and built on a green base plate). It felt more girlish though. 2. It came with instructions (because I built from them). 3. It was lego branded. 4. It must have been from around the mid 80's - it came in a big cardboard box with a lid (I think). 5. I don't remember any minifigs...I do remember the set missing one part (small yellow 1x1x1 round brick). Thanks guys for trying to figure this one out. Coming out from my DA feels like a total rush; memories come poppin' up again like crazy. Eyes - hurt - can't - see. Aaargh.