2007 Castle Line: The conclusion

[Batbrick]

This topic, I apoligise if something was already posted like this, is to sum up everything you think about the new Castle line. The pros and cons and interesting.

Remember, this is an OPINIONATED thread, so those who love dragons or hate skellies and vice-versa shouldn't be critisised.

I'll post my thoughts soon, I have to go out for a short time, but I would like to take this moment to apoligise once more for my rude comments to *yoda* over at his Batank review. It was intended as a joke *yoda* , but it wasn't in good taste so I apoligise. :-$

Anyhoo! Post here to sum up on the good,bad, interesting points you think about the 2007 Castle line!

Batbrick Away! >:-)

[lostcarpark]

Okay, I've only built a couple of the small sets so far, so I expect I'll discover lots of things about them as I build the rest, but overall I really like them.

I love the fact that they hark back to the classic Castle, but have the added dimension of skeletons. I think the knights look great, a vast improvement on the Knights Kingdom ones. The silver helmets and weapons brings them nicely into the new century, but the classic helmet shapes remain. I also really like the buildings and accessories. The big castle looks fantastic, and compares very favourably to some of the great castles of the 80s and 90s.

In general, I like the skeletons. The arms are a little on the long side, and I would have quite liked a slight bend in the elbow, but I can think of lots of uses for that particular part, which goes a long way to forgiving the complaint. Still, it would have been nice to have a part just for the skeleton arm, with a round bone shape rather than the rectangular robot arm shape. I do rather like the skeleton horses, though they would be even nicer if their necks would bend.

I'm not crazy about the dragon, but I can't have everything. I'm very fond of the system/technic/bionicle hybred creatures from the Viking line, and the brick-built creatures from Aqua-Raiders, so the chunky one piece dragon seems a step backwards (it does recycle parts from Dino 2010/Dino Attack).

Overall, though, I love new castle.

[iamded]

I really like them. I think think the Skellies are great, and the humans are better. The silver really makes them look nice. It's awesome to see the revival of the old helmets and weapons, and the introduction of a new weapon. The buildings are awesome, as are the siege weapons. And lets not forget the new skeleton horses. I've been waiting for them for a long time. All in all, the new Castle theme is just what I've been waiting for, I can finally amass a skeleton army! *skull* :-D *y*

[Batbrick]

Here are my thoughts:

Pros: Awesome knights, Great Castle, Cool Princess, Cool King and Cool Wizard, Great colours and finally a *skull* army!

Cons: Skeleton arms, dragons :-X , tad juniorisation in some sets

Interesting: Ogel always hangs around skellies and skellie faced buildings, no matter what theme.

Btw iamded, your *skull* army won't stop me stalking you! >:-)

Batbrick Away! >:-)

[El Bucanero]

Castle 2007... Really a big step into the right direction.

The good side is really better than knights kingdom 2.

The shooting devices like the catapult and the crossbow attack thingy are way better and they took the classic swords and helmets! *wub*

Although I would have preferred a human vs. human line, the skellies are not that bad. The only thing I don't like about them are the arms and the heads. I loved that old skellie face!

But I still think there's room to improve.

Just look at this set:

I really think that stockade could be better...

It still misses that classic feel.

Things I'd like to see? Sets like these!:

Minfig packs, I'd really love those.

Mr Tiber

[TroyTMoore]

The metallic helms and metallic pointed visor add so much realism. The torso prints on the 2 styles of soldiers are beatiful.

The large castle 7094 is worth every penny and is a neat model with minimal useless bits (large premolded pieces).

I actually like the dragons more than I thought I would before I had one in hand...LEGO's LOTR fellbeast as far as I am concerned.

Straight arms on the skellies are the biggest dissapointment. If they had a slight bend, similar to that of a minifig they would look more natural (at least as natural as an undead skeleton can look *skull* )

The maiden is a beautiful fig, the most detailed, and best dressed yet, plus, *wub* the hair.

I have purchased copious amounts because it is so good.

I cannot wait for the Dwarves Mining to come out this fall (Dwarves with new beards and helms, goblins and trolls)

[Shakar]

It's one of the best lines Lego has ever produced, as far as I'm concerned.

The Crown Knights are great. The silver acessories are very useful, the heraldly is very nice and I love the colour scheme- dark blue is my favourite colour. The Princess, the King, the mounted knights, the bardings...great stuff.

The skellies faction is awesome as well. The faces are my favourite parts: the red eyes make them looking like beings animated by a mysterious magical force. I just think that the arms could have been a bit better.

The skull heraldly is very nice. The printing has great details: I love the wooden background and the skull that looks so similar to the skull from the Pirate line, plus with that small crack added on it. *skull* The Euro armour has a wonderful printing too!

My favourite minifig from this faction is the Dark Wizard because he has lots of little details and just looks very cool. If you don't like him or you have a spare one like me, he is an excellent parts fodder.

The dragons...SO much better than I thought! They're big, fun, menacing and, following the tradition of regular Lego minifigs, cartoony.

The design of the sets are good, too. The Skeleton Tower coliud have been a little bit better, but hey, that tower sure is eye candy. Gotta love the skull gate.

And I can't wait for Dwarf Mining! Dwarfs, Goblins and Trolls... :'-)

Lego, keep up the awesome work!

Shakar

[KimT]

What's not to like about the new castle theme?

The figs look like something "real" as opposed to the darn KK theme. (purple knights :-X )

I think it's a really cool theme and I've already purchased the entire theme and even triplicates of several boxes. Building the castle reminds me of the ol' classic castle theme and with a few minor MODs, it'll be exactly just that.

Pros: EVERYTHING

Cons: None whatsoever. - Even the dragons are cool (remember this is primarily a kids toy). Their sturdiness allows for great play and swooshing. :-P

KimT

[SuvieD]

I have never liked any of the "undead" enemies in any fantasy product I have seen. Spirits, ghosts, or similar I can handle but rotting bones with no flesh of any kind are just lame. I can't wait to see the more fantasy like creatures though later on.

In the mean time I will just have to sell off any skele bits I get so I can get more sweet knights.

[maiq the liar]

Are they EEEEEEvil knights?

just good knights are no good when looking for a Clang-Boom-Bang fight.

[Corvus]

Their sturdiness allows for great play and swooshing. :-P

KimT

In the nuuude! :-X :-P

I love these knights and I can't wait to get some (Why haven't I? *wacko* ) but I won't get many since knights might not do so well in space. :-P I like the skellies (They can do well in space...) but they lack character, like the droid armies.

In this, they all have slightly separate uniforms... That's what I like.

Edited September 5, 2007 by Mr. Mandalorian

[Batbrick]

That is something the new castle theme needs in my opinion, more torsoes for soldiers.

And a minifig pack, I am surprised lego has not made any, they would sell like............ 8-| ........er, somehing that goes realy fast! :-)

[iamded]

They'd sell like a hot knife through butter! :-D

8-| :-P

Seriously though, I'd buy heaps of them. Who doesn't want a giant army of well designed, awesome looking, silver accessoried, medieval soldier? And an army of the undead? Surely they'd sell well, why don't they make any? *wacko*

[Shakar]

In the nuuude! :-X :-P

I love these knights and I can't wait to get some (Why haven't I? *wacko* ) but I won't get many since knights might not do so well in space. :-P I like the skellies (They can do well in space...) but they lack character, like the droid armies.

In this, they all have slightly separate uniforms... That's what I like.

They're a legion of Undeads. They kinda are like droids. I'd like some undead variations, however...ghosts, wraiths, zombies...I suppose that not all of them are at the same state of decomposion, eh? *skull*

Shakar

[Batbrick]

Thankyou there iamded, I might consider to stop my stalking of you! :-D

But seriously, minifig packs are a must and if LEGO doesn't make them then we know they don't like money!

I agree with you Shakar, different style skellies would be nice, I mean, all we got was white skellies and burnt skellies, (I assume that the black ones are burnt, unless LEGO is trying to make a racial statement 8-| )

Batbrick Away! >:-)

Edited September 5, 2007 by Batbrick

[natelite]

The skeleton armor looks like crap though. Though I kinda like the crown faction, the skull faction can use some upgrades. Only one type of helmet? Not even different colors? One measely armor with bad print?

And while little kiddies love knights in armor, having an entire army of knights in armor is just monotonous and bland. There should only be a few spec'ed out knights. Lots of brigands (vagabonds in leather or studded leather), lots of evil bandits for the knights to fight. Skeletons are nice but as many have said, the arms are too long and too straight and not as articulate as a mf's arms.

I hope they really expanded the universe for this theme in 2008 to include other factions. Goblins or orcs are fine, but also need some rogue humans too. Those wolfmen are ideal. Hope those test kids like them. Our future is in their hands! Choose wisely! ARGH!!!

[Piranha]

Knight Faction:10/10

-awesome color scheme

-beautiful helmets and weapons

-nice new torsos and great small sets

-Finally the castle is not on a crap raised baseplate

Skellie Faction:8/10

-The arms are pure crap and make them look very odd and wierd

-the faces are much cooler and are sweet

-The armor is also wierd

-The wizard is just okay

-Ugh a megablok-duplo dragon

-nice scythe and shiled

-wicked skellie horse

Dwarf Faction:9/10

-Nice New Helmets

-golden axes

-I love them can't wait to buy them

-Sweet weapons too

Ogre Faction:2/10

-Ugly Sword

-Ugly shiled

-just plain ugly fig

-Stupid Troll :-X

Piranha

Edited September 6, 2007 by Piranha

[Batbrick]

No offense Piranha but you can't really judge the ogre minifigs when the only view of them so far is comprised of about 10 pixels.

I think the Troll is crap though :-X

[Shadows]

As much as I wish LEGO would just produce exactly what we say, I realise the impossibility of that when I read comments about the various dragons to appear throughout the years. Basically, everyone likes one type and hates the other two, and there doesn't seem to be a general concensus on which one that is.

I don't mind the skellie armour, actually. It had to look like something, it represents them well, and it could serve for a fierce human faction if one didn't like the skellies. In contrast, it seems like half the people I've read either love or hate the new heads.

Overall, I'm impressed with the direction of things.

But yeah, the troll does appear to suck. :-P

[iamded]

I personally don't mind the troll. We'll just have to wait and see.

[Batbrick]

Well iamded, that is your opinion and I respect that, but whether or not people hate it I think we can all agree it is better than this years dragon because it is smaller!

Incidentally, I don't find anything wrong with the skellie armour, I think it has a theatrical charm to it.

I think people here are a bit too picky as imperialshadows stated, We can't hav everything, if we did, little kids probably wouldn't be interested and then the target audience is lost.

[natelite]

Well, my thoughts were that the skeleton armor could do without the ribcage. That is an eyesore. If they wanted to make a death knight armor, they could use some ideas from warcraft 3: frozen throne. The insignia on Arthas's armor as the lich king is almost perfect yet cartoonish enough to be a lego creation. :-P skulls on the pauldron along with a proper breast plate. Much better than the current design: a skull in the middle and ribcage.

I mean, even the royal king's castle 10176 prints are much better than the ribcage. Or alternatively they could have used the prints from avatar and maybe add a small skull to the left or right chest area. Kinda like the crown faction's mf prints (on the belt or slung across the torso). That would have been ideal without needing much change to the design.

I have no doubt they will focus their energy on making the best prints for the good guys faction. I just hope they come up with better prints for the "orcs" and trolls. Also hoping for a tauren or centaur mf to be designed for either late 2008 or 2009. :-P after thinking hard about the elves, don

[Brainbox]

I only own one Castle set (so far), Crossbow Attack. It arrived the other day with my S@H order. I have to say, I really like the new-style Skellie, and my dad thought that together with the horse it was great.

It's good to see the old(er) helmets cropping up again, albeit in new chrome-ish colour. All the sets seem to have nice numbers of figures, but sadly there're no army building minifig packs (roll on next year's Impulse line). The new Castle seems sort of quasi-classic, harkening back to the Castle sets of old, but with a distinctively modern feel.

My only gripe is the odd availability of the sets here in the UK. I know it's not technically about the sets themselves, but I've found them nigh on impossible to find. TRU, Woolies, Toymaster all had nothing, Argos have got three 'exclusive' sets, but the rest only seem to be available through S@H.

[Batbrick]

Brainbox, since you appear to have enjoyed that small set, do you plan on buying more?

I know I do, I started off just wanting the skeleton carriage, now I just need The Castle and Skeleton Ship Attack sets, which haven't arrived yet here in Tas.

aahhh Yes! 8-

[Piranha]

No offense Piranha but you can't really judge the ogre minifigs when the only view of them so far is comprised of about 10 pixels.

I think the Troll is crap though :-X

Your right ,I will probably end up loving them :-D

Just like the Castle line ;-)

Piranha