Future Castle Sets?

[icm]

1 hour ago, Merlo said:

I would love reimaginings of old sets, but something with way more effort than "this old set, but with new bricks, and worse".

Barracuda bay quality would please me.

See, I read the new set as a Barracuda Bay quality re-imagining of the old Lion Knights castle, and certainly something with way more effort than “this old set, but with new bricks, and worse”. That would be a direct remake with the same size, the same features, the same size for each feature, etc. Or with a more modern approach that would be very similar to the castle from the 2013 line. Clearly they didn’t do that, they put in a heck of a lot of effort to do a higher quality re-imagination. But you can’t please everybody. If they had done a more direct update it’s quite possible you’d be complaining about their failure of imagination, like you are in the thread about 10497. That’s a direct re-imagination at Barracuda Bay quality and you complain it’s not original enough.

Edited June 21, 2022 by icm

[Triceron]

7 hours ago, MAB said:

That Creator set is not that different to other smaller Creator sets, with or without the Classic Space badge on the torso. If LEGO did a small one off castle type set, it wouldn't really fit in with the smaller Creator range which is very tech / space / vehicle. It would fit with the Creator castle, so if they were going to do it, they should have done it already. If there were no castle sets on the shelves, a one off small Creator set based on castle figures would probably not do too well as it doesn't go with anything.

I think this is spot on.  This is my problem with Castle being part of the Creator line.  Everything would be brick built and they throw in more color palettes that might not be suitable for a certain Castle faction set.

Like the Forestmen promo is near-perfect recreation of a classic set, and follows all the simple rules that the original Castle line follows.  If this was remade in the Creator line, I'd expect it to look more like other Creator 3-in-1 sets, with brick built everything and more colors all around.

The new 3-in-1 Castle is very cool, and I've seen people do some great things with multiple sets and using most of the parts.  But I personally don't think it would work well for reimagining most of the Castle line.  What they're doing with the 90th anniversary has set a bar for what I'd expect for any future Castle sets.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not dogging on Creator at all.  I'm fine if Lego wants to make more Castle-themed sets for Creator. I just don't see Creator being a good way to support a true-to-Castle theme.  Ideas and Icons is where I have my eyes set on now.

Edited June 21, 2022 by Triceron

[Merlo]

22 hours ago, MAB said:

The danger here is if they remake old sets, they do the same as the new Castle set - they aim it at adults through nostalgia and it becomes another multiple $100s set. I think I'd prefer them to forget the past, and if there is a market for it then make sets for today's kids. Include Easter Eggs to past themes, that's fine. But if they go for rebuilds of past sets I agree it has to be more than just here is the old set. Otherwise, they will just be expensive sets aimed at adults with fatter wallets.

Yes, I guess what I actually meant is "forget the set, remake the idea".
For example, in case of the Forestmen hideout, who is the new set for? The relatively small percentage of adults who wanted that specific set, but never got it? Or the even smaller percentage of people who already have the set, but are such huge fans of Forestmen it's a must they have two?

If Lego assumes there are grownups out there that are still interested in the Forestmen, wouldn't it have been better if they just pretended the original Hideout never existed and made a new one?
How many castle fans out there are actually opposed to new Forestmen sets and just want faithful remakes?
The wonderful part about this would be that
a) they could use all the modern bricks and building techniques to make a stunning set the likes we've never seen before
b) it wouldn't have to be a huge expensive set at all. Forget the new castle, even the $150 Blacksmith is absolutely huge. Items with noticeably less than half the size and price of that set could fit both adult tastes and parents' wallets.

I don't know what to say to things like that, opinions that I often find mirrored on different Lego channels I watch.
It's like Lego has become the opposite of what it used to be, like they're fervently against imagination.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Merlo

[Merlo]

22 hours ago, icm said:

See, I read the new set as a Barracuda Bay quality re-imagining of the old Lion Knights castle, and certainly something with way more effort than “this old set, but with new bricks, and worse”. That would be a direct remake with the same size, the same features, the same size for each feature, etc. Or with a more modern approach that would be very similar to the castle from the 2013 line. Clearly they didn’t do that, they put in a heck of a lot of effort to do a higher quality re-imagination. But you can’t please everybody. If they had done a more direct update it’s quite possible you’d be complaining about their failure of imagination, like you are in the thread about 10497. That’s a direct re-imagination at Barracuda Bay quality and you complain it’s not original enough. 

I don't quite follow. Barracuda bay was an original idea and it's quite evocative in both the basic idea (shipwreck base) and the execution, which captures all you'd expect from a tropical pirate getaway reasonably well.
Now look at the Creator castle. This new castle is 90% copy/paste effort of that, only bigger and duller. Not only in the general idea, but also in the literal position of the elements involved. There are seemingly only two ideas in the set: the castle is irregular and the entrance will be a ramp.
However, the Creator castle already made irregular combinations possible, especially with multiple sets, that proved quite popular. So either the designers had great ideas that were rejected all down to one and someone higher up said "just make the same castle more adult-y, and fine, add a ramp if you absolutely must" or Lego is so out of ideas in general that the only way we'll get anything imaginative is through the Ideas project.

I didn't have many complaints about the old Lion Knights castle because it was pretty good given what was possible at the time. (brick count limitations and all) And the plain look didn't bother me as with the big bricks you had it was only too easy to make crazy new combinations and castles, which Lego further encouraged by showing images of different ideas on the boxes. However, it would be a tremendous effort to just rebuild a 4000+ piece castle in the same way, so it's reasonable to expect the new castle to reflect what is possible in 2022, given the limitations. Instead what I find is that the fans have MOC'd the Creator castle into something more imaginative or better looking than the new castle or, frankly, both. And I don't mind when fans make MOCs out of 100 000 pieces that look spectacular. That has nothing to do with Lego. I don't mind when fans make MOCs of simple ideas with incredible detail. That's just not feasible for Lego. Heck, I only half mind when fans make MOCs that are great, but can be unstable and a pain to build. That seems fixable, but what do I know. But I do very much mind when fans make better and more sound designs than Lego with the same brick count, because that tells me Lego is just not trying enough and maybe I can get more for my money elsewhere.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Merlo

[Triceron]

9 hours ago, Merlo said:

I don't quite follow. Barracuda bay was an original idea and it's quite evocative in both the basic idea (shipwreck base) and the execution, which captures all you'd expect from a tropical pirate getaway reasonably well.
Now look at the Creator castle. This new castle is 90% copy/paste effort of that, only bigger and duller. Not only in the general idea, but also in the literal position of the elements involved. There are seemingly only two ideas in the set: the castle is irregular and the entrance will be a ramp.
However, the Creator castle already made irregular combinations possible, especially with multiple sets, that proved quite popular. So either the designers had great ideas that were rejected all down to one and someone higher up said "just make the same castle more adult-y, and fine, add a ramp if you absolutely must" or Lego is so out of ideas in general that the only way we'll get anything imaginative is through the Ideas project.

I didn't have many complaints about the old Lion Knights castle because it was pretty good given what was possible at the time. (brick count limitations and all) And the plain look didn't bother me as with the big bricks you had it was only too easy to make crazy new combinations and castles, which Lego further encouraged by showing images of different ideas on the boxes. However, it would be a tremendous effort to just rebuild a 4000+ piece castle in the same way, so it's reasonable to expect the new castle to reflect what is possible in 2022, given the limitations. Instead what I find is that the fans have MOC'd the Creator castle into something more imaginative or better looking than the new castle or, frankly, both. And I don't mind when fans make MOCs out of 100 000 pieces that look spectacular. That has nothing to do with Lego. I don't mind when fans make MOCs of simple ideas with incredible detail. That's just not feasible for Lego. Heck, I only half mind when fans make MOCs that are great, but can be unstable and a pain to build. That seems fixable, but what do I know. But I do very much mind when fans make better and more sound designs than Lego with the same brick count, because that tells me Lego is just not trying enough and maybe I can get more for my money elsewhere.

I think you should take a look at the video interview with the designers on the castle, I linked it previously in the Lion Knights Castle thread.  It's on the "Assembled" youtube channel.  It gives a lot more insight into the design process of the castle, and while it looks like it's based on Lion King's Castle the designers actually took more inspiration from Black Knight's Castle while still keeping the dollhouse features of some of the other Castle sets.

The design of this new Castle actually has many new playfeatures and secrets which simply weren't available in other castles, so I don't think it's a fair comparison to just say it's like an upgraded Creator Castle any more than you could say that Barracuda Bay was just an upgraded 3-in-1 Pirate ship.  The new castle has plenty of rooms which simply don't exist in the Creator castle or any previous Lego Castle for that matter, it has a stable that you can put a horse in, it has a working waterwheel that works with the mill, and it has hidden sections and secret entrances where the Forestmen hide.  Even the little bridge section they designed when the castle folds out is a really neat feature that you wouldn't be possible on a Creator 3-in-1.

I think the criticisms of it being basic and blocky are fair, I just think it deserves more credit for having more features built in than might be observed through the promotional pictures alone.

Edited June 22, 2022 by Triceron

[karrit]

I love this Castle but I'd really like to see them com up with a Castle that has Round Turrets made with curved profile bricks.  Really wish they would make a brick or two in that style that have the profile of bricks in them rather than curved walls that get stickers on them.

[Merlo]

17 hours ago, Triceron said:

I think the criticisms of it being basic and blocky are fair, I just think it deserves more credit for having more features built in than might be observed through the promotional pictures alone.

That's true, but I'd rather go back to "this is very cool, too bad it doesn't have new interesting features" than "this is basic and blocky, but the features are great".

[TeriXeri]

IDEAS Blacksmith just had a big price increase in Europe to €180, after being €150.

2021 it launched at €170 in some countries, then was standardized to a €150 (Germany) price and now increased to €180.

 

But so far the semi-exclusive 31120 3-in-1 Castle stayed at €100 and not €120   (LEGO.com price)

 

As far as future sets go, I don't expect that much short-term, maybe some small-mid size could fit in somewhere in icons or 3-in-1, and even then that would feel as a surprise, until other things retire.

Edited September 1, 2022 by TeriXeri

[unclejeffie]

I just ordered 3 vikingships for 210 euros 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳

[natesroom]

I see the US price for the Blacksmith is $179.99 I thought it was $149.00 when i bought it 2 months ago.

Edited September 1, 2022 by natesroom

[BTappel]

37 minutes ago, natesroom said:

I see the US price for the Blacksmith is $179.99m I thought it was $149.00 when i bought it 2 months ago.

It was.  They recently increased prices on a few sets.  The microscale harry potter castle was $400 but is now $470.

[natesroom]

ugh! thats a pretty steep upcharge for that specific set.

[Lion King]

Okay, I hope there would be some medieval village after Lion Kings’ Castle. More pleasants and nobles, please. 

And I have no idea if Ninja is considered to be a subtheme under Castle but I really love to see realistic Japanese castle with some samurai, ronin, ninja and shogun. I mean, Ninjago is not that real static… 

[Roebuck]

Next Castle set

[MAB]

I wonder what way (if any) they want to take D&D. Will it be fairly static looking big models of subjects from D&D or will it be smaller builds and figures that can be used while playing D&D. Both would be good for fantasy castle LEGO fans. Although neither really needs D&D. I wonder if there would be some push to get D&D players to use minifigures or brick built beasts within gameplay.

[Khargeust]

Hello,

There are respectively 61 & 65 days left to save these great sets by @BrickHammer : 

- https://ideas.lego.com/projects/1dab75ef-a79a-4dbd-ad63-8c9433be0c5c

- https://ideas.lego.com/projects/f23da1e5-312c-4f19-ab89-d0f253d2e6bf

10k is the next and last level or there is one before that allows you to extend the voting time ?

Edited April 5, 2023 by Khargeust

[Khargeust]

After the sucessful release of the 10305 LKC and the upcoming release in 2024 of the 10332 Medieval Town Square, LEGO seams to put everything into it. That's fantastic and I'm very happy as I think many of you are.

Do you think they'll stick with this nostalgia-based approach and release a big set every two years dotted with a few GWPs in between ? Would this prevent them to relaunch the theme with a real serie of multiple sets of different sizes and prices ?

Edited November 18, 2023 by Khargeust

[Black Falcon]

1 hour ago, Khargeust said:

After the sucessful release of the 10305 LKC and the upcoming release in 2024 of the 10332 Medieval Town Square, LEGO seams to put everything into it. That's fantastic and I'm very happy as I think many of you are.

Do you think they'll stick with this nostalgia-based approach and release a big set every two years dotted with a few GWPs in between ? Would this prevent them to relaunch the theme with a real serie of multiple sets of different sizes and prices ?

As long as they are selling well I think they will keep doing them. And since they seem to do pretty well, I don´t think they are going to stop making such sets in the next years. But yeah, also pretty sure they won´t make a new theme anytime soon either.

[Aanchir]

2 hours ago, Khargeust said:

After the sucessful release of the 10305 LKC and the upcoming release in 2024 of the 10332 Medieval Town Square, LEGO seams to put everything into it. That's fantastic and I'm very happy as I think many of you are. 

Do you think they'll stick with this nostalgia-based approach and release a big set every two years dotted with a few GWPs in between ? Would this prevent them to relaunch the theme with a real serie of multiple sets of different sizes and prices ? 

I can't imagine it'd PREVENT a larger Castle relaunch, since wider product lines like that are pretty much invariably aimed at a much younger target audience. Like, for comparison's sake, it's not as though the Ninjago City or Star Wars UCS sets have any sort of negative impact on sales of the more kid-targeted Ninjago and Star Wars sets that are carried by regular toy stores and department stores.

Of course, there's also not any guarantee that they're gonna stick to a strict "every other year" schedule for big nostalgic Castle exclusives. There are plenty of adult/teen targeted product lines (like the Creator Expert/Icons classic vehicle, world landmark, and fairground series, or the Ninjago City sets) that have had a more irregular release schedule, with a varying number of years between new installments.

So future Castle exclusives could potentially show up more frequently or less frequently depending on their size and other factors. Smaller sets can often be released more frequently than larger ones without overwhelming buyers (which is why there can be a new Winter Village Collection set and multiple Botanical Collection sets every year, while the larger Landmarks Collection sets usually tend to have a longer gap between new releases).

[Black Falcon]

42 minutes ago, Aanchir said:

So future Castle exclusives could potentially show up more frequently or less frequently depending on their size and other factors. Smaller sets can often be released more frequently than larger ones without overwhelming buyers (which is why there can be a new Winter Village Collection set and multiple Botanical Collection sets every year, while the larger Landmarks Collection sets usually tend to have a longer gap between new releases).

Well the castles Sets don´t have to be that big. The Galaxy Explorer is only 100€ and the Blacktron ship we are going to get next year is rumoured to have the same price - so I don´t see why they couldn´t make Castle sets of that size too. Larger Sets also tend to stay around longer, so I don´t think they would want to make to many big sets from that theme and might just make some medium sized Sets instead.

[Roebuck]

5 hours ago, Black Falcon said:

and the Blacktron ship we are going to get next year is rumoured to have the same price

Do not follow Space, but have not heard about this
Looks like we get 1-2 sets from Castle,  Pirates and Space every year + GWP sounds perfect for me

[Black Falcon]

3 hours ago, Roebuck said:

Do not follow Space, but have not heard about this
Looks like we get 1-2 sets from Castle,  Pirates and Space every year + GWP sounds perfect for me

We get Space and Castle in the first months of the year, so far we know the leaks. And I am actually pretty sure they didn´t move those sets to another release day, but planning to do two waves, which is why I think we will get at least one set in summer around the time we got the lion knihts castle, galaxy explorer and eldorado.

[Classic_Spaceman]

7 hours ago, Roebuck said:

Do not follow Space, but have not heard about this
 

Blacktron is not technically confirmed, but the set’s description (non-licensed large black spaceship) heavily implies it.
 

[Black Falcon]

2 hours ago, Classic_Spaceman said:

Blacktron is not technically confirmed, but the set’s description (non-licensed large black spaceship) heavily implies it.

That and the new Theme that is created for it. I mean, while still a leak we know nothing for certain but with the info we got it would be surprising to get something else at this point.

The only info I have no idea how it would fit into that theme is the supposed customizational hair pieces.

[TeriXeri]

So far the trend of the past few year seem to be that more Castle/Pirate/Space sets are appearing, at a quicker rate then retirement so that's a good sign I suppose.

Retiring after 2023 :

• Icons Galaxy Explorer - Space (2022)
• IDEAS Medieval Blacksmith - Castle (2021)
• (3-in-1 Viking Ship - Vikings 2022)

Sets going into 2024:

• Icons Lion Knight Castle - Castle (2022)
• 3-in-1 Castle - Castle (2021)
• 3-in-1 Pirate Ship - Pirates (2020)
• Icons Eldorado Fortress - Pirates (2023)
• (IDEAS Viking Village - Vikings 2023)

So that's multiple sets remaining, and then new products to appear.

So basicly 2024, will "replace" galaxy explorer with another space ship, and then blacksmith with a village, seems to make a lot of sense as those are basicly the same subject.

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by TeriXeri