Future Castle Sets?

[KotZ]

23 hours ago, leafan said:

Excellent; I didn't know that, thanks.

If it goes into production, I wouldn't be surprised if a sci-fi one goes into production shortly after, to hit the classic themes that haven't been made in awhile. And if blacksmith is a hit, hopefully we get a new castle wave.

[meliander]

On 8/10/2019 at 12:15 PM, Chiaroscuro said:

Hard to say. First it will depends on the age classification of the show. Amazon may keep the 13+ or lower like the movies or may go looking for the GoT money (with more violence, I don’t thing the license will allow more sexual themes).

And I was wondering why didn't Lego purchase the GoT license. It's all about the age rating... Well, that's not fun. I would die for a Game of Thrones or Elders Scrolls theme.

[KotZ]

Just now, meliander said:

And I was wondering why didn't Lego purchase the GoT license. It's all about the age rating... Well, that's not fun. I would die for a Game of Thrones or Elders Scrolls theme.

It's why we won't get a modern war-styled theme. The closest we'll get is Agents because they can spin it to be spies and outlandish cartoon villains. While one of the Ninjago figures has NVGs, we won't get people in body armor touting rifles firing at another guy. Furthest forward in time of actual warfare would be Western sets or even earlier in time of Pirates. Because then they can be silly and lighthearted or go on adventures.

A full on dark fantasy theme (like The Black Company) would be my dream though.

[meliander]

4 minutes ago, KotZ said:

Furthest forward in time of actual warfare would be Western sets or even earlier in time of Pirates. Because then they can be silly and lighthearted or go on adventures.

Yeah, I know. Western is not hurrying to return because of those guns and rifles. And it would be silly without them. But GoT doesn't have guns, right? It's the same swords and bows and monsters that they had in Castle for many years. But because it's TV-MA (or 18+) they just don't want their brand to be associated with this franchise - is what I understand.

[KotZ]

2 minutes ago, meliander said:

Yeah, I know. Western is not hurrying to return because of those guns and rifles. And it would be silly without them. But GoT doesn't have guns, right? It's the same swords and bows and monsters that they had in Castle for many years. But because it's TV-MA (or 18+) they just don't want their brand to be associated with this franchise - is what I understand.

Absolutely. PG-1 is the highest LEGO will go, and even then they tone it down. There's really no way to make the entire destruction of King's Landing silly.

My way of looking at it now (since let's be honest, violence is a thing in some themes like Bionicle, Castle, etc.) is if it can't generally be made lighthearted into a LEGO video game, it won't be made.

[gedren_y]

Western is pretty much dead. The last gasp it had was The Lone Ranger, which pretty much bombed. It would take serious media interest for Lego to take up the theme again.

As to the hopes for Castle, the latter half of 2020 is probably the earliest the actual theme could resurface. With the properties Witcher, The Wheel of Time, and LOTR all getting series on streaming platforms, it is possible that LEGO might want to capitalize on the interest. I don't think it will happen with a license, though, so we could get a very kid-friendly theme or expensive adult-targeted nostalgia sets.

[zoth33]

As said by others here Elder Scrolls would be great.  There is so much in the fantasy genre lego could explore.  I've mentioned the Dragonlance Chronicles before.  There is Forgotten Realms, War Hammer, Dungeons and Dragons and so many other properties they could look at.  Obviously they have the tie in with blizzard and people are hoping for WOW.  The Witcher and the new LOTR series is showing that their is a market for this hopefully lego sees this and taps into that market.  Let's just hope we get something castle by the end of next year.  

[gedren_y]

2 hours ago, zoth33 said:

As said by others here Elder Scrolls would be great.  There is so much in the fantasy genre lego could explore.  I've mentioned the Dragonlance Chronicles before.  There is Forgotten Realms, War Hammer, Dungeons and Dragons and so many other properties they could look at.  Obviously they have the tie in with blizzard and people are hoping for WOW.  The Witcher and the new LOTR series is showing that their is a market for this hopefully lego sees this and taps into that market.  Let's just hope we get something castle by the end of next year.  

I would love for LEGO to get a license deal with Wizards of the Coast, for the fact that The Legend Of Drizzt is my gold standard for fantasy storytelling. LOTR/Hobbit is too rambling, and George R. R. Martin is a hack compared to R. A. Salvatore. HBO could have done better. Wizards has an animated Magic: the Gathering TV show coming to Netflix, but we would have seen some kind of promotional release by now if LEGO had gotten the license.

The World of Warcraft movie bombed, so I doubt LEGO would pursue that license. It's main demographic is teens and adults. More on the adult side, too, given some things that can be done in the game.

Still, I think the next Castle/Fantasy theme will be in-house. The market is there, and with an in-house theme they can have it run without too much overlap with it's existing themes.

[Darnok]

I really hope the next Castle line does not come with any license attached to it. Quite frankly I see a license as more of a restriction to creative sets than a boon. More often than not licensed sets are not better than unlicensed ones - just more expensive.

[TeriXeri]

The only Licensed Fantasy Castle line I'd really appreciate would be the Warcraft universe, but that's because it's partly logical with LEGO's partnership via Overwatch already, and WoW Classic being re-released since last month.

And while the franchise is enormous, I'd like it to be based off WoW Vanilla/Classic locations + some of the more iconic raid/world bosses of Vanilla/Classic first.

A Minifig scale Ragnaros, Onyxia, Nefarian , Azuregos, Lord Kazzak or other creatures would be amazing.

And if they go 1 step further, we could sections of raid/dungeon instances like the Deadmines pirate ship etc as well.

Of course you could have small sets as well named something simple like "Elwynn Gnoll Camp" (Hogger), or, but a gnoll minifigure might need new mold.

2 hours ago, gedren_y said:

The World of Warcraft movie bombed, so I doubt LEGO would pursue that license. It's main demographic is teens and adults. More on the adult side, too, given some things that can be done in the game.

The movie was hardly related to the game at all, with the recent re-launch of Classic, it's one of the more popular streamed games again, especially at launch. 
Also , the Hearthstone card game is still fairly popular as well, and a remaster of Warcraft 3 is on the way also.

 

Of course after having said all this. I'd still greatly prefer an original in-house theme , especially focused on castles, possibly dragons and fantasy figures as well, but the main focus being actual buildings, and modularity of wall/tower sections would be even more amazing.

Edited September 29, 2019 by TeriXeri

[zoth33]

5 hours ago, gedren_y said:

I would love for LEGO to get a license deal with Wizards of the Coast, for the fact that The Legend Of Drizzt is my gold standard for fantasy storytelling. LOTR/Hobbit is too rambling, and George R. R. Martin is a hack compared to R. A. Salvatore. HBO could have done better. Wizards has an animated Magic: the Gathering TV show coming to Netflix, but we would have seen some kind of promotional release by now if LEGO had gotten the license.

The World of Warcraft movie bombed, so I doubt LEGO would pursue that license. It's main demographic is teens and adults. More on the adult side, too, given some things that can be done in the game.

Still, I think the next Castle/Fantasy theme will be in-house. The market is there, and with an in-house theme they can have it run without too much overlap with it's existing themes.

I completely agree about R.A. Salvatore great story teller.  Martin is just taking way to long to finish the books.  I found Weiss and Hickman's books a good read and Tolkien is great but you have to have patience in getting through the LOTR and the Hobbit.  I was just wishing there with some of those properties.  I hope it will be in-house also just more of a fantasy flavor to it with different villains more like Nexo Knights had would be great I think and possibly do elves, dwarves, gnomes, centuars, minotaurs, etc as different good factions would be great.  I think the human vs. human, good side vs. bad side gets a little boring sometimes especially when lego uses the same factions over and over like Lions and dragons heraldry all the time.  Here's to hoping they switch things up and give us something fresh and new to enjoy.  But really anything they put out castle related I will buy a lot of to get my castle fix.  

[thetang22]

I still think a licensed Legend of Zelda theme would do phenomenally.

[Gomek]

In one sense a Wizard of the Coast/TSR/Dungeons and Dragons theme seems like it would be really cool. In another sense, I think Lego would have just as much success with an unlicensed castle/fantasy theme which had a similar feel.

There are some licenses which I think might have a negative impact on a theme. For instance I think a regular Western set might have more appeal than a Lone Ranger movie set.

[TeriXeri]

Licensed to me have no "classic" theme factor, different skin color figures might seem insignificant on paper, but for some fans (including me) it can play a role on deciding if a theme is appealing or not.

In house unlicensed might be more generic, but it also has room to be more original, not based on source material, and possible nostalgia factor bringing older fans back into LEGO.

While pop culture licenses might as well bring people into LEGO of course, Star Wars and Harry Potter have shown long-lasting licenses, we also see many licenses with very short lifespans.

 

[zoth33]

6 hours ago, TeriXeri said:

Licensed to me have no "classic" theme factor, different skin color figures might seem insignificant on paper, but for some fans (including me) it can play a role on deciding if a theme is appealing or not.

In house unlicensed might be more generic, but it also has room to be more original, not based on source material, and possible nostalgia factor bringing older fans back into LEGO.

While pop culture licenses might as well bring people into LEGO of course, Star Wars and Harry Potter have shown long-lasting licenses, we also see many licenses with very short lifespans.

 

I really don't care if it is licensed or not at this point.  All I want is something castle that is new.  An in-house theme would be great too but as long as they don't rehash some old factions, I would like to see something fresh.   I was good with the last castle line and bought a lot of the sets.  But the 2013 line was lions vs dragons again and I personally would like something different.  If they do give us some castle sets that are lions vs dragons again I will still buy a bunch of the sets.  I like a lot of the Harry Potter sets and they have some useful figs and parts for my castle MOC's but it would be nice to get some actual castle sets.  Hopefully we will see something castle by 2020.  

[gedren_y]

An in-house theme would be great, and new factions the ideal. Still, a small bit of nostalgia in the flagship set would be welcome. A Nexo Knights shield plate used to simulate a small wall hanging to which a sticker would be applied could give us the nostalgia aspect. I would have a sheet with several factions' symbols, each getting it's own plate. The area where the "wall hanging" is in the set would only have a spot for one or two, so that the builder chooses what faction's "wall hanging" (if any) to display.

[Roebuck]

Legoland castle hotel could end up being a set, but probably not what most castle fans are hoping for

[Lego David]

On 9/29/2019 at 3:34 PM, gedren_y said:

Western is pretty much dead. The last gasp it had was The Lone Ranger, which pretty much bombed. It would take serious media interest for Lego to take up the theme again.

Not necessarily. The Western Saloon set from the AFOL Design Program did pretty well as far as I am aware.

As for Lone Ranger, the movie it was based on bombed, so why would you expect the sets to do any better?

[MAB]

14 minutes ago, Lego David said:

Not necessarily. The Western Saloon set from the AFOL Design Program did pretty well as far as I am aware.

As for Lone Ranger, the movie it was based on bombed, so why would you expect the sets to do any better?

I thought the Lone Ranger sets sold reasonably well at the time, despite the movie not doing so well at the box office. The train and stage coach were great sets, and the cavalry builder has been selling very well recently on the secondary market.

Movies can do well at the box office, but have relatively poor LEGO sales, but also they can do poorly at the box office but still appear to have reasonable LEGO sales. Of course, since none of us know the actual sales data we can only go off gut feelings about how long the sets remain on shelves at heavily discounted prices.

[Itaria No Shintaku]

I would not bet on any castle theme in 2020.

[Hive]

Castle will return. LEGO wouldn't have build a giant Castle Hotel in Billund if they didn't have plans for the theme. Likewise, it's a castle king who's center for their new VIP launch at their online shop.

I think we could see a new Castle theme in 2020.

[KotZ]

7 hours ago, Hive said:

Castle will return. LEGO wouldn't have build a giant Castle Hotel in Billund if they didn't have plans for the theme. Likewise, it's a castle king who's center for their new VIP launch at their online shop.

I think we could see a new Castle theme in 2020.

I expect 2022 at the latest for a new castle wave, especially based off of all the castle-related things in their marketing and Legolands.

[Digger of Bricks]

Is anyone here yet familiar with the upcoming Summer 2020 playtheme codenamed Leaf (set numbers 71360 - 71377) by any chance? Apparently it might have something to offer both Castle and Pirate fans... 

4 hours ago, Itaria No Shintaku said:

As strange as it may be, rumours are all together pointing to leaf being castle, pirates (and maybe more), and AR.

 

[TeriXeri]

I really hope so, the last non-Nexo/Ninjago Castle set was this in 2014 via Lego Movie 1. (during my dark age)

70806: Castle Cavalry

 

I came back to LEGO in 2016, and I did collect most of Nexo Knights, but even in that theme the last actual Castle was 2017 (Knighton Castle) , the rest were vehicles, mechs or monsters.

As for era, I do hope some more traditional/nostalgia inspired set(s) (which I know is different for everyone, but for me that's the 80s and 90s sets, Falcons, Wolfpack , Crusaders, Forestmen, Black Knights, Dragon Knights, Royal Knights, Fright Knights )

I really hope we get more minifig horses again, 2019 brought back the minifig horse mould for the first time since 2015 with Harry Potter Carriage set (White) and Wild West Saloon AFOL set (Brown).

Also a thing of note is that the 2019 Harry Potter Patronus Stag also uses the same 1x2 stud gap as Minifig horses, rather then the other more Friends/Disney 2x2 gap. So that mould would be amazing to see again as well.

 

After 2018, both Nexo Knights and Elves ended, 2019 Ninjago did cover some Fantasy Castle with it's Dragons and Ice Samurai Castle, but for 2020, that theme is mostly going the sci-fi route, giving an opportunity for Non-Licensed Castle to re-appear.

Ninjago Legacy continues, and even gets it's own magazine, solidifying it's place as seperate subtheme, but still shouldn't count as a full replacement for Castle either, as 2011-2013 Castle co-existed with Ninjago.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2019 by TeriXeri

[The Island Chronicles]

The two themes I hope make a return are this and pirates.