Future Castle Sets?

[Alexandrina]

5 hours ago, MAB said:

The forestmen hat was in the statue for the city square set, and they might pair that with the green female torso in  POBB and Blacksmith to create a forest forestwoman. 

That torso's already pushing the realms of believability for a Medieval period. There'll be riots the whole subforum wide if it's used again, especially if we don't get any new torsos.

I don't even know that we need a forestwoman. There's a far more burning need for general peasantry women - we've never had an escoffion, for instance, and appropriate torsos for Medieval women who aren't royalty or outlawry are few and far between.

[Aurore]

1 hour ago, Alexandrina said:

I don't even know that we need a forestwoman. There's a far more burning need for general peasantry women - we've never had an escoffion, for instance, and appropriate torsos for Medieval women who aren't royalty or outlawry are few and far between.

I completely agree with that!
There are very few parts useful for female commoners, mainly from Fantasy Era, Kingdoms and CMF.
The majority date back from a time when torsos had no back printing and skirts were just slope bricks : in terms of details, they're not living up to the standards of recent medieval minifigs such as the CMF Viking or new Black Falcons!

[Alexandrina]

11 minutes ago, Aurore said:

I completely agree with that!
There are very few parts useful for female commoners, mainly from Fantasy Era, Kingdoms and CMF.
The majority date back from a time when torsos had no back printing and skirts were just slope bricks : in terms of details, they're not living up to the standards of recent medieval minifigs such as the CMF Viking or new Black Falcons!

Even in the classic era the representation wasn't nearly the same. It pains me every time I come across the old pictures of unreleased Castle sets from the 1990s with all the fabulous minifigure moulds which never saw the light of day.

[natesroom]

3 minutes ago, Alexandrina said:

Even in the classic era the representation wasn't nearly the same. It pains me every time I come across the old pictures of unreleased Castle sets from the 1990s with all the fabulous minifigure moulds which never saw the light of day.

what molds are you talking about??

[Alexandrina]

The moulds in this set:

The woman in the yellow house is wearing the hennin which was still relatively commonplace in sets at the time, but the two women in the lower left have new headgear - whether hair or headdresses is hard to tell because of the lighting and the white horse behind them. There are loads of other new moulds in that image, and some (like the beret) which we didn't get for many years to come.

[Aurore]

1 hour ago, Alexandrina said:

The moulds in this set:

How amazing!  I had never seen that picture, this would have been such a wonderful set!
That's an impressive variety of civilian minifigs and original molds (those paned sleeves!).

[MAB]

6 hours ago, GeoBrick said:

Even way before them. IIRC, the Phoenicians of the city of Tyre traded this dye across the Mediterranean Sea before even the Greek founded colonies westwards.

I wasn't around at the time!

4 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

I don't even know that we need a forestwoman. There's a far more burning need for general peasantry women - we've never had an escoffion, for instance, and appropriate torsos for Medieval women who aren't royalty or outlawry are few and far between.

I don't think lego cares too much about what we need, especially for 3in1 creator sets. And I find most of the Fantasy Era and Kingdoms peasant torsos work well for women.

[Alexandrina]

30 minutes ago, MAB said:

And I find most of the Fantasy Era and Kingdoms peasant torsos work well for women.

Even then, it's been almost a decade since Kingdoms ended. There's going to be lots of people who don't have any suitable torsos.

[MAB]

1 hour ago, Alexandrina said:

Even then, it's been almost a decade since Kingdoms ended. There's going to be lots of people who don't have any suitable torsos.

Yes, so hopefully we would get some more new general use ones. But I doubt they'll come in a 3in1.

[arselus]

2 hours ago, Aurore said:

How amazing!  I had never seen that picture, this would have been such a wonderful set!
That's an impressive variety of civilian minifigs and original molds (those paned sleeves!).

I’ve also never seen that set - it’s great! What set was that?

[zoth33]

6 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

The moulds in this set:

The woman in the yellow house is wearing the hennin which was still relatively commonplace in sets at the time, but the two women in the lower left have new headgear - whether hair or headdresses is hard to tell because of the lighting and the white horse behind them. There are loads of other new moulds in that image, and some (like the beret) which we didn't get for many years to come.

I have the torso of the woman in the yellow building and it's still in pretty good shape.  There are some decent torso's you just have to look around.  The prince of persia sets from years ago had some nice female torso's.  The harry potter line has some usable ones.  There was a nice torso in the build a minifig station at the lego store awhile back.  You just have to look around.  But hopefully we will get a full fledged castle theme with common folk to fill in that gap.  

[Alexandrina]

10 hours ago, zoth33 said:

17 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

 

I have the torso of the woman in the yellow building and it's still in pretty good shape.  There are some decent torso's you just have to look around.  The prince of persia sets from years ago had some nice female torso's.  The harry potter line has some usable ones. 

The problem with the licensed theme torsos is many of them have exposed areas of fleshies skin, so they don't look so hot with yellow heads. I only have one PoP set, but I find it hard to use the torsos because they don't go with the rest of the minifigures that I use 

[Aurore]

11 hours ago, zoth33 said:

There are some decent torso's you just have to look around. 

We're not saying there are no options, just that they're scarce! 

Let me illustrate with an example : mine.
Two years ago, when I decided to join the Guilds of Historica, I had just emerged out of my dark ages and had not a single minifig part in my house. 
I wanted my GoH sigfig to be a female herbalist or alchemist - just a commoner, neither a princess nor a warrior. 

So what is it like to try to create such a sigfig?

• First point : like @Alexandrina said, there is a choice to be made between fleshies and yellowies as most medieval-looking female torsos show skin...
  And from the moment such a choice is made, half of the existing medieval-appropriate torsos become irrelevant unless one is ready to mix fleshies and yellowies.
  I deliberately chose fleshies on the assumption that licensed themes were more likely to include new useable parts for future Historican village dwellers that in-house themes. I hope a new Castle theme will prove me wrong!

• Second point : those medieval-looking female minifig parts can be really expensive!
  The Helga Hufflepuff minifig is gorgeous, and her outfit would be perfect for my sigfig. Also, her average price on BL is around 15€. The Kingdoms peasant maiden, the one with the nice blue dress, costs around 20€.
  It seems like a medieval LEGO world is a place where commoner outfits cost more than fancy dresses.

• Third point : we need more skirts.
  There are quite a few printed slopes that work as medieval skirts, but then your lady will tower over everyone else as if she were wearing high heels. Plain skirt parts look...plain and blocky. Printed skirt parts are as scarce and, again, may be quite expensive. 
  And even when you've gathered all the medieval-appropriate torsos and all the medieval-appropriate skirts, smooth, consistent combos are not easy to find. 
  Example : at first, I wanted my sigfig to use the dark tan torso from the Leia on Endor minifig or the one from the Padme minifig. To years later, I still have not found the perfect skirt part to match them.

• Conclusion : yes, my sigfig reasonably looks like a medieval herbalist, but I'm still not satisfied with her outfit as it looks weird without the cape. Yes, I've also done a full CMF serie of Historican ladies, but most of them are much more fantasy than medieval.
  Building female medieval minifigs is really a creative effort! 

[Alexandrina]

36 minutes ago, Aurore said:

The Kingdoms peasant maiden, the one with the nice blue dress, costs around 20€.

And that's if you can even find one. There are currently none for sale from UK sellers (and international shipping on top of the already high price rules out buying from elsewhere), and the torso is not available individually either. Even the set she came in is not in any UK stores at the moment, so unless I want to import my options are paying £350 for the whole set on eBay or hoping I get lucky and find the torso/skirt in a random job lot.

[zoth33]

4 hours ago, Alexandrina said:

The problem with the licensed theme torsos is many of them have exposed areas of fleshies skin, so they don't look so hot with yellow heads. I only have one PoP set, but I find it hard to use the torsos because they don't go with the rest of the minifigures that I use 

Yeah I see that but you can use hoods or capes to cover up that slight spot on the torso by the neck, I have done that a few times.  I get what your saying though.  The PoP torso I have is red and white and works well with the custom figs I have created.  There are some good ones out there you just have to do some digging.  Have you tried bricklink?  

[Alexandrina]

1 minute ago, zoth33 said:

Yeah I see that but you can use hoods or capes to cover up that slight spot on the torso by the neck, I have done that a few times.  I get what your saying though.  The PoP torso I have is red and white and works well with the custom figs I have created.  There are some good ones out there you just have to do some digging.  Have you tried bricklink?  

I've basically bought every Medieval female torso I can get my hands on (bar a small number that are too expensive or impossible to find). Very few are suited to commoners, the majority are either warriors or nobility. 

[zoth33]

2 hours ago, Aurore said:

We're not saying there are no options, just that they're scarce! 

Let me illustrate with an example : mine.
Two years ago, when I decided to join the Guilds of Historica, I had just emerged out of my dark ages and had not a single minifig part in my house. 
I wanted my GoH sigfig to be a female herbalist or alchemist - just a commoner, neither a princess nor a warrior. 

So what is it like to try to create such a sigfig?

• First point : like @Alexandrina said, there is a choice to be made between fleshies and yellowies as most medieval-looking female torsos show skin...
  And from the moment such a choice is made, half of the existing medieval-appropriate torsos become irrelevant unless one is ready to mix fleshies and yellowies.
  I deliberately chose fleshies on the assumption that licensed themes were more likely to include new useable parts for future Historican village dwellers that in-house themes. I hope a new Castle theme will prove me wrong!

• Second point : those medieval-looking female minifig parts can be really expensive!
  The Helga Hufflepuff minifig is gorgeous, and her outfit would be perfect for my sigfig. Also, her average price on BL is around 15€. The Kingdoms peasant maiden, the one with the nice blue dress, costs around 20€.
  It seems like a medieval LEGO world is a place where commoner outfits cost more than fancy dresses.

• Third point : we need more skirts.
  There are quite a few printed slopes that work as medieval skirts, but then your lady will tower over everyone else as if she were wearing high heels. Plain skirt parts look...plain and blocky. Printed skirt parts are as scarce and, again, may be quite expensive. 
  And even when you've gathered all the medieval-appropriate torsos and all the medieval-appropriate skirts, smooth, consistent combos are not easy to find. 
  Example : at first, I wanted my sigfig to use the dark tan torso from the Leia on Endor minifig or the one from the Padme minifig. To years later, I still have not found the perfect skirt part to match them.

• Conclusion : yes, my sigfig reasonably looks like a medieval herbalist, but I'm still not satisfied with her outfit as it looks weird without the cape. Yes, I've also done a full CMF serie of Historican ladies, but most of them are much more fantasy than medieval.
  Building female medieval minifigs is really a creative effort! 

The cmf viking lady had a great print for commoner folk.  I have not looked up prices on e-bay or bricklink though so I do not know.  I just have a bunch from when they were released.   I know there is some around.  I've just taken a few picks of what I have I'll try to upload soon.

[Alexandrina]

6 minutes ago, zoth33 said:

The cmf viking lady had a great print for commoner folk.

That's true, but it's still only one print, and a good print that only appeared in a Collectible Minifigure from nearly a decade ago isn't a good argument against having more peasant women torsos. We need more - and a repeat of the barely-period-appropriate torso from the PoBB/Blacksmith is not sufficient. 

[zoth33]

1 minute ago, Alexandrina said:

That's true, but it's still only one print, and a good print that only appeared in a Collectible Minifigure from nearly a decade ago isn't a good argument against having more peasant women torsos. We need more - and a repeat of the barely-period-appropriate torso from the PoBB/Blacksmith is not sufficient. 

I use these for now.  I do hope new ones come soon though

I also use Rey's torso from star wars.  

[Alexandrina]

1 minute ago, zoth33 said:

I use these for now.  I do hope new ones come soon though

Unfortunately many of them are better suited to nobility than peasantry. The Legoverse has too many queens and princesses and not enough lowborn women to populate their realms! :p

[zoth33]

Have you tried the new female centaur torso.  That one is pretty nice to use for customs.  

[Aurore]

2 hours ago, zoth33 said:

Have you tried the new female centaur torso.  That one is pretty nice to use for customs.  

Yes I did!
It's neither female, nor medieval, but it's nice.
I doodled a forest elf - no clue if I'm going to use that guy in a build one day, but whatever! 

Btw, I'd love a full Castle theme with some elves like the ones we got in CMF...It would probably be considered too close to the minidolls Elves theme to be actually released though.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Aurore

[zoth33]

16 minutes ago, Aurore said:

Yes I did!
It's neither female, nor medieval, but it's nice.
I doodled a forest elf - no clue if I'm going to use that guy in a build one day, but whatever! 

. 

Btw, I'd love a full Castle theme with some elves like the ones we got in CMF...It would probably be considered too close to the minidolls Elves theme to be actually released though.

That's a good idea.  I haven't experimented yet with the torso and leg combo's.  Might do that later today.  Yes that torso is very versatile as it doesn't have the usual female curves on it.  I was going to see if it fits in well with my forest elves.  I really do hope the next castle theme has at least 3-4 different faction one being the bad guys and would love some elves and dwarves in there too.  Or even 2 bad guy factions like a goblin faction and some evil knights, either something like death knights or shadow knights.  

[Lego David]

On 2/11/2021 at 2:19 AM, gedren_y said:

If Lego intends to capitalize on nostalgia, I think we could get a ghost instead of a skeleton. The 80's/90's themes had ghosts more often than skeletons. I would also be expecting a lot of black parts, as well as ingots in light bley. A redesigned Majisto could be in the offering as well.

Sadly, this has zero chance of happening. It is believed that the Ghost Mold has been destroyed, as it was missing from the Hunted House set. In that respective set, we just got a generic ghost figure without the ghost part. I'd imagine if we do get a ghost, it would probably be the same as the one we got in the Hunted House set, but realistically speaking, they'll probably just throw in a generic skeleton.

22 hours ago, arselus said:

I’ve also never seen that set - it’s great! What set was that?

LEGO had a bunch of cancelled sets and themes in the late 80's and early 90's period, including a lot of unreleased Space themes, several Castle themes, and a Gangster theme. I did a video with a friend where we talked about the unreleased Space themes (with more upcoming videos covering the other stuff):

 

[Alexandrina]

23 minutes ago, Lego David said:

Sadly, this has zero chance of happening

I'd argue it's a modicum above zero. If the mould has been destroyed, obviously it's not likely to come back - especially in a one-off set rather than a full theme. But the mould was created at some point. There was a time in the 80s or 90s where Lego went from not having a ghost mould available to having a ghost mould available, so there's a chance they could make a new one, even if it's not 100% identical to the one we had before!