"Castle lines never die" or "what made me change my mind and believe in new exciting castle lines".

[x105Black]

5 hours ago, Oederland said:

One of those bootleg companies, in this case XINH, has just released a copy of several TLC Castle armoured horses. This is what I was dreaming of as a kid - lots of different fractions available at the same time. Now imagine TLC would do something like this, release a new fraction every half-year (in addition to the usual sets). It might be sufficient to throw in a set with one armoured horse plus a knight and a flag to keep the theme going, maybe another smaller one with two foot soldiers. The molds are already there, so one would just have to come up with a new design/charge. This shouldn't be that difficult. You could go with swan, pegasus, phoenix, tower, tree, ...

I love these LEGO clones.  I loved them when they were made by LEGO.

But I love the idea of LEGO focusing on a different faction every 6 months or so.  They could still do sets, but make them work without factions.  Then, each faction could be a couple of battle pack styled sets.  For example, one set with a knight on a horse with a small build and maybe a squire or civilian or something.  Another set could be 4-6 minifigures and a small build like the Star Wars battle packs.  Or, they could do a "People Pack" like those 60134 Fun in the Park and 60153 Fun at the Beach sets, where there are some small builds and associated accessories, but it's mostly a big minifigure pack.  I'd buy a Fun at the Castle set.

Honestly, I feel that's what the fans of Castle really want.  Don't get me wrong, sets are great, but I think that what would appeal to the fans the most would be faction minifigure sets and battle packs, along with a Castle themed Creator bin with lots of black, greys, browns, and greens, with specific pieces for Castle builds.  Then, add the occasional set with things like bigfigs, dragons, and such.

Edited June 2, 2017 by x105Black

[MAB]

They have sold Castle battle packs before.

850888 and 850889

 

I got the impression that they were not very good sellers.

 

And before that packs of trolls and dwarves, etc.

 

Edited June 5, 2017 by MAB

[x105Black]

1 hour ago, MAB said:

They have sold Castle battle packs before.

850888 and 850889

I got the impression that they were not very good sellers.

And before that packs of trolls and dwarves, etc.

 

Those are pretty weak compared to the battle packs that Star Wars gets...

[MAB]

Yes, but then SW fans complain theirs are weak, as they are just padded with odd bricks forming a rubbish build to make up the parts count and all they really want are the minifigures.

[x105Black]

3 minutes ago, MAB said:

Yes, but then SW fans complain theirs are weak, as they are just padded with odd bricks forming a rubbish build to make up the parts count and all they really want are the minifigures.

I suppose that's fair.  But in my earlier post the battle packs were only part of the strategy.

[Oederland]

On 6/5/2017 at 9:26 AM, MAB said:

They have sold Castle battle packs before.

850888 and 850889

I got the impression that they were not very good sellers.

And before that packs of trolls and dwarves, etc.

Well, these battle packs consisted of the very same soldiers that you could have bought with sets of the previous wave / the regular sets. I have no experience with those two from 2014, but I had bought the two battle packs from 2010, despite them being rather expensive. TLC was even too lazy to go with five different face printings for the five soldiers within each of the battle packs.

What I had in mind was sets with different additional fractions, or soldiers with "neutral" printings that could be associated with the good or the evil fraction. At minimum, sets that are unique in some aspects. There are various head versions around at the same time anyway, why not at least take some from City instead of the usual Castle ones present in the other sets? Is it that difficult / expensive to come up with a greater variety of torso printings within fractions?

On 6/5/2017 at 11:02 AM, MAB said:

Yes, but then SW fans complain theirs are weak, as they are just padded with odd bricks forming a rubbish build to make up the parts count and all they really want are the minifigures.

For SW fans, it might indeed be about collecting different types of e. g. "troopers", putting them into your shelf, trying to get as many variants as possible (ideally, every single SW character). For Castle, it should be more about getting an army, then playing with the minifigs, thus possibly together with equipment that can be used in a battle or siege (something better that the "catapult" in 850889). Think of a tjost. The more knights and horses and fractions the better. I remember reading Rosemary Suttcliff's Arthurian Trilogy as a kid; knights traveled on their horses, battled against other knights, and of course they had different coats of arms. This is what battle packs or additional sets should be about IMO. And this is what Legends of Chima and Ninjago and Nexo Knights were/are about, more individual characters. Again, I have to mention Playmobil (I'm from Germany, and every toy shop I'm aware of sells Lego and Playmobil). Nowadays their knights are heavily individualized, e. g. see their current "good" fraction. The two sets at the bottom are accessory sets (can be bought in Playmobil stores or ordered from their site). In any case, it illustrates how one can increase variety despite the figures still sharing some elements. This is how a Castle theme should be

Edited June 6, 2017 by Oederland

[SerenityInFire]

I agree that it would be cool to have a castle theme where each side has more than 3 prints, and more individualized accessories.

EDIT: Unlike modern armies, soldiers in the middle ages had pay for/scavenge their own equipment, so they should be a little bit more varied than the typical LEGO medieval soldier.

Edited June 7, 2017 by SerenityInFire

[Japanbuilder]

On 6/5/2017 at 5:51 PM, x105Black said:

Those are pretty weak compared to the battle packs that Star Wars gets...

I dunno I would like them. But I am army builder type of builder Oo 

Sadly  I missed out on these cause of my Dark Age. 

[MAB]

14 hours ago, Oederland said:

Well, these battle packs consisted of the very same soldiers that you could have bought with sets of the previous wave / the regular sets. I have no experience with those two from 2014, but I had bought the two battle packs from 2010, despite them being rather expensive. TLC was even too lazy to go with five different face printings for the five soldiers within each of the battle packs.

What I had in mind was sets with different additional fractions, or soldiers with "neutral" printings that could be associated with the good or the evil fraction. At minimum, sets that are unique in some aspects. There are various head versions around at the same time anyway, why not at least take some from City instead of the usual Castle ones present in the other sets? Is it that difficult / expensive to come up with a greater variety of torso printings within fractions?

For SW fans, it might indeed be about collecting different types of e. g. "troopers", putting them into your shelf, trying to get as many variants as possible (ideally, every single SW character). For Castle, it should be more about getting an army, then playing with the minifigs, thus possibly together with equipment that can be used in a battle or siege (something better that the "catapult" in 850889). Think of a tjost. The more knights and horses and fractions the better. I remember reading Rosemary Suttcliff's Arthurian Trilogy as a kid; knights traveled on their horses, battled against other knights, and of course they had different coats of arms. This is what battle packs or additional sets should be about IMO. And this is what Legends of Chima and Ninjago and Nexo Knights were/are about, more individual characters. Again, I have to mention Playmobil (I'm from Germany, and every toy shop I'm aware of sells Lego and Playmobil). Nowadays their knights are heavily individualized, e. g. see their current "good" fraction. The two sets at the bottom are accessory sets (can be bought in Playmobil stores or ordered from their site). In any case, it illustrates how one can increase variety despite the figures still sharing some elements. This is how a Castle theme should be

9

Sure, as adults, many of us would like loads of variety in both torso prints within a faction, and lots of different factions as we amass huge armies of all of them.

But as a parent, not so much. Kids are different to adults. I prefer my children to have sets rather than minifigures due to the amount of play value in them. And when they get minifigures in sets or battle packs, I think I prefer them to have two large groups of similar (although not necessarily the same) troops. The problem with having lots of different factions is that kids don't always know who the odd looking ones goes with, and sometimes this means they get left unplayed, or they have to keep asking their parents who they are, or the kid doesn't care too much and you'll find them fighting along with the dragon knights and some random City figures anyway. Have two factions and having them lasting for more than one year is good in this sense, as sets (and hence armies) can be bought over time and still fit together and be played with together.

[thetang22]

6 hours ago, MAB said:

The problem with having lots of different factions is that kids don't always know who the odd looking ones goes with, and sometimes this means they get left unplayed, or they have to keep asking their parents who they are, or the kid doesn't care too much and you'll find them fighting along with the dragon knights and some random City figures anyway

YOU ARE PLAYING WRONG!!!  (Seriously though...as long as the kid is having fun, the above concerns really shouldn't be much of an issue.)

I had several factions as a kid (late 80's/early 90's)....and I can say that I remember loving the variety.  I would make up different stories about what the different groups were doing on any given day, and the sheer variety encouraged further imagination (which is one of the biggest things Lego is supposed to do, in my opinion).

So some figures would get used less often than others...that's the way most toys work - favorites are established.  In the beginning, my Crusaders were the favorite and got played with the most.  Then the early 90's Robin Hood movie came out, and the Forest Men started getting all the action.  Eventually I merged over into Black Knights, and they became my new favorite.  I got some Wolfpack, and while they never were my favorite as a kid, they definitely served their purpose.  I lastly got some Dragon Masters towards the end of my Lego childhood...and they were never my favorite...but still got used a lot as bad guys to my "good guy" Black Knights.  To make things even more crazy, I started collecting some Pirates stuff in it's early days too, and it got mixed with my Castle stuff when I played.

Imagination:  With lots of factions, there's plenty to do.

[Oederland]

8 hours ago, MAB said:

The problem with having lots of different factions is that kids don't always know who the odd looking ones goes with, and sometimes this means they get left unplayed, or they have to keep asking their parents who they are, or the kid doesn't care too much and you'll find them fighting along with the dragon knights and some random City figures anyway. Have two factions and having them lasting for more than one year is good in this sense, as sets (and hence armies) can be bought over time and still fit together and be played with together.

It might obviously depend on the children, and a kid might change his/her preferences when growing up as well. E. g. I remember my nephews to have lots of TLC sets combined into bizarre structures while I tried to keep MOCs as realistic as possible. It might be the case that some children are (still) unable to cope with different fractions (at a certain age), and/or that they prefer a clear distinction between good and bad guys. Other children might have different preferences.

For that reason it would be interesting if we were able to discuss with someone from TLC, someone who is into marketing research and who knows about current needs and wishes of children. Maybe their preferences have changed over time. Maybe they still have the very same preferences but are guided into a different direction due to TV series, spots, ... maybe toy companies try to guide them, maybe toy companies just follow trends that they have detected in their research.

However, I doubt that the majority of kids wants e. g. battle packs to just repeat soldiers with the very same face expressions, ... over and over again. 

1 hour ago, thetang22 said:

YOU ARE PLAYING WRONG!!!  (Seriously though...as long as the kid is having fun, the above concerns really shouldn't be much of an issue.)

I had several factions as a kid (late 80's/early 90's)....and I can say that I remember loving the variety.  I would make up different stories about what the different groups were doing on any given day, and the sheer variety encouraged further imagination (which is one of the biggest things Lego is supposed to do, in my opinion).

So some figures would get used less often than others...that's the way most toys work - favorites are established.  In the beginning, my Crusaders were the favorite and got played with the most.  Then the early 90's Robin Hood movie came out, and the Forest Men started getting all the action.  Eventually I merged over into Black Knights, and they became my new favorite.  I got some Wolfpack, and while they never were my favorite as a kid, they definitely served their purpose.  I lastly got some Dragon Masters towards the end of my Lego childhood...and they were never my favorite...but still got used a lot as bad guys to my "good guy" Black Knights.  To make things even more crazy, I started collecting some Pirates stuff in it's early days too, and it got mixed with my Castle stuff when I played.

Imagination:  With lots of factions, there's plenty to do.

 

Edited June 7, 2017 by Oederland

[x105Black]

4 hours ago, thetang22 said:

YOU ARE PLAYING WRONG!!!  (Seriously though...as long as the kid is having fun, the above concerns really shouldn't be much of an issue.)

I had several factions as a kid (late 80's/early 90's)....and I can say that I remember loving the variety.  I would make up different stories about what the different groups were doing on any given day, and the sheer variety encouraged further imagination (which is one of the biggest things Lego is supposed to do, in my opinion).

So some figures would get used less often than others...that's the way most toys work - favorites are established.  In the beginning, my Crusaders were the favorite and got played with the most.  Then the early 90's Robin Hood movie came out, and the Forest Men started getting all the action.  Eventually I merged over into Black Knights, and they became my new favorite.  I got some Wolfpack, and while they never were my favorite as a kid, they definitely served their purpose.  I lastly got some Dragon Masters towards the end of my Lego childhood...and they were never my favorite...but still got used a lot as bad guys to my "good guy" Black Knights.  To make things even more crazy, I started collecting some Pirates stuff in it's early days too, and it got mixed with my Castle stuff when I played.

Imagination:  With lots of factions, there's plenty to do.

I have always loved the variety of factions available.  Ever since the early 80's when I first started playing with LEGO, I have had a wide variety of minifigures.  I used Crusaders, Black Falcons, both Dragon factions, Forestmen, Wolfpack, and found some use for other minifigures from other themes (or at least their parts).  I even had Classic Space minifigures comprise their own faction.  And Pirates were an extension of the theme for me, as well.

In my ideal Castle theme, there would be at least 3 or 4 factions.  I think that having 2 primary Kingdom factions (like the Lions and Falcons), plus 2 secondary factions (like the Forestmen and Wolfpack) would be a great way to go.  It would closely emulate what we had back in the golden age of Castle in the 80's and 90's.

But the idea I laid out above is to combine the following elements:

• Battle Packs for a few factions (rotating every 6 months to 1 year)
• Small faction build with Knight on horseback (rotating every 6 months to 1 year)
• "People Pack" of various Castle themed minifigures with small builds (including villagers)
• Castle themed parts buckets (lasting the whole theme duration)
• Perhaps a big Creator Expert level Castle (lasting the whole theme duration)

If one is opposed to having too many factions, then this battle pack concept could still work for them.  Simply purchase only 2 faction packs.  You don't have to buy every available faction.  Faction packs should include things like flags and banners, so you could decorate your castles with the things you get in the battle packs and small faction packs.

[SerenityInFire]

Now how many factions did Chima have?  And that one was for kids.  I think having more than two factions could/would work.  Fantasy era also had four factions and was one of the best castle themes ever.

 

Edited June 8, 2017 by SerenityInFire

[Artanis I]

All of the fun in playing with Castle is when alliances change and now those factions are at odds. When one knight faction manages to bribe/convince a 3rd or 4th party into switching sides and turning the tides of the war.

Oh no! Now the forest men are on the other team! Their combined army is bigger than ours! Lets enlist the M-Trons...

[x105Black]

48 minutes ago, Artanis I said:

All of the fun in playing with Castle is when alliances change and now those factions are at odds. When one knight faction manages to bribe/convince a 3rd or 4th party into switching sides and turning the tides of the war.

Oh no! Now the forest men are on the other team! Their combined army is bigger than ours! Lets enlist the M-Trons...

Yes!  Exactly.

[Niku]

I agree with the last comments. I enjoyed a lot the renditions of politics between factions and the conflicts that developed from them. Here on EB some had shared their factions.

[gedren_y]

My ideal way to develop a good number of factions is to start with a Royal Tournament.

The large set would be the Grand Joust: 1) A royal gallery with the King, Queen, and royal guards. 2) A jousting field. 3) Stands with civilians/faction soldiers. 4) Two jousting faction lords each with a brick built tent, horse with barding, guard/squire, and various weapons and shields.

The next set down would be the Archery Competition. 1) Three freestanding targets that have multiple points for arrow landing, with the likelihood of a new arrow part. 2) Spectators' stand with a few civilians/royal soldiers. 3) Competitors; two lords' factions (different from joust) and a forestmen leader (Robin Hood type). Each would have tent, horse, weapons, and shields. The lords would each have barding for their horses and a guard/squire, while forestmen's leader would have two regular forestmen.

Next down would be the Light Arms Competition. 1) Combat arena with one royal guard. 2) Competitors; Two lords, one each from the two larger sets, with just weapons, shields and a different guard/squire. One 'evil' lord faction with tent, horse and barding, weapons, shields, and a guard/squire.

Other sets:

Blacksmith's Cottage: Hinged opening structure with forge on one side. Blacksmith with various armor types and weapons. Wife with paintbrush, pallet, and shields of varying sizes and heraldry.

Tournament Awards Ceremony: Raised dais with throne, King and royal guard. All faction leaders in fancy dress, though forestmen's leader may just have a fancy hat, and the 'evil' lord could have 'leather' armor printing. Three different small (chromed) 'statues' as the awards.

Faire: Various booths/stands; food/drink, jester stage, puppeteer, capes/hats, and jewelry and other finery.

Royal Carriage: Fancy, but open style carriage, drawn by four white horses. King, Queen, and two fancy coachmen.

Faction packs: All factions except Royal. Brick built tent, lord/leader as appears in the larger sets, and three faction guards, two of which are different from the sets. Various weapons and shields. (No horse.)

Later waves could be dedicated to structures (modular?), and conflict between various factions and/or royals. Possibly a Forestmen's Hideaway, and other civilian oriented sets interspersed throughout.

There could be all kinds of attendant media to go with this, but most likely an online game that could be played across platforms (Windows/Android/IOS).

Yes, my ideas are fig heavy, so there would be some trade-off with the structures. Given the want to get away from the 'sameness' between Castle lines, I thought this would go over better.

Edited June 8, 2017 by gedren_y

[MAB]

That sounds very much like an old AFOL favourite ...

 

 

It was available for three years. Obviously, LEGO have the data on the sales figures for that set. The fact that they didn't choose to supplement that set directly with further sets suggests that they thought other products would do better.

Obviously, it was also preceded by the large King's Castle, and lots of small and medium supplemental sets such as the tower rescue and attack sets, prison carriage and knights' showdown.

Then there was the King's carriage, which sounds a lot like the carriage set you want ...

 

(Mixed) faction packs ...

 

 

My kids were too young for it at the time, but I cannot think of any other families with older kids where it was bought for the kids.

[gedren_y]

For the first three set ideas, I was thinking more like scenes from the movie A Knight's Tale. They would fall within the standard Castle wave price points. (The Kingdoms Joust set did not.) The Royal Carriage would be more like a parade event, which would pair with the Faire set idea. The faction packs sets idea is so that they can be added to the larger sets to fill out the competition, and over time new factions could be added. Maybe a paddock/stable set would be needed to fill out for extra horses, but TLG probably wouldn't do that.

[Oederland]

Regarding the tournament, maybe something like 1584/6060 from 1989? In fact, TLC already had released a joust set back in 1979. I also had a Playmobil tournament set as a child (there was another set with the king and the queen and some guards). A similar brick-built version might require too many pieces though (or would result in too high a price). However, it could also be in the sense of this one, thus a smaller variant and similar in size like 6095 from 2000.

The grandstand part could be made modular so that additional versions of the set can be attached to extend it. Obviously it might be wiser to go with one set with a more noble grandstand part with a "royal" baldachin, and two additional sets (for fraction A and B) with a more ordinary grandstand each.

Actually I already like 6060. It's too colourful for me (I prefer 6095 in that regard), and there might be better pieces for the roof construction nowadays, but that's the details. In any case, a set like this should be much cheaper than 10223 Kingdoms Joust. In principle, one would just have to eliminate the gate and the towers (which, honestly speaking, do not really have to do anything with a joust anyway) to end up with an affordable set.

[x105Black]

4 hours ago, gedren_y said:

My ideal way to develop a good number of factions is to start with a Royal Tournament...

I really like the idea of the Royal Tournament expanded to an entire Castle theme.  This is a great way to build it all up.  It also keeps the competitive spirit light, which is nice.

My ideas for the faction battle packs and small knight sets were based on old sets from my childhood and current star wars sets:

The battle pack idea was based on a cross between Fantasy Era faction battle packs and Star Wars battle packs like this 75079 Shadow Troopers:



The knight set idea was based on a cross between 6009 Black Knight and Star Wars Microfighters like this 75129 Wookiee Gunship:



The People Pack idea was based on a cross between 6102 and 6103 Castle minifigures sets and the City People Packs like 60134 Fun in the Park:


I still think these types of sets would still be viable in the Royal Tournament style release plan.  All three of these could also come with faction flags and such that could be used in building out a base of some type for each faction.

9 minutes ago, Oederland said:

Regarding the tournament, maybe something like 1584/6060 from 1989? In fact, TLC already had released a joust set back in 1979. I also had a Playmobil tournament set as a child (there was another set with the king and the queen and some guards). A similar brick-built version might require too many pieces though (or would result in too high a price). However, it could also be in the sense of this one, thus a smaller variant and similar in size like 6095 from 2000.

The grandstand part could be made modular so that additional versions of the set can be attached to extend it. Obviously it might be wiser to go with one set with a more noble grandstand part with a "royal" baldachin, and two additional sets (for fraction A and B) with a more ordinary grandstand each.

Actually I already like 6060. It's too colourful for me (I prefer 6095 in that regard), and there might be better pieces for the roof construction nowadays, but that's the details. In any case, a set like this should be much cheaper than 10223 Kingdoms Joust. In principle, one would just have to eliminate the gate and the towers (which, honestly speaking, do not really have to do anything with a joust anyway) to end up with an affordable set.

I love all of the joust sets.  10223 is a fantastic set, and would be nice as the central large set in the Royal Tournament theme.  If it is too large, then something like 6060 or 6095 would work just fine.

The Archery competition, Light Arms competition, and Awards Ceremony flesh out the Tournament theme really well.  The Faire and Blacksmith provide us with villagers and merchants, which are always desirable.  The Royal Carriage is great for those that like the Royal Family.  I like the idea of fancy coachmen.  I imagine they would be much like the royal faction, but with special embellishments and ornamental armor.

Largely, I feel that many of us have similar ideas for the next Castle theme.  We may differ on some of the details, but there is a relative consensus on wanting multiple factions rather than the good vs bad, 2 sided conflict we have gotten in the recent past.  There is also a desire to see more villagers, and more depth in the ranks of the knight factions.  I hope that LEGO can deliver on all of these things. 

[gedren_y]

The idea for the Faire was intended to be on par with the City park set. Maybe less actual figures, and more parts for small builds, but essentially the same price point. There is also the possibility of various civilian carts, with different kinds of wares. I don't know if Lego would do a depiction of a gypsy caravan, as it relates to stereotyping nomadic peoples, but they could at least reprise the CMF Fortune Teller. This is where a mild level of fantasy elements would fit into the line I describe.

The way I think about my ideas is to have builds that meet a certain level of realism while also filling out the price points for larger sets. The large castles at the top of most lines fall too short for any kind of realism for me. That is why I like the idea of modular, mid-range sets that could be purchased in varying combinations to create more realistic structures. Add to that faction sets that include enough flags, shields, and small slope parts to decide to whom the structure belongs, I think would open up more creative play options. That is why I mentioned brick built tents, which could potentially be repurposed as roofing materials. Lego has often used the faction colors in the rooftops of their castle sets, and being provided alternate colors for this is a want for me.

[x105Black]

1 hour ago, gedren_y said:

The idea for the Faire was intended to be on par with the City park set. Maybe less actual figures, and more parts for small builds, but essentially the same price point. There is also the possibility of various civilian carts, with different kinds of wares. I don't know if Lego would do a depiction of a gypsy caravan, as it relates to stereotyping nomadic peoples, but they could at least reprise the CMF Fortune Teller. This is where a mild level of fantasy elements would fit into the line I describe.

That's a good idea.  I could see that working.  And it's a great way to include a bunch of villagers.

1 hour ago, gedren_y said:

The way I think about my ideas is to have builds that meet a certain level of realism while also filling out the price points for larger sets. The large castles at the top of most lines fall too short for any kind of realism for me. That is why I like the idea of modular, mid-range sets that could be purchased in varying combinations to create more realistic structures. Add to that faction sets that include enough flags, shields, and small slope parts to decide to whom the structure belongs, I think would open up more creative play options. That is why I mentioned brick built tents, which could potentially be repurposed as roofing materials. Lego has often used the faction colors in the rooftops of their castle sets, and being provided alternate colors for this is a want for me.

I agree that the castles just haven't been up to par lately.  I do love them, however, for their parts and minifigures.  Still, I think we really need something bigger, comparable to the Creator Expert modulars or larger sets like the Disney Castle.  It may not get as big as that, and may not have the selling power due to lack of licence and pop culture familiarity, but if done well I think a large castle set would sell.  But the ideas you raised about modularity are also great.  Each of the sets can stand alone, but if you put together a variety of Royal Tournament sets with the Blacksmith and other ideas, perhaps the standard gate house set, then you could have them connect to build out a large castle.  You could even have a completely separate set of instructions available online for the full castle that incorporates all of the pieces from the various sets.  This would encourage people to buy more sets, as well, and invest in the theme as a whole.

[SirBlake]

22 hours ago, x105Black said:

Largely, I feel that many of us have similar ideas for the next Castle theme.  We may differ on some of the details, but there is a relative consensus on wanting multiple factions rather than the good vs bad, 2 sided conflict we have gotten in the recent past.  There is also a desire to see more villagers, and more depth in the ranks of the knight factions.  I hope that LEGO can deliver on all of these things. 

I agree with this. I'm flexible as to what form those factions take (Fantasy, Woodsmen, Wolfpack or similar), but variety is key.

[BrickJagger]

I think the main difference in opinion between everyone here is whether the next Castle theme should be fantasy-based or realistic. I'm still upset that TLG never got around to making Elves in 2009, and I would love to see a second Fantasy including them, as well as much more of the underrepresented Dwarves. I'd be down for five factions total: Good Humans, Elves, Evil Humans, Evil Dwarves and Goblins. I don't know if all of that could be accomplished in three years, but then again it's not a confirmed fact that Castle themes come in three year cycles, even if there is evidence to support that recently.