10305 Lion Knights' Castle 90th anniversary set

[natesroom]

@WhiteFang what are these?

 

Edited August 9, 2022 by natesroom

[dimc]

2 hours ago, Black Knight said:

I do prefer printed peaces. You might want to check out "Steindrucker" from Germany: He prints only on original LEGO pieces and has some fine castle stuff (including the 6074 and 6067 flag) and a huge collection of printed shields. And hell, getting a new 6074 lookalike (!) flag for €2.50 is pretty awesome.

Oh wow, I might have to go non-Lego for that Guarded Inn flag. I bet shipping to the USA won't be cheap though.

[Mr. Cube]

36 minutes ago, natesroom said:

@WhiteFang what are these?

 

Figures on top are Eternals (MARVEL), but I don´t know what that castle thing is, some MOC, maybe?

[Shroffy123]

40 minutes ago, natesroom said:

@WhiteFang what are these?

 

The build s 7037 tower raid from the 2007 castle wave. 

https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-7037-Castle-Tower-Raid/dp/B0015VOPG8

 

So alot of references to past themes in the knew lion knight castle. What does the reference to amber and the black knights mean? The black knights are my favorite faction but I've never heard of the significant of amber. 

Edited August 9, 2022 by Shroffy123

[Warbinator]

45 minutes ago, Shroffy123 said:

What does the reference to amber and the black knights mean? The black knights are my favorite faction but I've never heard of the significant of amber. 

That's a question a lot of folks have asked, but I haven't seen any convincing answers. This seems to have a lot of folks scratching their heads.

[woodford86]

Mine arrived at the final facility today, should be delivered tomorrow

[AyeMatey]

On 8/8/2022 at 2:48 PM, Yoggington said:

Well, I finished my build. I don't know what people were complaining about with the female knights. Looks good to me.

Infinitely improved lol.

[WhiteFang]

4 hours ago, natesroom said:

@WhiteFang what are these?

The above is Eternals and the tower is from 7037 Tower Raid. Thanks to our members for earlier pointing out too. 

[Sir Dano]

Up to bag 10, so far my one and only complaint is about the lack of chimneys leading to fireplaces.

Also been swapping out flat silver helmets and ugly new swords for aesthetically superior metallic silver helmets and classic swords as I go.

[Rjbricks]

Mines been delivered according to my family but Lego are apparently redelivering it today! Perhaps the first box is the Hogwarts express!

https://jaysbrickblog.com/news/lego-76405-hogwarts-express-collectors-edition-officially-revealed/

[Rjbricks]

2 hours ago, Sir Dano said:

Up to bag 10, so far my one and only complaint is about the lack of chimneys leading to fireplaces.

Also been swapping out flat silver helmets and ugly new swords for aesthetically superior metallic silver helmets and classic swords as I go.

 

I have been wondering what I'm going to do with the helmets. All my lion archers have the dark grey bullet helmets which there's no silver replacement for :( 

[eldiano]

38 minutes ago, Rjbricks said:

I have been wondering what I'm going to do with the helmets. All my lion archers have the dark grey bullet helmets which there's no silver replacement for :( 

Yo I thought I was crazy but I didn’t know the helmets were flat grey, what’s up with lego ditching metallic bricks?  I changed the yellow flags to gold but I don’t know how I felt about it until I realized the helmets were the same way, now I’m pissed because the Black falcons got the red headed flat black treatment and not the pearl grey helmets and swords.  I am so confused.  

[SirBlake]

Got mine yesterday and spent 8-9 hours straight building it. Truly an amazing set with numerous techniques and parts usages I’ve never encountered before. 

I’ve never built anything like it, but this is now the crown jewel of my collection, and a joy to behold. 

[Hive]

On 8/8/2022 at 10:05 AM, Jiesdeo said:

I got a message from Lego.com about my shipment being prepared, but the message made it sound like it was being shipped from North America. I'm in Sweden so that feels a bit weird.

Mine has finally been shipped, from Belgium.

[jodawill]

I finished building it. I was completely wrong about the size of this set. The build from the second book is a lot bigger than I expected. Once you've put it all together, this thing is MASSIVE! I'm really happy with this set. I actually enjoyed building the second book a lot more. Book 1 is largely dollhouse type stuff that's less interesting to me. The second book is 100% structure. It felt more like building a traditional castle set.

There's a lot to unpack in this set, but here are some of my thoughts:

• This set uses several very useful parts in large quantities, such as 1x2 masonry bricks, 1x3 and 1x4 bricks, and 1x1 "blocks," among others. In fact, I don't believe there's a single 1x2 brick that isn't the masonry style. So you actually get a lot more of them than you'd expect when you look at the box art. They're often used in places that aren't even visible. Because this set of made of so many basic parts, it's very versatile.
• Take a look at the image at the front of book 2. It looks a lot like Forestmen's River Fortress. Swap out the shields and fill it with forestmen minifigures, and you have a forestmen set! Just exclude the section from book 1.
• There are more helmets included than I remembered seeing in the pictures. In particular, there are three visor helmets, which I'm excited about.
• I like the corner piece used for the jail cell doors. This is new to me. I also love the fact you can make the door hinge on either side.

My biggest takeaway from this is just how amazing this set is as just a parts pack. It doesn't use an excessive number of random, specialized parts. About 90% of it is just basic stuff for building castles. I'm very much looking forward to expanding on this, as well as building forestmen MOCs from it.

I had mentioned in a previous comment that there were more "decked out knights" in Black Knight's Castle. It turns out that's not true; the box art just doesn't emphasize the fact it includes extra helmets and armor. Just throw in a couple horses from Bricklink for $3 each, and just about everything about this set is superior to Black Knight's Castle.

I still say I would prefer to exchange the Majisto and children minifigures for pretty much anything else, but if I just remove them from the castle, I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

Edit: By the way, does anyone understand what the gold frog is all about? If it's a joke, I didn't get it. I'm also wondering about what appears to be a drum in the cave. Do the forestmen beat a drum to call their men to action?

Edited August 10, 2022 by jodawill

[SirBlake]

9 minutes ago, jodawill said:

Edit: By the way, does anyone understand what the gold frog is all about? If it's a joke, I didn't get it. I'm also wondering about what appears to be a drum in the cave. Do the forestmen beat a drum to call their men to action?

I think the frog is just supposed to be a bit of hidden treasure. Given the space allowed, a golden frog has as much or more character than any other piece they could’ve thrown in there. 

The drum is there to flesh out the rest of the musical instruments. Harpsichord, lute, horn. 
 

Glad to see that the build changed your opinion on some things. I was already very happy to be getting this thing, the build process just cemented that love for me. 

[Warbinator]

15 minutes ago, jodawill said:

Edit: By the way, does anyone understand what the gold frog is all about? If it's a joke, I didn't get it. I'm also wondering about what appears to be a drum in the cave. Do the forestmen beat a drum to call their men to action?

I don't know if there's any significance to the frog. I think it was just a fun thing to include in that space that would otherwise be unused and hidden most of the time.

The drum and drumsticks are pictures in one of the promotional images of the set that I've seen before. I'm sure that it's there to allow another figure to accompany the forest man with the lute.

[Sir Dano]

2 hours ago, Warbinator said:

The drum and drumsticks are pictures in one of the promotional images of the set that I've seen before. I'm sure that it's there to allow another figure to accompany the forest man with the lute.

Correct, in one of the interviews the designers mentioned that they wanted to include the pieces to make a band in the set.

[jodawill]

5 minutes ago, Sir Dano said:

Correct, in one of the interviews the designers mentioned that they wanted to include the pieces to make a band in the set.

I do remember that now that you mention it. Is there any significance to its location in the cave?

[Sir Dano]

1 minute ago, jodawill said:

I do remember that now that you mention it. Is there any significance to its location in the cave?

Just to confirm, we're talking about this drum, right?

Since it's directly across from the dungeon I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be the treasury/storage, not a cave.

[jodawill]

41 minutes ago, Sir Dano said:

Just to confirm, we're talking about this drum, right?

Since it's directly across from the dungeon I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be the treasury/storage, not a cave.

Yeah, looks like you're right. I remembered wrong.

[BTappel]

55 minutes ago, Sir Dano said:

Just to confirm, we're talking about this drum, right?

Since it's directly across from the dungeon I'm pretty sure that's supposed to be the treasury/storage, not a cave.

But the knight is playing it with drumsticks on the cover of the box

[jodawill]

The drawbridge and the portcullises are really fun. I remember there was a Beyond the Brick video where Kevin Hinkle was talking about how he normally didn't really use the play features in sets, but he sprung the jail wall in Sheriff's Lock-Up nonstop. (I did too!) The play features in this set are the same way. I could release the drawbridge and the portcullises all day. They're very satisfying.

[eldiano]

The drawbridge is more fun when you realize you could use it to send the enemy straight to the dungeon haha it’s a play feature that’s not heavily advertised heh

[jodawill]

There's another interesting detail I forgot to mention. The flames inside are the small vertical ones, but all of the flames on the exterior appear to blow in the wind. Great attention to detail!

 By the way, people discussed the possibility of Wolfpack returning because of a comment in the instructions. I don't think that's the case because there's also a reference to the dragon knights when the  are built. I think they're nothing more than nods to past themes.