10305 Lion Knights' Castle 90th anniversary set

[Follows Closely]

6 hours ago, SirBlake said:

Have you built it?

Yes. My opinion was formed after construction.

[woodford86]

6 hours ago, SirBlake said:

Have you built it? I may have agreed with you before I built mine, and now that I have, I think it's about perfect. It's a really good size, and barely fits on a shelf as it is. Wider and/or deeper would require that it live on a pedestal in the middle of the room, lol.

I'm convinced the designers are aware of this, but they (1) ran out of budget and (2) had to sell it at a somewhat marketable size.

Regarding 1, the BAM wizard feels like a tongue-in-cheek way to provide a wizard without using the castles design budget, hence the plain Majisto; and the ramp seems like such an afterthought that I think they chose as few pieces as possible and deliberately made it super simple to remove and build your own.

And regarding 2, if you open the armory wing up it'll be very easy to add an entire second castle's worth of pieces to the backside. This whole set seems ripe for expanding/modding and that can't be a coincidence.

I can already tell I'll be buying a second set just to build a proper drawbridge/gatehouse. Unlike a lot of sets this one is almost entirely basic pieces that can be used to expand on the original. Just need a good GWP or double VIP day, for now I'll just enjoy it as it is.

[SirBlake]

Yeah I’d like to expand it too, but not really because I find it lacking, but just because it’d be fun to do. 

[Sir Dano]

I'd love to expand it but it's barely going to fit on my shelf as is.

[cehnot]

10 hours ago, jodawill said:

Take a look at the middle section of the front wall. Imagine if you deepened this part of the castle and turned this into a balcony with archways on either side. It would be a great place for the queen to stand and address her subjects. I imagine this is what the designers had envisioned, but they didn't have the ability to flesh it out with their limitations.

  Hide contents

 

This is what I am doing with my expanded set. I bought two sets and working on a studio file that uses towers with 10 studs wide instead of the 5 studs each has in the set. Mostly did this because the angled towers line upnwith those wedge plates perfectly doubling this. Anyways, the gatehouse is the one I'm working on next. Right now I'm working on interiors of the livable section. Book 1. 

[cehnot]

I am doubling the size. I got 2 sets. I am working in studio expanding every wall and tower. I wanted the gatehouse to have 9 to 10 stud wide towers. Then that idea examined the living quarters. And right now I am building the current set in studio from the pdf instructions so I can double to set and pull parts from one and add to the other. The ground level has now become the store room, treasury, and kitchen. The treasury has its own stairs leading up. The other room from the kitchen changed locations and leads unto the great room. The great room is about 16 studs by 24 studs now. There is a chapel next to it and the residence are adjacent. I'm working on making this section more like a keep that connects to the gatehouse section. The middle section between them is where I expanded to include the chapel.

The great room will double in height and not have rooms above. The residence area will be next to it above the soldier/ knight quarters. The residence will be 3 floors above and next to a small chapel. This whole keep area will have a porticullis doorway leading to the gatehouse. There will be courtyard and another porticullis going into the gatehouse. 

The gatehouse will double in size and have a dungeon and catacombs section on the ground floor. The goal is to make this gatehouse expandable with an entrance to a Bailey or make this like a large keep and build a Bailey around it with stables, inn, residence for soldiers and service maids, etc. I may add a larger chapel in the Bailey for commoners and such to access. 

A third set should be enough to build a secondary wall or what Peter Keith is doing but smaller scale. I truly think his expansions without modifying the main castle set too much should exist with 4 sets. 

[eldiano]

The walkway could be covered as a makeshift extra room full of armors and add another tower around the residential area really, I plan to expand the gatehouse/armory deeper, to be honest that toilet room inspired to enlarge it into a throne room, this set really suffers from narrow towers even my 9 year and 6 year old kids had a hard time playing in between the rooms and right spaces 😎

thhe castle is perfect the way it is but it always could feature room for expansion 😉

[GeoBrick]

On 3/9/2022 at 5:28 PM, R0Sch said:

 

In hindsight, it looks like Marty never brought back those tiles at the top of the ramp!

[odinbricks]

Hello everyone,

New here.  have you seen this:
https://rebrickable.com/mocs/MOC-119375/Jhobbs/lion-knights-castle-ramp-10305/#details
look amazing.
Wanted to share what I found. I was looking in the PAB section to buy some more knights and as I could not find any I tried the help section
under broken or missing pieces I can see all parts of the set which do not otherwise show. If anyone is interested.  Also after speaking to the lego
customer support I was told that those minifigures will not be available on PAB since they are exclusive to this Icons set and can only be purchased
as part of the set.
On the mocing side I am quite curious to see what people come up with. Me personaly, I was thinking of making a 3rd floor on the house part, sort
of continue the white building and make it taller.
 

[Rjbricks]

I do like that ramp. No way I’m doing much MOCing (I mean it’s already huge) but that ramp does look pretty good.

 

 

[iragm]

4 hours ago, odinbricks said:

lso after speaking to the lego
customer support I was told that those minifigures will not be available on PAB since they are exclusive to this Icons set and can only be purchased
as part of the set.

What's the exact wording from support?  Nearly all non-licensed parts have shown up there at some point or other.  Was it that they weren't currently available (we know...) or that they would never be available?  If never, that certainly changes the value of the figures considerably.

[SirBlake]

That ramp upgrade is really nice. 
 

As far as whatever customer service said about getting additional Lion knights, I don’t trust them to truly know how that situation will work out. I think it’s a hurry-up-and wait situation where the solution will reveal itself or it won’t. 

If the new black falcons or forestmen have set any precedent, it’s that they’ll find a way to put those Lion knights in future sets. Fingers crossed. 

[eldiano]

1 hour ago, iragm said:

What's the exact wording from support?  Nearly all non-licensed parts have shown up there at some point or other.  Was it that they weren't currently available (we know...) or that they would never be available?  If never, that certainly changes the value of the figures considerably.

Last year every single lego set released was available from bricks and pieces right off the bat. 
ever since they revamped bricks and pieces and pick a brick early this year none of the new sets with new parts introduced this year have been available for purchase, I talked to customer service about this and they say it’s a delay and that it will be in the future but this is a huge frustration from the lego bricks and pieces crowd also 😭

That icons excuse is BS. 

[kchan98]

12 hours ago, cehnot said:

 

A third set should be enough to build a secondary wall or what Peter Keith is doing but smaller scale. I truly think his expansions without modifying the main castle set too much should exist with 4 sets. 

Looking forward to his instructions too. 3 of these sets will make a nice build!

[Imrryran]

Can we expect this castle to be available on other stores? Some sales?

Or does anyone at least know when is the next 2x VIP point offer on the lego shop?

[BitByBrick]

9 minutes ago, Imrryran said:

Can we expect this castle to be available on other stores? Some sales?

I was surprised to come across the space 90th set at Walmart the other day. There is still some hope that the 90th castle will show up elsewhere as well. 🤞🏻I would prefer Target, either online or at the store. Am I being too optimistic? Looking for any way to get a discount on it. 

[GeoBrick]

Just now, BitByBrick said:

I was surprised to come across the space 90th set at Walmart the other day. There is still some hope that the 90th castle will show up elsewhere as well. 🤞🏻I would prefer Target, either online or at the store. Am I being too optimistic? Looking for any way to get a discount on it. 

AFAIK, the 10497 set is meant to be sold in the general market too. 10305 however was meant to be a LEGO exclusive.

[odinbricks]

3 hours ago, SirBlake said:

That ramp upgrade is really nice. 
 

As far as whatever customer service said about getting additional Lion knights, I don’t trust them to truly know how that situation will work out. I think it’s a hurry-up-and wait situation where the solution will reveal itself or it won’t. 

If the new black falcons or forestmen have set any precedent, it’s that they’ll find a way to put those Lion knights in future sets. Fingers crossed. 

There are already some sellers on bricklink offering the minifigs. But 12-15 euro for a minifig is quite expensive imo. I really hope the price goes down sooner rather than later.
Also speaking of PAB, has anybody noticed that the Viking ship is not even coming up as a set . Wonder why that is ?

[natesroom]

Are you able to search for parts on the PAB by set?? never realized that... what pieces are you looking for from the set on the PAB?

Edited August 13, 2022 by natesroom

[eldiano]

5 hours ago, GeoBrick said:

AFAIK, the 10497 set is meant to be sold in the general market too. 10305 however was meant to be a LEGO exclusive.

10305 is also sold at Legoland parks and discovery centers!!!

This is the generic customer rep answer lol

"That's a great question!

I'm sorry we aren't selling our newer bricks yet. Even though we produce new bricks for our newer sets, we don't sell the parts individually yet. After they've been out on the market for a while, they'll likely be available for purchase on our Pick a Brick site. But they aren't currently available.

I'm so sorry and we appreciate your patience. Thank you & have a bricktastic day! 

We want to make sure we're doing a good job for you, so you’ll always find the link to a four-question survey in our emails. Please tell us how we did today:
Survey Link"

 

Edited August 13, 2022 by eldiano

[Khargeust]

I would like to know if the cardboard packaging in which we receive the castle from the online store, and which apparently is padded on two sides to absorb shocks, is the same as the one that the LEGO stores make available to customers?

[Follows Closely]

56 minutes ago, Khargeust said:

I would like to know if the cardboard packaging in which we receive the castle from the online store, and which apparently is padded on two sides to absorb shocks, is the same as the one that the LEGO stores make available to customers?

Yes.

[Poco Lypso]

21 hours ago, odinbricks said:

There are already some sellers on bricklink offering the minifigs. But 12-15 euro for a minifig is quite expensive imo. I really hope the price goes down sooner rather than later.
Also speaking of PAB, has anybody noticed that the Viking ship is not even coming up as a set . Wonder why that is ?

I hope they will make at least the lion knights available on pab and if not release battle packs. 

[brimbolet]

1 hour ago, Poco Lypso said:

I hope they will make at least the lion knights available on pab and if not release battle packs. 

Never did I understand why Lego isn't selling small polybags with just 3 figures/9€ through the online shop. Romans, knights, Indians... soo much more money they could make. 

[SirBlake]

2 minutes ago, brimbolet said:

Never did I understand why Lego isn't selling small polybags with just 3 figures/9€ through the online shop. Romans, knights, Indians... soo much more money they could make. 

I think that is one of the greatest current mysteries. Now that we have black falcons, lions, forestmen, new civilians… there’s no good reason not to.