10305 Lion Knights' Castle 90th anniversary set

[TeriXeri]

I think a lot of kids are also shaped by what they watch, video game they play, or what LEGO they already grow up with, until a certain age when they can buy their own big sets of course.

I know multiple kids who have 0 licensed sets.

Also could be a continent difference, as City even now in 2022, tends to be cheaper in Europe compared to mainly being overpriced in USA (gap got bigger and bigger in 2022), in the past Star Wars and even some Harry Potter was a lot higher priced in some Euro countries.

 

Of course times have changed, some kids grow up with licensed Duplo now, and even Duplo had a Castle era in the past.

 

Out of my own experience, I had a 15 year gap of no-LEGO so I have very little (nostalgic) connection with the newer 2000s themes, so even adult's LEGO experiences can shape purchases.

 

Edited August 16, 2022 by TeriXeri

[Aanchir]

38 minutes ago, SirBlake said:

With all due respect, I don’t think your anecdotal experience is representative of the whole. If kids were only into licensed, how is it that city has been around so consistently? Or creator? Or CMF?

Yeah, on a lot of levels I feel like LEGO seems MORE popular with kids than it was in my childhood (90s/early 2000s) — and that INCLUDES non-licensed themes. I mean, we now live in an age where you can find Collectible Minifigure plushies or kids' Ninjago-themed T-shirts and pajamas at generic department stores like Target or Walmart. Back in my childhood that sort of merch was only available at LEGO stores or by mail-order (at a time when LEGO stores themselves were way less common), even for hit themes like Bionicle! And that's not even touching on how much more popular LEGO is among girls than it was back then.

Certainly, LEGO has a lot more sets aimed at adults than they used to. However, LEGO's recent push to market to adults isn't because kids aren't buying LEGO anymore, but rather because kids are a market LEGO has already done a really good job capturing, so to speak (at least in Europe and the Americas). By comparison adults are a market where they still see a lot of potential customers they haven't reached yet — and thus, a lot more room to grow their business. They've come to understand that enjoying LEGO as adults isn't just possible for nostalgic, web-savvy former KFOLs like many of us who frequent AFOL groups, forums, and LUGs, but also for average folks looking for quiet, relaxing hobbies to enjoy in their leisure time.

[dimc]

53 minutes ago, natesroom said:

I feel your pain... all the stuff in lots I come across are SW, HP, Friends or bionicle... ugh.

Lotta that but the occasional good find can be had. I just got a lot of parts (no figs, sadly, but it was fairly cheap) that includes some SP1, SP2, Ice Planet, Town from 85-95, and it's been a blast rebuilding. Really excited for the two big Ice Planet sets, though I have parts to the ship already I am certain some will be missing, so I should be able to get one good complete ship plus parts to make it better.

To be honest, this castle feels like enough for me, especially at that price. It's just so spendy but has so many good little details. My wallet could use a break.

Edited August 16, 2022 by dimc

[natesroom]

YHeah i juggle Lego, MAGIC (MTG) and Board Games and Woodworking. My hobbies rob me all the time.

[Poco Lypso]

6 hours ago, natesroom said:

I disagree. If you are an AFOL between 35 and 55 (which from their own surveys make up a high percentage of their customer base) You grew up with space, town and castle and maybe technic ('82) or pirates ('89) or trains ('86) as your main theme... that was it.

Star wars didn't show up until 1999. Now you could be a 25 year old AFOL who was born in 97 who was 2 when the first star wars theme came out and you grew up with all these licensed themes, but your disposable income to be spent on lego is significantly less then a 45 year old by all available data. So castle just by sheer factor of scale has to be a profitable theme. Now the over production of crap castle in late 90s can lead to unprofitable sales for a theme which could lead a company to conclude its dead. (SEE HE-MAN as a case study $400 million in sales in '86 to 7 million in '87 talk about devastating) 

ofc these are all assumptions but...

 

star wars may not have been around in the 80s in lego form but it existed already as a franchise I bet there is ALOT of afols who got back into lego when they discovered lego star wars.

a popular castle group on facebook is currently  24k members stron, I bet there is way more ninjago fans in any major city, just to put it into perspective.

the 10305 didn't sell out, ofc we don't know why. but iirc lots of sets last year and this year were really hard to get (its what I heard I don't generally buy sets other than castle...). maybe its the price, idk. Also, lego set the purchase limit to 3 right away. which would suggests lego wasnt expecting crazy demand.

but of course, the recent trends on pab online make me worry a bit. I would most certainly buy about a hundred lion knights, and I bet theres afols out there who would buy way more. maybe lego is counting on bricklinkers, people want more lion knights, order on bricklink and thus sell more castkles to bricklinkers, rinse repeat. - if that is truly the case then I am gonna just stick with my 10305 lion knights and have the castle ransacked by my black falcon knights over and over, haha.

 

 

 

 

[natesroom]

Dont you put set limits on items that you produced low quantity so more people can get it and try to pre-emptively block people from buying what they want? I'd rather there not be set limits and if someone wants to purchase 10 more power to them.

[BTappel]

So the limit for this castle is 3?  Since we can only order 1 online that means we can also pick up 2 at a lego store?  Would those qualify for vip points?  Im driving to a lego store or two thursday so want to know if i need to pretend like i dont already have the castle so i can get more 

Edited August 16, 2022 by BTappel

[Poco Lypso]

39 minutes ago, BTappel said:

So the limit for this castle is 3?  Since we can only order 1 online that means we can also pick up 2 at a lego store?  Would those qualify for vip points?  Im driving to a lego store or two thursday so want to know if i need to pretend like i dont already have the castle so i can get more 

oh... maybe its different from country to country. I can order 3 online...

[brimbolet]

9 hours ago, Poco Lypso said:

Its probably related to the amount of stuff lego actually can produce and what lego believes will be profitable. We just don't know what the market truly is like for lego. I would have never thought type writers, console replicas, maps, globes etc. could actually be successful. So just because I would never buy anything like that doesn't mean its a huge profit for lego and a theme to continue. So I guess, historic figs and themes might not really be that great, profitswise or they would have done it. Maybe they put afols into several categories, those that buy sets to build once and then display and those that do mocs, and I guess the former will be in the majority. And those that actually do mocs can also be put into categories, technic, city, star wars, historic. In the end I believe the historic lego theme is pretty niche compared to other themes.

Well somehow Lego manages to make even new prints for BAM figures, so it must be profitable. It's just not consumer friendly if Lego stores don't get interesting parts (e.g. silver falcons) for many months - I drive every 2 weeks regularly to a nearby store, unfortunately always without any luck - and you can't buy them through the online shop too.

If you care to compare it with Playmobil’s (cough) online shop, they sell not only figure packs of nearly every theme they ever produced, but sometimes even complete vintage sets that wouldn’t be popular enough at a regular retailer. That's a nice way to treat customers, I think.

So a few polybags for very popular historical figures (Lego must make some sort of analysis) that would land at some point in the BAM tower anyway, shouldn’t really be a logistical problem.

 

[Shiva]

Castle Limit for Sweden, 3. I think Norway has that limit too.

[jodawill]

5 minutes ago, brimbolet said:

If you care to compare it with Playmobil’s (cough) online shop, they sell not only figure packs of nearly every theme they ever produced, but sometimes even complete vintage sets that wouldn’t be popular enough at a regular retailer. That's a nice way to treat customers, I think.

Playmobil's customer service is pretty bad, but the fact that they regularly re-release classic sets is one of the major reasons I've become a Playmobil fan in recent years. I bought a dozen copies of the 6464 "Group of Outlaws" set (which is basically their version of forestmen) when they were 30% off - less than $20 for 7 figures and a large tree. I love it. They also re-released the Victorian Mansion this year, and I bought all of those sets for my daughter. They have some more castle sets coming out some time this year, but they've been listed for months and haven't come in stock yet.

I keep wondering what it would be like if Lego gave fans the same treatment Playmobil gives their adult fans, re-releasing old sets (with the exact same parts and colors) on a regular basis. I honestly think they'd sell enough to make it worth their while, with many people buying dozens of copies of them. I think the limiting factor will always be their production capacity. And I'm also not sure that Lego really cares about anything other than profitability. They don't seem to go out of their way to do special things for fans unless they think it will be make them a quick buck.

I've been thinking lately that it would be great if they had a Go Fund Me type website where they allow people to pledge dollar amounts to buy special parts. Imagine if we got to vote on new parts to be produced in old gray. Even if the prices were relatively high per piece, I'm confident AFOLs would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on them, if not millions. It wouldn't be difficult to find 100 AFOLs who would spend $1000 on old gray parts in a special batch.

Sets would be much more difficult, but they could throw us a bone every now and then, like re-releasing old minifigures through Pick a Brick, or those black plumes.

[Sir Dano]

Couldn't care less about old grey but I'd pay a lot of money to get bullet helms in dark bley, light bley, metallic silver and pearl dark grey.

[Mr Maniac]

On 7/15/2022 at 11:53 AM, Triceron said:

The Vampyre Castle is one of my favourites, and I'm very happy how well it fits for my Fright Knight's base of operations.  I had Witch's Magical Manor, and I always thought it was an awkward design for what really should have been a gothic castle centerpiece like this one.  It even has a bubbling cauldron that's perfect for Willa!

Oh, I can agree with you there! I realize lots of people liked the Haunted House that came out as a send-off to the Monster Fighters, but that castle was the perfect flagship set for that theme in my opinion, all the way down to the secret stairway entrance and some of the booby traps. Another version of that castle, complete with updated Fright Knights heraldry would definitely pique my interest (even if it would be annoying and expensive given my current MOC project).

Quote

So the limit for this castle is 3?  Since we can only order 1 online that means we can also pick up 2 at a lego store?  Would those qualify for vip points?  Im driving to a lego store or two thursday so want to know if i need to pretend like i dont already have the castle so i can get more 

God speed to anyone with the money to buy more than one of these suckers. I just got mine this past weekend, and even after a VIP Member discount, it's still a fairly big pill to swallow (but ultimately worth it to give my Black Falcons someone to fight, and for my Fright Knights to torment, of course).

In any case, this is as good a time as any to say I also hope (like many of you) to get some Lion Knights torsos and legs through PAB (along with horse barding, Lion Knights shields, etc.) After all, my horseback knights from Medieval Blacksmith need some fancy barding of their own!

Edited August 17, 2022 by Mr Maniac

[Roebuck]

19 hours ago, SirBlake said:

I don’t know, they managed to find the production capability for the gamble that was Vidyo. I realize that’s not AFOL focused, but by comparison, a castle battle pack would be a sure thing with lots of bleed-over into every demographic. It didn’t take a rocket surgeon to tell that Vidyo was much more risky with a lower chance of success and a giant investment in new parts, shelf space, marketing, etc. 

I was maybe risky, but when they do something like that and hit the bullseye they will earn a lot more money that giving us AFOLs a Castle set

14 hours ago, Aanchir said:

Certainly, LEGO has a lot more sets aimed at adults than they used to. However, LEGO's recent push to market to adults isn't because kids aren't buying LEGO anymore, but rather because kids are a market LEGO has already done a really good job capturing, so to speak (at least in Europe and the Americas). By comparison adults are a market where they still see a lot of potential customers they haven't reached yet — and thus, a lot more room to grow their business. They've come to understand that enjoying LEGO as adults isn't just possible for nostalgic, web-savvy former KFOLs like many of us who frequent AFOL groups, forums, and LUGs, but also for average folks looking for quiet, relaxing hobbies to enjoy in their leisure time.

I agree, a lot of the sets they are making for adults now are so diverse and looks to be designed to hook in new adults. If they manage to get 10 new adult customers that buy e.g a football stadium or a typewriter as their first set and in the process looses 2 former AFOLs that collected e.g. Pirates or Castle, it is a big win. They actually managed to increase the AFOL customers from 10 to 20% now and I assume the kids are still getting the same amount at least of Lego.

If the 90 year castle set sells a lot, maybe hook in some new AFOLs we will get more similar sets in the future. However if it do not, they will use their time and resources to make a e.g. new football stadium instead

11 hours ago, Shiva said:

Castle Limit for Sweden, 3. I think Norway has that limit too.

I just looked and that is correct

[timemail]

Got my first copy yesterday. The Lego stores here (franchise ones) did the 90th Anniversary brick pack as a GWP ($300 AUD minimum spend) last week so picked it up then.

I will likely get additional copies when there are more good GWP as I only have the current Castle sets (3 in 1, Blacksmith, Viking Boat)so the bricks will be useful to me for building additional related items and army building in lieu of BAP.

[iragm]

Limit in the USA raised to 2 per customer.  I'm guessing this isn't selling as well as Lego had hoped.  I know I am holding off purchasing a second one until there's a pretty decent sale. 20% off would do.

[Triceron]

6 minutes ago, iragm said:

Limit in the USA raised to 2 per customer.  I'm guessing this isn't selling as well as Lego had hoped.  I know I am holding off purchasing a second one until there's a pretty decent sale. 20% off would do.

Do they do sales on the Lego site?  Being that this is a Lego exclusive set, I've not really seen any sales on their main website at all (other than clearance section).  The most I've seen applied to new releases is the Double VIP events, which is just another 5% discount.

I think I'd agree with 20% off, I would consider picking it up at that price.

[TeriXeri]

58 minutes ago, Triceron said:

Do they do sales on the Lego site? 

Rarely, usually it's to get rid of older remaining sets (currently that means some old Vidyo / Brick Sketches/ Brickheadz for old stock)

However as recently as this week, the FC Barcelona Stadium and Queer Eye reached 40% off recently , so perhaps weren't that great sellers.

I don't think a sale on 10305 is likely anytime soon however.

Even the Creator Castle 31120 (currently on Backorder in Europe ) has not even made it to any major online retailer in my country after more then a year, while the new Viking Ship and still available Pirate Ship both had much wider releases (and both those sets also are priced at €120 while Castle remained at €100 so it seems discounts are taken in account there)

Edited August 18, 2022 by TeriXeri

[SirBlake]

52 minutes ago, iragm said:

I'm guessing this isn't selling as well as Lego had hoped.

May I ask what you’re basing that conclusion on? Since TLG doesn’t report sales figures, that seems like an unanswerable question, especially 2 weeks into it’s availability. 

[natesroom]

34 minutes ago, TeriXeri said:

Rarely, usually it's to get rid of older remaining sets (currently that means some old Vidyo / Brick Sketches/ Brickheadz for old stock)

However as recently as this week, the FC Barcelona Stadium and Queer Eye reached 40% off recently , so perhaps weren't that great sellers.

I don't think a sale on 10305 is likely anytime soon however.

Even the Creator Castle 31120 (currently on Backorder in Europe ) has not even made it to any major online retailer in my country after more then a year, while the new Viking Ship and still available Pirate Ship both had much wider releases (and both those sets also are priced at €120 while Castle remained at €100 so it seems discounts are taken in account there)

209 for the 5500 piece barcelona... wondering if thats a good deal

[RichardGoring]

Perhaps they are increasing the limit to 2 in the US to match what they already have in Europe (limit 3), and after they have been able to successfully launch it without it being sold out. I'm glad that they've actually changed the limit though. I've been into a couple of different LEGO store several times in the last few weeks and someone was buying a castle each time I was there. Not at busy times either. It's a very small sample size, but suggests that it's selling well enough. You could ask your local store what the sales of it have been like, and they will probably tell you.

I considered the Camp Nou set at $209, as it seems too good an opportunity to pass up at 40% off. But I have no interest in the stadium and there are no alt builds on Rebrickable. Then looking through the inventory, nothing really feels exciting. Whereas I got two of the Queer Eye sets at 40% off because those could be great for custom buildings. Plus two pirate VIP bags for castle and pirate themed fun.

[eldiano]

You have to remember that celebrating 90 years can take them an entire year and they will probably squeeze other lines in between therefore probably making other exclusives, it may be that the castle is the first wave and who knows if bionicle or others follow suit, 🤷 im

just being hopeful

[dilligan]

Still waiting for a good deal like a GWP or double points to get 10305, but then I need to figure out how to lay this out and more importantly where to put it.

Spoiler

 

[dimc]

15 hours ago, iragm said:

Limit in the USA raised to 2 per customer.  I'm guessing this isn't selling as well as Lego had hoped.  I know I am holding off purchasing a second one until there's a pretty decent sale. 20% off would do.

I'm holding off on my first (and likely only) copy for 2xVIP or a really good GWP. $400 is a lot, even for a flagship build. I have no place to put it at this time, but that's a problem for future me.

[natesroom]

when they have a double or triple i will turn in my point and get it for the second time.

Edited August 19, 2022 by natesroom