2025 Castle [wishlist/speculation]

[GreenhouseBricker]

As you know, LEGO has made 2024 the year of space; incorporating the ‘space’ banner across many established themes. If successful, this will hopefully bring in a new wave of space fans and satisfy some older fans of space and classic space.

Is this something LEGO may attempt for other classic themes; specifically, Castle? It could be wishful thinking but I don’t think its impossible that 2025 or 2026 could be the year of Castle. Depending on the success of “Space 2024”, it could allow LEGO to be more flexible with its Castle banner and help satisfy multiple groups of LEGO fans while introducing a new generation to Castle.

Spreading the banner of Castle across many themes would allow us to get more variety of pieces and prints. Themes such as CMF, ICONS, Creator, Friends, Duplo, City, Technic, Ninjago and maybe even introducing a new theme in the castle wave. I’m not sure how it would be executed but we can definitely take some cues from “Space 2024” for a theoretical “Castle 2025”

What are your thoughts and do you think LEGO might go down this route in 2025 or 2026?
 

Edited March 27, 2024 by GreenhouseBricker

[icm]

Might want to change the title to 2025 Castle Theme [wishlist/speculation] so that people don't get confused and think we know anything.

[Shroffy123]

I hope so. As much as I appreciate the recent castle related sets, spending 200$ plus on a set is burdensome. I'd like to get a proper wave with solid 20$ sets. 

[karrit]

Personally, I would love it if they did something with Castle going forward similar to what they are doing with Space this year.  I would also like to see them do the same with Pirates/Imperials and even Adventurers.  I've been okay with the limited castle releases the past few years since they are so expensive but would love to see some smaller sets like they used to make to compliment the large builds.  I'd even be happy if they were to cycle through each of these classic themes just concentrating on one per year like they have this year with Space.  I'm planning on getting most of the Space sets but am also a Castle collector so both in the same year are a bit much with the bigger sets.  Adding in the upcoming safari theme which is sort of adventurers related I'm looking at three series I need to get this year in addition to my Botanicals, Winter Village, Harry Potter, Creator and whatever Ideas sets appeal to me along with any other one offs that I might like.

[Westbrick]

While I would L O V E this I can’t see it happening quite the way you describe it - space is a very modern theme, so they can have have it across everything and produce space sets for Friends, Technic, etc. in a way I can’t see working for Castle. 
 

I hope I’m wrong though!

Edited March 26, 2024 by Westbrick

[icm]

I imagine the Technic designers could have a lot of fun making medieval siege engines at a variety of price points, but the Lego lawyers might not let them!

[Lyichir]

To be honest without any concrete info about whether or not there will be castle sets, this kind of discussion probably is better suited to the existing Future Castle Sets topic. After all, speculation about the future is pretty evergreen.

Personally I feel like castle is slightly less suited than space for a cross-theme promo like the space one, since space's time range of present-to-future fits better into major existing themes like City and Friends than a historic/fantasy theme like castle would (as much as I'd like another original fantasy-styled mini-doll theme like Elves). But I suppose castle could still fit into themes like Art, Classic, Creator, Icons, and Minifigures.

13 minutes ago, icm said:

I imagine the Technic designers could have a lot of fun making medieval siege engines at a variety of price points, but the Lego lawyers might not let them!

I doubt Lego's lawyers are too concerned about that sort of thing. I assume you're alluding to the Osprey controversy but there's a world of difference between vehicles used in modern-day militaries licensed from real-world military contractors, and something like a trebuchet or similar siege engine with no financial ties to any real-world organization and no baggage tied to their use in modern conflicts.

[icm]

I'm alluding to the greater risk of shooting your eye out with a great big Technic siege engine than with a little spring shooter or stud shooter.

[Lyichir]

6 minutes ago, icm said:

I'm alluding to the greater risk of shooting your eye out with a great big Technic siege engine than with a little spring shooter or stud shooter.

Ah, fair! I suppose if you weakened something like a trebuchet enough for it to be reliably safe it'd lose the appeal altogether. Plus since it'd be less intuitive to aim than a small shooter that fires more or less directly forward, you couldn't exactly rely on the little "do not aim at eyes or face" callout.

[TeriXeri]

Friends gets a bed and breakfast "Castle" set in 2024, so will be interesting to see how they incorporate castle in that theme.

[Black Falcon]

1 hour ago, Lyichir said:

To be honest without any concrete info about whether or not there will be castle sets, this kind of discussion probably is better suited to the existing Future Castle Sets topic. After all, speculation about the future is pretty evergreen.

Agreed, especially with how the Theme is worded it sounds like a thread about actual next years castle Sets with actual information about them.

1 hour ago, Lyichir said:

Personally I feel like castle is slightly less suited than space for a cross-theme promo like the space one, since space's time range of present-to-future fits better into major existing themes like City and Friends than a historic/fantasy theme like castle would (as much as I'd like another original fantasy-styled mini-doll theme like Elves). But I suppose castle could still fit into themes like Art, Classic, Creator, Icons, and Minifigures.

When we got first rumours about the space CMF I had the hopes we would get a castle CMF and Pirates CMF for the next years but honestly, when we learned that it was "just" part of an multiple theme space, it seemed less likely to me. I wouldn´t rule them out doing them, especially since they should know that historic figures usually are among the more requested ones but it seems more unlikely that they will do a multiple theme thing, like they did with Space.

The only way I could see Castle fitting with City or Friends would be as part of some kind of costume party, a theme park or something similar - which would also contain non-castle Elements, which would make the sets as whole less appealing. That beeing said, if they would like to do such a thing like they did with space this year, I think it would be more likely to do an own theme for it - but overall I think the chances for it happening are still quite low.

 

1 hour ago, icm said:

I'm alluding to the greater risk of shooting your eye out with a great big Technic siege engine than with a little spring shooter or stud shooter.

I would actually disagree with that. While the spring shooters have a straight force forward, siege engines use a more curved trajectory to reach a certain distance and in a playable model you wouldn´t need to use that much force to move the object. Additionally to that the projectiles of the siege engine would be bigger and smaller projectiles such as studs will put their force on just a small area, resulting in more potential damage to that area than when the force would be spread over a bigger area.

[Follows Closely]

I don't see castle working like space does with LEGO. Space is a hot topic in 2024 in the real world, and LEGO is taking advantage of that. Castle? I don't see it happening in 2025.

Edited March 27, 2024 by Follows Closely

[GreenhouseBricker]

16 hours ago, icm said:

Might want to change the title to 2025 Castle Theme [wishlist/speculation] so that people don't get confused and think we know anything.

Thanks for the tip. I have edited the topic.

[GreenhouseBricker]

There are definitely some challenges that a Castle banner would face in certain themes that Space does not. The modern/futuristic element of space allows it to fit into themes like City and Friends quite well. Then there's themes like Dreams that kind of do whatever they want. But Castle could potentially get its own Theme or Subtheme 'Classic Castle'. It could also be really interesting to see the banner extend to themes like Ninjago (LEGO Ninjas tie-in), Technic for siege engines, Architecture for real world Castles, Art for faction shields and coat of arms, Creator or Classic for freestyle castle building with lots of elements and parts, and obviously CMF. I think it is less likely to see it in City, but Friends might be a possibility.

Edited March 27, 2024 by GreenhouseBricker

[iragm]

I don't see the need for this.  This is literally the best time - ever - in the history of Lego to be a castle fan.

• PAB makes army building easy and like $3 a figure.
• The castle is great, best castle since 6086, and maybe best castle of all time.
• The blacksmith was great.  MOC quality in an official set.
• The Town Center is one of the best civilian sets we've ever had (arguably the Guarded Inn was more revolutionary just by being first and giving us those half timber bricks, but the current one is more detailed than MVR and MMV for sure).
• Castle in the Forest is the best forestmen set of all time, and can be bricklinked for somewhere around $200, quite an excellent deal given the quality of the build.
• The creator castle has spawned a whole wave of great MOCs on Rebrickable.
• Licensed stuff like Rivendell and DnD is there if you're into that.  Plus those DnD CMFs in September look amazing.  And the Viking Village.
• Brinklink provides reasonably affordable access to retired sets and parts to build your own MOCs.

There's honestly so much stuff right now that I have run out of space for it all and am skipping the licensed stuff.  Having a Friends or Technic castle wave doesn't interest me at all.  Why would I want kid-focused sets when the current sets are targeted at me?  I understand that some people want some smaller, more affordable, castle stuff but IMHO you should just go spend $35 on PAB and buy the exact figures you want.

[Lion King]

City Castle subtheme, anyone? 

Anyways, I would love Castle-themed CMF series. And castle. Set. 

[sporadic]

To me, City/Friends are easy to do Castle subthemes with.  Castles do exist in the modern day, after all.  A museum, heritage site, or archaeological dig are right up there.  More fancifully, a Ren Faire/Amusement Park with the modern/medieval juxtapostion could be silly fun with a lot of gags and hidden features and little details and such.  Done even better you can take out the modern aspects and just use it as a Castle set.

[Breakspear]

i think its very do-able, although I think the chances of it actually happening are pretty low.

Duplo, Creator, Classic, Technic, CMFs, Icons, Architecture, Art and DreamZzz  are all easily capable of accommodating Castle-themed sets/imagery.

City and Friends are more challenging, but also do-able under the guise of theme park, fair, theatre, museum, 'grand hotel' type sets.

I agree with the OP that the primary audience for any such multi-theme Castle wave would be to introduce Castle to child fans of the existing themes (i..e not adult Castle collectors). Nevertheless, TLG could reasonably hope to pick up a few AFOL sales as well, given the absolute lack of small-mid range Castle sets currently on shelves (not including GWPs).

A couple of other thoughts:

• Of the above mentioned existing themes, which is most suitable to host the largest number of Castle sets? For 2024 Space collection, the largest number of sets were released under the City theme (7 sets). This is followed by Technic (4), Friends (2) and other themes having only a single set each. Plus a couple of poly-bags. This approach makes sense, as Space has existed as an established sub-theme of City for many years. Castle lacks this advantage of a natural 'home' theme to provide the backbone of the wave.
• Unlike Space/Sci-Fi imagery, medieval or castle-adjacent imagery gets used a lot more regularly across TLG's contemporary retail offering. This includes recent Creator and ICONs and IDEAS releases, as well major licensed themes (Disney, Harry Potter, LoTR and now, D&D). Does this make a 2025-2026 Castle wave more likely (because there is evidently an established audience for it) or less likely (because that demand is already being served)?

[MAB]

6 hours ago, sporadic said:

To me, City/Friends are easy to do Castle subthemes with.  Castles do exist in the modern day, after all.  A museum, heritage site, or archaeological dig are right up there.  More fancifully, a Ren Faire/Amusement Park with the modern/medieval juxtapostion could be silly fun with a lot of gags and hidden features and little details and such.  Done even better you can take out the modern aspects and just use it as a Castle set.

I was just thinking the same thing. A heritage site for one theme and a renaissance fair in another. It would be quite fun to see minidoll figures with Black Falcon and Lion Knights torsos in a joust!

[Artanis I]

While they didn't do knights & soldiers, Elves did cover a few of the Castle 'bases' - in a way it was Friends in a fantasy castle setting

[SpacePolice89]

I hope that they don't do it the same way as they did with the so called "year of space". There is currently not a single set for sale that belongs to or is related to the Space theme. What is more likely is that they'll continue to introduce Castle sets under different sub brands like Ideas, Icons and Creator. And be happy for that because the "year of space" treatment means no sets at all. My personal preference would be a stand alone Castle subtheme like Kingdoms from 2011.

[GreenhouseBricker]

2 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

I hope that they don't do it the same way as they did with the so called "year of space". There is currently not a single set for sale that belongs to or is related to the Space theme. What is more likely is that they'll continue to introduce Castle sets under different sub brands like Ideas, Icons and Creator. And be happy for that because the "year of space" treatment means no sets at all. My personal preference would be a stand alone Castle subtheme like Kingdoms from 2011.

I would definitely prefer to have a stand alone theme or subtheme for Castle. Especially if it was Fantasy Era 2 because I grew up with Fantasy. Doing a new wave with trolls in the style of the series 24 CMF would be amazing. I have a small army of them already.

However, I think it would be great if LEGO does a "Year of Castle" and introduced a new wave as well as using the banner across multiple themes. I can fortunately afford to get 1-2 expensive LEGO castle sets each year, but I know many other fans who can't. Having sets at different price points helps grow the community. It brings in new younger fans and allows AFOLs to army build and do more MOCs. I really like the 2024 City Space sets and am slowly collecting the whole wave.

Don't get me wrong, I love the expensive Castle sets and Castle adjacent sets we have gotten over the past couple of years. I will get the Medieval Town Square in a few months when there is a good GWP or double points. But I think it is important to expand the audience. The DnD CMF will probably help with this but unless you are a dedicated fan of DnD or have the financial resources, new Castle fans and young fans will not be buying the Red Dragons Tale Set. 

Edited March 28, 2024 by GreenhouseBricker

[GeoBrick]

For me, I hope the LEGO company continues to develop medieval sets based on artisans. We now have had the MVR, MMV, LKC, and lately the MTS. Three of those are linked to medieval common folk doing their job.
My next medieval 'dream set'  would be a Medieval Workshop Hamlet. Just like in MTS, a couple structures/houses having a number of workers going about their job. Or else a Medieval Manor. One could put a number of guards in that kind of structure.

[Yoggington]

8 hours ago, SpacePolice89 said:

There is currently not a single set for sale that belongs to or is related to the Space theme.

How do you reckon?

[Lion King]

37 minutes ago, Yoggington said:

How do you reckon?

Yeah, I would be interested to see @SpacePolice89’s evidence to support his so-called claim…