Svelte Posted September 30, 2009 Posted September 30, 2009 Reading through the 'Castle' section of the new 'Standing Small: A Celebration of 30 Years of the Minifig' (part of the new 'The Lego Book' release), the Black Falcons are called 'Bad Boys' and 'sinister soldiers', seemingly confirm their evil allegiances, a debate that recently emerged in Clone O'Patra's review of the 6009 Black Knight. What do others think of this? I confess I never thought of them as being 'bad boys' thanks to their smiling faces. Is the book canon? Should it have discussed the Falcons in this way? Has there been any other official word on this matter? What do you think? (Also in the Castle section, despite what it says on lego.com, the Fantasy small trolls are referred to as 'Troll Warrior Orc' and the ghost shroud mould is said to have been introduced in 1992, although bricklink and last year's Collector's Guide pinpoint its appearance to the Black Monarch Ghost's set of 1990. So maybe it should be read with a grain of salt Disappointing, however, for an official 30 year celebration text) Quote
Shadows Posted September 30, 2009 Posted September 30, 2009 That's clearly criminal, but what does it say about the Black Knights and Dragon Knights? Surely it must have a nice writeup for them. Quote
Quarryman Posted September 30, 2009 Posted September 30, 2009 That sounds rather sloppy for such a book to me, messing up simple details that any AFOL would have (and will) noticed in 5 minutes. Quote
Svelte Posted September 30, 2009 Author Posted September 30, 2009 Nobody cares about those, so if they've wasted valuable pages on them instead of say, Speed Racer, I'll be very disappointed That's kind of mean Actually Shadows, of the 4 pages on Castle figs, I was surprised to see NO mention of Dragon Knights or Black Knights at all! Most of the other factions are represented, including KK1, KK2 and Fantasy. Quote
Dragonator Posted September 30, 2009 Posted September 30, 2009 That's clearly criminal, but what does it say about the Black Knights and Dragon Knights? Surely it must have a nice writeup for them. Nobody cares about those, so if they've wasted valuable pages on them instead of say, Speed Racer, I'll be very disappointed I just don't know you two any more... Actually Shadows, of the 4 pages on Castle figs, I was surprised to see NO mention of Dragon Knights or Black Knights at all! Most of the other factions are represented, including KK1, KK2 and Fantasy. Outrage, a pure outrage. I think we need to have a word with Mr. Martell about this... *flexes claws casually* Matches, anyone? Quote
Shadows Posted September 30, 2009 Posted September 30, 2009 I just don't know you two any more... Since they clearly aren't important enough to have a page of their own, perhaps they shouldn't have a tag, either. *goes off to remove a certain Dragon shield tag, since it's no longer necessary* Quote
WhiteFang Posted September 30, 2009 Posted September 30, 2009 What dumb book is that, when Black Knights and Dragon Masters are not covered in this LEGO Book? They should hire Draggy and I to write up a historic article on this two mighty medieval factions of all time. Quote
Sir Dillon Posted September 30, 2009 Posted September 30, 2009 If you compare the Crusaders and the Black Falcons, it makes sense that TLG made the Falcons the "bad guys" of the theme. However since no storyline was forced upon us and neither side is shown as overtly good or evil in the sets, we were allowed to decide for ourselves. It's very odd that Black Knights were not mentioned at all. Were the Dragon Masters included? It's possible the author thought they were the same theme and only added the one. Were the Wolfpack in the book? Quote
Rick Posted September 30, 2009 Posted September 30, 2009 If you compare the Crusaders and the Black Falcons, it makes sense that TLG made the Falcons the "bad guys" of the theme. However since no storyline was forced upon us and neither side is shown as overtly good or evil in the sets, we were allowed to decide for ourselves. That was the beauty of the old lines. (With the current fantasy lines it's clear who are the goodies and the badies.) Now they messed with that retrospectively! Quote
Svelte Posted September 30, 2009 Author Posted September 30, 2009 It's very odd that Black Knights were not mentioned at all. Were the Dragon Masters included? It's possible the author thought they were the same theme and only added the one. Were the Wolfpack in the book? The factions included in the book are: - Black Falcons - Crusaders - Forestmen - Wolfpack - KK - KK2 - Fantasy The focus in the book generally is on the recent stuff, but it does kind of jar that they can include all the KK2 figs and 4 different types of skele without at least one pic of the missing factions. Quote
CapnDan Posted October 1, 2009 Posted October 1, 2009 That's in 'Standing Small' specifically, right? Hopefully the Castle section in the main 'The LEGO Book' is more satisfactory? Quote
Svelte Posted October 1, 2009 Author Posted October 1, 2009 I'm talking about 'Standing Small', yes. (Same with the SW errors ) I wouldn't say 'The Lego Book' has better Castle coverage generally, though. Most play themes only get a limited number of pages and the focus is on more recent sets and themes. There are a few nice alternate-angle sets of some classic castle sets which I hadn't seen before, which is a plus! However 'The Lego Book' is not intended as an exhaustive guide so a lot of stuff has dropped off the radar. Quote
CapnDan Posted October 1, 2009 Posted October 1, 2009 Whew! Thanks. I was hoping the book would be as error-free as possible. Had me worried there, especially with the Star Wars comments. Quote
Sir Kohran Posted October 3, 2009 Posted October 3, 2009 (edited) The factions included in the book are:- Black Falcons - Crusaders - Forestmen - Wolfpack - KK - KK2 - Fantasy That's a bit of a jump As to whether the Black Falcons were evil...well, bear in mind their dark and morbid (for the time) colour scheme, particularly in contrast with the optimistic bright red of the Lion Knights/Crusaders. Seems like a pretty big visual clue. Of course, the beauty of it all is that they were never actually confirmed to be the bad guys - that was left up to the owner. Sadly that came to an end in 1993 with the Dragon Masters, and since then each Castle line has gotten a more and more detailed storyline, leaving less and less room for creativity... Edited October 3, 2009 by Sir Kohran Quote
davee123 Posted October 4, 2009 Posted October 4, 2009 (edited) Maybe it's the folks at DK publishing not bothering to do any fact checking. I remember talking to the Master Builders about "The Ultimate Lego Book" (also by DK), and one of their comments was that they lost count of the number of errors that were in it. By contrast, the "LEGO Collector" and "50 Years of the LEGO Brick" books are both recent, NOT done by DK, and I don't think either has any errors (although the former has some omissions that are disappointing). DaveE Edited October 4, 2009 by davee123 Quote
Smidy101 Posted October 7, 2009 Posted October 7, 2009 (edited) Well it's finally confirmed the Falcons are the 'Bad Guys'. That clears up a twenty year old argument I've had with my brother. Anyway jokes aside the LEGO book combo is a good reference guide and there are some excellent pictures across the years. Yes there are a few too many errors, but that aside it is still better than nothing. Now all they need to do is produce a Medieval theme book and the collection will be complete. Edited October 7, 2009 by Smidy101 Quote
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