Hail all!

I recently started reading Prince Valiant. It's brilliant. And it's got everything I love about castles, knights, chivalry and adenture in general (I'll call that 'swashbuckling adventure' so not to get any confusion with the 1930s Indiana Jones-like Adventures).

Then I remembered all the cool swashbuckling movies I watched, like The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Black Shield of Fallworth and even "newer" films like Kevin Costner's Prince of Thieves.

Which got me thinking - all those are "old" stuff. We haven't got many contemporary movies and comic books and strips... Pop culture is not helping Lego Castle enthusiasts! Pirate fans got Pirates of the Caribbean for years in a roll...

But I guess things will get better soon. There's a new HBO TV series based on George R.R. Martin A Game of Thrones coming out. Not to mention the A Song of Ice and Fire series in and on itself (AGoT is the first in the series) and the many awesome Bernard Cornwell books. But I'd like to get new classic Middle Ages movies, TV series and the like: and more knights, armors, swords, archers, castles, adventure!

Wha about you? Ever tried A Song of Ice and Fire? Prince Valiant? Whats your favourite swashbuckling/Castle movie? Book?

Now that's an idea for a contest......MOC's based around classic films like Robin Hood, etc., 'Oh, Errol....I do anything to be like him' - Australia Crawl (1982)

I'm a conformist! !

Now that's an idea for a contest......MOC's based around classic films like Robin Hood, etc., 'Oh, Errol....I do anything to be like him' - Australia Crawl (1982)

I'm a conformist! !

I would enter

(Looks like having three collectible minifigure forest men might come in handy after all!)

I think there's a lot of material in pop culture to aid the castle theme; i mean starting with all of the fantasy Tolkien-inspired multimedia like movies, video games, and toys, it's just about one of the most popular historical periods to market on. Periods like the renaissance and imperial age are very underrepresented in popular culture, so they are much more so in need of cultural rescue than medieval themes.

You make a valid point, as far as I'm concerned. Yes, we've had some fantasy stuff here and there, but nothing in recent times has captured the whole chivalrous spirit and death defying action like the classics.

Since we clearly can't expect LEGO to get involved in movies to that extent, what they should do is something they can control, put out a LEGO Kingdoms video game in the style of the SW/Batman/HP games. You could easily fill all of the necessary classes of characters from the Kingdoms line and supplement it with forestmen, older factions of knights and wizards, even some of the fantasy and fright knights era stuff. It would be very easy to make a cool mix of all of that and I think it would inspire a new interest in the line, even without getting a licensed theme involved.

Well there is the new Russell Crowe Robin Hood film from earlier this year (although given that it shared many of the same people as Gladiator, maybe its best NOT to remember the existence of this particular film)

There is also the 2006 BBC Robin Hood TV show (which has been airing on ABC here in Australia lately)

Fantasy novels count? I really liked the Hawk & Fisher series from Simon R. Green. Hawk and Fisher are husband and wife and captains in the City Guard of the port city Haven.

Hawk has only one eye, and he uses a magical axe. Fisher uses a sword. No mails, as it would just hinder them during combat. One more detail is their standard issue Guard cloaks:

For a more detailed description (and original artwork etc.), go to the Amazon page for the book, click on the cover and then 'First Pages'.

Pirates of the Carribean is to pirates what LOTR is to castle. Medieval swashbucking tales don't seem to fit in with contemporary pop-culture. We've had several attempts over the past several years (A Knight's Tale, Kingdom of Heaven, Robin Hood, King Arthur, PoP, etc.) however they have all failed to grab public interest or critical approval. I'm not sure if the current generation really has a strong interest in period pieces. Westerns aren't exactly bringing viewers in by the bucketload either.

Fantasy films are a completely different animal. Although audiences seem to balk at the idea of watching a movie about the likes of Robin Hood or King Arthur or any other would-be swashbuckler, fantasy films still seem to be acceptable. I don't think that there is an easy solution here. These movies aren't cheap to produce and audiences don't seem all that interested. Times have simply changed and viewers have different interests. Science fiction seems to be where it's at today.

We also have to remember that TLG bases it's licensed themes on films and series that are at least suitable, if not aimed for children. All the historical medieval movies that have been released in the last decade or so have been very serious, gritty and sometimes gory - so there's nothing to really make a LEGO line out of, or even get inspired by.

We'd definitely need something in line of a medieval version of Pirates of the Caribbean - adventurous, action-packed, tongue-in-cheek - to really rouse up children's interest in knights and castles again.

Personally I would consider at least parts of the Lord of the Rings (and related books/movies etc.) to be "swashbuckling adventure", in addition to purely historical-based stories.

Along the lines of what you're talking about Artifex, I would like to see some "hero" characters incorporated into the new Kingdoms series, meaning somewhat rare figures with cool outfits and equipment, not to mention some kind of name and backstory.

Merlin on BBC is doing a great job, though it is a little late in coming to the US so I stream it as it comes out instead.

I have seen a stronger push toward "reality" rather than adventure this last few years. It would be great to see a reversal.