LEGO Castle 2013

[Krulis]

Dragon wizard has got black Gandalf beard. Nice.

[frumpy]

Speaking of which I noticed several brick built trees in that castle display. Does anyone know if those trees will be included with some of the sets?

I was wondering the same. Trees are always welcome in my opinion.

[Ardelon]

The more I look at the sets, the more I like them. I thought the castle was too simple at first, but now it believe it to be a nice blend of classic aesthetic and modern features. I still think the dark tan base is a bit off, and there are too much blue highlights, but I dont mind the big wall pieces, as it would be hard to build a castle without them. I especially like how the designers put a walkway around the 3rd storey of the gatehouse - there, at least, is one improvement over the Kingdoms castle.Looking forward to deatiled pics of the other sets. The trees are great though, shame we wont get those in the sets!

The heraldry does seem a bit silly, and the color schemes are uninspired, but I try to take it from the POV of a kid you hasnt been exposed to other Castle themes, and so doesnt care aut the repetition. I do believe that these sets were meant to draw in a younger crowd, compared to LotR.

edit @ Krulis: That seems to be sensei Wus beard, not Gandalfs.

Edited February 3, 2013 by Ardelon

[Mr. Elijah Timms]

Thanks for the video find, KazeMonsuta!!

So it's official, then-- THESE GUYS ARE ALL CROWN KNIGHTS!!!! All of the blue faction's torsos (save the king, not sure yet) sport The Crown on their printing, NOT the new lion sigil. This is a huge win as far as I'm concerned!!! I can now push the lion head into a sub-faction or perhaps a house within the Crown Knights!!

Thanks to the video, we can all stop worrying about vampires and skin tones as well... Yeesh, the light in which those Germany pics were taken really generated a lot of speculation, didn't it?

[legobear]

After spewing volcanic ash about the sets for awhile there are redeeming features with the close-up vid shots (thanks! )

At least the new knights armor looks good and I never had a problem with the whole lion face.

The baddie with the skittle knight helmet has to go though...yuck!!!! It's sad he's going to be part of the smallest set so that'll just mean I have to replace his ugly helmet. The coloration does make these knights stand out and I think that's a really good thing.

Perhaps once we have the armies up and running side by side, they'll shine. I think these new shots will turn things around a bit for this line that's getting all bashed in from all sides from me included .

[Lordofdragonss]

Good guys have all known faces.

But baddies looks great!

Edited February 3, 2013 by Lordofdragonss

[Haltiamieli]

Joust should have been Dragons Vs Lions if they never intended to revive it.

"If I can't have the whole cake, nobody should have a piece of it!" I would've been as happy as the next guy had Lego decided to revive Black Falcons in force - but failing that, I think we still got the next best thing: one awesome exclusive figure (and quite many shields so we even might be able to build a tiny Black Falcons 2.0 faction for ourselves). It's much better than having none at all.

[DraikNova]

I love the dragon armor printing. Just so armor-y (yes, unintended horrible pun). And the Evil Mage looks so much much better than the silly 2007 one. The Sensei Wu beard in black helps that a lot (as it doesn´t break up the colors as much as the grey old type of beard I think the last one had), but the color arrangement really helps the most.

Edited February 3, 2013 by DraikNova

[Artifex]

The one thing that bothers me about these theme is the heraldry. Ok, I admit it, I wanted a continuation of Kingdoms, not a new theme, but that ship is sailed, so...

The figures are nice, but when you look at that crown.... Or the lion face... A rampant lion like the one from Kingdoms -- or from other previous themes -- would make all the difference about this theme's minifigs being awesome/great or just meh. If Lego really needed to have a crown there, why not crowning a rampant lion?

Also, the dragon from the baddies has got to be the worse heraldry in Lego history ever.

These were rampant AND crowned. See what I mean?

I like it that the good guys' blue is a little darker then in previous incarnations. The wizard looks bad a.s.s., too.

As for the sets, the castle keeps growing on me. I think there are some nice MODs you can do to it. Expand the front walls, add some higher towers, maybe one similar to the Kingdoms' Castle with the roof (blue? black?).

The other sets look nice, but lacking. They are too simple. I'm not sure if they are even good parts packs.

[Aanchir]

What happened to the Bullet Helms? Remember these bullet helms?

I think they totally lost a great opportunity to reinvent Castle with bullet helms.

We've had too many infantry with neck protectors already.

Dear god stop making these cheek protectors . All the baddies wear these

They're hideous looking and don't look well with anything.

I think archers should have bullet helms like this

I imagine that style of helmet was discontinued very deliberately. From my experience the chin strap on that helmet broke fairly easily, much like on the old-school space helmets. And the fact that that helmet has not been used for a decade is quite telling.

Another helmet in that style, but a bit sturdier, might be effective, but one has to wonder if it would be worth a new mold. I'm no historian, but I've never had any problem with the current selection of LEGO Castle helmets. Even Knights' Kingdom (both iterations) was OK in my book. I imagine it's probably the same with many kids-- they might not object to a new "bullet helm", but it wouldn't necessarily excite them either.

To me it looks like a redo of the Kingdoms castle, as in they are both boring. There is nothing "wrong" with either set, but there is nothing special from them either.

What I do not understand is Lego's use of the raised baseplate. They built a police station and a hospital and a coast guard set, and that ugly IJ set, but they can't use on on a Castle just to make it somewhat different?

But we have to remember that while these sets are boring, so is almost every first year for Castle and then they get better and better until they end for no reason.

Well, for starters, most of those examples you describe were years ago, and the more recent examples like the Pharaoh's Quest and Indiana Jones sets to use raised baseplates were clear methods of cost-cutting-- I think I remember reading something about the Pharaoh's Quest Scorpion Pyramid and how the designer used the raised baseplate because a formidable-looking pyramid set would otherwise be incredibly difficult to create at a reasonable price point. Personally, while I can appreciate the creative use of a raised baseplate, I think that for the most part we're better off without them. They take the already overspecialized nature of traditional baseplates and push it to its logical extreme with a part not designed to function as anything BUT a base for your model.

Anyway, somebody commented that the evil wizard had Gandalf's beard in black, but in the video you can see it's actually Sensei Wu's beard in black. Either way is very nice. All the minifigures look stellar IMO, as does their heraldry.

More pics:

Minifigures

Castle, crossbow cart, and carriage

Castle

The ubiquitous treasure cart

The dragon

The gatehouse

Source: http://www.spieletest.at/bericht.php?ID=1174

[Shakar]

I'm not sure on how many sets I'll get, but I do love the bad guys. They're..generic (black and red, etc..), but that's their charm: I could use a few of them for my evil army. We finally got a black wizard, and he looks excellent.

Just saw Aanchir's pics. THAT Black horse with new barding!

Edited February 3, 2013 by Shakar

[-Carson Haupt-]

One question, why do the baddies have the new Lord of The Rings swords, and the good guys have the old rounded point ones?

[CM4Sci]

This pic confirms normal yellow faces for the baddies:

-Sci

[Gatekeeper]

One question, why do the baddies have the new Lord of The Rings swords, and the good guys have the old rounded point ones?

They actually have the newer swords fashioned like the Heroic Knight in CMF 9. Perhaps this could aslo be to make them look more "good" since they don't have the sharp pointy objects.

[Lyichir]

Dragon wizard has got black Gandalf beard. Nice.

Nope. That's Sensei Wu's beard from the Ninjago line (which is still a nice piece to have in black).

[Krulis]

Oh, yes I see it now. I don't why it thought it has round end. But Wu's beard in black is also very neat.

[gedren_y]

Okay, no vampire baddies. Just bad lighting. With the closer look at the dragon heraldry, it is better than thought, but not as good as Kingdoms. One positive note, though is that this itteration has a 'metal' border printing, which some in the AFOL community have been after. The CMF Evil Knight and CMF Heroic Knight have it, and it looks like it will continue.

I actually enjoyed the look of the lion head in Royal Knights, but am not so much a fan of red, so this more angular version in blue suits me well. My dislike of red and the price held me off from buying the Kingdoms castle, I was more interested in the dragon faction there. I have since come to use some of the Kingdoms lions because of GoH, but they are in the minority of my collection. I will probably Bricklink some of the fancier torsos, but I do not want an army of Kingdoms lions. Those kind of uniform armies aren't even realistic for Medieval Europe.

Also, this version uses a similar enough crown to Fantasy Era so that I may use the torsos and printed armor I have with these figs. I am also wondering if this will get labeled Fantasy Era 2. Fantasy Era simply had Castle as it's label on the packaging, and this dragon faction has red eyes and has a dragon. I was never able to get the big Fantasy Era dragons, so this is a plus. In the newest pics, you can see that the large flame is coming out of the front of the bottom jaw. I would replace that with a black tail section to give it a beard.

I can say with reasonable certainty I will buy these sets, but like many AFOLs will not keep them the way TLG designed them. Remember, these sets were designed for kids to play with, while LOTR/Hobbit sets are designed to mimic movie sets. If you keep looking at these through the prism of LOTR, you will miss what is good here. And looking at these from a playability standpoint, they are superior in that respect than their Kingdoms counterparts. Even the little army builder gives you more than just figs and their weapons.

If you don't like the heraldry, replace it with something you do. There are plenty of them to choose from, even third party decalers if you wish. This version of the King's castle doesn't use the lion brick, so you don't even have to do that much to give it to another faction. The bones of this King's castle look more like a fortress than the two previous itterations as well.

I don't get the idea about how we should have had the Falcon crest as an enemy if there had been a return of Kingdoms. You do not invite your enemy to a joust. Those tournaments were for warriors within the kingdom, or from friendly kingdoms, to show their skill and earn the favor of the king and lords. Kingdoms seemed to be the most realistic of the modern castle lines with it's civilian elements and style of heraldry. That seems to have appealed more to AFOLs than young kids.

Now TLG is delving back into fantasy with a play centered theme. The chunky wheels of the catapaults that some are decrying, are chunky so that they can withstand a great amount of play. At least these don't have the technic pin holes on the sides. That was a mistake in they made in previous themes. Action seems to be the idea of this theme, and that it carries of well.

[Huntleyfx]

In between Castle, and LOTR, I am actually rather pleased. I think I will most likely pick up multiples of the smaller sets, as I am extremely glad that the Crown is returning as a faction. I also definitely have a use for Dragon knights. Finally, a chance to build my two main factions. This is going to be a great year for LEGO Castle.

[Wardancer]

The dragon is growing on me. I have never dared to customize one of the old dragon because they are too expensive, maybe this is the chance to try it. It will most likely be cheaper and therefore less risky if I mess it up.

PS: The horse helmets are pearl gold. This sucks. I hate pearl gold.

Edited February 3, 2013 by Wardancer

[Flieger]

The dragon looks amazing to me! 100% buying the baddies, just for the shields and torsos. They will serve a Targaryen-army well

[Mahtion]

The dragon looks amazing to me! 100% buying the baddies, just for the shields and torsos. They will serve a Targaryen-army well

Targaryen army sounds unique and I would love to see a MOC of King's landing or something along those lines.

Truth be told I'm disappointed in the revelation about the dragon baddies face print. The concept of vampires was interesting and I wanted to see where Lego could go with the concept. Oh well.

[Aanchir]

The dragon is growing on me. I have never dared to customize one of the old dragon because they are too expensive, maybe this is the chance to try it. It will most likely be cheaper and therefore less risky if I mess it up.

PS: The horse helmets are pearl gold. This sucks. I hate pearl gold.

I love Warm Gold (pearl gold). It's so much more vibrant in color than Lacquered Gold (metallic gold), and yet more subdued in luster than either that or Metalized Gold (chrome gold). The color also never wears away no matter how the parts are treated (the other gold colors, which rely on surface treatments, can become scratched if not handled carefully). In general I feel like Metalized and Lacquered Gold should be used sparingly to preserve their visual impact, but I have no such insistence when it comes to Warm Gold or other "pearl" colors.

With that said, certain parts don't work in Warm Gold. PotC demonstrated this when there wasn't enough of the Metalized Gold surface treatment to produce the sets in time for release, so the first production runs used Warm Gold instead. The coins and gold ingots were quite clearly designed to appear with a surface treatment, so without one the raw plastic pieces displayed obvious and obtrusive molding marks. Naturally if the horse armor is designed to be used in Warm Gold in the very first wave, that means it shouldn't have this problem, which is good.

[Flea]

I wish that at least the bad guys had different red color. this one is too brights :(

but the gate set is pretty cool. it has two knights and a fully equiped horse

[DawnCrusader]

I'm actually LOVING the "Crown Lions" minifigures.

So what if Lego decided to use a more "LEGO like design" in this heraldry? Look at the large quality pictures with their shields - they looks gorgeous.

I admit I don't like their Castle / Fortress, it's way spartan, so I'm hoping for a more "fantasy" like set more ahead to serve as their home.

The Dragon Peak, the Gatehouse and the Carriage all look good to me :)

Edited February 3, 2013 by DawnCrusader

[Wardancer]

I love Warm Gold (pearl gold).

Interesting to hear that. I thought it was kind of commonplace to dislike pearl gold.

I have looked forward to some pieces in the past and was disappointed when I saw the real thing. The Aztec Warrior for example, so much gold and yet it looked very cheap. It doesn't look real. Yesterday I tried to give a fig with the black/gold speckled atlantis armor a pearl gold sword and it does not go well together.

Anyway, I don't want to go offtopic. I had just hoped the horse helmets were metallic gold as the ones before.