LEGO Castle 2013

[Aanchir]

I actually no longer mind the designs of the sets, and since I hardly ever keep a set up and together longer than a week before it gets parted out. The issue I have is the heraldy, IMO, is simply horrid. Minifigs are my first consideration when buying a set, and I'm not feeling much for these, although if the dragon heraldy had been better designed the baddies would have looked epic.

I'm fond of the heraldry myself, particularly the lion heraldry. The fact that it's more geometric than lion heraldry of the past is nice because it feels more or less like what an actual LEGO lion might look like. The dragon heraldry is less geometric, but I still feel it looks nice as a slightly stylized depiction of the current LEGO dragon design.

On the subject of LEGO dragons, what are people's thoughts on the design of the LEGO dragon? Personally, I like the angular design of its arms, legs, and body, the tubular design of its neck and tail, and the fact that it has printed eyes. I also like how much articulation it has. But one thing that I'm sometimes a bit iffy about is its eyes. Normally I prefer for LEGO animals to have "black dot with white sparkle" eyes like minifigures, or some variation on that (like how fantasy-era Castle and Ninjago skeletons had red dots with white sparkles, or how the Ninjago dragons have the black or red dot narrowed to a sort of an angry wedge). I think it's a bit of a shame that even with a new print for the dragon, we've still got yellow eyes with black pupils. At the same time, maybe this was a conscious decision so that people with fantasy-era dragons didn't feel like this one was inconsistent with theirs.

Another thing I'm iffy about is how the flame now sticks into the dragon's chin. It just doesn't work for me. It would have been much nicer if, say, it had some teeth in the front that formed a clip.

I was kind of disappointed to see that the wings still use click hinges instead of the clip-and-handle hinges which have become popular lately, but I realize in retrospect that click hinges are probably essential to support the wings' weight, as clip-and-handle hinges would sag over time. A ball joint like the Vikings dragons used would be nice, but the connection point would end up looking blocky and awkward.

[Nagyzee]

And the saying is whatever floats your boat, boats don't fly

Was an unconscious mistake. (I know this saying even though I'm not a native speaker.) I should of read through my post once more before sending it then I wouldn't of made this stupid mistake. I must of been quite tired as it was something like 2 am here when I posted that.

---

Back on topic:

I think the King's Castle is actually a nice set in its basics, yet I still don't really like it. Structurally it's a lot better than both the Fantasy Era and the Kingdoms castles. It has a proper gatehouse finally after all. The drawbridge of the Kingdoms Castle looked quite funny and unrealistic with those outer arms. Yeah, this one is made up of more panels than the former ones but those were mostly wall panels as well, so this only means that this is actually bigger. What makes me not really like it despite this are the following:

- colour scheme (dark blue > red > blue in my books), this can be easily fixed though

- the siege engine of the bad guys, that looks ridiculous

- the figures, I'm not a fan of their colour schemes and heraldry

- 'bricks' bricks as foundation (it gives the effect as if that stone castle was built on top of a layer of bricks)

- (and maybe higher standards after having been treated to Helm's Deep)

I think it's still an okay set, and with a little customisation it can be made a lot more aesthetically appealing.

The real dud in this line is the Dragon Mountain in my opinion. The baddies hideouts/fortresses has a tendency to be unsubstantial and small, usually being not more than a medium sized tower (only exception in recent times was the Trolls' Mountain Fortress), but this one is even smaller than its predecessors. Really, it feels to be barely more than a small stand for that dragon to stand on. (Okay, and a tiny tower next to it.)

The gatehouse set is okay for what it is, I have the same problems with it as with the castle. Namely that I don't like the colour scheme and the siege engine. The cart in Gold Getaway is quite nice actually, it's pleasing to finally see a cart that seems to be to scale and not a huge monstrosity. The smallest set is a battlepack, so I don't have much to say about it.

All in all I have to say that the builds in this new Castle iteration are not worse than their counterparts from former Castle lines. Apart from the siege engines maybe, but those were weak points quite often in the past, too.

Edited May 6, 2013 by Nagyzee

[Aanchir]

The real dud in this line is the Dragon Mountain in my opinion. The baddies hideouts/fortresses has a tendency to be unsubstantial and small, usually being not more than a medium sized tower (only exception in recent times was the Trolls' Mountain Fortress), but this one is even smaller than its predecessors. Really, it feels to be barely more than a small stand for that dragon to stand on. (Okay, and a tiny tower next to it.)

I definitely agree about Dragon Mountain. Don't get me wrong; it's a beautiful design. I love the impression of the evil wizard's lair being built on the ruins of an older castle, and the asymmetry of the design as a whole. The multicolored stairs are a great detail as well. But at the same time, it's a piss-poor place to raise an army against the much more substantial King's Castle. Even in a theme like LEGO Castle where a castle rarely has an armory, a barracks, or any living quarters, there should at least be a stronghold substantial enough to imagine there's more inside it than the physical contents, and the Dragon Mountain doesn't do a particularly good job of suggesting it.

I hope future waves will give us a considerably more substantial headquarters for the dragon knights, and perhaps a king or military leader of some kind (rather than just having the evil wizard lead the dragon knights). It gives me some hope at least that the Dragon Mountain resembles more of an outpost than a full castle, and if we're lucky the release of the sets and the appearance of marketing materials for the theme will bring us hints at what else we might expect from the theme in the future.

If there is a new evil castle in the future, I wonder if it will use the same modular wall system as 7946, 70402, and 70404. Even though most AFOLs probably won't join 7946 with either of the new sets without swapping the heraldry and red/blue bricks for ones that match, I think it's brilliant that they maintained this modular wall system for the benefit of fans who already have 7946.

I'm fond of this theme's siege engines myself. The Gatehouse Raid's catapult is definitely one of the weakest designs, though, along with the awful ballista in Gold Getaway. At least it has some nice parts so if for whatever reason you want to buy multiples of 70402, the siege engines won't go completely to waste.

Edited May 9, 2013 by ZCerberus
Come on Grand Duke! You've been here long enough to know not to quote an entire post.

[Lord Insanity]

The thing that seems really off to me is the colored slopes on the crenulation. Simply removing all those silly blue slopes would make the castle look ten times better. Compare to what I still consider the best actual castle ever made by LEGO, the 6086 Black Knight's Castle. While 6086 has bright red and yellow those are used for tudor style wall sections and actual roofing. It looks good despite still being brightly colored. (thougth the black walls may help with that illusion) In the new 70404 castle (just like the 7946 Kingdom's castle) the color on the crenulation just makes it look well, stupid. Underneath is what looks like an awesome castle though.

I am not a big fan of the new heraldry. I seems off somehow and I can't quite tell why yet. (Even the classic dragon heraldry from 6086 looks better.) I kind of wonder why they didn't just reuse the Kingdom's heraldry (which was awesome) if they were just going to do more lions and dragons.

Edited May 6, 2013 by Lord Insanity

[adotnamedstud]

I don't understand that after we saw the Hi-res pics everyone didn't like them, for sure I'll be buying hopefully a few of these sets but I'm focused on GS at the moment. But even if you don't like the sets look at all those pieces In conclusion even if this is going to be one wave take the risk and buy some.

[Artanis I]

But at the same time, it's a piss-poor place to raise an army against the much more substantial King's Castle.

Usually I get bored in the middle of your posts because they're so long and detailed in reasoning, (I'm often in a hurry skimming new posts) but this time I got a kick. Hit the nail on the head. "Where does your army reside, assemble and train?" "We just stand around some ol' rock..."

The "bad" guys rarely get a decent base. Sucks. When I was younger and used to play with my knights & soldiers, the main storylines were one army taking over the base/castle of another. (Then getting beaten by a third army because their forces were spread too thin over too many bases - unless they were able to gain defectors...) Who would want to take over a rock when you already have a castle?

Also had enough of "evil wizard boss"

I kind of wonder why they didn't just reuse the Kingdom's heraldry (which was awesome) if they were just going to do more lions and dragons.

AFOLs would probably complain that they were just rehashing something done before! And yes, 6086 is still the best, despite the raised baseplate.

[Lordofdragonss]

AFOLs would probably complain that they were just rehashing something done before! And yes, 6086 is still the best, despite the raised baseplate.

We would not complain if they did it right. They could still name theme Kingdoms and continue the theme adding new KINGDOMS but still putting old Dragons, peasants and Lions somwhere in a sets and make a cool continuity just like old sets had.

[dgherko]

6086 and the Yellow Castle (for mythical reasons) are the best. With 6074 Black Falcon Fortress an excellent set as well, deserving of the legends release.

Nit-picky stuff, but we need

An evil king or opposing king. We have had the black monarch castle (6085 reference only) black knight (first titled charactor), dragon master, bat lord, cedric, Vladek, evil wizard (7093), *** only bad guy king troll fortress (7097)*** and back to evil wizard (70403)

Majisto - first named charactor was neither good or bad

for the good forces king castle (6080 reference only), king mtn fort (6081 reference only), actual first King (6008, 6044, 6090), crazy king (2586), King Leo (6026, 6095, 6098), king mathias, king jayko, king released in set 10176, king castle seige ( 7094), king chariot (7078), king castle (7946) kings carriage (7188), kingdom joust (10233), king castle (70404)

one troll king opposing over 17 "good guy" kings all wearing the arms of the lion. Even have 10 or so family member Queens, Princes and Princesses. We do have an evil vladek faction torso with a crown in the first chess set, but after that it has been vikings - gold helmets and the two most recent castle sets had wizards - one red and one green........... uguh :thumbdown:

WE NEED A DEVELOPED OPPOSITION in a castle of great size. Please produce a dark castle and an opposing king for 2014.

I am not concerned at all about the childish hearldry. So many have torso or shield stickers free or moderate price, we can change if we need to.

[Alfadas]

And include a couple of centaurs in it!!

No, just kidding, yes it is cool if LEGO® made centaurs, but an evil king is much more realistic.

[Maxim I]

I still don't get it why people are complaining about the childish elements while they are praising the Fantasy-era, I mean, there were skeletons, dwarves and trolls back there !

This castle-line has everything to make it to the kids! Colourfull (like in the real medieval times), playability, good & bad guys, dragon, ...

And honestly, I like the heraldry of the good guys. Just like I am not complaining about the heraldry of the baddies (even I still think it looks like Scratch of Ice Age)

[Deathleech]

I'm not a fan of the dragon because of the feet. I think they look silly being so big. I am not sure if Lego did this for stability, for stylization, or a combination of the two, but I am not a fan at all. I do like everything else about the dragon though. If Lego made the feet so big for stability I wish they would of just designed it to be better balanced using the tail.

As for there not being a big evil castle, I think it makes sense. When I was a kid that was one of the main driving forces behind the evil soldiers attacking the good.. they wanted to take over their keep! Plus I think it's harder for most kids to afford two big $100 Castles from a single wave. If this line gets a second wave maybe they will include a proper dragon castle then?

Lastly, at least for me, it's not just the colors that bug me about this Castle line. It just doesn't strike me as terribly interesting. At a quick glance everything looks too similar to some previous Castle sets and is kind of bland. Sure there are some new techniques used in building and some different shapes and models, but nothing that really sticks out to me. Fantasy had all the orcs, skeletons, trolls, etc. to give it a unique spin on Castle. Other waves had Vikings, Ninja, and even the power rangers to give them a breath of fresh air (even if they were ugly). What does this line have? If the Dragons would of had the white faces and been undead/vampires like they appeared to have early on, that would of at least been something to differentiate this line and pique my interest. As is it's just just two pretty standard armies war-ing. Add to it the fact the great LotR/Hobbit waves are out and this line just doesn't really draw me in at all.

[Knight Solaire]

The theme is alright. I'll probably only buy a few forest ambushes and possibly the gatehouse raid for the barded horse which the dragon knight has. Otherwise none of the sets really appeal to me, which is a shame as I quite like the minifigs. However I'm sure it will be a great theme for the younger audiences yet still have many useful elements for the older audiences as well. As for the dragon? I never really liked those kind of dragons, I only really like brick built ones or the classic style dragon.

[Alfadas]

I agree, the fantasy era dragons and this dragon look Duplo-like, no offence Duplo, but the Viking dragons looked much more reallistic to me, except the last one. I do like this dragon, because it has bright colours, you can think it is a young dragon, because young dragons have bright colours that darken with ages. The viking dragons have darker colours, so they are older. This might be young male dragon that is banned by the other male dragons, so he has to find a new home and is offered a great amount of gold, look at the top of the box, so he would fight with the dragon knights. Everybody knows dragons like gold and jewels, look at Smaug in The Hobbit.

[Natetrooper]

I for one am looking forward to picking up some of these sets. The forest ambush is a perfect army builder plus you get a decent amount of treasure and extra pieces to help build up my collection. i will be getting at least six of them for sure.

Not to sure what people dislike about the figs but I think they look great! If I am not mistaken this is the first time LEGO has produced figs with brigandine armor printing Plus the three different styles for the "good" faction are really cool and I love all the different possibilities they give you for creating unique units! However, I wish the torsos with the mail printing was just mail without the blue "vest". This would allow for different color arms to be attached and allow for even more factions.

Edited May 8, 2013 by Natetrooper

[Faefrost]

As for there not being a big evil castle, I think it makes sense. When I was a kid that was one of the main driving forces behind the evil soldiers attacking the good.. they wanted to take over their keep! Plus I think it's harder for most kids to afford two big $100 Castles from a single wave. If this line gets a second wave maybe they will include a proper dragon castle then?

Part of it might also be that the sales performance of evil themed castles has been erratic? I know the Vampyes Castle sold well, but the Ninjago Garmadons Fortress not so well, etc. Whereas the good kings castle has been a steady seller in every version for decades.

[Aanchir]

I'm not a fan of the dragon because of the feet. I think they look silly being so big. I am not sure if Lego did this for stability, for stylization, or a combination of the two, but I am not a fan at all. I do like everything else about the dragon though. If Lego made the feet so big for stability I wish they would of just designed it to be better balanced using the tail.

I think it is largely a reason of stability, and I don't think balancing it with the tail would have really worked better. Part of the point of this dragon design, besides being really large, is having a decent amount of articulation. It's difficult to take advantage of that if there are only a small number of poses where it's designed to balance properly.

There's probably also some stylistic decision-making involved... big feet give the impression of a creature that can shake a mountain or tower whenever it lands.

As for there not being a big evil castle, I think it makes sense. When I was a kid that was one of the main driving forces behind the evil soldiers attacking the good.. they wanted to take over their keep! Plus I think it's harder for most kids to afford two big $100 Castles from a single wave. If this line gets a second wave maybe they will include a proper dragon castle then?

That's what I'm hoping for. And if its architecture has the same ruthless elegance the Dragon Mountain set has, it should definitely be a design that stands out.

Even if there's not a big evil castle set, it'd be cool if there were at least some more evil landmarks like gatehouses or towers that could interlock using the same modular system as the King's Castle. That'd be a perfect starting point for building a larger evil castle of your own design.

I agree, the fantasy era dragons and this dragon look Duplo-like, no offence Duplo, but the Viking dragons looked much more reallistic to me, except the last one. I do like this dragon, because it has bright colours, you can think it is a young dragon, because young dragons have bright colours that darken with ages. The viking dragons have darker colours, so they are older. This might be young male dragon that is banned by the other male dragons, so he has to find a new home and is offered a great amount of gold, look at the top of the box, so he would fight with the dragon knights. Everybody knows dragons like gold and jewels, look at Smaug in The Hobbit.

I dislike the Viking dragons in hindsight. They made some cool use of BIONICLE pieces, but as a result of that and other aspects of their designs they felt more like statues or robots than living creatures like the minifigures they were fighting. They also felt inconsistent, with the heavily-textured BIONICLE leg pieces feeling out-of-place among the more geometric body and tail elements. What I like about the Fantasy-Era dragons (as well as the brick-built Ninjago dragons) is that they pretty consistently have a geometric design with smooth textures, crisp beveled corners, and a mix of cylindrical and angular shapes, much like LEGO minifigures and other LEGO animals. They also have printed eyes just like LEGO minifigures and horses, though I wish the Castle theme's dragons had monochromatic eyes with white sparkles like the first year of Ninjago dragons or like most LEGO horses and minifigures.

[Lordofdragonss]

On the subject of LEGO dragons, what are people's thoughts on the design of the LEGO dragon? Personally, I like the angular design of its arms, legs, and body, the tubular design of its neck and tail, and the fact that it has printed eyes. I also like how much articulation it has. But one thing that I'm sometimes a bit iffy about is its eyes. Normally I prefer for LEGO animals to have "black dot with white sparkle" eyes like minifigures, or some variation on that (like how fantasy-era Castle and Ninjago skeletons had red dots with white sparkles, or how the Ninjago dragons have the black or red dot narrowed to a sort of an angry wedge). I think it's a bit of a shame that even with a new print for the dragon, we've still got yellow eyes with black pupils. At the same time, maybe this was a conscious decision so that people with fantasy-era dragons didn't feel like this one was inconsistent with theirs.

Another thing I'm iffy about is how the flame now sticks into the dragon's chin. It just doesn't work for me. It would have been much nicer if, say, it had some teeth in the front that formed a clip.

I was kind of disappointed to see that the wings still use click hinges instead of the clip-and-handle hinges which have become popular lately, but I realize in retrospect that click hinges are probably essential to support the wings' weight, as clip-and-handle hinges would sag over time. A ball joint like the Vikings dragons used would be nice, but the connection point would end up looking blocky and awkward.

I love the "new" dragon. I would love to see prototypes of it though. :D

The blocky arms and legs fits great to animals design and all that holes allow to mix and match elements.

I agree with you that chin-flame looks pretty nasty, but at least they gave us a chin that supports big flame. Shame it have no new head mold too.

I have no problems with "spiky" eyes- they look more reptile-looking than normal eyes, but you are right, it looks quite non-LEGOish.

[Gryphon Ink]

I think the dragon looks great except for the fact that its beard is on fire. You may try to tell me that element is meant to represent breathing fire, but I would respond that TLG would never EVER design something that bad. So sorry, but just no. That dragon has a beard, and its beard is on fire. But seriously, other than that I think the dragon is pretty darn good.

And I actually think Dragon Mountain is a decent half a set. It looks fine. It just doesn't go far enough. It should be twice that size. When and if I get this set, I am definitely going to rebuild my Dragon Knights sets from Kingdoms and incorporate this one into them.

[gedren_y]

I agree that the fire coming out of the chin doesn't look right, but that is an easy fix with any number of parts with a 3mm connection point. I intend to use one of these (http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=55236).

This dragon will be a step up for me, since I wasn't able to get a Fantasy Era dragon. I have a couple of technic built Vikings wyverns (from the small boat set), the green brick built dragon Creator set and the Harry Potter Hungarian Horntail. I do have some large dragon wings from a KKII set.

[Knight Solaire]

Does anyone have the UK prices for these sets? I really want to see if gatehouse raid is worth it or not.

[CastleFan607]

I am making fannon storylines for Castle (2007) (Mixed with Knights' Kingdom II, actually), but I don't think I want to use the characters in this for the storyline... ..I'd only want the parts because they remind me of Castle (2007)..

[just2good]

Someone on Toys'N'Bricks reported finding the Castle sets at the Times Square Toys"R"Us. None were at my TRU yesterday...

[just2good]

Well this showed up on eBay! I was about to throw a fit for the box size, as it looked like a $10 box in the picture, but it was the camera angle. It's from Minnesota- Sci, go check your Toys"R"Us!

[vriverajr3]

I picked up the forset ambush set today ;)

[just2good]

I picked up the forset ambush set today ;)

Where are you located? Pictures?