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I'm not too worried about the lack of a knight impulse. This is the first release of this line. Remember the crownies went on for 3 years straight. Further releases may include a knight type of impulse or better yet a joust with 2 knights and a couple of squire type peasants.

The collection will include 2 impulses the wizard and the jester. Yes the black beard is in.



Also there are 2 promo sets 30061 and 30062



I do hope to get atleast one of each of the impulses to complete my collection, but after that how many wizards and jesters does anyone need? As for the promo sets they are very nice and I would like to get a few of them for the extra parts that are included.

I love the nostalgia comment. I used to be nostalgic about my classic castles until I recently rebuilt them and compared them side by side to the fantasy line. IMHO the new stuff is just flat out better designed. It makes me wonder if those of us that are nostalgic for the classics have built the sets recently.

As for the juniorized comments... the numbers don't lie. Black Falcons Fortress has 10 panels 12 corner panels and 430 total pieces. Kings castle siege has 10 panels, and 7 corner panels in a set with 973 pieces. Now KCS did have 3 burps, 8 battlement poops, 1 window panel, and a large gate top piece. Even with all these POOPs included KCS has 1 POOP for every 32.5 pieces. BFF has 1 POOP for every 19.5 pieces. Which sets were the juniorized ones?

Now for the exciting part! This years Lion's castle panels are smaller and therefore more versatile. There appears to be 15 of the panels and 6 corner panels in a set with 933 pieces. That is a whopping 44.5 pieces per POOP. This amazing change is because the battlements are all brick built again. I don't think this is juniorized. It may be too complex for me to build in one day! To the designers of the Kingdoms line I say bravo!

I do agree this appears to be one of the best castles ever. I will set it next to my black monarchs castle, and black falcons fortress and then judge. To be continued...

So far, my only real complaints about the new castle, at least from the pictures I've seen so far are: the stickers and I'm rather sick of red roof bricks.

DaleDVM wrote:Even with all these POOPs included KCS has 1 POOP for every 32.5 pieces. BFF has 1 POOP for every 19.5 pieces.

Interesting stats.

DaleDVM wrote:this appears to be one of the best castles ever. I will set it next to my black monarchs castle, and black falcons fortress and then judge. To be continued...

That would be an interesting pictoral-review/article.

Steve

I like the look of the sets in general and particularly the helmets.

Athos wrote: and I'm rather sick of red roof bricks.

I love red roof bricks.
Mainly because the black corner slopes 75 are so expensive, but still.

DaleDVM wrote:As for the juniorized comments... the numbers don't lie. Black Falcons Fortress has 10 panels 12 corner panels and 430 total pieces. Kings castle siege has 10 panels, and 7 corner panels in a set with 973 pieces. Now KCS did have 3 burps, 8 battlement poops, 1 window panel, and a large gate top piece. Even with all these POOPs included KCS has 1 POOP for every 32.5 pieces. BFF has 1 POOP for every 19.5 pieces. Which sets were the juniorized ones?

I dunno, there-- KCS had a bunch of other juniorized stuff too, like:



And some other things that are .... ~quasi~ juniorized, like the dragon, portcullis, and some other stuff upon which we'd have to debate (like horses!). Anyway, by a quick count, I got 55 juniorized parts in the KCS-- about one POOP per 17.7 pieces. But what counts as a juniorized element is obviously up for debate.

DaveE

DaleDVM wrote:I'm not too worried about the lack of a knight impulse. This is the first release of this line. Remember the crownies went on for 3 years straight. Further releases may include a knight type of impulse or better yet a joust with 2 knights and a couple of squire type peasants.

I'm with DaleDVM here, The knight impulse for crownies didn't come out until the second year of the line so there is hope for the future. Trust me, I like soldiers too, but exact minifigs have a little more pizazz to them. And remember, a there has only been 1 type of Jester (2 if you count Harley Quinn) so far so seeing a little more variety is great. Sure it's recycling a bit of the old line, but that happens in every line.

Besides, who said you can't have a chorus of jesters for the king or a great big cult of wizards? All you have to do is swap out the faces and have a little imagination.

Just my opinion,
~FB~

Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against there being a wizard and a jester, I just think most of us wants far more soldiers than jesters and wizards. Including the jester and wizard in bigger sets and soldiers in the impulses would make getting the "correct" ratio simpler (=cheaper).

Battlepacks - if they are released - will make the issue less relevant, but they aren't as available as the regular sets.

Forestboy wrote:

DaleDVM wrote:I'm not too worried about the lack of a knight impulse. This is the first release of this line. Remember the crownies went on for 3 years straight. Further releases may include a knight type of impulse or better yet a joust with 2 knights and a couple of squire type peasants.

I'm with DaleDVM here, The knight impulse for crownies didn't come out until the second year of the line so there is hope for the future. Trust me, I like soldiers too, but exact minifigs have a little more pizazz to them. And remember, a there has only been 1 type of Jester (2 if you count Harley Quinn) so far so seeing a little more variety is great. Sure it's recycling a bit of the old line, but that happens in every line.

Besides, who said you can't have a chorus of jesters for the king or a great big cult of wizards? All you have to do is swap out the faces and have a little imagination.
Just my opinion,
~FB~

I am glad that LEGO is planning another Wizard impulse. Having multiple wizards allows me to have different wizard groups that support different factions that I have. I realize that there are those that want little or no fantasy elements in their LEGOverse. I am the opposite. I am glad that LEGO experimented in the 2007-2009 lineup. It was so great to have an evil faction with an evil cult of wizards controlling a massive army of undead to challenge the Crown knights with the good wizards.

Having multiple Jesters is ok as well. I imagine a troop of them entertaining royal courts or performing in town squares. I would say that we will have a knight impulse in 2011. I am not going to wait, however. Either I will buy other sets for army builders or will use Bricklink. Then it won't matter if an impulse set comes out in 2011.
-Tower

I need to clarify something. When I mentioned "juniorized" I was not discussing anything more than my instant opinion of when I looked at the sets. They reminded me of duplo. Maybe its the colors, maybe it is the buildings. I really do not know. But I still haven't truly formed my opinion because as I have said, I need to actually see the sets in person before I decide. Its interesting how we are now discussing the pieces and other things to talk about this.

As far as the wizard and jester impulse sets, hey I'm all for having some of those. But I can also see the point of why people want soldiers there to build armies. I'm not an army builder, well except for my ants, frogs, and potentially cows and camels...but I do understand why people want/need their whole army looking the same. Its about continuity.

I think we need to remember that this is year one of this line. Who knows what year two brings.

Heya,

The Green Wizard impulse has appeared in a shop in Paris, found by 74louloute (also the Collectible figs):

I'm actually a little bummed by the text in English on the scroll ("you are far more powerfull than you would ever imagine") (and, yes, the misspelling is theirs, not mine). I preferred the older scroll with undecipherable runes, which seems much more wizardly.

But the dragon is cool.

Bruce

Ah ! You are faster than me ! I was about to post the pic here !

I found this in my local toy shop in Paris. It was the only set of the range.
The mage has georgous dark green clothes : legs and hat are nicely printed, but the torso is plain.
The head is the same as the Governor in the Pirate line.

The tile is printed with a parchment pattern where it is written : "You are far more powerful than you would ever imagine..." As Bruce already noticed, there is a mistake on the parchment...
Moreover, there is a new jumper 2x2 and a little Dark Green Dragon.

To conclude : I really like this impulse, it's a great addition to the previous Lego mage. Personnaly, I like this new parchment, and most of all that it's a printed tile (and not a sticker)

Bruce N H wrote:Heya,

The Green Wizard impulse has appeared in a shop in Paris, found by 74louloute (also the Collectible figs):

I'm actually a little bummed by the text in English on the scroll ("you are far more powerfull than you would ever imagine") (and, yes, the misspelling is theirs, not mine). I preferred the older scroll with undecipherable runes, which seems much more wizardly.

But the dragon is cool.

Bruce

I knew how to spell "powerful" in the first grade! Do they all have this misspelling? If so, that greatly decreases my eagerness for this set. It gets on my nerves when they misspell stuff in LEGO magazines and catalogs, but this is going too far! Maybe it was made in Paris by some real Frenchie.

If they correct this error for the next production batch, the one with the error might turn out to be something of a collector's item.

Napoleon wrote:I knew how to spell "powerful" in the first grade!

I'm so proud of you

Napoleon wrote:this is going too far!

Really? I mean really?

DaleDVM wrote:Also there are 2 promo sets 30061 and 30062

I have a question about these things. Anyone know how, where, when you will be able to buy them? They looks really good, with lots of useful parts.

A_V