Rarest Castle Element?

[ezehogan]

I've been wondering about this for a few days. What would be considered the rarest castle element? I know there are several around, such as round shields, white dragon plumes, the base from the Forestmen's River Crossing, etc. But is there one castle element which is far and away the rarest piece?

[CAI]

Black sword maybe?

[Drucifer]

I'd have to say the Red Ghost. viewtopic.php?t=2906

[CAI]

I'd have to say the Red Ghost. viewtopic.php?t=2906

The red ghost is in no way "official", so i'd say it doesn't count.

[Jojo]

Hello!


I'd say any element that comes only in one set can qualifiedly called "rare". So pitchforkes ain't as rare as black swords (only in 6041), roundshields ain't as rare as black birds (only in 6081). It should also be counted in how old a set (that contains a rare element) is, because the older a set the bigger the chance that the rare parts got lost or broken over the years and their number shrinked.

I wouldn't call every element that's on the "official" What-rare-Castle-item-do-you-own-list "rare". Of course some parts have been used in older sets more than in more recent sets (round shields for example), so nowadays these parts seem to be rare and not everybody who got Castle LEGO over the past couple of years was able to get them from newly obtained sets. But that doesn't mean they are rare in general. They may be expensive because they are highly sought after, but that's not equivalent to rare.

I'd call black swords rare, because they tend to brake, same with the shields from the Knight's Tournament 383/6083. The light grey treasure chest from 6011 is also not too common, but that's been a small set that was sold many times, so it's not impossible to get one. Also somewhat rare are stickers from the old Castle sets in good condition, though particularly the yellow Castle
375 was a VERY successful set that was bought by many people over several years, so even a complete yellow Castle is not exceptionally rare.


Bye
Jojo

[TwoTonic Knight]

I'd call black swords rare

(looking on BrickLink) The cheapest one is $10!!! Certainly seems rare by that standard - though for my purposes I'll save myself $9.90 and paint a dirt common gray sword black.

What's the rarest part with all color variations considered as a whole?

[JoshWedin]

What's the rarest part with all color variations considered as a whole?

That opens up a whole new can of worms. I think I have to go with this piece. http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/30100 . It only came in one set (6097) and in one color. They are pretty cheap on Bricklink too. Highest price is $2.80 and lowest is 60 cents.

Josh

PS. I was going to say the pitchfork but it came in six sets.

[Blueandwhite]

Allthough the black sword is fairly rare, I suspect that its rarity is greatly exagerated. The 2x2 Crusader flag that comes with the Armor Shop is just as rare as the black sword (after all, they came in the same set), and is probably even more elusive than the black sword because of the fragile nature of 2x2 flags, yet the most expensive example I can find on bricklink is only $3.00. This probably has more to do with demand than anything.

I think to a large extent, many of the pieces we describe as rare, are only thought of that way because of the effort we must put in to procure them. I wonder what Castle pieces should be considered truly rare?

[rogue27]

If Peeron or BrickLink were able to get the quantity produced of all sets, and had complete and accurate inventories for all sets, it would be a simple database query to find the answer.

However, TLC doesn't seem like the sort of company that wants to release those figures, so we'll never know for sure. However, I'd suspect that a lot of Armor Shops were produced, so the two rare parts it contains aren't too rare. Thing is, people just think Black Swords are really cool.

However, the Maiden's Cart was not available in the USA, so the White Cone hat is probably more rare than the black sword or crusader flag. (Did TLC fear that the white cone hat looked like a KKK garment?) Likewise, 6071? Forestmen's River Crossing was not widely available in Europe, so the baseplate, green corset torso, and green rag cap are all rare.

In a more colorblind view of things, that corner wall with the window may be among the rarest parts, but I thought that part was in the Dacta castle set. Of course, I could be wrong. However, I did get a few of them in a lot of used parts I obtained, yet there was only 1 Fright Knight's figure included. Maybe the extras were dumped at a theme park or something.

The printed Dark Forest Fortress raised baseplate might be pretty rare since it was not available in all parts of the world. This set was also produced when LEGO Castle was declining so the sales and production numbers may have been much smaller than on classics like the Armor Shop or FRC. Also, large sets tend to be produced in smaller numbers than the small sets.

I'd guess that the two rare baseplates are rarer than most "rare" parts.

[Athos]

I'd say the black sword, the black falcon, the brown plastic cape, the white maidens cap, forest wench, white dragon decorations (these might be the rarest, due to their propensity to get lost), grey treasure chest. Each of these came only in a single set.

The maiden's cart wasn't available in the US? I wonder how I got it then. Was it available by S@H?

Steve

[rogue27]

I'd say the black sword, the black falcon, the brown plastic cape, the white maidens cap, forest wench, white dragon decorations (these might be the rarest, due to their propensity to get lost), grey treasure chest. Each of these came only in a single set.

The maiden's cart wasn't available in the US? I wonder how I got it then. Was it available by S@H?

Steve

Well, it is not in any of the catalogs or inserts that are included in US sets. Neither was Guarded Inn. I've never seen either set locally either, but maybe some bigger toy stores carried them anyway. If not, they were probably available from S@H anyway.

[Athos]

I had both the Guarded Inn and the Maidens Cart. I wonder if maybe my folks got them from the airforce BX? That could account for it.

Steve

[Dragon Master]

What about this:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItem.asp?P=x375pb01

Its been on my wanted list for almost a year, and its only been added to shops a few times (any time I click my link in the wanted e-mail, I am too late ).

Thats pretty freakin' rare!