Dear Castle Designers [Updated]

[architect]

Please post your questions to the LEGO Castle designers about the latest 2007 line of sets. As a LEGO Ambassador, I will try to get some of your questions answered. Please be specific and not too wordy. Thank you.

Ben Ellermann
LEGO Ambassador



Update - August 12, 2007

Matthew Ashton, the Castle Product Lead Designer, has been kind enough to respond to our questions. Check out his in depth Castle article:

http://www.classic-castle.com/sets/arti ... ack07.html

Matt and the other Castle designers are very busy and will not be able to answer any follow up questions. They likely will read and see your comments. Please respond to the article in this thread.

[Athos]

Great idea! Here are three that come to mind:

How do you choose the hearldry?

What was your biggest disappointment with the line?

And the one I'm dying (no pun intended) to know:

Why skeletons and not another human faction? Was this a conscious choice to avoid human-on-human violence, or just because you thought skeletons were cool, or because marketing told you skeletons were cool?

Steve

[leaf_of_lire]

I just want to say this before I ask a question: Your a Lego Ambassador?!

I only have a couple... actually the same as Athos...

[Kev]

Are you aware of the growing segment of collectors as "army builders," and do you take this into consideration when planning new factions, and will this influence you to run multiple (preferably non-inherantly evil)factions concurrently? Following that, why not two non expressly evil factions at the same time like what was common 20 years ago?

Also, is there any talk on castle minifig sets?

[wunztwice]

In addition to the above questions, all of which I think are excellent I would add:

Was there ever any consideration of includng some sort of civilians? (Other than the great princess?)

Why the skeleton face on their shields, we know they're skeletons, why not some other heraldry or 'plain'? (similar to the old round shields)

What was the deciding factor to include more bricks (in the brick/prefab ratio) and the re-introduciton of 'classic' parts (sword/visor/small axe, etc)?


BTW, thanks for this opportunity. This is a great way to dialogue and see where the designers are coming from. Also, it's just cool to know!

[Rusty Brick]

A few questions:

What does the future hold for Castle 2007? Will this battle between the living and the dead continue next year, or will new factions and themes be introduced?

The new castle line seems to fit what most of us at C-C wanted (certainly moving in the right direction), how much did our forum influce the design of the new sets? What other influces decided the new design?

Will there be stories and 'Action Figures' attached to these castles like KKII?

And thank you Lego for taking time to answer our questions!

[Spongey]

Thanks for this opportunity, Architect. Also, thanks to the designers for building a great theme!

First off, how do you go about deciding how to build a theme? (Number of sets, types of sets, number of figs, etc.)

Secondly, how much time goes into the actual set design (sitting around and building?)

Finally, and I'm sorry for this small complaint, but why do the sets continue to include so many prefab pieces, like tower tops and walls? Is this a way for younger children to get into LEGO?

Thank you very much for answering our questions.

[Athos]

Why the skeleton face on their shields, we know they're skeletons, why not some other heraldry or 'plain'? (similar to the old round shields)

Hillarious question!

Steve

[Tedward]

Who designed the new girl hair element and was it based on someone?

[Zacku]

I've got two.

Why the lack of helmet plumes? I know they're not entirely neccessary, but it seems strange to see Knights without them.

Do you have plans for an accessory pack based on Castle 2007?

[architect]

I just want to say this before I ask a question: Your a Lego Ambassador?!

I only have a couple... actually the same as Athos...

Yes I am We work hard to get your CC feedback passed on to LEGO.

Also, is there any talk on castle minifig sets?

Do you have plans for an accessory pack based on Castle 2007?

Both of these questions would need to be directed to LEGO Direct and Shop at Home. Product Designers wouldn't make these decisions. I will try to send this information along to the SAH people.

Ben

[Scnicker]

1-Why would you have two sets including the bbd (big bad dragon ) rather than having more generic soldiers?
2-What's with the black skeletons? This is the first time that I've ever seen black ones.

[Sir Kohran]

Is there a storyline for this theme?

- Matt

[LEGOFREAK]

Just one from me, since I noticed someone else mentioned army builders...

Noting the success of the droid and clone trooper battle packs, are there plans to do the same for this line? Will we be getting a fig pack with knights and one with skellies?




Freak

(I'd buy a bunch )

[kelderic]

Is there any possibility of more civilian sets in the future of this line?

Kelderic