Your dream castle line

[Brickninja]

I know a lot of people weren't so big on this year's castle, and I like it, but agree Kingdoms was far superior. So I'm wondering what would everyone's perfect castle line be. Mine: Black Falcons 2(as was teased 2 years ago) I would like this line to be far more sophisticated and realistic, not just another. "OMG. The princess got captured by the evil wizard and his baddie knights. Let's go save her. AGAIN." I would like for this line to actually have a storyline, with lords, barons, expeditions to new lands. I've heard that the reason lego keeps giving us the same sets over and over is that's the formula that works, and every time there's a new batch of 5 year olds who have that as their first castle and don't know it's repetitive, by if they did different sets, they wouldn't care, because it's all new to them. My point is is that lego has never tried such a sophisticated and realistic line, and maybe the kids would like it. They could have a story with cool named characters so the kids would have a reason to get the non combat based sets to get the characters they want.
Anyway, I'm done, so here are my suggestions. For wave 1 there would be the Black Falcons and their enemies.
Sets:
The royal hunt: a $12-15 set. Would include large dark green plate, 2 or 3 trees, 2 named nobles, a hunting dog or 2, 1 or 2 horses, 1 grey, 1 Brown( I'm sick of the "the good guys only have white horses") and a stag(New mold). the nobles would be in hunting clothes and be carrying the new rubber tipped spear( which would always be used instead of the regular one throughout the line).
The armory: $30-$35. Would include a large grey plate, a blacksmith, possibly his apprentice, 2 walls of his workshop, an anvil, furnace, armor stands, etc. Also, 2 armorless knights in tunics and stuff so you could create your custom knights with the different armor and weapons pieces included.
Enemy(I can't think of a name) army. Similar to the Tolkien army builders. $30. A battering ram, a war wagon or catapult, 4 enemy soldiers, a mounted enemy,and a black falcon spy.
Falcon keep: $100, 130. Would include a large, square tower with 3 floors and lots of detailed rooms and greebles. Some enemy siege equipment. A king, a baron, a jester, 3-4 men at arms,and 4 enemy soldiers.
Battle at the ferry crossing:$ 50. This could be an interesting one. Blue plates to signify water, with a dock and a small boat. Interesting greebles and such on the dock. Would include a bargeman, 2 BF soldiers, (1 archer, 1 spearman), 2 enemies.
That's all for now. I will post in this topic again with more ideas, some of my thoughts are enemy castle, royal stables, farm, Royal harbor, etc. Let me know what would be in your dream castle line!

[OverLoad]

I'd want a completely peasant based line. For the sake of convenience I guess it could be called "Villages", and would have a set in each one of the tears. Maybe a farm with a small field and a house could be the big set, the next biggest could be a fletcher's house or a blacksmith (but we've had those before, a fletcher or tanner would be cool), the medium-small set could be a wagon filled with goods either heading into or out of the market (that could be up to you, putting the action in the consumer's hand!), and the small set could be a peasant just sitting by a tree eating an apple or herding some goats.

That, or a true Renaissance theme that makes use of the "puffy" arm pieces seen in those prototype photos that pop up now and then. But these are just my dreams, and I do enjoy the bread and butter castle themes we get, so long as the factions are cool or at least tolerable.

[Lil_Curt]

Intresting topic here.

I am with overload I would love a pesant based serries. One to include but not limmited to a good blacksmith shop, another mill, stables, worn down cottages, apothacary, bakery, some basic shops, etc. I believe it would sell well among all ages.

Now on to your set idead. The theroy is good however your priceing is off. First off the sets you describe with the 32x32 plate. Has to many expensive elements and the base is half the cost of the set. As you propose it would likely be a $30 set. Also the large gray plate, again is half the cost of what you propose. That set would be closer to a $70 set. Take out the base plates and you would be in the range on the second set you propose. However the first set would still be a $25 set how proposed.

I will revisit this thread when I have a few more thoughts throughout the day.

Curt

[Brickninja]

Intresting topic here.

I am with overload I would love a pesant based serries. One to include but not limmited to a good blacksmith shop, another mill, stables, worn down cottages, apothacary, bakery, some basic shops, etc. I believe it would sell well among all ages.

Now on to your set idead. The theroy is good however your priceing is off. First off the sets you describe with the 32x32 plate. Has to many expensive elements and the base is half the cost of the set. As you propose it would likely be a $30 set. Also the large gray plate, again is half the cost of what you propose. That set would be closer to a $70 set. Take out the base plates and you would be in the range on the second set you propose. However the first set would still be a $25 set how proposed.

I will revisit this thread when I have a few more thoughts throughout the day.

Curt

I didn't mean a base plate, I just meant a large plate, like 8x10 or something. And I agree with you 2, I really really really want village sets, those will be in my next idea post.

[Lil_Curt]

Ok thanks for the clarification. I see you say large plate first thing I thought of was baseplate, especially with the colors you listed them as.

Curt

[Sir Erathor]

I'll say something more detailed later, but I would like a new faction (not lions or dragons!), such as eagles or bears, or possibly an old faction, preferably the Black Falcons. They could even have slight design updates.
The sets I want to see would be of a very traditional Medieval England style, with stone and wood castle and wooden houses for villagers. Stables and harbours/boats would be really nice to see to. We haven't really had any Medieval boats!

[timber_wolf899]

Ah so many possible answers, but i keep comming back to one thing, no matter how much i think on this.
Castle goes to ancient Rome!

Lots of potential for different styles and settings
Armies not characters
Fire the imagination and set kid soff in search of history

[Purple Wolf]

Mine would be a the return of the Wolf Pack. A theme with lots of trees and plant life. If I would to put another faction I would put Black Falcons there need a reappearance.

Purple Wolf

[Karalora]

Throwing in another vote for a peasant village-based series. If TLG is worried about making it look exciting to kids, they can make sure each set includes at least one soldier--either a "good guy" patronizing the shop or a "bad guy" attacking/robbing it. MMV had the former and the Mill Raid had the latter, so there's precedent. And both are fantastic sets. To really fill out the village, I would include not just shops but other fixtures such as a well, a sheep pasture, a village square with market stalls...this side of the Castle theme has barely been tapped yet.

[SSchmidt]

Yeah, I think we've all agreed on wanting to see a peasant line in other threads before. It would be a welcome addition to the castle lines.

[Sir Valiant]

A sheep pasture... I'm practically drooling! These are all some great suggestion guys, which one of you are going to get a job with LEGO?
Like others have said, I too would love to see the next line of castle focus on Medieval living, instead of the classic knight save princess that we have had the past few years. The possibilities for making a 'peaceful' castle theme that focus on medieval life, perhaps in one kingdom would be great. That way, they could introduce a new faction, and also have focus on villagers and their part in a kingdom. The lives of people such as farmers, tanner, butcher, blacksmith (a detailed one), shepherds (with sheep!), pastor/priest, etc. would be a dream come true.
For now though, I'll just have to keep dreaming....

Sir Valiant~

[Sir Erathor]

There is one problem with a 'peaceful' castle theme, and that is to do with the children the sets are meant to be aimed at. I honestly don't know many kids (boys especially) who would be able to play with a 'peaceful' set for a long time. Whatever caused this (computer games?!), children would rather buy and play with a battling/adventure LEGO set than a 'peaceful' one. I would like a village one too, but honestly don't think it'll happen!

[Bruce N H]

Hey,

I don't believe that 'civilian' sets wouldn't sell. Every year Playmobil has some non-military sets in their castle line. I assume there is a lot of overlap between the Playmo and LEGO demographics, and people seem willing to buy such sets as Medieval Bakery and Medieval House with Barn (two sets currently on the Playmo website) - at least I assume they have sales or they would stop making these sets. So I highly agree that more civilian sets would be ideal.

Of course ancient Greece or Rome would be wonderful. I think the popularity of Collectible Minifigs from these eras has proven the viability of such a theme. It could either be realistic, with armies, chariots, buildings etc, or else go mythical, and include Medusa, Pegasus, Hercules, etc.

A revamp of Vikings would be great, especially if they went more realistic, with less of the bionicle-monsters they had in the previous line.

Those said, my ideal would be a modular castle. They could have larger sets like a gatehouse and a keep, and then sets like corner towers and wall sections that you could buy more or less of and fit together to make a castle of any size. Like the old classic sets had walls that could go together, but with more modern building styles. For instance, see that extra castle wall set that could be hooked on to the larger Helms Deep set. In order to boost sales, they could have two different wall section sets with two different factions of soldiers, so you could buy several sections both to build up a larger castle, and also to build up two larger armies.

Bruce

[Brickninja]

Here are my suggestions for wave 2 of Black Falcons 2.
Royal harbor: $100. Would include a ship, a set of docks, greeblage and the like, and 2 BF soldiers, 2 sailors, a captain, a merchant, and a harbor worker.
Village farm:$40. A small house with a fence yard, with pigs, chickens, goats and a horse. Also an Apple tree. A farmer, his wife, and their child.
Market wagon: $12. Similar to the Gandalf arrives set. A market cart, a merchant driving it, a horse, and a villager.
Enemy camp: a sort of army builder. $20. A tent or 2, a fire, a weapons rack, a tree, a horse, 2 enemy soldiers and 2 BF soldiers
Trebuchet: a trebuchet. 2 BF soldiers. $30.
The village gates:$60. A set of village gates, 3 villagers, 2 BF guards, 2 marauding enemies, a market stall, another small building.
I'll be back next time with wave 3 ideas!

[Karalora]

There is one problem with a 'peaceful' castle theme, and that is to do with the children the sets are meant to be aimed at. I honestly don't know many kids (boys especially) who would be able to play with a 'peaceful' set for a long time. Whatever caused this (computer games?!), children would rather buy and play with a battling/adventure LEGO set than a 'peaceful' one. I would like a village one too, but honestly don't think it'll happen!

Hence why I suggested that each set also include fighters from one faction or another (or two in the case of larger sets), so that the potential to play out a battle scenario is still there. I think the recent focus on movie licenses has gotten TLG in the habit of thinking of a single set as playing out a specific scene instead of being the setting for many possible scenarios. By making the actual builds civilian focused but still including the soldier minifigs as characters, more ideas are opened up. Especially if the line also includes one or two "pure military" sets (battle wagon, catapult, etc.) and minifig battle packs as added insurance.

For example, I listed a well as one of the small village sets I'd like to see. I see it in the 10-13 dollar range, with the build including the well itself, a two-wheeled handcart with barrels on it, and two minifigs: a peasant maiden and a soldier of the "good" faction. Already several story scenarios leap to mind:

* He's helping her draw water because the bucket is too heavy for her.
* She's drawing water for him so he can watch for bandits or enemy soldiers instead of dropping his guard.
* It's peacetime and they're sweethearts meeting by the well.
* He's really an enemy soldier in disguise about to rob or kidnap her.

That's four entirely different story seeds from the smallest possible non-impulse set. Larger sets would offer even more.