2005 Minifig sets

[JPinoy]

~Mathias finally gets his own shield....
~Chrome breastplate armor is back (look at Fortress Shadow Knights)
~Dark Bley saddles
~Red horse helmet
~Green horse helmet
~new "saw blade / wheel of fire" piece
~return of the ovoids and triangle shields (obviously from the "Ancient Knights" in the storyline who defeated the Sorcerer)
~new "Mordor-like" building designs for the Moorland structures

Still missing however are:
Gargoyles, Sorcerer, Rogue Knights

But look for more sets containing those guys later in 2005.

[Teh Stud]

I voted "yes", because overall the sets are better.

The Good:

New horse armour colors - These are great looking!
Chrome armour for the knights? - Let's hope!
Red Brown BURPS - Too bad it's not the old brown.
Ninja Slope Pieces - These are great!
Red and Black Windows - This could make a black castle look pretty nice.
More Scorpion figs - I love that helmet.
New Scorpion Oval Shield - Big improvement.
Bley Saddles - Why now? Why in Bley? Why not in Grey?

The Bad:

New Knight Armour - Believe it or not I like the 2004 version much better. I'd rather have the lines than an ugly cartoonishy bear.
Catapults on Horses? - Do I even need to comment?
Orange Blades - Looks like Jojo was right about this being a space theme.
Huge Swords - Don't need em, don't want em.
Huge Shields - Ditto
Unusable Wall Pieces - They don't have too many of them left, but they didn't get rid of them either.

I still think I'm going to Bricklink most of the pieces in these sets. Still, it is a big improvement over 2004!

[Draygen]

See everyone!!! To a degree LEGO must of heard some of us. Look at this! They made some amazing sets and I'm pleased to see variation in the knights, evne if they remain fairly pastel. Good to see Vladrek with a dark red euro armor and oval shield.

God i'm drooling right now, I'm dissapointed no rogue knights or Gargoyles, but there's hope for that later. Right now All I can say is.. MASS SHADOWKNIGHTS! Also is it me, but look at the ones in Vladrek's fortress, the ones in the towers look different a bit.

Now here's what sucks...

not til summer. WHAT WILL I DO TIL THEN! <cries>

Oh yeah and good move removing the Yellow sword and giving Rascus a gold one. I like all the others, BUT the yellow one.

[SavaTheAggie]

Aww yeah...

The three words that best describe the new 2005 sets...

Chrome Euro Armor.

I have discussed this with several other admins and we've all come to the conclusion that those armors on the shadow knights on the castle have the little legging things that the euro armor has.

Not only that, but the shadow knight's helmet and axe both look chrome to me in the picture.

Also we have noticed several of the lances look non chromed metallic silver (like bionicle parts).

On top of that, green and red (as opposed to dark red) horse helmets.

These are the things I'm most excited about (but then again I'm a parts monkey anyway).

Aww yeah, good year for castle.

Feel the casle love, baby!

--Anthony

[Duke_Dave]

These set are really good. Yes I mean that. they are good sets. The only problems I have are:
1. only 2 oct.sheilds I like these and hoped the would be back.(don't get me wrong I do like the older style sheild it's just I liked the new ones too.)
2. All the horses are White except for one,and it's black.(come on Lego, did you forget how to make Brown horses? At least make some Brown ones Paint ones would also be nice. )

Dave

[Sir_Marcellus]

Holy smokes! What all is there to say?
To start, hopefully they'll give Lord Vladek the new visor that his megafig counterpart has. Remember how, when the first pictures for wave one of KKII came out, Rascus had the old euro visor painted green, but that changed? Hopefully this is the case here. Also, it probably won't happen, but I hope that they change the knights' armor to be like their megafig selves -- silver and gold! Return of the old shields rock, and the sets are so much better!

8875 is a rip-off of 8800, but it's nicer, because the shields are solid, and the ram doesn't look like it would break upon contact with an oak door.

8873 is nice ... is that a ballista? I can't tell what it's supposed to do.

8874 is really cool -- I wonder what's behind the door? And it has a silver lance.

8876 looks like an pretty cool set. We have a gibbet, a shadow knight, Lord Vladek, two Hero Knights(including Jayko, who is probably the most realistic, as some very rich knights would have armor with a blue tint), a very cool scorpion, a cool design, and some nice wall pieces. But what's up with that catapault on the horse?

8877
Wow. Definitely, hands-down the best set of the line. In fact, the best castle we've had in years! It looks big, and pretty filled-out! Nice colors, not on a raised baseplate! Has a drawbridge with chains to reel it up(!), a trick wall(possibly two), the Hero Knights, and Lord Vladek(gotta love that dark-red armor, oval shield, and black sword!) Catapaults(possibly trebuchets? that'd be sweet) that launch what look like giant fiery rocks.

But I've saved the two best features for last.
1. CHROME Shadow knights, which means we have CHROME Shadow Knight helmets, and CHROME EURO ARMOR! CHROME EURO ARMOR!

2. The structure is amazingly cool! You can see on the left side that the wall goes back some after turning a corner, which means that the right side probably goes back further! The castle is completely hinged, and can be opened and closed! It's two storeys high on a non-raised baseplate! And that's not including the three awesome towers(okay, the front one looks a bit flimsy, but the rest are solid)! I can't wait to see the inside design!

Perhaps the castle won't be even as much as 8781? After all, huge raised baseplate pieces do up the price a butt-load.

[The Tennis Ball Kid]

1. Vladek's Fortress: $90
Vladek's Fun House: $30
Vladek's Catapult/Good Times Rollin' Jail House: $20
Da King's Tower: $20
Santis Takes On The Orange Sawblade of Death: $8

2. Just Because.

[CAI]

I am impressed. Decent fig ratio for todays standards and good set designs. To bad the good guys still look like fruit cakes.

[Blueandwhite]

Why are there no brown horses?

I'm also dissappointed that the horses are only black and white, allthough I don't really want any horses in the new brown. It would have been nice to see horses in a new colour such as tan though.

[Umgarla]

Wow... a few years ago I swore to never buy any of that crappy new castle lego... I take that back, these sets have definitely improved a lot and changed my mind about the creating team behind kk2...

Just one thing, why didn't they make the ramp on 8875 high enough to reach the top of the wall on Vladeks fortress?

[doctorsparkles]

Just one thing, why didn't they make the ramp on 8875 high enough to reach the top of the wall on Vladeks fortress?

It looks like there are openings on the wall that the siege tower could probably reach, but I'm sure that was just a coincidence and the height of the tower versus the height of the wall was just an oversight by the design team.

[Commander Redbeard]

Much better! If I can afford it, I'd love one of those chrome knights. Hey, Rascus and santis are carrying a Battering-Ram!

[tanzirian]

A big castle without a raised baseplate??? H**l must have frozen over.

2005 castle line looks better than any year since 1996 (not counting Ninja).

8873 - not bad. Both sides represented = good play value, and that machine doesn't look bad, although who knows what it is.

8874 - not sure what to make of this, but it is better than 8875 and some other siege instruments. I see some useful pieces, and the shadow knights are nice. I'm not into horse helmets, but as others have said, the new color will be appreciated.

8875 - definitely not as good looking as 8800, and not that many good pieces either...so many big pieces, total piece count must be about 20 ( ). I really like that (small) blue shield though, and the shadow knights are useful.

8876 - looks like the shadow knights kicked the Dark Forestmen out of their Hemlock Stronghold, and made some upgrades. Despite the clunky design (a staple since 1993), it looks like they actually put more thought into this than other similarly sized forts in recent years. I like that ladder going up to the upper floor! The scorpion isn't bad either. Good play value.

8877 - three words: no raised baseplate. I think others have already said enough about it, so I'll leave it at that.

As for brown horses - I would have no problem with having them in the new color. After all, there ARE reddish-brown horses in real life.

Also a question - what is "euro" armor? This is one term which annoys me terribly. How can any of the castle armor (power rangers aside) not be "euro"?