The Return of Castle in 2007 (?)

Horak the Great · Post by **Horak the Great** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:41 pm

Like most people here in C-C.com, I'm pretty impressed with the Lego Castle theme for 2007. Ditto to what has been said about the weapons, the carriage and King's Castle. It looks as though they're going to be using silver Euro armor/helms for the minifigs.

Is it me or does it seem like the four knights (on the brown horses) at the right-hand side of picture are wearing some sort of new shoulder armor?

Maedhros · Post by **Maedhros** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:46 pm

litenDavid wrote: ...something I can't figure out - the skeleton in the front seems to have normal droid arms, thus holding his weapons gangsta style. But all the background skeletons are holding their weapons straight up. Different arms? Anyone has any thoughts?

After looking a bit closer I actually think the arms have hands that you can turn. Or it could be that the skeleton in the front is animated like that just for coolness´sake..

Post by **Ye Olde Republic** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 7:13 pm

The wizard castle just looks sooooo 3vil.

wunztwice · Post by **wunztwice** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 7:50 pm

Just looking at the pics again, (No I didn't spend all night looking at them, just most of it...) and it seems to me that first of all, yes there are two crossbows in the front towers, and second of all...
...Does anyone else think that maybe those are new, larger sheilds on the fronts of those two towers?

Sir Rupid Lannsing · Post by **Sir Rupid Lannsing** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:16 pm

Maedhros wrote:After looking a bit closer I actually think the arms have hands that you can turn. Or it could be that the skeleton in the front is animated like that just for coolness´sake..

It looks as if it's been photoshopped. I guess it looked less cool holding it up right?

wunztwice wrote:Just looking at the pics again, (No I didn't spend all night looking at them, just most of it...) and it seems to me that first of all, yes there are two crossbows in the front towers, and second of all...
...Does anyone else think that maybe those are new, larger sheilds on the fronts of those two towers?

Hmm, I noticed that too, which would be a nice touch. If they are larger shields I hope they're sprinkled throughout the theme.

plucky · Post by **plucky** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 10:37 pm

Sir Nelson wrote:All I can say, by way of NDA, is that I am impressed by the amount of replies to Lord Sava's post.

And now, back to your discussion...

Thanks for that.... confirmation?

Sir Rupid Lannsing wrote:It looks as if it's been photoshopped. I guess it looked less cool holding it up right?

Yes, that hand/flail are drawn in there, for the 'action' in the front. The real flail is in the background (I was wondering how they would do a flail, you can't really pose a chain well, I wonder if I'll like it or not). I hope the flail looks good in 'resting' and in 'swinging' poses, otherwise it'll be silly.

I'll need to see the real sets to really know what I think, but I'll start off with mixed (but overall happy) impressions! I do like this much better than any KKII stuff!

1) Skeletons: The old skeletons looked cool, but they were annoying when it came to their arms. Sure, great range of motion, but without modifying them, they won't STAY anywhere, making them pretty much useless. New arms? Depending on the wrists, they may not look as nice, but they should be infinitely more useful! They'll also be great pieces for use in lots of other MOCs. Spacers may be buying them up in bulk

I don't like the heads though, they are a little spooky and colored for my tastes. Maybe without the blueish shading over the face (cut down on the paint applications and it looks better?) I loved the 2nd Skeleton heads (the 'evil' head) best so far. It was simple, cute, and evil all at the same time!

1b) Skeleton horses, awesome. Hopefully they'll be at least as articulated as the old horses (1 point). I could hope for more, but I don't think I'll get that. I like the rounded shields, but don't like the skull design on them (do you need to advertise you're with the skeleton faction when, well, you're a skeleton?). Take the skull off, leave it with a 'wood' look, it'll still look great for the skeletons, but still be useful for so many other things!

2) Weapons: We'll need to see those. The scimitars might be obnoxiously large again, which means they'll be pretty much useless. The one in the foreground looks good, but the background ones look CRAZY. Flail? I'll hold judgment, but it's a neat idea. Classic short swords? Those aren't classic, those are 2nd generation (or 3rd?) classic shortswords. The horrible divot in the center of the crossguard always bugs me, and the definition isn't as nice as the classic. Those are probably due to a switch in plastics, but I still prefer the old short sword with stiffer plastic, nice blade definition, and a crossguard that is smooth all the way across.

3) Castle: Eeh... Good, it's in the right direction of a full castle, but the number of pre-fab pieces looks to be HUGE! It's hard to tell from the pic, but I bet you'll be surprised about how many of those are huge one piece walls, battlements, etc. If it were mostly brick built, I think I'd like it, but I'll bet good money that it isn't...

4) Fortress: Strange, and while it may be a slightly hokey design, it's interesting. It'll be another case of too many BURPs, LURPs and other acronyms though, so I'll have to wait and see.

5) Dragon: I LOVED the Viking Nidhogg, I hope this dragon is as cool. Can't say until I see it IRL.

There's too many details I can't see in the pic, but it looks like an improvement over KKII. Is it 'shining glorious CC'? No, but it looks like a nice nod back to it. (Compare the catapult in this picture to the classic '84 catapult, I'll take the old one, just redo it with the neat colors in the new one!) Too many prefab parts is a big problem now. I wonder how the benefits of them weighs when taking 'design, creating new molds, parts production and storage' compares to using more 'pieces'. Is it a budget decision, or is it a marketing decision ('kids today have ADD and can't handle putting that many pieces together, lets make it easier so they'll buy more')?

Personally I love the fantasy aspects. That is the one thing CC was missing for me. I remember when the first prefab dragons came out, I was happy that LEGO was moving into the Fantasy realm (not that they really continued very far at that point), but hated the dragon itself. Now we have COOL dragons, and more fantasy, but haven't gotten the rest of the way back to CC Coolness. If, somehow (however unlikely), we make it all the way back to the golden age, but combined with all the new colors and elements offered now (don't get started on BLEY), along with cool themes and ideas like the Vikings and Skeletons (and evil sorcerers, and whatever else comes next), that would be the new 'Golden Era' for me

-plucky

Shurtugal · Post by **Shurtugal** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 11:29 pm

I've gotta say, this stuff looks astounding. I think the lack of bows, etc, means it's not perfect, which makes it more likely that it's real.

Just to point out, has anyone noticed the magician's staff? Is that a new magical gem thingy on top?

TheOrk · Post by **TheOrk** » Sat Dec 23, 2006 11:38 pm

Shurtugal wrote: Just to point out, has anyone noticed the magician's staff? Is that a new magical gem thingy on top?

It could be real, or it could be just special effects.

I don't know if this is ANOTHER new peice or not, but what kind of helmet is the guy on the skybridge wearing?

smcginnis · Post by **smcginnis** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 12:38 am

I think it's high time I posted in this thread.

While I'm extremely glad there isn't a KK2.4, there are some things I don't like about this. I am keeping in mind that these are probably prototypes though, and likely subject to change.

First of all, the new skeletons. I'd actually prefer to have non-posable arms than ones that look like these. The old ones looked much better, IMO. And I don't even like the now-old "evil" skulls, let alone these glowing things. But I realize that things change over time, and hey, I can always get the old kind of off Bricklink (if I ever join). Oh, and if those really are battle-droid arms, then they won't be able to hold weapons upright at all, unless they have side handles (like those bionicle mini-weapons).

On the new weapons: the flails look nice, but the new skelly-swords are awful (and dare I say it, MegaBloks-esque). I wish they gave them the old pirate cutlasses instead. The skeletons' sheilds are very nice for size and shape, but again, the printing reminds me of evil MB Pyrates (though much friendlier). The silver weapons of the good guys are nice for color, although they appear to be even flimsier than the 2nd-gen polypropylene ones. The helmets, however, are awesome (speaking of which, I'm pretty sure that's an old-style visor on the knight on the bridge. Yippee!!). I see crossbows, but still no quivers. Oh well. The dragon is pretty cool, but I'm afraid I see Dino Attack-like legs on it.

I'm not too worried about the stickers on torsos and such being final, because even though we've seen a lot of them lately, I got one of the new Aquaraiders sets for Hanukkah, and it was all printing. Oh, and for the first time in a long time, the good king's crest isn't a lion!

Even though the castle is a million times better than Morcia or King Leo's, I'm not satisfied with it (and I probably wouldn't be satisfied with any set that has pre-fabs). Ideally a castle should be made out of almost all plain bricks (like 375). The evil fortress is quite hideous; although, like old_republic said, quite 3vil-looking (a fan-made space faction, for those of you who're exclusively castlers). Another thing I don't like is that this is another purely military theme from the looks of it. Come on LEGO, make us some villages! You can even include skeletons burning and raiding!

I've now listed (I think) all of my complaints, but there are many things I like about this new theme. The skelly horses are awesome, although that pic of the clear one makes me think that they aren't very posable. The increase of soldiers and decrease of heroes is great, the new faction has very nice heraldry. The supposed maiden in the cage with dark red hair and a dark blue dress (:!:) is great. Love the redbrown horses, and the skelly battle wagon is cool.

All in all, I believe these sets will improve with release, and I'll probably be getting some.

~smcginnis

P.S. For the past few years, I've had a sort of 'new-sets' dark age. I've still built (oh, who am I kidding. PLAYED!) with LEGO during this time, and loved the old sets, but there've only been a few new ones I wanted (except rather a lot of Bionicle last year for Christmas). 2007 seems to be the year I'm getting to back to liking new stuff.

P.P.S. Whew, long post.

Shurtugal · Post by **Shurtugal** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 2:04 am

The skelly horses are awesome, although that pic of the clear one makes me think that they aren't very posable.

Unfortunately, I too highly doubt that the horses will be poseable...

On the other hand, their skeletal-ness will probly make them easier to modify...

Darkkazmo · Post by **Darkkazmo** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 5:45 am

I think this upcoming release will bring back to the Castle theme, finally after all those many dark years.

DanDanLegoman · Post by **DanDanLegoman** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 7:06 am

I wish they gave them the old pirate cutlasses instead.

I just thought about how freaking cool the skelly army would look with the old curved sabres and scimitars instead of these new Megablock-looking swords.

ottoatm · Post by **ottoatm** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 7:43 am

Shurtugal wrote:Unfortunately, I too highly doubt that the horses will be poseable...

I wonder why you think the horses will not be posable? Although I can see how they might not be, I would think that it would be more because of a decision by TLG management, not by designers... it seems that a few changes here and there would make the horse more posable than the traditional horse... although it might drive the price of part production up...

Just thinking out loud

lego123 · Post by **lego123** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 10:03 am

Please can someone tell me what that chest is doing in the tower it's duplo

kelderic · Post by **kelderic** » Sun Dec 24, 2006 1:16 pm

lego123 wrote:Please can someone tell me what that chest is doing in the tower it's duplo

Maybe they have to fit treasure in that is too big for a normal chest.

Kelderic