Classic-Castle.com

I'm not sure if this has been done before, but I think that it would be interesting to review some themes.

The first (of hopefully many) installments is Forestmen. The Forestmen were the first real "outlaw" faction. They were released in 1987, and continued until 1992. Some notable sets included Forestmen's Crossing and Forestmen's River Fortress.

Feel free to review any aspects of this theme, including sets, overall architecture, and minifigs.
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Well, I have one Forestmen set.
I got it on ebay. Its the set with a brown horse, robin, 2 red forestmen, 2 blue, and 1 black. And the actual set is a tree with a balcony on the top and 2 secret entrances (don't know name of set srry).
I think that this set is fun. I usually have my shadowknights traveling through this pass and the forest men ambush them!

I beleive you mean this set. The Forestmen are my second favorite faction(next to the Black Falcons), probably because of their cool hats . I don't have any sets(just figs), but I really want some.
-Pac

yes that's the one!

Spongey wrote:I'm not sure if this has been done before, but I think that it would be interesting to review some themes.

Good idea.

I like the forestmen as a faction, but not so much the sets. I have the silly tree tower, with the BURP bottom, and it's decent for parts (lots of arches, but it's really lacking in design. I always wnated the big one, though- that looks really cool.

I really like both the forestmen and wolfpack, because they're outlaw factions, and "different" from the other castle sets.

But I especially like the forestmen for some reason. Maybe because their sets brought trees, wilderness, and hideouts to what had been more of a "castles and siege engines" castle theme. I think it's also partially because they came out during the middle-to-end of my big dark age, and were my biggest "look at all these cool sets I missed". (Fortunately I found 2 or 3 of them sitting on a shelf at a Service Merchandise - discounted too, because they had been sitting there for so long. )

Weren't the forestmen among the first, if not the first sets to bring us the leaf pieces?

Great idea, Spongey. I have alway liked the Forestmne, because they gave me a way to play out battles with Robin Hood. It still is an awesome faction, and I would like to see LEGO bring it back, or at least a new version of it, like they did when they released Dark Forest.

Kelderic

The Forestmen were my favorite faction growing up, and remain my favorite classic Castle faction to this day, with Crusaders a close second. I watched the Errol Flynn version of Robin Hood over and over and over, and played along with my LEGO. I also used my favorite set of all time, 6066 Camouflaged Outpost as inspiration to build great big ruined castles that my Forestmen used as their base. Tons of trapdoors, secret entrances, buried treasure, and everything else a band of merry men would need.

Ah, good times...

So, none of that provides any rational basis for why the Forestmen are a great faction, except that they evoke such great memories.

I Think that the Forestman are one of the greatest groups (after Classic Castle & Black Falcons). I almost have all set and I am still saving money for some rare set (Forestman Crossing River), that has never been released in The Netherlands. I also have 2 Dark Forest sets and now I want to have Dark Forest Fortress.
My first Forestman set was Forestman Hide Out (6054) and Castle Mini Figures (6103), I got them for my birthday. Later I bought 6066 (that wasalmost 20 years ago!). Last year I bought Forestman River Fortress.
I think this was one of the first theme's were there was a kind of action figure (Robin Hood) and it had a lot of imagination. It was the same time when William Tell was on television. I always loved that serrie!

A great faction. Bought their River fortress on Markplaats a few weeks ago: Great castle.

Yet they are not in my top3. Outlaws are very cool, but I prefer the Wolfpack. The forestmen have very simple and unvariated troops; with a slight colour difference they are all the same. Even Robin looks almost exactly like the rest. They're also not really nasty enough to be true outlaw. Because of this I prefer the Wolfpack. In buildings however, the forestmen beat the crap out of the Wolfpack.

Thanks for all of the replies. I too like the forestmen, although they were a bit before my time. I have a Dark Forest set, and I hope to get some Forestmen figs for my MOCTale. The sets weren't awe inspiring, but it was definitely a great theme.
As for the theme review, I'm glad you like the idea. I was thinking of possibly making this a bi-weekly feature (a bit less often than the set review, because there are a limited number of themes.) As well, I'm still decidin whether to make this a faction or a theme review. The difference would be that a theme would be something like KKI, while a faction review would have individual reviews for the King's men and the Bulls, for example. Please respond with your ideas.
Thanks again,
Spongey

The Forestmen are great, and when I was little they were always the heroes because I was a huge Robin Hood fan. Oppressive knights always tried to keep them down, but couldn't ever sack the Forestmen tree forts.

The originals are cooler than the Dark Forest redux. Sure Dark Forest had more designs and more faces than just smilies, but the Forestmen had women!

I have ... 2 Red, 2 Black and 1 Blue Forestman, and then just one in a green tunic. Some of my favorite minifigs of all time.

I won't rate it in general because all Castle stuff gets a 10/10 from me until the later ones, but compared to the other factions it's maybe in 5th place in the Top Ten favorites.

Personally I absolutely love the Forestmen. I can not get enough of them, and I always try to buy them from the online auctions when I see them (and they are a good price). I am now extending my collection to the dark forest faction as well. This adds a bit of variety to my otherwise very green army.

The forestmen hats are very cool, and I use the brown ones, on non-forestmen minifigs, and usually they look good. It is a good way of creating non-military personal for your castle or town.

g2 wrote: The forestmen hats are very cool, and I use the brown ones, on non-forestmen minifigs, and usually they look good. It is a good way of creating non-military personal for your castle or town.

I couldn't agree more. I use the hats for villagers and stuff like that.

A great theme. The torsos, especially the all green one is great for making peasants. The set designs were elegant and very well disguised as natual features (except that blue roof and the colorful flags everywhere). I'd love to see them revisit this line...

Steve