General LEGO discussion (inc. collectible minifigs)

[Skyquake87]

Series 12 featuring characters from The Lego Movie there then...(why am I so late?)

Speaking of which, the sets for the film (out Feb 14 - take your loved one!) are out now. Spent ages laughing at them in the Lego Shop in Leeds. Bought one of the smaller sets featuring wildstyle (the girl with the coloured hair) and uh, the guy who is the main dude. And a robot guy. Its good anyway!

[Denyer]

Figure this might interest some people...

http://www.brothers-brick.com/2014/02/1 ... aled-news/


http://i.imgur.com/p1f3maE.jpg

Simpsons a while back, too...

http://www.brothers-brick.com/2014/01/0 ... ouse-news/

[Skyquake87]

That looks cool. And better than the Back To The Future thing.

Bought one of the Lego Movie sets - Castle Cavalry - which I am looking forward to building in a bit

[Tetsuro]

Not hard to see which'll be the sought-after figures in Series 12...

Yes, it is. Please tell me.

[Denyer]

Panda, Shakespeare, Lincoln.

[Skyquake87]

Happy to report that Castle Calvary what I mentioned above is awesome. The flying castle thing is delightfully bonkers. The sinister robot grabby thing is a nice build and has a clever 'capture claw'. The secondary model of a Castle is nice, but it is just a façade (so not much different to the smaller Castle buildings currently available in that theme). The catapult is pretty fun too. I'd give it a 7/10 for value for money, as it would seems Lego producing sets based off their own film means this falls into the bracket of 'licensed theme' , so it costs a bit more than it otherwise should.

In other Lego news, in the back of my brain, I thought it would be nice to have one of those buckets of bricks (in the '80s, these were called 'BASIC' as they contained standard bricks and elements). They've always seemed a bit expensive though. Happily, Asda have had some half term Lego promotions to tie in with the film (including a neat build your own minifigure thing - demand predictably outstripping supply) and as part of that the had set 10681, which contains over 600 bricks of various sizes and shapes for £15. So I've bought that and bloody love it. I love having a bunch of bricks like this to muck about with (I'm a bit of purist with my sets - they shall never be mixed up!!!). I've built a zoo like on the box and some other weird shit. Great fun. Love the age range on the box too - 4 to 99

[Denyer]

Particularly like the Chima wings on the venerable dreadnought, likely to nick that idea... same guy's done Tau and some awesome Zoids pieces.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/garry_rocks/


http://i.imgur.com/bmbDWwe.jpg

[Skyquake87]

Those are cool!

I went to see the Lego Movie yesterday. Its really good! How's that for a capsule review?

[Skyquake87]

So I've picked up a few of the new (ish) Lego Castle sets and I've absolutely fallen in love with them. They're not doing anything especially groundbreaking, but just really nice sets. Most of all, I love the colours and the detailing is superb. The knights all beg and borrow elements from previous Castle series, but it gives them a heck of a lot of personality. The yellow boxes have a nice cosy nostalgic glow to them (its almost as if Lego know whom is likely to be buying these..)

The Ambush set is a nice little goodies vs baddies set. The cart with the treasure chest is a bit awkward though, as it has a bar, rather than handles for minifigures to grasp with both hands. The falling tree is a nice touch and I love the toothless cackling dragon knight.

Gold Getaway is an oddly named set, as its a Dragon Knight with a prison wagon with a treasure chest clamped to the back. I like that you can role play him having 'arrested' one of the two Lion Knights. The Lion Knights have a little sentry post (with frog!) and a crossbow at their disposal, which makes a nice little addition.

The Gatehouse Raid is a nice bit of castle building, with a built in cell and catapult to repel any wrong-uns. And look! Two have just turned up now - with a catapult firing flaming round bricks of doooom! Fantastic stuff.


What I like most of all about these sets is that they have the feel of the old '80s stuff, but with just a bit more finesse. Everything isn't quite so grey anymore and it really gives the theme a lift. Cracking stuff.

[Warcry]

The new Castle stuff doesn't do it for me, not the way the 2007ish (was it really that long ago!) edition did. There just doesn't seem to be anything creative or fresh about the theme. I guess it's because the line is a rump of its' former self now, since they don't want to compete too much with their licensed (and dreadfully boring) LOTR/Hobbit sets, and there's just no room for out-there sets like a farmhouse, or any of the things the skeletons and orcs got. It just seems like they have a checklist they go down any time they do a fresh Castle assortment, and they won't deviate from it.

[ ] Pocket-money set with lots of minifigs
[ ] Pocket-money cart/chariot set
[ ] Pocket-money siege weapon
[ ] Mid-sized gatehouse set
[ ] Mid-sized siege weapon
[ ] Mid-sized vehicle
[ ] Gigantic castle set

Not much seems to change but the colours.

The prices don't help much either, it must be said. The price per brick gets a bit more astronomical every year, and it's less justifiable now that the company has abandoned their long-held "build stuff in Europe to ensure better QC" stance and started moving production lines to China...

[Skyquake87]

I felt the same, tbh, until I picked these up (admittedly at reduced prices as everywhere seems to be clearing the Castle line through). I really do like them, but yeah, they're not reinventing the wheel.

I'm sure it was mentioned up thread (possibly by Cliffy), but the Castle theme struggles to expand and sustain interest in the same way the City stuff does.

That said, I am surprised they've not attempted a new take on the Tavern or a more affordable version of the medieval market village.

Can't say I've noticed any dip in QC since production was switched to factories in Mexico and China back in 2009.

I do agree that all Lego sets these days have a fewer quotient of bricks and the prices have either stayed the same (City) or risen (everything else). A good comparison would be the 2007 Batman Two Face chase set which cost £26. Come 2012 and a similar set now costs £45. I wouldn't be surprised that the cost of oil, paying workers fairly, the economic climate and licensees taking a larger share have all accounted for the increase.

In terms of the current Castle line, it has been a more affordable than 2010s Kingdoms line. Having a small range of just five sets means if you want to collect the lot, its not going to set you back a small fortune.



And in the post today came 70403 : Dragon Mountain. Outwardly, there doesn't look to be much to this set, but its packed full of details. The main bulk of the set is the prison tower where the beautiful princess is held (oh no!) at the mercy of the evil bearded wizard (boo hiss!) and a dragon knight acting as a guard. The evil beardy wizard has used his magics to control a powerful red dragon (roar! and actually a very nice bit of kit) whom breathes fire! And has flappy wings, and articulated neck, tail arms and legs. And an opening jaw. Beneath the prison cell and down a nicely designed spiral staircase (clever) is the guards chambers where he can have a wine and cheese evening by himself. Or with a rat. Above the cell is a small chamber with the crystal of evil all glowing red on its upturned dish, and then you have the roof where the bearded one can wave his staff around and do evil conjouring or bellow at passers by, as the fancy takes him. Across a small bridge (taking in a small catapult which is the signature weapon of this series of Castle) brings you to dragon mountain, where there is space for the dragon to land, a bit like a medieval helicopter pad. Beneath this is a secret cave, cleverly hidden by a spider's web (hinged, so you can get in) which has all manner of occult bits an bobs - a skeleton's foot used as a torch and two suspicious jars of stuff. In here, you will also find the keys to the tower to release the imprisoned princess! Or, if you're of a more mercenary pursuit, you could just go around the outside and nick the treasure (which - hoorah and huzzah sees a return of the coins last seen in the original Pirates line). Two brave and steadfast Lion knights round out the set and have come prepared to do battle with a mighty ...catapult (yay!).whilst the catapult is of a good size and works well, it's a shame the crank handles on the sides are purely decorative. And that it comes with just one rock to fling at the dragon, so your aim had best be true!

I am sure there are a billion better Castle sets out there than this, but I really like the character packed into this set and the play opportunities it represents. And this is before you get to breaking it all down and building something else. Great fun.

Well, that turned out to be a review didn't it? Sorry about that. But from a set I wasn't expecting much from, its turned out to be really good!

Really enjoyed this simpler set of Castle sets. So much so I've splurged out on the two expansion packs of good and evil knights (whom come with another sodding catapult!) and gone for the big Castle set too, which should be here Monday. This looks interesting, as its completely modular, unlike the sets from days of yore where the thing was on hinges. So we'll see how that stacks up later.

[Warcry]

I felt the same, tbh, until I picked these up (admittedly at reduced prices as everywhere seems to be clearing the Castle line through). I really do like them, but yeah, they're not reinventing the wheel.

I'm sure it was mentioned up thread (possibly by Cliffy), but the Castle theme struggles to expand and sustain interest in the same way the City stuff does.

That said, I am surprised they've not attempted a new take on the Tavern or a more affordable version of the medieval market village.

A fair amount of the "been there, done that" feeling comes from the small number of sets released each year. When you only have to make five sets, it's understandable that only the safe, easy-to-design sets that they've done fifteen iterations of in the past get chosen. When the line was a bit more expansive five or six years ago, there were more unique sets because they had to come up with new stuff to keep the assortments fresh. They did do a small blacksmith's shop two or three years ago, which was nice, but it's the only thing in recent memory that really stood out to me.

Unfortunately, the dominance of licensed themes has had a real negative effect on Lego's long-running "generic" brands. Star Wars has smothered classic Space sets almost entirely, LOTR and The Hobbit have squeezed out Castle and POTC quickly put a stop to the short-lived Pirates revival.

But I think the Castle theme still has the most life in it out of the three. Because Lego has spread to more and more international sales, and especially in China, I think there would be a good market for non-European medieval sets. Middle-Eastern and Asian-themed sets might be a good way to go, at least for as long as the LOTR/Hobbit sets have a stranglehold on the Generic European Middle Ages Fantasy side of things. They've started to dip into other regions' history in the minifigures line, so maybe it's just a matter of time?

Can't say I've noticed any dip in QC since production was switched to factories in Mexico and China back in 2009.

I'm not sure how much of it is produced there compared to Europe even now, honestly. I haven't bought regularly for a while but I'm pretty sure I still see sets that were made in the Czech Republic, at least. But the collectible minifigs are all China-made, IIRC. And though the QC on them is still miles better than what you see on a Takara/Hasbro product, let alone the shit-show that is Mattel or some other manufacturers, there is a notable difference. The manufacturing tolerances on the minifigs are just slightly less strict than the older stuff, leading to more joints that are too loose or too tight, or parts that can't swap with older figs. And I've seen lots of people online make the same observations, so I don't think it's just confirmation bias on my part.

I do agree that all Lego sets these days have a fewer quotient of bricks and the prices have either stayed the same (City) or risen (everything else). A good comparison would be the 2007 Batman Two Face chase set which cost £26. Come 2012 and a similar set now costs £45. I wouldn't be surprised that the cost of oil, paying workers fairly, the economic climate and licensees taking a larger share have all accounted for the increase.

The licenses have lots to do with it, yeah. Those sets are usually 10% more expensive per brick, minimum, than a similar non-licensed set. That's understandable though, considering the added cost on top of their usual along with the extra expense of (often) having to emulate a scene from a movie or whatnot, which must involve extra time at the design stage (they can't just give Aragorn and Gimli a catapult and call it a day). But the price of every type of set seems to have gone up too, and the gap between licensed and non-licensed has closed a bit in the process as Lego realized that people were willing to shell out the higher price point.

In terms of the current Castle line, it has been a more affordable than 2010s Kingdoms line. Having a small range of just five sets means if you want to collect the lot, its not going to set you back a small fortune.

Well, that's a different story. If it hits clearance here I'd be all over it. But even when I was in the US six months ago, I thought the American prices (usually 25% lower than ours) were a bit much.

Really enjoyed this simpler set of Castle sets. So much so I've splurged out on the two expansion packs of good and evil knights (whom come with another sodding catapult!) and gone for the big Castle set too, which should be here Monday. This looks interesting, as its completely modular, unlike the sets from days of yore where the thing was on hinges. So we'll see how that stacks up later.

The big castle looks great, I can't deny. That one I would have bought, if I had anywhere to keep it! The modular design has snuck into a few of the modern "big" sets I think, but this one pulls it off very well.

[Skyquake87]

I wonder if the lack of Asian Castle type stuff (they did historical ninjas and eastern themed stuff in what, 1998?) is to do with the popularity of Ninjago, which borrows all those motifs. But yeah, it would be nice to see something like that again, although it wouldn't appeal to me. I would quite like to see something based around Greek mythology, that would be really cool with all the Gods and Monsters you have in that.

Just looking at the side of my Castle boxes, they seem to have factories in Denmark, Czech Republic, China and Mexico producing components for these sets. I'm sure that makes sense to Lego (cheaper labour costs and whatnot), but must be a bit of a pickle if you're importing all these bits from all over the world to assemble as a kit. Why not do that all in one place and save on transport costs?

Looking at the Lego I have now, its all stuff from 2009 up, so that probably accounts for why I've not noticed the QC. I have noticed that the gold coloured bricks have a distinct 'Mega Blocks' look to them, but put that down to the sort of problems that Transformers have had generating gold plastics! I know that the yellow bricks produced now don't use the same colourants as they used to as the chemical used were found to be toxic (although you'd have to eat a load of Lego bricks for that to cause you any harm).

I will be sure to post on the big castle when it turns up. I am quite excited.



The plethora of licensed stuff is just silly now. And what's worse, is that as well as 'damaging' Lego's ability to sustain interest in their own originated themes, its encouraging all these 'bootleggers' to latch onto the same idea (hello Kre-O). That said, when the sets are something more than a bit of scenery, they are really really good. The stuff based around The Lone Ranger looks beautiful.

[Skyquake87]

So...Lego Castle 70404 King's Castle has arrived and is now built andis stiing next to me (like castles do) as I type.

The Castle itself is an absolute corker. There's so many nice details in the construction of the thing and the way it mimics the techniques used on real castles. The use of brown wibbly bricks to mimic wood is superb (and much more effective than the black used in days of yore). The modular sections are great and clip together neatly thanks to those tough black technic connectors. In terms of features, there's the obvious drawbridge which is again nicely done with a ramp section running up from the inside of the castle to the main section - just like the real thing. The port cullis is a superb moulded single piece and both of these are smoothly winched up on some smart crank handle assemblies. Deatiling abounds around the front with the obligatory standard, shields and whatnot. I like the golden cones, torches and meshed windows used on this part which give it a bit more visual punch. The front right section features a tower (unfurnished) with a catapult on top. This is a sensible defensive structure, but the mechanics of it do unnecessarily swamp the top section of the tower, although I do like the storage point for the ammo on the ramparts tucked away behind this section. A nice walled section- with connection point for the wooden staircase - leads to the central rear tower. This section has a nicely detailed back door flanked by a further two torches, above which is the throne room (room for just the throne, king and some booze). Above that sits the treasury, where the King's booty is stashed. Another wooden door (with two keys hung either side) conceals a chamber where a wooden chest hides a few gold coins, a gold bar and a couple of jewels. Atop this is a nice flaming barrel me do to keep any guards warm. Moving along from this is the prison tower. The bottom section features a cell with chained door and a guard's quarters above (with a barrel). The ramparts above have a mounted crossbow and a further standard. After that, its another run of wall - with 'exploding' section back to the front of the castle. The mix of colours is great and it is an impressive bit of kit, although I'm not keen on the stickers you have to apply to some sections - I like the old school tampographs myself.

It is decidedly undermanned though. As this the case with a lot of these sorts of sets, some extra play value has been given by including some bad guys to attack the castle. This is great, but it does mean that to keep costs down, a few extra good guy knights have been jettisoned. Four (including the king with his golden sword) doesn't seem a lot to man a keep of this size. And only one mounted knight at that (with no lance. I miss the lances). All four of the Lion Knights have nice personable faces and incredible detailing on their torso prints(especially the mounted knight), its just a shame there's not at least two more and another mounted knight. In fact, that's a criticism of all these new castle sets - not enough horses!

The bad guys are great cackling loons, but do seem a bit dippy attacking castle on foot with just their dragon faced catapult. I suspect they'd be a bit too knackered after pushing that over the hills and far away to launch an attack. Again - could have used a horse for one of these guys too. The catapult itself is quite cute, with its big dragon bonce. Push that back into the body of the catapult and it flings its missile.

All in all though, a great set and the modular construction which allows multiple reconfigurations is a great touch offering much more flexibility than old hinged sections ever did. Just needs more minifigures. And horses.

[Denyer]

http://www.brothers-brick.com/2014/03/2 ... -revealed/


http://i.imgur.com/YcKUrwf.jpg

[ganon578]

Those Simpsons packs are showing up around here in droves. They're really cool looking, just not my thing.

[ganon578]

The plethora of licensed stuff is just silly now. And what's worse, is that as well as 'damaging' Lego's ability to sustain interest in their own originated themes, its encouraging all these 'bootleggers' to latch onto the same idea (hello Kre-O). That said, when the sets are something more than a bit of scenery, they are really really good. The stuff based around The Lone Ranger looks beautiful.

I was just thinking that the other day. While I have been absent in the Lego scene for a while now, I have picked up quite a few of the Mega Bloks Halo sets in recent time. Looking around I have been blown away by the lack of original Lego and block sets in General. I don't think Mega Brands does any of their own stuff - maybe rightly so since Lego dominates the bricks - and they push stuff like Halo, Call of Duty, Dungeons & Dragons, and coming soon (from what I have recently heard) Assassin's Creed as well. Kre-O is all Hasbro related things (Transformers, GI Joe, etc.), and even Kinex is all Mario Kart from what I can tell.

It seems to me that the only sustaining, non-licensed Lego stuff is City... I was actually surprised Lego came out with Galaxy Force with Star Wars being such a big thing, but sadly that series lasted what - a year? And with Lord of the Rings, I was afraid the Castle sets would go the way of the dinosaur, but it seems like those as still around and kicking, thankfully.

The other downside to all the licensed sets out is the bump in price. Lego was never inexpensive to begin with, but the licensed stuff is $$$. A small Man of Steel set I saw the other day was pushing $15-17!!! Ridiculous!

[Denyer]

Jerac continues to inspire people:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/legoadmir ... 729440579/



Makes me think I should aim to lower the body sections on mine by a brick height...

[ganon578]

I just watched The Lego Movie this weekend. Pure brilliance.

And it made me want to bust out my Lego box again and start building wacky things. I may do so tonight!

[Denyer]

Technically series 12, but eBay already considers the movies ones series 12 and the Simpsons series 13...


http://i.imgur.com/BVm1rz4.jpg

http://lego.wikia.com/wiki/71007_Minifigures_Series_12