Castle is one of the core LEGO themes which are produced constantly since late 70s. Over the years they have become a big part of LEGO and their popularity managed to stay. Castle theme has started with recreating a simple medieval scenes mainly focusing on castles, various characters such as knights, forestmen and so on. Later in the 90s castle became a more of fantasy theme with wizards, dragons , ghosts and such, it had certainly a lot different approach than in previous years. Ever since the inclusion of these fantasy stuff a lot of following castle themes were heavily fantasy based some more, some less.
However, some time ago I took a look on new upcoming Castle theme. At that time I was coming out of my dark ages and was very excited to see new Castle theme coming out as I have always loved castle stuff. But upon closer look on the sets my excitement has slowly faded away. The first way of the Castle 2013 includes pretty much basic type of stuff which we get in most historical themes. There is a gatehouse, dragon mountain, castle and few basic stuff. When I looked at these sets I thought that they were missing something. I mean they are good, they have great parts, minifigures etc. , but still I was expecting something more, they seem a bit blank, dull, way too simple much like City sets compared to Modulars or any other more Adult-type theme. It reminds me something which I really fear of and that’s that this theme is basically a one-off like Pirates in 2009 and we won’t see any non-licensed Castle theme for a quite some time(I don't want to get original Castle replaced by some licensed theme by any means, though I have to admit that some of these LoTR and Hobit sets look amazing:P). Whole theme seem a bit weird, at first I thought that this theme wasn’t fantasy, but then I saw Dragon Mountain set which proved my thoughts wrong. But if you look at the other sets you will basically see no signs of fantasy things, I wasn’t really sure whether it’s a fantasy theme. This wawe if sets just seem to be unfinished and a bit dull for me, it doesn’t include anything special just a basic castle sets. Whereas if you look at the previous theme Kingdoms you will see that it offered a nice variety of sets from basic castle sets to civilian ones and special ones like Joust and such. For example sets like Blacksmith are certainly a nice addition to any castle collection.
What I would like to see is more variety of civilian sets such as #7189 Mill Village Raid or very popular #10193 Medieval Market Village, various of places like medieval houses, pubs and so on which would be a realistic image of medieval village and I think it would appeal to all age groups whether it’s kids or AFOLs as we have never received a good civilian medieval sets.
It’s just my opinion about whole Castle line, don’t get me wrong I still love these new sets, but I feel that with their simplicity they are more geared towards kids, and they do that very well. Sadly it reminds me more than anything that LEGO is mostly a child’s toy and I’m not a kid anymore(I’m 17). Despite what I’ve said about this theme, I may still pick few of these sets just because I like Castle and I may modify these sets a bit so they will be much more appealing to me, after all that’s what is LEGO about :)
So let me know if anyone shares the same opinion ;)
BTW: I apologize for any mistakes, English isnt't my first language and I do quite a lot mistakes especially in such a long texts like this.
However, some time ago I took a look on new upcoming Castle theme. At that time I was coming out of my dark ages and was very excited to see new Castle theme coming out as I have always loved castle stuff. But upon closer look on the sets my excitement has slowly faded away. The first way of the Castle 2013 includes pretty much basic type of stuff which we get in most historical themes. There is a gatehouse, dragon mountain, castle and few basic stuff. When I looked at these sets I thought that they were missing something. I mean they are good, they have great parts, minifigures etc. , but still I was expecting something more, they seem a bit blank, dull, way too simple much like City sets compared to Modulars or any other more Adult-type theme. It reminds me something which I really fear of and that’s that this theme is basically a one-off like Pirates in 2009 and we won’t see any non-licensed Castle theme for a quite some time(I don't want to get original Castle replaced by some licensed theme by any means, though I have to admit that some of these LoTR and Hobit sets look amazing:P). Whole theme seem a bit weird, at first I thought that this theme wasn’t fantasy, but then I saw Dragon Mountain set which proved my thoughts wrong. But if you look at the other sets you will basically see no signs of fantasy things, I wasn’t really sure whether it’s a fantasy theme. This wawe if sets just seem to be unfinished and a bit dull for me, it doesn’t include anything special just a basic castle sets. Whereas if you look at the previous theme Kingdoms you will see that it offered a nice variety of sets from basic castle sets to civilian ones and special ones like Joust and such. For example sets like Blacksmith are certainly a nice addition to any castle collection.
What I would like to see is more variety of civilian sets such as #7189 Mill Village Raid or very popular #10193 Medieval Market Village, various of places like medieval houses, pubs and so on which would be a realistic image of medieval village and I think it would appeal to all age groups whether it’s kids or AFOLs as we have never received a good civilian medieval sets.
It’s just my opinion about whole Castle line, don’t get me wrong I still love these new sets, but I feel that with their simplicity they are more geared towards kids, and they do that very well. Sadly it reminds me more than anything that LEGO is mostly a child’s toy and I’m not a kid anymore(I’m 17). Despite what I’ve said about this theme, I may still pick few of these sets just because I like Castle and I may modify these sets a bit so they will be much more appealing to me, after all that’s what is LEGO about :)
So let me know if anyone shares the same opinion ;)
BTW: I apologize for any mistakes, English isnt't my first language and I do quite a lot mistakes especially in such a long texts like this.