User blog:Awesomeknight/LEGO Castle years 2004-2014

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LEGO Castle has had a long history that I'd love to cover, but for now, I'm covering the years I know of it.

Knights' Kingdom II (2004-2006)

This theme was the coolest thing ever. It was sort of a mix between BIONICLE and Castle. It would probably sound crappy if you hadn't seen it, but it really worked well. With this mix, it got to have a lot of cool original material and story. The story was pretty good, but not an epic masterpiece like the Lord of the Rings. Each year, the story got better and longer, too. Except for the last year, when the story was short and nothing special. Another thing this BIONICLE-esque feel brought was action figures. I didn't care much for them, though. The sets and story was where it was at! The sets, looking at them now, are only decent. The colors and concepts were great, but the builds are pretty blocky compared to our smoother modern LEGO look. In the last year, much like the story, there were less sets. Knights' Kingdom II, although only a short theme in LEGO's history, still has a great impact, as if it weren't for them, we wouldn't have all the cool magical elements in Castle we do today.

Vikings (2005-2007)

Between Knights' Kingdom II and Castle (2007), LEGO made this gem of a theme. This one didn't have any story, though. And it had a small amount of sets as well. The sets were pretty nice, though. It had cool Technic beasts. I wish they had more variety in the beasts, though. Most were dragons. I hope LEGO will do something like this again someday. It'd be pretty cool to see what they'd do.

Castle (2007-2009)

Probably one of my favorite themes of all time. I loved the colorscheme, I loved the imagination, I loved all of it! This is the definitive fantasy Castle theme. It doesn't have much of a story and the sets are only decent compared to nowaday's standards, but it's still great. The last wave also had only a few sets, but they were still great. LEGO will never be able to recreate this majesty, but that's okay. Castle (2007) had its time, in my opinion. (Though I'd still love if they'd try to revive the theme.)

Kingdoms (2010-2012)

I've hated this theme for a while. It's not that bad, though, looking back. The builds still hold up. Most of the set ideas are unoriginal, though. I also don't like the lack of fantasy. I don't have much to say about it. It just came and went.

The Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit (2012-2014)

I loved the movies and I love the sets. It was a perfect idea. Probably one of the best licensed themes ever. My only problem with it is that it limited the fantasy in the mainstream Castle theme. Oh well.

Castle (2013)

When I heard about this, I was psyched! I was even more psyched when I saw the preliminary photos! Then the actual photos came out. Meh. It tries to hearken back to Castle (2007), but the colors are way too bright and includes little to no fantasy elements. Most of the sets are rehashes of the 2007 theme that are only slightly different. And again, the fantasy is barely there. As I mentioned before, it's probably because of the Lord of the Rings theme. Would have loved for the enemies to be some mythical monsters. But at least we had something.


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Toa AquinusBricktastic

115 months ago
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Looking back at this, I now REALLY want the Vikings theme back. So creative. Glad I got the Biggie one (The Longship) last year! :-P
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Anonymous user #1

120 months ago
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Awesome, completely agree with the Tolkien one + "#"SaveLoftRTheHobbit2015
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AwesomeknightBricktastic

120 months ago
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lol
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BerrybrickLegendary Brickipedian

120 months ago
Score 2++

Ooh, Knights' Kingdom II...it was pretty silly and not all of the sets stand up so well (Vladek's Dark Fortress is still one of my favorites though) but it was the coolest thing ever when I was younger. Until it hit the third year, at least. Vladek got a cool new variant and I liked some of the new characters and sets, but I wasn't a fan of dropping the whole cast except for Jayko and then aging him about 50 years...uh, anyway.

I wish I had gotten into Vikings. The sets weren't too great, but Norse mythology is cool. Some of it, anyway. Sleipnir creeps the heck out of me. I would like to see them revisit this concept, since I think they could do some really cool things with modern standards.

Fantasy Castle is another thing I would like to see them do again. I'm afraid it would go the way of Pirates and be mostly remakes though. :/

Your Kingdoms analysis is pretty accurate. The sets are good, but not really special.

I'm not a huge fan of the LOTR sets, I'm not sure why. I see why people like them (though the AFOL portion of the fanbase is pretty insane).

2013 Castle is disappointing. It brings nothing new to the table at all, and it was hot on the heels of Kingdoms, which it was basically a rebranding of.

Whatever they do next, I would like it to have a mythical edge. Fantasy/Tolkien would be fine too, but I'd want something like Elves, but with more monsters and action.
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AwesomeknightBricktastic

120 months ago
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Oooh yes. I like the Elves thing. And I especially agree with the more monsters in action.
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AwesomeknightBricktastic

120 months ago
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Elves sort of reminds me of a mix of fairytales and Knights' Kingdom II/Ninjago, thinking about it... ...but girlier. I don't mind the "girliness", but it makes it so there's no true minifigures and no action or bad guys.