Random figure of the day: cas215

@SJPlego said:
"LORE TIME!

Willa the Witch (also known as Hylia, Izralda, Buta, Matulda, Hella, and Hubble Bubble... if you thought Adventurers was bad, it's not the only one!) is the wicked witch of Bricksylvania, seizing control and bringing terror with her black magic and black dragons. Depending on the regional storyline, she's either the evil rival of the campy but heroic Count Batlord and his Fright Knights (in Europe), or she's the puppetmaster who has transformed Basil into her loyal servant Bat Lord (in North America). LEGO Legacy: Heroes Unboxed even reconciles the two portrayals, with Willa magically brainwashing Basil into servitude to stop him from opposing her."

I'd always just assumed they were allies, if not full-on coworkers. But then, I never had any real interest in Fright Knights; the only set from the subtheme on my wanted list is 6007.

I remember Willa from Lego Legacy Heroes Unboxed! She was such an annoying character to fight against, mostly because of her positively NASTY synergy with Basil the Batlord. See, Basil was a tank; his whole schtick was attracting enemy fire, taking some hits, dying, and then healing his entire team upon death. Here's the problem: Willa's passive checked every turn to see if Basil was dead, and if he was, immediately resurrected him.

Aside from that, she was an interesting antagonist in the story mode. I can't add too much to the Lore segment above; I can't remember if her strings were pulled by the Big Bad, Rorrim Retsam, or if she was doing her own thing. I do remember that one of the plotlines involved disguising herself as King Brutus, AKA the king from Castle 2007/Fantasy Castle.

I remember Willa from Lego Legacy Heroes Unboxed! She was such an annoying character to fight against, mostly because of her positively NASTY synergy with Basil the Batlord. See, Basil was a tank; his whole schtick was attracting enemy fire, taking some hits, dying, and then healing his entire team upon death. Here's the problem: Willa's passive checked every turn to see if Basil was dead, and if he was, immediately resurrected him.

Aside from that, she was an interesting antagonist in the story mode. I can't add too much to the Lore segment above; I can't remember if her strings were pulled by the Big Bad, Rorrim Retsam, or if she was doing her own thing. I do remember that one of the plotlines involved disguising herself as King Brutus, AKA the king from Castle 2007/Fantasy Castle.

@SJPlego said:
"Willa had a minor appearance as an opponent in LEGO Racers. More notably, as I mentioned before, Willa's most recent appearance was in LEGO Legacy, which has her as the main villain (or maybe just one of the main villains... I admit, I never got far enough in the campaign to see if someone else is pulling her strings)"

If memory serves, someone else WAS pulling the strings. Rorrim (as far as I'm aware) was the main antagonist of the game. He was one of those old proto-minifigs that lacked moveable legs and arms who was jealous of more modern minifigures. He developed a set of robotic limbs and a little robot helper guy to let him manipulate and (eventually) take over the world.

@SJPlego said:
"LORE TIME!

Willa the Witch (also known as Hylia, Izralda, Buta, Matulda, Hella, and Hubble Bubble..."

So... I'm guessing that you're the guy who ran the minifig lore trivia contest last week at Brickworld Chicago.

I love how much character is on that face print.

2872 was a gift with a news paper back in 2000's. I got a couple, not for the Witch, but for the parts, especially for the crystal ball and tha barrel.

One of the reasons I was slipping into my dark ages at the time. Pre-conceived lore and storylines for LEGO sets is the opposite of what free play and creativity is all about.
I am so glad my kids didn't watch the Friends TV show when they had the sets. They played their own original stories they made up themselves. They never gave the figures names either. At least not the ones that were on the boxes. It helped that they combined their Friends sets with my LEGOLAND Town layout and sets from the Eighties. The Fire Station in their Friends City for example was 6382, their Police Station 381-2.

I'm always a bit appalled by the face, but that's probably the intention. The costume is cool and it's a very strong outing for lego's first witch character.

@AustinPowers said:
"One of the reasons I was slipping into my dark ages at the time. Pre-conceived lore and storylines for LEGO sets is the opposite of what free play and creativity is all about.
I am so glad my kids didn't watch the Friends TV show when they had the sets. They played their own original stories they made up themselves. They never gave the figures names either. At least not the ones that were on the boxes. It helped that they combined their Friends sets with my LEGOLAND Town layout and sets from the Eighties. The Fire Station in their Friends City for example was 6382 , their Police Station 381-2 . "

The 'lore' mentioned above is obscure. Most of it comes from stuff like the lego magazine and a game that came out decades later. The basics like the names were only really a thing in small blurbs in catalogs, same as in the 80s.
There's a lot to say about Fright Knights, but it having too much of a story is not really a thing. It was pretty much like every castle theme in terms of depth.

There had been more involved tie-ins too. Pirates of all things got its own comic in 1989, which was far more fleshed out. And even Classic Space had the Jim Spaceborn comic even earlier in the 80s (which admittedly wasn't exactly mainstream though unlike the pirates comic).

Besides, tie-in media can always just be ignored, right?

I do agree though that overly specific story-based sets can feel stifling. There's a reason I prefer in-house themes. Right now I don't really buy much new stuff because there's not much of it at a nice price. Even when they had some plot hooks or a basic story set-up, the worlds feel so much grander if theybdon't faithfully recreate a specific IP. Even the recent stuff that is tied in with shows at least clearly existed as set designs first, which still invites for creativity.

I don't believe I'd ever heard of Lego Legacy before today, but now I want to play it. But in addition to my physical issues, it seems that the game isn't available anymore.

@Lego_lord said:[[2872 was a gift with a news paper back in 2000's. I got a couple, not for the Witch, but for the parts, especially for the crystal ball and tha barrel.]]

Perfectly understandable.

@essel said:
[[VILLAGER 1: We have found a witch. May we burn her?
CROWD: Burn her! Burn! Burn her! Burn her!
BEDEVERE: How do you know she is a witch?
VILLAGER 2: She looks like one.
CROWD: Right! Yeah! Yeah!
BEDEVERE: Bring her forward.
WITCH: I'm not a witch. I'm not a witch.
BEDEVERE: Uh, but you are dressed as one.
WITCH: They dressed me up like this.
CROWD: Augh, we didn't! We didn't...
WITCH: And this isn't my nose. It's a false one.
BEDEVERE: Well?
VILLAGER 1: Well, we did do the nose.
BEDEVERE: The nose?
VILLAGER 1: And the hat, but she is a witch!

(Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975)
[ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf71YotfykQ ]]]

I'll do you one better. Here's the entire movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9B7fBPhWzU

I thought a witch minifigure was so cool when Fright Knights came out! I found 6037 and 6087 for a steep discount at Wal Mart back in the day! I still have them too!

I think this is my go-to example of an overspecialised minifig head. If you don't happen to want a wicked witch in your current project, it just languishes at the bottom of the parts bin. (Or, in our family's case, swapped into a yellow astronaut so the astronaut's standard head can be put to productive use).

When Willa came around, I was entering my 'LEGO Dark Age'... And the sets she appeared in played a significant part in it, because they looked pretty bad to me.

However, with my return to LEGO and the accompanying nostalgia boost, I've managed to appreciate Willa and the Fright Knights, and even got a few of those 1997 sets she appeared in. I still think most of them look terrible, so I've actually partnered Willa up with the Black Knights -- and thus opposing Majisto. At least now she has a castle that's not an eye-sore.

@SDlgo9 said:
"I think this is my go-to example of an overspecialised minifig head. If you don't happen to want a wicked witch in your current project, it just languishes at the bottom of the parts bin. (Or, in our family's case, swapped into a yellow astronaut so the astronaut's standard head can be put to productive use)."

That head would good for for making a mutton chopped hillbilly.

As far as the minifigure herself, I only ever met Willa through Lego Racers - I missed Fright Knights by a few years; and even if I hadn't, witches and 'spooky' stuff were never my cup of tea so I probably would still have avoided most of them - which meant that the extreme lack of context given for her in that game was all I had to go on. I knew that she was called Willa and that she had some connection to Batlord since they were based out of the same circuit; but since Basil was the Hosting Champion and Willa was just the track mascot, I assumed that - much like with the previous circuit's King Kahuka and Islander - Basil was the leader of a knight faction and Willa was on his payroll. Apparently this is exactly the opposite way around to actual official lore, but what did I know...?

I actually have the cape-wearing variant of this minifigure now, which is neat. I already had Basil from trading with a schoolfriend who had two of him, when I was in my "get all the Racers Hosting Champion minifigs" phase (something I ultimately failed at, since the Pirates sets with Kahuka and Redbeard were long since out of stock); and then the lot I got a few years back, the one I mention in comments now and then, contained most of her 6037 Windship, minifigure included.

The part of the Windship that is missing, regrettably, is the *dragon*, which isn't cheap to source these days, so she's rather ground-bound at present; because of that, she and Basil presently hang out in 6090, my only big castle set, where the Royal King tolerates them only with reluctance...!

My first witch which I’ve had in my display collection since its release almost 30 years ago. Now the matriarch of a coven of witches and hags.

@jjr_2009 said:
"I really need LEGO to "resurrect" this character for the CMF line, like they did Basil the Batlord a few years ago."
Great idea! Hope LEGO does.

My first witch which I’ve had in my display collection since its release almost 30 years ago. Now the matriarch of a coven of witches and hags.

@jjr_2009 said:
"I really need LEGO to "resurrect" this character for the CMF line, like they did Basil the Batlord a few years ago."
Great idea! Hope LEGO does.

The first, the original Lego witch :) Part of my witch collection too !

@SJPlego said:
"Although LEGO Legacy and 10305 raise some... interesting implications about Willa and Majisto's relationship. According to LEGO Legacy, they're former lovers with a very messy breakup. According to 10305, they're cousins. Hmm... apparently, this ugly snaggletoothed witch isn't afraid of wicked actions means of keeping the bloodlines pure..."

I mean…there is quite a bit of historical basis for cousins becoming romantically involved. Question is, does Majisto specify whether they’re first cousins, or more distantly related?

@SJPlego said:
"Although LEGO Legacy and 10305 raise some... interesting implications about Willa and Majisto's relationship. According to LEGO Legacy, they're former lovers with a very messy breakup. According to 10305, they're cousins. Hmm... apparently, this ugly snaggletoothed witch isn't afraid of wicked actions means of keeping the bloodlines pure..."

I mean…there is quite a bit of historical basis for cousins becoming romantically involved. Question is, does Majisto specify whether they’re first cousins, or more distantly related?

One of the arch-villains of my LEGO collection, by far--and this was her original appearance, as I had Fright Force long before I had Willa-with-a-cape. Maybe for that reason, I give her a black Batman cape these days--it's a bit more sinister.

I think the "original LEGO theme with regionally inconsistent lore, ideally from sources like magazines" is the best LEGO lore: enough to jumpstart imaginations, but not so much as to lock it in--but I will grant that this is the bias of someone raised on the LEGO Mania Magazine.

@jjr_2009 said:
"I really need LEGO to "resurrect" this character for the CMF line, like they did Basil the Batlord a few years ago."

If "Every non-licensed CMF series has a costumed character" were replaced with "Every non-licensed CMF series has a reimagined classic Lego character," I'd be a happy AFOL.

I have this but I don’t have it marked as owned. Have you guys ever considered doing a survey to see how many people actually mark sets as owned in their collection?

@TheOtherMike said:
" @jjr_2009 said:
"I really need LEGO to "resurrect" this character for the CMF line, like they did Basil the Batlord a few years ago."

If "Every non-licensed CMF series has a costumed character" were replaced with "Every non-licensed CMF series has a reimagined classic Lego character," I'd be a happy AFOL."

Oh my goodness we need Ogel.