Promising Castle-Themed Projects on LEGO Ideas

Number 1 (medieval watchtower), 3 (medieval bakery), 7 (Wolfpack castle), 8 (medieval library), 9 (medieval tournament), 10 (medieval seaside market) and 14 (medieval inn) are my favourites here. But if I had to choose just one or two it would be number 10 (medieval seaside market) and number 1 (medieval watchtower), in that order.

I am rooting for the Medieval Library…gorgeous!

Seeing the Inn of the Prancing Pony above, is there any hint as to whether there will be a new line of sets tied to the Amazon Rings of Power series?

Again…how great would it be to see Ideas expand to have different categories. As long as these go up against pop culture influenced sets I wouldn’t expect them to be approved with the current format of Ideas. They’ve already given us a Pirate and Castle set. The sitcom sets will stay popular because Lego knows AFOLs will buy them but they also attract non AFOL fans of the shows that just want the memorabilia.
The idea of a Medieval Icon type set every year to match Modulars and Winter Village would be amazing.

I like the library and harbor market the most.

I feel like, in order to sell enough, they'd have to 1. have a decent number of concurrent sets 2. make them simpler so kids can buy and build them. Personally, I'm a fan of that, my medieval area is designed around the old modular "wall" function from sets like 6040 and 6041 and 6067. I like being able to add gates, additional wall, and whatever other civilian buildings I want at a smaller level. These sorts of detailed sets are wonderful display pieces but the cost of building up a "set" is prohibitive, let alone making a coherent scene.

The Wolfpack one is my favorite. Nice to see a Castle set on Ideas that isn’t 4000+ pieces.

Now my problem is where I'm going to find all the money to buy these

I live in Buffalo, NY where it is gray for about 9 months of the year. I have enough drabness in my life most of the time, I don't need a gray and brown building, which has kept me away from castle in general. I really like the stable, it's pretty bright and shows that castle is more than just imposing stone fortresses. I mainly buy sets based on the rare/interesting/useful parts they have, so it's always hard to gauge an ideas submission.

They’re all amazing, some great parts usage and techniques that sadly Lego would have to simplify and legalise in an official set

Some really cool stuff here. Lots of interesting ideas for Ideas. The Wizard Watchtower is so compelling to me as I just don’t see the magic stuff in medieval or Castle MOCs a lot. The only gripe I have with the MOC is that the detailing should shift as the build moves to the ground. There’s a lot of similarity so the Watchtower gets a bit lost in the mix. Some larger rounds or something could address that, different rocky surfaces and foliage could fix that right up. But I really, really, really (really?) dig that tower.

@arselus said:
" @Briczk said:
"Lets introduce Medieval ICONS theme, and make ONE set per year (2000-3000 pieces) placed in medieval times: mint, bakery, butcher, stables, farm etc. Just like Modular and Winter village themes it should be solid for years and would have bunch of fans without any license!"

This is a great idea. At some point around the release of the Medieval Blacksmith, Wes mentioned that he had asked if they could spin-up a "modular line" of Castle sets. I believe Jamie was involved in the conversation. I cannot remember, but I believe this was a very short comment in an interview. Many LEGO designers are big castle fans. I'd be willing to wager there has been plenty of talk about this in their offices.

Perhaps the Icons branding really opens the door to this. There would certainly be a market for one 2000-3000 piece set per year. I love Winter Village and the Modular line, but don't have enough of a childhood-connection to collect either (also don't have enough space), but I'd go for a Castle-Village Icons line immediately. "

I'd love to see a medieval/castle icon theme. I missed out on the medieval stuff before. The Blacksmith's was a great set, and of these ideas I like the Bakery, tournament, Wolfpack, watchtower, seaside market and the library. 10305 needs more of intricacy displayed in these sets to be worth the price tag in my opinion.

Not everyone is a fan of Harry Potter. I only want the HP castle for an moc and possibly the rumoured new train, providing the rumoured price is not what I've seen reported. The rest of it is happily pass on.

Unfortunately alot of these sets will probably be passed on if they get to review and bricklink will make them too pricey if they make it there.

@laibros:
If you do it right, any licensing costs are more than offset by an increase in sales vs whatever you were doing on your own. Star Wars, by itself, pushed the US ahead of Germany in terms of total sales per nation back when it launched in 1999. Galidor is the opposite extreme, where they paid extra for the master license, and nobody else wanted to join in.

@fulcrumbop:
LotR/Hobbit movie rights belong to WB. This series falls outside that scope, and the film rights for The Silmarillion belong to Amazon. Making sets based on the show would require a completely separate licensing deal, but they would be well within their rights to revive the existing theme based on Peter Jackson’s films as long as the existing of any sort of Middle Earth show could help boost sales of anything from the same IP.

@KasonM:
They stated that a cap was imposed to have no more than 50% licensed sets approved for Ideas, so for every Home Alone, they have to have something based on LEGO-owned IP (Barracuda Bay), or that is not tied to any IP (Marble Maze).

@Zackula:
Even real life castles are infrequently drab and grey. You don’t import millions of tons of grey granite to build a castle if you can source any sort of suitable stone nearby. Castles around the world have been built of yellow, pink, black, and white stone, and some have even taken the option of changing the color through various means. There’s even one castle that’s covered in rainbow-colored stucco (not that it looks like an actual rainbow, but that you can probably find every color represented at least once, somewhere on the structure).

@JDawg5 said:
"I don't know if it's possible to copyright such a thing, but that Medieval Stable set is a glaring and obvious rip-off of Tabletop World's piece designed for miniature wargaming.

https://tabletop-world.com/product/stable/

Then again, the Blacksmith set was also an obvious rip-off of a (now retired) Tabletop World piece, and that didn't seem to bother Lego's lawyers much.

https://cabanaminis.com/old-blacksmiths-forge-tabletop-world/ "

Oh wow, good spot. Just checked the original submission https://ideas.lego.com/projects/15ab26fc-149b-4d80-8000-aecac4d0f4cf and it does reference the inspiration... Though if the IDEA isn't your own... and the final lego design isn't your own... is it still the ship of Theseus?

This is why Castle needs to become an 18+ theme. Not just $200 sets.

@Yardsale19X said:
"I guess this mostly relates to Medieval Blacksmith and Pirates of Barracuda Bay? Admittedly Lego made some substantial changes. But both official sets are top tier, in my view, and I'd happily buy more like that, even if they diverge from the initial idea. "
I think they did a pretty good job on Pirates of Barracuda Bay, I think that was an improvement over the much less interesting original Ideas submission. And looking at the reactions I've seen, I feel most people agree.

The Blacksmith.....is a bit different. It is still a pretty good set, but it has lost a lot of it's realism in the process, it became very much Legofied. And I feel many people, even the ones that do like the actual set, still feel it wasn't as good as the original Ideas submission. Has anyone ever said it was an improvement? And I bet the same would happen with any of these sets. Even the in itself great 10305 is very much not in the same vain like any of these sets.

That said, anyone who wants realistic medieval stuff, don't wait for Lego and just buy BlueBrixx...

“Promising Castle-Themed Projects on LEGO Ideas”
What if they never pass? You’ll have broken that promise!

@JDawg5 said:
"I don't know if it's possible to copyright such a thing, but that Medieval Stable set is a glaring and obvious rip-off of Tabletop World's piece designed for miniature wargaming. /"

There are two different questions here. First, is the original work protected by copyright? The answer is yes. Second, does the IDEAS work infringe on that copyright? The answer is no. The two designs are more than different enough for purposes of copyright law.

I really never used to see the appeal of castles until this year where I’ve spent many weeks filming in them, medieval blacksmith was stunning and now with 10305 I’m converted!! Having a go at designing a castle to be integrated into a rollercoaster design ??

Out of curiosity, the ladder on the Medieval Stables, is that a legal building technique? Where the 1x4 plates that make up the rungs are wedged between two studs?

@Wellspring said:
"Out of curiosity, the ladder on the Medieval Stables, is that a legal building technique? Where the 1x4 plates that make up the rungs are wedged between two studs?"

No, I don't think so. If the rungs were tiles I believe it would be legal, but plates will create additional stress that should render this technique illegal.

Unfortunately, due to LEGO's similarity rule, none of these will be selected. For clarification, the similarity rule means that a idea will not be selected due to LEGO seeing it as too similar as an set currently available or in the works. LEGO themselves has established this rule a few years ago, when they stated the "I am Your Father" idea was rejected due to it being in the planned Cloud City set in a results video.

I used to easily predict sets LEGO would pick and usually be right, but these past two reviews have been unexpected. Maybe LEGO has changed how sets are selected?

These are all pretty cool, IMO. My favorite is the Wolfpack Castle. I submitted a Wolfpack idea not too long ago:

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/94bf1cb8-7983-4b1b-89a

Now that Cesar Soares is at LEGO, I'd really like to see him design some castle stuff. He has some amazing MOCs on Flickr and Instagram (cesbrick). I believe he is on the Star Wars design team though.

After release of Pirates of Barracuda Bay, many Pirate-themed submissions were taken down due to similarity, these might meet the same fate. I still think that Pirates fans have been treated unfair (same could be said for Classic Space fans, though now it seems to get some limelight) in comparison to Castle fans. This is all great (a full-blown theme would be better), but give us more Pirates sets too, LEGO!

I think a lot of these are very unlikely. It seems like people putting these on Ideas are taking the success of the Medieval Blacksmith and trying to ride on its coattails. How many of them are just borrowing from the Blacksmith set (e.g. the horse and cart)? Stables or an inn (with no alcohol!) seem like the most likely subjects. I really can't see them doing a butcher.

I think it would be great if pre-industrial revolution buildings were part of a regular release schedule but I'm not sure Ideas is the right platform for it.

I'm also pretty sure that if people want the darkest, most drab examples they'd better be prepared to buy the parts and build the thing themselves because there's a very strong precedent for lightening and brightening anything with a lot of dark colours when an Ideas project becomes an official set.

I think with the Medieval Blacksmith still around and the other Castle stuff that's been released (BL designer program, 90 year castle) it will be a long time before LEGO does another Castle type project through Ideas.

@Paperdaisy:
Alternately, wait for them to release the set, and tweak the color scheme where you can. I mean, many of us do, or have done that, with official sets all the time. I got rid of all the grey parts on the Tron bikes, and replaced those silly flags with much more accurate brickbuilt lightwalls that only have color around the very edge (the originals were solid color, while Legacy only had color on the very edges of a clear lightwall).

@illennium said:
" @JDawg5 said:
"I don't know if it's possible to copyright such a thing, but that Medieval Stable set is a glaring and obvious rip-off of Tabletop World's piece designed for miniature wargaming. /"

There are two different questions here. First, is the original work protected by copyright? The answer is yes. Second, does the IDEAS work infringe on that copyright? The answer is no. The two designs are more than different enough for purposes of copyright law.

"

Of course, everything comes down to how big is the potential reward and how hard you want to fight to get it, i.e., litigation.

It's a very bad set of facts that he admits he saw the original design and also used it. Lego lawyers are notorious poor in this area. (See, the case of the jacket in the Queer Eye set).

I voted for them all. If you vote for them all it will show that there is more support for any castle set.

I really love the wizard tower. I wish Lego would make just one of this style of building. I think it is a really awesome style. I have seen a lot of buildings like this get supported but not made into a set.

Anything Castle will surely satisfy me. I’m going to support all of them.

2021 gave us new Black Falcon and Forestmen castles, this year gave us a new Lion Knights castle. I hope that this becomes a trend. Every year we could get a new castle for one or two of the retro factions. I wouldn't want them all to be as crazy expensive as the Lion Knights one, but people like the Dragon Masters and Fright Knights could use a new turn in the spotlight!

These need more spaceships.

One Forestmen Hideout for me. Icons range, 4k+ pieces. Thank you. :-) I just love this range. However regarding the Castle range itself. I believe it would really need some kind of watchtower or tower like on examples above. Also the Seaside Market would be great connection point between Castle range and Pirate range to build something truly nice.

Some lovely stuff here.
My favorites being the stables, the tournament and the river outpost.

However, actually I dont really miss medieval adult-orientated sets, I miss the whole medieval world around it. Sets which can be played with, which show fascinating medieval inventions (cranes, war machines, mills,...), battlepacks, etc...

But yeah, I know the reality, LEGO only wants to make more spaceships, more vehicles, more helicopters, more mechs and especially: more licenses!
Just maximise the boredom.
Maybe its also to avoid the "woke" people, who will cancel pretty much anything that is and that has been for not being "political correct". Whatever that means.

@LordDunsany:
While colors were fairly limited, I’m not sure primary colors were an option. Color limitation was based on known sources of dye, not the modern color wheel. This was further complicated by the fact that this knowledge was often a closely guarded secret. You could get rich if you could provide a color that nobody else could match.

I only know a few historical sources of dye. One dates back to the ancient world, which is Tyrian Purple. It involves the harvesting of tens of thousands of sea snails and rendering them in large vats for several days. Vermillion (red) was produced either by similar harvests of a type of insect, or by use of the cinnabar (a powdered form of mercury sulfide). More recently, khaki was produced under colonial British rule by soaking white clothes in vats of tea. So only that last one was cheap and easy to produce, and resulted in a drab color which was valued for its camouflaging properties.

I support all of them on Ideas. You can really see how popular the medieval themed sets are and unless Lego brings in a new series of LOTR or Castle sets, you will always see new castle sets on Ideas.

Last year's Creator castle was for my nephew the first medieval Lego set that he was able to play with. A few years before he came into the right Lego age, the last castle series was dumped. Nexo Knights was not really his thing, because of the colours. Indeed children decide what they like depending on colours! Nothing frustrates boys more than a pink stone in their Ninjago Vehicle. Returning to the castle, despite it not being Star Wars or Marvel, he really loved it. It stood in all different variations and much more for several months.

hopefully they're promising that they don't happen! :) half of these aren't even decent playsets and none of them would be remotely affordable. i would rather have a regular castle line like we've had before.

Could you also suggest the the bricklink mountain windmill could also fall into the castle theme?

@dja said:
"Could you also suggest the the bricklink mountain windmill could also fall into the castle theme?"

I believe he only included some Ideas sets you can currently support. The Mountain Windmill is technically already a set.

Wow, those ideas sets at the end are ALL amazing! I would buy every single one of them if they made them all

Let's assume that every single one of them is approved and made as a set. How many people really have the money to buy them all. That would be fine if they are produced at a rate of 1-3 per year but since they are all currently in the voting process, they will all be in one or two groups. None of these are small set and will be a at least a couple hundreds each. I know that quite a few people here have really big Lego budget but I do not think this is the majority. A castle line with small. medium and large sets is much more desirable.

Of all the set already produced, we've had commercial activities(Blacksmith), military activities (the three forts (31120, 910001 and 10305), Robin Hood activities (Forest Hideout). I guess what's missing is entertainment activities: either a jousting set or even more interesting and new: a medieval fair. Farming activities would also be very nice and fitting (remember 7189?)

I like the Wolf Pack Castle - the spiral structure is attractive and makes for a nice contrast with the more foursquare style of the 90th anniversary and Creator 3-in-1 castles. It's always cool when each faction's buildings have their own look. I also found the red roofs a nice throwback to old Castle sets. It also seems like it would have a bit more kid appeal than some of these options, and be more affordable. I'm not against doing huge super-detailed Castle sets for adults, but if Lego have to compromise on the basis of "which set is most likely to be purchased for a family to build together over Christmas" then that might have the edge on some of these.