I would love to see your "fixing this set" video. I think if an array of more experienced MOC builders each gave this set a remake from the ground up, still attempting to stay within a budget, would be fascinating to see the results of.
Considing this set is 230 bucks, staying 'within budget' is already out of budget for most people ;) That said, I would very much like to see the set being upgraded or fixed according to Goldfyre's ideas and design style. I loved the minifig upgrade series, even though they were entirely different, they resulted in some very fun characters, that mostly looked great.
I'm saying this as an adult who buys a couple of premium sets a year. I bought the lion's knights castle, and this imo is a companion set for it which lets you create some amazing medieval dioramas. A great many castles had towns built around them afterall. There was no way I couldn't buy it. It was a wonderful building experience too, and now, combined with the castle, it makes for a very impressive display. On the other hand, I understand some of the gripes, stickers and simplistic roof designs, none of which bother me all that much. But if you bought the castle and love it, I highly recommend this set to go with it, I know I'm happy I bought it.
The logo on the letter in the tax collectors room is actually the updated black knights logo found in history section at the beginning of the Lion knights castle instructions.
ok, no need for me to write the same, i add my +1 voice here. The same way as the shield could be given to the Lion queen, the banner could be posted in the castle too if applied the other way as the instructions require.
they should have sold the buildings separately for a way cheaper price point and started a line of medieval shops, farms and houses to build a complete town
I've made this comment as well on several review posts. I love the Medieval theme, but a 400.00 Castle, and now a 229.00 Village? Of course the Castle is the centerpiece, but this set COULD have been split in two so that collectors would have the option to get one, the other, or both over time. A variety of other smaller sets would be nice, as well as additional 'village' options. A pack of village residents, and animals would be nice (and if the sets were split, more could have been included).
Hello, I am Piyo, a Korean Lego RUclipsr. I enjoyed your video. I also reviewed the medieval village square, but I was moved by your detailed review video.
Oh i can't wait to get this set! I think more animals would have been cool but it would have increased the cost as well so i am fine with what Lego did here. $230 seems like a great deal for this set and I love the color scheme they used for the buildings. Great review!
I've bought it and am about halfway through building it. I was a little apprehensive about some of the details, but I'm having a lot of fun building it and seeing it grow.
I think they spent a lot of that $230 on the pieces for the buildings and the accessories. At some point, it felt like they ran out of budget to finish the set, leaving two unfinished roofs, no farm animals (apart from the goat that they wanted to include from the start) and not enough minifigs. That said though, it is a very fun set to build and display.
Greetings from Europe! I really enjoyed your video with a great detailed review. I also highly appreciate the cam and the quality of the video. Well done.
I love this video so much! It is rly helpful, but I think I'm going to get the village no matter what anyone says, also I would love to see an upgraded village video! As always keep up the amazing work Goldfyre, ur definitely my most favourite RUclipsr at the moment!
I got this set as a gift because I collect a lot of Medieval sets and have a large display of them. I ordered some extra blocks so make this fit in more with the details of the Idea's blacksmith and it actually turned out really well. Mostly it was just redoing the roofs of the buildings and detailing the bottoms a bit more. Love the set and love playing with it for sure. It might need to get another glow up if I can get my hands on the Briklink Mountian Fortress. Always nice to have extra bits about the best part of being into Lego.
The cart is a push/pull cart, which doesn't require a horse, and actually, they were more common to see back then because most people were too poor to afford a house
Please consider doing a "fixing the set" video. I would love to see all the changes you talked about in this video, like additional thatched rooves, and brown timber for the inn. And while you're at it, why not fix the side builds and add in the needed animals?
@@faeyzaihsanulfikri9975 Well goat cheese isn't exactly uncommon, especially in the middle-ages, where they used any animal product they could get basically. Also, I'm quite happy they chose a goat, as that animal desperately needed another print. Sure, they also added the CMF goat, but I don't think this was exactly known when they designed this. My issue with the set is mainly that they didnt incude enough animals. A cow or a horse for the cart is a must, as are some smaller animals. Any medieval village would be bustling with small animals.
Yes, please lets see your fixes! I changed my 3-in-1 castle to have the 2009 Marketplace blue instead of the yellow as an accent color. I took 2 of the Majisto GWP and extra parts, and built a "Majisto mini fortress" that I really like. The whole point of Lego is to MOC Your Bricks, which is also a great channel! I want to 2x this build, I don't have the budget now, but I'd love to see how you recolor the olive-on-tan building. Brown trim seems like the obvious easy swap to me!
I for one love the set. Great price per part, great builds, great minifigs. The only thing I dislike are the lack of prints (which means they are not willing to entertain the idea of making more - or many more castle sets). if they wanted to make more, at least the letters and the sign posts would have been great prints. I do wish they would just update the set with prints sooner or later. This set is so good, and falls short just because of that. The wooden Half door is a recolor (there was a dark brown one in the harry potter toilet room.
The shutters especially could have been a popular choice for moc creators. I hope it is not the case that they don't have much planned down the line... It seems castle is really popular. Like with the CMF series the only ones that are really selling for more than msrp are the castle themed ones.
@@jacobelmslie3862 I remember hearing somewhere (don't quote me on this, not sure if it was an official LEGO source) that the only reason they made the nice doors is the DnD set. This might mean they will go forward with DnD sets instead of normal castle sets. Not sure i like that (I hate the price , and I want my minifigs to be yellow faced ... but I do think they could have done the building signs and other generic thigs as prints and use them for DnD regardless)
@@octav1600 that sounds disgustingly plausible... even as a negotiating point of DND to allow licensing would not want lego to make competing medieval product.... which Dnd can be done with NO models at all, just story and role play conversations... I am not a fan of the licensed sets at all really. DND is just weird fantasy, not really compatible with the more classical fantasy stuff. but dnd can use any set to make a game out of. The new set has very little appeal to me. the original submission had a better build and was somewhat compatible with classic castle, but what they made is far off and lacking some finer details with inflated price per piece.... and I too have all yellow minis. I don't think they would cancel castle over it but likely more limited to the big icons level sets which are great but not complete in details. LEGo kinda spreads them selves a bit thin with related themes. LTOR, DND, Classic castle, disney medieval/ fantasy even Dreamz is castle like...
@@jacobelmslie3862 I don't mind these existing. I like them just fine, but I can't combine them with what I want to do now (all the classical castles, remade - and I need the minifigs for that). I appreciate new wizards, peasants, vikings, all of the DnD leaked minifigs are great ... however I want to have some Lego castle sets (new and old ) to enjoy. Not sure why they can't make all. Who can afford it will buy both anyway, who can't ... unlikely they will. They should just make smaller Lego Castle sets - as well as DnD sets so people can mix and match (I've already thought about a DnD world with the Lion's Knights Castle figs. Was hoping to get the rest sooner after I saw Basil remade in the CMF).
@@octav1600 exactly, a good dnd campaign can use a whole medieval world in different campaign or expanded world. I am happy for anything medieval but dnd just doesn't do it for me (seems like they are trying to draw in new market of gamers but they drew me in with the castle which I had not bought lego in 25 years so now I want more!)... there are a couple minis I might get from the CMF series after giving them new heads and hands but the actual set is about the same cost of a castle and I would rather just have a 2nd castle (or actually preferably something like the wold pack castle) for moc creations to expand.... which is a possible option should LEGO not release anything more this year. I just want something to look forward to at this point.
Glad you pointed out some of the frustrations I had with this set- great review. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the colour choiced for the inn were odd. And stickers are inexcusable at this price point. I felt like adding a horse or cow would have made a huge difference. That said, if this goes on discount, I'm picking it up for sure.
as a former lego store employee I know that the sells of the lion knights castle directly influenced the creation of this set and I can confidently say if the sales on this set are not up to par with legos expectations for this set we can all kiss castle goodbye for the foreseeable future so if you want to keep this theme alive buy this set even if you dont fully like all the decisions made I know I will because it will guarentee more castle sets in the future
@@buffaloefilms3079 Yes Lego castle is in a vetting process right now, Lego is unsure if the success is due to the overall fetishized nature of nostalgia in the pop culture zeitgeist as of late or if people like lego castle for lego castle sake, this is why they have tiptoed into the theme using old factions to lure the attention, now as I see it they are trying to transition into a purer medieval format and if people aren’t receptive they will know not to go any further seeing as the profits have ceased. Another possibility is that maybe the results will be interpreted in a different way making lego think that people aren’t interested in civilian side of castle and if they do continue with medieval it will mostly be knights and castles. Speaking personally I want more civilian life sets castles are amazing but there are way more things in medieval life than just the militaristic side of it
@@NB-is6pb its really not even mediocre, I think this set has a lot of things going for it truthfully, in retrospect us castle fans criticize a lot harder than most of the other lego sub theme fandoms and I think its because we get so little sets so we want to make the most bang for our buck of what we get and while thats fair we also have to keep in mind we could just as easily be disregarded for more goofy ninjago and friends sets on store shelves
That is what they said with the gunship and then they made the venator so this is not how lego works ,they did not do a good job with this set for 230$ in my opinion and people that dont want to buy it should not be forced to .(They failed in 2013 and are still making castle sets 🙂).
I'd love to see someone actually making a "upgrade" MOC which would detach the inn and watchtower make them seperate whole buildings. The shieldmaker deserves a door!
That was my plan. They are definitely all separate buildings but crammed together due to piece constraints. This is especially true for the inn and the watchtower. It looks a little odd closed up, but looks right when opened up. Of course then you have the open backs. You need a back half for both the inn and watchtower at least.
Because of the way the set is designed, I think the 3 set of buildings doesn't work well, they cannot be fully opened. I plan on removing the farmhouse from the assembly to make it into a standalone building. Also by adding a shed and more ground, you get more room to put in some actual animals, probably a pig pen and some chickens. Jeeting the squirrel out of there to put it on the tree is probably a minor, but in my eye necessary upgrade that cost you nothing.
Thats what i need to do coz im not happy with the building. Not sure if i should just buy some parts or buy the set twice. It really does not deserve to be purchased twice for full price, but that would be the easier approach.
maybe a good GWP and the reselling of minis could make it worth while for cheap bricks. but I have never tried that seems like the value of the minis greatly reduced once pick a brick comes out. @@ondrejm5042
Great review, I agree with you about the packaging choice, this should have been package more along the lines of the LKC, level of detail is defo not black box kind of level. Got this already, haven't had time to build it yet though. Looking forward to that experience!
One of the most memorable parts for me was opening the box and sliding the 25 or so bags of lego onto the table and see the look on my girfriend's and neighbour's faces :)
Great review! I think your comments at 13:42 and 14:43 really summarize the larger issues Lego is facing. They are a kid's toy company that's become wildly popular with an adult market that grew up with Lego in the 80's and 90's, but don't actually know what we want or how to market it to us. It's shocking how off they have been and I hope this captures what I've seen as a growing topic/sentiment in the AFOL community and I hope Lego hears it and respond appropriately. The idea of AFOL-specific sets is great and clearly, we were all in and Lego took notice. However, it was more enjoyable when there were 3-5 released per year. Why? Because as kids we dreamed of being able to go to Toys'R'us a do a clean sweep of every Black Falcon or Wolfpack set on the shelf. Having every Res-Q set meant complete adventures from base to rescue and back. As kids we dreamed of but couldn't afford to do that. Now as adults we have that purchasing power; however, to do a clean sweep of Icons today... that's a down payment on a car, and only part of that year's release of sets. I, like many others, could justify 2-4 big sets per year and would shell out the additional $250-$300 for a clean sweep of a really desired theme. However, it's hard to justify spending $1,000's on Lego annually and it's becoming even harder to find the room for these massive creations. Really concerned for Lego's business model considering how fast they are investing to meet what I fear will be a contracting market. That said, great call, I'm still buying the set but waiting for it to be discounted or come with a really good GWP. I think this is foreshadowing upcoming trouble with moving product volume. A prime indicator of this - Lego has started discounting sets at an unprecedented level in both number of sets and % off.
I don’t know if it’s been done yet but I’d love to see you fix the buildings. Haven’t used legos in forever but this and other videos like it had gotten me nostalgic.
i think some minifigs, and buildings are a bit plaine but thats never bad especially when your bulding hovels and other pesant houses. pick it up and even if you dont like the og build then you can build somthing super different with that brick selection
I’d love to see you fix it. I hate the colors of the tavern and the way the buildings are all half built and just stuck together. I love the look of the shield shop though, and I bet fixing it by replacing the tavern with a second shield shop from another set. It would need some modifications, obviously, but it feels like the kind of thing I could pull off.
Off topic, but, the new viking parts just arrived on pick a brick! How great is that! I love that you can get all the printed pieces and legs, and the pearl gray helmets, along with the rune-stone and the barrel print, the swirly dragon print etc. Great for viking mocs. (I'm waiting untill they are all bestsellers, sigh...)
Awesome set There should be more animals 3:30 its good it wasn't printed though, otherwise you wouldn't be able to flip it 5:45 this door is probably the same one that comes in the Harry Potter potions mistake set, though it possibly is a new different one
This was a fantastic review!. No bias to lego, you praised the set, and criticized it without making the video hateful like do. I certainly agree that a few pigs and chickens should have been included, and I think the mods you wanna do would be interesting to see!, so yes I’d love to see a mod video!. Perhaps you can add a second market stall, and a better tree, I think both of those could make for good changes, plus a figure or two you would have added. Have a great day man and again, great job on the review, can’t wait to ( hopefully ) see your mods:)
You forgot to mention that theres no stairs or way up to the third floor in the broken axe inn & the other floors on the inn dont match well when closed.
Very good and detailed overview! I have a few thoughts on the animal discussion. I truly believe this is an "expansion" set to the Lion Knight's Castle, hence why there are not as many animals. I'm willing to bet most folks buying this set already have the castle set, and therefore already have a cow and horse. But also, anyone could just add some animals to a PAB order when buying this set. Adding in animals would probably increase the set price by a similar amount as just getting them on PAB.
I'm glad I decided to wait on this set. The new D&D set is coming with bonus GWP in the first week. You're right that this set fails at marketing itself. I will buy this at the next 2x VIP or GWP. I have several MOC under construction already. The buildings really need to be double-sized. I think I will hinge them to themselves instead of each other. I design my MILS plates so that the buildings can be pulled off to open up. I actually like this set, and the tree, but I have no budget for a while; this one has to wait on the list!
i would like to see a video fixing the inn. i'd also like to see a custom forest man character build, one with a stud shooter, wearing a robin hood inspired suit, doesn't have to be a dude or a human. it could be a random Chima character, like a fox if there is one.
Nice review and critique. Echoes a lot of my own thoughta. I think if this was part of a broader kids castle theme, I would be a lot more forgiving of the stickers and lack of techniques, as there would be 'other sets' that would have the animals etc to pad this set out... However, marketing this as an adult build is a bit poor. Feels like a great set that had a lot of the extras stripped out due to pricing/profit margins/budget.
I love this set for just the way it is. It’s a very clean twist on an older set. My solo complaint is the lack of printed legs for the wolf pack but I have plenty of grey and black dual-molded legs for when that torso hits PAB. This is definitely a top 3 set of the year for me right behind the Star Wars hallway set and Dune.
Thank you for your opinion on the set. 👍I really like how you explain step by step what is good and what is not. Personally, I didn't get the set, simply for the reason that there are other providers than Lego who also have offers at a better price. My favorite marketplace is really nice from bluebrixx, even if there are no real animal figures there. Have you ever seen a set from Bluebrix, I'm a big fan of it. But that's not meant to be an advertisement. 😅So thanks for the great video and I'm already waiting for the next one.👋😁
Bluebrix looks nice but no minifigs or animals is not great. The builds seem nice but I really like bringing my builds to life with figs and animals. It will be interesting to see how the bricks from Bluebrix stand up over time with weathering and clutch power.
This is a really nice-looking set, in the photos and videos, though based on what I've seen so far, it does give me an impression of being rather plain. If they do pull the trigger on a Fright Knights homage, even as just a gift with purchase, I really hope they lean into the fantastical and fun elements of Castle's history. I'd love a tower full of bats, or a keep full of ghosts, or Basil's vampire dungeon, or Willa's alchemical workshop - or, heck, a full-scale haunted castle with all of those.
Would love to see a fixing the market video as I think the set has more misses than hits. I totally agree with the mixed marketing the set has and I think it would have been better served as 2 $100+ sets than the price it is. The inn itself would have made for a great set similarly to the alpine lodge winter village. I think lego should take the winter village approach to more themes, 1 $100-200 set a year slowly building out a world one location at a time. Castle would be a perfect theme to start with but I could see them doing a Halloween village, super heroes city, and many other sub themes the same way.
Well as their target audience I must say I like it a lot and glad for a city medieval theme. I would have preferred though that they redone the guarded inn as a separate building fully complete, (another set) and made more of a shop front for the back of the broken axes inn. The other half looks more like a farm house cottage to me than a town square, but I still like it... and plenty of room to MOC this and make it look better... (I want to see if I can use the 7 dwarfs cottage roof style on it) The real down side to all this though is that due to LEGO marketing it does not make sense to buy until the right GWP comes out for it.... so who knows when that will be and a little bit of that excitement wears off.
I’m not a fan of stickers (most the time I just won’t use them) but something I’ve never considered is that it gives you a chance to customize like you did with the tapestry
I agree on the not buying on release day strategy. It's just not worth it to pay full price for any set, a little patience is always worth it in the end. Even when it's big UCS type sets that never go on sale, at least wait until double insider points. Almost all sets get some discount in November/December
The biggest thing I agree on is the marketing, and I think you hit the nail on the head with this not being a hard-core 18+ display set, and more of a hopped up playset. I really love this set regardless though, and I really hope Lego doesn't decide it's not profitable enough to keep making castle sets.
Great review, and very good advice in the end. Personally, I find this set to be too uneven with its color scheme. I completely agree on the roof looking lazy. For now, it's too much of a mixed bag, in my opinion.
With the paywall for GWP’s being very high at times, I only purchase when a GWP comes out that I really want. The more recent micro space is an example.
Great review. I really understand the criticism, as this set is probably not for the average LEGO fan. It is meant for Castle fans. (which there seem to be a lot of) Let's start with the bad, most of which has been said in the video: 1. The set has too few minifigures for it's costs. The set is supposed to represent a Town square, which should be bustling with activity. This set was one of the best moments to introduce a lot of medieval style villagers, something that is sorely lacking from Castle ever since it started. 2. There are no farm animals (besides the goat) or even a single horse. Again, this doesn't make sense for the setting. No village was ever without animals as nearly all medieval life was based around farming and keeping animals for food. Horses, again, are the primary method of transport, so it does not make sense that there are none in the set. The set even includes a cart that could have been pulled by a horse or an ox or something. 4. Two of the roofs are unfinished and/or way less detailed than the other ones in the set. This is my second worst flaw with the set and also the first thing I started redesigning immediately. The two roofs just look too plain next to the rest of them, they could have easily figured out a (even cost effective) way to at least fill them up a little, instead of having them be so plain. 5. Then I come upon what I think is the worst design flaw: The connection between the carpenter's building and the other 2 is weak structurally, which scares the hell out of me while picking the whole assembly up. Also, (and probably more importantly) you cannot open all the buildings fully up, to display them side by side, like the Inn and the Guardtower, this connection only allows for a 90° angle and it partly blocks the entrance as well. I am going to redesign it, but it will take a ton of work to figure out and should have been built better by LEGO. 6. Stickers. Not much I can say about it, I despise stickers on LEGO, it takes away from the whole idea of building your own stuff with it. If a piece can be used in another way and has to be stickered, it should be printed. Stuff like the letter (on a 1x2 Tile) and the (otherwise beautiful) tapestry should have been printed, they are easy to use in other Castle sets anyways. I already regret putting my sticker on the 'normal' way, but I was thinking the exact same thing before I put it on. One thing to remedy this is to get an extra sticker sheet and put the other one on the other side upside down. The piece is going to hang on a wall anyways, so you can use it both ways. Then for the good: 1. While there are not many minifigures in the set, the ones that are included are good, quite diverse and introduce a lot of new printed designs. Especially for a newer Castle fan trying to build up parts and a collection, this introduces a bunch of villagers, of which there are few in existing sets. 2. Overall, the amount of detail inside the buildings is great. Not just fun for displaying and discovering, but also makes for a fun build of the interior, which would have otherwise been boring. 3. The actual buildings themselves are well designed and fun to build. The coloring, the patchwork design, the different windows and doors, there is so much in the set and more than enough variety. Some of the snotbuilding in the walls is simple and elegant, as are the parts where different sections of the building overlap and connect. 4. The amount of parts you get is great. Even if you only put it together once and then use all the pieces for your own stuff, there are a ton of pieces that allow you to do so. There were many times when I was building this, where I opened a bag and found oodles of stuff I have on my bricklink wanted lists exactly for medieval building. To me a set is also worth buying if you are going to use it for it's parts mainly. This is exactly why Lion Knight's Castle is still on my list of sets I'm going to buy, as all of the grey building pieces will eventually end up in my own castle designs and a ton of figures, horses and whatever is going to be re-used elsewhere. 5. The building experience is great. It comes with 2 books, so it is also something you can enjoy together with someone else. Instructions are clear, there were no hiccups in the process or hard to understand parts. Often I just kept wondering why it was built a certain way, only to see later what they planned on doing. It is not rocket science or extremely advanced, but for a store bought set it is definitely a fun and smooth experience. 6. The set has a ton of play value. While this is clearly designed and marketed towards adults, LEGO should be fun. Having the working crane in there, the different mechanical extra's, the market stall and a bunch of added accessories (they didn't skimp on those parts), there is a lot of stuff you can play around with. The ideas it will spark and the stories it can contain, there are a lot of possibilities. --------- To summarize: Overall it's a fun and well designed set. There are some definite flaws, but I would still recommend buying it for a Castle fan, especially if you can spare the money. I did buy it on a whim, which is probably not advisable for most people, but I would probably put it third in terms of value for money for current Castle sets. The Viking Village set being the best, followed by the superexpensive Lion Knight's castle, then this set. If you are capable of designing your own castles and medieval buildings, this is still a good set for parts. If you can pick it up for a little cheaper than it's quite high pricepoint, the building experience you get with the parts is definitely worth experiencing.
Would like your videos on modifications. I agree with you mostly. But I'm never a day 1 person. I loved lions knight and waited over a year for it for sweet gwps when our Lego store opened here in Tulsa. I personally am not too upset by stickers or lack of animals but they are legitimate critiques. I think you did touch on something important. This is a dollhouse style set that is built more for play. And it at least has a decently reasonable price for Legos these days. But the black box adult marketing does really block that avenue. TLG really needs to release some smaller castle sets to attract kids and casual fans.
For me, this set is already a instant by for me But the only thing I would have wanted differently was, leg printing for the wolf pack. I'm not usually one that goes on about leg printing, I think minifigs don't always need leg printing. But with the fantastic lego printing between the Black Falcons, Lion Knights, and that Tax Collector, some leg printing would have been nice. And yes, this set could have at least used another goat, and maybe a couple of chickens, and a dog.
I really like that there is no open pack to the build when everything is put together. I play war games as my primary hobby, and I'm getting into Lego recently. I have a vision of building a whole wargame table out of Lego and this will fit well. Edit: my bad. Wrote this before I saw the second building. That one doesn't look quite as good I think. I might have to separate the two halves and build custom backs.
I don't buy a lot of sets each year and the castle theme is what interests me the most. I'm definitely picking this one up despite lacking some farm animals and more interesting leg pieces. But I don't think that should stop any Lego castle fan from buying this.
A lot of good points here actually. Most of your points, I thought the same. I skipped this set because I started looking at other brands and Lego brand is starting to look plain when placed along side them. Add that to the fact that they charge double or triple and they don't even come with a light kit. I would have thought they'd at least boost the animal count to make up for their premium ask.
Right now im building it. I love the set. The scale of the houses are perfect. But i will modifie it. The cheesehouse i will put alone in my moc... I will at some extra goats to it and maken the roof a little wider and also cover the open wall and done. The white house will become the house of my sheep herder... And the carpenter house will get a attachment and will be changed into a smid. The inn is very nice... I like the details but i dont like the hinges for my moc. I will make tile between the floors to get them faster off. I will also extend the inn with removing the shieldpainter... So the inn becomes twice the size... Upstairs will become a little house for thz qaurd and his wife. I have a lot planned for it. The tower will over look the lake where the boats arrive. The lack of animals didnt bother me because i have a lot of them and can at them. Im not a big fan of all the figs. The wolfpack and taxcollecter are great. The kid is also nice. But thats it for me. The 3 woman will be changed and combined to one or 2 new figs and rhe guy with the grey hair... Will change it. The qaurd i will at to my lions knights army but the inn will be black falcon territory. I think you should buy it when you can. It has some great feature and i really love the scale of it. Perfect!
Agreed that the MTS isn't a day one purchase. It's a good set but some more animals should've been included. I've been picking up some of the more recent farm and CMF minigures that came with animals (pretty pricey on the aftermarket) just so I could have some more animals to display with the castle stuff. I'll be waiting for a Double VIP Points event and better GWP offering before I'll be buying the MTS.
Aside from the price, the other reason im not picking this up is because of the roofs on the buildings. No disrespect to the designers nor to people who enjoy it but I don't enjoy those weird feet pieces making up the thatching. Great for texture but still strange to me.
Maybe another goat, and a bunch of pigs, during medieval times everyone had pigs, it how they disposed of food scraps and waste 🗑. There was even a job for herding the town pigs during the day to keep them out of trouble. Then the pigs where herded back home.
@@RobbyVogel Yeah, I picked up the barn City set and farmer CMF just to have more pigs/piglets, and those aren't cheap on the aftermarket now that they're retired.
I just don’t think the animals are that big a deal. The sets solid bang for the buck, and if you want animals that bad you can grab quite a few for like 20 with shipping on BL. It would be nice to have em, but I feel like people are blowing it out of proportion
I have this set, and I love it. It's called the town square, not the village. there are just enough buildings and people for a town square, and the animals as well. If anything, I wished we could've gotten one more goat, (but Ive got 4 goatherds, so I'm all set.) Other than that, I think it's a beaut
I really like the set, it goes great with the lion knights castle and it's worth the price. great minifigures great buildings, the ratio of price and number of parts is worth it, for example the new d@d set is quite expensive and you don't get anything special except the dragon and the new minifigures.
I am going to buy this set and I think it is worth it because it is a nice display and play set and for 200 bucks getting 5 really detailed buildings is really
Have to agree that for this price point shouldn't be so many stickers, its kinda a slap in the face to adult fans as its marketed to adults, but otherwise i think its pretty good
I do think non-printed legs on the wolfpack figure is a huge miss though. I still love the figure, but to bring back such an iconic classic Castle figure and not go all out is a little disappointing.
I would love to see your "fixing this set" video. I think if an array of more experienced MOC builders each gave this set a remake from the ground up, still attempting to stay within a budget, would be fascinating to see the results of.
Same
Considing this set is 230 bucks, staying 'within budget' is already out of budget for most people ;)
That said, I would very much like to see the set being upgraded or fixed according to Goldfyre's ideas and design style. I loved the minifig upgrade series, even though they were entirely different, they resulted in some very fun characters, that mostly looked great.
Same
Same
I'm saying this as an adult who buys a couple of premium sets a year. I bought the lion's knights castle, and this imo is a companion set for it which lets you create some amazing medieval dioramas. A great many castles had towns built around them afterall. There was no way I couldn't buy it. It was a wonderful building experience too, and now, combined with the castle, it makes for a very impressive display. On the other hand, I understand some of the gripes, stickers and simplistic roof designs, none of which bother me all that much. But if you bought the castle and love it, I highly recommend this set to go with it, I know I'm happy I bought it.
The logo on the letter in the tax collectors room is actually the updated black knights logo found in history section at the beginning of the Lion knights castle instructions.
Ahhh you are totally right, nice catch
I’m definitely going to put the banner the way you did it so I can use it in Mocs!
Bro im actually brain dead how dod i nor think about that😢
ok, no need for me to write the same, i add my +1 voice here. The same way as the shield could be given to the Lion queen, the banner could be posted in the castle too if applied the other way as the instructions require.
"The honorable sherif of naughtingham" a forestman would have been hilarious to go with the tax collector. 🤣
they should have sold the buildings separately for a way cheaper price point and started a line of medieval shops, farms and houses to build a complete town
Lego City but castle themed...would be amazing
I've made this comment as well on several review posts. I love the Medieval theme, but a 400.00 Castle, and now a 229.00 Village? Of course the Castle is the centerpiece, but this set COULD have been split in two so that collectors would have the option to get one, the other, or both over time. A variety of other smaller sets would be nice, as well as additional 'village' options. A pack of village residents, and animals would be nice (and if the sets were split, more could have been included).
Hello, I am Piyo, a Korean Lego RUclipsr. I enjoyed your video. I also reviewed the medieval village square, but I was moved by your detailed review video.
Oh i can't wait to get this set! I think more animals would have been cool but it would have increased the cost as well so i am fine with what Lego did here. $230 seems like a great deal for this set and I love the color scheme they used for the buildings. Great review!
I've bought it and am about halfway through building it. I was a little apprehensive about some of the details, but I'm having a lot of fun building it and seeing it grow.
@@joostdriesens3984 ohh that sounds amazing to me. Trying to sell some stuff now so that I can buy it after I move. 🤞
I think they spent a lot of that $230 on the pieces for the buildings and the accessories. At some point, it felt like they ran out of budget to finish the set, leaving two unfinished roofs, no farm animals (apart from the goat that they wanted to include from the start) and not enough minifigs.
That said though, it is a very fun set to build and display.
230 is a horrible deal when you only get 1 minifig of each knight faction, and no horse or any other big animals
Greetings from Europe! I really enjoyed your video with a great detailed review. I also highly appreciate the cam and the quality of the video. Well done.
Lot of castle fans in Europe it seems. I guess we are living in the birthplace of where all of this has actually been built at some point.
I love this video so much! It is rly helpful, but I think I'm going to get the village no matter what anyone says, also I would love to see an upgraded village video! As always keep up the amazing work Goldfyre, ur definitely my most favourite RUclipsr at the moment!
Head Cannon: the Tax Collector is a spy for the Dragon Knights, that's why he's skimming coin and has a letter with their seal.
I was like there is a beard in the tree... Ooooohh its "supposed to be" a bird nest.. I can't unsee the beard. lmao
Same
maybe the bird was just lazy
I got this set as a gift because I collect a lot of Medieval sets and have a large display of them. I ordered some extra blocks so make this fit in more with the details of the Idea's blacksmith and it actually turned out really well. Mostly it was just redoing the roofs of the buildings and detailing the bottoms a bit more. Love the set and love playing with it for sure. It might need to get another glow up if I can get my hands on the Briklink Mountian Fortress. Always nice to have extra bits about the best part of being into Lego.
Thanks for the review. I’ll pick this up eventually (of course… it’s castle!) Would be interested in seeing your ideas to improve it.
The cart is a push/pull cart, which doesn't require a horse, and actually, they were more common to see back then because most people were too poor to afford a house
Please consider doing a "fixing the set" video. I would love to see all the changes you talked about in this video, like additional thatched rooves, and brown timber for the inn. And while you're at it, why not fix the side builds and add in the needed animals?
This sets needs at least 3 chickens, a cow (or ox to pull the cart) and probably a horse.
@@pinobluevogel6458weird that a set featuring a cheese maker doesn’t have a cow instead a goat it would’ve been better if it also had a cow
@@faeyzaihsanulfikri9975 Well goat cheese isn't exactly uncommon, especially in the middle-ages, where they used any animal product they could get basically. Also, I'm quite happy they chose a goat, as that animal desperately needed another print. Sure, they also added the CMF goat, but I don't think this was exactly known when they designed this.
My issue with the set is mainly that they didnt incude enough animals. A cow or a horse for the cart is a must, as are some smaller animals. Any medieval village would be bustling with small animals.
@@pinobluevogel6458 agreed
Great review, as always. Looking forward to your mods for this set!
Yes, please lets see your fixes! I changed my 3-in-1 castle to have the 2009 Marketplace blue instead of the yellow as an accent color. I took 2 of the Majisto GWP and extra parts, and built a "Majisto mini fortress" that I really like. The whole point of Lego is to MOC Your Bricks, which is also a great channel! I want to 2x this build, I don't have the budget now, but I'd love to see how you recolor the olive-on-tan building. Brown trim seems like the obvious easy swap to me!
Awesome set, definitely going to get it to go along with the Castle!!!
I for one love the set. Great price per part, great builds, great minifigs. The only thing I dislike are the lack of prints (which means they are not willing to entertain the idea of making more - or many more castle sets). if they wanted to make more, at least the letters and the sign posts would have been great prints.
I do wish they would just update the set with prints sooner or later. This set is so good, and falls short just because of that.
The wooden Half door is a recolor (there was a dark brown one in the harry potter toilet room.
The shutters especially could have been a popular choice for moc creators. I hope it is not the case that they don't have much planned down the line... It seems castle is really popular. Like with the CMF series the only ones that are really selling for more than msrp are the castle themed ones.
@@jacobelmslie3862 I remember hearing somewhere (don't quote me on this, not sure if it was an official LEGO source) that the only reason they made the nice doors is the DnD set. This might mean they will go forward with DnD sets instead of normal castle sets. Not sure i like that (I hate the price , and I want my minifigs to be yellow faced ... but I do think they could have done the building signs and other generic thigs as prints and use them for DnD regardless)
@@octav1600 that sounds disgustingly plausible... even as a negotiating point of DND to allow licensing would not want lego to make competing medieval product.... which Dnd can be done with NO models at all, just story and role play conversations... I am not a fan of the licensed sets at all really. DND is just weird fantasy, not really compatible with the more classical fantasy stuff. but dnd can use any set to make a game out of. The new set has very little appeal to me. the original submission had a better build and was somewhat compatible with classic castle, but what they made is far off and lacking some finer details with inflated price per piece.... and I too have all yellow minis. I don't think they would cancel castle over it but likely more limited to the big icons level sets which are great but not complete in details. LEGo kinda spreads them selves a bit thin with related themes. LTOR, DND, Classic castle, disney medieval/ fantasy even Dreamz is castle like...
@@jacobelmslie3862 I don't mind these existing. I like them just fine, but I can't combine them with what I want to do now (all the classical castles, remade - and I need the minifigs for that). I appreciate new wizards, peasants, vikings, all of the DnD leaked minifigs are great ... however I want to have some Lego castle sets (new and old ) to enjoy.
Not sure why they can't make all. Who can afford it will buy both anyway, who can't ... unlikely they will. They should just make smaller Lego Castle sets - as well as DnD sets so people can mix and match (I've already thought about a DnD world with the Lion's Knights Castle figs. Was hoping to get the rest sooner after I saw Basil remade in the CMF).
@@octav1600 exactly, a good dnd campaign can use a whole medieval world in different campaign or expanded world. I am happy for anything medieval but dnd just doesn't do it for me (seems like they are trying to draw in new market of gamers but they drew me in with the castle which I had not bought lego in 25 years so now I want more!)... there are a couple minis I might get from the CMF series after giving them new heads and hands but the actual set is about the same cost of a castle and I would rather just have a 2nd castle (or actually preferably something like the wold pack castle) for moc creations to expand.... which is a possible option should LEGO not release anything more this year. I just want something to look forward to at this point.
Glad you pointed out some of the frustrations I had with this set- great review. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought the colour choiced for the inn were odd. And stickers are inexcusable at this price point. I felt like adding a horse or cow would have made a huge difference. That said, if this goes on discount, I'm picking it up for sure.
Great video! Your videos are always a blast to watch!
as a former lego store employee I know that the sells of the lion knights castle directly influenced the creation of this set and I can confidently say if the sales on this set are not up to par with legos expectations for this set we can all kiss castle goodbye for the foreseeable future so if you want to keep this theme alive buy this set even if you dont fully like all the decisions made I know I will because it will guarentee more castle sets in the future
For real?
@@buffaloefilms3079 Yes Lego castle is in a vetting process right now, Lego is unsure if the success is due to the overall fetishized nature of nostalgia in the pop culture zeitgeist as of late or if people like lego castle for lego castle sake, this is why they have tiptoed into the theme using old factions to lure the attention, now as I see it they are trying to transition into a purer medieval format and if people aren’t receptive they will know not to go any further seeing as the profits have ceased. Another possibility is that maybe the results will be interpreted in a different way making lego think that people aren’t interested in civilian side of castle and if they do continue with medieval it will mostly be knights and castles. Speaking personally I want more civilian life sets castles are amazing but there are way more things in medieval life than just the militaristic side of it
Nah, I'd rather not reward mediocrity.
@@NB-is6pb its really not even mediocre, I think this set has a lot of things going for it truthfully, in retrospect us castle fans criticize a lot harder than most of the other lego sub theme fandoms and I think its because we get so little sets so we want to make the most bang for our buck of what we get and while thats fair we also have to keep in mind we could just as easily be disregarded for more goofy ninjago and friends sets on store shelves
That is what they said with the gunship and then they made the venator so this is not how lego works ,they did not do a good job with this set for 230$ in my opinion and people that dont want to buy it should not be forced to .(They failed in 2013 and are still making castle sets 🙂).
exactly my plan, wait for 2x and gwp. I wonder if lego will do 25% like they did for lion knights castle
6 months later this has come in very handy! thanks man
WTF is this royal knights hatred??? They were much better than the lions knights. Yeah I said it. 🤣
I'd love to see someone actually making a "upgrade" MOC which would detach the inn and watchtower make them seperate whole buildings.
The shieldmaker deserves a door!
That was my plan. They are definitely all separate buildings but crammed together due to piece constraints. This is especially true for the inn and the watchtower. It looks a little odd closed up, but looks right when opened up. Of course then you have the open backs. You need a back half for both the inn and watchtower at least.
yeah they really need to be 2 buildings! I might make it a clock tower...
Because of the way the set is designed, I think the 3 set of buildings doesn't work well, they cannot be fully opened. I plan on removing the farmhouse from the assembly to make it into a standalone building. Also by adding a shed and more ground, you get more room to put in some actual animals, probably a pig pen and some chickens. Jeeting the squirrel out of there to put it on the tree is probably a minor, but in my eye necessary upgrade that cost you nothing.
Thats what i need to do coz im not happy with the building. Not sure if i should just buy some parts or buy the set twice. It really does not deserve to be purchased twice for full price, but that would be the easier approach.
maybe a good GWP and the reselling of minis could make it worth while for cheap bricks. but I have never tried that seems like the value of the minis greatly reduced once pick a brick comes out.
@@ondrejm5042
Great review, I agree with you about the packaging choice, this should have been package more along the lines of the LKC, level of detail is defo not black box kind of level. Got this already, haven't had time to build it yet though. Looking forward to that experience!
One of the most memorable parts for me was opening the box and sliding the 25 or so bags of lego onto the table and see the look on my girfriend's and neighbour's faces :)
as someone who bought the older medieval village, I am very excited to get this updated one. and the wolf pack is such a huge exciting win!
Great review! I think your comments at 13:42 and 14:43 really summarize the larger issues Lego is facing. They are a kid's toy company that's become wildly popular with an adult market that grew up with Lego in the 80's and 90's, but don't actually know what we want or how to market it to us. It's shocking how off they have been and I hope this captures what I've seen as a growing topic/sentiment in the AFOL community and I hope Lego hears it and respond appropriately. The idea of AFOL-specific sets is great and clearly, we were all in and Lego took notice. However, it was more enjoyable when there were 3-5 released per year. Why? Because as kids we dreamed of being able to go to Toys'R'us a do a clean sweep of every Black Falcon or Wolfpack set on the shelf. Having every Res-Q set meant complete adventures from base to rescue and back. As kids we dreamed of but couldn't afford to do that. Now as adults we have that purchasing power; however, to do a clean sweep of Icons today... that's a down payment on a car, and only part of that year's release of sets. I, like many others, could justify 2-4 big sets per year and would shell out the additional $250-$300 for a clean sweep of a really desired theme. However, it's hard to justify spending $1,000's on Lego annually and it's becoming even harder to find the room for these massive creations. Really concerned for Lego's business model considering how fast they are investing to meet what I fear will be a contracting market. That said, great call, I'm still buying the set but waiting for it to be discounted or come with a really good GWP. I think this is foreshadowing upcoming trouble with moving product volume. A prime indicator of this - Lego has started discounting sets at an unprecedented level in both number of sets and % off.
Extremely well put.
@@Goldfyre Thanks! Hopefully Lego listens to us all.
I don’t know if it’s been done yet but I’d love to see you fix the buildings. Haven’t used legos in forever but this and other videos like it had gotten me nostalgic.
Hey! I actually did make a video where i modified both buildings. It was uploaded a few videos after this one :)
i think some minifigs, and buildings are a bit plaine but thats never bad especially when your bulding hovels and other pesant houses. pick it up and even if you dont like the og build then you can build somthing super different with that brick selection
I’d love to see you fix it.
I hate the colors of the tavern and the way the buildings are all half built and just stuck together.
I love the look of the shield shop though, and I bet fixing it by replacing the tavern with a second shield shop from another set. It would need some modifications, obviously, but it feels like the kind of thing I could pull off.
By “colours of the tavern” I assume you mean the olive green half yes?, if so I agree
@@ClassicStudStudios Yeah. I think in Goldfyre does a recolor of it in another video that looks a lot better.
I wish it had more animals, im rather new to the theme and it would help out a lot
Off topic, but, the new viking parts just arrived on pick a brick! How great is that! I love that you can get all the printed pieces and legs, and the pearl gray helmets, along with the rune-stone and the barrel print, the swirly dragon print etc. Great for viking mocs.
(I'm waiting untill they are all bestsellers, sigh...)
One silver lining for those who want more animals: PAB has reduced the price of cows by I believe 3 dollars, and sheep are back in the inventory.
Oh wait that's actually amazing news
Awesome set
There should be more animals
3:30 its good it wasn't printed though, otherwise you wouldn't be able to flip it
5:45 this door is probably the same one that comes in the Harry Potter potions mistake set, though it possibly is a new different one
This was a fantastic review!. No bias to lego, you praised the set, and criticized it without making the video hateful like do.
I certainly agree that a few pigs and chickens should have been included, and I think the mods you wanna do would be interesting to see!, so yes I’d love to see a mod video!.
Perhaps you can add a second market stall, and a better tree, I think both of those could make for good changes, plus a figure or two you would have added.
Have a great day man and again, great job on the review, can’t wait to ( hopefully ) see your mods:)
Thank you for the super kind words! I hope you have a lovely weekend yourself.
You forgot to mention that theres no stairs or way up to the third floor in the broken axe inn & the other floors on the inn dont match well when closed.
Very good and detailed overview! I have a few thoughts on the animal discussion. I truly believe this is an "expansion" set to the Lion Knight's Castle, hence why there are not as many animals. I'm willing to bet most folks buying this set already have the castle set, and therefore already have a cow and horse. But also, anyone could just add some animals to a PAB order when buying this set. Adding in animals would probably increase the set price by a similar amount as just getting them on PAB.
I'm glad I decided to wait on this set. The new D&D set is coming with bonus GWP in the first week. You're right that this set fails at marketing itself. I will buy this at the next 2x VIP or GWP. I have several MOC under construction already. The buildings really need to be double-sized. I think I will hinge them to themselves instead of each other. I design my MILS plates so that the buildings can be pulled off to open up. I actually like this set, and the tree, but I have no budget for a while; this one has to wait on the list!
i would like to see a video fixing the inn. i'd also like to see a custom forest man character build, one with a stud shooter, wearing a robin hood inspired suit, doesn't have to be a dude or a human. it could be a random Chima character, like a fox if there is one.
Nice review and critique. Echoes a lot of my own thoughta. I think if this was part of a broader kids castle theme, I would be a lot more forgiving of the stickers and lack of techniques, as there would be 'other sets' that would have the animals etc to pad this set out... However, marketing this as an adult build is a bit poor. Feels like a great set that had a lot of the extras stripped out due to pricing/profit margins/budget.
I re-did the Inn as a Raven Knight Inn. It’s much better now ;)
I actually like the Inn better than most of the other buildings, but I can see that is a really fun upgrade to do. :)
I love this set for just the way it is. It’s a very clean twist on an older set. My solo complaint is the lack of printed legs for the wolf pack but I have plenty of grey and black dual-molded legs for when that torso hits PAB. This is definitely a top 3 set of the year for me right behind the Star Wars hallway set and Dune.
I am so tempted to get the ornithopter! I have not been able to stop thinking about the movie since i saw it opening weekend.
Thank you for your opinion on the set. 👍I really like how you explain step by step what is good and what is not. Personally, I didn't get the set, simply for the reason that there are other providers than Lego who also have offers at a better price. My favorite marketplace is really nice from bluebrixx, even if there are no real animal figures there. Have you ever seen a set from Bluebrix, I'm a big fan of it. But that's not meant to be an advertisement. 😅So thanks for the great video and I'm already waiting for the next one.👋😁
Bluebrix looks nice but no minifigs or animals is not great. The builds seem nice but I really like bringing my builds to life with figs and animals. It will be interesting to see how the bricks from Bluebrix stand up over time with weathering and clutch power.
I actually recognize that gate piece as a recolor of a piece from Rapunzel's Traveling Caravan 41157, where it came in purple.
i love the narrative that they added with the tax collector, it goes well with the castle set.... the king is taxing his dominion
This is a really nice-looking set, in the photos and videos, though based on what I've seen so far, it does give me an impression of being rather plain. If they do pull the trigger on a Fright Knights homage, even as just a gift with purchase, I really hope they lean into the fantastical and fun elements of Castle's history. I'd love a tower full of bats, or a keep full of ghosts, or Basil's vampire dungeon, or Willa's alchemical workshop - or, heck, a full-scale haunted castle with all of those.
Would love to see a fixing the market video as I think the set has more misses than hits. I totally agree with the mixed marketing the set has and I think it would have been better served as 2 $100+ sets than the price it is. The inn itself would have made for a great set similarly to the alpine lodge winter village.
I think lego should take the winter village approach to more themes, 1 $100-200 set a year slowly building out a world one location at a time. Castle would be a perfect theme to start with but I could see them doing a Halloween village, super heroes city, and many other sub themes the same way.
I going to get it eventually, not immediately but soon.
smart
Hey that's your 2 monthly LORE video time CAN'T WAIT😊
I'd like to see the green replaced and better roofs - and yes the tapestry hanging down makes much more sense
Well as their target audience I must say I like it a lot and glad for a city medieval theme. I would have preferred though that they redone the guarded inn as a separate building fully complete, (another set) and made more of a shop front for the back of the broken axes inn. The other half looks more like a farm house cottage to me than a town square, but I still like it... and plenty of room to MOC this and make it look better... (I want to see if I can use the 7 dwarfs cottage roof style on it) The real down side to all this though is that due to LEGO marketing it does not make sense to buy until the right GWP comes out for it.... so who knows when that will be and a little bit of that excitement wears off.
I’m not a fan of stickers (most the time I just won’t use them) but something I’ve never considered is that it gives you a chance to customize like you did with the tapestry
I agree on the not buying on release day strategy. It's just not worth it to pay full price for any set, a little patience is always worth it in the end. Even when it's big UCS type sets that never go on sale, at least wait until double insider points. Almost all sets get some discount in November/December
I think the set looks great! If I need more animals, I'll find more animals.
The biggest thing I agree on is the marketing, and I think you hit the nail on the head with this not being a hard-core 18+ display set, and more of a hopped up playset. I really love this set regardless though, and I really hope Lego doesn't decide it's not profitable enough to keep making castle sets.
I did the same thing with the tapestry sticker placement and I am pleased with my mistake.
Great review, and very good advice in the end.
Personally, I find this set to be too uneven with its color scheme. I completely agree on the roof looking lazy. For now, it's too much of a mixed bag, in my opinion.
I feel like the figs are the main reason would buy it. OH! And the goat can’t forget about that
With the paywall for GWP’s being very high at times, I only purchase when a GWP comes out that I really want. The more recent micro space is an example.
4:16 yes please I would like to see some of your fixs for the designs in the set
The half door part was black in the ninjago city markets set but they were used as a roof in it so it could be difficult to notice them
Great review. I really understand the criticism, as this set is probably not for the average LEGO fan. It is meant for Castle fans. (which there seem to be a lot of)
Let's start with the bad, most of which has been said in the video:
1. The set has too few minifigures for it's costs. The set is supposed to represent a Town square, which should be bustling with activity. This set was one of the best moments to introduce a lot of medieval style villagers, something that is sorely lacking from Castle ever since it started.
2. There are no farm animals (besides the goat) or even a single horse. Again, this doesn't make sense for the setting. No village was ever without animals as nearly all medieval life was based around farming and keeping animals for food. Horses, again, are the primary method of transport, so it does not make sense that there are none in the set. The set even includes a cart that could have been pulled by a horse or an ox or something.
4. Two of the roofs are unfinished and/or way less detailed than the other ones in the set. This is my second worst flaw with the set and also the first thing I started redesigning immediately. The two roofs just look too plain next to the rest of them, they could have easily figured out a (even cost effective) way to at least fill them up a little, instead of having them be so plain.
5. Then I come upon what I think is the worst design flaw: The connection between the carpenter's building and the other 2 is weak structurally, which scares the hell out of me while picking the whole assembly up. Also, (and probably more importantly) you cannot open all the buildings fully up, to display them side by side, like the Inn and the Guardtower, this connection only allows for a 90° angle and it partly blocks the entrance as well. I am going to redesign it, but it will take a ton of work to figure out and should have been built better by LEGO.
6. Stickers. Not much I can say about it, I despise stickers on LEGO, it takes away from the whole idea of building your own stuff with it. If a piece can be used in another way and has to be stickered, it should be printed. Stuff like the letter (on a 1x2 Tile) and the (otherwise beautiful) tapestry should have been printed, they are easy to use in other Castle sets anyways. I already regret putting my sticker on the 'normal' way, but I was thinking the exact same thing before I put it on. One thing to remedy this is to get an extra sticker sheet and put the other one on the other side upside down. The piece is going to hang on a wall anyways, so you can use it both ways.
Then for the good:
1. While there are not many minifigures in the set, the ones that are included are good, quite diverse and introduce a lot of new printed designs. Especially for a newer Castle fan trying to build up parts and a collection, this introduces a bunch of villagers, of which there are few in existing sets.
2. Overall, the amount of detail inside the buildings is great. Not just fun for displaying and discovering, but also makes for a fun build of the interior, which would have otherwise been boring.
3. The actual buildings themselves are well designed and fun to build. The coloring, the patchwork design, the different windows and doors, there is so much in the set and more than enough variety. Some of the snotbuilding in the walls is simple and elegant, as are the parts where different sections of the building overlap and connect.
4. The amount of parts you get is great. Even if you only put it together once and then use all the pieces for your own stuff, there are a ton of pieces that allow you to do so. There were many times when I was building this, where I opened a bag and found oodles of stuff I have on my bricklink wanted lists exactly for medieval building. To me a set is also worth buying if you are going to use it for it's parts mainly. This is exactly why Lion Knight's Castle is still on my list of sets I'm going to buy, as all of the grey building pieces will eventually end up in my own castle designs and a ton of figures, horses and whatever is going to be re-used elsewhere.
5. The building experience is great. It comes with 2 books, so it is also something you can enjoy together with someone else. Instructions are clear, there were no hiccups in the process or hard to understand parts. Often I just kept wondering why it was built a certain way, only to see later what they planned on doing. It is not rocket science or extremely advanced, but for a store bought set it is definitely a fun and smooth experience.
6. The set has a ton of play value. While this is clearly designed and marketed towards adults, LEGO should be fun. Having the working crane in there, the different mechanical extra's, the market stall and a bunch of added accessories (they didn't skimp on those parts), there is a lot of stuff you can play around with. The ideas it will spark and the stories it can contain, there are a lot of possibilities.
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To summarize: Overall it's a fun and well designed set. There are some definite flaws, but I would still recommend buying it for a Castle fan, especially if you can spare the money. I did buy it on a whim, which is probably not advisable for most people, but I would probably put it third in terms of value for money for current Castle sets. The Viking Village set being the best, followed by the superexpensive Lion Knight's castle, then this set.
If you are capable of designing your own castles and medieval buildings, this is still a good set for parts. If you can pick it up for a little cheaper than it's quite high pricepoint, the building experience you get with the parts is definitely worth experiencing.
Would like your videos on modifications. I agree with you mostly. But I'm never a day 1 person. I loved lions knight and waited over a year for it for sweet gwps when our Lego store opened here in Tulsa.
I personally am not too upset by stickers or lack of animals but they are legitimate critiques.
I think you did touch on something important. This is a dollhouse style set that is built more for play. And it at least has a decently reasonable price for Legos these days. But the black box adult marketing does really block that avenue.
TLG really needs to release some smaller castle sets to attract kids and casual fans.
For me, this set is already a instant by for me
But the only thing I would have wanted differently was, leg printing for the wolf pack. I'm not usually one that goes on about leg printing, I think minifigs don't always need leg printing. But with the fantastic lego printing between the Black Falcons, Lion Knights, and that Tax Collector, some leg printing would have been nice.
And yes, this set could have at least used another goat, and maybe a couple of chickens, and a dog.
I really wish they split these sets up with 5-6 minifigs each. I would love just the castle side.
Needed wolfpack shield, couple more figs, a baby goat, and printed parts!
I really like that there is no open pack to the build when everything is put together. I play war games as my primary hobby, and I'm getting into Lego recently. I have a vision of building a whole wargame table out of Lego and this will fit well.
Edit: my bad. Wrote this before I saw the second building. That one doesn't look quite as good I think. I might have to separate the two halves and build custom backs.
I’m probably going to wait I did the same thing for the lions castle when it went on sale
The question is should i buy this one, or save my money for Barad-dur, coming in June i believe. I don't think i can afford both.
I don't buy a lot of sets each year and the castle theme is what interests me the most. I'm definitely picking this one up despite lacking some farm animals and more interesting leg pieces. But I don't think that should stop any Lego castle fan from buying this.
Once the minifigure parts get on pick a brick, I'm gonna build a squad of wolf pack and the tax collector.
A lot of good points here actually. Most of your points, I thought the same. I skipped this set because I started looking at other brands and Lego brand is starting to look plain when placed along side them. Add that to the fact that they charge double or triple and they don't even come with a light kit. I would have thought they'd at least boost the animal count to make up for their premium ask.
i would really enjoy and video or maybe even series, where you fix some of the medieval sets (majistos workshop as well?)
The half door is not a new mold. Not sure where it was introduced, but it is in the Ninjago City Markets set from last year, in black.
Right now im building it. I love the set. The scale of the houses are perfect. But i will modifie it. The cheesehouse i will put alone in my moc... I will at some extra goats to it and maken the roof a little wider and also cover the open wall and done. The white house will become the house of my sheep herder... And the carpenter house will get a attachment and will be changed into a smid. The inn is very nice... I like the details but i dont like the hinges for my moc. I will make tile between the floors to get them faster off. I will also extend the inn with removing the shieldpainter... So the inn becomes twice the size... Upstairs will become a little house for thz qaurd and his wife. I have a lot planned for it. The tower will over look the lake where the boats arrive.
The lack of animals didnt bother me because i have a lot of them and can at them.
Im not a big fan of all the figs. The wolfpack and taxcollecter are great. The kid is also nice. But thats it for me. The 3 woman will be changed and combined to one or 2 new figs and rhe guy with the grey hair... Will change it.
The qaurd i will at to my lions knights army but the inn will be black falcon territory.
I think you should buy it when you can. It has some great feature and i really love the scale of it. Perfect!
I really need an explanation, what's the problem with stickers ? Prints are better yeah but stickers are fine imo
Agreed that the MTS isn't a day one purchase. It's a good set but some more animals should've been included. I've been picking up some of the more recent farm and CMF minigures that came with animals (pretty pricey on the aftermarket) just so I could have some more animals to display with the castle stuff. I'll be waiting for a Double VIP Points event and better GWP offering before I'll be buying the MTS.
I wouldve loved to have a few more random items to set the medieval scene aswell as two or three more citizens to give everything more life
I love you videos! Thank you and, keep it up!
Aside from the price, the other reason im not picking this up is because of the roofs on the buildings. No disrespect to the designers nor to people who enjoy it but I don't enjoy those weird feet pieces making up the thatching. Great for texture but still strange to me.
it does have some amazing printed pieces and stuff so yeah, I'd buy it
I disagree with the point about animals. It's "medieval town square" not "medieval village"
I feel like that's all the more reason to have them! people trading animals at the market and such
I can’t believe this comment got 8 likes. Do people seriously believe there were no animals in medieval towns?
Maybe another goat, and a bunch of pigs, during medieval times everyone had pigs, it how they disposed of food scraps and waste 🗑. There was even a job for herding the town pigs during the day to keep them out of trouble. Then the pigs where herded back home.
@@RobbyVogel Yeah, I picked up the barn City set and farmer CMF just to have more pigs/piglets, and those aren't cheap on the aftermarket now that they're retired.
I just don’t think the animals are that big a deal. The sets solid bang for the buck, and if you want animals that bad you can grab quite a few for like 20 with shipping on BL. It would be nice to have em, but I feel like people are blowing it out of proportion
I wanna see that fix you were talking about for the carpenters roof
Good advice and amazing review!
The half door mold isnt new, i think it was first included in a Friends set.
5:54 That stable door has been around for a while, but mostly used in Friends sets
Yeah that's probably why it wasn't on my radar lol. Friends does have some really good builds tho
I have this set, and I love it. It's called the town square, not the village. there are just enough buildings and people for a town square, and the animals as well. If anything, I wished we could've gotten one more goat, (but Ive got 4 goatherds, so I'm all set.) Other than that, I think it's a beaut
Personally i would like to try to get 2 of the set mainly for the Wolfpack figure but also to get a town setup for my Lego knights
I love this set! Could use some more animals as you said...
I really like the set, it goes great with the lion knights castle and it's worth the price. great minifigures great buildings, the ratio of price and number of parts is worth it, for example the new d@d set is quite expensive and you don't get anything special except the dragon and the new minifigures.
I am going to buy this set and I think it is worth it because it is a nice display and play set and for 200 bucks getting 5 really detailed buildings is really
Have to agree that for this price point shouldn't be so many stickers, its kinda a slap in the face to adult fans as its marketed to adults, but otherwise i think its pretty good
I love the black smith but it felt way too big for me. This is the scale I want to make my castle moc in so this feels like it would fit perfectly.
yeah... it's pretty hard to display that set next to the other medieval sets out rn
I do think non-printed legs on the wolfpack figure is a huge miss though. I still love the figure, but to bring back such an iconic classic Castle figure and not go all out is a little disappointing.
i would just buy from pickabrick as most of the figs you can get there AND you can make your own village with maybe even better quality
We want to see your version!!!
Please do a fixing videa, i agree with you on the olive green and drak tan