Tag Archives: Castle

Dragons! Knights in shining armor! Trebuchets & ballistas! From enormous LEGO castles buttoned up for battle to peaceful village market scenes, we’ve got your LEGO Castle needs covered right here.

A lavender dream over turquoise waters

Ralf Langer is a master when it comes to making bulky LEGO creations. He also is very capable of making builds look very delicate and fragile. In this creation it is almost baffling to me that he manages to make this massive tower look light and airy. The hexagon shaped towers are created by sticking hot dogs into 1×1 round plates with holes. Ralf’s builds always look quite part intensive so my guess is that these two towers actually weigh quite a lot. Yet he still managed to make it look like they are just floating in mid air. The window in the middle part of the build looks quite interesting and Ralf himself is quite fond of it, so I hope he ventures further into that style of architecture because I am most curious what he’ll come up with.

The Brothers Brick is funded by our readers and the community. Articles may include affiliate links, and when you purchase products from those links, TBB may earn a commission that helps support the site.

A crusade to distant worlds

While knights in armour might often be associated with big grey castles, they did venture much further east in the (often ill-fated) crusades. Andreas Lenander has applied this scenario to LEGO’s own Black Falcon knights. Despite the sun and those hot-looking outfits, they look quite content to be living here! To be fair, it’s much more colourful than their typical monochrome abodes. This style of architecture does require some different techniques than you might expect in typical castles. I’m drawn to the domed roofs on the two larger buildings, each made using half a planet — specifically, I believe it’s Endor and Bespin. Talk about an out-of-this-world idea!

The future of the Forestmen

I think LEGO should consider bringing the Forestmen theme back (and castle in general, for that matter). Look at this creation by Sylon_tw. It features the classic light grey, black, and blue colour scheme but it is brought up to date. The blue is combined with dark blue to make it look less primary colorish and lend a mottled look. The grey walls feature texture to achieve an overall worn-down look. And the black is just a little bit less dominant than it was in the original theme. There is lush foliage everywhere and cute little forest critters hiding in it. Best thing about this whole castle creation? It is not conflict driven. At least if you presume the archer is just practising for athletic reasons.

Big detail to be found in this Lilliputian village

Welcome to the microscale marvel that is the LEGO village of Valendiell, created by the brilliant Peter Ilmrud. First things first, we need to address the gigantic tree at the center of this build, which towers over the village, the lighthouse, and even the neighboring castle. I like the natural shape created by the foliage, setting it apart from the minute vegetation scattered around it. Under its massive boughs, we have a darling castle design, utilizing these technic pins as turrets. It’s an ingenious bit of parts usage, but nothing compared to the outstanding implementation of the brown minifig epaulettes on the airship and the small boat. And I’m only scratching the surface of all the great secrets hidden in Valendiell. See what else you can spot below.

An ambush that will bring the house down

This creation from SpaceBrick looks like it’s about to fall apart. And I mean that in the best possible sense! It’s a snapshot of a delightfully ramshackle mediaeval inn. The variation of pieces in the walls gives it a nicely weathered look, and both the roof and the bridge have some great uneven layering of tiles and plates. Note the hammers used as big stone bricks in that bridge as well! Speaking of notes – SpaceBrick says this is an “ambush in a mediaeval town”. I’m not sure if it’s the knight or the bard who is about to be ambushed. I think I know who my money’s on in a lute versus sword fight…

Don’t fall for this hideout

Here’s a gorgeous little LEGO diorama by Simon Schweyer of a bit of mountains and a waterfall. The first thing that made me stop and look was the beautiful yellow autumn trees, which look a bit like poplars. They mesh well with the lime green grass to give a crisp, September feel to the scene. The waterfall itself is worth noting, too, as I’ve never seen that large cockpit (originally designed for Jango Fett’s ship) used as flowing water before, but I think it looks wonderfully placid here.

This waterfall hides a secret within, as there’s a cave behind the flowing river where the crew can make plans—though whether they’re brigands or heroes I’m not sure.

The Fall of Gondolin and the diving board like balcony

For their latest LEGO creation Josiah Durand drew inspiration from ‘The Fall of Gondolin’ by J.R.R.Tolkien. Since I am not familiar with the source material, there is little I can say about this creation being true to the story. I can, however, say that it definitely deserves a mention on TBB. The castle is white with some tan details, but the dark grey rock formation it’s build on gives a great contrast in colour. The top of the castle is light grey and it ends with a flat rooftop – a detail we hardly ever see when it comes to LEGO castles. This flat roof is adorned with a diving board like balcony. Which to me always predicts a stand off between two nemeses that ends in one of the two falling off the balcony towards certain death. As we see in Josiah’s creation, that might just happen.

Two friendly neighbourhood giants started a forest band

We’ve featured The Birchwood Baron by Steven Erickson before on TBB. Not long after that Steven surprised us with The Red Oak Regent. Now we finally have a LEGO creation that features both these gentle forest giants. Steven’s creation is proof that minifigures do matter. With that I am not implying that a build without minifigures is not that interesting. I am implying that it pays off to carefully put your minifigures together. It is easily noticeable when the minifigures in a creation are just an afterthought. Steven mixes minifigure parts from a broad selection of themes and they are not just castle. We can spot some Disney parts, but also pirates, Lone Ranger BAM and CMF. Speaking of CMF, have you seen our elaborate LEGO CMF series 23 review?

A motorized microscale LEGO castle fit for the gods

LEGO builder Bart De Dobbelaer has left the details of the backstory sparse for this microscale castle beyond the fact that it is a home for gods, but it certainly captures my imagination. I’d be lying if I said it didn’t remind me just a touch of Laputa: Castle in the Sky, but this massive structure has some features that not even Laputa could claim. Surrounded by a ring of guardians, there’s a huge maze weaving through the entire castle grounds.

Additionally, the turrets spin and rotate thanks to some clever gearing and motorization, surely making the maze even more challenging.

Horse saddle roof castle

LEGO has released quite some specific horse saddles. We have them for regular LEGO horses, Belville horses, Scala horses and of course Friends horses. Kit Nugent used the latter to adorn their castle with a rather creative roofing. The entire castle is to die for. I have no idea how most of the parts are attached but I don’t care, it is amazing. I don’t think I’ll look at horse saddles the same way ever again. I might even start hoarding them to create my own horse saddle roof castle.

An ogre breaks wind (mill)

LEGO builder Peter Revan tells us don’t piss of the ogre. Upon mulling that over I filed that under good sage advice. Upsetting an ogre can result in your teeth suddenly being where your feet should be and vice versa. Hopefully, this particular ogre is made sweeter and more sedated by compliments because I genuinely like his shaping and clever build techniques. I’m also rather fond of the horse, cart, windmill, and scared little minifigure occupants that help establish the scale of this massive creature. If you feel like you’ve seen the ogre, horse, and cart around the neighborhood before, that is because you have.

Why rehash a previously featured LEGO creation, you may ask? Is this the result of lazy writing? Well, perhaps. But I genuinely believe the addition of the windmill and diorama offers an excellent setting that better illustrates the world this ogre lives in. Plus once you’ve squeezed out a title that fiendishly clever, there’s really no putting a cork in it once you’ve let loose that bout of genius flatulence humor into the world. Can you find it in your hearts to forgive me?

The king’s dying to eat

Following builds one and two of this three-part trilogy in LEGO, we see the king finally meet his doom thanks to this quality construction by Micah Beideman. Though it’s not at the blade of a sword that this monarch shall perish, but with the curve of a soup spoon. The hall of his demise is beautifully crafted in light gray bricks. While working so much in a single color, Micah uses the negative space to help break up the walls and pillars, and utilizes some excellent techniques while doing so. For instance, the rows of headlight bricks with studs facing each other is sublime, and I love the deep-set cracks in the stone floor. The throne at the back of the hall fits the rest of the surroundings well, while remaining unlike any other LEGO throne I’ve seen. But, alas, our king may never sit in it again….