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.

Giant LEGO monastery inspired by a Classic Castle faction

Debuting at Brickworld Chicago back in June, builder Casey McCoy represents LEGO’s Black Falcons well with this epic monastery. And this creation is jam-packed with awesome details! Let’s start with the exterior walls, which alternate between gentle curves and harsher slopes. All of this on top of a beautiful smattering of textured brick that draws the eye to key points: the ornate stonework around the entrance, the elegantly simple bell tower, or those stunning stained glass windows. I appreciate the common architectural themes between the upper and lower structures. However, with the addition of beveled corners and more intricate stone work on level #2, the build tells a story of the later addition of the upper section, perhaps after the monastery was established.

Explore more of the monastery below!

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A massive castle and bridge just under the deadline

Some people can work magic under a tight deadline. Take this LEGO castle and bridge built by Thomas van Urk for example. He tells us it was an entry for the Summer Joust: Bridging the Gap category and was finished an hour before the deadline. In his own words; “Since there wasn’t really a category for a large castle I decided to include a bridge in front of the gatehouse. Originally I wanted to leave it at that, but because of the pressure from the arching bridge, it needed to stand on a baseplate. But then, of course, there needed to be water around the whole castle, and then of course there needed to be a landscape across the water. Maybe I went a bit overboard.” If working until the deadline and going a bit overboard yields results like this then we’re pleased as punch.

Thomas says he didn’t even have time to build his favorite part of the castle. I wonder what that could be. To see how the Summer Joust is heating up with all the other builders check out our Summer Joust category in our archives.

Who needs Romeo when your balcony looks out at an amazing propagation station

Big LEGO castles are the bomb, but small really detailed medieval scenes also tickle our fancy. This scene by Eli Willsea is a great example of a small castle setting packed with little details. We are treated to a lovely balcony scene featuring a young woman looking out over a room filled with greenery. There is a trellis for a climbing plant which happens to be two green snakes. The integration of the bar with 3 leaves into the wall to turn it into a climbing plant is lovely. The brown flex tubing intertwining between the leaves works amazingly well as a plant stem. I love how this continues over the wooden beams hanging over the balcony, giving it a patio feel.

There are a lot of trans-clear tiles used to represent a propagation station. I absolutely adore the use of the Captain Marvel mohawk used to represent a box of presumably hay. The use of the Minions hair as table legs is stunning in its simplicity. The best feature of this creation has to be the use of the minifigure action pose bar with stud to make the railing of the balcony. So clever and visually appealing!

A tale of bridging and branching

There is something about pretty sunsets that make people want to take pictures of them. Same apparently goes for LEGO sunsets. This build by gGh0st features a wooden bridge that is covered in tree branches. In my humble imagination this bridge connects the village to the castle. On it we can see a lot of villagers trading and selling their goods. We can spot a baker, a guard, a troubadour and several customers. Apparently the livestock are allowed to walk the not enclosed bridge freely, which to me sounds like asking for trouble, but apparently for these people it works.

If you look closely at the rocks forming the mountains on which both the castle and the village are built, you’ll notice that it is a mumbo jumbo of different pieces. I have no idea how they are connected but it looks amazing. There even are little vines creeping between the rocks. You’ll notice these a lot better when you take a look at the midday picture of this creation. If you take a closer look at the background of the creation you’ll notice more rocks at the bottom of the picture and these rocks are formed out of loose unconnected LEGO bricks which is an easy yet very convincing method to make a rocky background. Not everything has to be a hassle.

Don’t you hate surprise visits from your supervisor?

I’m certainly not a purist when it comes to LEGO creations – I quite like seeing the outside world rearing its head among the plastic bricks. In Andreas Lenander‘s crystal cavern, that comes in the form of a piece of black glass representing an underwater lake. Naturally, LEGO bricks aren’t that reflective, so seeing such clear reflections is unusual! It makes the whole scene very serene. Aside from the water, though, everything else in the frame is 100% authentic Danish bricks, and it looks wonderfully immersive. The dwarf has clearly been busy unearthing those crystals, and presumably the boat is there to pick up his spoils. Or to check that he is actually working. I do hate it when your supervisor looks over your shoulder while you’re worki—

Huh? What? Yes, that report will be with you today, boss. I’m, uh, writing it right now…

This gigantic LEGO Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is made of 100,000 bricks

LEGO builder Michał Kaźmierczak just earned 1,000 points for his house with this astounding model of Hogwarts, the famed school from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Taking around 9 months of planning and building, Michał’s construction displays so much prowess with the architectural and natural forms required to bring it to life. The exterior shows the docks, a Quidditch pitch, and Professor Sprout’s greenhouses. Some of the exterior buildings like the Great Hall and the Astronomy Tower are instantly recognizable, even to a fair-weather HP fan such as myself.

<em>Accio</em> interior castle pics!

A castle fortified with texture

This beautiful castle build by Margrabia Mokotowski brings all manner of LEGO texturing to bear. The walls of this fortress evoke so much tantalizing topography that I keep reaching into my computer screen to feel the stony stronghold. It gives the stone a worn, cobbled look, while still communicating the craftsmanship that went into the mason work. Moving down to the yard, it’s a slew of pine trees, flowers, and high grass. While properly giving off a proper “wilderness” vibe, the verdant patch still possesses some of the order we would see in nature: blotches of the same plants together, careful application of moss over the occasional crag, and climbing vines ascending the walls of the building. The wooden structure rising up from one of the ramparts has some brilliantly fashioned shingles on its roof, and I love the use of color to signify the slats comprising its walls. And the splash of blue and white striping along the hoarding is an excellent pop of color in a very green and gray scene.

Taking a look at the interior, there has been clear attention paid to keeping the wild brush out. The blues and whites continue to shine, especially at the main entrance marked with the classic shield and crossed spears. From this vantage, my favorite detail is visible: the giant chunk of wall missing on one of the tower’s corners. Such a fascinating addition that adds so much character to an already impressive build.

Spiders are not the only forest creature to be wary of

LEGO nostalgia is a big thing these days — and I’m not just talking about the footprint of the colossal 10305 Lion Knight’s Castle. Sigmund Haugland has big-ified the legendary yesteryear factions of the Black Falcon knights and the Forest Guardians in this amusing scene. Our brave Falcon knight must be suffering from a bout of arachnophobia, given the way he’s pointing his spear at the poor spider. The Forest Guardian is taking advantage of the situation to lob a net over the unsuspecting soldier. Perhaps he’s in league with the spider? I’m never sure whose side they’re on. These forest dwellers sure give off some chaotic-good vibes. Either way, both protagonists in this picture are full of character. I like the use of the closed eye for the mouth on both characters – despite using the same piece, they both have very different expressions. The door handle is nicely done as well using a pair of antlers.

This castle’s a keep-er

There were few LEGO sets as a child that were precious to me, but one that was just perfect was the Black Falcon Fortress, and in this miniaturised digital form, ZiO Chao has realised a favourite set of mine that I needed to share! In building this in a miniature scale, ZiO hasn’t compromised on detail at all. Everything that made Black Falcon’s Fortress a great build can be found here too.

Let’s explore more of this diminutive fortress here

LEGO Icons 10305: Lion Knights’ Castle : Part Two – The Minifigures [Review]

In Part I of our review of LEGO Icons 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle, we explored the building at the center of this massive, 4514-piece love letter to the Castle theme. Here in Part II we’ll meet each of the twenty-two minifigures that accompany it. This set will be available to VIPs on August 3rd (and everyone on August 8th) for US $399.99 | CAN $499.99 | UK £344.99, but you can continue your early look now!

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

It takes a village

The dark towers demand that you enter

While not a copy of the famed Two Towers from the Lord of the Rings novels, this dark castle from LEGO builder Poul-Erik Borre is exactly what every dark sorcerer needs.

The symmetrical architecture immediately grabbed my attention, forcing my eyes up the highly-detailed stonework. I was impressed to see so many light lime-green bricks and dark-green bricks used as a contrasting colors against the black. The trees continue that same color palette. Looking more closely, I spotted a clever use of light lime-green hair pieces as all of the leaves and blossoms.

What I also didn’t realize at first was that there are actually three towers, not just two. A truly impressive fantasy creation.

LEGO Icons 10305: Lion Knights’ Castle : Part One – The Castle [Review]

The Castle theme was an early cornerstone of the LEGO line. Starting out in 1978 with the set 375 King’s Castle, we’ve seen dozens of sets over the years. The theme fell mostly dormant in 2014, with only a recent return with 2021’s Creator 3-in-1 31220 Medieval Castle and 910001 Castle in the Forest sets. But just wait until you check out what LEGO has unveiled for their 90 Years of Play celebration. LEGO Icons 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle is a massive, 4514 piece love letter to the theme that will be available to VIPs on August 3rd (and everyone on August 8th) for US $399.99 | CAN $499.99 | UK £344.99. This set is SO massive, in fact, that we had to split our our review of the twenty two included minifigures into “part two”. For starters, though, we take a very close look at the surprises and secrets in the Lion Knights’ Castle itself. Are you ready for a trip down memory lane?

The LEGO Group provided The Brothers Brick with an early copy of this set for review. Providing TBB with products for review guarantees neither coverage nor positive reviews.

It’s just a little bigger than the one from 1978