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.

When desert warriors take over your classic castle

Here’s a fabulous tribute to a classic LEGO set — the iconic Yellow Castle 375, reimagined as a desert fortress. Galaktek has done a cracking job with this Arabian take on the 1978 original. Whilst the shape is immediately recognisable, a modern parts selection allows for the injection of more detail, with printed tiles and patterned fencing helping create the impression of elaborate tiling, and an appropriate choice of minifigures adding to the exotic Arabian atmosphere.

Best of all, the model features one of the most fondly-remembered elements of the original — it opens up. This was a much-loved play feature “back in the day” and, in this creation, allows us a better look at the fine interior work…

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Knight’s Kingdom II is kickin’ it new school

Forgotten somewhere in the recesses of LEGO castle history is Knights’ Kingdom II. It lacks the deep nostalgia of the castle themes from the 1980s and early 90s and the surprising novelty of the Fantasy Era sets. For some people, it might rank above Nexo Knights while still remaining near the bottom of their list of favorite castle themes. What it did do well, though, was to introduce Bionicle-like buildable figures to castle, allowing builders to fight each other with action-figure sized LEGO creations. Have you ever tried to engage someone else in a duel with a minifigure holding a sword? I have. It is not easy, and it looks strange to boot. Constraction figures solved that problem, and LEGO 7 has solved the problem of clunky old constraction figures for the theme, giving Sir Adric a brilliant updating.

Many of the pieces of Sir Adric have been retained, like the shield, ax head, helm, greaves, and pauldrons. But the similarity ends there, as the builder has introduced heaps of constraction parts from Bionicle and other themes, with Darth Vader’s chest armor being among the most notable. While the original Adric was small and static, this one is the complete opposite, large and dynamic. Look at that action pose! Sir Adric could totally chop Vladek to bits with this upgrade. I love LEGO 7’s model, and I’m not even a fan of constraction!

Small gatehouse is big display of medieval architecture

LEGO castles offer builders countless opportunities to use pieces in innovative ways, but executing that variety effectively often requires quite a large castle. Atahlus’ latest creation demonstrates how you can include a variety of different techniques in a relatively small model, while still giving off the air of a large and imposing castle.

While a singular building, this gatehouse demonstrates three separate types of structures. On the right you have the red, half-timber style structure that would be just as much at home in a medieval village as it would be built onto the side of a castle. Opposite it on the left is a round tower with its tall, buttressed walls, implying a stronger, more fortified look. Contrast both sides to the delicate look of the center section, reminiscent of a gothic cathedral. Here in the center, the parts usage is particularly intriguing, with seamless integration of modified bricks, bars, and robot claws to achieve a fragile character. Grey microfigures are also used effectively here as sculpted window frames, as well as on the crenellations on the left section.

What’s got two legs and goes woof?

Wildfire — Game Of Thrones‘ very own version of napalm. In this neat LEGO vignette by ekjohnson1 we get to see the everyday reality of Wildfire production and storage down in the depths of the Kings Landing branch of the Alchemists’ Guild. Sure, the gloopy green stuff is worth a fortune, and makes short work of any invader vessels coming up the Blackwater. But drop a candle in it? Things get hot and messy real quick. The green liquid is nicely done in this model, with transparent pieces capturing its unearthly glow, but the highlight for me is the subtle angle on the brick walls between the timber supports — a nice touch which perfectly evokes the idea of the arched tunnels beneath Westeros’ capital.

Enormous medieval town offers a gateway to the desert

LEGO Castle displays tend to focus on the Western European medieval era, with great grey fortifications set amid green forests, featuring knights engaged in combat, with perhaps the odd siege engine chucking rocks. How refreshing to see this huge collaborative display by thirteen members of SwissLug which breaks with tradition on two fronts: first, by depicting a city in the Levant (the lands of the Eastern Mediterranean), and second, by showing off the peaceful, multicultural side of life (probably right before the Crusaders show up and make a nuisance of themselves!)

Click here to enjoy the pictures of the diorama…

Build castle classic again

Many older fans of LEGO might long for the days of yore, before we had fancy things like minifigures and molded animals. Grantmasters liked those good old days when we had to build our own horses. After all, the first LEGO horse wasn’t introduced until 1984, years after the first castle sets with brick-built horses. With his latest creation, Grant took it a step further and built his own people too!

The use of some pretty basic elements give his Crusaders a sturdily armoured look. And though he’s rejected newfangled molds for people and animals, he’s adeptly sculpted a horse with the use of new elements, such as the curved slopes, quarter round tiles, and my current favouite use of the power blast piece, giving the horse’s head just the right shape.

Twas the night before Halloween

Builder architectlego has amazing skills in creating ethereal LEGO scenes with great photography, lighting and photo magic touchups. This Halloween themed build is one more that does not disappoint.

Halloween around the corner… elixirs brewed in advance for peak potency,
Luring the young and innocent.. with all things sweet and savory,
Isn’t it obvious? …stay away outsiders,
Dead giveaway! …cracked windows and spiders,
Complete in costume with a crooked pointy hat,
No witchery wicked ways are complete without the companion cat.

Me: I’m totally gonna rock this campaign! Also me: Rolls a 1

I am intrigued by tabletop gaming, but nobody invites me to their game nights as I have a reputation for rolling up my sleeves, grabbing the D20, then diving right in and ruining the entire campaign for everyone. But that doesn’t stop me from being fascinated by these brick-built Ram Rider miniatures, though. With a name like War Scape, it’s safe to assume this builder knows a thing or two about board games. Built around LEGO cows and featuring a few custom bits and four Tauntaun horns each, he tells us these nimble goats are the perfect light cavalry to carry their dwarven riders into battle along mountaintops and northern crags.

With my luck, I would find a way to have my character fall off the mountain and land right into enemy doo-doo. Still these would look amazing on any battle game board. Next game night, be sure to grab a few friends because there is nothing more depressing and humiliating than when your mom walks in on your one-handed solo campaign.

Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the bricks of an Englishman!

I couldn’t get that phrase out of my head when I saw this cut-scene of a large bearded brick monster having a go at the castle themed minifigures fighting for their lives. Gotta hand it to Paddy Bricksplitter not just for the overall action-filled scene, but my favourite is the weaponry — the catapult built with a bent hose for its bow arm. The details of the still-protruding shaft sticking out of the giant’s arm while bleeding is simply ingenious and well thought out.

No tree huggers in these woods

If you are preparing your castle for a siege, you need to stock up on lumber, not just to keep out the cold, but to deprive your enemies of building material for siege engines. You could do this with manual labor, but why bother with that when you have a wizard who can bring the ultimate lumberjack to life? In this case, the wizard is Anthony Wilson who has built a mighty golem he calls the Tree Feller. And judging from the sparsely wooded scene, he has been earning his moniker. Anthony’s model is a perfect blend of castle building techniques and constraction figure sculpting. I especially like the arrowslit/visor, and the patches of moss throughout the towering hulk. Of further note is the great use of partial minifigs wading through the swamp water.

Craft me a hammer, sword, or a horseshoe or two

Growing up in the 1990s, one of the things that made LEGO castle sets so appealing was the way in which they were advertised; catalog images were perfect at world-building, with sets placed within carefully crafted, colorful environments. Robbadopdop‘s blacksmith shop evokes those fond memories, and his attention to detail would have impressed my 8-year-old self ten times over. There’s plenty of clever parts usage to appreciate here, including a minifigure ruff for flower petals, hair representing the end of a mop, and disposable sprues from plants with 3 large leaves for green vines winding up the side of the building. The building itself employs an excellent use of color and utilizes a diverse range of parts, which helps it feel both gritty and fun to look at.

One of the coolest details is the way the roof flexes, complete with staggered shingles. If you’re wondering how this detail was achieved, Robbadopdop has shared pictures of the internal structure. He used rigid tubing, which can be easily cut to size and is flexible enough to shape, and the roofing was then draped into place. The end result is fantastic.

You are not prepared! (for this LEGO Illidan Stormrage from World of Warcraft)

A cornerstone of gaming, the role-playing online game World of Warcraft, has recently had a resurgence. The re-release of its original form (before seven expansions) has had millions hooked, me including. I guess that explains my lack of activity in the LEGO world… But while everybody else is busy killing boars and growing out their hair, Chi Hsin Wei has been building. The result is Illidan Stormrage, one of the central characters in the Warcraft storyline.

The character is obviously instantly recognizable, with the torn wings, green demonic tattoos and his weapons, the warglaives of Azzinoth built using lime green dragon wings. The muscles of the upper body are quite impressive, as is the construction of the character’s pants that look like they have not been changed for ten thousand years…