As I noted in the year one update, LEGO is coming out with a new LEGO Castle theme this summer. This is after a three year hiatus that saw LEGO Kingdoms, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit franchises instead. Of course, LEGO Castle has been running on and off since 1978, the year of the yellow castle. It has included such highlights as the great 1984 grey LEGO Castle that inspired this blog, and low-point spin-offs like Knights’ Kingdom II.

For better or for worse, LEGO Castle is back. The initial online reaction has been mixed, the new LEGO Castle being thought of as too basic and too boring compared to the detailed techniques in Lord of the Rings and late LEGO Kingdoms. Indeed, it seems the new LEGO Castle is directed at a little younger audience, most sets being labelled aged 6-12, whereas Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit are covering 8-14 instead. Smaller kids will probably like it a lot.

LEGO Castle also only launches with five sets, in comparison the 1984 LEGO Castle launched with nine and the 2007 LEGO Castle with eight. The new Castle is not yet sold in my native Finland, but it is on sale in Billund, Denmark at the LEGO Shop there. The full collection was on the shelves: 70400 Forest Ambush, 70401 Gold Getaway, 70402 The Gatehouse Raid, 70403 Dragon Mountain and 70404 King’s Castle (yes, there’s the mandatory King’s Castle!).

New LEGO Castle

New LEGO Castle

Note: You can click the images for larger versions.

We picked up a couple of the sets, so I will be returning to this topic later on. For a comprehensive history on LEGO Castle, see Brickipedia.