This year also saw the first castle built on a raised baseplate, a piece first used a year before in Pirates sets. Another new addition was the glow-in-the-dark ghost.Ħ081 King's Mountain Fortress, a Crusaders set released in 1990 Other black wall panels, which had already appeared in 1985 were brought into wider use when the Black Knights, that featured the first mainly black-colored castle, were introduced in 1988.Īfter four years, the Forestmen were phased out 1990, the same year that brought some new pieces: a new elegant helmet with movable visor and an extra armour piece for knights. This was also the first time when black-colored corner wall panels were seen. The Forestmen did not dwell in castles but rather in hideouts built into hollow trees and rocks. A similar minifigure appeared in the set 6060 Knight's Challenge.Ī new faction was added in 1987, the Forestmen, leading to a rare period in which four factions were active concurrently alongside each other. The Guarded Inn also included the second female Castle minifigure (which did not yet feature a dress but instead a normal leg assembly). The 'alternate' crossed axes coat of arms for the crusaders was soon phased out in favor of the more memorable lion design.ĭuring the 1980s, Castle wasn't just about castles and knights but also featured some civilian minifigures, such as a peasant or a blacksmith, and also civilian buildings, like 6067 Guarded Inn, a direction that would later be lost when the theme focused more on the military aspects of the middle ages.
From now on, every established faction would feature a unique coat of arms on their shields, flags or even the minifigures themselves. 1984 also saw the introduction of the horse-figures, which were also featured heavily in Castle. Among the new pieces introduced in that year were the wall panels, spears, two new helmets (the helmets with chin-guard and face-grill helmets for the knights) and feather plumes. Two new factions, the Crusaders and the Black Falcons (as well as a sheer flood of new pieces), were introduced. This began what can be considered the theme's most active and varied period, as for the majority of this time, there were 2-4 active factions- meaning that each faction's sets were still in production/being released at the same time. In 1984 the Castle theme was totally revamped. The Guarded Inn is one of most famous older Castle sets, and one of the few halfway civilian buildings. The knights of this era did not use a consistent coat of arms, but rather had many different crests. The featured horses were not the later ubiquitous horse-figures, instead they were built of normal bricks. The knights had unique helmets that consisted of the visor-less Classic Space helmets of that era, and movable visor-pieces that were only available in these three early Castle sets. Many typical Castle pieces were already present, such as the halberds, the first swords, the lances, the triangular shields and the helmet with neck protector. Until 1984, Castle consisted of only these three sets and two other promotional sets, which were available from Samsonite. At first those sets were only available in Europe, but they were finally released in the US in 1981.ģ83 Knight's Tournament, one of the first ever Castle sets. The following year brought two other sets, 383 Knight's Tournament and 677 Knight's Procession. The theme's initial release comprised only one set, 375 Castle. The theme Castle began in 1978, the year minifigures were introduced. The first LEGO castle model available for sale was 0 Weetabix Castle, a promotional set from Weetabix, that was made available in 1970. This Blue Castle was the first castle seen in a public distributed official LEGO product. It is in a northern European late Renaissance style. One picture was of a blue castle with twin towers and a red roof.
This 36 page booklet had a lot of building ideas that were made into actual LEGO display models. Also coming out in 1960 was LEGO Building Idea Book #1, also known as #238. Examples of this model would be glued together, generally the rule among LEGO retailer models. The word LEGO embossed on 1x1 white bricks were spelled out on the front of the castle on either side of the entrance. The castle, known to LEGO retailers as #0746 had four towers, with wavy LEGO flags on top of two of the towers. It was a white castle that fit onto two gray baseplates taking up an area of 20x20 studs. This model was also seen in a 1961 British magazine LEGO advertisement. One of the earliest LEGO castle models produced was a retailer display model from a 1959- 60 retailer brochure.
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