We recently took a look at aspects of the Classic Castle theme, in the LEGOLAND era. Now, in the Rambling Brick household, there is actually a distressing paucity of Castle sets from any era: By the time that the Castle Era was getting under way, with the arrival of the Crusaders and Black Falcons in 1984, I was well on my way to descending into my Dark Ages,
As such, virtually all Castle sets that I own are purchases I have made in recent years.
Today, we are going to take a look at a small set from 1990, 6034 Black Monarch’s Ghost. This set is one of two sets from 1990 that featured the new ghost minifigure. It’s a small set, with only 43 pieces, and features a number of aspects that make it a truly classic Castle set.
I may well get distracted, trying to reconcile the identity of the ghost, with the name of the set.
In which we explore the early days of LEGO® Castle, take in the early factions, and look at just what made Castle sets ‘Classic Castle’…
Over the past 18 moths, the Rambling Brick has looked at the development of Classic Town from the early days, through the System era, a World City inspired Dark Ages to LEGO® City. We have followed this up with a look at Classic Space, and its evolution through to the turn of the century. There is still an article to follow up here, looking at space themes in the 21st Century, and where they are today. This is particularly pertinent, given the 2022 reimagining of the original LEGO Space Flagship set: the 928/497Galaxy Explorer. This is not that article.
Before I write that article, for reasons that will eventually become apparent, I would like to take a look at the other pillar of the Classic LEGO Minifigure Themes – Castle. While Town gave kids the chance to live out the present, and space allowed them to imagine the Future, Castle allowed then to explore the past.
As a kid growing up in Australia, castles were a thing of fantasy: we only really saw them in books (with drawings) and in movies or on television. Typically in the context of an episode of Doctor Who. While the country has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years, the need for permenant fortifications was never really needed. In fact, the only castle I am aware of in Australia was built in the early 1970’s and run as a theme park.
But what are the characteristics of Classic Castle? And what time frame might be considered ‘Classic’? In this post, we will look at: Castle inspiration before minifigures existed; the initial range of Castle sets (1978-1981), and finally, consider Castle sets throughout the rest of ‘LEGOLAND’ phase: 1984-1990.
If you have been following us on instagram lately you may have encountered the 90th Aniversary Habitat/MOPs Classic Themes challenge that we have been running in conjunction with Jen @brickfambuilds. The challenge closed this week, and I’d encourage you to checkout the submissions over there following the tags #lego90habitats and #rambling90years in closer detail.
Welcome back to the fifth instalment as we take a decade by decade look at the history of the LEGO Group, before they celebrate their 90th Anniversary on August 10, 2022. Last time, we left the 1960s behind: wheels and trains have entered the mix, and DUPLO is helping little people to build big things. Today, we move further into the ‘70s: an era where characters enter the mix, more realistic models are possible, and a new CEO enters the mix.
It seems like a lifetime ago that the LEGO Ideas fan vote took place, to select the theme for a 90th Anniversary, AFOL level build. It was a close call between the castle and Space themes, but this seems to be the grander of the two sets. With 4514 pieces and 20 minifigures, this set goes on sale to VIPs on August 3, with general release August 8. The set is aimed at an adult audience and will cost $399.99 / £344.99 / €399.99 /549.99 599.99 AUD/449.99 CAD.
If you are a fan of LEGO Castle, this has almost everything, and everyone: villagers, Black Falcons, Lion Knights, Forestmen a wizard and a queen. But no King! I wonder if there will be a realistic way to obtain one in the months to come?
The last time I was having a chat to adult visitors at a public exhibition (remember those?), something came up on more than one occasion: LEGO® Themes these days are not what they used to be. It used to be pretty simple – you’d build the set (and it was probably Town, Space or Castle. Unless you were a bit younger – then it may well have been a Pirates set) – and you’d pull it apart and build something else. It might be one of the alternate builds on the back of the box, it might be something completely different. It may not have even been related to the original theme.
These days, many sets thrive on 3rd party IP, and the majority of the in-house, story-driven themes are tied in with either an animated series or an overly complicated app.
For those of us yearning for a simpler time, in a world where things have become increasingly complicated, things are looking bleak! Unless you want to go straight to the 4+ sets.
The next episode of Extra Pieces, a podcast collaboration between Jay’s Brick Blog and The Rambling Brick is now live and available through the regular channels:
In this episode, Jay and Richard discuss the fallout From the Ulysses – VIP Centre hiccup; Look at the Looney Tunes Minifigures; Build some Super Heroes sets and hope for a future where Classic Castle sets return.
In recent weeks we have celebrated the 40th Birthday of the LEGO® Minifigure by looking at the ways in which print advertisements evolved over the years for City,trains and Space. City had us building what we knew, Space let us look towards an optimistic future, and today, I would like to look at Castle. The knights of the LEGO Castle theme took us back in time. These were stories we already knew: King Arthur, Robin Hood, the Crusades, and now LEGO brought us a way in which to explore and reenact these stories our selves, in the comfort of our own home.
Once again, we visit advertising material from a number of different sources, predominantly European comics. I have had a bit more help with the translations here, as some of the concepts were too much for a simple machine translation engine… Read on and enjoy…
In the beginning:
Build your own Knight’s Castle. Populate the Legoland castle with small funny colorful figures Just like at King Arthur’s time when Prince Valiant passed the Camelot drawbridge on his adventures.
The Rambling Brick 
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