LogFAQs > #967254629

spanky1 posted...

But really I highly suggest the set that brought me back in, the medieval blacksmith. It's only 150 bucks, so won't break the bank like the giant castle, and just look at it god damn it:

https://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Medieval-Blacksmith-Building-Impressive/dp/B08STLLK3F/

It's amazing! It has three floors and each has a lot of detail and you can take them off in layers.

The Blacksmith was what got me back into buying Legos as well. I've bought a lot of pricey sets in the past couple months during my spending spree, but the Blacksmith remains both the best set and my personal favorite.

The old sets I played with as a kid simply don't hold a candle to what you can do with Lego nowadays. I too owned the castle in post #13 (well, still own it, been thinking about digging up the pieces and rebuilding it for old time's sake), and while it's still an excellent classic set, the Blacksmith by comparison is just wall-to-wall detail and inventive design. I also appreciate that these sets feel functional now, with proper staircases and four-wall enclosures; the less-advanced sets (even the contemporary HP ones) are still essentially dioramas. Seeing the screenshots don't do these new expert-level sets justice - you have to put them together from start to finish to really appreciate how creative the Lego designers have gotten over the years.

So I too would highly recommend the Blacksmith to people who want an excuse to buy a top of the line Lego set. The Lion's Knight Castle is a much tougher sell. The pricetag will justifiably turn people away; as another user pointed out, it's still roughly 10 cents per brick, but $400 is hard to justify no matter how you slice it. And while it's no less packed with detail and creative building than the Blacksmith, it just feels more cramped; the ceilings of the individual rooms are too low and end up hiding a lot of the cute details, and the split-room design isn't as inviting as the removable multi-floor design of the Blacksmith and Modular Buildings.