2018 is seeing quite the number of decades-spanning anniversary celebrations related to LEGO. It is 60 years after the approved patenting of the first LEGO brick, and 40 years after the introduction of the modern minifigure models. But what’s one more anniversary? This one’s just as old as the minifigures.
In 1978 LEGO released their set 375, a modest-sized medieval castle of yellow brick walls on a green surface, with a garrison of knights with shield, swords, poleaxes and horses manning the ramparts and riding through the gate. From this individual set arose one of LEGO’s famous themes: LEGO Castle.
Ever since the debut of the first holdfast (375) in 1978, LEGO Castle had added new fortifications, other structures and minifigure characters to build up on that theme at a yearly pace. At least that was back in the heyday of the theme, which eventually died down with the advent of sets from licensed franchises.
There have been several occasions when LEGO tried to either revive the Castle theme or do something unexpected with it. The latter saw the introduction of the Knights’ Kingdom II line that blended medieval and futuristic designs, to a lackluster reception. A more straightforward reboot was attempted in 2007, but the last sets from that revival came out in 2013.
Two years later, LEGO launched a new magical-steam-punk spin on the knights-and-castles thing with NEXO Knights in 2015. Yes, it featured some wacky siege machines and weapons for the knight characters, but it proved popular especially with its tie-in animated series running on Cartoon Network.
Unfortunately, its fifth season this year will be the last, and once it’s done there’s no indication on whether anything majorly related to medieval knights and castles will follow afterwards. Still, with LEGO paying tribute to the fourth decade since the original release of the progenitor Castle set (375), we can hope that the theme will have a new resurgence in the future. Do check back with us every now and then for possible news.