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The original LEGO castle theme. Along with LEGO Space and LEGO City, this is by far the longest-running of all LEGO Themes.
The earliest sets appeared in 1978-1979 and were among the first to feature more specialized building parts outside of the usual bricks and minifigures (new items included simple-shaped medieval helmets and melee weapons like halberds, lances and shields). Sets from the first half of the 1980s started to get more sophisticated and added a lot more unique parts including swords and - notably - purpuse-built horse models (despite a small esthetic overhaul in the 1990s, the basic template for LEGO horses hasn't really changed all that much for 30 years).
It received an odd Spin-Off in the early 2000s, titled Knights Kingdom 2 - even though it had little to do with the Knight's Kingdom subtheme.
Eras and subthemes (often based on a respective faction) in chronological order :[]
- LEGOLAND Castle or just Castle (1978-1986) - the original showcased a generic medieval kingdom with sets revolving around generic medieval locations and events (e.g. castles, jousts, men-at-arms escorting wagons); as evidenced by the title, it is often distinguished from the subthemes that came after it by the "LEGOLAND" prefix (named after a common feature of LEGO box art from the 1980s and early 1990s)
- Crusaders (1987-1992) - the first somewhat more specific theme that evolved from the original, though still lacking a distinct faction with a distinct backstory or motivation
- The Forestmen (1987-1990) - the first outlaw subtheme, with Loveable Rogue bandits in the style of Robin Hood
- Black Knights (1987-1992) - the longest-running of the "faction specific" subthemes, notable for showing a kingdom ruled by "The Black Monarch" and The Teutonic Knights-like Order of Black Knights, featuring a lot of cultural elements from the Baltic, north German and Scandinavian Middle Ages (LEGO being a Danish company, this is probably intentional)
- Black Falcons (1990) - an oddity, consisting of only one known set; they were probably meant to be a part of the Black Knights subtheme, though the title suggests they may have something to do with lord Black Falcon, who appeared in the first era of the Castle theme
- Wolfpack Renegades (1992) - the second, more grittier outlaw subtheme, their heraldic figure was a silver wolf head. Officially described in catalouges as a feared group of renegades that won't let anyone or anything stop them in their quest for riches, definetly not a friendly group like the Forestmen.
- Dragon Masters (1993-1995) - a group of dragon-themed Magic Knights (complete with dragon-themed horse armour), who had assistance from the Merlin-like wizard Majisto and several tamed dragons (this subtheme is notable for introducing the wizard minifig accesories, unique horse armour and the iconic LEGO dragon figure with detachable red wings); the Knights heraldic figure was (of course) a green dragon with red wings
- Royal Knights (1995-1997) - the first castle theme to have an actual king with a crown. Known simply as the Royal King in the US or King Richard in the UK and his brave and gentlemanly Royal Knights, a very straight example of The Kingdom; their heraldic figure was a roaring lion head with a crown
- Fright Knights (1997-1998) - a more campier line with a Dark Is Not Evil flavour : witch minifigs, black dragons, spookier castles and the titular successors to the Dragon Masters, who had a prominent bat motif going on (from armour and helmets to various tiny details on their architecture), with a bat being their obvious heraldic figure
- Ninja (1998-1999) - Spin-Off with a Jidai Geki / Wutai setting
- Knights' Kingdom (1999-2000) - best described as a Revival of the Royal Knights theme but not officially confirmed by Lego exactly if it is supposed to be a revival. A new king called King Leo, along with his queen Leonora and their fiesty daughter Princess Storm that want's to be a knight thereby making it the first castle theme to have a complete royal family. The theme also introduced a formiddable (and very unappreciated) new enemy known as Cedric the Bull: a bitter 13th prince from a distant unknown land who went rogue and ran away after receiving no land when his father died and his 12 older brothers all got a share of land, now he has his eyes on Leo's land and taking it for himself while leading a rebel army of bandits with higher than usual morale and an excellent arsenal of various siege engines; Cedric's heraldic figure was a red-eyed black bull head; this subtheme also received a (pretty much forgotten) video game adaptation. Leo's faction were given a castle but Cedric's faction weren't even given a small hideout or base. However the Bulls are officially said to live in the very forest surrounding Leo's castle leading some to see the Bulls as an outlaw/rogue faction.
- KnightsKingdom2 (2004-2006) - a major departure from the usual formula, trying to ape the success of the more action figure oriented LEGO themes of the time, (i. e. Bionicle); often regarded as The Scrappy or even a borderline Franchise Killer. Despite it's name it has no connection to the original Knights Kingdom as it has differnt characters, different plot and overall differnt setting with it being more fantasy.
- Castle (2007-2009) - intended as a return to the series typical style and as a Continuity Reboot of sorts, with a Captain Ersatz version of King Leo defending his kingdom from the undead armies of a dark ruler (the undead are represented by skeleton minifigs)
Tropes used in this LEGO theme include:[]
- Animal Motifs : The various heraldic creatures of the different factions. Wolves, lions, bulls, dragons, bats, you name it. A subversion were the Black Knights, who used a blue-coloured wyvern in their coat of arms, despite their name.
- The Archer: Many of the soldier minifigs. There were even sets with ballistae and other crossbow-derived siege engines, complete with operators.
- Art Evolution : More unique and specialized items, accesories and minifigs (horses, ghosts, skeletons, witches, wizards, dragons, medieval weaponry and armour) got gradually introduced as the years went on. A good example of this is the case of the horses, which overlaps with Early Installment Weirdness : The horses from the late 1970s sets were still abstract constructs made from LEGO bricks until proper horse minifigs were introduced in the early 1980s.
- BFS : Lord characters always wielded bigger and shinier swords than the regular soldiers.
- Cool Horse : Since the 1990s, the various factions often had unique horse armour at their disposal.
- Cool Ship : The Black Knights were the only faction to prefer coastal or river enviroments and own quite a lot of ships. The biggest ship set of the castle theme, the war cog "Sea Serpent", fully fits this trope.
- The Engineer : Cedric Bull's faction sure loves building various siege engines...
- Dark Is Not Evil : The Black Knights and Fright Knights. The former example possibly because it can be hard to see classic smiley faced knights as evil , the latter example only in Europe and the UK's version of the story. The US portrayed the Fright Knights as full on evil dark and spooky knights that loved to stir up trouble.
- The Evil Prince : Cedric the Bull believe it or not is actually this if you managed to read the Creator Knights Kingdom manual or read the book Medieval Mischief and Mayhem. He's an interesting case of this trope as he's not related to King Leo but instead the 13th son of a completely different king unrelated to Leo. Now while Cedric is after Leo's throne due to him being left with no land to rule back in his home kingdom he has no intention of killing Leo and his family, just banish them into exile. Also Cedric had no plot to try and overthrow one or all of his 12 other brothers he just left his homeland and traveled as a bandit until he came to Leo's kingdom.
- Fantasy Gun Control : Played almost completely straight. Several of the Ninja sets had early Japanese firearms and one of Cedric Bull's siege engines looked and worked awfully like a cannon.
- Gang of Hats : All the factions, some by atittudes, some by their preferences for certain types of weaponry, some by the use of magic, etc.
- Instant Awesome, Just Add Dragons: The Dragon Masters and Fright Knights lines.
- Instant Awesome, Just Add Ninja: Well, duh, the Ninja line. However, despite the title, a lot of the sets from this line also contains Samurai-themed sets and minifigs. The line could be more accurately called "LEGO does feudal Japan", but Ninja was apparently a shorter title... and, you know, more awesome sounding.
- Jidai Geki : While the European-themed sets are grounded in a realistic Medieval European Fantasy world, the Ninja sets play this trope for all its worth.
- Katanas Are Just Better : They feature prominently in the Ninja sets, but this gets subverted by the presence of various other medieval Japanese weaponry. Besides, the swords look "generic Japanese" enough to possibly represent various other actual sword types similar to katanas, but not the same as them.
- Long Runner : One of the three longest-running LEGO themes. Also, a lot of the still-being-used medieval and creature models.
- Loveable Rogue : The Forestmen. The Wolfpack were a more sinister bunch of outlaws.
- Medieval European Fantasy : Though some of the factions have a certain degree of Fantasy Counterpart Culture to them, they are mostly "generic medieval". E.g. King Leo's Royal Knights and the Forestmen play this straight (generic western European kingdom and generic Robin Hood-style outlaws), but the Black Knights are a more concrete analogue of a real historical group (Baltic/German/Scandinavian-style nobles and knights with an affinity for sailships and coastal castles).
- Point Defenseless : Awesomely averted by King Leo's castles, which include defensive catapults to counter an enemy's barrage.
- Shout-Out : Probably completely unintentional, but the Black Knights and Dragon Masters wore armour that often resembled the Knights of Ni.
- Siege Engines : Featured as early as the second and third generation (Crusaders and Black Knights), but Cedric the Bull from the Knight's Kingdom era took this Up to Eleven (to the point of it being his gang's hat). The Dragon Master's also had a large trebuchet-like catapult with stylized dragon decorations.
- Spin-Off : First the Ninja theme (regarded as the main theme's Asian cousin), then Knights Kingdom 2.
- Ye Goode Olde Days: Granted, this is Medieval European Fantasy for kids, so despite some obligatory level of grittiness, don't expect any Darker and Edgier hyper-realistic portrayals of the Middle Ages.
- Word Salad Title : One of the sets from the Crusaders subtheme era was called "Dungeon Hunters". Furthermore, a small Royal Knights set showcasing King Leo and his personal weaponry was titled "Royal King".