Until now I haven't posted my findings because I wanted to wait until the 360° views of the castles would appear on the website. No they did so my findings of the new knights theme are:
Figures and accessories:
-I believe that the Playmobil designers did a wonderful job by creating far better klickies than 2004's theme. I remember being disappointed when I first saw the heavily colored dragon and lion knights and their childish heraldry. These 2010's knights are much more resemblant to the beloved 90s knight's periode. Although lions once again, the heraldic signs are simply great, I must thereby admit I'm a bit prejudiced as the black lion on a yellow background looks very much like the flag of the Flemish part of Belgium. Also the red falcon looks great, the 'dirty' turquoise color is very nicely done.
-The apparent use of stickers on some of the klickies (shields?) instead of tampon print opens more customising possibilities.
-I'm particularly fond of the new helmet types, the bullet one with the nose protection will be many people's favorites and is very useful for crusader armies. I'm so glad as far as the klicky wearings and heraldry is concerned, the design is more historical correct than the 2004 period.
-This of course can't be said about the war machines. The small cannons are well, ok, but those ballistae monsters are not my cup of tea. A working trebuchet would have been much better and more compatible with the new knights' appearance.
The buildings:
-ok, two castles of the same color, that's nice if they have different parts, which seems to be the case. I don't want to slam the hard work of the designers but this is what I think. Both castles look better than their first system-x predecessors, but they don't come even close to the geniously crafted steck castles. To me they're budget castles as to details (battlements, boring balcony, no real house with windows, etc.). What bothers me the most is the heights of the walls and towers. The king will have to crouch if he wants to move into the house of the king's castle and attacking knights can almost jump over the lower walls. As a child, I remember we laughed with toy brands offering castles with figures being taller than the walls. In a steck castles, alhtough pretty much scaled as well, a horse mounted knight can't look over the walls, with the new castles, the klickies are better off on top of the towers. But maybe the wall sections in the back of the robber's castle can be used to create higher walls (see pic), but then the limit is still two storeys.
-I miss a stone stairs
-I miss a real medieval house
-I miss steck and eventual new parts
Still, there are some nice additions to be fount in the castles:
-the gates are nice and after 30 years of roman window designs, we now see gothic type gates in the square towers
-the return of the old throne in a different and better color than the blue-ish one in the knight's mulitset.
-the return of some other old furniture in nice colors.
So in general, the knight's theme is not as bad as I expected. On the contrary, I really like those no phantasy-like klickies a lot, they will be a welcome addition to my medieval world.
