[Request] Pics of King's Castle 7946 and 70404 side by side

[Artifex]

Can anyone please post some pics of 7946 King's Castle and 70404 King's Castle side-by-side for comparison? Size, towers, keep and the like... Thanks in advance.

[Werlu Ulcur]

I'm keen to see that too!

[Sigolf Brimabane]

You mean like this?

[TheLegoDr]

I think physically next to each other since two pictures went be at the same size or angle. The Kingdoms castle looks like a smaller picture. But thanks for putting that together. I wonder how many people own both of them to do this?

[Sigolf Brimabane]

Yeah, I tried to find similar pictures but they should be about the same size both of the castles. I think, based on parts inventories and the pictures, that the Kingdoms Castle (I don't own it myself) is a bit smaller. It has fewer parts (not very many), and fewer panels, which makes it a few studs smaller in every direction. Evenso the size doesn't differ much, I think. I just rebuilt my Castle Castle and put the corner tower in the back on the front side of the castle instead, to make it more similar to the Kingdoms Castle. I have not decided whether it looks better yet, at least it looks more symmetrical. The point being that it is indeed easy to remodel the new castle to look fairly similar to the old one :) A thing I just noticed is that you get more shields in the old castle! But the new one has cool flags instead. The old castle has one more minifigure though, but given the price it is at nowadays, of the two I went for the new one, even though I regret never getting the old one in the past :(

[Artifex]

Thanks for the pics, Sigolf Brimabane, but I was thinking of something more akin to the Star Wars comparison thread -- with walls and towers and gatehouses side by side. But thanks a lot for posting those pics!

[TeufelHund]

I think the outer walls on the new castle may be a little bit higher than the Kingdoms castle due to the addition of a layer of brick bricks at the base. They're still pathetically short (a minfig could scramble over boosted by another one!) but I guess there's a limit to what one can expect with regards to realism in non D2C sets where piece count is a major factor.

I have both the Kingdoms and Fantasy era castles and was not impressed by the design of this castle or the awful heraldry but I now have the chance to pick one up for around 50% of RRP this week so I'm thinking about it if only for the pieces for MOCing...

[WallyTheCat]

Can anyone please post some pics of 7946 King's Castle and 70404 King's Castle side-by-side for comparison? Size, towers, keep and the like... Thanks in advance.

Sorry about the lighting, it isn't really the way I wanted it.

These are the dimensions I got:

Kingdoms castle 32cm wide (40 studs), 24cm (30 studs) deep and 33cm high

New Castle 35cm wide (44 studs), 28cm (35 studs) deep and 37cm high

The Kingdoms castle is slightly smaller, but slightly taller. In my opinion the Kingdoms castle is much better as it has fewer panels, is more fun to build and a more pleasing design. The new castle has 21x Wall 1X4X5 W/Bowed Slit and 18x Wall 3X3X6, Wry 45 Degr. The kingdoms castle only has 16 and 6 of those panels and uses more bricks instead.

I think the outer walls on the new castle may be a little bit higher than the Kingdoms castle due to the addition of a layer of brick bricks at the base.

Actually the walls are exactly the same height. The problem is the panels in the new castle are set higher and the connecting pins are further in (other than the rear towers of the Kingdoms castle).

The walls are the same height, but the Kingdoms one is set one stud back.

The Kingdoms rear towers aligns perfectly, if the torch doesn’t get in the way.

I have both the Kingdoms and Fantasy era castles and was not impressed by the design of this castle or the awful heraldry but I now have the chance to pick one up for around 50% of RRP this week so I'm thinking about it if only for the pieces for MOCing...

I have almost all the Fanstasy era sets and all the Kingdoms sets. The Kingdoms castle is my favourite and I have three. I just wanted another different castle even if it wasn’t as good as any of the Fantasy or Kingdoms ones.

You may be disappointed in the parts you get though, there is an awful lot of panels compared to the older castle sets.

[kermit]

I think length wise the new castle is a lot deeper than the old one. I remember that one one of the main gripes i had with the old castle. The interior space was just too small.

[TheLegoDr]

Thanks for those pictures. That really shows how each castle compares to one another. I think aesthetically I prefer the Kingdoms one, but I like that line more overall anyway. I don't care much for the blue for some reason, but I do like some of the other design details with the new castle. I'm thinking a hybrid would be good.

[mpoh98]

Wow very cool, thanks for the pictures! I think I like the new ones better, just for the masonry bricks.

[Artifex]

Thanks for the pics, WallyTheCat! Nothing to worry about lighting -- the pics are very clear.

Although I like the size of 70404 better, 7946 is my favorite. The design is just better, I guess. Not that 70404 is poor or anything, it's just that 7946 looks better overall (to my taste, that is). It's got more details too (although the stickers make a lot of difference, giving 7946 a much more detailed look). 70404 looks a bit blocky in comparison.

I was surprised that the walls are the same height, for I thought they would be 1 brick shorter -- I had forgotten all about the brick over the panel walls in 7946.

Thanks again for the pics, WallyTheCat! Your comparison pics were very enlightening :thumbup:

PS: Anything you want to add about the towers or the gatehouses?

[WallyTheCat]

PS: Anything you want to add about the towers or the gatehouses?

I took some more photos to compare the gatehouses and towers.

Comparing the gates houses the new castle is one brick higher (not counting the flags) and slightly wider than the Kingdoms one. To me the Kingdoms one is more aseptically pleasing because the upper section of the new castle just doesn’t look right.

Comparing the towers containing the throne room, the Kingdoms one is much higher and has far less panels. The red roof on the Kingdoms tower is my favourite part of the whole castle and loved how they continued it in the joust set. I prefer the new throne though.

The new castle main armament tower is slightly shorter, uses far more panels and the catapult can only fire in one direction.

[Hey Joe]

Hey, thanks for the photos.

Joe

[TeufelHund]

_{Thanks again - the Kingdoms castle is looking better and better with each shot. I kind of like the way the new Gatehouse incorporates the drawbridge ropes inside the structure but I still find the Kingdom's gatehouse more aesthetically pleasing. Other than that the Kingdoms set comes out on top in every other shot IMO.}

[Werlu Ulcur]

Maybe I'm going against the grain here, but the heptagonal tower of the current set is MUCH more attractive in my eyes. Since the walls are (aesthetically) basically the same, I think I do prefer the current castle. Yes, red is a better color and using chains on the draw bridge are cooler then using ropes, but still, the square towers brakes the Kingdom castle for me. And the roof on the Kingdoms' castle highest tower makes me think of a manor or a palace, while the crenelated towers of the 70404 makes me think of a fortress or a keep.

So adding all that up, even though the 7946 is a very nice set, between the two I'll go with the modern version.

[Artifex]

Thanks again, WallyTheCat! Nice comparison of the towers there! Thanks a lot!