I was a little surprised how brightly it lit up the fires of our forge, even shining partially through parts we think of as being generally opaque like the orange 1x1 round tiles. Seems like there might be more than 2 with the items inside (unless those counted in the picture of the two soldiers). There is a small bit of detail in having the main seats lean back, but I can’t help but feel that this could have been done a bit different.

All that said, your opinion of 21325 Medieval Blacksmith may end up resting largely on how much you enjoyed Clemens Fiedler’s design – particularly as you reach the final bags and begin assembling the roof. Contact Us LEGO, the LEGO logo, the Minifigure, and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group of Companies. I hear people were disappointed there were no goats with this set which the original submission had. LEGO even showed a tiny bit of decorative flair by having the translucent coals towards the exterior and unlit coals towards the interior.Take a break from modern life and build this magnificent LEGO® Ideas Medieval Blacksmith (21325) display model. Seeing how the set promoted imaginative play in my children was a joy and further welded my opinion that this truly is a great set. Castle has always been my favourite theme (of course, I like many others themes too, but if you can only pick one theme I will pick castle most of the time) ever since I was a little kid, and I look very much forward to adding this particular set to my Lego castle collection.

It’s not as dramatic as the original fan submission, but it still offers a good building experience. Thomas Timbrell of Big Beynon's Blacksmithing is a professional blacksmith, cutler and living historian who studies the lives of blacksmiths throughout history.Medieval Blacksmith is very clearly the result of that push-pull in restrictions and freedoms coming to a head, diverging wildly from Clemens Fiedler’s original concept in all but the basic premise – but simultaneously turning it into an inviting model that has one foot planted firmly in the future of LEGO Castle, while still embracing all that’s come before. Medieval Blacksmith will also add another couple of animals to your collection: a horse with movable legs that’s brand new in tan, and a decidedly out-of-place Siberian husky dog.

They also add a horse-drawn carriage to the mix and few more figures, but otherwise, compared to the exterior, LEGO stayed pretty true to the source material. In that case the "husky" could be a fairly accurate rendition of one of several all-purpose breeds from Iceland, Sweden, or Norway. The perfectly placed roof with almost imperceivable shutlines around the dormer window and chimney stack impressed me on the forge side, while the simplicity of access on the alternate side revealed another reason for the moss covered roof - it enables an extra layer of plates to be added (or more importantly, hidden) that help larger fingers prise that roof off! At any rate there were many spitz-type breeds in Europe by the 1600s, and there must have been more than a few there earlier as well.I’m also interested to see how much this set builds on the classic LEGO Castle style with the detailing and minifigures. My only piece of criticism has nothing to do with the set itself, but TLG's incoherent pricing strategy in the Eurozone: why does it cost an additional €20 in the Benelux? I didn't say bear because I (perhaps incorrectly) assumed they weren't roaming the countryside of the part of the world where I imagined the building to be in the medieval ages. The curved timbers on the corners add interest and look attractive, although the majority of buildings probably would not have had them.