20240102: the History of LEGO Castle day 002.
375-2 / 6072-2 Castle
(1978 / 1981, 779 pieces, 72 different parts, 1 sticker sheet)
The "Yellow" Castle was designed by Daniel August Krentz and was the first mini-figure scale castle. The original (375-2) was released in the United Kingdom in 1978 while the United States version was released in 1981 (6075-2). The 1982 LEGO catalog said, "LEGOLAND Castle Sets take you back to the Middle Ages. The largest set has a castle with a working drawbridge you can raise and lower, 4 knights on horseback, and 10 guards with armor. With LEGOLAND Castle Sets, you can launch your own Medieval Adventures."
Five thin baseplates allow the castle to be opened into several shapes and features a mostly yellow build with an arch over a red drawbridge, two side towers, and one rear tower with small red windows over two red doors. A sticker sheet is used to provide decoration to the light gray shields, mini-figure armor, towers, gate arch, and flag. Most of the stickers feature a yellow crown on a triangular dark pink background, while other stickers include dark pink decorative scrolls on a yellow background, eight yellow trefoils on a blue background, green chevrons on a yellow background, and a white maltese cross on a red background. The castle also features four brick-built horses; three black and one white.
The minifigure as we know it today first began production in 1978, creating more versatile and mobile characters for Lego's first three themes: Castle, Space, and Town. Early versions of the minifigure torso used an entirely open interior and later versions utilize the cross-section interior stud holders. These minifigures have plain torsos with no print and the design effect is created with minifigure armor with stickers. Included in this set are fourteen plain minifigures, two black, eight blue, two red, and two white.
With their plain smiling yellow faces, the four knights, four squires, and six guards could be any gender and that was one of my favorite parts about Lego as I was growing up. I like the ability to create my own stories and populate my realms with characters more in line with my own imagination with women knights and rulers.
Early Lego sets all had a "back of the box" build, to show builders some of the other things it would be possible to build with the set. I've always enjoyed these alternate builds but as a younger human, I often felt like I didn't have the skill to build something pictured without instructions. I've been pretty good about building random things on my own, but something about building to a picture has always intimidated me.
This set is a really good basic castle build, though the baseplate design makes it difficult to lift up and move to different locations. For only being a six-color castle (black, green, light gray, red, white, and yellow), this is a very interesting build. I like the hinge element and how you can expand the castle for easier play and all the parts involved make it very easy to build other things. While it is a very basic design, it is the first of it's kind and was definitely the building block for many of the following castles.
Parts lists for this set can either be found on BrickLink or Rebrickable, while scanned instructions can be found at ToysPeriod. If you want to know more about the designer, Daniel August Krentz, BrickSet did a really nice tribute and has a full list of everything he designed.
