LEGO® Resources

LEGO - The Official LEGO® Site. Features information about current sets, events sponsored by the company, activities, and an on-line store.

Classic Castle - Classic Castle is a full featured, fan created website exclusively for LEGO® Castle theme fans. It includes models, how-to's, stories, set reviews, information about new products, links, a forum and a chat room. The site is filled with interesting information; it's well designed and easy to navigate. Patrick Morgan and I wrote an article on Heraldry in the "How-to" section.

Ninja Brick - A site for people who are passionate about all things LEGO. Features latest news as well as reviews of dozens of old and new LEGO sets.

MichLUG - The Michigan LEGO® User's Group and The Michigan LEGO® Train Club is an organization of adult builders in my area. The site includes information about meetings and events and a gallery of photos from their shows.

LeoCAD - I use this software for drawing my instructions. This is an easy to use 3D program with libraries of predefined blocks that you can use to quickly create "virtual" models.

Peeron.com - This site has scans of instruction books as well as part inventories for virtually every LEGO® set ever made. The site does not have recent sets - only sets no longer being produced are included, but the collection goes back to the 1950's. This Link takes you to instructions for the Castle themed sets.

BrickLink - This is a great place to buy individual bricks or old LEGO® sets. BrickLink is a searchable database of hundreds of online stores that sell bulk new and used bricks and old sets.

Lugnet - The most well known user group for LEGO fans. The site features discussion boards divided by theme, photos of projects made by members, set reviews, and information about LEGO® products and events.

1000 Steine - (1000 Bricks) This is a German LEGO fan site. The text is mostly in German, but it's pretty easy to navigate even if you don't speak the language. The site features a gallery of projects, links to other fan sites, a forum, as well as sections for all the LEGO® themes.

BrickShelf - Among other things, the site includes a large collection of fan-made creations organized by builder.

Model Builders

Robert Carney - Robert Carney creates highly accurate scale models of real castles using LEGO® blocks. His site features photos of dozens of castles he has built over the years. Each project is documented with photos of the actual castle, the drawings Bob used in his construction and links for more information about each castle. Some of my castles are featured on his Castle Builders' Page.

Takeshi Itou - Takeshi Itou is a Japanese LEGO fan. His site contains great photos of his castle creations. The text on the site is in Japanese, but most of the navigation is in English so it's easy to find your way around.

James Stacey - James' site contains photos of his creations, which include some vehicles and buildings in addition to castles. James is a LEGO fan from Wales.

Rittersets - A site, in German, which lists all of the knight and castle themed sets which LEGO® has ever produced. ("Ritter" is German for "knight.") A description of each set is included, along with photos and a list of the mini figs and factions included in the set. Rittersets was created by my friend Johannes Koehler.

History Resources

Castles of the Middle Ages - This website contains a nice overview of medieval castles with a list of facts and links to additional resources. I would like to thank Ana, from Oregon, for telling me about this website. She found it while working with her reading group at her local library.

Castles of Wales - A site by Jeffrey L. Thomas featuring over 400 Welsh Castles. The site includes a history of each castle as well as photos and ground plans for most of them. There is a separate listing for Abbeys and other religious buildings.

Castles of Britain - This site is dedicated to the study of British Castles. The site includes The Castle Learning Center, a Photo Gallery, and a huge collection of Links to other history and castle sites.

Burgenwelt - Wehrbauten in Europa - (Castle World - Fortifications in Europe) A database of castles and other military buildings in Europe, organized by country. Each entry includes photos, a brief history and groundplans, when available. The site is in German, but easy to figure out if you don't speak the language. This Link takes you to the section on European castles.

Learner Middle Ages - Learner.org is a resource site for teachers. The Middle Ages section contains a series of concise articles about everyday life in the Middle Ages. There are not many photos here, but there is a good list of links to other sites about medieval history.

The Medieval Lifestyle: Food, Clothing, Weapons, Medicine and More - A resource for students with lots of interesting information about life in the Middle Ages. The text includes links to additional information. My thanks to Tracy, from California, who told me about this site.

European History: The Middle Ages and the Renaissance - A concise overview of the Middle Ages with links to more detailed information about Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. I want to thank Kelly from the Knox County Library in Maine for bringing this website to my attention.