The LEGO goat has become one of the more valuable pieces lately. In fact I’m hoping to retire early thanks to the two I own. But as interesting as the goat market is, there was meant to be a crash this year with the LEGO Ideas Blacksmith pitched with at least one goat.
The final product is sadly goatless. Or is it? Join me as I review the LEGO Ideas Blacksmith but specifically looking for goats.
Before we get to the main building let’s check out the other parts of the set.
There are 4 minifigures in the set; the blacksmith, a female archer, and two black falcon knights. The blacksmith looks great with his big bushy beard and tied back hair. His beard kind of reminds me of a goat but I can confirm that the blacksmith is not actually a goat in disguise. The archer is another great minifigure, I particularly like her dual sided face prints.
The Black Falcon knights signal a return of a popular faction from LEGO’s past. Falcon’s are birds of prey while goats are from the bovidae family (cloven-hoofed, ruminant mammals). Goats and Falcons have very little in common.
The set does also come with a dog. Dogs and goats can be similar in size but they are not related at all.
The knights come with a nice little cart build. The cart does not carry any goats and it is drawn by a horse rather than goats. Even if there were goats in this set it is unlikely they would be drawing the cart. Horses are much larger and stronger than goats.
On to the main building. If the designers wanted to hide a goat there should be plenty of opportunities to do so on one of the three levels.
The top level is the bedroom. I really like the way the structure of the roof was done with the arches and central support column. It feels old. The bed is a another great little sub-build. I particularly like the detailing on the end. Speaking of detailing the bear skin rug on the floor is clever use of some simple parts. Goat hides can also be used for a range of purposes. Being smaller than a bear a goat skin rug would not take up as much of the floor space and would probably not provide as much warmth.
The middle level of the building features the kitchen and a dining area. The chairs are interesting but I don’t love the way the backs are done. It kind of feels like trying to do something interesting with an unusual part just for the sake of it.
The kitchen shows the occupants preparing a meal with some sort of greens, carrot and chicken. While goat isn’t as popular as beef, chicken and lamb it is a meat consumed all over the world. There is no indication from the kitchen area that there has been a goat consumed here. Had the goat been eaten it would explain why it wasn’t present in the set.
The lowest level of the building is the blacksmith’s furnace. It features a great range of brick built recreations of the tools of the blacksmith trade including an anvil and plenty of coal. The build uses the bellows to trigger the light brick and it’s a clever little touch that really enhances the “play” experience of this set. Yes this is an 18+ set but that doesn’t mean it can’t have play features.
This part of the building would be both hot and noisy and it would be an odd place to include a goat. While I’d love to have a goat in this set it just doesn’t make sense for it to be here.
The final area to explore is the exterior. The main standouts here are the well and the apple tree. The apple tree would likely be popular with a goat if one was included. Goats have been known to eat the leaves off apple trees and the apples themselves.
Finally there is something that I do want to raise. The set features a bone beside the wall. Is it possible that this bone belongs to a goat? This is entirely possible and it creates a lot of questions. Was the goat killed for food? Was it a beloved pet that died of old age? There is not a lot of information to go on here and without any evidence to confirm that it’s a goat I have to assume it is just a random bone.
Despite the lack of goats this set is a fantastic build and the end result looks fantastic. It’s great to have a castle related build that provides something a little bit different. There’s clever parts use and a great lineup of minifigures.
If you haven’t already picked this set up I highly recommend it.
Not going to kid around, that was a GOAT review .. thank you Michael. Agree with the recommendation to get this if you haven’t already, it is starting to appear in the majors on sale too. Definitely one of the best sets in 2021.
Great review, always nice to see you approach them in different ways. This was my favourite build of last year by far. I was disappointed there weren’t any goats, but I did manage to find one from the mill raid and add it in along with some chickens. It would be great if this was just the first of annual medieval builds, kind of like the modular line.
I love this review!! I picked up this set on sale but haven’t built it yet, I loved seeing it all close up in your review. I definitely believe the bone could belong to the goat and that’s probably goat they’re eating for dinner ?
I’ve done the maths and I can definitely confirm 100% that the bone belongs to a stickman goat.