Fixing the biggest issue with LEGO Icons 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle

LEGO Icons 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle is a pretty great set, save for one glaring flaw – so here’s a quick, easy and (relatively) cheap way to fix it, courtesy of Rebrickable.

Launching last summer to celebrate the LEGO Group’s 90th anniversary, 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle is an ode to everything great about Classic Castle through the lens of a huge 18+ set. But for all the things the 4,514-piece set gets right (and that’s most of them), there’s one pretty major flaw that’s difficult to overlook: its ramp.

We’ve talked at length about how much the rest of the model shines, but in revisiting 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle to see whether it’s a worthy flagship 90th-anniversary set, we took another look at the ramp and decided to do something about it. As it comes in the box, the path leading up to the castle is comprised of 4×3 slopes, which – when stacked together – are almost completely absent of studs.

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That means there are very few spots to place minifigures, which is unfortunate when there are so many of them in the box. But it’s not the only flaw in the castle’s ramp: aesthetically, it just doesn’t hold up next to the grandeur of the main structure’s architecture, and ultimately feels like an afterthought next to the rest of the set. Luckily, Rebrickable user Jhobbs has already come up with the perfect way to fix both problems with the ramp in one fell swoop.

Like the best LEGO solutions, it’s a straightforward modification that still keeps the essence of the original ramp, while upgrading it in all the right ways. To replicate it for yourself, you’ll need to source an additional 181 pieces, which you can add to a BrickOwl or BrickLink wanted list directly through Rebrickable. BrickLink already allows you to quickly find the cheapest stores for buying an entire wanted list, so getting your hands on those extra parts is pretty painless.

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Your mileage will vary depending on where in the world you are, but we managed to get everything we needed from just two stores, with our orders coming to a collective total of £22.04. That’s a relatively minor investment on top of the entry price of 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle (even if it’s a shame it’s needed at all), and gives you all the plates, slopes and bricks you need to radically improve the castle’s ramp.

Because this is a modification rather than an addition to the set, you’ll also use the vast majority of the pieces of the standard-issue ramp included in 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle. The new path effectively extends the width and depth of the original, following the same basic template but over a bigger footprint, so the easiest way to construct it is by completely dismantling the official ramp first.

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All you need to do then is follow Jhobbs’ clear and simple instructions, which the builder has helpfully published for free at Rebrickable. The results are instantly transformative, allowing minifigures, horses and whatever else to stand all along the ramp – but also totally in-keeping with the aesthetic of the rest of the castle.

You may prefer to swap the dark grey plates out for light grey, matching the slopes of the original ramp, but this colourway doesn’t look out of place: the rockwork around the base of the castle is also dark grey, and you can imagine a well-trodden path not matching the colour of the walls anyway.

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The ramp still clips on to the castle as per the official version, but – perhaps due to its larger size – is also hooked on with a single stud, courtesy of the curved wall at its base. That makes it trickier to quickly remove it – say, to access the Forestmen’s hideout between the two sections of the castle, or simply to separate the sections for transport – but it’s not a huge bugbear.

There are obviously other possible solutions and improvements for 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle’s ramp (this is LEGO, after all), but if you’re looking for a simple, easy and cost-effective way of bringing the entranceway up to the level of the rest of the set, you can’t really go wrong with this modification. Head over to Rebrickable to find it for yourself.

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For more on 10305 Lion Knights’ Castle, check out our initial review, and find out whether we think it’s worthy of its status as the flagship 90th anniversary set eight months later.

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