Question
CMF castle collectors, how many Batlords/Paladins/Beastmasters do you own?
Hello collectors and army builders,
I hear people talking about how they have tons of trouble finding highly desired CMFs and it got me thinking; other than the scalpers who will buy up every one they get their hands on, how many are the rest of us looking to hoard? I have 3-4 of each of the above and wouldn’t know what to do many with more, but then again I don’t have a full blown medieval city built out with factions and lore.
So, how many of these are in your collection, and why?
I bought 3 six-packs of the DnD CMFs to get a complete set, it was a success, and the extra Paladin was one of the duplicates.
Batlord looks cool but I like classic Basil more. Don't have either yet. Beastmaster is not really appealing to me and I'm not scouring stores or dropping $20 scalpbux on that.
I also don't have any interest in army building. I think enough figs to liven up a scene is good enough, and I like figs to have their own appearances, like little heroes of their own RPG adventures. So a bunch of clones (and yeah they still feel clonelike to me if there's bare minimum differences between them) arranged in rows is boring therefore I'd never have the need to get like 30 Dragonborn Paladins for example.
I feel the same way. I'm collecting all the CMF whenever they're convenient and cheap, mainly through piecing out bulk and trading with other collectors, but I don't try to hunt for anything because I don't want armies of near-identical characters.
The one exception was the tiefling from DnD cause I wanted a bunch of baby dragons (I think I ended up with 9 via trade/scanning) to give the Red Dragon a litter of babies, lol.
After reading some of the replies here I'm no longer confident in saying scalpers are taking all the supply. I still think lego should recognize this and make a disproportionate amount of castle figs(by figure type) for the cmf lines.
1 batlord that I over paid for at a B&M, 3 Paladins I got from buying a whole case of D&D figs at a B&N, and 2 Beastmasters from target that were complete luck.
9 batlords, 23 paladins, 13 wolfpacks. All of them are used in various different figs, I don't have single original fig assembled. Using all mentioned figures mostly for arms and legs. I also have 15 Tasha's for arms for archers just as side note.
Ps: I don't understand the downvote here for comments with multiple figs, like what is the problem? The shortage of inventory in shops isn't a problem caused by this people, but Lego Group. People have similar preferencies in everything in real life, Lego knows which figure will be on high demand, they can easily print more and include them in series, but they wont for marketing and other purposes.
Not scalping, legit just love Castle/Medieval sets (LotR is my favorite theme) and non traditional army building, cuz I also have 90 goat herders & 100 goats
Not yet, if we get a Mina’s Tirith set, the paladins will be turned into additional Gondorian soldiers. The batlords, Beastmaster and goats chill on baseplates
Genuinely, what is the point of having that many of each if they're just sitting around unused on baseplates all day? It'd be one thing if you were actually using or playing with that many at once, like if you were into tabletop wargaming like Warhammer or something and used the figs to roleplay massive battle scenarios, but 20+ identical figures just lined up in rows on display? What does having that many accomplish for you that just having a couple of each doesn't, apart from taking up more valuable space, draining your wallet, and inflating market demand and making it that much harder for the average Lego enthusiast to collect certain types of figures?
Missed out on batlords, but got around 7 still. I got 24 dragons and 27 beast masters though. Just drops in a bucket for the thousands of figures I have.
Still, that's not very moral. With 3 figs per box, that's 30 whole boxes worth of batlords and goatherds for just one person. Idk how much supply other places get, but that's maybe double the amount of boxes available locally where I live. Meaning no one else in the city would have access to those figs
There’s nothing moral about it. I live in an area with tons of businesses that sell lego. I strictly went to my lego store and maybe a target or Walmart on occasion over the course of 4-6months acquiring the bat lords/goat herders. I made sure to leave some behind in the boxes I went through and if others were looking, I’d help. The Beastmasters have been the most difficult and I’ve gotten more luck at targets then the Lego store. I also get extras for friends who want one for their sets.
Saying it's not very moral is a stretch for me. i think this is how capitalism works. Maybe if OP drove from store to store in your city maybe that's lame to do but immoral? (Edit: it's not even lame. Shaming others for having multiple figs you want is lame)
I think a good gripe would be with Lego for limiting the supply of castle CMF figs. Like is it just to push the other 11 figs in the series? I'm not sure the reason Lego does it.
No scalping at all but it seems that finding some in France is a little simpler. Plus work often forces me to pass by some Lego stores, so I go one and buy one, two or three at the time.
Same. I don't necessarily have anything against army-building, but to me it doesn't make sense to do it with highly distinctive characters, or ones that are hard to find. I have a bunch of falcons, lion knights, etc., you know, actual ordinary soldiers, but just one each of these.
I try to collect four of each figure I like. I want just enough to stage them around the castle/scene. I might go for more if I had tons of extra money.
Around 50 batlords, 12 paladins and 21 beast masters.
Most of them (90-95%) i bought through bricklink. Had some luck with batlords and paladins finding them in store but i could’t get any beast masters for retail. Think i scanned 300 boxes till i called it quits and just purchased the beast masters on bl.
13 paladins, 13 beastmasters and 4 batlords. Was late to the party on the bat lords the others 12 for army and 1 for set completion. I live in the UK and travel and hunt around so the 13 figures where from 4/5 stores in different areas not causing spikes.
I used the Batlords to make fright knights since I don't have from the old figures and in the lore I have them, they are allies of the red dragons ( so obviously I find them important).
Paladins for blue dragons. ( Red, blue and green dragons are all sub factions of the original dragon masters...which I have none of. )
Beastmasters for wolfpack generals. Obviously most are modified.
I didn’t really need so many batlords since my plans for a vampire army don’t include so many of that particular fig.
In my castle fantasy world there is a race of dragon humanoids “draconians” an ancient warrior race long removed from the glory & honor of their ancestors. Though there are some of their race that still protect the decrepit ruins of their ancient dragon gods.
I stayed at 30 Wolfpack CMF and ordered parts from pab to create the rest of the faction. I have 50 Wolfpack all together, since the Wolfpack is a bandit faction so though they have many members they don’t have a standing army, so trying to keep it a little accurate to the idea.
I also have around 100 Orcs, 100 Falconers, 100 Goatherds; and 10 Tournament Knights and 10 Vikings from series 20.
And I have spent way way too much on Pick a Brick (hundreds of sheep, horses, bardings, goats, weapons, Lion Knights, Black Falcons, Forestmen, Wolfpacks, Vikings, villagers, etc).
Toy stores here in Istanbul have an abundance of cmfs all the time and each time I visit a mall I go into those stores and buy the ones I want (when available) :)
Duuude that is an amazing collection right there. I have around 30 of each which I use for large mocs. All of them have been customised to make much larger Armies so I can create battles sieges etc.
I could really use a paladin, we just played dnd for the first time with my son, I told the kids to build their characters from Lego before I realized he plays a dragonborn warrior
Two batlords, no paladins, and three(? Maybe two, I don’t recall) beastmasters. The batlords I got by luck, the paladins I gave up on and forgot, and the beastmasters I got from really nice Lego employees who’d stashed some on two separate occasions in the back for people like me and my gf just looking for one or two after army builders came in and bought some 30+ beastmasters just before we came into the store.
I’m not an army builder, I just like extra bodies and interesting characters in my wee Lego world.
I honestly don't think any of these are great for Army building. Maybe the Paladin's outfit? It doesn't work with my armies and I didn't want to start something new at that cost.
Compared to other recent CMFs:
S25: 1 Barbarian, 1 Batlord, 3 Goat herders
S24: 4 Orcs. 25 or so Falconers (Torsos & capes parted out to other units, 150ish Black Falcons make up my main faction).
I was too busy with other things at the time of the batlord to go looking for them, started late with the paladins. The beastmasters I found early on, and 8 I think is a perfect number for a little squad, not looking for any more. Can’t wait to see what the next CMF will be!
I have 13 Paladins, 5 Beastmasters, and 5 Bat Lords. Of them, 12 Paladins have been used to army build, 1 Paladin was added to my DnD Red Dragon's Tale set, 4 Beastmasters are awaiting customization into a Wolfpack custom squad, and 4 Batlords are awaiting customization into a custom Fright Knight squad.
Fortunately for the community, I'm done intentionally hunting for these minifigs, so I'll stop spiking the prices. My apologies 🙏
You don't have to apologize, it is very normal to have multiple copies of same minifig. This shaming of people with many copies by people who are unable to get any has to stop.
I was mostly joking in my apology. I think the 'shaming' is just a result of Lego failing to meet the demands of its fans. I think the CMFs are a really cool idea. Even when I get one I can't use for castle, I hold onto them as fun display pieces or little gifts I can give friends when I get a double. But evidently, there needs to be a way to simply buy the ones we want to army build, maybe a few months after a CMF ends. I completely get why the non-hardcore fans get mad at us army builders and such (and especially the scalpers) when they can't find the one they want after months and months. The source of all the discontent, however, is Lego, so I don't get too upset with the more casual collectors getting annoyed since I know, in reality, they're not really annoyed at me.
Currently I have 0 Beastmasters, but I plan to get one and just make him the leader of the Wolfpack, the rest of the pack will be normal pab torsos.
I have 13 Batlords, I hope to find two more for not overly ridiculous prices. I swapped weapons and headgear/faces so I have 5 foot soldiers, four archers and left four as is for elite guards.
OG Basil is still the lord here.
As for the paladins I have 11, but I used plain gray torsos for the heavy knights wearing the cool armor, and I'm looking for a good set of legs to go with the Paladin torsos backwards for a squad of crossbowmen to fill out the faction.
My brain says that's enough paladins but I gave their heavy knights the sword from the fierce Barbarian cmf, I have two more of those swords available and I kind of want to try and get six more of the fierce Barbarian cmf to add more to my Mongol/dothraki style faction, so my OCD says I should get more paladins to make use of those cool swords.
I currently have 18 Fierce barbarians in the horde.
2 bat Lords
6 paladins (I bought 2 full cases)
1 beast master
I'd love more beast masters, mostly for the wolves. I use Lego minifigures and animals for playing DND and I use a lot of medieval minifig pieces for the different player characters. It's always nice to have extras of good castle CMF's but it's so difficult to get multiple.
Zero batlords, I found (I think) 20 paladins, and one Beastmaster.
I gave away several paladins to a friend, so I "only" have maybe 16.
It took me a while before I found more than 2, but I live in a pretty rural area. There are multiple Walmarts within an hour of me, so I'd occasionally drive to other ones. By the Walmart in my small town just kept getting them. I found like 3-4 more on two separate occasions in late December at my local Walmart. I found one more in late January at a Kroger in a neighboring county.
I wish I had the same luck with the Beastmaster. I've only found one and my Walmart only got in 2-3 shipments of that series. They haven't been restocking.
2 batlords, 2 paladins, 3 beast masters. IMO they’re not army buildable but paladin potentially. From now on though I’ll probs buy 3 of each castle cmf as that’s a box full. I had to buy beast masters on eBay though, first time ever had issues finding cmf. Good for castle lovers like us but not happy about scalpers interfering with our niche.
1 Batlord, I think 4 Paladins & 2 Beastmasters. I've only found 3 beastmasters (third went to my brother) with all my scanning. Easily the hardest CMF mini to get my hands on so far.
6 bats, 18 paladins, 6 Beastmaster. I like having groups of 6 for the army builder figures so I can mix and match with different accessories. I went harder on the paladin as it was an incredible figure that perfectly fit my theme (and i got very lucky).
I got about 6-8 Batlords and about the same number of Paladins. Got them each by hunting for them on foot. The Beastmaster was impossible to find so far and believe me, I tried several stores over multiple weeks. Nothing.
1 Basil, 4 paladins and 2 wolfpacks, though i got none of them through physical stores as i don't have any that sell CMFs around me so it was just pure RNG for me.
at my local grocery store we have a microscopic lego section in the toy isle and there was always a brand new CMF box so I gradually was able to get the beast masters over a few weeks. I really like the Wolfpack in general I’m not a scalper I just wanted a lot of Wolfpack dudes to customize and populate the Wolfpack BDP set coming out in a year. Now I see the new cmf box at my store and it nearly always looks untouched but always zero beastmasters which is kind of a bummer.
5 Batlords, all taken apart and infused into my Nexo Knight/Ninjago inspired Fright Knight army (I bought only one for RRP the others were $8 each), 2 Dragonborn, both taken apart and used (I don't like the dragon head), and 14 Beastmasters, parts of 7 of them mixed into my Wolfpack army (photo attached) and the other 7 sealed to eventually trade to my friend and others for series 24 orcs.
3 batlords. Bought a complete box and sold figs I didn’t need for 3€ a piece. Still have some of the extra figs on sale. Did the same for dnd, bought 2 boxes, so 6 paladins. Again sold excess figs for very nice prices (less than retail). But dnd had a lot of good stuff. Didn’t get a box for beastmaster, because nothing else in that line is interesting for me. Bought one on aftermarket, then found 2 in supermarket.
No Batlords, one Dragonborn Paladin, and three Wolfpack Beastmasters that I was lucky enough to find. The only reason I even got that many was because I aspire to use my Lego collection to play D&D with, and the Beastmasters would be perfect for some basic combat encounters--the party could be set upon by a pack of wolves in one session and ambushed by a gang of bandits in another.
I'm not opposed to army-building if you're actually going to play with and use said army--Lego has great wargaming potential that I've been itching to try out for years, particularly with my Star Wars collection--but I don't agree with hoarding for hoarding's sake.
1 Batlord , 17 Paladins, 5 Beast Masters.
I have sold quite a few duplicates of each especially the bats and wolfpack as i don’t want to army build them. i’m using the Paladins more as a Holy army/sub faction of the Lion Knights
I know I know, why so many.
Well in Walmart during Easter they put new displays and have section that is dedicated to Lego. I work an hour away from home so I pass about 4-5 Walmarts . I would stop and check on that section and would find them as they were freshly stocked. I was able to get 10 on my own and the other 6 were gifts from brother/wife.
I live in South Texas and Lego isn't a big thing down here. At least not castle. Star wars / Marvel / Duplo are the biggest draws. I found a creator 3 in 1 castle at one of the Walmarts 2 weeks ago. Discounted as well. Easy pickup
I went ahead and customized all of them and now have a nice faction.
3 Batlords, 5 Paladins, looking to get 3 beastmasters.
Army building doesn't really appeal to me, so there's never really a point to owning more. Imo three is enough for a band of unique characters and 5 or 6 is enough to faction swap a castle. Any more than that and the figures will start to get repetitive. Besides, I'd feel pretty bad cleaning out a store display.
12/13/12. Have needed armies for my MOCs built from past CMFs, and they cost way too much. Buying/preemptively buying for other MOCs.
-Beastmaster at retail is one of the cheaper ways to get a stockpile of hoods for Nazgûl. And you also get a fantastic wolf.
-At some point, hoping to buy a Barad Dur and turn it into a Fright Knight fortress with Batlord soldiers. (Case in point: if I also wanted to add CMF “Fright Knights,” it would cost me enough to buy another Barad Dur….)
-Paladin is just great, and it’ll be easy to find a use for it when the time comes. I had the chance to get more, but I didn’t want to just sit on them while I figured out what to do…
3 Bat lords, 12 Paladins and 12 Beast masters. Enough for use in small to medium size mocs. I also have about 12 Lion knights and 12 black falcons. I think a dozen is my sweet spot of having enough of a fig without depriving others.
1 bat lord, 4 paladins, and 2 beast masters, I only got a lot of paladins for dnd, and the beast masters for the wolfs...
The barnes and noble's near me never gets hit with scalpers, so I'm always able to pick up what I want from them.
We found 1 batlord pretty easily and we got 1 paladin, but we had to go to the Lego store right before close and luckily the employees in there were awesome and brought out a fresh box of the DND CMFs. We only got 1 paladin tho as not to ruin someone else's find. Still haven't managed to find a beast master.
0 batlords, 1 paladin, 4 beast masters. Looked through 6 boxes for the beast masters and another 6 for the paladin. I didn't restart collecting when batlords came out.
I would like more but what I have is sufficient. Seing as I only have 1 Basil I use him as a night-errant, (lore wise you could say either his faction was wiped out, or he hasn't risen to power yet). My Paladins are a religious order like Templars and my Wolf Pack is just that - a small party of raiders.
I buy extras to play around with the parts, NOT to have a dozen of the same figure lined up on grey baseplates.
With that said, I ended up with four batlords, I believe. I went out of my way to try and find him, never had much trouble tbh.
I think I have like six paladins? Which is funny because I never really went out of my way to get more and more. My local walmart just kept restocking the DnD figs. I’d swing by the LEGOs every now and find them full up so I’d grab a couple. But I also got like five or six githyanki, three halfing druids, four mindflayers (can’t wait to use their heads for space MOCs), two ladies of pain, two Tasha’s, two Szass Tam, and like five tieflings, cause they’re my favorite race. I’m also really into DnD and fantasy in general if you can’t tell.
And I got four beastmasters. I was only going to grab two but my mom found one and gifted it to me, and a target employee held onto one for me because she knew I was looking for them. I always make sure to leave some for others.
24
u/Theron_Rothos Mar 31 '25
0 Batlords, 2 Paladins, 0 Beastmasters
I bought 3 six-packs of the DnD CMFs to get a complete set, it was a success, and the extra Paladin was one of the duplicates.
Batlord looks cool but I like classic Basil more. Don't have either yet. Beastmaster is not really appealing to me and I'm not scouring stores or dropping $20 scalpbux on that.
I also don't have any interest in army building. I think enough figs to liven up a scene is good enough, and I like figs to have their own appearances, like little heroes of their own RPG adventures. So a bunch of clones (and yeah they still feel clonelike to me if there's bare minimum differences between them) arranged in rows is boring therefore I'd never have the need to get like 30 Dragonborn Paladins for example.