Level 7: Sparta Amasses its Numbers

You can see the Flickr slideshow of hi-res images and inspirations by clicking the link here.

These sets have been in the making for 36 years now. In sum, this is the fruit of the input of over a hundred archaeologists, scientists, and historians from six continents, most of whom have 4-to-8-year-olds of their own now. And when they see this, all of them are all asking the exact same question... "Why hasn't Lego done this years ago?!"

This starter set could be between $40 and $50, depending on what elements they include. It would be very easy to scale this concept up or down, simply by copying or deleting things.

This design gives you 16 extra golden Roman-style shields that you can use for any civ!

The ballista works with one or more standard Lego rubber-bands. The rubber-bands all stretch across the front face of it, which pulls the two arm-levers forward, which pulls the rear square-block forward, which propels the spears... Shwiiinnng! Please do not hurt anyone! =)

Naptha-grenades were invented in Assyria, in Mesopotamia, circa 800 BC. Further research into combustible armaments eventually led to the secret formula for the famous Greek Fire.

War elephants were trained in India, following a centuries-old tradition of preparing them to take the field bravely. They traveled with their trainers, and worked from Carthage to Persia.

It is unknown if the part-mold to make Lego elephants is still in use, but it would be perfectly easy to swap in a brick-built equivalent for almost exactly the same price point.

Every civilization has their own banner, which they can hold proudly in their vexillum battle-standard, or on an elephant, or over the walls of a fort, or up in the rafters of their temple.

I purposefully made the Greek banners look like fraternities, partly because there are lots of cool movies with the fraternities as heroes and anti-heroes and as the underdogs. In fact, the earliest fraternities chose three Greek letters in their names, because they wanted to style themselves after warriors in factions or city-states of the Ancient World.

The letters on the Spartan banner stand for "Laconia" or "Lakedaimonia". The writing on the elephant's banners reads "Xerxes, the King" in real cuneiform script in Old Persian. I want the realism in all the decorations and insignia to be a key cool attention-grabbing feature, and a draw for real historians, so I hope you like it!

If Lego feels wary about showing the Persians for any reason, then they can always make the set with Spartans versus Titans, with hordes of Minotaurs, clans of Cyclopses, and a variety of Lesser Gorgons like Euryale and Stheno as foot-soldiers. The Titans have a banner too, inscribed with a semi-fictitious language called "Proto-Proto Glyphs".

Or hey, if they want to make it "Spartans versus Romans", that would be a guaranteed best seller, although they usually spread the minifigs out a bit more across several sets. Let them know what you like in the final comments box when you click to vote!

Again, this is a set in my series of archaeological models, the Infinitely Modular Classical Temple Building Project. It is based on the real-life historical encounter between Leonidas and Xerxes at the site of Thermopylae in Ancient Greece in 480 BC, a pivotal moment in Western Civilization, and it is not based on any particular book, graphic novel, or movie.

All of the temples and all of the fortifications in my sets can come apart into neat modular sections, based on an 8x8 grid... And so they can all be rearranged in multiple ways, they can all be expanded and redesigned easily, and they can all be connected together for maximum modular possibilities! There is also great potential to do expansion sets with additional wall segments for each unique civ.

If sets like this are a success, it could lead to many new things. For starters, I know that there is tremendous potential to sell beautiful and educational sets like these in major museum gift shops around the world, as they already do with the Architecture Theme, which would boost Lego's overall brand awareness and reputation with parents from all over the world.

For the future, they could easily branch out into sets for the Aztecs, the Mayans, Africa, India, China and Japan. And it could be expanded into the Medieval, Renaissance, Napoleonic, Steampunk, Modern, and Futuristic Eras. Plus it could inspire them to add more historical details and more educational value into Castle, Pirates, and Indiana Jones-style Adventurers sets. Will it be as popular as Batman, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Ninjago, Chima, Zelda, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Only one way to find out...! If they make a few new prints, they can keep using them again and again for the next 10,000 years...! Let's do this! =D

(Archaeologist, Archaeology, Ancient, World, History, Historical, Mediterranean, Aegean, Greece, Greek, Sparta, Spartan, Athens, Athenian, Athena, Parthenon, Shrine, Oracle, Mythology, Troy, Trojan, Trireme, Iliad, Odyssey, Epic, Movie, Clash of the Titans, Olympus, Legolympus, Zeus, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Apollo, Hades, Cerberus, Medusa, Perseus, Pegasus, Andromeda, Kraken, Colossus, Colosseum, Gladiator, Rome, Roman, Senator, Republic, Forum, Ballista, Catapult, Battering Ram, Legion, Centurion, Caesar, Carthage, Carthaginian, Hannibal, Elephant, Egypt, Egyptian, Pharaoh, Ramesses, Cleopatra, Lighthouse, Alexandria, Chariot, Fort, Boat, Nubia, Nubian, Celts, Celtic, Gauls, Iceni, Boudicca, Stonehenge, Garden, Babylon, Babylonian, Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Persia, Persian, Xerxes, Immortal, Warrior, 300, Medieval, Viking, Portal, Bifrost, Thor, Loki, Odin, Asgard, Valhalla, Valkyries, Alfheim, Svartalfheim, Jotunheim, Muspelheim, Ragnarok, Glory, Sagas, Wonders of the World, Modular, Classical, Temple, Architecture, International, Global, Civilization, Civilizations, Empire, Empires, Games, Minifigures, Modular, Museum, Education, Educational.)