BlueBrixx Bear Rock Castle: Wall Expansion Set 105654

BlueBrixx's Bear Rock Castle: Wall Expansion is built from 421 blocks, measuring 47.2 × 7.8 × 14.4 cm assembled, weighing around 610 g. Designed by Marco P., bricks by Qunlong. No stickers or prints.

The gaps in the battlements have a name and a ratio

The solid blocks on top of a castle wall are merlons. The gaps between them are embrasures or crenels — which is where crenellation comes from.

The proportions are not decorative. A merlon has to be wide enough to hide a man behind it and tall enough to cover him standing; an embrasure has to be wide enough to shoot through and narrow enough that he is not exposed while doing it. Across most of medieval Europe that settled at roughly twice as much solid as gap, and the rhythm you recognise as "castle" is that compromise repeated along a wall.

In England, adding crenellations to a house required royal permission — a licence to crenellate. Hundreds were granted from the thirteenth century onwards, and a good many went to people whose houses were never going to be attacked. The licence was a status object: the king confirming, in writing, that you were the sort of person allowed to look defensible.

What a wall module does for the display

This is the least glamorous set in the Bear Rock range and the one that changes the most. Towers and keeps are objects; a run of wall is what connects them into a fortress and gives the whole arrangement an outline.

At 47 centimetres it is a substantial length, and it can be configured in several ways rather than one.

In the BlueBrixx range

Set 105506 is the Bear Rock base castle, 105545 the Keep and 105653 a further module. The separate and much larger Blaustein system is sets 102818, 104953 and 105236 — it does not connect to this one.

Specifications

Pieces: 421 · Designer: Marco P. · Modular · No stickers · Weight: approx. 610 g
Model dimensions: 47.2 × 7.8 × 14.4 cm (18.6 × 3.1 × 5.7 in)