Phantom Castle Review - NEW for 2024 Lemax Spooky Town

[@SpookyVillages]

I have around 10 Ghostly Carnival Village Scene Setters left and you can find the link to purchase them here - spookyvillages.com/product/ghostly-carnival/ Note that for 2024 I will NOT be doing any new Village Scene Setters- at least that's my plan as of now. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is a simple matter of logistics. It took a lot of time, energy and money to have them produced and then shipped last year, as well as the space to store them....and I just don't have it in me this year. I am keeping the door open to doing new ones in the future though! Thanks for the understanding!

[@davidbenson7592]

Totally understand. Hoping you will make a pumpkin patch scene-setter version sometime in the future.

[@g4ndalfthegrey964]

Let's go summerween

[@Kat_Nguyen]

Love the dark ride spooky theme of this. This is an amazing carnival piece!

[@bread-guy001]

I know you have always said that you wished for a Lemax rollercoaster (as many other carnival collectors have), and I think they pulled through with this! I am interested to see if they keep going with the coasters but different themes, like they have done with carousels. It is definitely going to be a coveted piece. Great review!

[@headbangersballroom662]

Can't wait to get my hands on fright night cinema from michaels!

[@SpookyVillages]

Yes, that one looks awesome!

[@5monkeystv50]

So glad to see you Doug. This is a fantastic piece. Very busy. But I like it. I can see this as the center of attention. Excited for all the content this year. I'm due to deliver my 4th baby bat any day. So looking forward to have spooky village stuff to watch while I'm adjusting to a newborn in the house again. 🥰👻🍁🎃

[@SpookyVillages]

Congrats on the newborn and thanks for watching!

[@ramtruck21]

And so it begins! Half way to Halloween! Fall is only four months away!

[@dxtra30]

Awesome to see this!! Spooky town season can’t come soon enough! Thanks for sharing!

[@davidbenson7592]

Thanks for sharing Doug and good to see you back doing reviews. I agree that this is a great piece for the Lemax spooky carnival theme. They have needed a coaster and this is the best way possible for them to do it. It’s nice to know that Lemax is listening.

[@SpookyVillages]

Thanks David- good to be back!

[@fahliilvahlok4869]

Will you and the village idiots be doing a reaction video for the michaels exclusives? I always like to watch the reaction videos because I feel like you all bring up different points about all the pieces that I might not have thought of as a newbie and it kind of helps me decide which ones to focus on.

[@SpookyVillages]

Hey thanks, but no at this point some of us actually have the Michaels buildings in hand so it seems like the ship has sailed on that (my fault for that!). Look for actual videos on the buildings in the next couple weeks (some of them, at least!)!

[@ittakesavillagekelly]

So happy to see this piece up close. Amazing piece, reminds me of some of Lemax's vintage pieces. Love the theme and that the riders are humans.

[@mrs_vanessa_dominguez]

Great to see your channel back doing reviews for the Halloween season! 🎃

[@lisacornelius1327]

Thanks for doing your videos. I always look forward to this time every year. Keep up the great work 😊

[@CassidysWorkshop]

Great way to start off the 2024 season, Doug, and good to see you back. Nice to hear you going over items for new collectors, and this one will be sure to introduce some into the fold. I've always stayed away from carnival pieces because of their size and animation issues, but I'm super tempted by this one. Looking forward to your future videos. Thanks!

[@countrycandle1460]

Hey welcome back Friend!! Been waiting to begin Halloween

[@scottc3270]

Hey Doug great to see you back! the countdown is on ! that Phanton Castle is 1st on my list , what funny it that rubber belt making the car bounce it like the real thing lol

[@lindah5910]

Wooohoooo! Spooky Villages is back! Yay! Thank you, Doug!

[@halloweenvillages17]

Good to have you back man!

[@alyssag3301]

Wow - this is so nice. I am a sucker for theme park items/rides, and I really love this. I like to have a carnival theme on Halloween so I think I will be getting this. Thank you for showing it off!

[@michaelrivera8665]

Glad you're back - great review.

[@VirtualRobotsRevolt]

Its funny when you see the Xmas version of these. Santa might be the grim reaper instead LOL.

[@SpookyVillages]

LOL yeah this type of animation I've seen used a lot in recent years on the Christmas buildings.

[@vikingbjj7]

Thx again for your reviews buddy! Looks awesome, cant wait for mine to arrive!

[@sharonelazar]

I am afraid of all those moving parts-I am not handy and wouldn’t know how to fix it-but it’s tempting for sure!

[@tabithalivingston1302]

Yay! You are back. Congratulations, btw! This is the one I knew I had to have!!

[@SpookyVillages]

thank you!

[@idabara7585]

amazing piece!!!! thank you for showing all the details!

[@TroyB-sp5eq]

CODE ORANGE in affect, glad your back.

[@gregjorgensen7271]

Thanks Doug as always. You and I have discussed roller coasters before and I agree that this is as close as Lemax can get and they did it well.

[@SpookyVillages]

Thank you good to be back!

[@jm7804]

That looks like a good piece. I do agree that if you ran it non stop you are probably going to have issues with those wobbly cars flying off the top. Side note....bro is handsome. A+ for sure.

[@JnCn710]

We just received this yesterday. This piece is amazing.

[@JWJW2311]

Can’t wait to start my fourth year of villaging!!!

[@capitalj1987]

Absolutely amazing to have you back the only thing I could say as a KZbin creator is put a photo of you in the thumbnail with it because you post so very little I pass by this because I have so many other Halloween content I follow I didn’t know it was you till I actually read the title and you know people don’t like to read read amazing video amazing contact just gets me excited for the season. Thank you so much. Been a fan since I think 2017 wishing you and your family the best spooky season ever gets the ball rolling I’m excited

[@SpookyVillages]

Hey thanks for the feedback. I have a couple of youtube channels myself, one in particular being a good deal larger (unrelated to villaging) that is run moreso as a pseudo business, and even though it probably is "correct" to do the thumbnails that way....stylistically it's just not my thing! I view Spooky Villages as my "summer vacation" from many of my other hobbies and interests. Thanks for the advice though, much appreciated on you taking the time to leave the feedback!

[@cincinnatuscincinnatus8541]

Thank you for the review this piece is huge

[@omaravalos9299]

Sold out !!!!

[@tanyad7073]

Thanks for this video Doug! It just made me put in a pre order at ehobby!

[@airtiki2374]

Great review..looking forward to more

[@marcjaikaran714]

Great review this goes great with your background drop

[@SpookyVillages]

thank you!

[@VirtualRobotsRevolt]

I really want to see the magic mirrors one....but michaels has it listed for $200!

[@tanyad7073]

😳

[@SpookyVillages]

I plan to do a review of this year but yeah, gotta get it with 40 percent off coupon

[@user-ts5ce2ri3h]

Great piece I’m not big into the amusement park theme I’m more into the garden pumpkin patch and haunted house theme but still pretty cool I’m so glad your still doing these videos I’ve been a fan for years

[@omegadredd]

Finally!!!!🎃🎃🎃🎃

[@sams6098]

Awesome.. thankyou. Been meaning to suggest. As some of these are mechanically noisy if you can make comment. Also you should try a rating system: construction, paint, soundtrack etc. But overall thank you for doing this I enjoy your content

[@SpookyVillages]

I actually started doing something similar to this on Patreon this year. With each review video I'm doing a post/article discussing specific likes/dislikes! I will try to mention animation sounds more in the future. If something is particularly very noisy I try and bring it up. They do vary a lot though depending on individual pieces, even the same ones!

[@goodidea2704]

I have all my pieces attached to a power strip and I hit the switch on it to turn them all on at once. But, for some reason with my phantom castle piece, whenever I turn on the power strip the building just does not turn on. I’ve made sure that it wasnt the lemax adapator that is broken or the power strip. Does anyone else have this issue?

[@michelleleebento1888]

We bought this just waiting

[@Skullsandfire93]

Is this as big as the older carnival pieces?

[@SpookyVillages]

This is a massive piece and it's as large as some of the bigger Lemax buildings.

[@rainbowsparkles6963]

I got this today and was disappointed that one of the cars on the conveyor belt kept jamming. I managed to get it moving but every time the cars go over a certain point there is a clunking sound which is very jarring. Such a great piece but annoyed mine has issues

[@SpookyVillages]

Yeah that's a shame, i'm not totally surprised hearing issues with the cars though. I feel like there is a lot of mass moving on the piece

[@Scorpion.1992]

Damn Doug, you’ve been MIA lately lol 😂

[@SpookyVillages]

I view Spooky Villages as my annual summer vacation. I'm here for a good time but not a long time!

[@HereForTheComments]

So those ARE the sounds it makes. I asked Pixelated Pumpkin about this but never got an answer. Kinda noisy though, definitely not for a "peaceful" holiday gathering.

[@SpookyVillages]

I usually run animated pieces briefly when guests are over just to show them off, but then turn it off as in my history, people seem to like to touch the animated pieces when they are running which as you know is a big no-no!

[@robertsander-caceres5986]

Such a missed opportunity with the sound. They really could of made it sound like a rollercoaster.

[@SpookyVillages]

Totally agree. They could've made it more of an ambient soundtrack with coaster noises and it would've been really cool!

[@spookyboyjones9373]

Hi Doug, Maybe the shaky cars on the belt is to provide a sense of downhill speed. I think it would look lame if it was smooth. 👻

[@SpookyVillages]

ha, I do agree but if a coaster shook me that much I think it would injure riders!

[@spookyboyjones9373]

@@SpookyVillages lol, I've been on those! Son of a Beast in Cincinnati. ⚰️

[@SpookyVillages]

@@spookyboyjones9373 ha, I have heard about Son of Beast. Beast is my favorite wooden coaster! I got to ride it at night for the first time a couple years ago!

[@alfoncesmithe]

This is fab will look out for it but it would be extra fab if the eyes lit-up👻

[@capitalj1987]

And one more piece of advice I have three or four different channels on KZbin. I’m at 40,000 subscribers some have 15,000 subscribers on all those channels you have to keep them monetized by posting at least every five months so don’t let it go seven months like this one again or you lose monetization and that’s just throwing money out the window ads won’t be on it and it won’t get fed to advertisements so getting people to give you things gets harder if you don’t keep up with it so I just recommend posting two or three videos the break keeps the content alive on KZbin end and we love seeing you anyways

[@chrisadamson9556]

I was going to buy one last week but they said they were having a lot of problems with this model. a lot of returns because it breaks down.

[@iiheart_vivi]

Me liky 💖💖

[@reginaldforthright805]

Can you get a rotating display stand to show off 360 views

[@SpookyVillages]

it's something i may get eventually

[@VirtualRobotsRevolt]

You want the sound with these animated pieces. Most of them the gears can get very loud and can be awful to hear. My wife can't stand the noise and thats why i have to keep them in the other room.

[@joanl9383]

Is this noisy? Surprised you didn't play sound?