6090 Royal Knight's Castle
==========================
{Reviewed by <mailto:hsadm2.jgonzale@email.state.ut.us Joseph Gonzalez>,
8/26/1996}
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~ [Rating:] ****** (6/8)¬
[Thumbs up for:] A pretty impressive set with lots of bricks and new/unique
pieces.¬
[Thumbs down on:] Basic structure could have been more firmly designed.
It's a shame, a set of this size really should/could have been seven or
eight studs.¬
[Wallet-Wise:] Original retail price was about 90.00 for 743 pieces.¬
Mood Music
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{Castle Achillestone sits kingly on the hill overlooking the valley. With a
condescending glare, it evokes both fear and respect of the village peasants.
Both demanding, yet unworthy of that respect, it holds a hundred dreadful
secrets, has withstood a thousand battles from without, and quietly quelled a
like number of rebellions within its cool stony walls. Through it all, it
remains a monument to ennobled pomposity and the facade of grandeur. But a
new era begins as stewardship of the castle is soon to be passed onto the
spoiled unscrupulous brat-prince of great king Wallace. And who would dare
question prince Richard's character, or the mysterious disappearance of the
two lords that dared dispute the prince's decision to wage war on the armies
of the black knight's shire in his greed for more land? Tonight a grand gala
will be held in honor of Richard's new principality, and the smirking lad
smugly greets each guest, so assured that none can discover the terrible
secret hidden in dark and musty dungeon cells.}
Review
------
I was quite captivated with this set as I was constructing it, but after a few
days of looking at it and allowing my two-year-old to find its weak spots, I
like it a little bit less. Still, it is a good-size castle and comes with an
ample number of pieces (including the new ramp and pit plate) to make it worth
the money, especially if you wait for a sale.
The set consists of a rather imposing castle structure whose outstanding
features include two entrances, a tower for the king's throne (including a
booby-trapped floor), and some semblance of a dungeon layout (where most
castle sets just have a pit). One of Lego's most interesting qualities is
their use of portcullis gates and those gate's frameworks. This particular
set uses pairs of 2x2x6 bricks on each side of the gate with a groove running
from top to bottom in the bricks so that the gate is raised and lowered while
being held firmly within those grooves. Aside from its use of this gate, the
main entrance is also protected with two large wooden doors. This entry is
located in the facing wall of the castle which I will term 'East'. To the
side of this large entry is a double-door vestibule (usually pictured housing
the ghost) but the entrance doesn't actually lead into the castle which kind
of ticked me off, so I guess this is simply a guard booth (pity the poor
sucker that gets trapped in there when the castle is under attack). The
South and West walls don't have any features worth mentioning but the North
side of the castle contains the king's "judgement tower." This tower is
sustained by pairs of 2x2x3 1/3 octagon bricks. The first level of the tower
is chiefly an exit/entry with a functioning drawbridge. The second level
(actually about three levels up) houses a throne and "pleading court" before
the throne. This small area is actually a booby-trapped floor that drops open
for quick and easy judgments (time to take out the trash!). There is a small
peaked-roof area above this throne level where treasure chests, barrels, or
bodies can be hidden.
There are quite a few unique pieces I found with this set that will probably
start cropping up in future castle sets, but I saw them here first: 32x48 ramp
and pit plate (as opposed to the standard 32x32 ramp plate) which obviously
covers more area. The ramp is not as steep, sloping up in to about mid-height
of the plate rather than stretching up to the very top; the plate also has a
molded stairway going up the 'North' side of the plate (roughly covers a 3x10
area) which ascends from the ground to the top of the plate. I have to admit
I like this additional stairway that I didn't have to make myself. Other new
pieces include 1x2 grey semicircle bricks (form a whole circle with four
placed end on end), 2x2 dark grey inverted slope bricks (not uncommon in grey
or black, but now available in the dark grey tone that some rocky-wall sections
come in), 1x5 diagonal beams in black and grey (as opposed to the smaller 1x3
diagonal beams), these dissect a 5x5 square where the old 1x3 beams dissect a
3x3 square. I like the longer beams, but like no less the shorter beams.
Still more unique pieces include the 1x5 diagonal black wall corner section
(again, dissects a larger 5x5 square as opposed to the standard black wall
corner sections), 1x4 arch brick in dark grey (whoa, is dark grey gonna become
a standard color now?), and the use of a red motorcycle helmet for a knight.
The red helmet is by no means new to Lego, but they have never been used as a
knight's helmet.
On to my complaints: I found out only too quickly what should have been
obvious, that the king's tower is not very sturdy. The tall thin columns are
more like skinny, wobbly legs and if you bump them just the wrong way, they
become loose, or worse, just fall over and take everything with them. The
tower is aesthetically pleasing, but it isn't going to stand up to any kind of
attack. Also, I found corners of the castle here and there with holes or gaps
in the structure. You can pretend the attacking army can't shoot their arrows
through these small gaps, but every other castle structure I've worked with
hasn't had this "slapped together" look to it.
There are some great bricks here to work with and the principal design includes
some never before used gargoyle-face structures that adorn two of the towers of
the castle, those are pretty cool.
The great number of bricks will allow you lots of variations, but if you just
spent a hundred dollars or more, you dang well better get a lot of bricks!
{Copyright ©1996 Joseph Gonzalez} |
