[REVIEW] 7947 Prison Tower Rescue

[hatcher]

Indexed

Set Name:Prison Tower Rescue
Set Number: 7947
Theme: Kingdoms
Year: 2010
Pieces: 365
Minifigures: 5
MSRP: $69.99 (CDN)

Description from Shop@Home:
The Dragon Knights have captured the fair princess!

The King’s brave Knight sets forth to rescue her, but the tower is heavily fortified and well defended with a catapult and bubbling cauldrons! Can he break through the iron gate and past the catapult to free her? Includes 5 minifigures: 2 Dragon Knight soldiers, 1 King's Knight on white horse, 1 King's soldier and 1 princess.

Includes 5 minifigures: 2 Dragon Knight soldiers, 1 King's Knight on white horse, 1 King's soldier and 1 princess
Use the awesome catapult and bubbling cauldrons to repel attackers!
Measures over 11" (30cm) high
http://shop.lego.com/en-US/Prison-Tower ... ms-ByTheme

The second largest of the original Kingdoms sets, the Prison Tower Rescue is an interesting set that, until we get a Dragon Castle, is the de-facto capital of the Dragon Knights. I do have to take issue with the description provided by Shop@Home. The catapult is NOT awesome. But we'll get to that. Lets take a look at the set.

Here is the front of the box. (Sorry about the flash at the bottom). We see the Princess in the tower, 2 Dragon Knights manning the Tower, and two King's Knights coming to rescue her.

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The back of the box. We see the set "in action" and some smaller shots of the various play features. I particularly like the gate. It is MASSIVE. Also interesting to see the boiling oil. A personal favourite of mine. :)

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Inside the box you have 4 numbered bags and 2 instruction booklets. There are no stickers, and the instruction books have the same image on the cover.

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The cover of the instruction booklet (again sorry about the flash, I had the macro on, so not sure what happened.)

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A random page from the instruction book. The steps are numbered, and the parts needed are shown in a call out beside the number.

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The parts from bag #1. In this bag, you get the minifigures, the horse and barding, a treasure chest, a barrel with weapons and a rat.

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The mini figures. You get 2 Dragon Knights, 2 King's Knights and a Princess. The one King's Knight has a breast plate over top of his torso. The figures are amazing.

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And here they are with helmets/hair (and breast plate) removed to see the faces. Very nice details.

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And from the back. All the torsos have printing on the back. Only the princess has a double sided head.

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Here is the horse with equipment on, the treasure chest, the rat, and the barrel with weapons, as well as the extra pieces in the lower right. The horse's equipment is one of the bast parts of the set. The unicorn helmet is just so cool and the barding (the red thing over the horse's back) is fantastic.

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Another shot of the horse. How can you not think this is awesome?

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The contents of bag number 2. With this bag you start to build the tower. Since the Dragon Knights are the "bad guys" their hangout has lots of dark colours, such as green and dark grey.

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The base of the tower has lots of interesting nooks and crannies for play. The green plates that form the base are not attached very well. I found while moving it that one of the middle ones was flopping around quite bit. It stayed on, but just.

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The tower at the end of bag #2 with spare parts (or in this case part). You can see where the giant gate will go.

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The contents of bag number 3. I was very excited to see the baby dragons (lower right). But it appears they are just decorations on the tower. I wonder if we'll ever get a real green Dragon in a future Dragon Castle (hint, hint, hint!)

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The gate has been put in place and more of the Tower added. Even at this early stage, it is looking good.

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More of the Tower added. You can now see where the windows of the second level will go.

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And the Tower as it looks at the end of bag #3, with spare parts. This is the back side of the Tower. You ca n see the winch that raises or lowers the gate in place (it works fairly well) and if you look through the windows you can see the dragons.

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And the Tower at this point from the front. Looks nice.

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The contents of bag #4. With these parts, we will finish the tower.

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As you build, the prison cell on the top level starts to take shape, as does the area on the second floor where the "awesome" catapult is. You can see it on the right side of the Tower. Its puny, and throws the whatever it throws about 2 inches. Yawn.

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The top of the Tower is finished, and the build is nearly complete.

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The finished Tower. On the very top, our kettle of boiling oil. The oil, is not actually attached, so when you tip the kettle, it slides out onto the Knights below. I think this Tower looks very sharp.

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The Tower with minfigures etc added in. I like the appearance of this set and the minifiures completely complement it.

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And again from the back. The tower has lots of play areas for staging battles, etc.

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Conclusion. This is a great set in terms of playability, and the minifigures are great. The build is straightforward, and it has lots of nicely coloured pieces. At full price, it is a bit pricey, so it is well worth waiting for a sale.

Mini figures 5/5 As always, the Kingdoms minifigures rule the day!
Parts 4/5
Price 3/5 - Pricey for a set of this size.
Play features -4/5

Overall score (Not an average) 4/5. A good set worth having, but wait for a sale.

[Brickbuilder0937]

Great review. One thing I really like about this set is that, even though it's a bad guy tower, it isn't designed to be evil looking like most bad guy castle sets. This is one of my favorite sets of 2010 (I have 5 :P ).

[ncbarrett]

definitely a nice set.
And one that could be used w/multiple qty to build a dragon knight castle.
Plus it is the only set to get the current princess in.
thanks for review

[peanut]

This is a great set. I was on a mission for more during the last big Target clearance.

[ncbarrett]

This is a great set. I was on a mission for more during the last big Target clearance.

be a good time to get them with current TRU B2G1F sale.