[Review] King's Castle 7946

[Luciant]

Indexed

King's Castle - 7946

7946-1.jpg

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Set Details:
(Castle - Kingdoms) Released June 2010
933 Pieces with 8 Minifigs and 1 Horse
Retail Price: $99.99
Price Per Piece: $0.10717
Brickset Description: Prepare to defend the castle...catapults are armed, drawbridge is drawn, the knights are ready!

Once upon a time, the King ruled the land and all was good -- until the day the Dragon Knight army attacked. Now the valiant King and his soldiers prepare to defend the castle. The Castle is armed and ready for battle with wind-up front gate, tipping drawbridge and secret prison. Includes 8 minifigures: King and 4 soldiers, 1 Dragon Knight and 2 Dragon Knight soldiers. Includes 8 minifigures: King and 4 soldiers, 1 Dragon Knight and 2 Dragon Knight soldiers Features 3 catapults, King's throne, treasure chest and white horse Wind-up the castle gate to keep the Dragon knights out! Castle measures 11" (27cm) high
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Background:
This is my first Lego review, and it's funny because after building this set, I was inspired to write a review about it because I loved it so much, so this contest tells me it's meant to be! I love medieval times and have always loved Castle's and Knights. I have an old Castle from the 80's era before my Lego hiatus, and seeing the 'pop' of this set, I decided this was going to be my first Castle-themed set since rejoining the following. =) I had been eyeballing this set online and in stores, waiting for a sale to buy it unable to get it during the Christmas sales. Finally, Target did a clearance and thanks to this lovely website for making me aware of it, I was able to scour the town and find it for 50% off, making the PPP ridiculously good. Thank you Target and the contributors to T-n-B for keeping up with the deals.

Minifigs:

Minis.jpg

1 King of Lion Clan
2 Lion Glaivemen
2 Lion Crossbowmen
1 Dragon Knight (Leader)
1 Dragon Knight Spearman
1 Dragon Knight Crossbowman
1 White Horse

Lion Clan -King comes with Golden longword, Tower Shield, Golden Helmet, Golden Breastplate, and a red cape and looks pretty sweet. He has 1 face on his head. I'm impressed Lego finally put out a Castle with an actual King to run the joint. The glaring problem though is the King has no Champion. In fact, this set is kind of cheap on the minifigs... How can you defend a Castle with 4 guys (+1 if the king will fight), much less attack with 3? Crossbowmen come with Shiny pointy helmets, a quiver, and a crossbow, nothing special. The Glaivemen come with a shiny circular hat-type helmet and their long glaive. They all have 1 face on their head as well. The King's horse is very cool, and has a unique bridal covering him and a helmet with a horn.

Dragon Clan - Leader comes with black sword, black knight helmet, black breastplate, and dragon clan shield. I don't know who's my favorite... him or the King... I shall let them duel to the death to figure it out! (It's just a flesh wound!) He gets a crossbowman with a black helmet, crossbow, and quiver, as well as a spearman with a black circular helmet and black spear to help storm the castle. These guys don't even get a catapult.

Extra Info:
* While this set is definitely fun to play with stand alone, it should have a few more minifgs so i would recommend a Dragon and/or Lion Battle pack to make it more fun.
* Where are all the melee guys? Only the leaders have swords and shields?

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Instructions:

Instructions.jpg

This set has a 3 booklet manual, broken up so that 3 people could work on the set at the same time in different sections without interfering with each other. That means this set is GREAT for family fun... there is something for everyone! There are sections that are easy for beginners and sections that are somewhat challenging. Each section is broken into separate polybags that are numbered so you aren't overwhelmed by a massive pile of pieces.

Stickers & Special Pieces
I'm personally a fan of pre-printed Legos rather than stickers you have to do yourself. They get bent, mangled, cut/torn, or you put it on slightly off... so frustrating. In my opinion the stickers they use in this set are kind of lame, but probably made this way to create more differentiation since we know they have pre-printed Castle walls with vines or brick windows in previous sets... I'll give them a pass since there were relatively few.

This set contains a few awesome "unique" pieces, like the lion head. It also has the extra red toppers at the top added to the typical 2x2 grey brick top we expect to see on Castles... gave the look that extra zing.

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Building of the Set

The building of this set is very well organized in the poly-bags and instructions, so you never end up searching for that small piece amongst 500 pieces. As with most Castle sets, the build is modular, meaning you build it in different sections that connect together. Some people prefer a base plate to build on and no sections, while I prefer them in sections, which allow you to modify your Castle to the way YOU want to play with it. If you don't want a square shaped castle, stretch it out in a long wall, or connect it with other Castle sections. That is one of the beauties of this set. There are a few quirks about the build that I will discuss along the way.

Front Gate:

Castle Front.jpg

Gate Back.jpg

The Front Gate of a Castle is the first thing you see when approaching and therefore should leave a distinct impression on you as to the character of the Castle. Lego was extremely smart and aware of this, and makes this the centerpiece of the Castle. Every castle has a few basic components: a gate, walls, windows, and a courtyard. This castle has all of those, plus a bunch more!

Where to begin. The drawbridge of this castle put a smile on my face because Lego came up with another way of raising/lowering the drawbridge, and this time without any string! The chains that connect it to the bar to raise/lower it give you the real feel of a castle (which this set does many times along the way). After passing the drawbridge you come to a portcullis. How awesome is that? Normally you get one or the other, but with this, you get both, and what's even better: The mechanism to control the portcullis going up and down basically uses the same technology that would have been used in real medieval times, how cool. They were smart and included hitches to hold the drawbridge and portcullis in position wherever you decide you want them.

The front is where the unique Lion's Head brick is placed to show all of Lego-world who's turf it is! Below the head, are crossed axes which you would expect to see on the walls of a castle, again, giving it the realistic impression. Two shields with the Lion Clan insignia adorn the top of the castle, again displaying the brand of the Castle. The red accents really help bring out the castle, and the flags / torches also add a nice touch. You have to put on the stone-window stickers on this section, which can be difficult to line up properly... not a big fan of this, especially since the sticker is not particularly great looking.

Front Towers

Front Tower.jpg

The towers are very quick and easy to build. Unfortunately they are not very special, although they DO give "storage" room for provisions that you normally don't get with Castles. No spiral staircase to get up? Another obvious downside are the pea-shooter catapults at the top of these towers. They almost look like they could be shovels attached to a hinge =) The flag/flaps on the front of the towers I like as well. A vast majority of the stickers go on this section of the castle, the vines on the front walls. These are MUCH easier to put on compared to the windows, and also look much better. I still prefer the pre-printed ones from the past. Can't have it all now can we.

Side Walls:

Side Walls.jpg

I have mixed feelings about this section of the castle. The walls are both small and very easy to build. Every castle has to have the walls to extend it, but in the past they would put SOMETHING there... a blacksmith, a food vendor... we get a rack of 2 weapons, a barrel of 2 weapons, and a bag of.... gold? They did throw us a bone by keeping the "extras" at the top of the wall (the dark grey slanted pieces to accent the top).

Rear Tower (no roof):

Rear Tower 2.jpg

Finally we get another section that is not boring! The build of the section is pretty straight-forward so me or the little one could put it together without problems. More storage space at the bottom, and still no stairs to reach the upper level. I like that it has a room, but why is there nothing there? It makes it feel less of a room and more of a random door. Finally we get a REAL catapult. Nothing huge, but very appropriate...why couldn't we get these at the front too? Again, you must place stone stickers around the window slots on this section which can be difficult at times. The set keeps up with the accept pieces by adding torches, flags, shields, and red toppers.

Rear Tower (red roof):

Back Tower 1.jpg

Back Tower 2.jpg

Uh oh! A blast from the past... we haven't seen a roof on a tower like this in a while. Once again, they give you ample storage space for provisions, horses, etc. Finally we have a room with a purpose! The treasure room, with a chest full of 4 different colored gems (normally you only get 2-3). Above the treasure room, is the Throne room! Awesome! Good Job Lego! Castles should come with a King as well as a throne room, and they answered. How you get to the throne room, I do not know. You have do deal with the dreaded window sticker on this section as well. Nice accent pieces in the flag, shields, and torches along with the other goodies.

Back Wall / Jail Cell:

Back Wall.jpg

This section is sweet! Building it is not too hard following the directions, so anyone should be able to crack it. The long back wall is the castle's Jail! It has a torch and doorknob (nice details), and finally we find the way to the upper level of the walls, a staircase! Another feature to increase the fun during play: a back-wall that makes it so they can be "broken out." Nice!

Overall Summary:
This set is definitely has it's ups and downs while building it. It has a lot of highlights, and a few things that I question. Building the castle was not very difficult at all except the front gate was the most complex because of the drawbridge and portcullis. The organization of the set into multiple numbered poly-bags and multiple instruction books with different sections makes this set the ultimate family building experience. The overall appearance is outstanding, It is probably my favorite Castle of all, I hope others feel the same. With all the accent pieces, and extras on the front gate... very impressive, it was enough to make me fall in love even before see'ing the back half of the castle =) The set has a great price per piece value ($0.10), especially if you catch it on sale. I'm not happy with the number of minifigs, but at least we got special pieces like the lion head, 4 different colored gems, horse bridal, minifig breastplates. Taking all that into consideration, it's amazing the set is priced at $0.10, where the could easily have priced it a little higher without adding pieces. If they made the upgrades i recommended during my review, that would have added a lot more pieces, thus forcing them to increase the price as well, so this is indeed a great set for the price. The playability of this set was hard for me to determine... You can play with it by itself no problem, but there just feel's like there is something lacking. The only way I see the Dragon clan getting in is through the back wall =) I had to take off points for the lack of real armies or siege weapons, but had to give a nod to all the fun features like the many catapults, front gate, throne room, and back wall.

Building: 4.5 / 5
Appearance: 5 / 5
Pieces: 4 / 5
Value: 5 / 5
Playability: 3.5 / 5
Overall: 4.5 / 5

I hope you enjoyed my review of King's Castle - 7946. I hope to review other sets in the future. I encourage feedback to improve my reviews, so any tips or suggestions are welcome! PM or reply. Enjoy!

Castle.jpg

[ncbarrett]

Good review!
I very much like this castle.
I already modded it by adding a section to the side walls, to make them longer.

And replaced one of the puny 'pults with a cannon.

I really liked the gate, was very realistic as you mentioned.