Friday, December 31, 2010

LEGO Kingdoms #7946 King's Castle Review Part 1

Approximately six and a half hours left to new year. ^^

Theme: Kingdoms
Name: King's Castle
S/N: #7946
Year: 2010
Pieces: 933
Minifig: 8
Price: RM669.90, SGD219.90, USD99.99, GBP79.99

Box
The front of the box are the box art where the dragon knights are attacking. The top of the box shows all the minifigs included with this set and also the actual minifig scale. The back of the box shows the function of this set and the alternate way of joining the castle.

box
box1 box2

Content
There are eight packets of bricks, four pieces of octagonal plate, a sticker sheet and three instruction books inside the box. There is quite a number of pieces needed to be put on sticker.

content instruction stikcer

Here's the link to the instruction: Book1, Book2, Book3

Accessories
the pictures below do not show all the weapons and accessories included in this set as some of the shield and torch are attached to the castle.

accssrs accssrs1

Animals
We get a horse and a rat. There is extra bricks given to convert your horse into the normal horse. The horse head armor is packed separately in a small plastic bag too.

animal
animal1 animal2

Minifigs
There are a total of eight minifigs included in this set five from lion faction while three from dragon faction. All minifigs are printed both side on their torso and only have one face expression. The plume on the king's crown is very loose and can fall off easily. I wonder if this is QC problem.

minifig minifig1
minifig2 minifig3
The lion soldier

minifig4 minifig5
The dragon soldier

minifig6 minifig7
The king and dragon knight without armor on

They do looks great but then again I hope TLG is not stingy with the armor and knight helmet and the minifig as well.

So what are in the numbered pack? Pack number one is for the minifigs. Below is what the other pack build:

pack2&3 pack4
From left: Pack2 & 3, Pack4

pack5 pack6
From left: Pack 5, Pack 6

pack7 pack8
From left: Pack7, Pack 8

While below here are just shot of combining each pack together:

join join1 join2 join3 join4

The review on the function and detail of the castle will be on next post. . .

LEGO Kingdoms #7946 King's Castle Review Part 2

Castle
This is the first time I assemble a castle although I do have one from the fantasy era previously. Anyway the middle of the castle is empty like the previous one. Below are the pictures:

castle
castle1 castle2 castle3 castle4 castle5

Here's the view of the top of the main gate which can fit a few soldier up there. A pretty good place for the archer to take their shot.

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Here's the rear view of the middle part of the main gate where there is a table and a goblet. However, there is no place for the people to stand near it.

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The bridge can be lowered down or otherwise and there is a technic pin that holds the bridge to prevent it from lowered itself down. The picture on the right shows how the pin works.

bridge bridge3

bridge1 bridge2

Once you down raising up the bridge, you need to push the pin down to hold it.

The gate can be open (up) and close (down). And to keep it open there is a technic pin to hold it.

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This is how the gate can be raised. The axle raise the gate up by using the tile attached to the gate.

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To leave the gate open, the pin shall be push inside to hold the gate.

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The flag on the look-out post is printed. There is a small catapult on top of the look-out post that can be rotate. There's ample space below the look-out post.

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Here's a soldier on the other side of the look-out post.

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While here are some pictures of the wall on left and right.

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The rear left tower: What is behind the door? Is actually nothing and empty. There are torch on both side of the door and it is the same on the other side of the tower.

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On top of this tower is another catapult and also a rotatable one so that we can attack at any place we want to.

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The prison is really small but it can fit at least a minifig in it and as shown in the box art, the rear wall of the prison can easily fall and the villain can escape easily.

prison
prison1 prison2 prison3 prison4

The picture below is the door of the right tower. One bad thing over here is that the door can't be fully open as the treasure box is blocking it. On top of it is the king's throne.

. . .

Here are the pictures that shows the different way of combining the castle:

alternative alternative1 alternative2

Extra pieces
There is a lot of extra pieces left from this set and most of them are technic connector and plume. Below is the picture:

extra pieces

Completed model
This set is not that bad, but I still prefer the fantasy era one as it has more pieces and minifigures. The look of this castle is actually not bad too.

completed model

Playability: 8/10 Marks are given to the weak walls of the prison.
Design: 8/10 The castle looks good, but I think it can further be improve.
Price:6/10 The price is not that reasonable.
Overall: 7/10 A good set to add into your collection although the minifigure is quite few in number.