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Weekly Set Review: Knight's Kingdom Chess Set

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:12 pm
by architect
Join the weekly Classic Castle set review discussion. Please post your opinions on the set play ability, piece selection, design, etc. Which sets stand up to our catapult of critique and which ones crumble in shame!

This week’s set is G678 Knight's Kingdom Chess Set.

Knight's Kingdom Chess Set was released in 2005 for Knight's Kingdom II. This game has 32 chess pieces and 24 armed minifigures, the most for any castle set. Figures exclusive to this set include the rooks, knights, and good and evil queens.

There are atleast three board variations of this set. The first production run had versions with 4x4 black and white plates glued to a white 32x32 baseplate. Some versions were only partially glued or not glued at all. While making the second production run, LEGO had a shortage of 4x4 plates. Four 2x2 white plates were substituted for each white 4x4 plate. Two 2x4 black plates were substituted for each 4x4 black plate.

Image

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:21 pm
by Jansen
It looks pretty crappy if you ask me. Baby blue knights, more scorpion soldiers, its glued, ya it's bad. And for $50 it just makes it worse. The good thing are those dark grey capes.

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:37 pm
by Sir Dano
lets see...

pros:
8 Shadow Knights
2 Vladek shields
2 dk red horse helms
8 poleaxes
2 halberds
2 pikes
1 dumbledore hair
2 dk grey capes

cons:
baby blue
price
glue

Verdict:
I give it a 5/10

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 7:52 pm
by Heir of Black Falcon
I actually liked the shadow knights’ coloration. They are an awesome faction. The baby blue is a bit silly but it does not bother me that much. I have contemplated painting them or gettign some silver armour for them. It and the purple vie for worst colour choice, the red being pretty cool, green…. Ok baby blue and purple, what kind of knight would wear that? I use it for a chess board quite often so in that way playability is very good in that sense. I would not mind getting another one honestly but everyone says they hate them and that they are ugly, etc, etc, but when it comes to selling them they want way more than I'd pay for them.

I'd give it 7/10

R

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:52 pm
by Blue Head
They're a good army builder if you're building a shadow knight army, and have a lot of axes. It does have a baby "blue problem", but it still works as a fun, easy to get chess set.

6/10

Blue <><

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 9:58 pm
by Formendacil
The only LEGO chess set I own, yet; partially glued board.

Despite the baby blue army, this was an excellent investment. The black and white plates were quite useful, the Shadow Knight army still forms the bulk of that faction for me, and the blue helmets were spray painted silver or copper, and look awesome. That being said, if someone went back in time and changed the good guy faction to any other KK2 option, I'd take it.

Parts: 4/10 (glue destroyed the white baseplate, and baby blue....)
Playability: 5/10 (it IS a chess set, not a playset)
Figs/Accessories: 6/10 (SKs good, BBs bad)
Design (contemporary): 8/10 (best KK2 up to that point)
Design (contemporary): 6.5/10 (baby blue?)
Nostalgia: 7/10

Overall Score: 6.08/10 (C)

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:20 pm
by Athos
The baby-blue figures are utterly and completely terrible and silly. I guess if you like Shadow Knights it might be a good set. Its just not for me.

I'm also not a big fan of chess sets.

Steve

Posted: Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:56 pm
by Sir_Jed
I have to say i really like chess sets i find them the cheapest way to make armies. I bought two of this chess set and along with some other SKs i had there was the bulk of my evil army.

The baby blue knights were bad but when i put them with some baby blue jakyos (modidfied to look different though) then i gave them all halberds and i now they are support troops for my crown army. Also on a another topic i recently bought two Castle Chess sets not the expensives ones though.

In all im a big fan of the chess sets and i would reccomend buying this set becasue it is a good way to build your shadow knight armies.
Also if you dont like the baby blue knights then use them for something else. Like Elves i used them as elves in the battle for helms deep.


anyway this is a review topic so i will review it I think that this chess set is worth it to buy and i would give it 8/10 because its a very good way to get mini figures and its a good set the one problem i had was the Castles/rooks they werent very good and could have been done better.

.......................

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:06 am
by The dark tide
I loved this set for the scorpions. It really helped me boost my evil army forces. The blue knights if you ask me were a complete waste. Far too colorful.

Re: Weekly Set Review: Knight's Kingdom Chess Set

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:26 am
by MarioDAlessio
architect wrote: There are at least three board variations of this set - LEGO had a shortage of 4x4 plates. Four 2x2 white plates were substituted for each white 4x4 plate. Two 2x4 black plates were substituted for each 4x4 black plate.
That would be a little disappointing/off putting to know that, especially if this was your only chess set and you wanted to keep it as a showpiece.

Simply this set was representative of its time 2004-2005.

My concern with KK2 was not the shadow Knights they were OK it was the pastel good guys.

For me 2004 – 2005 were not good years for castle Lego, with the exception of the Vikings.

I didn’t mind the 2006 castle sets which would have made a much better chess set, here are some 2006 figs that would have helped make a better set:

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=cas295
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=cas293
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=cas314
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=cas303
http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemPic.asp?M=cas308

Then again Lego did make a chess set in 2006 the Viking Chess set which I prefer.

http://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemInv.asp?G=G577

Mario

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 4:18 am
by castlebuilder100
Pros:
I really like the blue king
Has 4 horse head armor pieces
Lots of weapons and helmets
4 shields
6 Front Plates
Black and red minifigs are good for army building
I like the faces of the blue pawns

cons:
Board is glued
Baby blue minifigs are a bit silly(but I still use them)
As far as playing chess the pieces dont stick well and are knocked off easily
Overall Rating: :D :D :D :) (3.5)

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 2:28 pm
by Kozai13
It looks cool, but it's definetly not the first chess set I'd get.

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:46 pm
by Brikbud
Well, there's definately a lotta' minifigs!
OK, so the guys are terrible. But hey, there's a whole lot of 'em!
5/10 :mrgreen:

Stephen

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 6:08 pm
by Leonicius_PL
It's a nice set! But the only one minus is that, Jayko's soldiers have crossbows without arrow packs. It would be much functionable if they will have for example spears. And their helms and armors, better would be king's Mathias armor and grey helms...

Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2008 6:25 pm
by Athos
Sir_Jed wrote:I have to say i really like chess sets i find them the cheapest way to make armies.
That may be true, but they haven't really given us figures that would be good to build an army of.

Like the KK2 set. Who wants an army of baby-blue Jayko clones? Scorpion Knights, maybe, but you still have to find something to do with all the Jaykos.

Or the Vikings. Who thinks Vikings all had the same clothes? I see Vikings as more ragtag and not wearing uniforms. So a Viking army really doesn't work for me.

The New Castle set(s) is/are really the only one(s) that work for me.

Steve