The Curse of the Black Falcons

Post by **rogue27** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 8:50 pm

Just a few examples of mistakes in Black Falcon sets:

Black Falcon shields: Apparently the two shields were supposed to be blue border and green border, not blue border and yellow border. The flags in the 1984 Black Falcon sets even used a Blue/White or Green/White scheme to match the shields. Unfortunately, when the shields came out of the factory, they had yellow borders instead of green. They stuck with the yellow shields since then, but quickly phased out the use of green flags on Black Falcon sets.

6018 Battle Dragon: This set is boat with a dragon head on the front of it and two minifigures dressed up like Black Monarch/Black Knight figures, but for some reason they are given a Black Falcon shield.

Black Falcon's Fortress re-release: Light gray swords, pointy torso emblems, pointy flag emblem, no extra arches to build alternate model? One would have to think that nobody involved in the production of this set has even seen a Black Falcon's Fortress before.

I wonder how the wrong color swords got in there. Could it be due to the fact that the swords appear to be light gray in pictures like this:
http://library.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/g ... gi?i=16065

Are these minor blunders, or do these examples suggest that many TLC employees are unfamiliar with their own products?

*EDIT*
The rest of this post has been removed because this thread had been split by an admin.

jwcbigdog · Post by **jwcbigdog** » Thu Oct 07, 2004 9:23 pm

Some interesting revelations. I was always curious why the Black Falcons always had so many yellow and green flags when they made no sense in the color scheme. I saw the differences between the new and old Black Falcon re-release and thought it was stupid to change the design. Now it just makes BL more confusing!!

Thanks for the insight!

Jojo · Post by **Jojo** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 12:04 am

Hello!

As for the green flags in the early Black Falcon sets (6030, 6073): I think they used green because green was a somewhat new colour for elements not basically related to nature (lawn baseplates, trees, flower stems) in 1984. I don't think the two shield versions were ever meant to be blue and green, that simply makes not that much of a contrast.
You probably know that one edition of 6062 Battering Ram came with a drawing of a yellow and a green shield (instead of the regular blue one) on the instructions. That's been an error.

As for 6018: Yeah, that Falcon shield in a Black Dragon Knights set bothered me right from the first view.

The light grey swords in the BFF legend they probably included because they had them in stock from their Harry Potter line (Gryffindor knight statue). The pointy emblem on the flag and the torsos? I used to think (maybe I just hoped) they did it on purpose to mark a difference between the original set and re-released set, and I'd have liked that. But it means they would have reflected on that matter and that's quite unlikely. LEGO-employees do not reflect. Not on any collectible matters in respect of their product at least. So I simply guess they didn't notice there is a difference in the shape of the emblem between torsos/flag and shields, or they didn't bother to make two different prints. Who cares anyway? It's a toy, and the shape of the emblem doesn't affect the play value at all.

And I abolutely agree with you: The people currently working for LEGO do not know half of what we know about the history of LEGO products. They know the current financial statements, though...

Bye
Jojo

Duke_Dave · Post by **Duke_Dave** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 12:17 am

Thats an interesting qUote at the end of your post... makes sence

dave

Post by **architect** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 2:49 pm

I have to agree with Jojo on several points.

First, I also do not think that Green border falcon shields were ever planned. I like the green and white color combination which went with the red "brick" portion of Knight's Castle 6073. Black Falcon's Fortress 6074 uses yellow plaster over the gate and a "tudor" wall brick in yellow. It was then necessary to change flags to blue and white to better compliment these yellow highlights. In the meantime, the Lion Knights, who didnt need highlight colors on their castles, kept the red and yellow flags

Next, the misprinted falcon rerelease torsos were likely an error. This is evident because the 10000 Guarded Inn knight armor torso, maiden torso, and Lion Soldier torso's were accurate (well pretty close). LEGO did not intentionally alter these torsos, so I do not believe that they purposely changed the falcon ones either. It was just a mistake.

Finally, the light grey swords were a mistake but not the worst. I am in favor of more light grey weaponry, although abs weaponry is preferred. It isnt that hard to find more dark grey swords for your falcon guys.

Ben E.

doctorsparkles · Post by **doctorsparkles** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 12:22 am

I would much prefer the yellow bordered shield to a green one. I just think it looks better.
As for the torso emblem, the new torso emblem looks to be about the same shape as the triangular shields, or at least moreso than the original emblem. Perhaps they used the template from the shield and shrunk it down? Of course, a slightly different torso doesn't bug me at all. I didn't even notice it until someone mentioned it here.

jon_p · Post by **jon_p** » Sat Oct 09, 2004 6:01 pm

I actually got the ledgend set before I found a copy of 6074, so I didn't really notice or mind about the small differences. But I can see why those who had the original BFF didn't like them.

But I would have to say, that the changes that were made are better in my opinion. The swords are fine, I got plenty of dark grey and as Ben said most people have plenty too.
The flags aren't too bad either, variation is good in some sets and you can always change them if you want.
As for the torso change, well I like this too. I look at my older style falcons as special ones because I know that they are older. It is also easier to distinguish the older from the newer.

Jon.

The Blue Knight · Post by **The Blue Knight** » Sun Oct 10, 2004 7:25 am

Sounds like a lot of discontent with this set. I didn't get the legend re-release, but I got 3 originals many years ago. Can anyone post a comparison pix?

Be careful with unsubstantiated quotes atributed to a vague group. It sounds like someone's idea of what they think, not based in fact. We're all unhappy with TLC right now, I understand, but let's not bite the hand that feeds us.

Clark · Post by **Clark** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 3:38 am

Here's pics of some of the re-release changes:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=26324

HTH,
Clark

doctorsparkles · Post by **doctorsparkles** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 3:58 am

Clark wrote:Here's pics of some of the re-release changes:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=26324

Even though it is an obvious mistake, I wouldn't have minded one bit if mine had come with the painted horse shown here: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Clark ... epaint.jpg
I don't have any of these ones, and I would have liked to have one rather than a plain white horse.
Did a lot of people have this same problem?

The Blue Knight · Post by **The Blue Knight** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 4:58 am

OK, I see the differences. What of them? They are relatively minor and wouldn't deter me.

RuthleSs__PaLadin · Post by **RuthleSs__PaLadin** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 6:08 am

doctorsparkles wrote:
Clark wrote:Here's pics of some of the re-release changes:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=26324
Even though it is an obvious mistake, I wouldn't have minded one bit if mine had come with the painted horse shown here: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Clark ... epaint.jpg
I don't have any of these ones, and I would have liked to have one rather than a plain white horse.
Did a lot of people have this same problem?

Yea, I got that misprint horse. I think it was an error in the first guarded inn legends that came out. I bought it at the Anaheim lego outlet store. I guess it was during the first year of its realease. Two years later I bought it again and it came out normal. Now that they're not available, I wish I would have bought more...

DAn

Glencaer · Post by **Glencaer** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 1:07 pm

Clark wrote:Here's pics of some of the re-release changes:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=26324

I'm almost completely sure that the differences are due to TLG losing the original design - maybe they only have the shield design and just shrunk it for the torso. I think this because I mentioned to Jake once that TLG should think about minifig packs, that they would be popular. He mentioned to me that he wasn't sure if TLG had all of the original torso designs, and I countered that Classic-Castle.com had 500 dpi versions of every castle related torso TLG has ever made - so if they ever wanted to remake a given torso.. well, they'd just have to ask nicely.

Either way, I wouldn't so much say this is a "curse" as I would say it is a few minor errors. The only really troubling one is the Black Falcon shields on a Black Knight boat - but feh. I'm sure some ex-TLG intern is kicking himself every day for that one. hehehehe

-lenyusan

Post by **Formendacil** » Mon Oct 11, 2004 6:01 pm

doctorsparkles wrote:
Clark wrote:Here's pics of some of the re-release changes:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=26324
Even though it is an obvious mistake, I wouldn't have minded one bit if mine had come with the painted horse shown here: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Clark ... epaint.jpg
I don't have any of these ones, and I would have liked to have one rather than a plain white horse.
Did a lot of people have this same problem?

Same here. Both my brother and I got the re-release with the Indian horse, and we thought it was great. I mean, they included the real horse, and we got an extra one. It was awesome, like getting a bonus. I wish all sets did that.