Weekly Set Review: Skeleton Surprise

[Patron of the lego]

Ah, a little classic that I loved. This is highly biased, but I have fond memories playing with the little trap... I can proudly say that I got two sets on my 7th birthday, the guarded treasury, and skeleton suprise from my
forgetful cousin( he is older than me and is a collector) I liked the skeleton suprise far more though... Sadly and eventually I combined the two...

[g2]

This set made nice use of the loose limbs on the skeleton. – Dangly Wangly Skeleton.

I could definitely use the black helmets in my Black Falcon army. A good set for parts. I would say it is an above-average set overall.

Rating: 6/10

[gormadoc1]

I recently just brought this set of Ebay and I think its great. Its a small set but is quite easy to customise and has a respectable design. There could be more to it but I'm not complaining. Its like buying a set half complete that you have to ad extras to to make it complete. I think its a nice little set thats easy to customise so for these reasons I'd give it 8/10.

...gormadoc1

[DraconisTerrena]

This one has some heavy nostalgia value for me. It was my first skeleton. I wound up buying several of these and creating a small band of skeleton warriors. I recognize now that the structure design is sort of lacking, but it's not nearly as bad as some of the random Fright Knights and KK2 crap. I was thrilled with it at the time, and I'll still give it a 7/10 now.

[Bandit]

It seems very unique, but it doesn't connect (using technic studs) to other castles, like the earlier ones...

[Ben the lego king]

hey

nice wall although im not a fond of black brick. cool knight lots of detal. 9/10

[darkstarsk8er327]

looks pretty kool

[Athos]

It was a nice way to get the new (at the time) skeleton. And a regular soldier. Plus you got five wall panels. I thought it was a nice set back then. Now I'm not a big user of the wall panels. And skeletons are all over the place. But the soldier is still nice.

Back then, I also thought the goofy surprise mechanism was a neat little trick.

Steve

[Count Blacktron]

Interesting set. I remember being excited that this little parts pack came out back in the day, but then not so interested in buying more than one after building it. The Skeleton was new back then, and I was a little disappointed how floppy the arms were (not so good for an army) but I loved the details (swords fit through the ribs). The knight figure was rather plain and didn't induce as much lust as other more armored warriors might have.

As the main model did have lots of parts, that was great for building Castle additions. The hard thing to do however was to add this model into the layout for the Royal Knight's Castle as the base plate left the design closed to this *object*. So in effect this little set becomes a guarded crypt for a Royal Knight's graveyard, which seemed to be out of LEGO-bounds back in the day.

Striking out on my own with MOC building I learned that the pre-fab Castle walls had some limitations so again I lost some interest in more than one of this set. It's a case of being just enough to get your attention, but lacking the details to hit home the love in this package. If it had just a couple of improvements or a third minifigure (like an archer) then it might rate higher, but in the time it came out it was a little above average. I have to also add that the Pirate sets coming out at the same time were FAR more attractive in parts and build most of the time.

Build: 6
Minifigures: 7
Parts: 6
Price: 7
I rate this set a 6.5 out of 10.

[gormadoc1]

A nice little set for any loving castle person. Good design but lacks pizaz so for these reasons i'll give it 7/10.
...gormadoc1

[JoshWedin]

A nice little set for any loving castle person. Good design but lacks pizaz so for these reasons i'll give it 7/10.
...gormadoc1

But you just gave it an 8/10 a few posts up. Methinks you need to tie a string around your finger to remind you when you've already commented in a review thread...

Josh

[Aliencat]

Good design but lacks pizaz

I'm sure this set will be right up your alley then

[outcast]

Good design but lacks pizaz

I'm sure this set will be right up your alley then

Jeez, thanks for making me hungry AC

I think this is a great set. average pieces but a great idea.

[Albatross_Viking]

I think this set is nice enough. Ive dont have it, and never had, but it looks like a good way of getting a skellie ( as other here have mentioned, the skeletons were something new and special at that time), a soldier, a goblet and some other maybe usefull stuff.

A_V

[rogue27]

The "surprise" is how stupid you realize this set is after you build it. Decent parts though. They should have re-worked it a bit and made it into a modular wall section to go with the good 80s sets they had apparently forgotten about when designing this.

I think the main selling point was the skeleton and those are so easy to get now that this set really doesn't have much appeal.