Weekly Set Review: Royal King's Castle

[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 10176 Royal King's Castle.

Royal King's Castle was released in 2006 as a Shop at Home exclusive for Knight's Kingdom. This castle has four towers, a central gate tower, a drawbridge and portcullis, a wizard's room, a jail, side stairs, and catapults.

The King, Wizard, lion knight, two spearmen, and one crossbowman defend the castle from an attacking Bull Knight, armored Bull siege worker, and their siege cart. Two skeletons, a blacksmith and his forge, a dog, and a new green glow in the dark ghost are included along with treasure, weapons, and various accessories. All shields and flags have Lion and Bull stickers which are unique to this set.

[wunztwice]

Hmm. I'm not really a fan of this set. First of all, the bulk of it is made out of large parts (those chunky tower/wall parts I can't make myself use). The blue roofs bother me (not the blue, but the part usage!) and the openess of the castle (ie no walls all the way around it) make it less than a castle for me.

I do love the inclusion of the dog and the blacksmith. Here is one fellow who is not directly a soldier, it seems a half-hearted attempt to give us a civi-fig.

So, while not all bad, it's not one I considered buying at all. I can pick up the dog at bricklink or ebay and the dwarf/blacksmith is easily constructed using normal parts, there is no special torso here. The blank shields are nice, but overall the parts of this set don't really warrent my purchase. The new castle line put this to shame!

[Spongey]

Definitely one of the lowest points of LEGO Castle. The colour combination is bordering gaudy. The raised baseplate is liked by some, but personally, I don't like it. The worst part has to be the large pieces, that make this almost a DUPLO style castle. I believe that some of the KKII sets like Vladek's Dark Fortress are better than this set, and that's saying a lot. Let's hope for something considerably better in the new castle line.

[Sir Kohran]

Whilst the structure is pretty terrible, the large number of figs and accessories more than makes up for that. Also, the blacksmith is an addition that's been a long time coming.

8/10, because I got it for Christmas

[Knight David]

I have to agree with 'Spongey' that the raised baseplate is liked by some, but personally, I don't like it. It has some good aspects, it has good mini figs like the ghost and soilders. I will not complane though, it is worth considering buying. I do agree that the new castle range dose put this to shame!!

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Visit my MOC's at:
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=DtK-300


Keep building,
Knight David.

[Old_School_Fan]

While I don't like any castle with a raised baseplate, this is probably the best of the lot. You have a detailed underground area, and a castle that includes the aspect of facing backwards is terrific. There are so many great accessories that I might have purchased this for those alone. The color scheme doesn't bother me at all, and I actually like the bright blue roofs atop the dull gray walls. Something else I greatly enjoyed was the inclusion of little rooms, some with secret surprises. This is certainly one of my favorite castles of today, my only problem being the lack of an acceptable opposing army.

[Patron of the lego]

Insteresting fact but there are more troops than you see! There actually 12. Also in the time of 1997 to 2004 this was the one good raised baseplate set. It has a lot of pieces that were once considered rare also. But it reminds of 6091 not 6090! 10/10
I am leniet to all lego sets gooday to all

[supernova]

Hmm does (any one) actually have the set? I think it was the best big castle set since royal knights in 1995 (I own 6098 and the construction is terrible), maybe with the exception of vladek's castle, but the price point is just too high to justify buying it. And the stickers are annoying too.

I'd love to see some1 owning the set to give their opinion, as it would be more accurate than the rest of us who only saw brickshelf pictures

[C0M3_GeT_5OME]

i didnt actually mind this set too much as it has a good amount of minifigs and the blacksmith is a cool idea. This set was definitly better than 6098 (which the only reason i bought was cause i got it for NZ$60). the only thing i didnt really llike about this set was the stickers.

[Old_School_Fan]

Hmm does (any one) actually have the set? I think it was the best big castle set since royal knights in 1995 (I own 6098 and the construction is terrible), maybe with the exception of vladek's castle, but the price point is just too high to justify buying it. And the stickers are annoying too.

I'd love to see some1 owning the set to give their opinion, as it would be more accurate than the rest of us who only saw brickshelf pictures

Yes I have it. Hopefully that gives my review some credibility.

[Hob Took]

I didn't like the raised base plates or the large pieces that came with many of the castles. The stickers are also annoying. If you look at the ghost it has yellow hands, why couldn't they just have put on white hands? The only really good point of this set is the amount of figs and accessories.

[architect]

I also own this set.

I like these things:

I like that it has rooms for specialized figures such as the wizard and blacksmith. The figure selection (including a new ghost only found in this set) is nice. I do prefer this castle to all of the other modular tower raised baseplate castles (6091/6098 and 8781). The brick selection is pretty good for this type of castle. It actually does have short walls built in between the towers. The dead skeleton hanging on the wall is very cool. I also like the pit jail which reminds me of pirate sets.

Here are the things I do not like:

I have never been a fan of this type of raised baseplate. It worked well for Adventurers but not for Castle. There are too many large wall pieces including the ever dreaded 4x3x5 wall/turret panel. It has blue roof peaks again! What is the deal with all of the 1x2 3 sided 45 degree roof peak bricks placed everywhere? Those look goofy (and still do on the latest castle).

Overall this is a very good version of a castle built on this type of plate. However, I prefer more useful raised baseplates (6081,6086) or modular castles built on actual plates (6080, 6074, 6085, etc).

Ben

[Rusty Brick]

I received this castle for my birthday recently and have not yet built it. I agree with most everyone that this raised base plate is not desirable and I really don't like the sticker shields--I'm afraid they won't match up with the old Bull and Lion shields of KKI.

However, I like the overall look to it (somehow it reminds me of 6090 more than 6091, and since 6090 is my personal favorite castle that's a big plus!) Most of all, I'm really not excited about the 2007 evil faction (what am I going to do with all those skeletons?) So any set that has a realistic feeling evil faction is okay for me. Not the best, but a step in the right direction.

7/10

[Matt BeDar]

Personally, I like the raised base plate. It adds to the look of a castle built on a hill (which is historically acurate as castles were built on hills so as the occupants had a clear view of the surronding countryside).I also like the fact that there is a black smith included.

What I don't like is that there is no decent opposing army.

I would give this set 8/10 at best, 7/10 at worst.
So, 7.5/10.

[ericgizmo]

I dont really care for this set. when i first saw it it didnt look so good. i extremly agree with wunztwice. the stickers are very annoying i wish they would have them on before you buy them. i cant wait for castle 2007 i have $125 just need some more before i can get them all .that be easy becasue my birthday day is coming up before they are out wooooot!

Sorry about that