Lego's best castle set ever!

Discussion of official LEGO Castle Theme sets and products
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kelderic
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Post by kelderic »

plucky wrote:While 375 was the first Lego set I ever played with, and the entire '84 line was the first I owned (and therefore 6080 holds that special place), I'm shocked I haven't heard any love for the 'Blacks'! 6085 Black Monarch's Castle and 6086 Black Knight's Castle rocked! Rounded towers, horse barding, printed banners! Heck, 6086 is so cool that it rocks even WITH the raised baseplate it's built on!

-plucky
I agree with you. These two are great castles. Also great, of course, are the the Black Falcon castles.

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Jacob C.
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Post by Jacob C. »

When it comes down to set design and parts, Black Falcon's Fortress (6074) is the best castle set in my opinion.
King's Mountain Fortress (6081) and Black Knight's Castle (6086) are excellent as well.
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Horak the Great
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Post by Horak the Great »

I would have to say 6086 is among, if not the best Castle Lego has produced. I agree with all of the aforementioned Castles are among the best Lego has offered, with the exception of 375. Frankly, I really don't understand the hype behind 375/Yellow Castle. True, it is the first Lego Castle and it is rare (and has nostalgia value for some). IMHO, I think it's butt-ugly; chiefly because of the color scheme. What do people like about it? (Not a rhetorical question)
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Post by DARKspawn »

I actually meant to ellaborate in my first post but was rushed away before I could.

Regarding the Yellow Castle - 375

I think that it is completely brick-built & folds open are it's best qualities. It has an impressive amount of figs & although the colour scheme is not the best it has an interesting design as well. All those "new" castle parts made for fantastic replayability at the time. I think even the prefab walls of the castles crusaders time period reduced their replayability somewhat.

Not to mention that it was the castle that started it all - especially for me :)
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Post by Lord Felix »

6085 Black Monarch's Castle and 6086 Black Knight's Castle rocked! Rounded towers, horse barding, printed banners! Heck, 6086 is so cool that it rocks even WITH the raised baseplate it's built on!
These are two great castle sets, but, however, I would prefer them in grey, in other words, where black is, make it grey, and where grey is, make it black, just because there isn't enough grey wall pieces in my collection!
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Post by The Blue Knight »

Horak the Great wrote:I would have to say 6086 is among, if not the best Castle Lego has produced. I agree with all of the aforementioned Castles are among the best Lego has offered, with the exception of 375. Frankly, I really don't understand the hype behind 375/Yellow Castle. True, it is the first Lego Castle and it is rare (and has nostalgia value for some). IMHO, I think it's butt-ugly; chiefly because of the color scheme. What do people like about it? (Not a rhetorical question)
While it is certainly true that the 6075/375 that I got was my second castle set (Knight's Procession being the first) and therefore has substantial nostalgic value to me, that is not why I say it is the best. It comes down to 2 things; 1) brick built castle 2) Awesome figs.

1) I wasn't thrilled with the color, but the design was great. No juniorized pieces, no "prefab" wall pieces that the Falcon/Lion age had. It could be rebuilt into anything you wanted. True LEGO

2) The helmets, swords, lances and armor where like nothing LEGO had made before. Even the articulated minfig we now all know and love was fairly new. They were a bolt from the blue. The newer visor design is more accurate, but more bulky. It will be very difficult for LEGO to sneak up on us with such a revolutionary set. But it would be cool if they could.

My opinion is colored by my fond memories. And I like the second generation (Falcons/Lions) very much too.
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Post by Prince Imdol »

Well, I am glad there still selling some good things, but they're way too over priced!
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Post by Grrr »

My favourite is definately 6085 (and I am happy to say this considering I own all the castles between 1984 and 1995). I think the colour balance is awesome, and the old fold out castle walls just work so well to create an awesome looking structure. 6074 would follow a close second.

I may just have to try building 6085 in reverse colours as suggested above, the idea intrigues me.

The early raised base castles were good (although 6081 had far too few pieces for my liking), but they lacked the value of the old opening out castles. The modularity of castles of the era simply completed the picture.

It is with great enjoyment that I will setup a 5x5 grid of 32x32's, setup 6080 on one side and 6085 on the other and let the factions wage war. (both castles increased in size with the pieces cannibalised form all my other castles).

I am still waiting to get 375 - but am finding mainly incomplete sets coming up, and would rather not pay international prices for it.

I also find that the smaller sets like 6074, 6075 (wolfpack) and 6077 are greatly enjoyable for their play value, and fit nicely into the sides of the large battlefields. - Just need more trees and baseplates :).

6090 was in my opinion the biggest disappointment ever. I had wanted this set ever since I was a child, but upon building it found that it lacked the grandeur of some of the earlier castles. I think the lack of symmetry doesn't help, and it simply doesn't feel as complete as the other castles. It has a low back wall and the tower at the back right is lacking walls to protect the king.
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Post by Spongey »

I am particularly fond of Black Monarch's Castle and King's Castle. However, I think that all of these sets are wonderful, and that we should all raise a glass of New Year's champagne to the LEGO company for providing us with these masterworks.
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Post by Username »

Have to say my all-time favorite is the Black Falcon's Fortress (great design and it's one of the first sets I remember having).
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Post by Lord Bas »

6090
http://www.1000steine.com/brickset/images/6090-1.jpg

Although this was my first castle (and therfore I might be biased) I think this is the best one.

Royal knights aren't my favorite, but this set has a king, a ghost, a skeleton, 2 knights, 6 guards and 3 horses, which is indeed very royal.

The castle isn't as defendable as the earlier castles, but it has lots of things to do: A skeleton hidden in the floor, A dungeon, a trap in the throneroom, a ghost behind the doors, bridge, big doors and iron gate to defend it, a catapult, a secret way in etc.

And most important: It looks cool. A nice colourscheme, beautiful towers and not too much juniorization. 8)
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Post by leaf_of_lire »

My fav would probably have to be Camouflaged Outpost, so many Forestmen.
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Post by Legendary_Corsair »

I think the old designs are better and have better stuff.Now in days its completely different than those.I like the old ones a lot better. :?
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Master Syl
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Post by Master Syl »

Same for me ! New casttle are so ugly !
About colors, I have never been shocked by the yellow castle because, when it was released, yellow was the most adapted color to reproduce limestone. I live in France so I used to see castles made of limestone like Pierrefond or the ruins of Coucy.
Grey was great for granitic stone of course ! No, the only color I don't appreciate is black: have you ever seen a castle made of totally black stone ? That's good only for haunted manors in bad movies, no ?
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Post by Count Blacktron »

Personally, MOCs are best but if we're talking Official LEGO set designs I am partial to these:

1. 6081 King's Mountain Fortress

2. 6086 Black Knight's Castle

3. 6077 Forestmen's River Fortress

4. 6093 Flying Ninja Fortress

5. 6090 Royal Knight's Castle
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