Set review - 7091 - Knights' Catapult Defense

plucky · Post by **plucky** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 1:09 am

7091
Castle System / Crown Knights
Knights’ Catapult Defense
La catapulte des chevaliers
Catapulta de Defensa de los Caballeros

Ages 6-12, 123 Pcs. 2007<date(s)>. 20 page manual: 1 (1 catapult and 1 barricade) models, 41 steps. Building time ~13 minutes

Price Range: $9.99-11.99 USD

RATINGS (Scale: Must-Have Excellent Very-Good Good Fair Poor)
Set: Excellent / Models: Very-Good / Playability: Very-Good

DECALS? No

SET DESCRIPTION
Fire the catapult and defend against the evil attackers! The good knights launch giant boulders at the skeleton warriors’ barricades. Who will win the battle? A black and a white skeleton hide behind their red and black spiked barricade while the two good nights, decked in their royal blue and gold colors, fire their catapult, also decked out in their colors.

SPECIAL ELEMENTS
After reviewing the Crossbow Attack and Final Joust, there aren’t many new pieces in this set. The Crown Knights heater shield and dark stone boulder are the two parts I can pick out.

IMPRESSION
I was surprised by how much I liked this set, even after putting together the other small sets in the line. At first I thought I would hate the barricade as ‘fluff’, but after putting it together, I rather like it! Red and black always make a nice color combination, and the mi of spears and claws on the front give it a nice imposing look. I think it would be impressive to see a whole field full of these, with skeletal archers hidden behind them! The white skeletal crossbowman looks nice in his sparkly shadow knights’ helmet. The black skeleton is fine on his own, but is armed with two elements I don’t really like, the flail and skull pattern buckler. The skull patterned ovoid shield attached to the front of the barricade is still lovely.

The catapult itself is nice. I like that it is on a turntable, and I prefer this barrel bucket to most other implementations so far, like the 1x8 plate with giant bucket attached, or its smaller cousin, or the excavator bucket (used in my favorite, the Twin Arm Launcher). It is still not a perfect solution, but it is one of the best so far! The push style launcher has an effective range of about two feet, after which you risk smashing the catapult in an attempt to fire further. Decorations for the catapult are simple, using tons of pearl gold peaks (there’s no shortage of those in this line, now if only we had pearl gold roof pieces to use them with?), and lack a flag, but with the catapults compact design, a flag may look out of place anyway.

Looking back at all the past catapults, this one ranks pretty high. Maybe that is because most catapults of the past have been ugly little excuses to package a couple parts, but even compared to my two favorites (the Twin Arm Launcher and the Black Falcons’ “Catapult”), this one stacks up pretty well!

The two knights manning the catapult look swell in their navy blue and gold, and the shield one has swiped off the catapult is pretty cool too. I still like the metallic silver Norman style helmets, both in form and in color. Hopefully they’ll wear as well as standard colors!

CONCLUSION
So far, I think this is my favorite set of the line. It may not have skeletal horses (which I don’t really like anyway, though I like the idea of them), or fancy printed Euro armor, or cool barding, but it still packs a punch. A nice catapult, a cool barricade, 2 skeletons and 2 good knights with nice armament is pretty nice! The only things I would really want to change would be the flail and buckler, but the inclusion of the ovoid shield makes up for the buckler, and the black skeleton could always toss the flail to grab one of the spears off the barricade if need be!

Mirage · Post by **Mirage** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:58 am

ah I just picked up this set today well errr yesterday now I guess since its early morning. 4 figures at this price was a great deal and they didnt hesistate on giving us the cool accesories that are usually kept for larger sets. The catapult is pretty effective range wise as you said. I'm still not exactly sold on its look, it feels like its a bit bare or maybe its the wheels. But anyway new shields, flail, both black and white skeletons etc etc etc I guess I cant really complain on this one. Oh yes and I really like the barricade design. It would be pretty neat to pick up a few of these and extend the barricade or somehow incorporate it into the necromancers castle.

EDIT: Oops I forgot it didnt have a skeleton horse i guess that came in the other one i bought.

Rusty Brick · Post by **Rusty Brick** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 2:30 pm

Thanks for doing this review! I'm trying to figure out what mix of the smaller sets I want to buy for my castle 07 army. I think that this catapult set will be the corner stone of my collection—it has the shields and my favorite figs of the line.

Brickzone · Post by **Brickzone** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 3:44 pm

I think this is my favorite of the small sets. I think even the simple barricade is indeed done well, it isn't complicated yet just gives a good impression. It reminds me of barricades manned by undead (or other enemies/creatures) in such themed computer games.

The catapult is very smart I think, well designed and practical. The bricks are useful too, those three 4x6 redbrown plates, the tall navy slopes and round redbrown wheel bricks.

The knights are great, the helm is my favorite and great in the new colour. The shield emblem is great too. Although the idea of having four shields in the box is nice, it seems more realistic that the knights just have a shield each that's put on the catapult when not in use.

I like the helmet that the white skellie has - I think it would be great if all the white skellies had this. For whatever reason it doesn't look as good on the black skellie.

Odysseus · Post by **Odysseus** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 4:24 pm

I just finished putting this set together. I also like it very much. The weapon and minifig assortment alone make it a worthwhile purchase. I was surprised by how flexible the swords blade are is the pearl sword, and I actually thought it was harder to put the sword into the soldier's hand because of the flex. I like the idea of a swiveling catapult, but I don't think it works well. You need to hold the catapult in place even for the gentlest of launches (or at least I do). Overall, though, the set is fun, has great pieces and minifigs, and a nice color scheme. This is another great entry into the 2007 Castle line-up. I can't wait to get ahold of the King's Castle Siege!

Jonathan

Post by **Athos** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 5:34 pm

I don't have this set (yet), but from the pictures I thought the barricade looked good too. Looked like a hastily thrown together structure, just like I'd expect to see on a battle field... though it probably wouldn't stand up to a catapult throwing a rock like that...

Steve

Paradosis · Post by **Paradosis** » Thu Jul 12, 2007 6:00 pm

I bought this set and enjoyed it as well. I modified the actual catapult slightly, so that it doesn't shoot quite as highly, but shoots about twice as far (after rolling). Not practical for siege purposes, but if you're going to fire it into lines of enemy men, a giant rolling stone is always fun!

Jibbajaba · Post by **Jibbajaba** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 1:01 am

I bought this set last night for $11.99 at TRU. I was looking for the Crossbow Attack set, but they were sold out. (I ordered one from Lego but it won't be here until late next month at the earliest.) I was really itching to buy one of the new castle sets, so I chose this one over The Final Joust because I thought it had cooler pieces. Once I put it together, I didn't really like it because it doesn't fit in with my classic stuff, but after a few small modifications I think it looks pretty good.

I took off all of those little gold sloped pieces and replaced the dark blue slanted pieces with old light grey ones. I also took the shields off and replaced them with Dragon's shields. (Notice what I did with the shields that came with the set. I think it looks pretty good!) I was thinking about throwing a small red or blue flag (or both stacked on a small grey antenna) on it but I thought that might be a bit much.

I don't really care for the skeleton stuff so I suppose I paid too much for this set, but I think it is pretty neat. $11.99 for just the catapult and 2 dudes is a bit much, but I was able to use some of the pieces of the skeleton shield for something else. The Twin Arm Launcher is the best Lego catapult ever made though, so everything else is always going to pale in comparison.

Chris

kelderic · Post by **kelderic** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 2:45 am

Plucky, thank you for the very nice review. I personally really like this set, although I don't have it yet. I will hopefully be making a trip to the nearest TRU (half an hour away) sometime in the next week.

Jibbajaba, welcome to CC. That castle is the background of your picture looks pretty cool, maybe you will post more pictures of it?

Kelderic

Jibbajaba · Post by **Jibbajaba** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 3:11 am

kelderic wrote:
Jibbajaba, welcome to CC. That castle is the background of your picture looks pretty cool, maybe you will post more pictures of it?

Kelderic

Thanks, but it is just the Black Monarch's Castle with a few cosmetic upgrades. Once I get finished adding stuff to it, I'll post some pics though.

Chris

Blue Monarch · Post by **Blue Monarch** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:16 pm

I personally really like this set. They fit perfectly behind castle walls and free up the walls for archers. I will spend more on the crossbow attack before even thinking about another two catapults.

Blue Monarch · Post by **Blue Monarch** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 11:17 pm

Jibbajaba wrote:
kelderic wrote:
Jibbajaba, welcome to CC. That castle is the background of your picture looks pretty cool, maybe you will post more pictures of it?

Kelderic
Thanks, but it is just the Black Monarch's Castle with a few cosmetic upgrades. Once I get finished adding stuff to it, I'll post some pics though.

Chris

Sigh, my favorite castle. I have to get this back. I don't know why I gave it to my little cousins many years ago.