Weekly Set Review: Skeleton Tower

[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 7093 Skeleton Tower.

Skeleton Tower was released in 2007 for the Skeletons. One brave knight comes to rescue the fair princess from the hanging bone cage. Two armed skeletons, a dragon, and an evil wizard defend the skull tower with its jaw drawbridge, towers, mini catapult, and lightning bolts.

[Aliencat]

I was pleasantly surprised by this set when I got it. I didn't expect it to be so neat!
As far as evil towers go, this has to be one of the best I've ever seen made out of LEGO. When I built it, it also turned out a lot bigger than I had expected from the pictures. Cool evil details like the skeleton cage and the spikes in the crenelations are awesome too
As far as the minifigs go, the damsel and necromancer are very cool. The knight and skeletons are more of the same but that's OK since they're cool too

All in all I'd call this an excellent set!

[Alex the Great]

I'm with AC, it is a great set. It was during my dark ages and got it for my birthday, probably the set that showed me the way out. I really liked the mouth of the skeleton closing and opening, I had lots of fun with this set.

[Papy.G]

When I saw it in stores, I was not totally out of my dark ages, and since it came very early, I assumed it was in the KKII line.
Anyway, it was too expensive for the building (I only judged upon that in these days), that i find not realistic, as silly as these skellies and the dragon...
I thought there had to be better sets in the line, but couldn't expect to see mainly goblins VS humans sets later on, and when I realized my error, I was unable to get one in any store. Same goes for the other mid-size Human VS Skellies set (with the brown horse), the battle at the pass is one I saw in these days that I regret too.
Today, I regret not getting it mainly for the figs wizard and princess first, knight and barded horse is just a little plus, then, for parts, such as the skeleton cage, chains and winding parts, then, black, and gray parts.
I don't remember how much it was in stores here, but even under today lights, it seems quite expensive just for the parts I'd like to get and wouldn't be able to get elsewhere.

[PJCountach]

This was my fifth castle set. It was my second Fantasy Era set. I was excited by the line after missing the late 80's and early 90's designs. Anyways. I bought this set for the princess, Necromancer, second Gen knight helm, and Electric pieces. When I finished the model it kind of freaked me out. I'm pretty sure that this is one of the top ten creepiest lego sets ever made.

Pros: Human figures
Force Lightning
Horse Barding
No Stickers
Creepy design

Cons: Yay more skeletons
Drawbridge doesn't raise very high

This set had a decent piece count. I prefer the old dragon design, but I liked the new dragons enough to actively collect them all. All in all this set was instrumental in making me want to buy the entire series, currently 1/3 incomplete.

[Peter de Yeule]

This is a neat medium range set but I think it was a bit too expensive for the numbers of brick inside. The design is cool
( especially the skeleton head ) and I used it on one of my creation ( with minor modification) to built the gate of my own skeleton tower. IMO, the skeleton is a cool faction and I have a couple of idea to use them in my MOC so I was glad to have some more when I bought this set. I could'nt care less for the dragon since it was put there for kids to had some play value.
I gave it a 3.5/5. Not the best set the line had to offer but neither the worse.

[Mr. Shiny & New]

I like this set a lot; my main complaint with this set is that the tower's walls aren't solid and the middle section isn't tall enough to be a proper floor. I think an extra handful of black bricks would have gone a long way toward making this set perfect. When I built this one I cannibalized the batmobile (the only source of bricks I had at hand at my workplace) to make the tower taller so that a minifig could stand in the middle and gaze out the "windows". Aside from that the only thing I didn't like was the skeleton figs; I hate their arms. They are too long and not pose-able. But that defect is not unique to this set.

[Count Blacktron]

I fell in love with this set the instant I saw it. There are so many elements that I can appreciate and point to classic mythology and modern fantasy for inspiration to this set. It may not be 100% complete, but isn't that the point of LEGO sets? To encourage you to take it home, build it, re-build it and add it to your ever growing creative endeavors.
So many unique and interesting character minifigures for this size of set, even the skeletons are not static!
The large and improved dragon character puts all those Dragon Master babies to shame, and is actually fun to build and use as a large figure/animal.
The most compelling feeling I get from this set is that which I felt reading Lloyd Alexander's The Horned King and The Black Cauldron and even to this day it runs chills up my spine. To have it done out in a LEGO Castle fashion is just like the best thing they could have done.
This set is a pure and biased 10 out of 10 for me.

[quaraga]

i liked this about 50-50 the figs are good and the design is nice but the dragon sucks and the ledge on the draw bridge gets in my way.

my 2cents,
T.R.

[Username]

This is a really neat set. Cool design, neat playability elements, great minifigs, and a dragon! The only thing I didn't like was that the interior 'shelf' thingy was bare. A barrel and treasure chest would have been good there.

[domboy]

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I REALLY like this set. In my opinion, this skull facade is the best and creepiest one Lego has designed yet (comparing mostly against pirate sets). Also, the way the jaw/drawbridge splits open down the middle reminds me of the Reaper vampires in Blade 2. Yikes!

I missed this set when it was in stores, but I really got on the fantasy bandwagon, especially the skeleton sets, so I HAD to get this one (fortunately managed to find it on Ebay for a very reasonable price). I love all the bones! I think the fantasy line dragons are really cool, so another reason I had to get it (collect all three...). Some think the tower is under-built, but I'm happy with it. Again, great set!

[Formendacil]

Skeleton Tower was the first *set* that I acquired of the Castle 2007-2009 line, after a few of the army-builders, and was the set that sold me--convincing me that Castle was not just back, it was golden again. I had previously been pleased with the return of normal swords, normal helms, nice heraldry, etc, after the KK2 years, but I wasn't convinced that this was an awesome line of sets until I got Skeleton Tower.

I was a bit trepidatious at first, because--like Aliencat--I didn't think it was as big as it was, from the outside, and thought it was a bit over-priced. I don't think I was the only one--of the 2007 released Castle sets, Skeleton Tower was consistently the last one in stock in any Alberta TRU, that I saw. However, I wanted a biggish new Castle set, and since I wasn't sold on the line I wasn't quite willing to make the jump to King's Castle Siege, and in any case the princess looked hot, and I wanted her, the sorcerer, and one of those cool silver-themed bardings (the gold-themed ones with the Joust are nice, but not as nice as the silver). So I bought it.

A very pleasant surprise indeed. Count Blacktron is quite right about the skull being quite possibly Lego's best effort in the skull-department (a department they have explored alarmingly often, if you think about it--skulls?), and the whole tower has a lot more bricks than I was expecting, and is actually a quite cool model. Not only that, but I was also really surprised at how cool the dragon was. I'm a big fan of the Viking dragons, and from the pictures I thought this dragon was much too cartoonish, and Duplo-esque. Well, I changed my mind on that one, and am at least as fond of these new dragons as the old Dragon Master ones, and possibly not far off the Vikings'.

So, all in all, an excellent set--I still have the main model built, which is not something all my sets--especially the new ones--can claim. I'm not sure I'd want a second--though it's got a lot of nice brick--due to not wanting to duplicate the sorcerer and princess, and because a second dragon would be superfluous--but I'm quite glad I have at least one.

Parts: 8.5/10
Playability: 9.5/10
Figs/Accessories: 9.5/10
Design (contextual): 10/10
Design (universal): 9/10
Nostalgia: 9/10

Overall Score: 9.25/10 (A+--I don't even know if I've given one of those out yet)

[DraconisTerrena]

I liked this set; my wife got it for me when it came out. It was also part of the theme that revitalized my interest in Legos, so I have a soft spot for it.
Given the obvious fantasy-based appearance, I can see why some people don't care for it, but I don't mind the fantasy look. It was meant to be a fatasy set, and it's a very good example of that. I actually bought a second one for parts.

[Robin Hood]

As others have said, a great set from the year.

Parts:
Obviously a good selection, espically in the figs. The princess, the sorcerer, the knight, and the dragon make it very worthwhile. Nothing else espically noteworthy, but a decent assortment of bricks.

Design:
Pretty decent. The skeleton jaw as the drawbridge is very inspired, I espically like the chains coming out of the eyes. The tooth pieces help keep the bone theme in the whole tower. The cage is well built, even if it's location is a bit off. Of course, they added a catapult, which is always a con, but at least they kept it small and relatively out of sight. I could have lived without technic pieces holding the little towers on though.

Playablity:
Top notch. All you could ask for in a set this price range. A bigish building, a nice assortment of bad guys, with a good guy whose clear purpose is to rescue the princess. You can never go wrong with the classics.

Dan

[Athos]

I could have lived without technic pieces holding the little towers on though.

I'm getting quite tired of that technique being used in so many sets. It feels like a cheap shortcut to me.

Steve