Weekly Set Review: Night Lord's Castle

Post by **architect** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 6:24 am

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 6097 Night Lord's Castle.

Night Lord's Castle was released in 1997 for the Fright Knights. This castle has a main gate with a portcullis, several side entrances, a trap door, and a cauldron to drop rocks on invaders. The tower has a jail and magic telescope/laser for Willa the witch. Two Fright Knights, a soldier, an archer, a skeleton, a dragon, a Royal Knight prisoner, and various accessories are included.

Post by **Formendacil** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 6:35 am

Great parts pack! Lots of nice figs (I like them, anyway).

As for the design itself... it's functional, and playable, if quite ugly. Still, it beats the other Fright Knight castle hands down, and looks almost defensible.

Pity this set had to come with a witch...

Parts: 8/10
Playability: 7.5/10
Figs/Accessories: 7.5/10
Design (contemporary): 7/10
Design (universal) 6.5/10
Nostalgia: 7/10

Overall Score: 7.25/10 (B-)

Sir Kohran · Post by **Sir Kohran** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 6:36 am

Despite what others might say, I actually sort of liked this set, considering what an awful line it came from. It's the only really evil fortress in Castle so far, with the possible exception of the Fire Breathing Fortress for Majisto, and the forthcoming Dark Fortress for Vladek. It was a fairly solid castle, and some useful minifigs. Though why there's a Royal Knight there I don't know. Still, it was a neat past reference, which I wish we could have seen more of.

8/10

ezehogan · Post by **ezehogan** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 6:39 am

Lousy castle, but great for parts. I love the fact that it isn't on a raised base plate and it comes with some great window pieces. I wouldn't buy it for the set itself though.

2 of 10 for design.

7 of 10 for pieces.

The Hordesman · Post by **The Hordesman** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 6:47 am

My typical review:
(I never had it myself, but Ive seen it on displays, so right me if I miss something)

+
Flag
Nice soldiers
These days, many soldiers
A Royal Guard
Barding!!
Ok tower top design
Many shields
No catapult!
Grey castle
A skelly
Telescope is a nice idea

-
Willa the Witch
Enemies consists of one brave soldier...
Ugly set design
"Magic" tower transportation
I never liked the "Halloween" style
The wall has huge holes in it
Raised baseplate!!

3/5, not so bad for a Fright Knight set, but it lacks enemies like all other FK sets, and has many things that bugs me, yes, Willa The UWOABS(Useless Waste Of ABS) is included. I like the fact that the most evil faction has grey castles, good for realistic castle builders? The tower top is quite cool, by my opinion. Also, the FK torso designs and an extra Bat Lord is allways useful.

Jojo · Post by **Jojo** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 1:14 pm

Hello!

Surprisingly I like this set. It's far from anything historicaly correct, if that's a matching criteria for LEGO at all. However, it's an unique design, not predetermined by any ugly raised baseplate, different from any castle design they had done before. In some way it perfectly fits the Dracula-ish feeling about the Batlord theme.

On the other hand it shows the first sign of juniorisation, there are hardly two parts of the same colour touching each other. At least most if not all of the parts are good and useful: Many grey parts, brown doors, rounded top windows, green baseplates. I also like the grey figs in the Batlord theme.

In my as always relatively humble opinion it's not a disadvantage that there is only one enemy soldier in this set. Granted they (TLC) only add so many figs to a set any extra enemy fig would cut off the original garrison of a castle.

Also I don't know why everybody hates Willa. You get a black wizard's hat, a black 60° slope, a female torso and ... well... some not-always-useful head. Anyway.

Bye
Jojo

Scnicker · Post by **Scnicker** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:36 pm

I have a chance to buy a really well kept, mint version of this set. Should I?
It's around 100 bucks, but it's in the best condition possible.

Post by **JoshWedin** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:46 pm

Scnicker wrote:I have a chance to buy a really well kept, mint version of this set. Should I?
It's around 100 bucks, but it's in the best condition possible.

Well...there is one on Ebay right now, from an adult collector, it says mint...with a current bid price of 15.50.

You know, I hate to admit it, but I am coming around to almost liking the Fright Knights. At least as MOCfodder. They have some very useful torsos, heads, pieces, etc. I have even found a use for Willa's head.

Now about this set. I never got it, but I think it was partially there in one of my big Ebay lots because I have all of the unusual pieces that come with this. Looking at the pics, it is not a horrible design. It is ugly but at least it has a wall all the way around. It was the worst castle to date but compared to what came after, its not too bad.

However, there is one thing that has always confused me about this set. It is this piece http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/30100 . It only comes in this set and could be rather useful at times. Now it has the same footprint as two of these http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/2345 , so the only unique thing is the window, right? Well, in this set, they cover up the window! So why did they even bother molding a new piece if they were just going to cover it up!?

That has always seemed weird to me...any thoughts on this?

Josh

PS. This set comes with my favorite barding. It is the only barding that has no heraldric symbols at all...you can use it for anyone!

Post by **architect** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:53 pm

However, there is one thing that has always confused me about this set. It is this piece http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/30100 . It only comes in this set (I only have one) and could be rather useful at times. Now it has the same footprint as two of these http://www.peeron.com/inv/parts/2345 , so the only unique thing is the window, right? Well, in this set, they cover up the window! So why did they even bother molding a new piece if they were just going to cover it up!? That has always seemed weird to me...any thoughts on this?

The piece was also used in a dacta Fright Knights set. But it is unusual that LEGO would not use the piece again in other sets. You make a good point about the piece being covered. But how often did FK designs make sense?

My review:

I must admit I was skeptical about the merits of this set before I owned it. But once I got it I really enjoyed the pieces and scale of the castle along with some of the design aspects including the boiling oil, side entrances, and jail. I could live without the magic telescope laser beam contraption though.

Ben

Post by **JoshWedin** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:00 pm

architect wrote:The piece was also used in a dacta Fright Knights set. But it is unusual that LEGO would not use the piece again in other sets. You make a good point about the piece being covered. But how often did FK designs make sense?

Ben

You know I thought it came in that Dacta set, but Peeron doesn't list it so I assumed I was wrong. Should have done more research. It is weird that Lego didn't ever use this piece again. It could have its uses but you are right about Fright Knight designs not making sense. Maybe it was an old window in the castle and the Batlord wanted it bricked up.

Josh

PS. I should probably build this and see how I like the design.

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:13 pm

Better than you might think - no raised baseplate, and lots of useful parts. The latter is important because if you don't like the castle design (which is so-so at best, but not terrible except for Willa's tower) you have lots of material to work with. Last I saw you can still pick this up relatively cheap off eBay, even in a sealed box, and remember, it's old gray! 6/10.

***********

I like to go back to my ratings I gave for sets on Lugnet and compare to see if I was consistent (yup, gave it a 60 out of 100), but I thought I'd give a link to the comments of the set:

http://guide.lugnet.com/set/mdata.cgi?q=6097_1&v=n

Post by **architect** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:14 pm

You know I thought it came in that Dacta set, but Peeron doesn't list it so I assumed I was wrong.

More proof that peeron is not infallible

http://www.classic-castle.com/bene/9376parts.jpg
edited to make link work

You can see the piece in one of the sealed bags. (No this isnt my set but I wish I had one like it).

PS. I should probably build this and see how I like the design.

Everyone should build Night Lord's Castle to see if they like the design. Even with some features I dont like, there are a few nice ones.

Ben

Webrain · Post by **Webrain** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:15 pm

As others said I like that set really
I have some problems with the baseplate which is brick size and not plate
but it's became normal nowadays - sigh
they made an endless narrow tower that also bugs me a bit
but over all the caslte looks decent and frighting enough
got a lot of bricks compare to most of the other castles
it's the tallest one no doubt
and got some modularity which is great (10 years almost after the previous modularty castle)

Anyway about the weird wall piece I think it's a previous mold of something that became to be the new wall piece in set 6098. Maybe they try to use it and change it over the time.

Overall: 8/10

eNiGMa · Post by **eNiGMa** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 4:33 pm

I got this set for my 8th birthday, and I must say I love it to this day. It's ugly, but the pieces are very useful. There's even a lot of 1x2 grays! The Royal Knight prisoner in this set is one of only two I own, so it's useful there, I guess. All the figs are great, except for Willa. Throw in the two horses with that (and one of them's brown!), and you've got a pretty decent set.

7/10

Norro · Post by **Norro** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 4:41 pm

At the time I took one look at the 'Fright Knights' theme and said 'righttttt....' Then I went and bought other lego lines. As a result I onle have the littlest catapult from the line. Looking back they would probably have been good for pieces. Looking back after the grey change they would definately be useful for pieces : )

God Bless,

Nathan