Weekly Set Review: King Leo'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 6091/6098 King Leo’s Castle.

King Leo's Castle was released in 2000 for Knight's Kingdom. This castle has a gate tower with a portcullis and drawbridge, side towers, a throne room, and crossbow stations. King Leo, Queen Leonora, Princess Storm, a soldier, an archer, and a skeleton are included along with various accessories. Two Bull's soldiers attack the castle with their cannon.

[kajo163]

Well, hmm, it's a tricky one. Those half tower pieces with the windows are really not that good, juniorization at it's worst. That cannon thing i'nt that nice either... I like the baseplate though, it should be really easy to use in landscaping.

Rooftiles are always nice. Am I right if I remember there's a window painting part in there too? That on's really cool.

Great minifigs as is the case with all the KKI sets. King, queen, knight and the armoured princess. Very nice.

Still, it's one of the most unrealistic castles TLC ever produced, kind of moving towards the fairly tale kind of castle here.

Do'nt know how to grade it really...

-joel

[JoshWedin]

Okay, when this first came out, I hated it. My hatred has diminished but it still is not a good castle. It has some decent parts, decent figs, and a few rare parts but the design is terrible. What is its purpose? The majority of the castle is taken up by a giant throne room. The other "rooms" have no real point to them. A determined group of kindergarteners could take over this castle. It has no rear wall at all, except for the big cloth tapestry/sail piece. The baseplate is very difficult to use (not impossible, I have a few ideas that I may try out soon). Anyway, a good parts pack, not much else.

4/10 and that is only because of the parts.

Josh

[Maedhros]

It almost looks good from the front...... but that´s all. But it certainly has some really nice parts (the windowpainting, rooftiles and I do like these baseplates) and nice figs. I think the figs were by far the best part of the KKI. Hard to rate as mentioned before. Very nice parts and figs but as a castle it´s almost terrible.

[Graynar]

Hey guys.

Its similar in design towards the castle of Morcia. But I would choose Leo's castle over Morcia because of old light grey and the figs.

Ugly, juniorized, and ugly. Like most people said, there's a few good pieces buried in that thing. I always wanted that Lion cloth thing though, for a ship. And that stained glass window is cool.

Over all, 6 out of ten bricks. Now days, 7 out of ten bricks.

Graynar

[Sir Kohran]

I've never liked this set. The figs are very nice; it's true, but you can get all of them (aside from the Queen) in much cheaper KK1 sets, so I wouldn't buy it for figs. The building design is awful; even worse than the Castle of Morcia. (the Castle of Morcia at least tried to be more realistic) Some of the pieces, like the lion heads, are useful, but as with the figs, you can get them in other KK1 sets, so there's little point in buying this set at all.

4/10

- Matt

[Dragonlord Esq.]

I think this castle is on par defensively with the Belville crystal palace.

EDIT: I also don't like how the portcullis opens straight up into thin air. What a terrible design. There's no excuse for that except pure laziness and cynicism.

[lil Jon]

At least it sort of looks cool

...umm, nevermind. Well, it comes with the pointy visors but in black.

I don't like it, I don't really know what else to say

[Zacku]

I got it for my birthday in 2000. I *kinda* liked it. It stayed together for awhile until I used it for parts. It's a good parts and minifig source (Nifty sail thing), but not much else.

5/10

[GrayKnight]

I kind of liked this set. while it doesn't make a great castle with a few modifications it makes a great fortified outpost.

[Jojo]

Hello!


At least it came with the queen whose face is my all time favourite female minifig face.

Otherwise it's slightly better than the castle of Morcia, mainly because the bricks are old coloured.


Bye
Jojo

[Robin Hood]

Well this is one large castle set that I actually have. I was quite thrilled to get it, mainly because my horrible luck had prevented my from getting a castle before. So this was my first castle, my first HQ. I guess that makes me kinda biased, but I don't think so.

For pieces, this set is terrific. Most Kk1ers are great. And there is quite a nice selection of grey, plus a few odds and ends pieces. Then there is the baseplate. If you are into raised baseplates, this is a great one. Many of my castles have been built around this. Its great for finding inovated ways to build castles.

Design: Well I'll admit that it could be tweeked a bit..........Alright, the design sucks. To prevent it from being taken over by bad guys, I would always have to place it against a cliff, and hope that the bad guys were stupid enough not use the various holes situated around the building.

From the eyes of child (a 6-12 year old one) this would be a neat set. You have your bad guys with their evil cannon attacking brave King Leo in his castle. As far as kids go, I don't think the design is too bad.

Dan

[eNiGMa]

*bracing myself against CC laughter* I actually drooled over this set during its re-release in 2003. But, I had to choose between it and the Dragon Fortress.... I think I made the right choice!

The figs are great! I never got any KK1 sets, and I definitely missed out on the figs. Pieces... well, I like the lion heads and the stained glass window. The baseplate is alright; I actually kinda like it.

5/10

[Troy T. Moore]

KK1 enter the turret pieces! Juniorization I left this one on the shelf. The figs are decent as others have mentioned. Truth be told I don't like any of the "castle wall pieces" Bricks and arches are more versatile. I can use the 5 x 6 wall pieces for interior buildings and the like. However I cannot find a use for those turrets. Vladeks Dark Fortress has 5 x 6 wall panels, which will go with others in my collection and be useful. Things are looking up.

[Athos]

Blech...

Steve