Weekly Set Review: Dacta Castle Set

[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 9376 Dacta Castle Set.

The LEGO Dacta Castle Set was released in 1997 and sold to educators. It contains two copies each of Willa the Witch, Bat Lord, Fright Knight, Royal Knight, skeleton, and ghost. A variety of castle wall pieces, arches, various accessories, and a dragon are included.

[Formendacil]

Gosh I wish I had that set...

A Castle expander pack with Royal Knights and Fright Knights- my favourite good guys and my prefered bad guys (as bad guys).

The selection of parts is pretty good, although I would recommend a Creator bucket full of basic bricks to go with it. The figs are okay- although the choice of Willa and the King (and TWO of each) smacks of idiocity. Still, I'd love to have this set...

Parts: 7/10
Playability: 5.5/10
Figs/Accessories: 6/10
Design (then): 6/10
Design (now): 7/10
Nostalgia: 9/10

Overall Score: 6.75/10

A rather low score, actually, but I guess the whole reason for my gushing is reflecting in my scoring- nostalgia.

[Damien]

I disagree that the inclusion of two witches and two kings smacks of idiocy. In theory, that would be correct. But one must remember this set was meant for educators. You try telling little Timmy and Jimmy that only one of them gets to be the King.


In any event, I would have loved to get this set when it came out. Excellent extra pieces and figs. I mean..what is it -- 14 figures (counting ghosts and skeletons as figs), four horses, a dragon, a bunch of accessories, treasure chests, walls, a jail door.. etc. All around it's a great collection-expander for AFOLs and younger collectors as well. And of course, it serves its intended purpose very well -- a funny bunch of crap to throw in a bucket and let the kids dig around in during play-time.

Would have been better with the inclusion of more 'normal' bricks to build the castle pieces ONTO, and a slightly better variety of figures. Maybe even another dragon.

Excellent set. 9/10.

[The Hordesman]

Excellent set, as Damien said, the clones are because of its original purpose. Tons of peices. Is there any instructions at all? The big red tower pieces seems very interesting.

The only thing I dont like are the yellow "cloud pieces" and the yellow arch, but who cares about that small stuff anyways?

[Nick]

The castle itself doesn't seem to be so good, but had many useful parts. As for minifigs and accessories, this is a wonderful set! So many good parts... I wouldn't keep this set intact, however. Instead, I'd take it apart for fodder, and use minifigs and accessories for other Lego castle sets, which lack in these.
Parts: 9/10
Playability: 2/10
Figs/Accessories: 10/10
Design: 1/10
Nostalgia: 4/10 (not zero because of many old parts and minifgs)

Overall Score: 5.2

[Luís]

Exelent set, Sharing the place 1ºst place when it comes to castle figures( with the classic yellow castle).

Parts: 10/10
Playability: 10/10
Figs/Accessories:10 /10
Design (then): 10/10 (For it's purposes)
Design (now): 10/10
Nostalgia: 10/10

Overall Score: Perfect 10/10

P.S.-Here is Formendancil's tabel of evaluation, wich I used, with different results.

Parts: /10
Playability: /10
Figs/Accessories: /10
Design (then): /10
Design (now): /10
Nostalgia: /10

Overall Score: /10

[Jojo]

Hello!


This set is quite good for some parts and quite bad for models. Half of the parts, however, ain't too great, either. The already named yellow parts in this pack are really dispensable, on the other hand it comes with big doors and with the large black corner walls that other than in this Dacta Castle set only appear in the Royal Knights 'Saxondale' Castle 6090. Also the peculiar dark grey double corner that appears in the Batlord's Castle 6097 ist part of the Dacta set.

Actually I don't even see what's this set's purpose, in terms of education. It's certainly not meant to be used for History lessons, for architectural education either (considering the poorness of the models in the instructions), nor for any kind of Ethics/Social Science/whatever. The only purpose may be keeping the kids entertained...

Since this set is meant to be used (for whatever educational goal) in schools it doesn't come with small parts like helmet feathers. They would be lost in an instant anyway.
The instructions are just two sheets of photographed (as in not drawn) tutorials to assemble some of the included parts to some very very bad models that are even worse than any KK2 set.

In a nutshell: I tthink this set isn't great at all.


Bye
Jojo

[JoshWedin]

I have always thought this was an interesting set. But I think the nostalgia involved (unless you had this in your classroom) is in its rarity. Because the set itself isn't that great. But it is hard to get. However, if this was on a store shelf I don't think it would sell very well. The "models" aren't very good, etc. It does have unusual pieces but you can get them elsewhere. So, anyway, not much there, but interesting nonetheless.

Josh

[kajo163]

Hmm, I did'nt really know this set existed until it was first mentioned here some time ago. It seems like one of those sets that daycare centers and such buy for the kids to play with, I would´nt think that a primary school or the like would buy this type of set (or any other lego) so the educational value is probably low, I guess also that the reason there are double copies of the "coolest" figs (Willa and Batlord) is that the kids won't fight over them

I do'nt know what to say about it, I guess it could be cool to own it, it's pretty big with a good selection of parts and figs.

joel

[Shadow]

Wow... this set is quite a doozy! If it were available for sale I'd buy it. It looks like a great weaponry builder as well as some great pieces and figs.

[Robin Hood]

Ah, to be so lucky as to have this set. Admitedly it has some less than wanted stuff, like two Willas and all those large pieces, but hey, still a great set.

The amount of good pieces is a huge percentage of the set. Not only does one get a dragon, four horses, and various weapons and dudes, but you get those conical pieces and (if you are into them) a fair few wall/door pieces.

Not much to say on the design (considering there is none).

All in all, a very good set.

Dan

[Norro]

Not much of a set but if it appeared in a large 'grab bag' I think it would be an ideal 'castle exclusive pieces' buy. I've often thought Lego should make theme exclusive grab bags full of the larger pieces that only come in that line...(more for kids than people who have abandoned the wall pieces.)

God Bless,

Nathan

[lil Jon]

Oh wow, and to think I thought architect was going to run out of sets to do these reviews on

This set is great, I think it went for a hefty price though. But it's nothing but great piece selections!

If I had the chance, I would have bought it.

[CAI]

Wow Is that the official display picture?. It looks like some one had a crumpled castle in a box and dumped it on the table...the minifigs all made it on there feet.

I wonder what this cost....has a nice few minifigs and horses.

[Wilod King]

Though I wouldn't really call this a set I would love to have this mass of figures and castle pieces. Again, as mentioned before, I wouldn't really use the yellow pieces. The figs were in my castle dark ages, I have none (because)' I was either into space sets, or video games at this point. I'd really like the weapons and large barrels, the stuff in this "set" that I don't have and are harder to come by. I like it, I love it, I want some of it.