Weekly Set Review: Royal Knight's Castle

Post by **architect** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:05 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 6090 Royal Knight's Castle.

Royal Knight's Castle was released in 1995. This castle has two gate towers, one with doors and a portcullis and another with a drawbridge. The set also has an archer tower, a defensive catapult, a jail, a secret entrance, a trap door, a well and a shed. Two archers, two soldiers, two knights, the King, a ghost, and a skeleton are included with various accessories.

wunztwice · Post by **wunztwice** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:26 am

Ah Ha! My very first big castle! I remember staying up late building it and getting caught by my mom. I thought it was great then. The only thing that really bothered me about it was the stairs in the back were only one brick thick, not wide enough for a fig. I thought the trap door in the king's room thing was cool too.

Now I can see some other bigger problems with it, including the weak points in it's deffences. However it's still perdy good. I remeber the trap door jsut inside the gate where a skeleton popped up, and the well in the middle of it. (my first 'macaroni' pieces) I love the octagonal pillars and still use them all the time. It helped bulk up my army of figs, and has provided alot of usefull bricks.

The selection and amount of bricks puts recent sets to shame, however not quite as good as the older sets. This set will always have a soft spot in my heart, and I really do think its a good set. Couple it with the 6067 drawbridge and the 6036 Skeleton surprise (which I did) and it looks perdy dern good!

eNiGMa · Post by **eNiGMa** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 2:43 am

This is another one of those sets that I wish I had gotten. But I was still very young when it was out, and desired more Town sets instead.

This is a great set. Good pieces, good figs, and the baseplate is pretty dang good if you know how to use it. Other than that, there's not much else I can say without owning the set myself. I hope the rumors of this being the next Castle Legend are true!

Post by **Athos** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:08 am

Even with the baseplate, I think this is a pretty nice castle. It is a tad juniorized, but not exceedingly so. I thought the throne room was a nice touch too, first time Lego included one of those, as I recall. Comes with a nice complement of soldiers too.

I wouldn't mind this set as a legend, I'd probably pick me up a second one. And it wouldn't be hurt too much by the new grey.

Steve

E of Alshire · Post by **E of Alshire** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:38 am

I traded this for my Republic Gunship just before Christmas, and don't regret it for a second.

Fantastical fantasy; I love the spires and asymmetry of this thing. Symmetry in castles always bugged me. The one thing that I don't like is, in the back, a stair-looking part-wall. It looks as if they'd actually intended that to be the stairway to the king, in which case it's too thin. Lots of minifigs, and no shortages of useful peices. Someone's going to complain about the baseplate, and I'd agree, except (again) it's asymmetrical.

*asymmetrical (adj.)- irregular in shape or outline

Anubisconq · Post by **Anubisconq** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 12:45 pm

If I could only have one castle set it would be this! The best part about it is the baseplate. I love this one more than any of the others. The castle is cool as well. If I ever see it for cheap, I'm buying it! Hope I can get it some time

JCool · Post by **JCool** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 3:35 pm

What a cool set! i was able to pick this up from a friend a number of years ago when he sold me his collection. This castle certainly got a number of things right, including minifigs, tower design, and overall appeal. I only wish i still had my drawbridge built at the time to connect it to this set.

Sadly this castle met it's fate when i needed the old gray for a different project, but it still remains one of those castles that leaves room for plenty of possibilities and expansions with just a little creativity from the builder.

All in all, i give this set an 8 out of 10.

HenrytheV · Post by **HenrytheV** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:00 pm

I got most of this set from a Thrift Store, and I'm pretty happy with it. Also I like the little gargoyle things on top of one of the towers. I can't grade much more than that because that's most of what I got.

8/10

Scnicker · Post by **Scnicker** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 5:01 pm

Ah... I remember the day I got this for my birthday.I woke up in the morning and there it was, in the toy shop's package. I remember how I had spent the whole morning building it. This castle is my all time favourite for a few reasons. First of all, I love the lion heraldy, it looks majestic. Second, the castle is HUGE, bigger than the Black Knight's Castle and any other castles before it. And third, the memories it brings. If this was available again, I would buy 3-4 copies of it. A must have set.

-Yankı

Romas · Post by **Romas** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 7:15 pm

After all this years, it still is my favorite Lego castle. It looks so imposing and at the same time so elegant. It has tons of features, secret compartments, trapdoors. In fact, I don't think this castle misses anything. One of the greatest Lego sets ever in my book.

Post by **Formendacil** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 7:20 pm

SECOND. BEST. SET. EVER.

(It's also been the best one at times... This one and 6086 have flippflopped back and forth for first place in my attentions a lot...)

Great fig selection (not the best ever, but 11 figs is pretty good)- King, Two Knights, 6 soldiers, Ghost, and a Skeleton.

Awesome piece selection! The pillars are awesome, the prefab walls aren't TOO overdone (and there are three types of them with the set...), and there's a lot of bricks and plates, and a smattering of other pieces- not to mention an awesome selection of extra weapons.

The design is the weakest point of the set... but it's still well on the plus side of acceptable. It's attractive, makes good use of the baseplate, and is innovative (love the gargoyles). It only really fails in its ability to properly defend the back and left hand sides of the Castle. The King's Tower is a bit less sturdy than I'd like, but if you fixed the height problem on the walls, that wouldn't be an issue.

Parts: 8.5/10
Playability: 9/10
Figs/Accessories: 8.5/10
Design (then): 8.5/10
Design (now): 9/10
Nostalgia: 10/10

Overall Score: 8.92/10

Blueandwhite · Post by **Blueandwhite** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:17 pm

Not one of my favorites. For me, this was the beginning of my dark ages. The hollowness of this set (and most of the sets that followed) really didn't sit well with me. And for such a large castle, this one was certainly under-manned. It is far better than any new castle, but I don't really think it holds up against its smaller predecessors like 6080, 6085, and 6086. At the end of the day, this set just doesn't do it for me.

Later.

Jojo · Post by **Jojo** » Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:39 pm

Hello!

Oh, is it possible this set hasn't been reviewed before? Almost unbelievable. OK:

When I looked at the Castle pages in 1995's LEGO catalogue I was quite disappointed. This new castle didn't look at all suitable for the older castles (6080, 6086), as in fitting into the Middle Ages. This new castle with its turrets and blue peaks rather looked like a Cinderella castle from a made up fairy-tale-time. Only, without a cinderella. This castle really is lacking a female minifig!

These days I think it is a nice set. I like how it features several doors and a well. The fig selection is OK, although I really don't think a skeleton in every set is necessary; it only cuts off the original crew of soldiers.

Bye
Jojo

g2 · Post by g2 » Tue Mar 28, 2006 5:09 am

This has never been one of my favourite castles. Even though it is tall, I found it to be fairly juniorized. The colour combination of black and grey had too much contrast, and I found it to be unpleasant to look at. This is especially noticeable with the “stone print” around the windows.

The other thing about this castle set was the lack of solid walls (like a real castle would have). This feature made this castle look very airy and not like it could withstand an attacking army.

I have never bought this set, and I do not think I ever will.

I am sure this set has good points, but I will let others talk about them.

------------------
George Georgiou
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Norro · Post by **Norro** » Tue Mar 28, 2006 6:30 am

Like JoJo I was initially struck by Lego going in a new direction, but that said it was a great set. I bought another one at a toy store during the last year of the pirates and now that I have few of that pirate line I comfort myself with this. This set is, in my opinion, the most playable set Lego ever made which contains structural elements and a good piece selection...

God Bless,

Nathan