Weekly Set Review: King's Castle

[Webrain]

Ben is kindly doing week after week my Top10 sets

After last week 6044, we came to one of the best sets ever in LEGO in general and in Castles particular. 6080 is no doubt the best Castle (as castle) and one of the greatest Castle sets ever had.

Instead of writting here again everything Jojo said, I'll just say I agree with him completely. It was my first Castle set and it the reason why I am today a LEGO fan and why I still love so much castles.
Besides everything that already been said I'll add the next figures: 12 minifigs, 4 horses with 4 different saddles colors, 4 blue plastic capes, 7 dk.gray swords, 4 black battle axes, 4 brown spears, 4 bow and arrows + quivers, 4 brown lances + 2 dk.gray lances, 8 lion shileds. I think it is the most equipped castle of all times.



http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=82220

* (I know that the archers had Lion symbol torsos rather then battle axes ones but since I don't have that torso in LDraw I used the other one)

Final Grade: ∞ / 10 (well maybe not ∞ but at least 20)

[forester3291]

Wow. Playabilty looks great,great selection of figs,and plenty of bricks. 10/10. I wish I had this set but of curse,I don't

[Brickboy]

ME WANT!
Alan

[Cat]

I own a copy of this set. It just about doubled my castle collection when I received it. It is one of the ones I periodically rebuild (to relive all those glorious childhood days). Definately a great selection of minifigs.

[The Blue Knight]

Arrgg, the beginning of the end for castle. NOT

I got 2 of these way back when. This is arguably the nest Lego castle ever. I favor the 375 figs as best naturally, but this castle is top drawer. The built portcullis is great, but I use the new ones too. this set has it all, alas, they don't built 'em like they used to. Oh well, me OLG parts packs just arrived! I'm off the build...

[Luís]

I wanna have it
I'll give 10/10

[TwoTonic Knight]

If I was going to pick one Castle to identify as the best representative of the Castles line, this would be it. Not necessarily my favorite set, but a straight-forward castle, no raised baseplate, a reasonable color, lots of nice figs, and easy to grow.

Admittedly, I passed on my best opportunity to get this at a reasonable price in favor of a 6086, but I already had a couple 6074s at the time. So, again, not the most unique set, but one that sums up the theme perhaps the most succinctly.

[brian]

Here it is!! King's Castle I've been waiting to vote for this one! This is my favorite Lego set ever. Period. I remember getting this for Christmas when I was in sixth grade. It was huge! I still have 6080 in my collection today. It had so many bricks and minifigs. I think it doubled my amount at the time. I wish to God that one day LEGO returns to making quality sets like this. I can't say enough how many times I've knocked this down in a battle, only to rebuild it in a few days. I pray this becomes a legend! BEST SET EVER! A++++ P.S. Can you tell I like this set?

[gerkenz]

The archers with the golden lion on their breast look noble and are my favourite Lion knight figures (of course no chance against a Black Falcon...).

So, not liking this set means not liking Classic Castle

The Black Falcons will flee if they see the archers of this amazing lion-castle

Jep you'll right this is THE caste if you're in classic castle, grey bricks and crusaders !

And of course the playability is perfect, cause of the old "non-castle-baseplate"-construction.

I like it very much.

[wlister]

Not much to say about this castle. It was the one that started it all for most of the guys I know. The yellow castle may have been the first, but the 6080 was definitely the definitive castle of its era. Lots of praise for this set has already passed so i will be brief. 10/10 back then, 15/10 compared to the sets now.

Will

[The Wolfpack Boss]

I appreciate this set for it's overall sense of uniformity. All the bricks around the top are spaced the same distance from each other, everything is really symmetrical and cubic, and Lego-ish. All the heraldic colors are the same, red and gold, all the knights wear red, and there are certainly a lot of them ... like a lot of people, I wouldn't mind seeing this as the next Legend, since it is basically the rival castle to Black Falcon Fortress.

Of course ... I wouldn't mind seeing ANY castle re-released as a Legend.

[architect]

Of course ... I wouldn't mind seeing ANY castle re-released as a Legend.

Be careful what you wish for. I can just see it now... "new legend - spectacular - dynamic! - King Leo's Castle!!!"

Ok, now to my King's Castle review:

This was my first LEGO castle and it remains my favorite LEGO set of all time. My happiest LEGO moment was finding this hidden under my bed one Christmas morning and quietly building it for a few hours while everyone was still sleeping.

The set itself has wonderful features. I really like the brick stairs, hitching post columns with clips for swords, polychrome black and grey at the back of the gate, the jail, the round 1x1 bricks on the towers, the criss crossing lances and two shields on the front, the printed pattern wall pieces, the brick portcullis, the drawbridge, and the opening design to make a long castle.

The figures were also wonderful. Sure the gold printing rubbed off easily in the 1984 guys, and I or my brothers broke the saddle clips, some helmets, and weapons. But this set was played with a lot. Numerous wonderful sub models came with it. The quantity of wall panels, grey bricks and plates, and inverted black slopes allowed me to make a multitude of my own castles.

Modularity was also great. I really enjoyed recieving future sets in the coming years like Armor Shop and Battering Ram and connecting these to make a larger castle. All of the other castle sets I had went so well with King's Castle. The falcons would attack with Catapult. Vikings rowed their boats in the moat, knights had jousts, forestmen snuck in. It was wonderful

I guess King's Castle is only part of the equation, you really need other sets to go with it. But this set is the jewel in the crown of early LEGOLAND Castle. Sets like it would be wonderful today and a 6080 Legend would allow kids to enjoy this castle as much as I did.

Ben E.

[Formendacil]

This is off-topic, so delete it if you want, but personally I think that rereleasing King Leo's Castle would be better than KK2, especially if it came in the original colours.

[tanzirian]

The first three big castles were all splendid models. There are aspects I like and dislike about all of them.

6080 is admirable for its uncluttered elegance. Probably the most quintessential of all castle system sets. Also the most realistic of the first big three, looking much like a condensed version of a Norman castle. As a playset compared to 6085 and 6086 it does, however, look just a little boring.

6085 however is my favorite of the three - compared to 6080, there is a more refined articulation of surfaces, and compared to 6086, the flat baseplate is definitely better. However, I do think the color scheme is too dark, and the keep too stubby.

6086 is the most picturesque of the three - lego clearly understood the flaws in the color scheme for 6085 and responded with more gray more bright accessories. Unfortunately the baseplate is unstable and unflexible.

Despite their minor flaws I give all three sets a 10/10. I know that's three reviews in one, but I like to think of these three on how they compare to one another.

Also, although I am not one who has made fuss about the color issue, I think 6080 is one set which will definitely suffer if released as a legend in the new colors. Sets like 6085, where gray is used only as a highlight, will not suffer much, but a legend 6080 will end up looking more off-white than gray.

[doctorsparkles]

I'm a little young to have owned this set, but it is absolutely beautiful. I love the portcullis made of plates, and of course the number of minifigs/horses/accessories alone makes this worth looking for. It would be really nice if Lego released this as a Legend. I'd buy two or three, just to build up my collection. 10 out of 10.