Set 7009 The Final Joust

Donut · Post by **Donut** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 2:16 pm

Tanotrooper wrote: plus the lance can go through his open helmet :p

BTW wouldn't it be foolish to swing a "goeiendag" while on a horse? I think you'll hurt your horse sooner than your enemy...

Your right! This is clearly not a fair joust, hehe. A "goeiendag"? Could you please explain what that is?

Tanotrooper · Post by **Tanotrooper** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 8:32 pm

Donut wrote:
Tanotrooper wrote: plus the lance can go through his open helmet :p

BTW wouldn't it be foolish to swing a "goeiendag" while on a horse? I think you'll hurt your horse sooner than your enemy...

Your right! This is clearly not a fair joust, hehe. A "goeiendag"? Could you please explain what that is?

It's a dutch word wich just means "goodday" and is (as in my case, I now see) incorrectly used for this:

Click here for a large image

and it's actually this:

It was used by the flemish (wich I live in) in the "guldensporenslag" in 1302 against the french. The lesser flemish infantry armed mostly with this, and a few flemish nobels, won against an army of the french: 1000 archers 2000 spearman and 3000 other infantry, as also a 2500 fully armoured knight cavalry. All very equipped and experienced. Because the Flemish were settled behind a river (the battle took place near Kortrijk) they could easily hold off the complete french army and slaughtered them. An army of some nobels, farmers, a small militia and workmen from the city had won against the greatest knight army. The golden spurs (= sporen) collected from the french knights gave the name to this battle. It is on 11 july, the flemish holiday, that we commemerate this battle.

That was a whole explanation :p

TT

Edit - very large images changed to a link. Please don't post images over 400 pixels in the forum. Thanks, Bruce

Donut · Post by **Donut** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 8:34 pm

Ah thank you for the history lesson and explaining that Tanotrooper. Thats another battle lost by the French.

Thor · Post by **Thor** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 4:30 am

Went to three targets, looking for this set, NADA. Walmart doesn't even carry them. Toys R US was closed...guess I'll have to wait untill them arrive from S@H

Patron of the lego · Post by **Patron of the lego** » Thu Jun 28, 2007 5:07 am

Well the french had heavy calvary, but they had oboslete strategy, usually sending troops to the frontlines, which isn't a good idea, as shown in the agincourt. On the other hand the french also had one huge advantage... They had a region of strong castles under thier belt.

plucky · Post by **plucky** » Tue Jul 10, 2007 6:49 pm

7009
Castle System / Crown Knights
The Final Joust
La joute finale
La justa final

Ages 5-12, 62 Pcs. (C)2007. 12 page manual: 1 models, 13 steps. Building time ~6 ½ minutes.

Price Range: $10.99 USD

RATINGS (Scale: Must-Have Excellent Very-Good Good Fair Poor)
Set: Very-Good / Models: Good / Playability: Very-Good

DECALS? No

SET DESCRIPTION
The ultimate jousting tournament! The good knight and the evil skeleton rider clash and fight to the bitter end. The skeleton knight wears unique plate mail and rides a black skeletal horse, while the good night is decked out the royal blue and gold. There is also a fence and weapons rack in the royal colors.

SPECIAL ELEMENTS
Apart from the new elements that appeared in Crossbow Attack, there are still quite a few new pieces. A Dark Gold Pearl flag (new flag colors are always nice!) and ‘horse helmet’, a new barding pattern, as well as new patterns for both ovoid shields and plate-mail. The skeletal horse makes its first black appearance here as well. A lovely pointed visor looks pretty swell in metallic silver. This is apparently the first set with a 1x2 brick in any kind of brown with the vertical clip.

IMPRESSION
The Final Joust is a pretty simple set – 2 mounted knights, a fence to separate their joust, and a weapons rack. The royal colors look nice throughout the set, and especially nice on the barding.

As usual, I can pick out the things I dislike much easier than the things I like, so I’ll go through those quickly. I’ve never been a big fan of the plate style champron / criniere for horses that appeared in ’04. It looks flimsy and never quite fit right. But if it’s going to stay around, having it in a new color is nice.

The black skeleton horse raised a few more reasons I won’t be a big fan of this new piece, and I won’t be the first to point it out. Barding and champrons won’t fit right on them. The helmet won’t go on at all, and the barding, while can be added, is set too far back (due to the further back ‘saddle area’ of the skeleton horse), and looks very strange because of that. Regular minifigs on a regular horse look very strange without a saddle or barding piece to hide the gaps. The skeleton horse has neither. This, in conjunction with the much smaller volume (being skeletal) make the horse seem much too small for its rider, especially since he is wearing some bulky plate mail!

I’m still waffling about the new flail piece. It is one of only two weapons so far that doesn’t always make sense, due to the fact it can float on its chain (as it does while standing straight up in the weapons rack). The other weapon that has this problem is the old fashioned bow and arrow, which is always knocked and drawn, even if nobody is holding it!

While I don’t like the skull patterned buckler in Crossbow Attack, I do like the skull patterned ovoid shield. I think this is due to the larger size of the shield making the skull seem to fit better proportionately. The ribcage plate mail is interesting, and the Shadow Knight helmet works very well stylistically. The print on the good knights plate is strange, and I’m not sure what to make of it. I think it is trying to represent some other type of breast-plate setup, but I haven’t figured that out yet.

I again like the dark stone axe, and lances are always useful. I don’t like the pearl grey coloring of the good nights lance, but I have plenty of old ones, so having a new color for it is nice as well (though the pearl lance has appeared in 2 other sets, which I don’t have). The flail will take some getting used to, and I’m still not sold on the scythe blade. The knight has a short sword, instead of a KK2 sword though, which is good. Now if only the short swords were back to their old material and mold.

CONCLUSION
This is a fun little set for setting up battles. Lots of weapons to choose from, great armor and barding, especially the metallic visor! I’m always a sucker for new patterns on ovoid shields too. This does make two sets with (what I consider) disappointing skeletal horses and obtrusive mould break points (the back of each pearl dk. gold peak has a blatant break point, which visually sticks out prominently in this set, like the navy blue 1x1x2/3 slope pieces in Crossbow Attack).

PunkRockCowboy · Post by **PunkRockCowboy** » Wed Jul 11, 2007 6:00 am

Chrislad77 wrote: Toys R Us has really been hurting recently competing with places Wal-Mart and Target . So they took the KB Toys route and raised prices.

I am starting to seriously dislike Wal-Mart, and they haven't had a good selection of Lego in forever...