What do people think of KK1?

Sir Kohran · Post by **Sir Kohran** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 7:26 am

I've seen a lot of talk about how bad KK2 is, how cool the Black Falcons are...but no stuff about KK1. So what did people think of it overall?

Dragonlord Esq. · Post by **Dragonlord Esq.** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 7:55 am

First post! Great site, I didn't think anyone else my age saw KK2 and went into a minor depression. Anyway, I thought the soldiers were very well done in KK1. Most of the torsos and the brim helmets look great. However, the overall set design was the same bunch of TOTALLY X-TREME flaming catapults I've grown sick of over the years. Also, I don't live in the middle ages, but I'm pretty sure castles need stone walls, not giant tapestries of cartoon lions. Oh, this line also included my biggest pet peeve ever- visor helms with no euro armor. I'll buy the minifigs, but none of the sets really appeal to me. Looking forward to the Vikings though!

ottoatm · Post by **ottoatm** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 8:14 am

Thats a pretty good summary of KK1 - KK1 wasn't too shabby, but it was pretty juniorized. The Bulls were my favorite part of KK1. They had cool machines and I really like their logo. I don't think i dislike KK1's King Leo and the good guys as much as other people might, although I was a bit put off by the cartoon lion. Still, I was also used to it from the Royal Kingdom. Also, I liked Princess Storm - I think that was the first instance of Lego putting in woman in a true fighter/knight role.

kajo163 · Post by **kajo163** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 9:12 am

I think this is a very interesting question, it seems that KKI has totaly disapeared in the shadow of KKII.

In my opinion KKI was good at least minifig-wise. The soldiers were great, the printed armour looked very good and even their legs were covered. Brimmed helmets looked very nice too, very realistic. Female figs are always welcome, the queen in this line was awsome, and apart from some other people, I think the king looked good with his grey beard.

Have to say also that the bulls figs was some of the best I've ever seen from tlc, they do'nt get any more villainish than that!

Models, naah, not so good. Kings castle was a disapointment.

The bulls cahriot was very nice though.

Joel.

Tole_11 · Post by **Tole_11** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:40 pm

Post by **rogue27** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:49 pm

I wasn't collecting during the KK years, but I don't feel like I really missed much here. (I did get a couple sets eventually)

A lot of the torsos are nice, especially the bulls and the queen, but some of them are too detailed for their own good. For example, the torsos painted to look like fancy plate armor look bad to me. In general I would say that the average KK torso is better than the average KK2 torso.

I don't like the silver eyes on the bulls figs, or how the "bad guys" all have eyepatches, scars, and angry faces. The black outlines around the brown mustaches on some of the good guys look terrible. I liked the solid shapes used on face designs up through the mid 90s.

It wasn't all bad though. Queen Lenora, Princess Storm, and Cedric the Bull all had decent faces. (aside from cedric's silver eyes) I'm sure some other figs came out well too, but the average KK face is worse than the average KK2 face.

The giant cartoon lion looks really dumb. The bull isn't too great either, but it looks wonderful by comparison.

The set designs were very juniorized, and in many cases worse than KK2. I believe the curved wall panel with window began appearing in KK. Nobody truly likes that part. It seems as if it was designed purely to add height to hollow and open castle designs, for the part useless in most serious construction. The catapult arm was pretty bad too. After years of various catapult arms built from regular parts, they had to go and do that...

KK did have a lot of cheap small sets which is something we lack today. Still, I can't like it. It has no continuity with any other castle products ever released. Most sets are pretty ugly, have mismatched parts, and cost significantly more than similar sized sets from earlier castle lines. It has blatantly "evil" bad guys and I know a novel is available. This seems to be when they decided to start shoving the storylines into the minds of children.

I don't think much of it at all.

Jojo · Post by **Jojo** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 1:36 pm

Hello!

KK1 came with the prettiest female minifig face ever, the Queen's face. It also came with other nice figs and some good parts. On the other hand the models were rather juniorized, way too colourful where a simple monochrome wall would have been in place, and the prefab parts Rocco already mentioned are awful (turret part, catapult arm).

However, in retrospective KK1 was gold compared to KK2. Now that I have built the KK2 Castle of Morcia I know (my opinion of course) how bad the 8781 is. It's even less reasonable than the already bad Castle of King Leo.

Bye
Jojo

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 2:13 pm

Good figs, bad sets.

(Brevity is the soul of wit)

Flail · Post by **Flail** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 2:27 pm

Two Tonic Knight said it perfectly!

The only sets I bought were the cheapo 'fig' sets.

Post by **JoshWedin** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 2:37 pm

TwoTonic Knight wrote:Good figs, bad sets.

(Brevity is the soul of wit)

This pretty much sums up my opinion as well. Although I did really like the series of four chrome sets. They weren't great sets but the idea was cool, imo. Most of the sets (especially the castle) were poorly designed but my main beef was the storyline. In order to stay true to the story, every fig was a main character, even the bulls. No generic figs at all.

When KK1 came out it was bashed in lugnet.castle just as bad as KK2 has been here. It is actually kind of funny. If you go back and read some of the posts about KK1, you could switch out the number (1 to 2), the author of the post, and it would fit perfectly into a topic on KK2.

Oh, about the Bulls. I like them a lot. The grey eyes never bothered me that much, and the torsos were the most original since the Forestmen. The design really stands out amid all the lions and dragons. However, if you try to build an army with them, the heads do need changed. Or else you end up with half the army missing an eye.

Great Topic!
Josh

ottoatm · Post by **ottoatm** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:06 pm

Just curious if anyone had a link or idea of where the story for KK1 might be? I knew there was a general story, but I didn't know they had something like a novel or comic made?

: I'd love to check that out.

Blueandwhite · Post by **Blueandwhite** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:16 pm

I guess most people have summed it up, but KK1 had some of the best figs to date. The heraldry was awful, and the set designs are an example of juniorization at its worst (a tradition proudly improved upon in KK2). Essentially, KK1 is KK2 with good minifigs. There isn't much to talk about beyond that.

I think people talk about the earlier factions (Black Falcons, Black Knights, Forestmen, Crusaders etc...) because:
1) The set designs were better,
2) The heraldry, while not believable, was asthetically pleasing (No cartoon lions here), and
3) The earlier factions lasted for several years, where KK1 was a one year release.

I only liked KK1 for the figures. KK2, well...

Later.

Jojo · Post by **Jojo** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:26 pm

Hello!

ottoatm wrote:Just curious if anyone had a link or idea of where the story for KK1 might be? I knew there was a general story, but I didn't know they had something like a novel or comic made?

I don't know anymore if there was a story on www.lego.com (it's not unlikely there was). There was also a short plot of a story in the 2000's catalogue.
In any case they released this comic book:

"Knights' Kingdom - Medieval Mischief and Mayhem"

Bye
Jojo

TwoTonic Knight · Post by **TwoTonic Knight** » Wed Jan 19, 2005 4:47 pm

I'm with Josh on most of his points. The only sets I bought in bulk were the Chrome sets, which I got for $2-$3. I must have gotten at least 10 of each, and it was almost exclusively for the figs.

The Leos: some wonderful figs. The Kettle Hat/Chapel de Fer ("brimmed helmet") was a great addition. The plate and scale torsos were nicely generic so I can add them to any faction if I so wish. The cartoony lion that everyone seems to despise at least had muted colors, unlike it's garish forebearer from the Royal Knights (and hideous KK2 profile version). I swapped out all the crowns on the ubiqitous king and turned him into a set of very nice crossbowmen. Two female figs, including a Jean D'Arc armored one.

The Bulls: Okay, we all hate the eyes. Scrape 'em off and get the fine point Sharpie out, or Brasso and decals if you are Red Bean. But the torsos are good, especially the bronze/horn scale ones. I gave the chariots to my mummies, and they are happier with them than the Bulls were.

So much for brevity.