Rogue Knight's Battleship 8821 - Review

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Tristram
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Rogue Knight's Battleship 8821 - Review

Post by Tristram »

Knight's Kingdom Rogue Knight's Battleship 8821
152 pieces, $20.99 (TRU)

Bare with me, this is my first review here. :wink:

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So I picked this up the other day, and I must say that I like it very much, although I was pretty apprehensive at first.

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First off, the Rogue battleship is not much of a battleship. It's more of fast attack ship. It only carries one of those small catapults that LEGO seems to love putting out. It has what looks like a battering ram up front, and the sails are yellow dragon wings. The wings are adjustable, so you can make it look like it's catching the wind... sort of. It does have a weakish anchor, but you can reel it in and out, which is cool. The ship has room to stuff a number of soldiers on the deck. Overall, I like the "battleship" very much.

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Personally, I'm thinking of using this as a flying boat, which gives me the excuse to make one of those floating rocks I've seen in MOCS.

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Next, we have the small landing/port tower thingy. Not much to say about this. Again, there is obligatory small catapult up on the second level. There is also a torch mounted there, which actually adds nicely to this otherwise boring tower, simply because the trans orange flame stands out amongst the grey building. The wooden dock is small, but at least it's there.

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Lastly, we have the minifigs. There are only three, and for $21 I was hoping for at least four. But these guys are nice. The Dracus and the Rogue Knight are lightly attired (think Conan, Gladiator, or Troy), but it's okay. Their bare arms and legs work okay here. I picture them coming from tropical weather, anyway. They both have the shadow knights helmet, but with the grainy-chrome color from the viking sets. Dracus' shield had a neat dragon printed on it, and his armor is also nicely decorated. The Rogue Knight's armor is the same color as his helmet. Both knights have cool, thug-like heads.

The HERO, Dir Kentis, is a pretty nice minifig. His dominant color is forest green. His helmet visor is the same as Danju's, but with the grainy-chrome effect. His shield has a nice golden warhorse emblazoned on it, and his armor is forest green with a cool silver pattern on it. Sir Kentis wields a mace, which is neat to see in an official LEGO set. His only downfall is the use of Sir Jayko's old head.

Sooo... how does the Rogue Knight's Battleship fare overall? Well, I can safely admit that I like it. It's very much a fantasy-like set, imo, but I can dig that. The boat actually looks a bit like a Chinese junk. The tower isn't the greatest, but it adds enough to this set to make it playable - think "battle-in-a-box" and you'll know what I mean. As for the minifigs, they are winners. Especially Sir Kentis. I believe I can recommend this set to all castle fans, as the Jellybeans seem to have missed the role call here.
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JoshWedin
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Post by JoshWedin »

Thanks for the review, its very well done. I will probably pick this up at some point.

Josh
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Post by eNiGMa »

A definite "will buy." Thanks for the review!
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Post by InquisitorW »

I'll second Tristram's good review. I liked this set so much, from a minifigs per set and content perspective, that I picked up a second one. I figure they'll be great for landing my forces of evil on good shores next time I get some Brikwars going around here.

It's a fairly simple set, and I don't know how good it is for adding to your brickbox for use in MOCs, but for what it is, it's solid, the hero fig is actually pretty cool (coolest KK2 good guy I've seen so far), and yeah, I bought two. Good times.
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Post by wunztwice »

After hearing what you said I may also pick this up sometime. I like the look of the new soldiers and knights, and the partially nekked guys actually do kinda work alright.

For around $20 its not too bad. Like you said I'd love at least one more dude, but these are deffinately a vast improvement!

Thanks for doing this!
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Danju the Clever
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Post by Danju the Clever »

I don't like the Rouge Knight's yellow outfits, they clash with their skin. I think I'll switch their bodies to gray ones (I like that look)
But the leader Rouge Knight's sheild looks awesome!
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Post by architect »

I also picked this set up a couple of days ago. I really like the figures and the design of the ship especially the sails and ram. One problem the ship has is balance. It always leans to the front if not perfectly balanced.

I extremely dislike the dock/tower. The dock itself is nice but a stone tower should not be supported by two skinny columns. The wider rock piece and an upper tower not made of only 4 pieces would be much better. It seems that the dock/tower was an afterthought to go with the ship.

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Post by Lord_Of_The_LEGO »

Excellent review and great pictures. Kudos!

At first I was not sure about this set, but I'm begining to like it more. I really, really like the look of the figures and the ship is decent. It probably is better in person. I'll probably pick this up when I get the Batmobile set...
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baniaj2
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Post by baniaj2 »

Oh well, I do like the other sets this year. This set to me, just really seems to try hard not to be worth the price...

I have to say that this set is really disappointing to me.

-Boat design (very poor in my opinion) TLC has created some very impressive, good looking boats, even very recently (vikings), This thing w/ wings does nothing for me as a boat.

The tower is truly awful, I would at the minimum suggest a large BURP for the bottom level.
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stawastawa
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Post by stawastawa »

i think it could use a 4th minifig but still good
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Post by ragnarok »

Omg, the poor rouge knights are naked :D TLC started sparing not only minifigs but even minifig clothing - wasn't that the way the Pirates theme went down, with all the yellow native dudes? :lol:

Seriously: the minifigs are one big step in the right direction. I like the new decalls pretty much. The ship on the other hand is almost entirely KK II, but after all it can (meaning "will") be modified.
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Post by InquisitorW »

Come to think of it, Ragnarok reminded me of something I was a bit peeved about with this set. That being the fact that the hull is in two halves. Not 2 ends and a little middle piece. So no expansion of the ship. I really would have liked to be able to make it a bit longer. Sort of a war galley-ish thing.

There, thanks for helping me remember what my big complaint was, I had almost forgotten about it since I've been sitting around playing with bricks and taking tests.
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Tristram
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Post by Tristram »

Wow. I'm glad my first ever review here was well received! I hope nobody bases their purchase/non-purchase of this set based on my pics. :wink:

I think Castlers are either hardcore "realistic" castlers, in which case this set may only be useful for pieces, or if you're like me, you're more of a "fantasy castler" and this set fits perfectly with your LEGO universe.

Anywhooo..
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Danju the Clever
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Post by Danju the Clever »

And I'm a fantasy castler.
So yay! This ship will be perfect!
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Post by kajo163 »

Yes, the ship really reminds me of the corsairs' ships in the LOTR movie.
Very fantasy-esque. We'll see if I'll buy it though, I'm in to the classic set style at the moment.
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