supertoad64

Great review! I'm getting so excited to get my hands on these sets! As others have mentioned, it sucks that the dragon knights don't get a shield, but a set is never perfect. I know there has also been a lot of talk about how the lion knights appear "good" and the dragon knights appear "bad," but you could always think of the dragon knights as the rough antiheroes and the lion knights as an evil, ignorant, theocratic monarchy.

Wow, simply amazing! It's pretty impressive how you've done the snow with the white bricks. It really creates the illusion of snowfall. I would love to see an interior!

Nice review! This seems to be along the same lines as the dark pink heart princess key chain released several years ago. I like how the admiral's daughter torso was recolored and slightly reworked for this. That is an excellent torso. Strange that they included the original admiral's daughter torso print on the back, though this does make the torso more versatile and looks good with the hairpiece covering it partially. I'll definitely be picking this up to make another princess or noblewoman out of it.

I just got this collection in the mail and can verify that the printing on my ninja princess' head is identical to the one posted in this thread. It seems that the master used to print the heads is actually off. The printing on the head of the actress is also a little different than the original version. It is somewhat compressed together vertically so that the eyes and hair are closer to the mouth. However, I will say that while the prints are not identical to the original releases, they are quite well-done. The colors are very deep and uniform and the lines are very clean. In fact, the printing on these is clearer and richer than the originals in my opinion. It's too bad the plastic is noticeably different. It doesn't feel cheap, really, just smoother and definitely not as glossy.

What a great looking set! It appears Lego will be continuing to churn out great minifigs into 2010.

While I certainly agree that your idea would expand the variety of sets and minifigs (as well as stimulate imagination and make a lot of AFOLs happy) the issue is that most, if not all, of TLC's modern sets revolve around conflict. While it is possible to create medieval sets around non-violent conflict, it is much easier and initially striking if they are. What I mean is, when kids see a set that has two distinctly identified factions both equipped with weapons, it is easier for them to immediately visualize how they will role play with it then it would be if the set had civilians with generic soldiers and no apparent violent conflict.

That Fright Nights minifig pack is pretty well done. Too bad the shields were kinda dorky and nobody liked Willa (although her torso and dress slope are useful). FK is a pretty under appreciated theme considering the minifigs were pretty cool. For new minifig packs, 1 mounted knight, a swordsman, a bowman, and a peasant/princess/old wizard would be pretty ideal for me personally. I doubt TLG would include a civilian, though, as they are usually a draw for purchasing the more expensive sets. That, and they haven't really made one like that for quite some time. I hope they don't put the king in there! It seems most people have more kings then they need already. What would be really cool is if they made several different minifig packs, with the same basic assortment of figs, but slight differences in torsos, faces, accessories, etc. Then the fourth spot could be filled by a different type of minifig and collecting all of them would give a nice diversity of figs. That would probably be pretty cost prohibitive, though.

Conan the Barbarian, Super Mario Bros., and any fantasy rpg video game series (FF6 would be unbelievable). I won't be holding my breath, though...

This review is excellent, so detailed and thorough. I love this set (especially the figs) and want to get it even more having seen this review!

Well, that's too bad about the plastic quality. I've held off buying these in the past due to quality concerns. Having said that, I think I'll still pick up at least one of these. I already have the original Ninja princess and the forestwoman, but those are such excellent figs, I'm not sure I could pass up getting more. The ninja princess face prints is one of my favorites and the forestwoman torso makes an excellent princess/peasant woman. Now, if only they'd reissue the ultra-rare green ninjas :)

Too bad about the lack of shields, but these would still make pretty nice impulse sets. Doesn't Lego sometimes distribute these on Shop at Home? I just remember that some really small sets that seemed like these could be ordered from the catalog back in the original Knights Kingdom era. This line looks great so far; I can't wait to see how it develops.

Woah! Great pictures! I really like what I can see of the minifigs. They seem like they will fit in well stylistically with the crown knights. It also seems that the factions are not dictated as strictly "good=lion bad =dragons" as I thought. Though I can't make out most of the faces very well so maybe the dragon knights will have angry faces. I love the shields! They look lovely! And it appears that the euro-armor is back with new prints as well. I still want to know who's imprisoned in the tower, though.

Simply amazing, especially the water tower. I love the subdued color palette as well!

Wow, what an excellent MOC! I love all the details, the scale, and the minifigs! I love seeing how builders MOC coaches, as most of LEGO's official ones are a bit lacking in my opinion. This one is just right. That cactus technique is also beautiful and very realistic. I was never into the western theme, but if LEGO made a new theme with sets like this, I don't think I'd be able to resist!

I haven't read any of the books, but I have seen the movies, and although I would absolutely love to see some licensed sets get made in this theme, I doubt it will happen. Mostly because with the future Kingdoms line, and the Harry Potter revival, it seems like that will be a lot of castle/fantasy sets being produced. I'd be delighted to be proven wrong, though!

I've always thought this set looked kind of janky. The balcony pieces on the boat just look really unnatural and misplaced and the structure on the rocks is pretty bare. The dragon wing sails are really cool and Kentis is an awesome fig, though. The rogue knights need to have their legs, at least, swapped out to be useful, but they are great otherwise and yellow legs are handy for MOCing. Despite its shortcomings, your review makes me wish I would have got this set on sale and fixed it up.

What a lovely set! The stone lanterns look quite realistic. I've always liked Ninja, even though it seems to divide castle fans. It introduced some really interesting parts and figs and most of the designs were quite nice.

I have more of the recent Castle figs then any of the other castle lines. I have been collecting the older torsos to build up other factions, though, as I love the look and diversity of the classic torsos and for me, the factions are more based around color then the specifics of the designs. I don't think the new faces mesh well with the old ones. Now the faces all have detailed expressions, white dots in the eyes, and lots of stylized facial hair and or eyebrows. A lot of what was simply a single color in the past is now outlined in black and shaded as well to make the design more vibrant. To me, that creates quite a noticeable difference between new and old. I used to use the more expressive (newer) faces for more important characters in my own Lego universe, but now I seem to just use the old faces to hold the headpieces on until I find a newer head that I like (especially since Lego seems to be releasing so many new heads lately). Though I really like the detail of the new figs, I wish that they would blend together with the older ones with more subtlety.

Wow, this is really an impressive retrospective you have crafted. I really love 6086. I remember seeing it in the catalog with the glowing ghost and all those armored knights and really wanting it desperately. But, I couldn't really afford it then. I'm a little surprised you didn't include the wolfpack tower here. That's one of my all time favorite sets and it seems to fit the description pretty well.

The idea to have them use siege weapons as a substitute for mounted cavalry seems to be the best idea. All the other creatures are pretty expensive on Bricklink now, and depending on the way you have developed your factions, may not look right. Are you using the orc minifigs as they are presented by Lego (with the same torsos/helmets/etc)? Because if you dress them up a little (black armor and helmets), they may not look too barbaric to ride a black horse. It's too bad Lego hasn't released a more rustic looking horse armor that would work well for orcs using horses. All the horse helmets are pretty regal for orcs to have believably fashioned. I think the HP line had a dark gray variant of the dragon masters horse helmet that might look good for this purpose, though.

Great review. I love this set! It is quite well executed--great colors, interesting idea, and a variety of figs and pieces. And it feels pretty huge and substantial once assembled (and is quite imposing when padded out with some more trolls). Sure it's not perfect, but what set is? I would have loved to have had this kind of set as a kid. It's a shame that most of the other troll sets didn't meet the quality of this one, in my opinion.

I got this set for Christmas and agree with what everyone else has said; the chariot is too large for just one horse and is unrealistically designed. However, the figs are great (especially the king) and the pieces all come in great colors so it works well as a, kind of expensive, parts pack. Plus, both orcs have shields! Can't complain about that. And the dark brown spears look great.

Wow, the landscaping work you've done is really impressive. There are many interesting and unusual techniques on display here.

I usually don't like non-Lego parts in mocs, but this is simply amazing! I love the terror knight with the black plumes. Very intimidating! This moc makes me sad that the end of the Fantasy era is fast approaching. No more diversity for the evil orc faction

I had this one! It really is an interesting premise, just strangely executed (like most of the Fright Knights theme). Would've been cooler with a balloon up top, in my opinion. The color scheme is kinda ugly too. I really like the witch fig! It has many uses and was also the first (and only for quite some time) dress slope fig I had. Now I use that fig's body as an evil queen, and use the head for a short, hag-style witch.