Review: 7947 Prison Tower Rescue

[lightningtiger]

Thanks again to you 'The Brickster' another great review - DAM IT ! These sets are so COOL - must hide from wife when I get them !

The tower features are AWESOME and so are the minfigs......oh yes all the printing too !

I'm a conformist! everyone !

[SWMAN]

One thing I really love about these new sets is the new grey color that is used with the Dragon faction. What is nice is that it is not just their helmets that are that color, but all of their weapons as well. Lego is taking a big step in the right direction by including this amount of detail. Great set also.

[metalandi]

Thanks for another kingdoms review! First of all the set looks great to me, i really love the color scheme and design. And of course the figs are stunning aswell! The only thing that really bothers me is the lack of interior. Ever since i saw the first pictures i missed something. At least a little table or something would have been nice. Oh well, i guess i'm gonna put the green magician and his equipment somewhere in there, i could see it fitting.

[WesternOutlaw]

Glad you like the review fellas. Interesting thoughts, and pretty mixed views as to the design and colors of the set.

i guess i'm gonna put the green magician and his equipment somewhere in there, i could see it fitting.

I'll be buying him next.

[NewRight]

Thanks for this great review. I really like some of the colors in the set and the figs are just fantastic.

[user]

Nice review of a nice set! While it does beg for interior details I think the rest of the set is really nice.

[Tacitus]

Thanks for the review. I agree with some of the other posts here. It's great that there are stairs to access upper levels. I, too, always hated it when multileveled castles had no stairs. But, other aspects of the model make no sense. Exactly what part of the prison tower is the prison? The top room with no prison door? And, what's the point of having a giant gate if you're just going to have easily accessed stairs just off to the side? With a little more thought, and a few extra parts, this model could have been a lot better.

[Dannylonglegs]

And, what's the point of having a giant gate if you're just going to have easily accessed stairs just off to the side?

What's the point of the portcullis at all? There's nothing behind it, and it takes up way to much space in the model!

~Insectoid Aristicrat

[metalandi]

It's a toy, it's all about imagination. :P There have been lots of sets where stuff doesn't make sense, and that's the point..it doesn't HAVE to make sense.

[Dannylonglegs]

It's a toy, it's all about imagination. :P There have been lots of sets where stuff doesn't make sense, and that's the point..it doesn't HAVE to make sense.

Yeah, I guess, but in comparison, all of the other sets in the theme are very thought-through. I'm hard pressed to find many cosmetic, or playability problems with the big kingdoms castle, or even their smaller tower. This one though just seems to be very lacking. It's not that I hate this set, I mean the idea of it is great (the spiraling staircase up the prison tower) just, the execution is lacking. I'm probably just being overly critical and should shut up and enjoy my dark green baddies

~Insectoid Aristocrat

[castlestrike666]

- Review: Great!

- Minifigs: Win! :skull:

- Tower itself: Hmmm, design is, well, let me say, boring..

First of all, some colours aren't in place, and there's not much of a structure in it. To me, it looks like a tower made from a kid who got his first box of separate Lego bricks, and started to make something like a tower..

[WhiteFang]

Excellent review, my friend. Apart from hunting for those minifigs, it seems you never told me you had Castle sets hiding inside your shopping bag.

I am envy of you so much and this set is nicely design, even though I thought it do reminds me of the KK2 Mistland Tower in certain angle. However, this fortified prison tower is much better than any other recent sets which is designed on this concept. Furthermore, there is this beautiful Red Princess plus a whole galore worth of solders of both sides. This is a decent set, but I am not sure if this is the only fortress which our Green Solders are residing in the next Castle Kingdoms wave.

[josykay]

Ohhh, that is sad. I do not really like the design of the tower (especially that completly open rear) and the minifigs... well they just do not fit in that set. Why are the green knights outnumbered all the time? Even in their own sets?

The minifigs are nice, but a green horseman, two green soldiers, a red soldier and the princess would have been much better...

Edited May 23, 2010 by josykay

[ZO6]

Thanks for this review Brickster

I really like the colour scheme and design of the tower. There are plenty of lovely details in the construction which gives the set a nice organic feel. My complaints about the set however are definitely towards the lack of furnished interior. There is a lot of empty space in there with plenty of potential which is just begging to be filled with kegs, tables, weapon racks etc. I was going to dedicate much of the Castle Advent Calender to fill up the larger castle set, however it seems I'll be putting an advent calender to use in making the Prison Tower more interesting too.

[metalandi]

I just noticed there's a little fireplace on the ground floor of the tower. Well it's not totally plain then. When i get it i still will add the green magician's equipment and maybe some stuff from the advent calendar, when it comes out.

[BrickPerfection]

Although I rather like the new castle line I have to agree with some statements that this set is rather poor:

-the use of a ladder for locking the entrance is just stupid and nonsense; even kids will know that!

-the green is nice but still... something is bugging me with the colourscheme...

-I also don't like the new portcullis; I feel it to look much like a toy and less realistic than the old ones.

-and yeah, there's a lack of playability features.

Still I think the quality of this set wouldn't be so clear without this nice review, thanks!

[Piranha]

Great Review B

Out of all the Kingdoms sets this one caught my attention, don't know why, oh wait it was the maiden

The new figs are simply amazing The dark knights have that lovely pearl black color

Also I like the unicorn helm

As for the dungeon itself, it isn't really a dungeon, aside from the gate. I was hoping for a little more detailed interior

And at least a prison stall for the maiden, really.

But it has nice parts and a great color scheme of the DARK green

EDIT: I rated this as "Above Average"

Edited May 23, 2010 by Macoco

[Nagyzee]

I'm not really a fan of Kingdoms but most of the other sets I find okay. But definitely not this one. I have to say that while the minifigs are great the set itself is very poor. Something's just not right with the architecture (and colour scheme) of this building. I guess maybe it's that this is meant to be a standalone fortification and not just the gate area of a bigger fort. But even if you take it as the latter it still doesn't really make sense with the stairs next to the gate and that badly executed prison cell sitting in the worst place of all. And it feels quite empty, too.

I might still buy this one for the minifigs and as a parts pack if it ever becomes cheap enough for my taste.

Edited May 23, 2010 by Nagyzee

[alex12]

Great review dude.

This and the impulse sets are the only new castle i'm planning on getting and as a huge castle fan that upsets me.

This set looks striking but all the other kingdoms sets feel like re-hashes of better past fantasy era sets.

Mini figs are awesome though . Bricklink here i come.

[Calanon]

Mhmm... I am probably one of the few people who actually really like this set, apart from the obvious design flaws. The staircase is in a really stupid position and so I'll probably put it in the back. Excellent review of the set, which has made me want it. :p Yes there isn't much interior, and it would've been nice for TLG to include a table or a spit over the fire, but I look forward to modding it. I just wish there were more dragon knights.

[legitimatealex]

The cons seem to be stacking up on the Kingdoms line...This and the new castle are super lack luster. Sure the minifigs can walk up the stairs but most of the features don't do anything!

[WesternOutlaw]

As a Classic Castle fan, this fortress is far from the days of yore; but at the same time, it does offer some unique aspects like the portcullis.

For comparison purposes, I think this set can best be compared to 8876 Scorpion Prison Cave, and having both sets, I think this is a better set.

Personally, I'd love to see LEGO Castle return to the days of Forestmen fortresses, and while this is far from it, it is much better than Knights Kingdom. I suppose this set is just more for the kiddies than adult fans looking for sets like the Medieval Market Village.

Here's another image of the set with some brighter lighting:

[kidcharm]

I gave this set a '4' but think it could have easily been a '5' with the inclusion of a few animals like a dog or a few birds or owls. ...although it does come across as a full and beautiful vision as it is.

[Briggs Broadside]

Thanks for the review!

I have mixed feelings about this set. I'm a Castle collector, and Kingdoms is impressive as a whole enough that I want one of each set - for parts, for minifigs, and for completion.

It's a sturdy set, a nice bulky, cumbersome construct. A bit haphazard to let you know it's the villains - much like the Troll Fortress.

The problem lies in the color scheme - that problem people couldn't quite put their finger on. You just don't mix black and brown. It's rule # 1 of fashion, in fact ... you never mix black and brown clothes. Brown belt with black shoes or vice versa? Get the heck out! The only place black and brown looks good is on German Shepherds.

Now ... ultimately, we've seen hundreds of creations and MOCs with black and brown features that are amazing. Logical areas, like a black obsidian tower with boarded up windows and trees outside. The brown is used sparingly and in logical ways, and the black is overbearing. Or vice versa ... a massive Forestmen tree hideout of brown, with a few black details like a black pitched roof.

But ultimately the problem comes down to black and brown not going very well together. Then you add in that blue-grey? Hideous color scheme. The green and gold highlights on the brown color are fantastic. And everything can look good with gray for "stone".

Picture for a moment, this set ... if all the black parts were brown - either the same brown, or a different color Lego brown. The whole building would look like a wooden fort. Now consider if all of the parts that are black were blue-grey. The building would look like a stone outcropping with wooden man-made parts added over the carved stone base.

It's bipolar. It's not sure if it wants to be a "Black Knights" style building with imposing black stone walls, or if it wants to be a "Troll" style building with rough wooden construction on stone. Clearly being both doesn't work.

Even the Green Dragons' closest relative in the Castle world - the Bull Rebels from back in 2000 - a similar marauding band of rebellious, rough, disorganized guys - managed to go primarily black, with just a little bit of brown (and red details really helped to blur the contrast).

My problems with this set's design (wrong-way stairs ... kind of illogical Knights Kingdom II shape of the building ... silly ladders for doors instead of doors) don't mean much. I still want the set for the Princess, the Knights, the Horse, and parts. But I'll be throwing all the black bits into my big bin of black pieces and just using the browns and greens and greys.

As for the rest of the discussion? I assumed the Green Wizard was in charge of these Green Dragon Knights - at least until somebody else comes along like a Warlord or something. For that reason they're a little similar to the Dragon Masters as well - in my mind, the private army of a wizard and not loyal to any crown.

[not-in-use-anymore]

I really like this set, it'll be the first Kingdoms set I get. (maybe the only one, unless anyone wants to help me rob a bank... )

what I don't like about this set;

-The dragon knights are outmanned in their own fortress, with only 2 (count 'em; 2) dragon warriors, vs. 2 Lions, a horse, and a princess.

-Leaderless. Let's face it, the dragons have no authoritative figure to boss them around or generally look cool.

~Insectoid Aristocrat

2 Green warriors with their own fortress VS 2 Red knights trying to save a princess that doesn't look prepared to fight and is locked in a tower. Why do they need a leader? The only thing that prevents one of them from being one is the name on the box.

I'm surprised nobody has said anything about the KK2 Mistlands Tower set...