Review of King's Castle 10176

[SWMAN]

Yeah. This set was pretty much the same design as King Leo's, and they just included new figures to make it seem new.

[Dwarvenlord]

I like King Leo's castle, this castle however not. Not that i like the design of Leo's castle; i gues it's just nostalgia...

[UCSProductions1]

I own this set and enjoyed building it and I would recommend to anyone who is a fan of Lego knights who does not already own it.

[Ardelon]

To me, it seems this set has all the faults of Leo’s castle (juniorization, open back, green 1st floor, lack of mechanism for the gate and drawbrige) and none of its strengths (unique minifigs, swivelling "window" in tower, cloth with Leo’s coat of arms). Apart from a few other faults of its own (mainly stickers), it does have some redeeming qualities in the smithy and the dungeon.

I find it inferior to Leo’s castle, and I think the whole KK1 subtheme is underrated because of complaints of juniorization. I was surprised and sorry to see it last only 1 year, I thought the Bulls could use more fleshing out. This castle on the other hand, I see among the poorest TLG has produced (and I consider myself generous towards castles, as you may have gleaned from my defense of KK1).

[Legoman123]

Awesome review. I know this isn't a 'classic castle' but it's one of my favourites.

Edited April 22, 2014 by Legoman123

[Blazej_Holen]

Nice review, wonderfull photos but terrible and most horrifying castle of all time.

[ZeldaTheSwordsman]

This is quite definitely a remake of King Leo's Castle, but while there are some improvements in design in some areas, it ends up coming up short due to things it lost. The stickers aren't one, though. People need to quit whining about those, they really do. If you look at LEGO as a whole, the idea of everything being tampographed was nothing but a brief fad that we were spoiled with in the 90s. And frankly, modern stickers have an edge over tampographs because human skin oil doesn't rub them away and they've got a sort of plastic coating that makes them less susceptible to damage than old stickers were.

Going back to the castle comparison: where this one has rather dinky catapults, King Leo's had proper shovel-scoop ones that could fling larger pieces or multiple 1x1 cylinders at a time. It was open-backed too, but whatcha gonna do? Most LEGO buildings outside of Creator have been, for purposes of play access. As far as mini-figures go, the Knight's Kingdom 1 characters trump this lot tremendously. They've got lovely torso armor printing where this lot have bland breastplates (and do nothing to make them look good, unlike some older castle sets), they're actual unique characters for the most part too with some lovely faceprints (King Leo himself looks like Sean Connery!) and there's a complete royal family (King Leo, Queen Leonora, and their daughter Princess Storm - who is the sort to prefer battle armor to a dress and joins the battle alongside her father). There's more battle-action features too, such as a spinning watchtower, as well as a wall that while a bit weak to the included spring-loaded cannon will in exchange drop a treasure chest on the head of the unlucky sod who fired the shot. There's also a nice throne room where during less stressful times Leo and Leonora can get some ruling done, and which has a secret passage behind a revolving stained-glass window for quick exits.

As far as a "Legend" goes, LEGO should have gone for the true Legends style and just reissued the old product; this new castle clearly has minor gains in some areas, but the major losses in others make it come up rather short.