Hello again all LEGO Fan's I have updated my blog with another post I hope you all like it.

LEGO Fright Knights

Any feedback and comments would be most welcome

(p.s to any of the mods, can I talk to anyone about putting all these overviews somewhere in the master index, like they did in the pirate forum?)

Cheers all

Another great overview of a Castle era SirSven7

I agree that the theme is generally bad looking, but as you point out, there are some interesting impulse sets with some good minifigures.

But I guess the one thing that first set me against this theme was it's faction symbol.

It seems completly detached from the quality logos we've seen in previous factions, and it makes the shields appear cheap. Since the shields are in this faction buildings and minifigures, it weights heavilly for a weak look & feel throughout the line...

Anyway, great review!

But I guess the one thing that first set me against this theme was it's faction symbol.

It seems completly detached from the quality logos we've seen in previous factions, and it makes the shields appear cheap. Since the shields are in this faction buildings and minifigures, it weights heavilly for a weak look & feel throughout the line...

Anyway, great review!

Thats a good point about the shield, it's yet another example of this factions failings, I really tried to like this faction and see the good points but there's just not enougth of them and some of the sets are not good enought

its a shame really the end of the Classic Castle themes deserved better.

Interesting read on what is probably the worst LEGO faction ever, both in terms of design and colours of the faction itself and, especially, the horrible, horrible sets.

I can honestly say that there's not ONE single set of this series I wish to own, which I cannot say about any other Castle faction ever. In fact, I actually bought Witch' Magic Manor MISB shortly after coming out of my "dark ages" because my nostalgia dictated me to look for "classic castle", but after receiving it I began doubting whether it was actually for me... and I eventually ended up selling the set again without opening it.

But as you mention, Fright Knights did introduce some interesting bits and pieces as well as a witch minifig - and that's about the only positive thing I can say about this theme.

You did the right thing selling the Manor on, to even call it a Manor is laughtable.

But as I am running through all the themes I had to include this one as well, I had to find the sets, build them, look at them and try and see the good, there is some good but not nearly as much as other factions.

Still I feel I have tackled the hardest so we should be ok

Many thanks for this review, SirSven7!

While I too agree that the Fright Knights theme in general is poor, I do have a soft spot for the minifigures (especially Basil).

I also like the whole Gothic feel to the theme, and would very much like to see something similar in a future subtheme of LEGO Castle, but with better execution.

Bluebeard, out-

Edited February 24, 201213 yr by Capt. Bluebeard

This is quite nice. I like your explorations for themes I've never even heard about!

While I dont really like this theme, I find a few redeeming things about it. The minifigs are interesting, and that includes the generic guys as well, not just the "alpha couple".

And the many impulse sets ofer good ways to army-build, even the flying-machine ones. You could get a fair amount of accessories like the bat helms, chrome swords, crystal balls, bats, and even the dragons were easier to come by than in the Dragon Masters theme.

The castle isnt as bad as the rest of the theme, its only a bit too open. I agree building it to its full height must be fun.

I think the prisoner in the Traitor Transport is a Royal Knight (on eof the actual knights on Horseback).

Im looking forward to your KK1 review, will you do all the sets at once, or Lions and Bulls separately?

Keep up the great work!

Thanks again all

I agree that the minifigs and the extra stuff (crystal ball, broom, chrome sword) is what this theme is really good for, but I find that a huge shame, you can't just release a set with a cool fig and expect the work to be done, the modern impulse sets have been far better (the jester/ green, blue wizard/ the fantasty castle knight), but I digress if you want a bat lord for a cheap price get a flying machien

I think I will do the two groups seperatly as there are a fair number of sets which include just bull knights and they deserve there own little place on my blog, I will probably do the same for Kingdoms II as well because there sets can be split (mostly) too .

So it looks like I have 10 more posts to go before I am finished with the Castle series (what will I do then?)

Edited February 25, 201213 yr by SirSven7

Well I might as well jump in somewhere... I agree with most of what is said in the blog. I stayed away from this faction because the sets were to fargone(flying machines). However the black dragon set is real nice and the minifigures had some of the coolest equipment up to that point. The larger castle sti;; used the large base plates rather than the much flimsier 32x32 plates. I bought the dragon set and forgot about the rest.

So it looks like I have 10 more posts to go before I am finished with the Castle series (what will I do then?)

Pirates?

EDIT: Nevermind, I see now that you already did that.

How about PoTC then?

Edited February 25, 201213 yr by Hive

Pirates?

EDIT: Nevermind, I see now that you already did that.

How about PoTC then?

ha, yes POTC is on my list, as is western, viking, ninja and all the adventurer sets and LORT when they come out.

I am well on my way with most of these however I am haveing alot of troublem tracking down the Ninja sets (I have built/own about 30% which is not enough to do a theme overview )

I think the concept of the Fright Knights is good, but the designs of the sets are not that great. I remember that short after this theme came out, I started to lose interest in LEGO, untill a few years later LEGO Star Wars came out. That's what I remember from this theme during my childhood.

Another great theme review Sir Sven 7! Your criticism of many of these sets is justified. Although the concept is interesting the execution leaves a lot to be desired. I see this as the real beginning of a 'dark age' for castle that was only to be finally lifted with the arrival of the fantasy era in 2007. The only set worthy of any consideration is the Night Lord's castle which is at least a unique design but still pales into comparison with many of the earlier lego castles. The Witches Magic Manor is just about as bad as Lego Castle gets in my opinion.

Out of interest do you own all of the sets that you review in these blogs? Because if so, you have an incredible lego castle collection!

Great work on an another great review!

This theme is really "blah" for me. Crappy design, crappy sets and crappy figs. The only good coming out of this theme is the torso from one of the soldiers. The one with the french lilly on it!

Thanks again all

I agree this was really a bad time for LEGO Castle and alot of people seem to be telling me that it was at this point that many of them entered there 'Dark age', the torso designs are ok but that doesn't make up for an entire wave being this poor.

Out of interest do you own all of the sets that you review in these blogs? Because if so, you have an incredible lego castle collection!

Ha I don't own all of them however I have built all of them at least once (much more often in most cases) for every faction I discuss (the pirate ones too) I normally own between 30%-100% of the sets, when I do my reviews I will build the smaller sets (I don't have) out of spare bricks and peeron instructions(its really easy) for the bigger sets I will vist family members who do have them (I have about 20 cousins who love lego and all have an reasonable collection of a few of the factions) for the occasional sets that no one has (like the witches manor) I will bricklink, ebay or go car boot shopping so far I have never wrote about a set I did not build myself which I think is a fairly reasonable achievement

so far I have never wrote about a set I did not build myself

Very impressive.

I was in my teen dark age in 1997-1998, so I was only dimly aware that Fright Knights existed. I really enjoyed reading the review; thanks for taking the time to write it up for us. (I think I've read every one so far.)

There's more "miss" than "hit" here. But one thing they do have right is a certain intangible feel to the theme. It's kind of off the wall and wacky, but it does capture that Halloween feel quite well. It's mostly garnish, unfortunately, because the construction of the sets has a lot of open air on all sides of what should be a castle. But then you have a lot of nice chains, bats, and presumably magical stuff going on.

I think the knights get lost in this theme though. Reading the reviews, I can't remember what their torso prints or gear look like (without looking again), whereas other themes like black falcons or forestmen spring to mind. And that's sad, because if any theme needs strong minifigs to carry the sets, this is the one. In particular, the male counterpart to the witch doesn't seem to come across as a strong personality like she does; there's just not too much that's special about him. I guess it's in that strange middle ground between the old minifigs (standard smiley, cookie-cutter torsos) and our new hyper-detailed minifigs of today, and some of them got lost in the mix.

I found the flying contraption sets to be particularly funny. Is that knight in a magical floating Honda? What is that? At least they were promotional sets, and not a lot of thought was put into them as such. By the way, I wonder how the promos worked back then. I wish there were still ways to get neat little sets like that at a gas station.

The (presumably) flimsy plastic cave piece in the Traitor Transport set was a surprise to me. I wonder if anything like that had appeared before (or since). I mean, it doesn't look like it even has studs at all, am I right?

Thanks again. As for what to review next, I vote for these:

Vikings

Western

Ninja (the older one from a while back)

Edited March 1, 201213 yr by Zeya

I agree with the more miss than hit, for these guys, and I agree the actual knights did get lost (except for the silly bat one ) I could do nothing but laught about the flying sets for these guys, the windship in particular is a let down because that one doesn't even have the promo excuse.

Sadly I never had the cave (I have the transport though) so i could only speculate, I can't seen any studs too it, so I guess its just a mould, its a nice idea but it doesn't look wonderful.

As for my next I am probably going to do POTC, Western, Adventurer, Prince of Persia in that order and then possibly Ninja and Viking (I need more time to find all the sets for the last two )

I may go against general opinion, but I liked the Fright Knights.

For sure their structures are not well built, but I appreciated the looks of them, black dragons, a witch, specially the bat helmet to some may look silly but reminds me of the teutonic order, dont know why.

And probably is just nostalgia for those sets, I never had them all, just the promotion from Shell, and the batlord catapult, those were my first castle sets, so perhaps I am not the best judge for it, as I dont have a point to compare to the previous factions. But they surely werent as bad as the jelly beans.

Keep them coming Sven.

I'm really enjoying these blog entries and look forward to reading more! While I don't really like Fright Knights all that much right now, when I was a kid I remember really enjoying them because you could get dragons in two of the cheaper sets. I can't help but laugh when I look at the bat lord helmet though.

The only good coming out of this theme is the torso from one of the soldiers. The one with the french lilly on it!

I concur. Furthermore, I think that torso looks good with the new St. George shield, like so:

Yeah, they really were terrible, these guys, weren't they? I was shocked to see the number of impulse sets they got a lot of them are more or less copies of each other. The only really worthwhile ones, in my opinion was the witch one and the crossbow cart. None of the bigger sets were that great either. Horribly disappointing.

I concur. Furthermore, I think that torso looks good with the new St. George shield, like so:

ok now thats something worthwhile to come out of the Fright Knights era, Im equal parts impressed and jelious

I concur. Furthermore, I think that torso looks good with the new St. George shield, like so:

Yes, these torsos are quite nice. The helmet with wings was also particularly awesome.