Drawbridge Defense [Kingdoms]

[Hive]

Seeing how we won't get anymore Kingdoms set from LEGO, I decided to prolong the life of such a magnificent theme a bit myself: by modding sets from past and present LEGO themes (Castle as well as non-Castle) to look like something that could have been released as part of the Kingdoms theme. Some sets will be changed mor dramatically than others, but I will attempt to make them all seem like believable LEGO sets.

To kick it off, I present to you a Kingdoms version of one of my favourite 2007 Castle sets (and, sadly, one of the few I own): 7079 Drawbridge Defense

I fell in love with this set the first time I saw it, due to the brilliant drawbridge, coloring and splendid (and exclusive) gold knight. I call my own Kingdoms version (quite imaginatively) Drawbridge Defense:

I know that the spears at the front doesn't line up, that was an error I didn't discover untill afterwards - but decided it was too minor to bother retaking the pictures.

As you can see, there are some changes - mostly in terms of coloring. The only "big" change is replacing the flick-fire missile with a catapult, as I really really don't like flick-fire. And, of course, the inclusion of two Lion shields to the tower. I think it looks quite spiffy myself.

The figures:

I apologize for the bad, bad lighting. I'm not exactly a skilled photographer.

You will probably notice that there are less figures in my version than in the original, which is fully on purpose; this is done to make it seem more believeable, as we all know LEGO cheaps more and more out on including figures. And I figure that my choice of Dragon Knight figures (and horse) are a lot more expensive to manufacture than the original skeleton selection. Also, I'm not really a fan of jester minifigs (and don't even own the Kingdoms version).

I hope there's some Kingdoms fanatics like myself out there who appreciates wacky stuff like this!

Edited March 4, 2012 by Hive

[Sir_Basil_Ashton]

Great job! I would totally buy a set like this to go with my Kingdoms sets. Could you post photos of your Drawbridge Defense alongside other Kingdoms sets? Just so I can soak everything in?

[Hive]

Great job! I would totally buy a set like this to go with my Kingdoms sets. Could you post photos of your Drawbridge Defense alongside other Kingdoms sets? Just so I can soak everything in?

I'm glad you like it!

The only other Kingdoms set I have assembled right now is Escape From Dragon Prison, which isn't exactly the most impressive of the Kingdoms sets... I unfortunately had to disassemble King's Castle as I needed the bricks for my little project here. Sorry!

[Vindicare]

I love it! Like you, I'm saddened by the Kingdoms death. But you have paid great homage to the line. You did great recreating the set in Kingdoms motif. I also really liked the original Drawbridge Defense set, probably my favorite of that sub theme.

Way to keep the line alive!

[Hive]

I love it! Like you, I'm saddened by the Kingdoms death. But you have paid great homage to the line. You did great recreating the set in Kingdoms motif. I also really liked the original Drawbridge Defense set, probably my favorite of that sub theme.

Way to keep the line alive!

Thanks. And yes, the original certainly was one of the highlights of that theme.

[Jack Bricker]

Great job and I have to say that I am really glad that you did that and posted pics. I have to admit that I had had the same idea myself and am really glad to see what it would look like and it looks really nice. Keep up the moding to your sets and I hope to see more.

[Hive]

Great job and I have to say that I am really glad that you did that and posted pics. I have to admit that I had had the same idea myself and am really glad to see what it would look like and it looks really nice. Keep up the moding to your sets and I hope to see more.

Thanks for the encouragement, I will most certainly be doing more. Already have my next idea lined up in my head.

[Haltiamieli]

Well done. The only "problem" is that this set is very easily transformed to Kingdoms style and as such does not offer much surprises. But of course it is a very good and natural choice for a starting point for your series. It will be interesting to see how you do with the ones that need a little bit more tweaking! Changing the flickfire ballista to a catapult is a good choice, though.

If I may offer some (hopefully constructive even if not noteworthy or helpful) critisism, I personally think that the red cheese slopes do look a bit out of place on the pillars. Those were dark bley in the Fantasy Era version, and both Outpost Attack and King's Castle use some amounts of dark bley details to break the grey wall syndrome. As it is now I think this one has a bit too little of that colour compared to them. Perhaps more controversially, I think it wouldn't look bad to add a bit more brown too, Kingdoms being in some ways more down-to-earth than its predecessor and to counter-weight the fact that bright red is rather more blatant colour than dark blue. My idea would be to try changing the red 1x6 plates and jumper plates (the ones with crossbows) to brown.

[JackJonespaw]

Very nice! Reminds me of the Knights Kingdom II Version a bit like this.

[Hive]

Well done. The only "problem" is that this set is very easily transformed to Kingdoms style and as such does not offer much surprises. But of course it is a very good and natural choice for a starting point for your series. It will be interesting to see how you do with the ones that need a little bit more tweaking! Changing the flickfire ballista to a catapult is a good choice, though.

Indeed, I felt it was a good place to start exactly because it needed so few changes.

If I may offer some (hopefully constructive even if not noteworthy or helpful) critisism, I personally think that the red cheese slopes do look a bit out of place on the pillars. Those were dark bley in the Fantasy Era version, and both Outpost Attack and King's Castle use some amounts of dark bley details to break the grey wall syndrome. As it is now I think this one has a bit too little of that colour compared to them. Perhaps more controversially, I think it wouldn't look bad to add a bit more brown too, Kingdoms being in some ways more down-to-earth than its predecessor and to counter-weight the fact that bright red is rather more blatant colour than dark blue. My idea would be to try changing the red 1x6 plates and jumper plates (the ones with crossbows) to brown.

Perhaps you are right about replacing the dark grey cheese slopes with red, I merely changed it to help make it stand out a bit more from the original. But one should not always change something simply for the sake of changing it. I'll try with grey cheese slopes tomorrow and see how it looks. While I agree that Kingdoms use a lot more brown in the structures than Castle, I'm not sure I agree that this particular structure needs more brown. I'll consider it though. Either way, I appreciate the constructive criticism!

Very nice! Reminds me of the Knights Kingdom II Version a bit like this.

Not quite sure I'm too happy that it reminds you of KKII, but thanks anyway.

[SirSven7]

Flick fire balista booo booo, normal catapult yay, great change I love this set, one question weres the new jester? he should be there too.

Great idea though I might change my drawbridge now

[Hive]

Flick fire balista booo booo, normal catapult yay, great change I love this set, one question weres the new jester? he should be there too.

Great idea though I might change my drawbridge now

Thanks. Though as for the jester: like I said, I'm not a fan of jester minifigs - which I do realize is a form of heresy on this board, as people generally seem to love them.

I am considering getting it though, as it is the only set (apart from the battle packs and promo polybags) that I lack from the Kingdoms lineup.

[andhe]

The 'Castle' Drawbridge defense was/is one of the best sets for selection of figures I have seen in recent times. I've seen the exclusive gold knight sell for almost the same as the set cost new. Combined with a great jester (one of my favourite figs ever) and Queen and fun build and play factor, this is the type of set that the Kingdoms line never really lived up to (IMO).

You've done a great job of making it look like an official Kingdoms set, though maybe a bit too much red like others have said. But a set like this, with two knights (I've never really counted skeletons as 'proper' figs) would sell really well.

[Mencot]

Cool moc, like others said it isn´t maybe so hard to transform it to Kingdoms, but you did it well.

Oh how I would had love some small Kingdoms sets here before LOTR comes. Surely TLG had much spare parts they could had made those last small sets where they sell every part from a theme .

Another oh, i would love to get my hands on one of those gold knights, or the parts of it, torso,arms,legs and helmet

[Nagyzee]

Actually I'd rather class this as a tribute to Fantasy Era as you are updating that era's designs to a newer theme. Still, it's a nice MOD, you pulled it off well and I'm looking forward to your takes on the sets that are harder to transform into Kingdoms style sets. This build still shows one of the weaknesses of Kingdoms though: the worse colour scheme (at least on the Lion Knights' part).

[Niku]

Great modification of the set, now I want to have it.

I actually prefer it on red than blue.

Thanks for sharing.

[The_Cook]

A really good attempt at updating a classic of it's era to a more recent style, although I have to agree with some of the other comments in that the red might be a bit too blatant. It's probably fine where you've replaced the dark blue but the addition cheese slopes on the crenelations around the top are just too much and a more subdued dark bley might have work.

A really good idea and take it as a compliment that all the critique so far is trying to fiddle with the detail of the icing rather than complaining about the cake! Looking forward to seeing what you choose for your next update.

[Nagyzee]

A really good idea and take it as a compliment that all the critique so far is trying to fiddle with the detail of the icing rather than complaining about the cake! Looking forward to seeing what you choose for your next update.

Well, keep in mind though that the cake here is an official Lego model. The structure itself has seen minimal changes. The icing (dark blue - red colour changes mostly and an update on minifigs) was changed to make the set fit into Kingdoms.

I'm really looking forward to Hives' take on other, less easy to Kingdoms-ify sets. Those will be more of his work and less of Lego's and thus more interesting MOCs/MODs. This MOD is a nice warm-up though.

[Nicker]

This is probably my favorite set from the Fantasy era besides MMV. Nice adaptation to the Kingdoms theme. The only thing your missing is the Kingdoms red/white Jester.

[MCNwakeboard]

Great set modification. The tower bridge was actually the only Crownie set that I purchased (besides a couple MMV of course) and the drawbridge works fairly well. I hadn't thought to turn it into a Lion outpost, but the bluish grey works well with the red accents.

[Hive]

Thanks for all the comments, guys!

I have updated the first post with new pictures that incorporates the suggestions to use less red.

[Vindicare]

Still looks great! I thought it looked fine with the red before. There were always big red roofs on the Kingdoms sets.

[Brinstar]

Great idea Hive! I'll definitely make these modifications to my own Drawbridge Defense. This was definitely one of my favourite sets from the fantasy line and I think it works as a Kingdoms set just as well. I guess other crownie fantasy sets probably lend themselves best to this sort of 'Kingdomisation' as I would call it. I can imagine the tower from 7037 and the harbour from 7029 would be appropriate for such modifications. Trying to find sets that could be modded for the dragon knights might be more problematic...

Edited March 6, 2012 by Brinstar

[Hive]

Still looks great! I thought it looked fine with the red before. There were always big red roofs on the Kingdoms sets.

Thanks again. :)

Yeah a lot of red is definately needed to make it look like a Kingdoms set, but replacing the dark grey cheese slopes with red was probably a bit too much in hindsight. I do like the new version better.

Great idea Hive!

Thank you. :)

This was definitely one of my favourite sets from the fantasy line and I think it works as a Kingdoms set just as well.

It's good to hear that so many others loves this set as well.

I guess other crownie fantasy sets probably lend themselves best to this sort of 'Kingdomisation' as I would call it. I can imagine the tower from 7037 and the harbour from 7029 would be appropriate for such modifications. Trying to find sets that could be modded for the dragon knights might be more problematic...

Converting sets to the Dragon Knights will indeed require more imagination - but bear in mind that I'm not limiting myself to just the Fantasy Castle subtheme, but will do sets from all sorts of themes. Though I will likely revisit it again, and the harbour from Skeleton Ship attack is indeed on top of my "want to do" list. Incidentally, the project I'm working on now features a harbour as well...