6th Anniversary REVIEW: 850888 Castle Knights Accessory Set

[WhiteFang]

Hello everyone,

I am very excited to be sharing this comprehensive review with all of you. Even though it may just be a simple set, I felt it is wonderful to be able to review it especially since LEGO Castle Theme has always been one of my favourite themes. When I was in LEGOLAND Malaysia earlier this year, I chanced upon this battle pack at a pretty reasonable price, as compared to Singapore's SRP. It is at a good price and I certainly not want to miss this. I have not been army building for quite awhile and I thought to myself that I must at least own a pack like this and expand onto my small 2013 Lion Knights Castle Theme. So, let me walk you though and share my thoughts.

Name: 850888 Castle Knights Accessory Set

Theme: LEGO System / Castle / Lion Knights

Year: 2014

Pieces: 32

Minifigs: 4 minifigures

Price: USD $14.99, GBP 10.99, EURO N.A, SGD $24.90, RM 34.95

Resources: Brickset, BrickLink

Help the trusty Knights defend the King’s treasure!

Keep the King’s treasure chest safe with the LEGO® Castle Knights Accessory Set. These 4 Knight minifigures are armed to the teeth with weapons, helmets and shields, so those Dragon soldiers had better forget about stealing the King’s gold and treasure!

• Features 4 LEGO® Castle Knight minifigures

• Weapons include a sword, bow and arrow, spear and a long axe

• Accessories include 4 helmets, 2 shields, quiver and an opening treasure chest with treasure and gold elements

• Keep the King’s treasure safe

• The perfect addition to any LEGO® Castle collection!

• Build your very own LEGO® Castle Knight army!

• Combine with the 850889 LEGO® Castle Dragons Accessory Set for even more exciting LEGO Castle battles!

An original box image of the 850888 Castle Knights Accessory Set

Back view of the original box image of the 850888 Castle Knights Accessory Set

The perfect addition to your LEGO Castle Army Collection

I find it particularly enjoyable to see the LEGO Castle Army to be able to expand the size of army by acquiring sheer amount of battle packs. No doubt, this set or pack is not the usual same LEGO minifigures found in the regular LEGO sets despite of the same design. This could be the similar 'Made in China' minifigures standards. I am not really complaining of the quality as I personally find it acceptable unlike bootlegs or sub-par design. I welcomed these minifigures to be integrated into my own collection.

The 850888 Castle Knights Accessory Set is not the first of its kind. Since 2008 to 2009, LEGO has released Fantasy Era Battle Packs to complement army building through buying multiple packs instead of sets. As we moved onto 2010, LEGO has also released Battle Packs like this and this, for the Kingdoms. With the ongoing new Castle Theme for 2013, the Battle Pack tradition continues with slight variation.

Instead of the usual five minifigures combinations with accessories, it appears TLG has reduced the amount of minifigures from five to four. The set focus on an additional stand-alone accessories with the inclusion of a treasure chest and the content. Pricing wise, remains the same as previous battle pack. Personally, I will really prefer TLG to keep the five minifigures combination instead of reducing it. Because I will like to build an army but not building its accessory. Still, this remain one of the viable sustainable source of obtaining multiple castle minifigures of the same faction.

The valuable King's treasure

Ohh! These soldiers are defending the valuable King's Treasure. Is this really all that valuable? Actually, the content within the treasure chest is rather common and nothing speculator about it. I will rather trade back for one generic soldier minifigure. The gems, ore and chrome gold coins are easily available. The only saving grace is the inclusion of the chrome gold ingot which is limited in just a few sets. That was the only thing that pleased me in the treasure chest and somehow it reminded me of my upsetting pearl gold experience in the 4181 Isla De Muerta.

Front view of the Lion Solders minifigures

The 850888 Castle Knights Accessory Set consist of the above four minifigures. It contain a knight, an archer and two generic soldiers. These soldiers are all available in the existing 2013 LEGO Castle sets. All of these minifigures have back printing and one of the minifigure have dual facial feature. The accessories given for the soldiers are average but I particularly like it when the archer is also equipped with a quiver. There are two minifigures which held shields. Some areas of improvements will probably include an additional shield for the other minifigure and the change of short sword to chrome sword for the knight.

Oh well, I like the armoured knight very much and that is one of the key reason why I bought this pack. As you can see from the detailed breakdown of the Lion Knight, there is printing for the knight torso instead of giving a plain version. Another main reason is because, this knight is only available in the 70403 Dragon Mountain. This is actually a much affordable method to acquire this knight.

Let's prepare ourselves for the impending attack

Working together with our Spartan Allies

To conclude, I am pleased with my purchase but regret not to buy a few more packs since it has already sold out. I do not think the content is worth the original retail pricing which do not warrant us to acquire it unless you are able to find the pack for a good price. It is also a good pack to expand the castle army. Nonetheless, this is still a decent pack.

Summary review

Playability: 7/10 (Add them and expand your Castle army with these soldiers.)

Design: 7/10 (Very simple treasure chest inclusion and design of minifigures are pretty mainstream as well.)

Price: 5/10 (I don't recommend getting this pack for its SRP. Do consider it if you can find a good discount for it.)

Overall: 6.3/10 (Slightly above average but I will still recommend Castle fans to buy one pack for your expansion.)

I gave it a "4" based on my Review Score Card. What about yours?

I hope every one of you enjoyed reading this simple review of mine. Comments and Criticisms are strongly welcomed.

Pictures can be found in My Flickr.

[Hive]

Great review but below average set - bordering "poor". It should have had an additional minifig and/or lower price or at the very least better plastic. And the fact that I'm no fan of these latest lion knights doesn't help my perception either.

[Mencot]

Great review ones again WF but agree it is not value for your money.

Also I don´t like these castle good guys and don´t understand how this battle pack is sold out but the evil dragon knights pack isn´t. They are way better detailed and better looking but that is my opinion.

Also a better value for money is to get the Forest ambush set to army build.

[Ardelon]

You should have shown them interacting with your own sigfig, WhiteFang!

I had no idea that coins stamped with numbers 1, 2 and 5 existed – when did this happen? I only knew of coins with values of 10, 20, 30 and 40. It seems LEGOLAND underwent monetary refrom, or even deflation, recently!

Otherwise, it’s a shame the number of figs is being reduced, but its still great that this option of army-building is available.