I’ve just updated my previous reviews of the following LEGO castle sets with photos of their box, maunal and minifigs.  You many click on their links to view the updated blog posts!

Updated LEGO 6080 King’s Castle review.

Updated LEGO 6085 Black Monarch’s Castle review.

All I can say about this toy is that if it’s really an upcoming official release from Hasbro’s Transformers Hunt for the Decepticons (HFTD) toyline, I want to get it!

This HFTD Deluxe Desert Combat Ravage figure looks very much like the HFTD Legends Ravage figure that was released earlier this year.  Both figures would looks so cool together!

I think the copper and iron colors of HFTD Deluxe Desert Combat Ravage look most movie accurate of all the movie Deluxe Ravage figures that have been released so far.  I can’t wait for him to hit our local stores!

*Runs off to set a side a budget for this toy*

HFTD Voyager action figures - wave 3

From top: Battle Blades Optimus Prime, The Fallen & Highbrow

The following are the video reviews of this wave of Voyager class figures.  The Fallen has a new mask, new staff and new cool colors!  Is Highbrow a new mold or another repaint?  He looks like a complex fighter plane from World War I or II. Battle Blades Optimus Prime remains my favourite of this lot.  I’ll get him for my collection some day,  In the meantime, I’m content with watching him on video.  Happy viewing!

Battle Blades Optimus Prime toy video review

Battle Blades Optimus Prime toy video review - added updates

The Fallen toy video review

Highbrow toy video review

This part 2 blog post on the toy review of LEGO Kingdoms 2010 - King’s Castle set (7946) continues from yesterday’s posting on the same topic.  The following are the rest of the photos about the features and details of this castle set:

Stable – The interior of the front round towers is spacious enough for the king’s horse to fit inside very nicely!  The similar stable space on the other side can be used for the steed of the brave lion knight, who went out to rescue the princess from the dragon knights’ prison tower (7947)!

Portcullis mechanism – There are flat bricks attached to the back of the portcullis.  Pushing in that lever with the red tip will ‘lock’ the portcullis at the desired height.

Portcullis mechanism – There are 3 sets of brown axles along that long horizontal portcullis rod.  The soldiers work very hard to turn the 2 side axles so that the middle axle can ‘catch’ those flat bricks on the back of the portcullis with its ‘teeth’.  This facilitates the up and down movement of the portcullis.

Prison and guard duties – There is a small prison at the back wall.  The photo also shows a catapult defense machine on a front tower.  That lone soldier is in charge of guarding the entire side wall and that door to the treasure room in the rear tower.  If needed, he also has to run to the front tower to man the catapult, and he’s also the one to open and close the portcullis by helping to the turn the side axles (see previous photo).

This castle is very short handed!  The 2 bowmen can’t come down from the tall towers to help, so the 2 soldiers have to do most of the work.  They also have to saddle up the king’s horse, clean his armor, muck out the stables and groom his horse.  Wah, they are terribly overworked!

One of the soldiers tripping over at the drawbridge while rushing out to greet the returning king and to take his horse back to the stable.  That was a very poor design there!  The soldier had to take a day’s MC after that for a twisted ankle.  Can you twist an ankle from tripping!?  I think he’s finding an excuse to rest!!

Armor storage inside the left side wall – Doesn’t this part remind you of the 6041 Armor Shop set from 1986?

The other storage area inside the right side wall – There is a backpack basket containing a few pieces of square 1×1 yellow color smooth top flat bricks.  I wonder if those are meant to be cheese or whatever??

A flight of stairs lead to the upper level of the rear wall.

Rear tower 1 catapult – This bowman keeps watch over the entire rear wall and mans the large catapult too.  The other bowman stands on top of the main front tower where the drawbridge and portcullis are.

Rear tower room 1 – front view.  The door opens to a room with no wall at the back (???)

Oops, a large rat just ran past!  Let’s hope that it’s not a disease carrier!

Rear tower room 1 – back view.  I guess this makes it easier for the owner to play with the minifigs moving about in the rear tower.  I plan to add walls here.

Throne room in rear tower 2 – The king’s throne looks good and when seated here, he looks out towards the back of the castle.  If he’s not careful, he might have a fatal fall all the way down.  I hope he doesn’t have very young children!

Treasure room in rear tower 2 – The security here leaves much to be said!  The bowman on top of rear tower 1 is supposed to watch over this part of the castle and use his crossbow to shoot at thieves and intruders, if any.

Treasure theft at rear tower 2 – Hmmm, enough said about this.  I think this kind of burglary can take place at night.  No wonder the castle is filled with fire torches all over the place!  This castle has the most number of “lights”, except for along the rear wall, LOL!

Prison breakout – A very strong dragon knight removing the entire back section of the prison wall with only ONE hand!  My goodness, what have these dragon knights been eating!?  Or do they have superhuman strength from drinking magic potions given by the green wizard!??

Pointed roof of rear tower 2 – Just in case you wish to know, it’s made of solid bricks inside, hence there’s no attic under the roof.  Wasted space that could have been useful, too bad.

Instructions manual suggestions – As the various wall and tower sections of the castle can be detached, it gives versatility in arranging the castle architecture.  The instructions manual provide some examples to follow.

Spare and unused parts – I didn’t pose the king in his cape because wearing it will hinder him on horseback.  The white bricks are to ‘fill’ the horse’s body when it’s not saddled.

My “building” experience:  This set took me around 2 hours to assemble it.  Overall it‘s not as fun to build as my vintage castles.  Maybe because I was fuming over the missing part, and that I feel more attached to those vintage childhood castles, while I’m already an adult when this set came along.

Overall this is quite a decent castle set to own. It has lots of play areas, though it’s also severely understaffed.  There is 1 king, only 4 lion soldiers, 1 dragon Knight, 2 dragon soldiers, 1 white horse with exclusive royal barding, weapons & accessories, and some new and rare parts (mentioned earlier above).

Minus 1 point for the missing king’s armor. I will restore this point if LEGO replaces it for me FOC.

Updated on 6 Aug 2010 - I received the replacement king’s armor from LEGO Singapore, hence 1 point is restored.

Minus ½ point for too few lion soldiers.  I’ll rather swop the 2 dragon soldiers for 2 more lion soldiers.  The dragon knight can be a prisoner of the castle held for ransom.  A lion knight with the new bucket helmet could have been included, together with another horse (with normal saddle is fine).

Minus ½ point for ‘incomplete’ rear tower walls design.

Minus ½ point for too much red color at the front of the castle, and too little red at the back.  The sticker drawings are very cartoonish, making the set look like Duplo for toddlers…

Minus ½ point for bricks that detach too easily.  It makes the set easy to dismantle but the castle walls break apart too easily when I just want to shift the set around for multi-angled photo shots.  This annoyed me very much!

Score: 7/10. 8/10.

Should you buy it?  Well it depends on when you started collecting LEGO castles.  If your collection started from the Fantasy Era series where the armor and helmets are shiny silver, then a Kingdoms castle fits in well with your collection.

If you are mainly a vintage LEGO castles collector, this overly red color set will look out of place.  If you collect for the minifigs only, then I suggest you buy them loose when the Kingdoms line is more established.

Do I regret buying this set?  Well not really, since I got it at discount.  I tend to feel most excited about toys that I don’t have yet.  After I get them and like them for about a week, the interest dies down and they get stored aside.  Then I find newer toys to covet and start the vicious cycle all over.  Sometimes I wonder what’s the purpose of collecting so many toys to clutter up my home?

Oh well, that’s my life.  Final suggestion for those who plan to get this set, buy it at no lesser than a 20% discount.  And please open up your sets to check the contents if any parts are missing or faulty.  Don’t wait till many years later when LEGO Singapore doesn’t have the parts anymore to replace for you!

Thanks for viewing!

As lately my online hours have been cut down a lot by my faulty regular laptop awaiting replacement parts and my old laptop being ’slow’ in speed, I’ve had time to build up some of my latest LEGO pruchases and review them.  Amongst them are the latest 2010 Kingdoms King’s Castle set (7946) that was just released this month at mass retail in Singapore.

I did the following review for our local LEGO forum before my laptop screen failed and have modified that posting for my blog.  This toy review has over 30 photos and here is part 1 of it:

Box - front view.  As usual for post-year 2000 sets, the box is actually too big to contain all the packaged contents inside.  I also miss those vintage 80’s and 90’s castle boxes which had a flap on the front to let you open and view the minifigs and main castle parts inside the box.  Long gone are those days!

Box - back view.  The oversized box not only takes up more space at home, it also gives a false impression that the set is that big.  The boxes of the vintage castles are way smaller and the castle photos seen on those vintage boxes are actually quite in scale with the actual assembled castles you’d get.

Contents – The packets are numbered and they swirl around freely inside the box together with the instruction manuals when the box is handled.  Packet no. 1 that contains the minifigs is not in the photo because I opened it before taking this photo.

And I wonder why some parts like those 4 octagonal flat pieces are not packaged into the bags like the rest of the bricks?  They could have slipped out and got lost if the sticker seal broke or got cut.

Minifigs – front view.  1 king, 4 lion soldiers, 1 dragon Knight, 2 dragon soldiers, 1 white horse with exclusive royal barding, plus their weapons & accessories.

Note:  My set is missing the King’s armor!  So that is minus 1 point for the set! Fortunately everything else is there.

Updated on 6 Aug 2010 - I received the replacement king’s armor from LEGO Singapore, hence 1 point is restored to the overall score for this set.

Minifigs - back view.  The Kingdoms minifigs tend to have prints on the front and back of their bodies. The dragon knight has the same torso print as the other bucket helmet dragon knights in the smaller sets.

New and interesting parts to note: Octagonal flat bricks, wooden stairs, wooden door and window, castle wall panel and castle corner wall.

Note:  These parts might have appeared in earlier Castle sets etc. but are new to me.  Although I own the King’s Castle Siege (7094) and Medieval Village sets (10193), I haven’t built them yet.  So I can’t confirm if all these pieces are new or not.

Nice portcullis mold.  Back in the 80’s, you had to construct your own portcullis.  Gradually we have readymade ones for fast installation.  This one looks very mean and solid!

There is a break in the gate wall which I didn’t notice during phototaking.  The current LEGO bricks simply detach too easily when I lifted the castle a few cm up to shift about for taking photos.

The little flags to drape over the front tower walls are printed with mirror images of the same design on both sides.  For example, turning the flag at the left horizontally will give you the reversed image of the rearing lion as seen on the flag at the right!

Instruction manuals – 3 books.  Actually they could have consolidated into just 1 manual.  If you could build vintage castles using very keen observation with your eyes to spot the differences in the drawings on the old instruction manuals, building this Kingdoms castle where they spoon feed you all the way by showing you what are the parts needed at each step, is a breeze!

Wall stickers – 1 sheet.  The drawings on the stickers look too “cartoony”.  I doubt they’ll look fantastic on the castle walls.  We shall look into that in the later photos.

Front view – The mixture of grey and red colors, plus some brown and a touch of gold colors look very contrasting on the castle.

Right side view – The enclosed castle courtyard does not have a baseplate.

Back view – The rear towers do not have back walls, making this part of the castle resemble a doll house.  It looks unfinished and disappointing, as if giving a few more bricks to this set will cause a massive cost overrun!  The red color is very under used here too.

Left view - The drawbridge mechanism works like the one in King’s Castle Siege (7094).

Top view – The overall shape of the castle is rectangular.

Castle wall and tower sections detached – The various castle wall and tower sections are connected by technic pins.  There are 8 detachable sections in all.

More detailed photos about this King’s Castle set (7946) review will be continued in part 2 tomorrow.  Be back for more!

Human Alliance Jazz with Captain Lennox action figures

The cool photos of this set of new Human Alliance (HA) toys are available online now!  You can take a look at them on Seibertron.com now! 

For me, I’m not sure if I’ll be getting these, after all Jazz died in the first Transformers movie and I don’t take much notice of his character.  The human action figure doesn’t really resemble Captain Lennox that much. 

Nevertheless, I’ll wait to see the toys in person before deciding whether to buy them.  Expected worldwide store release date is in Q3 of 2010.  Happy waiting for them to arrive in Singapore!

Transformers Battle Ops Bumblebee toy - Price to be confirmed.

Transformers Battle Ops Bumblebee video review

This toy is more for the movie Bumblebee fans who don’t mind collecting yet another toy vesion of this character.  For me even if I adore Bumblebee in the movies, I only collect the Legends, Deluxe and Human Alliance (HA) versions of him. 

Nevertheless, this Battle Ops Bumblebee does possess some interesting features.  A child would find them cool, provided that he or she doesn’t break this toy during impatient transforming of Bumblebee, LOL!  

Take a look at the above video to see what this Battle Ops Bumblebee can do.  Happy viewing!

Unlike the earlier LEGO castle sets that I reviewed on this blog, the following LEGO 1984 King’s Castle 6080 set is part of my personal collection and it’s NOT for sale.  It’s just that while taking photos of my other LEGO castle sets for sale, I also used the opportunity to take some shots of this 80’s set since I was in toy photography mood, LOL!

This pre-owned set from 1984 was bought as part of a bulk purchase from another collector who gave up his collection.  For its age, the set was very well taken care of by its former owner and it is in fabulous condition!  There are no discolorations on the bricks and all the parts are complete when I acquired it!  This also happens to be the oldest LEGO castle set in my collection!

Let’s take a look at the photos!

Box - front view.  The beautiful King’s Castle is seen pictured against a sunrise or sunset background.  What you see is what you’ll get inside the box, no frills!

Box - back view.  The many pictures show you suggestions of alternative castle shapes you could buid with the bricks and pieces in this set.  I especially love the views of the knights and soldiers interacting with one another and posing with the buildings in all the scenes.

The modern LEGO boxes seldom or don’t even feature such suggested building alternatives anymore.  It could either be due to lack of time for LEGO or lack of creative and talented staff to do this job.  So much for a famous toy brand that wishes to inculcate creativity in young children, LOL!

Box - opened view, with its yellow tray inside.  A transparent plastic film covers the ‘windows’ of the box.  The windows allowed you to view some of the key contents inside the box back then when the set was brand new or “mint in sealed box” (MISB) at the store!

The inside of the opened flap shows even more suggestions of alternative castle shapes for you to build and castle scenes you can play with your minifigs.

Front view - Together with the younger Black Monarch’s Castle 6085 from 1988, King’s Castle has a modular design whereby the right and left halves of the building are nearly symmetrical, except for minimal differences.

Portcullis - The castles of the 80’s had portcullis or grille gates that were built from many thin pieces of long and flat bricks.  These days, specially molded portcullis pieces are used in the current castle sets.  I find that the self built portcullis adds more character to the castle, though it requires effort to build it.

Portcullis line - Castles of the 80’s and 90s use sturdy black string to hoist the portcullis up and down.  The other end of the string is tied to a brick with a hole in the middle.  This brick can then be pegged on anywhere of the castle as the owner pleased, as long the desired height of the portcullis is achieved!

Drawbridge - Here we have the drawbridge in closed up position to deter invaders from entering, and to lock up the castle for the night!

Drawbridge mechanism - The black string is also used to wind the drawbridge up and down for the 80’s and 90’s castles.  This is the mechanism used to open and close the drawbridge.  It’s a no brainer to use and blends very well into the castle architecture! 

Right side view.

Back view.

Left side view.

Top view - The modular design of the castle is most obvious from the top view.  Hmmm, there are supposed to be only 8 soldiers that come with this set.  I think I added 2 extra homeless ones from my spares but I forgot to remove them when I took these photos!

Expansion view - The 80’s castles were built on a few flat base plates that allowed the building to be ‘expanded’ for greater playability!

Further expansion - Look, the side castle walls can be folded further forward to ‘bring’ the rear towers to the front!

Interior expansion view - Here’s a look behind those castle walls. 

Further interior expansion view - There are 4 room like spaces near the 4 corners that can also serve as stables for the knights’ horses!  Yup, this generous set of the 80’s also comes with 4 knights and 4 horses!

Knight A - Here is one of the brave knights and his noble black steed.  The 80’s knights had very basic armor print on their bodies and they wear a standard fixed grille helmet.  It was only a few years later that the more popular visor helmets for knights were introduced.

Knight B -  This knight’s horse comes with a very rare white saddle, which I think occurs in only this set!

Knight C - This knight carries 2 flags on his lance while the other knights have only 1 flag each on their lances.  Hence I presume that this knight is likely to be the king of the castle.

In the early years of the kingdom, it is not uncommon for kings to personally lead their armies in defending the castle, or attacking other kingdoms or factions.  The king’s spendid white horse also comes with a rare black saddle!

Knight D - Another brave knight and horse to add to the strength of the king’s army!

Locked prison - At the base of a rear tower is a solid door that is bolted with a huge bar!  If the bar is removed, the place can be converted into a store room or living quarters too!  There is also a flight of stairs leading to the second level.

Opened prison - The space within is quite decent and a couple of minifigs can fit nicely inside.

Rear tower room 1 - Other than the ground floor rooms that I’ve pointed out, there is another room on the second level in each of the two rear towers. 

Did you notice that the flat brick on the floor of the room has a different bluish grey color?  The sharp-eyed experts who are very familiar with this castle structure could have discovered by now that I made slight renovations to my castle. 

That wall panel above the brighter brick was originally positioned at the side next to the where the soldier is standing, leaving the tower interior visible from the front of the castle.  I felt that it gave no privacy and that the enemies could easily shoot arrows or fire projectiles into the rear towers from the front. 

Hence I altered the design, which only required the addition of 2 such flat bricks.  As I lack the needed bricks of the right matching color, these substitutes will do fine for now.

Rear tower room 2 - This other room on the second level is directly above the locked prison.  A couple of minifigs can fit in there very snugly.  Here I only put one of them inside.

Instructions manual - front view.  The top photo shows the ‘closed’ castle while the bottom photo shows the castle ‘opened’ or ‘expanded’.

Instructions manual - back view.  I think back then, someone had to draw all these pictures by hand, compared with the pictures on modern manuals that could have been generated into drawings by computer from actual photos of the real items. 

Instructions manual - The first 2 pages.  Back in those days, building your LEGO sets involved your ability to ’spot the differences’ in subsequent picture steps.  The modern manuals today identify which parts you need at each step, so you no longer need to use much of your brain to build the set.  All you need are to find the correct parts from your pile of bricks and know how to peg them in correctly into the set, LOL! 

Instructions manual - “Spot the differences” picture steps of the 80’s LEGO manuals.

Instructions manual - The steps for the castle’s DIY portcullis.

Minifigs - 4 knights, 4 horses (all with 1 clip saddles), 8 soldiers, weapons & accessories! 

Overall this is a fantastic 80’s LEGO castle set to own.  It has lots of play areas, though it doesn’t come with many significant rare pieces.  The castle wall parts are all the standard ones used for the castle sets of that decade.  I didn’t think that I would like this set until after I built it and explored its playability potential.  The play possibilities are more than I thought of initially.  Hence this is now one of my favourite LEGO castles despite its simplicity.

In July 2010, LEGO will release a Kingdoms King’s Castle set (7946) which looks very much like this set.  I plan to get that set too, though I may not build it so soon as I have already run out of storage space to keep it assembled.  The other vintage LEGO castles in my collection are all kept assembled, with one of them sitting on my bedroom floor at the moment.  So I doubt I can review Kingdoms King’s Castle set (7946) anytime soon, even if I buy it.  I will be reluctant to dismantle it and will not want to leave it on the floor as well to collect dust. 

Nevertheless if good luck prevails and my time permits, a comparison review of both the old and new King’s Castles will be posted here.

Thanks for viewing!

Following my review of LEGO 6081 King’s Mountain Fortress yesterday, here’s a review of a LEGO Emperor’s Stronghold 3053 set and it’s also for sale.

This pre-owned set from the 1999 LEGO Ninja series was bought as part of a bulk purchase from another collector who gave up his collection.  When I acquired it, many rare and vital parts were missing from the set.  I have since replaced those missing pieces and the set is now complete!

Take a look at the photos!  Condition is excellent for its age with no discolorations.  It’s quite clean too.  I have dismantled the set and packed it back into zipper bags after taking these photos.  Price is at SGD 180.00 or USD 125.00.

Front view - This has got to be one of the most awesome LEGO sets from the 90’s.  Despite its simple front wall facade, it packs in plenty of potential play areas that gives lots of fun to its owner!

White Ninja - Standing at the highest point of the stronghold, the exclusive white female ninja prepares to lift off in her flaming dragon wings glider!  There are 2 play possibilities to using this character - she’s either part of the stronghold’s forces, or from an opposition clan.

Red Ninja 1 - The main ‘troops’ of the stronghold are the red ninjas.  Here is 1 of them demonstrating how to slide down from the roof top to the ground using a grappling hook and line.  Easy as pie for a professionally trained ninja, no problem at all!

Red Ninja 2 - This other red ninja has sentry duty in front of the main gates.  Notice the neat looking oriental dragon banners draped on the solid looking gates?  Very cool, aren’t they?

Samurai Lord - Here is the lord of the stronghold himself.  He appears to be a young aristocrat who is building his power base to challenge the Mighty Shogun from the 1998 LEGO ninja series.

Back view - The back view of the set shows the 4 distinct levels of the stronghold where you can position your minifigs for some ninja actions.  Each level has a specific function, which we shall look at in detail.  The roof top where the white ninja is serves as a great lookout point.

Cannon Room - If hostile enemies are spotted too near the stronghold, the cannon room on the 3rd level is stocked up with ample ammunition (black color 1 x 1 round bricks) for the cannon to fire at the invaders.  This scenario must be set in quite a late period in feudal Japan where cannons are already in use!  And yes, that cannon can really shoot out those ammunition.  You just load in an ammo, then pull back the grey rear lever and release!

Trapdoor Ambush - The 2nd level is rather spacious, ideal for the Samurai Lord to rest and relax.  But wait, what are those 2 suspicious looking chopped up pieces of logs doing here?

Trapdoor opened - Oh my, pulling that grey lever with tan tip will open up a trapdoor, that drops the log pieces onto unsuspecting intruders, who dare to enter through the stronghold gates without permission!  Ouch, getting hit by this booby trap can really hurt!

Stable - There is a space on either interior side of the set which can fit a horse very nicely.  Hence this area can be used as a stable for the spendid steed of the Samurai Lord.  The barrel is perfect to contain clean drinking water or food for the thirsty and hungry horse. 

Treasure count - Hmmm, lets assume that the white ninja works for the Samurai Lord.  Both of them are checking the treasure chest one more time before they set off with it.

Treasure Escort - Then they transport the treasure chest off to pay tribute to the Mighty Shogun.  One day when the young Samurai Lord is powerful enough, he shall overthrow the Shogun, take over the latter’s lands and have the last laugh!  But for now, he must be patient and bide his time.

Treasure Sedan -  The strong and fit red ninjas transport the tribute for the Shogun on foot.  Poor chaps, it must be very far to walk with that load!

Balcony - There is a small balcony on either side at the 3rd level that can fit 1 minifig each.

Behind the wall - There is a ledge behind the front and side walls for minifigs to stand and look outside.  They can also shoot arrows and launch spears from there if they choose to.

Treasure Theft - Here’s another play scenario for this set where the white ninja is actually a thief or spy who’s after the luminous jewel belonging to the Samurai Lord!  That special jewel may be the key to helping the Samurai Lord defeat the Mighty Shogun one day.  So the latter sent the mercenary white ninja to steal it!  The skillful white ninja slides swiftly down the line and towards a waiting horse to escape!

Instructions manual - very worn condition and secured with tape, but it’s complete!

Minifigs - 1 Samurai Lord, 1 white ninja, 2 red ninjas 1 horse with exclusvie barding or horse armor, weapons & accessories, including the seldom seen grappling hook and line set! 

Overall this is a great 90’s LEGO ninja set to own.  It has lots of play areas and it comes with many rare and hard to find minifigs, bricks and pieces. 

As a bonus and at no extra cost, the buyer will also receive a near complete set of LEGO Shanghai Surprise 3050 treasure boat set with 2 more red ninjas!  This boat set is only missing the same Samurai Lord minifig, an oriental dragon flag and its own instructions manual.  nevertheless, it makes a great compliment to the Emperor’s Stronghold 3053 set reviewed above.

As part of the unique and popular LEGO ninja sets of the 90’s,  the above 2 sets are in fantastic conditions for their age, and they make great additions to any collector who loves such vintage LEGO ninja sets.  As I have to make some room for my other LEGO sets in my collection, this set will have to go. 

Ideally I’d like to sell to a local collector, so as to give locals a chance to own this set.  I will however also ship overseas.  Just email me through my blog.  For locals, payment is COD and delivery via local pick up.  For overseas buyers, payment will be through paypal and air shipping will be via registered mail. 

Thanks for viewing!