LEGO 7094 King’s Castle Siege review - part 1

I did this backdated review recently for a local LEGO forum and have modifed that review for my blog post.  The purpose of the review was also to compare the overall appearances, features and sizes of this castle set with those of the 2010 LEGO Kingdoms King’s Castle 7946, which I reviewed just last month. 

This review is very, very long at more than 50 photos, and with no deliberate intention to overtake my previous record of over 30 photos.  It’s just that some fun inspirations came up in my mind while taking photos of this set and I captured those minifigs adventure moments as well! 

With that, here’s part 1 of the review.

Box - front view.  Like for post-year 2000 sets, the box is actually too big to contain all the packaged contents inside.  I 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!

Although this box has a flap to open in front, it only reveals an even more oversized photo of the castle set instead of letting us view the actual pieces inside the box.

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.   But those days are history…

Contents – The packets are numbered and they swirl around freely inside the box together with the instruction manuals when the box is handled.

Minifigs -1 king, 1 crown knight, 4 crown soldiers, 1 skeleton knight, 3 skeleton warriors, 1 white horse with silver crown barding, plus their weapons & accessories.

Note:The extra minifig heads next to the crown soldiers are the original ones that come with this set.  I replaced them with more suitable heads that look younger.  The crown knight’s head is also added from my spares.  His original head is on the crown soldier who is next to the old man’s head (extreme right minifig in the middle row).

Minifigs -The star of the set is the large black dragon (nocturgon).  Look at how enormous it is when compared to the regular minifigs!

New and interesting parts to note:

Back in 2007, the nocturgon and its variant colored counterparts (from Skeleton Tower 7093 & Troll Warship 7048) are considered new and interesting parts.

I think many of the parts required to build up the nocturgon are new, with the exception of perhaps the horns, the limbs and parts of the tail which could had been used as dinosaur body parts before.  The nocturgon’s body could be a new part too.  I’ll need confirmation on that. 

Nevertheless once built up, the gigantic nocturgon is a formidable force to be reckoned with!

Articulation points - At the lower jaws, back of the head, base of neck, forearms and hind legs (at the points attached to the body), tail (at the base, middle and tip sections) and wings (up-down movement).

Instruction manuals – 2 books.  The instructions are fairly simple to follow.

Wall stickers – 1 sheet.  The brick drawings on the stickers don’t look realistic enough.  I doubt they’ll look fantastic on the castle walls so I didn’t apply them in the end.

Front view – The castle looks tall and imposing.  I don’t like the design of the tall throne keep and its weird little side tower extension that seems to hang in midair. 

I built the castle according to the design in the instructions manual for this review only.  After that, I modified the castle to be more modular in shape.

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

Back view – Interestingly, there is very wide back gate along the back wall.  The throne room has no back wall, so the king has to watch his step, LOL!

Left view - The left wall has a lot of standing space for more soldier minifigs to guard this huge castle! 

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

Here we have the nocturgon comparing its wing span with the length of the castle. 

Now compare the wing span with the breadth of the castle.

The castle courtyard barely has enough space for the nocturgon to move about without knocking against the walls…

Castle wall and tower sections detached – The various castle wall and tower sections are connected by technic pins.  There are 9 detachable sections in all.

Drawbridge – The grey chains attach the drawbridge to a pair of overhanging long black technic bricks.

Drawbridge mechanism – The long black technic bricks are connected to a long black horizontal bar behind the main gate.  Lifting up or pushing down the black bar will open and close the drawbridge.

Portcullis mechanism – See the shield on top of the gate?  It is attached to a pair of grey levers behind it.  Pulling out the shield will release the grey levers from the portcullis.  You can adjust the portcullis height according to where horizontal portcullis bars are and then push in the shield to let the grey levers hold the portcullis in place.

Right wall - The right wall has an enormous catapult mounted on it.  The machine is so huge that I wonder where do the little minifigs find the strength to fire the bulky black projectiles that are piled up at the side???

There is also a little arsenal storage area along the right wall.  Soldiers and knights can access there easily to get their weapons.

Castle Keep - A nice round pair of blue pillars help to support the castle throne keep.  They also help to ’soften’ the angular design of the castle.

Oops, the back gates have been left open!  My goodness, the guards are so careless!  They better close those gates before opportunistic enemies or theives sneak in!

Castle Keep - Here’s a look at the throne keep where the second floor is a treasure room for the king’s wealth.  A gleaming golden sword is stored here as well.  Legends say that this magical golden sword is able to repel even the greatest evil of all!  The ancestors of the crown king used it to defeat all their enemies in the past and gain this kingdom!

The current crown king stands on top of his throne keep with his sword in hand, and a gold goblet of wine in the other.  He can admire his beautiful castle and survey the castle surroundings from this tallest tower of the castle.  This place is his command tower and he can also use the crossbow that is mounted on the wall to bring down enemies!

Today, he is relaxing himself and before he knows it, he has lost count on the number of goblets of wine he has consumed!

Castle Keep - Hey I thought the soldier minifigs have been ordered to close and lock up those back gates!?  Why are they still open!?  And where are the guards!?

Castle Keep - As I mentioned earlier, the throne room has no back wall.  The narrow passageway behind that useless looking hanging tower looks very precarious to walk on.  One wrong step and a fall all the way down could be fatal!

Rear side tower - There is a nice little room on the ground for soldiers to rest.  A flight of steps lead to a sheltered storage room on the second floor.  Soldiers can also seek shelter from the rain, snow and hail here if needed.  The third floor contains a prison where a highly dangerous prisoner is currently held there by the strong and thick black iron bars.  Just who is this mysterious prisoner in there??

Rear side tower - A lone soldier guards the entire rear side tower. He also has to keep an eye on the adjacent throne keep and the whole left side wall.  In addition, watching over the courtyard is part of his job too.  This is one very tired and overworked chap, LOL!

Part 2 to be continued tomorrow [>>]