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As a kid I remember trawling through Lego booklets counting the different
sets I REALLY wanted. There were always these big big castles that I wished
I had, but I never actually got. I remember the Christmas when I simply
couldn't decide if I wanted 6080 - "Castle Lion" as I knew it, or the
Transformer Optimus Prime. Perhaps if I had made my mind up, my parents
would have gotten one of the two, but since I couldn't, I didn't get either.
I finally got Optimus Prime at age 9 from a friend who had supposedly
outgrown Transformers one Christmas when I was laid up in hospital, but 6080
has always eluded me.
Recently, I replied to a local ad from someone selling lego, and when
talking on the phone to the woman, I was told there were "a few old
castles", so I went over to her house, hoping to find some of the old
classic sets. I walked into her lounge, and couldn't quite believe my luck.
Here were these great sets I wished I had had for most of my life! 15
minutes later I was the proud and extremely happy owner of not only 6080
King's Castle, but also 6074 Black Falcon's Fortess. Having finally gotten
my hands on these sets, I just thought I'd share a few thoughts on them.
6080 - Great for the grey wall pieces obviously, 28 by my quick count. (I
think the light grey is the best colour for most castles, but that may
simply be because the best sets were teh early ones which were in that
colour. A dark grey or tan castle could look geat as well, I'm sure.) What I
didn't realise beforehand though, was the sheer bulk of bricks in the set;
countless 1 by 1s and 1 by 2 bricks. There are 64 1 by 1 cylinders too, and
the door of the dungeon is the old kind which also appears in the Guarded
inn,except this is in black. The portcullis is made of plates, is pretty
strong and looks so much nicer than the single portcullis pieces that
appeared in later castles. I like the staircase at the back of the courtyard
which splits in two quite satisfactorily. One of the design flaws however,
is that the two rear towers cannot be accessed from the rear wallwalk
because they are effectively walled off, a case of two wall pieces too many.
There could also be a winch for portcullis. Great set nonetheless, I wish I
had another 10 of these!
6074 - If Lego were to rerelease a castle set, this would get my vote. While
much smaller than 6080, it could be priced much lower, and offers a greater
variety of pieces for the castle builder, including 12 corner wall pieces, a
tudor wall piece and lots of great black slopes. As a playset it is a bit
small, but has a compact and very playable design. I have always loved the
quite realistic design of the huge "double D" gatehouse, although it does
look a little incomplete from the inside, and could use some more bricks and
perhaps even some more details inside the towers. If this set had been made
a bit later, one could assume that the battlements on top of the tower would
have used corner bricks or the turret battlement piece, which were
unavailable at the time this set was designed.
If TLC rerelease more sets, they shouldn't be afraid to improve them, a kind
of "Mark II" version. An improved 6074 could include a few more minifigs,
perhaps non combatants, some well placed bricks on the back of the gatehouse
and some more detail inside the towers. It could also be a bit bigger,
perhaps adding a wall piece to the length of the model, lengthening it by 5
pegs or so.
Putting these two classic sets together with some other old stuff, really
had me quite enthralled with the modularity function of the old sets. If
lego were to bring back the castle line, I would suggest that the sets once
again are modular, and furthermore that they all use either baseplates or
plates, but not both, since the two have different thicknesses. Also, I
think that one could stretch modularity even further than simply making
castles open up. Imagine if a set like 6074 not only came apart at the back,
but could also come apart on both of the sides.
cheers
Magnus
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