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7018 Viking Ship challenges the Midgard Serpent
585 elements, 6 figures, US$50, 2005
LEGO > SYSTEM > Vikings
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7018
(Castle) System / Viking
Viking Ship Challenges the Midgard Serpent
Le bateau des Vikings contre le monster des mers
El Barco Vikingo reta a la Serpiente Midgard
Ages 7-14, 585 Pcs. (C)2005. 53 page manual: 1 model (1 Viking Ship, 1 Midgard
Serpent), 191 steps. Building time around 1 hour 30 minutes.
Price Range: $50 USD
RATINGS (Scale: Must-Have Excellent Very-Good Good Fair Poor)
Set: Excellent / Models: Good / Playability: Excellent
DECALS? Yes. 1 Black/Red Viking Shield sticker, 1 Blue/White Viking Shield
Sticker.
SET DESCRIPTION
Viking Ship Challenges the Midgard Serpent is a set consisting of six Viking
warriors in their longboat, and the mighty sea serpent Jörmungandr. The ship is
mostly browns with some tans and reds thrown in. The prow has a dragon’s head
carving, and the ship is equipped with a roasting spit and a ballista. It
measures 22 ½” (~57cm) long (from tip of the dragon nose to the sternpost, same
as the length of the box itself) and 17” high (~43 cm, to the top of the little
red flag). The Midgard Serpent is an 18 ¼” (~46cm) long multi-jointed snake of
dark and sand greens with lots of small horns and flippers. The box and
instructions show the ship and serpent battling from a few different angles, as
well as an alternate model consisting of a smaller ship and docks.
SPECIAL ELEMENTS
There are a few pieces that stand out in this set, after having built two other
Viking sets to date. First are some of the serpent pieces: large dark green
serpent head, RED Viking helmet horns, and dark green Techinic hinge pieces.
For the ship and minifigs, there is a gold Viking helmet, large mast (offered
once before), and a dark red Fenris wolf head. There is also a string and large
cloth sail with Midgard Serpent pattern.
IMPRESSION
I opened this set with a very skeptical mind, and had low expectations of its
models for a couple of reasons. First, I wasn’t excited about the Midgard
Serpent, and always thought it didn’t look very interesting from the pictures I
had seen. I was also wary of the ballista on the ship, and thought the
figurehead looked a bit weak, especially compared with the height of the
prototypes figurehead. I think the prototype is one thing that caused some
disappointment with the final version, though the final does correct some of the
issues with the prototype.
Minifigs
The minifigs are a good group to start the set off with. There are 6, and after
putting the glittery euro-armor on one, all six are different. The golden
helmet is nice, as are the variety of faces (all unique in the set, but of
course repeated throughout the Viking theme). These bodies, and their axes,
will make for great miniatures outside of Lego building, and will add great
variety inside the Lego Castle system. Check Peeron to see the individual torso
decorations if you haven’t already seen them!
My only issue with the figures, and this goes for the entire theme, is the
helmets. My first impression was “neat!”, but my opinion of them has gone down
slightly since my initial “new piece” excitement passed. There are two problems
with the helmets that I see right now. Since Vikings did not have horns in
their helmets, I would like to have at least some of the Viking helmets come
sans horns. The problem here is that the holes for the horns to be inserted are
so large that the helmets do not look good with them removed. The prototype
pictures had both horned and non-horned helmets (Gjermundbu style with
eye-guards), but this second type apparently did not make the cut. The other
problem is that the helmets are very loose. Pushing on the horns can rock the
helmet back and forth on the figures head, and it can spin or pop off very
easily. This is the opposite end of the helmet spectrum from the old “Helmet
with Chin-Guard”, which were devilishly difficult to remove.
The Midgard Serpent
I began building the serpent with two things in the front of my mind: there is
no way this can be as cool as the Nidhogg Dragon, and the fact that it did not
use ball-and-socket joints (from TwoTonic Knight’s review), and used “click”
joints for all but the head. I was right that it wouldn’t hold up to the
dragon, but then again it is just a really big snake, and how can that hold a
candle to a dragon? After the fact, I am happier with the serpent than I
thought I would be, though it is still a far cry from Nidhogg. The colors are
great, with lots of sand and dark green, so even someone who doesn’t want to use
the serpent will find plenty of use for those parts. The same color problem of
the previous sets is here too though, as grey and blue pieces find their way
into the model, when they should be green, black or red to match the rest of the
model. He has tons of Viking helmet horns, a piece I’m glad to see in such
large numbers (it’s cheap, so I’m sure it will get used, and the more the
better!), and it has 8 of these horns in red! The instructions and model fail
us here in one aspect though; the red horns will not stay in the already
out-of-place blue Technic pins in the head. Oh well, I guess that means 2 extra
red horns from the set!
Jörmungandr has 7 points of articulation (not counting fins/tail pieces, hand
horns that can be turned about), and while only one of these is a ball-joint,
the other five body segments have 2 axis of freedom each, allowing for lots of
poses, even though they can be hard to balance. The modular design looks just
that, modular, but I’d like to see the first person who buys three of four of
this set combine all the segments into one huge world-circling monster! And
yes, unlike Fenrir, Jörmungandr has a jaw (not to mention a head big enough to
swallow a minifig!)
The Viking Longship
As others have stated, there isn’t that much to a Viking longship, so it has
been added-to in this model for play-value. When it comes to a real longship,
you need the hull (and a shallow hull at that), oars, sail, and a scary
figurehead to intimidate your next hosts. All of that is included here, so the
basics are taken care of. The hull is nice in that it is 5 pieces, so it can be
extended or shortened quite easily. The only problem with the boat pieces is
that the bow and stern pieces leave a small gap at the top where they should
connect to the center boat base pieces. The roasting pit is a nice addition,
which caused me to do little reading and find out that occasionally Viking ships
would catch fire due to cooking on board! That same reading also revealed that
Vikings likely did not use ballistae, which leads us to the second added feature
of the boat.
The ballista works well, and looks good in a “kids play” sort of way, but can
also be very easily removed, which will make the ship more realistic, roomier
for more Vikings, and give you a handful of extra pieces as well. If there is
one thing I like about modular building, it is that when something doesn’t work
in a model, it can be pulled out with no ill effects and used elsewhere! Two
other additions help fill out the ship: a cage and the helm. The cage is
strange and serves the same purpose as the shield contraption from the Fenris
set… none that I can tell. Maybe the Vikings wanted a diving cage to get a good
underwater view of the Midgard Serpent? Again, this can easily be removed from
the model with no problems. The helm at least makes sense, as it gives the
Viking chief a place to frenzy his oarsmen from. My only issue with the helm is
the bad building practice of having unsecured clips (the two clips holding the
torches, page 21 of the instruction manual), for shame for shame.
The one other thing I dislike about the ship is the mast itself. Its tan color
could be wood, but it only looks fine from the front. The back side of the mast
is open and shows the support plastic zigzagging its way up the mast. I much
prefer the solid masts, like the old pirate masts in the Black Seas Barracuda.
The only models that should only look good from a certain angle are facades and
optical-illusions.
I always enjoy pointing out the negatives first, but there are usually some
positives as well. While I find the figurehead less than terrifying (maybe it’s
the batwings?), the red Fenris head used for the jaw should make a great piece.
The shield and horn decorations along the sides of the ship look nice, and the
sail is pretty impressive. The prototype picture showed better rigging, with
fore- and backstays, but the final shows some good effort with the chain sheets.
Likes/Dislikes
Like: Jörmungandr (overall, I think I do)
Like: Fire-pit
Like: New Minifig torsos
Like: Tons of Viking horn pieces
Like: It’s a big boat!
Like: Ballista (for play and war gaming value)
Dislike: Ballista (for aesthetics)
Dislike: More Knights Kingdom 2 swords
Dislike: Helmets (for being loose)
Errors
Red horns in Midgard Serpent’s head cannot stay as shown (page 8, lower jaw
assembly step 4).
CONCLUSION
Would I buy this set again? Yup. Would I buy another? Probably not, but $50
is a bit to spend on duplicate sets for me. Would I recommend this set to
someone else? That depends. If they were on a budget, I would recommend set
7017 (Catapult and Nidhogg). If they are willing to spend, I might recommend
the Fortress, but I have to reserve judgment on that, as I haven’t built it yet.
If someone were interested in the set already, I would give them the
green-light.
REVIEWER INFORMATION
Review Written: December 30, 2005
By: Brett Kingery (plucky)
Age 30 Favorite Lines/Themes: Castle, Star Wars
CA++++ #+++ CO LM LS++ P+++ S- Hzl M- YB75mIC17
COPYRIGHT
This review is Copyright 2005, by the author as named above. The author grants
publication rights for all uses, public and private, with the following
exceptions: all information in the document must be published in full; any
for-profit use requires express written permission by the author for publication
in full or in part.
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