Subject:
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JJ'S REVIEW: 6095 Royal Joust
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.castle, lugnet.reviews
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Date:
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Tue, 14 Dec 1999 02:42:23 GMT
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Viewed:
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2000 times
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(This review will join the others on my web page soon...but for now...here it is)
Number/Name: 6095 Royal Joust (Tesouro Guardado, Torneo Real,
Joute Royale)
Theme: Castle/Knight's Kingdom
Pieces: 99 (3 minifigs)
MSRP: US $19.99
Rating (Model): 6/10
Rating (Parts): 7/10
THE GOOD
* New, white-bearded king. Very stern & dignified.
* Good minifigs all around, actually.
* Cool 'lion head' inverse slopes.
* Stained-glass window
* Alternate model instructions (!)
THE BAD
* PRICE!
* 'Trap' halberds difficult to balance, don't stay up
THE HUH?
* Silver eyes on the Cowpack guy
* Colors on box don't match colors inside
* 'Tesouro Guardado' seems to be Portuguese for 'Kept (Guarded?)
Treasure'. Wouldn't that be a better name for 6094? Maybe
a goof-up in the box design?
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
All right! 2000 Castle LEGO! I wonder where the rest of the sets are?
_How_ much for 99 pieces?
I'll start with the box. Gone is the cheerful bright yellow that I always
used to look for to identify the castle sets amidst the other LEGO boxes. The
new color is a sort of 'old parchment' tan with little map decorations on it.
It's actually kind of nice - a very medieval/fantasy feel to it.
Inside looked a bit skimpy - the box is roughly the size of the Snowspeeder
box, but with about half as many pieces. To be fair, the Snowspeeder had a lot
of tiny pieces, and this set has a lot of big pieces - I'll bet the lion heads
and stained-glass window pushed up the price.
The minifigs are quite nice. The white-bearded king has a lot of detail
on his tunic, the new breastplate print is good, and *all* the legs have
printing on them (the king has a belt and the bottom of his tunic, the king's
knight has a belt and thigh armor, and the Cowpack warrior has a belt.) Come
to
think of it, that probably drove up the price as well. Oddly enough, the
king's torso and legs are tan on the box but light grey on the actual figure.
The same is true of the horse barding element.
The lion-head ornaments are indeed in tan. They are 2 2/3-3 bricks tall, 2
wide, and 3 deep. The shape is difficult to describe, but they look good. And
to answer any questions you might have about the stained-glass element: it *is*
a 'secret door' piece, it *is* clear, and it *is* preprinted with a design of
a knight riding on horseback.
BUILDING THE MODEL
The model mainly consists of two things: a very deadly quintain and a
section of castle wall for the King to sit in front of. Plus the jousters
themselves, of course, and a treasure chest full of jewels (no gold, sorry)
for the winner of the tourney.
The quintain has two shields and two halberds and swivels on a central
turntable. The idea of a quintain is generally to hit the shield square in
the center with your lance *and* be moving fast enough that you don't get hit
by the sandbag that swings around on the other end. Since they were generally
used for *training*, I'm not sure what the axes are doing here, unless good
King Leo is a lot more bloodthirsty than he appears.
The wall that shelters Leo's seat (it's not really very thronelike) is
mostly taken up by the aforementioned stained-glass window/secret door piece.
The king's seat is flanked by a pair of precariously balanced axes that fall
over if you look at them wrong. Leo seems to have a thing for axes...maybe
he's not as good as I thought...
AFTERMATH
Looking through the instructions revealed something unusual - there were
actually instructions for the alternate models, included at the end. They're
shorter and thus a bit more complex than the normal instructions. The models
are an archway over a road, with the two horses carrying the treasure between
them, and a narrow bridge over a river (OK, a stream) which can topple,
sending your combatants plunging to the water below.
Overall, the model is good for what it does. The ratings above, as usual,
do not take price into account - that's because I don't know what you, the
reader, likes to pay for your LEGOs. If it were half the price, I'd recommend
it unreservedly, and I'd ponder buying another set for the cool pieces inside.
As it is, I paid the price mostly because I desperately wanted a look at the
Y2K LEGO. I don't feel completely ripped off, but I don't feel astounded like
I have over other LEGO sets of similar price (like, once again, the
Snowspeeder.)
Direct all comments to: sakura@mediaone.net
--
sakura@mediaone.net is Jeff Johnston http://www.io.com/~jeffj
LEGO Want List: http://www.io.com/~jeffj/LEGO/wantlist.txt
LEGO Trade List: http://www.io.com/~jeffj/LEGO/tradelist.txt
LEGO Geek Code: SP+ CA +++ (375/6075) PI +++ #++ S--/++ LS++ Hal M+ A++ YB73m
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: JJ'S REVIEW: 6095 Royal Joust
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| (...) ^^^^^^^^ DEAR GOD! :) Kinda like the good ol' Blacksmith's Shop. (...) ^^^^^^^^ Yup, little pricy. Still on my list (I need the knight... ;) ) (...) Um, ok... (...) Cool. (...) Again, cool! Printed legs! Wow. (...) Both of those pieces will (...) (25 years ago, 14-Dec-99, to lugnet.castle, lugnet.reviews)
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