| |
Sent to find a missing noble, one notoriously brash and irresponsible Earl of
Huntington, who has gone missing for nigh unto two years now, the knight
apparently asked too many questions in all the wrong places. Caught unawares on
a trail in the haunted forest of Hode (after being followed for some time) he
was attacked by forest rogues, knocked unconscious and now finds himself at the
bottom of what appears to be a half-flooded cave with no way out.
With the
cave at his back, he faces crude dungeon bars that let him see just enough
beyond the cave walls outside. He is in the middle of a small body of water and
the cool lake water within the small cave gently ebbs and flows, lapping against
his soaking feet. Chirps of the night insects and waterfowl are interrupted by
distant voices, and on the stone walkway above him he can see the subtle
dancing, waving light of an approaching torch. . .
I’ve been restoring older castle sets lately and in working on the Forestmen’s
River Fortress, there were just enough inquisitive and revelatory moments (since
I’ve never actually assembled one in all my days of collecting) that I figured
it was a good enough reason to sit down and write a review.
First of all let’s give some background to the late 1980’s Forestmen’s theme
(note that I’m not a total aficinado, so feel free to add corrections). Lego
started releasing minifigure Castle sets with the classic 6075 yellow castle in
1981. I never owned the 6075 castle but my collecting started closer to around
1984 with the 6080 King’s Castle. An ‘opposing’ castle sub-theme was hinted at
with the (1986) 6074 Black Falcon’s Fortress but an official Castle sub-theme
would actually crystalize with the Forestmen sets coming out in 1987-1988
(followed shortly thereafter by Black Knights and Wolfpack sub-themes).
Considering the history and development of the themes/structures is important
because as I rebuilt this particular set there were some anomalies that can be
attributed to and explained by a toy company in the stages of growth.
The 6077 Forestmen’s River Fortress is a castle construction that appears to be
built right in the center of a large tree, situated in the center of a body of
water. There are technically three levels to the structure, the ground
(swampy?) floor, second stone-based structure and a high open battlement that
overlooks the front and back of the tower. The ground floor features a small,
door-less prison cell and that’s about it. The second level features a short
walkway platform that leads to the (manually operated) drawbridge. From this
second level one can drop someone down into the prison cell but there’s no other
form of egress (ladder, etc.). The third level of the tower is simply an open
walled terrace with a winch for raising and lowering the front door of the
tower. The tower is completely enclosed with a hinged rear wall that provides
access to the entire interior. There is no ladder for reaching the upper level
of the tower from the second level.
The castle drawbridge extends to a bit of
landstrip (2 x 8 green plate) on the edge of the baseplate with a single tree
growing right next to the landstrip (a small bullseye for target practice
attaches to the tree). One final mini construction is a barrel-based river raft
the forestmen use for transportation (nice detail!).
Figures included in the set are five forestmen (with peaked Robin Hood hats) and
a single knight. Accessories include bow-and-arrow elements, quivers, standard
grey swords, a treasure chest, and a couple of stag-head shields.
The construction is quite a fun addition to the Castle theme but there are a
number of minor issues I had with it. The first curiosity is that the 32 x 32
blue baseplate for the construction is not pre-printed as the baseplate for the
6071 Forestmen’s Crossing is, leaving the base of the castle to come straight
out of the water. Just a smidgen of paint for the castle/tree base (or even
more, like the baseplate for the 6270 Forbidden Island) would have been
terrific.
The second concern is that I didn’t even realize the tower was
built in the middle of a tree because all tree parts are black instead of brown
(as are all the 1980’s Forestmen sets). I’m going to attribute this to the
early stage of a company that limited the mass distribution of multiple colors.
As it was in these early days, black and grey were the primary colors for
castles. Elements in green or brown were fairly rare (though it would be great
to see this 6077 set re-imagined with brown replacing most of the black parts).
The last interesting bit about the set is that there are a number of tiny gaps
in the construction. While there’s nothing that leaves the tower feeling shoddy
(on the contrary it’s quite sturdy), there are a few noticeable spots where a
castle corner could have used a 1 x 2 or 2 x 2 brick just to make the whole
thing feel ‘whole’. I didn’t notice anything like this in the same sub-theme’s
6077 Forestmen’s Crossing so we’re probably dealing with a different designer or
design team.
In the end, this is a very good stand-alone entry in the Castle series (it’s
classic so there are a lot of elementary building pieces, not a lot of
specialized parts). Originally a 348 piece set for around $40, I imagine an
unopened set would go for around $200 but the average castle fan would probably
reasonably pay around $75 for a used set (depending on the condition). Keep in
mind these sets are over twenty years old and restoration can mean removing a
lot of dust or replacing yellowing grey parts (unless the original owner was
careful in maintenance).
!!!4x2ReVu Stats!!!
Rating: Six out of eight studs.
Thumbs up for: A great stand-alone set, uncommon entry in the Castle series.
A good sample of the Lego company in early stages of structure development.
Wallet-Wise: Over 20 years old, expect to pay around $100 or more for a used
copy.
Date: 4/25/2012
|
|
1 Message in This Thread:
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
