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7090
Castle System / Crown Knights
Crossbow Attack
L’attaque a l’arbalete
El Ataque de la Ballesta
Ages 6-12, 54 Pcs. (C)2007. 12 page manual: 1 model, 14 steps. Building time ~6
½ minutes.
Price Range: $8 USD
RATINGS (Scale: Must-Have Excellent Very-Good Good Fair Poor)
Set: Good / Models: Good / Playability: Very-Good
DECALS? No
SET DESCRIPTION
Ready, Aim, Fire! Firing their powerful crossbow ballista, the good knights
fight heroically against the evil skeleton rider. The ballista of black, brown
and navy blue matches the uniforms of the two good knights who man it, while the
skeleton riding his skeletal horse attacks.
SPECIAL ELEMENTS
As the first reviewed set of the ’07 ‘Crown Knight’s’ Castle line, some of the
common elements of the line will be reviewed here. I’ll start with old elements
in new colors, and then move on to the new elements.
There are quite a few ‘firsts’ for colors in this tiny set. The crossbows
appear in Pearl Light Grey, the Slope Brick 45 1x2 Triple appears for the first
time in Perl Gold (I have not seen the Perl Dark Gold from the KKII sets to know
how different this is, if it is noticeable), there are 6 Royal Blue Slope Brick
33 1 x 1 x 2/3 (again, I haven’t seen the Navy Blue slopes to compare, I may go
dig some other Navy Blue bricks out, if I have any!). The Norman with Aventail
and Kettle style helmets appear in metallic silver, while the good old axe shows
up in Dark Stone.
New pieces abound as well, being a new line. First are the new prints for the
minifig torsos. Both Brave Knights have scale mail patterns, but each is
different beyond that, check the box for details on that. The Evil Skeleton has
a new body, arms, and head. The head has evil deep set red eyes and cheekbone
details, as well as (gasp!) nasal holes! The skeleton horse shows up here,
along with the scythe blade, and skull patterned shield.
IMPRESSION
A new year, and a new line for Castle, there is much to like, and to dislike.
Let’s see how things weigh out after all the sets are built and played with! It
is always hard for sets to live up to their expectations when they are as
anticipated as this line, especially after the initial prototypes were shown!
Starting with the ballista itself, there isn’t much to tell. It is pretty
standard assembly and detailing. Brown wagon wheels are nice to see here, and
this weapon could be transported by just one person, realistically! While the
ammunition may be strange, being large balls on the end of a shaft instead of
pointy arrows, it could make sense when used against a skeletal adversary
(everyone knows you need to use blunt force against skeletons!) The ballista
has an effective range of about 6 inches.
I do like the patterning and colors for the Brave Knights and their accessories.
A shield would have been nice for the axe knight, but otherwise they are great.
The metallic silver looks nice for both helmets, and the Dark Stone axe is nice
too.
The Evil Skelton side is a mixed bag. The new head is nice, I wasn’t sure if I
would like it or not, but I think it has grown on me since I first saw them (the
old “Evil Skull” variant would have sufficed, but I won’t complain about the new
print). The new arms don’t look that good, they look like white robot arms, and
with their length and lack of articulation they will have difficulty with their
weapons, and look almost like knuckle-dragging Neanderthal arms (being so long
compared to their legs). On the other hand, the new arms can hold their weapons
somewhere more than at their sides, like the old arms, so there is a definite
plus there.
The new skeletal horse was somewhat of a disappointment to me though. Being
skeletal, I thought it offered up more options for articulation being hidden in
the joints without having to worry about breaking up the figures appearance, but
the skeletal horses have NO articulation, not even in the neck like standard
horse pieces. The opportunity was taken to make multiple stud and other
connections available (12 spots other than the feet and saddle area).
The new scythe piece I don’t really like yet, I’ll wait until I see some really
interesting uses by others, but by trying to make it work as both a scythe blade
and a sword, it doesn’t really work well as either for me. I’m sure I’ll see
some other great uses as time goes on though. The shield is also laughably
small; I would call it a buckler. The skeletons won’t be able to use them, due
to their lack of wrist articulation and the shields small size. It’s nice that
the skull is printed and not a sticker, but I will suggest Brasso for them
anyway.
Lastly I need to be a little negative about something else. The pieces
themselves. I noticed this more while building the Prison Wagon, but a few of
the parts in this set as well have discoloration problems or ugly mold release
points. The gold slope on the front of the ballista, for example, has a strange
pattern in it, and all of the small Royal Blue slopes have an obvious spot on
the short side of the brick, which looks very bad in this set due to that side
facing OUT. I’m working in less then optimal light and probably am missing
other similar issues.
CONCLUSION
This set contains lot of good things, and lots of bad things. I would continue
buying more simply for the usefulness of the new pieces, and the fantasy theme
they portray, but I would be wary to use this set to introduce someone new to
Lego, if only for what looks like deteriorating brick quality. I will watch the
quality in the rest of the sets as I build them as well to get an overall feel
for the quality put into the line.
For those who already collect, $8 for 2 figures, a skeleton and a non-poseable
horse may or may not be what you are looking for. The Brave Knights sure do
look nice!
REVIEWER INFORMATION
Review Written: 7/8/07
By: Brett Kingery (plucky)
Age 31 Favorite Lines/Themes: Castle, Star Wars
CA++++ #++++ CO LM+ LS++>+++ P++++ S- Hzl M- YB75mIC17
COPYRIGHT
This review is Copyright 2007, by the author as named above. The
author grants publication rights for all uses, public and private,
with the following exception: any for-profit use requires express
written permission by the author for publication in full or in part.
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Review of set 7090, Crossbow Attack Review
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| Thanks for the honest and intelligent review! I think the problem with the new catsleline is that we've had so high expectations of it because it is clearly so much better than the most recent Castle sets. But at the same time, it isn't aywhere as (...) (17 years ago, 18-Jul-07, to lugnet.castle, FTX)
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