Subject:
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6085 Black Monarch's Castle compared with 6091 King Leo's Castle
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.reviews
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Date:
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Mon, 1 Oct 2001 19:42:28 GMT
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Viewed:
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2741 times
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I just finished building the 6085 Black Monarch's Castle and I was most
impressed. This is an older set (1988) that I got on ebay and was definitely
worth getting. I'm surprised it doesn't get more rave reviews in the notes
on lugnet:
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/6085
I also recently built a contemporary castle 6091 King Leo's Breezeway (as
someone so aptly named it):
http://guide.lugnet.com/set/6091
and the two are now sitting side by side on my dining room table. It's
interesting to compare them.
Superficially King Leo's looks bigger than the Black Monarch's being about
50% taller, 50% wider, and a bit deeper. However, much of this volume is
achieved by the use of a fairly high baseplate, whereas the Black Monarch is
built on thin baseboards. On piece count, the Black Monarch is the larger:
665 pieces compared with 524 pieces for King Leo's. The Black Monarch also
has a lot of castle wall pieces, more than King Leo's. So where are all the
pieces going in the Black Monarch? Answer: into solid walls. Because King
Leo's relies on the baseplate to provide the hard-to-scale slopes to keep
the bad guys out, the upper structure is built in a very open style (hence
the "Breezeway" nickname). The Black Monarch uses a lot of bricks to create
a very solid no-bad-dudes-get-through sets of external walls and towers.
As probably comes as no surprise to anyone, the older Black Monarch uses a
lot more standard parts (well, if you count castle walls as standard)
compared with the newer King Leo's. For example, the portcullis in King
Leo's is a single piece, whereas you make it up with plates in the Black
Monarch. King Leo's has a stained glass window etc.
In terms of looks, King Leo's is more of your fairytale castle whereas the
Black Monarch has more of a Norman Castle appearance. The Black Monarch is a
strictly two-tone structure (light grey and black), with the colours coming
from the "accessories": red and blue flags, red and blue shields, and the
minifigs and horses. King Leo's is a much more confused colour scheme: green
base plate with a mostly light grey superstructure, interspersed somewhat
randomly with black, brown, dark grey, and sand, topped off with mid-blue
turret towers and some blue flags. The grey on King Leo's just doesn't look
right for me. I think a fairytale castle should probably have used a lot
more lighter colours in the main structure (especially the upper parts),
e.g. white, sand, yellow. I don't think the light grey and blue turrets work
well together at all.
King Leo's is a strictly look-from-the-front castle. The Black Monarch is
defended on all sides, although it is designed with hinges and baseplates so
that it can open out the 2 rear sections to make a very wide
view-from-front-only castle; a nice piece of design. King Leo's does not
open out, but instead has a number of moving parts: a trebuchet to chuck
rocks, a chest that flies off when you hit at the right spot, a trap with
some falling axes etc. I think this is catering more to the modern
short-attention-span child who expects an action-response sequence (press a
button and something happens).
Summary. Overall, I definitely prefer the older Black Monarch. I like the
more substantive castle look with the more limited selection (much more
real IMHO); I like the use of more standard parts; I like the opening-out
design. I hope Lego re-releases a lot more of these older sets as
"classics", as I definitely like them a lot more than some of the more
recent offerings.
Kerry
--
============
Kerry Raymond
kerry@dstc.edu.au
Proud to be LUGNET Member 599
www.lugnet.com/people/members/?m=599
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