LEGO Castle 70402: The Gatehouse Raid Review.

This Castle theme has really sparked something in me. I have always had a fascination with the medieval/fantasy times. I enjoy watching movies set in that era, but never really dived head first into it. That is until now, I have been sucked in and am now falling down the rabbit hole at a rapid pace looking for adventure. As I continue to build and review this Castle theme I see myself wanting to build armies! That's a bad thing... Why you ask? Well I have a bad habit of going too far, and one just example is my 1300+ Hasbro Clone Trooper Collection as seen on You Tube. Now you under stand? :-P
Let's feed the beast and take a look at another one of the new Castle sets and see if I can try and contain myself.

LEGO Castle 70402: The Gatehouse Raid 

 The set contains 248 pieces and retails for $39.99.

 Comes with 4 Minifigures: Gatehouse, Armored Horse and Large Catapult.

  

Note: All photo's can be clicked on for a larger view.

The front of the box shows the King's and Dragons Knights in battle as the Dragon faction try to break the defenses of the King's Gatehouse.

The back of the box informs you that this can be combined with the 70404 King's Castle... Uh oh... Bad news for the wallet! Ahh who am I kidding it's already in the bedroom waiting to be built. There is a shot of a Dragon Knight getting thrown in prison, another Dragon Knight breaking through the gates, Catapults firing from both the tower and ground. Pages from the book show what looks to be the Dragon factions main objective, take possession of the King's Crystal.

There are 2 numbered bags. Loose in the box is an instruction book, A sticker sheet and 1x Green Octagonal Plate. 

A close up of the sticker sheet. 2 in total.

The contents of bag 1 will build the 2 sides of the main gate, all the Minifigs and the new Black horse and new horse-head armor mold.

This Dragon soldier with spear has a single sided face print, and the torso has printing on both the front and back. He has a Black Helmet with Neck Protector

This Dragon Knight with Armor and a large sword, has a double sided face print, the torso has printing on both the front and back with printing on the legs. He also has printed armor and large shield with a Dragons head . He has a Black Closed Helmet and Red Plume,

This King's Knight with Armor and sword comes with a single side face print. A printed front and back King's Breastplate torso, printing on the legs, He also has printed armor and a large shield with a lions head. He has a Metallic Silver Helmet with Fixed Grille and a Blue Plume

This King's Knight with spear has a Blue and White with Chest Strap torso printed on the front and back and comes with a single side face print. He has a Metallic Silver Helmet with Broad Brim.

The Black horse is the new mold. It comes with Red Dragon Armor and the new horse-head armor mold.

First we build the catapult, it is a simple build that can easily be reproduced without a step by step photo. 

The second thing to build is the crossbow station? Here is a step by step photo.

Thirdly we build the other side which will be the prison cell it includes a 1x1 round tile with a printed lock. another step by set photo.

Bag 1 is complete!

Bag 2 will build the main gate and tower.

Here is a step by step photo of the Gatehouse being built.

Here is the step by step build of the upper tower of the Gatehouse. Featuring a small firing catapult. The only 2 stickers in the set were applied in this part of the build.

The Gatehouse all complete!

Here is a front and back view of all the connecting sections put together. There are no other details Just an empty room that you can fill out with your own imagination.

These are the spare you get in this set. I'm happy to get some extra spears and a sword :-D also love the 1x1 round tile with printed lock.

Some final photos of the complete set!

This was a pretty straight forward build with not a lot involved in it. The highlights of this set are the Minifigures and the horse with armor. I can't wait to crack open the King's Castle and see how I can add this set to it. The catapult features are quite fun as always and the one on the tower has a rubber Technic Damper which gives it some extra force when shot. I took advantage of the 25% off at Toys r Us and got it for $29.99 and feel it was well worth it for that price. How I see it is that the Minifigs are about $5+ each if you brought them separately, so there's $20 already plus the horse and all the parts in the set for the extra $10... Great value... I am trying to contain myself and not go completely Nuts with army building this theme but...
Yep you guessed it! I have to get more  :-P 

Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed the review!

As always and if you want too, let us know in the comments below, what you think of the set. I would love to hear others opinions on it.

Until next time this is Tan Tile... on vigil, till the next review.

LEGO Castle 70400: Forest Ambush Review.

Well I have the Castle fixation now! Damn it! How can you scale down on LEGO when they release awesome themes such as this! Getting this for under $9.00 doesn't help either. I know a lot of people think this is too “juniorized” and doesn't compare to the previous Castle sets, but I cant help think of my childhood back in the 80's when I look at this theme. I wish I wasn't in my "dark age in the 2000's" because there were so many awesome castle sets that I missed out on. But LEGO have chosen to redo the Castle theme and I am ecstatic that they are doing so. Let's take a look at this little set.

LEGO Castle 70400: Forest Ambush 

 The set contains 90 pieces and retails for $12.99.

 Comes with 4 Minifigures: A Dog, Armored cart... ?? and a Forest Base

  

Note: All photo's can be clicked on for a larger view.

 The front of the box show the Kings Knights under attack by the Dragon Knights, attempting to steal the King riches. If you look to the bottom left hand side you might miss that there is a dog included as well.

The back of the box shows you the play features in this set. The flick firing missile/arrow and a falling tree to ambush the unsuspecting victims.

We have 2 unnumbered bags for this set. Loose in the box are the folded instructions.

All the parts from both bags. Highlights are the tree leaves, apple, the weapons and dog.

This Dragon soldier has a double sided face print, and the torso has printing on both the front an back. This soldier comes with a spiked mace. He has a black Cheek Protection Helmet.

This Dragon soldier has a double sided face print, and the torso has a different printing on both the front an back. He come with an axe and a Dragon shield. He has a Black Helmet with Neck Protector

This King's Knight with sword. He comes with a single side face print, printed front and back King's Breastplate torso. He has a Metallic Silver Helmet with Neck Protector

This King's Knight and spear with scale mail torso print both front and back. Single sided face print. He has a Metallic Silver Helmet with Broad Brim.

A close up of the Medium Dark Flesh Dog.

A step by step build of the so called Armored cart... Its a simple cart... Minus the Armored, it sill does the job to carry the King's gold.

A step by step of the forest base and ambush point.

A Look at the falling tree in action.

Not many spares  in this set I have already used the spare axe to make a double axe.

A few photo's of the complete build.

This is a great add on set to complement the other sets in the theme. It is the perfect set to army build with, getting 4 Minifigs for under $10 when on sale even at $12 it's still fantastic! The play features for it work well and you cant complain about getting tree leaves and log profile bricks. I will buy this 10 times over no problem, if the wife approves which I'm sure she will considering we pay $5 each for a collectible Minifig. Regardless this has fantastic value across the board.

Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed the review!

As always and if you want too, let us know in the comments below, what you think of the set. I would love to hear others opinions on it.

Until next time this is Tan Tile... ready for the raid in the next review.

 

LEGO Castle 70403: Dragon Mountain Review.

Welcome back to OBN! Do you love Dragons? I love Dragons! My Son loves Dragons! We all love Dragons! Well you have come to the right place to look at... a Dragon... a LEGO Dragon.
The new LEGO Castle theme has recently been released and Dragon Mountain was first on our hit list! taking advantage of the Toy r Us 25% off sale this week, we manage to grab the last one on the shelf for $52.50! If only I had waited out for the Myer sale... Doh! could have saved another $7.50.

LEGO Castle 70403: Dragon Mountain 

 The set contains 376 pieces and retails for $69.99.

 Comes with 5 Minifigures: A large Dragon, Tower/Castle ruins and large catapult.

  

Note: All photo's can be clicked on for a larger view.

 The front of the box is extremely eye catching! Big red Dragon, Knights with swords and shields and shiny gold coins.... Who wouldn't want this set!?

On the back of the box we see how the Dragon wings work, the catapult firing, the Kings Knight saving the captured Princess, A Dragon Knight having a meal when he should be keeping an eye on the princess and the Dragon Wizard concocting potions in his little potion room.

There are 3 numbered bags in the set. Loose in the box are the instructions, 2x Octagonal Plates (1 Green and 1x Dark Tan)  a bag of Dragon parts and a pair of wings.

A quick look at the parts to build the Dragon. The tail pieces are in bag 1.

The contents of bag 1. The larger tail piece reminds me of a big red chilli. This bag will build the catapult, the rest of the dragon and 2 of the Kings Knights.

How cool is the dragon! I hope they do more in other colors! The build very much like the Dino dinosaurs.

This King's Knight with Armor and sword comes with a double side face print, printed front and back King's Breastplate torso, printing on the legs, He also has printed armor and a large shield with a lions head. He has a Metallic Silver Helmet with Light Bluish Grey Pointed Visor and a Blue Plume.

King's Knight with spear has a scale mail torso print both front and back and a single sided face print. He has a Metallic Silver Helmet with Neck Protector.

The catapult was a quick build... Problem is you only get one chance at firing at the dragon because you only get one 2x2 round brick with grill profile.

The contents of bag 3 will build the main tower/prison/ruins, a Dragon Knight and the Princess.

This Dragon Knight with a large sword has a scale mail torso print both front and back. He has a double sided face print and a printed small Dragon shield. He has a Black Cheek Protection Helmet.

The Princess comes with a crown, A double sided face print and torso print both sides. Her "dress" also has a print on it. 

A step by step build of the foundations of the ruins and spiral staircase. With a little lunch room as well.

 Step by step build of the main tower and small prison.

Both completed and put on top of one another. I love the added rat (you wouldn't think there would be rats around with a hungry dragon around!) and the spiral staircase, as well as the printed lock on the1X1 round tile and the large printed shield!

The contents of bag 3 will build the Dragon nest, the evil wizards tiny potion room and the evil Dragon Wizard himself.

The Dragon Wizard has a single sided face print, a printed torso on the front and back, printed legs and a printed hat! He comes with a black beard and a brick built staff/wand.

A step by step build of the wizards potion room, Dragon nest and walk way/mini catapult ledge.

An image of all of the parts put together. 

Front view.

It a good thing the wizard isn't an arachnophobic, because that's the only way he is getting into his potion room.

Back view.

Some really cool spare parts! The printed lock, cheese slopes and sword just to name a few.

Some final images if the completed set! This looks soooo awesome!

whoops! the Kings Knight got a little to close to the Dragon!

Overall impressions of the set are Awesome Awesome Awesome! With 5 Minifigures and a Dragon I believe that this set has some fantastic playability to it. The Minifigures have some of the best printing I have seen in a long time! The Dragon Wizard is my favorite Minifig in this set with the Kings Knight with armor and shield is a very close second. The Dragon just rocks, his face print is brilliant! Even though this is a very simple build, the end result of giving what you need in terms of a castle structure has really given this set its own look. The added leaves and vines really give it the run downed and ruined feel. I truly hope that LEGO continue to add to this theme and give us other color Dragons like they have done in previous incarnations, and not end it with just this wave like they have done in the past. The only thing I feel it's lacking is a horse for the Kings Knight and to also pull that big ass catapult, a bit rough that the 2 of them have push this thing to help save the Kings daughter. Will I buy of this theme? You bet your red ass Dragon I will!

Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed the review!

As always and if you want too, let us know in the comments below, what you think of the set. I would love to hear others opinions on it.

Until next time this is Tan Tile... I'm all Dragon-ed out (not really) for the next review.