LEGO Kings Castle

LEGO Castle King's Castle 70404 (Released summer 2013)One thing I was impressed with this set while building is how large and simple the pieces were, and how straight forward construction was. Compared to say, set 9474 Lord of the Rings Battle of Helms Deep, this set was downright easy. Other than having to tie one knot and also decorating several pieces with a sheet of stickers, I'd say that younger children (ages 7-8) would have a pretty easy time putting the rest of this set together. Having put together this set, I'd say this is a very good value.Notes:This castle has a very LARGE footprint of 13x11.5 inches in its standard configuration. The courtyard is about 9.5x6.5 inches, if I recall correctly this is much bigger than the previous Kingdoms castle set. The set is built in six sections; there are three alternate configurations shown on the box.You will need a pair of scissors for one step in building this set, as there includes a section of rope that needs to be cut.This set contains 996 pieces, spread between 10 numbered bags and one unnumbered bag of base plates. The instructions are printed on three booklets, bound to a sheet of cardboard. No paperweights required. Also included is a sheet of stickers with brick patterns, as well as a sheet of malleable plastic with three flags.The first bag contains the minifigures, the horse, as well as a catapult.The second, third, and fourth bags contain the gate.The fifth and eighth bag contain drum towers (round towers on the corners of the wall).The sixth and seventh bags contain two corner wall sections.The ninth and tenth bag contains the rear tower.Bonus: This set contains an orange brick separator (There is one place where two 2x1 flat bricks are stacked together, keep this handy if you ever need to break this set apart).MINIFIGURES:The king is armed with a gold helmet, and a gold sword. The gold helmet has a different finish than the king's helmets in the previous Kingdoms series.This set includes three black and red dragon soldiers. One is equipped with a chest plate, shield, sword, and full helmet. Another is equipped with an ax and helmet. The last is equipped with a mace and a helmet in a new shape.Also included are three blue and gray lion soldiers. One is equipped with a longbow, a quiver, and a helmet. Another is equipped with a helmet and a crossbow. The last has a chest plate, a large shield, a sword, and a helmet with a visor (introduced in LEGO Kingdoms Escape From Dragon's Prison 7187).This set also has a white horse, with decorative blanket / saddle and helmet. The horse is a newew styled horse, one that can rear up on its hind legs as well as move its head into a grazing position.CATAPULT:The catapult is shaped like a dragon. Push on the head, and the tail flings a brick. This catapult is much easier to operate than those included in the previous Kingdoms set (outpost attack), the brick flies about 3-4 feet without much effort.GATE:The gate is approximately 10.5 inches tall, 5 inches across, and 2.5 inches deep with the drawbridge up. The drawbridge is able to raise and lower via ropes winding around a rod connected to knobs on the side. The gate raises and lowers in a similar fashion, although it does not have the same resistance. A lock is included on the side to keep the gate in one position.DRUM TOWERS:The drum tower to the side of the gate house has a catapult on top. Unlike previous catapults, this one is fixed facing forward. It also contains a spring, a soft pole that is deformed when the catapult is pressed down. It is much easier to operate than the standard swivel catapults included in previous sets, especially since you don't risk breaking the structure when firing.The second drum tower in back features a prison, complete with two iron gates chained shut. On the second layer is a crossbow attached to the wall.Both drum towers are decorated with a flag as shown on the gate house.RAMPARTS:The wall on the other side of the gate has a section which can be broken into as a play feature.The wall caddy-corner to this has a set of stairs, which can be lifted to prevent enemy soldiers that break into the courtyard from climbing onto the wall-walk.REAR TOWER:This tower contains four levels. The base of the tower contains a rear door for the King to escape if his castle falls. The 2nd floor contains the King's throne, a bottle and a chalice. Above that is a treasure room, with a chest filled with gold and rubies. The top of the tower has a torch, and space for the archers to stand.CONCLUSION:This set has quite a few play features, lots of minifigures, a horse and a catapult. This set is straight forward to put together; younger children shouldn't have too much of a problem with it with a little help from older siblings or a parent. At an MSRP of $99 with the large pieces it contains, this set is a good value.

I bought this set for me. I got a good deal on amazon at $75 so bought two of them. I built the first one to speck and will build the next to make this one larger. The set was fun to build. It has a lot of things my 5 yr old likes playing with. The launcher on the left tower, is cool. The whole set is really great worth $100 but if you watch you can find it for less. Wait a while until more legos come in, they were wiped for christmas.The castle can be reconfigured to your liking but it won't all connect unless you have it the way they show you. It's not flimsy but i wouldn't pack it in a suitcase either. at just under 1000 pieces and 7 mini figs this thing is a boss of a set. Love the color scheme too.

Great castle overall. There really isn't much bad about it. It has a very realistic look to it and it is great for show or playing. One con though, would be the drawbridge. It takes a lot of labor to build and once built, it's is very fragile and hard to fix. There must be some way to attch better. The bags are very organized and the figures are very detailed. The catapult on the castle is a great effect and shoots up to seven feet. The mobile catapult is also very well constructed and has a range of up to eight feet depending on how much power you put into firing it. Overall, this wa a great buy and has only one little thing that gets me annoyed. Five stars!

This is our first Lego castle set, and my 9 yr old son loved it. I was impressed with all the details including the king's throne, jail cell, working drawbridge and cannons, treasure chest, and more. IMHO, even though it is a very cool set, Lego in general is overpriced. Alas, I still pay Lego prices because no other toy compares.

I bought this for my 4 year old son for Yule. Since he's not quite ready to assemble these sets yet, I was pleased to see that the pieces were conveniently bagged in a way that would facilitate assembly. Bag number 1 contains the figures, which gave my son something to play with while the rest of the set was being assembled. Bags numbers 2 through 10 could then be opened in order, assembling the structure from each bag before opening the next. The base plates are in a separate bag but they are large enough that they are unlikely to be lost. Having only one bag open at a time - with the smaller pieces in a smaller baglet within that bag - greatly reduced the chances of losing a piece, and in fact only one piece was lost during assembly by mommy, daddy, and 6 year old big sister, despite the attempts of 2 year old brozilla.The design uses a fair amount of interlocking within each tower and wall section, allowing them to stand up to play fairly well. The sections fit together with each other in a modular way. With a throne room, treasure room, prison, two catapults, arbalest, postern gate, and a working drawbridge and portcullis in the main gate, there is tremendous play value in the castle. However, don't try to pick up the castle as a whole to move it, as that will cause it to come apart around the joints between the sections. Slide it onto something flat and solid instead.

Very detailed but soo much smaller than I remember. But for $69 I guess its a good addition to a beginning collection.

this is a great castle. probably a bit challenging for my 7 year old son, but he built it by himself all day for his birthday! I do not think he would have been any happier. it looks great, sturdy enough to be played with some. we move it around on a large cutting board, which make it very easy. they love to amass armies against the castle, sometimes the pink army (his sister). :-) very well packaged in terms of smaller bags and being able to work on one chunk at a time, and always nice to have a few extra pieces sitting around. this also comes with a nice handful of 5 or 6 characters. very nice addition to his collection!