The Knight’s Showdown is 61 pieces, will cost you about $7, and is our first look at the military might of these new kingdoms. We get one Knight from each side, and the thing that jumped out at me right away was the new helmet design. With a narrow slit for vision, the cross design that decorates the front, and the ability to put a decorative plume on top, these new Bucket Helmets are easily going to become one of my favorites.
Something else I really like with these guys is the designs of their outfits. The Lion King’s Knight is decked out in a snazzy red/white checker patter. While the Dragon Knight has scale mail and chains running round his body. Also, just comparing the two Knight’s faces, you can tell the Dragon Knight is a jerk. That’s a jerky face if I’ve ever seen one.
An interesting additional contrast between these two modern Knights is their armor and weapons. Unlike in the old days, where the Crusaders and the Black Falcons all shared the same color weapons and armor, these new factions don’t. The King’s troops have a lighter, silvery look to their accessories. While the Dragon Kingdom’s men have a darker, almost iron look to theirs. I like this new difference and I’m going to have to give the Lego Group props for it. It’s a simple color change, yet adds more character to these little guys. Plus, you can always say these weapons are made of different materials now.
Besides the minifigures, this set contains a weapons rack. Yup, that’s what that tiny thing with the flag and holding the sword is. Not much of a rack if you ask me. Looks more like a rock with a flag pole stuck in it. You also get a catapult for the King’s Knight to use. (Hey, nobody said this was going to be a fair duel.) The catapult is simple and works on the basic lever system for action. I did like the fact that the wheels were made by putting together two round 4 stud barrel tops. It’s usually the simple things that turn out the coolest.
All together, my first impression of the Kingdoms theme is pretty good. There are a lot of new figure designs I’m happy with. Plus, I love the different colored armor and weapons. The price points are decent so far also. Now we just have to hope the bigger sets have some nice design to them. So, check back later for our next review of the new Lego Kingdoms.
-Vault
While I understand that this new theme is going in a less-fanciful direction, if you wanted to, you could easily combine Castle with Kingdoms (as you have with the Jester being in Medieval Market), so in a way this is a sneaky way for LEGO to continue the theme past the normal retire date. I love the Castle theme too (even though I’m more of a LEGO Pirate man, myself), so this is nothing but good news to me.
I completely agree. There’s nothing here that excludes the Castle theme. In fact, the Wizard having a baby dragon makes me wonder if we might still see some of those influences.
I just finished assembly of my 1980s Castle collection so Pics will be up soon. These look like a great continuation of Castles of years past. I’m guessing that the Catapult will be for breaching the Prison Tower Rescue (7947) since all the other buildings in series 1 seam to belong to the lion King.
I think you may be right. I’m hoping the Dragon Knights get more than just a prison in the next wave of sets.
Awwww, poor widdle Lego Clown crying. 🙁 That’s the saddest picture ever xD
*Just add a spotlight from above to make it super-dramatic, haha
lol, now I’m going to have to find a spotlight.
I like the fact that these are not “war machine” sets, but rather fun sets. Hopefully they’ll start including things like the grocers and taverns and blacksmithy in future.
Yarrr, as much as I don’t like Harry Potter, I loved the potion shop because it’s such a neat neutral set. It’s not for waging a bloody war, it’s just a shop where every has to be nice to get the powders and goo they need…to wage a bloody magical war, haha.
Yeah, I’d love it if they made more medieval town stuff. My wallet wouldn’t like it though, lol.