I haven't picked one of these sets up. I might not, I'm kind of waffling on it. $100 sets are lower down the list of sets to buy than the mid prices sets. We had a bit of a palaver on that subject at TwinLUG and others feel the same way. Seems as the set price rises people are less willing to part with their money. Untimately I think it doesn't matter what the set costs but what the parts are and their average cost. Over the years I have bought some of the larger $90-120 sets in multiples and been quite happy with those purchases. The most recent was that Monster Fighters Vampyre Castle. It's a good way to build mass in your collection. Any large castle would take several thousands of parts and dozens of figures.
Here's the description from Brickset which got it off the LEGO website.
Defeat the Dragon soldiers in the final battle at the King’s Castle!
Protect the King and his people from the Dragon soldiers at the King’s Castle! Fire the catapult, lower the drawbridge, raise the gate and lead the charge with the fearless White Knight on his armored horse! Stop the Dragon soldiers before they use the deadly battering ram and catapult weapon. This fantastic modular castle design features towers, a dungeon, the King’s throne, the knights’ table, a moveable staircase, secret escape door and more. Includes 7 minifigures with weapons and accessories: the King, White Knight, 2 King’s soldiers and 3 Dragon soldiers.
• Includes 7 minifigures with weapons and accessories: the King, White Knight, 2 King’s soldiers and 3 Dragon soldiers
• Features battering ram/catapult weapon, towers, prison, collapsing back wall, King’s throne, knights’ table, moveable staircase, hidden escape door, weapon rack and flags
• Weapons include spiked mace, 3 swords, axe, crossbow and a bow with quiver
• Accessories include 2 shields and a treasure chest
• Push the battering ram to fire the catapult!
• Customize and build your own modular castle design
• Combine with 70402 The Outpost for an even more awesome model
• Measures over 11" (28cm) high, 13" (35cm) wide and 12" (33cm) deep
• Battering ram/catapult weapon measures over 1" (5cm) high, 3" (9cm) long and 2" (6cm) wide
The sets got 996 parts and that's about a dime each. Not too bad. A lot of the parts are ones I would like, just over half the set is blay pieces, 318 light and 200 dark, and some of those pieces are rather large ones. There's a good bit of blue and reddish brown. The other colors that make up the rest of the set don't have many large quantities but a couple stand out. I know I could find a use for the the 22 of the dark tan brick bricks and 47 of the blue 1x2 cheese slopes. The blays have several pieces with large quantities. In the dark shade you get 30 1x1 bricks, 16 brick bricks, 22 1x2 technic bricks and 14 1x2x3 slopes. The light blay shade has even more pieces with good quantities: 68 1x2 bricks, 34 1x1 bricks, 33 1x4 bricks, 21 1x4x5 wall with window, 18 3x3x6 wall, 22 1x2x3 wall and 16 1x2x2 wall with window. That's the last four items below.
These large pieces could come in handy for making a large castle or building. I would prefer that the large walls are windowless because that would make them more useful. I've accumulated a fair number of the 3x3x6 wall piece and it's angled face has me thinking about what I could build with them. I used a few in the Frankenstein MOC I made last year and I liked the look. I actually like using large pieces to build stuff, they make the work go faster. I just used a bunch of BURPS to create a large cliff face for a Viking MOC. I need to get working on that so I can have that ready for the next TwinLUG display in early October.
You get 7 minifigs, three of the Dragon Knights, three of the Lion Knights and the Lion King. Their costumes are nice and typical of the Castle figs. They have a nice mix of weapons and accessories. I do like the graphic on the Dragon Knight's shield. The King has a gold chrome crown and a pearl gold sword. Not too bad. There's some gold chrome coins and a gold chrome bar to go into the treasure chest. I sure don't need another treature chest but I can always use some gold chrome treasure.
All in all a nice set with a good price. It wouldn't just be good for the novice builder who's starting to build a collection but a good parts pack for the mature builder with a nice pile of pieces already. This would be a good set to get in multiples. I'd love to part out 3 or 4 of them. You might even want to build it. I wouldn't bother.
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