Deconstructing Lego is a blog that analyzes Lego sets under a variety of lenses, sometimes comparing similar sets from different years or creating a story based around a set or analyzing the implicit message that a set creates.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

The Evolution of the Castle: The 1990s

This is part three of a four part series on the evolution of the Lego castle.

6081:  King's Mountain Fortress

The King's Mountain Fortress was released in 1990, and is the first Lego castle to feature a raised baseplate, a dramatic shift from the flat baseplates and regular flat plates that housed previous castles.  As a result, this set has significantly fewer pieces than some other castles, especially castles for the Lions faction.  Other than 6059:  Knight's Stronghold (released in the same year) this is the first set with molded wooden doors, as opposed to earlier sets that only had a drawbridge or makeshift grate to block the entrance.

Like many sets, this one includes towers, a drawbridge, flags, and knights.  Two interesting inclusions are that of the maiden and of the ghost minifig, which began appearing in sets around this time.  Compared to a lot of castles it is a bit lacking, but it does have a small courtyard which is rare among castle sets.

6086:  Black Knight's Castle

The Black Knight's Castle from 1992 also features a raised baseplate, the same baseplate from 6081, but the castle itself is much more impressive.  This Dragon Knight castle features the first molded gate piece along with the requisite drawbridge.  Take a look at the color scheme compared to past sets.  While there is an overwhelming amount of black, there is now a fair amount of grey to offset it, along with a beautiful red roof that really catches the eye.  Not only is this castle large, it is also much more aesthetically pleasing than past castles, and is a much more complex build compared to the square castles of the 1980s.  Lastly, check out all the horsemen!  Very much like the original yellow castle, having so many horsemen.

6090:  Royal Knight's Castle

The Royal Knight's Castle, released in 1995, features a new and very large baseplate and is one of the most impressive castles that Lego has ever released.  This castle features several very tall towers and some new play features like a catapult.  Additionally, it is one of the first (maybe the first??) castles to not have a drawbridge, opting instead to have doors and a grate.  This Lions faction set makes me nostalgia hard and is one of my favorites of all time.  It also features a king with chrome sword and crown, which will become more popular in the 2000s.  Lastly, there is a cloth flag and a cloth cape, two items which became popular in the 1990s.

Next will be the final installment, focusing on the 2000s.

18 comments:

  1. Royal Knight's Castle seems to be the coolest

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  2. royal castle was a fantastic set, lots of time spent with those pieces!

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  3. Man when i was younger i used to play with a lego castle just like this! Brings me back :)

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  4. yeah the royal knights castle is hench, got it all going on in there :P they must have huge ones out nowadays

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  5. I might have this set somewhere in the house!

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  6. I can't tell if that's the same castle I had as a child or not. Either way it looks like tons of fun

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  7. oh dude i remember having one like that! ...i miss my legos ;_;

    cheer me up by checking out my blog, eh? XD http://lifeofbaron.blogspot.com

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  8. I used to love legos! I think I have some in my attic :)

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  9. haha no joke my friend had this set when I was a kid, and I totally knocked it off his desk one day by accident, destroying it

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  10. Knights castle is the shit man ;D

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  11. Lol now that looks like the castles i had

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  12. I remember just making castles. With legos and an imagination. Guess an imagination isn't required anymore.

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  13. got some sick castles there mate. instruction manuals were great but it was nice to make stuff from your own mind every now and again. had a mate who made Specific Football Grounds. Brilliant toy.

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  14. i wish i had this right now !

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  15. i use to have 6090 when i was a child, your blog is just pure childhood memories!

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  16. I have the mountain fortress and the black knights castle but i lost ALL my baseplates in a move a few years ago. So completely sad about this. Thanks for the review!

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  17. i had so much lego when i was little. castle, pirates, imperial guards, town, space, floatin boats the lot it was my entire childhood!

    the castles were always my favourite tho and coz if this ive recently started buying them again online!! im aming to get every castle in this article (currently got 6073, 6074, 6081 and 6085) as well as the stronghold 6059 and im aiming to get all the other sets like the battering ram, armory, guarded inn etc and clip them all together to make the biggest castle community hahah!! its like my childhood dream coming true!!

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  18. The royal castle (6090) actually had a drawbridge on the back.

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