When I first saw this set on the store shelf, it called to mind the year as a kid (circa 1980) when I worked and saved my allowance to buy LEGO's original Yellow Castle set. The yellow brick walls, the black supports under the tower, and the "old-school" brick horse in this miniature set make me think that someone in the LEGO group consciously meant to pay tribute to the older, original set.
The new set contains 137 pieces, and in my opinion, has a healthy balance of base plates, large bricks, smaller bricks, roof slopes, arches, and round bricks, with several specialized pieces as well. One mini-figure knight is included, armed with a sword. Among the specialized pieces are included tree branches, flags, a length of chain, bricks with animal eyes painted on, two hinges, and three axle pieces.
There are plenty of bricks in the package with which to experiment and build one's own ideas. However, the set includes instructions for building a horse, a catapult, and a small castle. These three items can be built concurrently with the bricks in the set, and several more bricks will be left for other ideas. Photographs on the box and in the instructions include ideas for building three other types of castles or structures as well as a dragon and another horse.
The small, finger-flick catapult is a simple idea, but can potentially provide quite a bit of fun in trying to maximize the distance it will toss a brick by adjusting the position of the lever.
The draw bridge is attached to the castle by a length of chain and can be raised and lowered by turning a piece representing a miniature winch. The drawbridge would function better if it were simply attached by a piece of string, however the plastic chain lends character to the structure.
The horse and the dragon as shown on the box are simply cute, but rely on several of the same pieces, and therefore cannot be built at the same time.
It would have been nice if the creators at LEGO had included a shield for the knight as they have with nearly every other set in the Castle series, but perhaps one of the designers, in considering costs, felt it was better to include three or four other structural pieces rather than one shield for the mini-figure.
My main reservation with this set is its price; Its MSRP of around U.S. $10 seems a little expensive in my opinion. However, compared to other new LEGO sets with prices averaging about ten cents per brick and more, some may consider that this a reasonable price. At MSRP, I did consider buying it off the store shelf, but passed it up. However, when the set was marked for clearance at $5, I bought several sets to keep on hand for rainy days with nieces and nephews.Get more detail about LEGO Castle Building Set (6193).
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