Lego 10223 Kingdoms Joust Exclusive

[Athos]

Looks good. That black falcon guy looks very menacing.

Steve

[krzyzak]

No way. Uh-uh. I am not going to believe this. I hope your not joking.

[CastleLord]

All i can say to Lego now is......... My God
i'm atleast buying myself 1 maybe even two... or three.... so much goodness....
and here's for them possibly making something out of their new black falcon!

CastleLord.

[Quickblade22]

This set does look very nice. I too am confused by the choice colors on the black falcon being dark green and not blue, but that's nothing that can't be fixed. There are a lot on neat part usages and the figs look awesome. Thanks for confirming this is all one set, because when I saw that it might be 2 sets with 6 figs for that price, my initial reaction was "TLC can kiss my Quickblade" I don't see the Black Falcon being anything more than just a nod to AFOL's, but here's hoping.

[dyntar]

An awesome set I'll be getting one.
The green maiden and the Falcon knight are the highlights of the set for me.
So does this mean after 20+ years the Black Falcons finally have a leader?

[JoshWedin]

Josh was at the unveiling at BrickCon and says it is all one set.

I believe I may have caused some confusion. The first picture that everyone seems to be linking to shows part of two sets. I have no idea why they did that. I was comparing the actual set with the picture we have on The Brothers Brick. I quickly looked at the one on Eurobricks and assumed they were the same. They are not.

This picture shows one set and one set only:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dan_rubin/6199332446/

I hope this clears up some confusion,
Josh

[Bruce N H]

Ah, okay. I hadn't even noticed the image with two sets combined. Just to make it easy:

One set:


Two sets combined:


Note that the second one has two blue structures and two brown structures in the walls, and the central gatehouse structure is complete from all sides, whereas in the single set it is sliced in half so that it is open in the back. Of course the doubled set isn't actually doubled, as it is leaving out the second copy of all the stuff in the middle. Now that I see this, looking more closely at the back side you can see the inclusion of four black technic bricks so the gray towers can be connected via pins.

Thanks for solving the mystery, Josh. I had been looking at the main image linked on the Brothers-Brick, which is the one I grabbed for the front page, so I was confused as to what others were seeing.

Bruce

[Thoriun]

An awesome set I'll be getting one.
The green maiden and the Falcon knight are the highlights of the set for me.
So does this mean after 20+ years the Black Falcons finally have a leader?

Let's hope so. It was time for the black falcons knights to have a knight on a horse with a proper sadle/tabard (can´t remenber the right word, lol) the crusaders, dragons, frights knights, all had one (i'm sure if the bull had one) but all other main factions had it.

Unfortunaly there won't be a new jester , but the entire set in on my to buy list.

Thoriun

[Bluesecrets]

I do have pictures of the torsos that I will upload in the next day or so, depending on when I can get on my computer with photo editing software. But to answer the questions about what is under the armor.

They are not special figs. They are Kingdoms figs with armor. They do have printing on both sides and I do have photos to show you. So essentially, you are looking at new barding, new armor and new shields on the black knight.

[Elbadar]

Thank you lego! Praise be, and turn out your wallets!

For those of you naysayers who think that the new BF is a one time thing or that this is the end of kingdoms, I would like to call attention to the crownies and the fact that they released the dwarf mine for them in november, which was followed by an entire year featuring dwarves and trolls. I feel that there will be more new falcons, but (like the dwarves) they wont get a full castle of their own, but will be scattered here and there in the greater conflict between the lions and dragons. Of course this is all speculation, but lego does tend to have three year cycles for it's castle themes (omitting the MMV and it's astounding longevity), and it doesn't make sence to print new sheild's and armor without maximizing the profit you make on them.

[Ye Olde Republic]

I'm still looking at this set and am not quite ready to make any comments just yet. I do however, wish to point out that the green flag is really not that out of place for Black Falcons. Check these out:
6073 Knight's Castle
6030 Catapult and of course
6067 Guarded Inn

[DaleDVM]

My impressions are WOW what a great design! and then hmmm what could have been...

First may I say that the build of the gate is absolutely beautiful. It has so many great little details (stained glass, furniture, decorative bricks) inside and out. The frogs as legs on the table is fantastic as are the reddish brown flower accents on the furniture. It looks like an AFOL built it. With two sets back to back it looks even better.

The side walls and buildings are nicely done and the tie in with MMV is nice. I don't think these walls will blend in with the Castle at all because the style and size is totally different.

The tents leave a bit to be desired. Having a tent that only holds a weapon is kinda weak in my opinion. The jousting railing is nicely made and long enough to be useful.

The grandstand is nicley done and two put together may give enough room for the Royals to even sit down during the tourny.

The new princess appears to be a princess for the dragon faction. The prince fig is nice and we now have several options for Lion torsos on the royals. Both figs are fantastic. I love the new black falcon, although I do wish he had his own torso and or legs. With 3 new shields, a new black helmet, armor, and horse barding I think it will be possible, although expensive... to build out a new faction or splinter faction of the black falcons. Some sort of new BF torso would put the icing on the cake. I can always hope!

Perhaps I know too much about the LEGO castle factions and it has jaded my impression of the set... Though the old Black Falcon sets had some green flags as Trevor pointed out. With the tent, flags, and plume, I am very disappointed that the secondary color of the black falcon is dark green? I know that this can be easily modified. However, it feels like they designed the set to include the dragon knight and then switched out the helmet, armor, shields, and barding at the last second to make a new faction? This really detracts from the overall complete look that I would hope for from an exclusive set. If the tent was black/white, with black/white flags and a white plume it would have been much better. It just looks like two factions have been blended together is some obviously perverse way.

As far as pieces go this set has a lot of very useful parts. As was noted it is all brick built with no wall panels. The lt bley 1x3 arches are very nice to see. This is a very rare element and yet so needed by castle builders. The set has a lot of 1x1 rounds in lt and dark bley and although not uncommon do not typically come in great numbers in castle sets. I count atleast 5 lt bley mudguards; they make beautiful arches. I also spotted atleast 24 lt bley 1x1 bricks with stud on one side. I can't get enough of this part and they don't come cheap on BL. In sets it hasn't come in quatities like this in anything except the tower bridge set. The red 1x2x2 65 degree slopes in red are rare. The dark green 1x3 33 degree inverted slopes are a new piece. The flower plates are nice and we get them is many colors including a bunch of reddish brown.

Overall I would say this is a fantastic set and deserves a 9.5 out of 10.

After a wonderful review like that what more can I say...

As well designed as this set is, I would have much preferred a different take on this set. Even though the gate is great, I could have done without this feature at all in this set. After all I could build a simalar gate with the parts from the Kings Castle set. I would have preferred the set to have had 4 factions of jousting knights with four proper tents and each with a page or soldier to accompany him. Instead of the walls with the 1/2 buildings on it perhaps one well built structure in the vein of MMV. Lastly a small seating area with a couple of peasants watching. By removing the gate and walls I think this could have easily been achieved for the same total cost. I think a set like that would have sold even better. Kids love the knights and more different ones to compete would give a real tournament flavor. It also would have sold like hotcakes to army building types and resellers trying to get in on the figures. This would especially be true if after the lions and dragons two new factions were introduced. The black falcon is great and then add a new purple or yellow faction to the mix.

Even if I was hoping for something else, it is truly a great set. No doubt the number and type of parts are great for the price. As a castle collector and large scale builder, I will obtain a half dozen of these around the time of the next brickworld event. Congrats to the LEGO designers on a job well done.

[Tower of Iron Will]

I'm still looking at this set and am not quite ready to make any comments just yet. I do however, wish to point out that the green flag is really not that out of place for Black Falcons. Check these out:
6073 Knight's Castle
6030 Catapult and of course
6067 Guarded Inn

For me, the dark green with the Black Falcon Knight is not a problem. Even though I did not come out of my dark age early enough to purchase the original Black Falcons with the green flags, I was able to purchase the Black Falcons that came out with the Lions(mid to late eighties). The dark green gives a potential link to the Kingdoms Dragon faction, which gives a possible basis for their background story. I am just happy to have the Black Falcons again, remembering the joy I had buying the original Lions/Black Falcons. Could it be that the figure is using the Dragon torso and legs for a time saving measure like the first Crown King used the Viking torso? I think so and it gives FOLs something to discuss in the least.

But as to the set it looks like LEGO has scored another hit just by the number of responses so far. The gate is impressive, especially with two back to back.
-Tower

[Ashkestral]

I don't think there is anything I can really add that hasn't already been said. This set is amazing!

I felt bad about missing the fantasy sets, as they were really wonderful. I felt the King's Castle just wasn't as amazing - thought it's a nice solid castle, it doesn't feel "new". Prison Tower Rescue is much better in design - but I just didn't like the black/brown combo (it's growing on me but not enough to buy).

But this set? This set I can see myself getting. And the idea of using it as a Ren Faire is just priceless.

[legokilt]

Man, that is a great looking set. I can't wait to get that, great parts if nothing else, an a better royal viewing platform for my tournament. Can't wait for this set to come out.