Battle of the Castle Sets: 7187 vs 70402

[Bruce N H]

Two sets enter the arena, only one can emerge victorious! 2011 set 7187, Escape from the Dragon's Prison, versus 2013 set 70402, The Gatehouse Raid. Which castle set reigns supreme? Vote and share your thoughts on these two sets.

[soccerkid6]

I voted for Escape from the Dragon Prison. The pieces are a bit better in the Gatehouse Raid, but not enough to justify the $10 increase in price.
These sets are some of the only sets that I have multiples of

[Wilfred of Ivanhoe]

7187
Set 7187 has figs that I personally like better. It also comes with more weapons/shields. I really like its dark color scheme, and the set has more of a wooden fortress feel to it as opposed to a stone castle. This makes it a bit more unique. All of its detailed parts are printed rather than stickered, which I also prefer. I like the packaging for 7187 better too. Lastly and most importantly, 7187 comes with a rat!

70402
The Figs in set 70402 have a brighter, more cartoonie feel in my opinion. I do like the swords in this set though. 70402 as a whole also has a much brighter feel overall, but it does come with more pieces. Also, it comes with more extra pieces, which commonly seems to include one more small sword and two more spears and plumes. The siege craft is larger in this set. The flags have stickered detail rather than printed. I like the newer style horse better. I really like the masonry style bricks too.

Final Verdict
70402 is the slightly better set. It wins for me primarily because it has more parts and several that use more often in my MOCs.

[Brickninja]

Both looks good, price aside, but I cast my vote to 70402, because the set design is just better overall. Moe imposing IMO. Of course I don't have 7187 so I don't think I could make a terribly good verdict.

[Athos]

I like the rustic look of the Dragon fortress, but the Lion one is by far in piece selection. Though they both lose points for using that way overused gate piece.

The mounted knights are both nice and exclusive to these sets. I've got two of the latter dragon knights and wish I had a second one of the earlier dragon knight. The footmen figures in the earlier one, I think are much cooler (and less childish) than the latter set.

So, I think it depends on what you rate higher: figures or parts. 7187 wins clearly for figures, but 70402 wins for parts.

Steve

[RedBrick]

Since I am a big friend of the Kingdoms-line its with no doubt 7187. It features very nice, and more accurate-looking (muted) colours than the flashy, and hence a bit comical, 70402 (this doesnt means that the kids think the same though of course!). The design is also more down-to-earth and plausible. Especially the catapult in 70402 looks more like belonging to duplo really. The very nice minifigs are another plus: The mounted Dragon Knight in plate armour looks simply stunning!

[ludzik]

I think that the gates/building sections are similar enough to each other not to make much of a difference in my vote. The differentiator is the dragon knight. The one from 7187 is just amazing - the barding, the color scheme is way more realistic!

[Zurem]

During the day, both are roughly equal... but the folks who are in control of 'Escape from Dragon's Prison' are lacking torches, from what I can tell. If both of these institutions/entities/sets were to go toe to toe at night time, those who can actually see what they are doing are at an advantage, plus, 'The Gatehouse Raid' folks could feasibly try to set fire to their adversaries. In terms of playability, I like both a lot, however, yet another advantage to the Gatehouse is that it is taller, so, like an ostrich(as opposed to a thompson's gazelle or wildebeest) in the Serengeti or the Masai, they can spot an attack/predator from a much farther distance than the one-story Dragon's Prison proprietors. That is my take on the possible winners of this dispute.

[assassinrat]

Black, spikey gates and just the look of the two guardhouses make 7187 stand out more to me! All aesthetics.

[Elephant Knight]

I voted for 7187. The build was more enjoyable, the figs are cooler, and the overall set is nicer. Though 70402 has a better siege weapon

EKnight

[OverLoad]

I'm very partial to the Kingdoms line of sets than I was to the recent Castle line of sets, so I raise my banners in favor of 7187.

The Green Dragon Kingdom from Kingdoms is far superior in color choice and design than the Red Dragon Kingdom from 2013's Castle, IMO. Neither are bad, but Kingdoms excels here.

[Mark of Falworth]

As far as set line goes I prefer the Kingdoms set, But the new Castle set looks better designed to me... I have several copies of both but I can't decide which i like better.

[durazno33]

I prefer the mini figures for 7187 over 70402. The red on black mini figures are just not as cool looking in my opinion. Since the mini figures are a major portion of the cost of a set, I would buy 7187 hands down over 70402. That being said, I agree with what has been said about the cooler design of 70402.

[Sir Erathor]

It's gotta be Escape from the Dragon's Prison for me...which may be partially due to nostalgia.
It was one of the first castle sets I got since I started building LEGO seriously, and so I really enjoyed building it and using the parts/figs to make some new, cool scenes. As a set, whilst the pieces included aren't amazingly useful, it's more fun to play with than the Gatehouse Raid. I guess this is because the two rooms either side of the gate have specific purposes, and for some reason I never felt the same way with the Gatehouse Raid...this is probably just nostalgia kicking in again! Also, I prefer the Kingdoms figs to the Castle ones. That mounted Dragon knight in 7187 is just incredible! Minifigs play a huge part in whether I buy a set or not, and so Escape is a clear winner.

[TeufelHund]

So, I think it depends on what you rate higher: figures or parts. 7187 wins clearly for figures, but 70402 wins for parts.

What he said. The Dragon Knight in particular in 7187 is spectacular, but if you're looking to build castle MOCs then 70402 hands down. Even with the default builds, I think 70402 looks better than 7187.