Weekly Set Review: Dual Defender

[architect]

Join the weekly Classic Castle set review discussion. Please post your opinions on the set play ability, piece selection, design, etc. Which sets stand up to our catapult of critique and which ones crumble in shame!

This week’s set is 1491 Dual Defender.

Dual Defender was a polybag set released in 1992 exclusively in the United States. It is a rotating double-armed catapult for the Black Knights. The set comes with two siege workers, stone shot, and various accessories.

[Dragonlord Esq.]

This was my favorite set when I was a kid. Not because I like the catapult, but because it was on sale at Wal-mart for like two bucks! I bought about 10 of them. Now this was when my army consisted of about 25 forestmen, Wolfpack, and a squad of 4 Crusaders. Most of my guys were armed with clubs, one with paddle. Getting 20 fully armed Black Knights all in a neat row was a really big deal. If they rereleased this set I'd empty out my bank account.
100/10 because it set the standard for my army.

[Thrall1138]

I wish I had bought 10 of these...

This is a nice set with playablitiy (the catapults) and lots of extras, like spears, two swards, and two soldiers.

I can't think of much of a downside. It is a modest set that was cheap and comes with good pieces.

Overall: /5

Note from admin, your avatar is much too large. Please make it no taller than 100 pixels. Thanks.

[Jojo]

Hello!


I like this set. I don't know if immovable catapults like this are historically correct, but for me it looks ok.
Besides this it comes with one of the better parts selections of all the little US-only sets. Two minifigs, three green plates, grey 1x1 round bricks, some black parts. The only part I rarely (never) use is the large turntable (have way too many of these). The blue Dragon Knight figs ("blue Black Knights" just sounded too stupid...) are among my favourite Castle figs, and they are kind of rare, at least rarer than their red counterpart.


Bye
Jojo

[Nathendricks428]

This set looks pretty cool. I would probably buy one. Maybe two. One thing you could probably do is take the catapult off the green baseplate and put it ontop of the walls on a castle or something like that. Nothing special, but at the same time awsome. 9.5/10

-Nathendricks

[TheOrk]

I love this set! Nothing wrong with it at all 10/10
I think my brother had one because for some reason I have an abundance of blue black knights and I never bought a black knight set besides the sea serpent.

[Formendacil]

The only Black Knight set I owned, and as a consequence, high on my list of all-time sentimental favourites.

A great army-builder, fig-wise and weapon-wise. Great generic-looking figs, able to be equipped with either sword or spear. The catapult is not particularly good, but it doesn't look ridiculous like later versions did. One thing that I really really liked about this set was that my copy (my brother's also) came with an extra sword and clip. I lost both early on, but I was very pleased at the time that it had an extra.

Parts: 7/10
Playability: 6/10
Figs/Accessories: 8/10
Design (then): 6/10
Design (now): 8/10

Overall Score: 7/10

[Silent Arrow]

I like this set a lot. If it had been released in Europe I would have bought it. These blue torsos were extremely rare then (1992), I think I only have five of them.
Immovable / stable catapults are supposed to belong to the defences of a fortress or castle. There is nothing wrong with them.

[Robin Hood]

Besides this it comes with one of the better parts selections of all the little US-only sets.

US only? Or North America only? I got this set (in Canada) so I'm guessing that it was North America wide.

I LOVE this set. It was my FIRST castle set!! It was played with so much that it is in very bad condition. Apart from sentimental opinions, I love this for its guys. What a great army builder. These are the most beautiful foot soldiers ever. Pity I only ever got one. Oh well.

Dan

[Sir Dillon]

this is a cool set, I love the figs. I'm not too fond of the catapult, but that doesn't mean much because I don't like many.
anyway, this is agood set and worth getting alot of.

8/10

[TwoTonic Knight]

I particularly love these figs. The original scale armor is both wonderfully generic and impressive to look at, and the blue/black combination is just too cool - I can never get enough of these figs. Swords, spears and shields keeps them complete and you don't have to go searching for accessories elsewhere. I tend to think of the somewhat fanciful twin-armed launcher as either anti-personal battlefield artillery or as a point-defense for a castle turret. 9/10

[Norro]

I liked this set a lot and can't remember why I didn't get it. Something to do with saving up for a medium sized set I suspect... Pity...

Nathan

[Cyclonis]

i like it. it has some great minifigs and peices, and it has nice playability aswell.

[ezehogan]

For some reason I think I owned this set because I have the two Blue Black Knight's, but I can't remember exactly. I also had 2 Black Knight shields from childhood that I didn't remember the origin of.

Best part is that it comes with TWO fully armed soldiers. I don't like the catapult, but that doesn't hurt this set too much as I can use most of the pieces.

This is an 8 of 10.

[Farithdir]

Hands down, the best catapult. Great army builder. Awesome sheilds. And black spears, i love those spears.

Wish I had bought more of this.