Review: 8777 Vladek's encounter

[The Cobra]

For a few years, many Lego characters were unique and each had a name; that mostly happened with Adventures and Castle. So, get ready to meet brave knight Danju and evil Vladek

Set data:

8777: Vladek's enconunter

Year: 2004

Theme: Castle

Subtheme: Knight's Kingdom

Pieces: 42 (+mini packaging with 3 cards and special instructions)

Price: 9/10 USD / EUR / UKP

Building time: less than 10 minutes

MISB on review: Yes

More info: Brickset - Peeron

Box front: as you can see by set name and details, I bought (on the net) in the U.S. of A.

Box back: no chance of alternate models, so let's show some action.

Box content: loose horse, loose barding, pieces bag, cards bag, instructions.

Cards front and rear; English and French instructions: big images, so I'm posting thumbnails.

Random instructions shot: building the catapult.

Loose pieces: let's get ready to build!

Danju: The Knight of the Wolf wears purple and gold.

Vladek: now, isn't he evil?

The catapult: it works good; comes with three "bullets".

Catapult - complete: plus extra horse pieces.

Catapult complete: a view fom the front

Full set: who's gonna win this battle?

Comic page: all KK set were shown as comics in the instructions book.

Review: While in my dark years and searching on the net for what I've been missing, I thought this was a good set; that's probably why I bought two of them at once. Danju looks good, his face is exclusive to his character (see here) and waaaay better than the stupid face of the good knight in set 7009. And Vladek is impressive, with his helmet and armor and barded horse. And a scary face. Plus, the "bad guys" really look great in their dark colours with the Scorpion emblem. The catapult is ok, I think kids can enjoy it. This could be a 5/5 set, but it's really overpriced (just as some other KK sets). 10 bucks? You can buy a 7091 with that money, and it comes with twice as much minifigs and a much larger shooting machine. A small con is that there were too many Vladeks (I own 7 KK sets and 4 of him!), but you can just think of it as a mounted soldier.

Rating: 4/5

Edited November 22, 2008 by The Cobra

[JopieK]

The Cobra, thanks for the review, looks very nice!

[hewkii9]

Nice review, not so good set - I actually returned this after buying it. Of course, now that purple's gone and I get a better look at that barding...

[Zorro]

Your review is good.

The set, indeed as some say, ISNT.

I like the catapult packs though, there have been catapult packs for knight since a very long time, and frankly I dont think this one comes even to the knies of the Dragon Knigts catapult impulse pack, featuring a large onager/catapult and 2knights with 2 green dragonshields. The design of that one was the best in my eyes, better then the previous version and a lot better then this one and the one that came even earlier (falcon catapult)

[KimT]

I think this was one of the "ok" sets of the awfull KK2 Era.

I gave in an average because of the somewhat useful bricks and I really do like the knight.

Not as a knight, but the purple minifig is very useful.

Thanks for giving us this fine review.

I've also added it to the index.

[WhiteFang]

Thanks for the review.

In this set, the barding from the Scorpion Knights appeal to me. It is an useful barding to create a group of mounted dark knights. Vladek looks quite cool. However, I am not a big fan of KK series. The barding was the main interest and highlight in this set. Other than that, I am not very excited or pleased with it.

I voted an average for it.

[Tenorikuma]

• I like the figures and the barding, but I dislike how KK2 has no or nearly no torso printing.

• Mini-catapults are lame, but at least this one has better pieces than the catapults in Fantasy Era castle.

• I don't like the octagonal shields with the symmetrically rotated emblems. Completely inauthentic-looking.

If it weren't for some of these complaints, I'd probably be snapping up all the KK2 sets I could find

[Wout]

I only bought this set on sale, but some pieces and the horse were nice ,so I bought 3 of it.

I don't like the purple armour of Danju, but most people didn't like it, his face is actually quite good.

Vladek is a nice evil character, but there were more vladeks in all sets than scorpionknights, so I would see a scorpionsoldier instead. (The next year they did it with the little set, but It also had Santis and a crappy catapult and I had already 3 or 4 santisses, so I didn't buy it)

The catapult is not that bad and has even some nice pieces.

for a KK2 set it is quite good.

[ptdapen]

I remember getting this set just for the heck of it. Danju's armor looks ridiculous, and I'm sure everybody agrees. The main problem with this theme, in my opinion, is that there were too many different colors that you would get if you collected all of the sets. What type of army would have red, green, blue, and purple knights? Plus there was also the fact that they were supposed to be unique characters, and that their faces would always be the same. Vladek was also overused in sets, but the Shadow Knights do well because they're generic.

On the rest of the set, I found the horse very nice. Probably the best part about the entire set. The catapult is pretty lame, but it kind of works to attack. I have to say that comic is misleading to the children. Vladek has a shield in it, which must make some children go crazy over missing the shield. I wish they did include the shield, since I don't have any other Vladeks.

Anyways, I liked your review. You didn't leave out a detail. As for the set, I voted an average. (or will vote average)

[WhiteFang]

What type of army would have red, green, blue, and purple knights? Plus there was also the fact that they were supposed to be unique characters, and that their faces would always be the same. Vladek was also overused in sets, but the Shadow Knights do well because they're generic.

Actually, I have so many of such knights.... until I was forced to form a section of each colored knights... I had to modify each of the unique color representation of the knights to signify its commander. I never regard Lord Vladek as that figure.. I was forced to change its appearence, as there were too many of it which is why I had to form a battalion of Scorpion Knights with that barding. I am not a big fan of KK, but it was something that I collected when I am slowly coming out of the Dark Age...

[Hewman]

I have two of these. I voted it above average because the barding for the horse is beautiful and the black and red coour scheme of VLadek and his gang has a nice evil feel, purple not so good for King Mathias' men. I think a few people may have voted this a little lower than they would have when it came out because they're probably comparing it to some of the super high quality castle sets that have been released more recently.

Thanks for the review!

[The Cobra]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

I too thought the idea of having each knight of a different colour was odd. As for the armor plates, Danju's doesn't look so bad to me; I mean, Jayko's looks like a pijama!

And what about the shileds? I mean, what did lions do to deserve such a silly design as the one on Rascus shield?

Torso printing: I think it's waste on an armored minifig.

Still, I didn't expect that so many people didn't like the set (or the KK2 line).