Review: 6086 Black Knight’s Castle

[metalandi]

Set Number/Name: 6086 Black Knight's Castle

Theme: Castle/Black Knights

Year Released: 1992

Pieces Count: 588

Minifigures: 12

Price: Depending on condition and so on, between 70 and 120 € on Ebay

Since i have been recently "digging" out again some of my older castle sets and put them back on display again, and i saw there are a few reviews missing for sets that i own, i decided to review this great classic castle. This is my first review since a long time, and due that i am not a member of the reviewers academy, i hop you forgive me though i tried my best, if some pictures are not perfect. Enough babbling, let's go straight to the pictures!

The Instructions:

Not much to say about those, everything is showed clearly and the print is from high quality, like in all instructions from that time.

The Minifigs:

There are 12 of them! Isn't that an amazing amount? If you compare it to set nowadays, i would definitely say yes. We have 4 knights on horses, all with different colors, different saddles and we even get at least one horse in every colour that is available. We have another 6 foot soldiers to protect the castle, of which 4 are archers. On the enemy's side we have a standard wolfpack guy with red cape and a ghost.

Overall Views:

Left-angled:

Right-angled:

Front:

Side views:

Bird perspective:

Detailed Views:

Secret entrance to the "keep" on the right corner:

The fassade of the "keep" - a great piece of architecture:

Inside the "keep", we have a table, a barrell, a chest and something to drink for the knights:

The door of the left tower - this is where the house ghost lives!

The flag, which is only available in this set:

Detail from the front entrance:

The prison inside the castle, and what i think is some kind of a water place:

Some final words:

I think this is one of the best castles TLG has ever produced, cause though it has a raised baseplate, it got an incredible design that makes it look unique. There are plenty of figs coming with it what is great, but also every fig is different. Add lots of accessoires, rare pieces and great playability, this set is totally perfect. Hope you liked my review, i can't wait to hear your opinions about it and the set!

Edit: pictures are fixed now and should work again.

[fenrir]

I bought this set second hand a year ago. It's a great set.

One of my favourite sets ever.

[Sandy]

Now this is an old castle I can wholly appreciate, unlike that boring grey rectacle called King's Castle.

Not only does this castle look great, it also has a plethora of playable elements, loads of minifigs (with great variety as well) and many rare or even exclusive pieces like the raised baseplate, the horse bardings and the flag.

I'd love to get this set at some point in time.

[Etzel]

My childhood's most important LEGO set!

I think I got if for Christmas in '91 or '92 and it was my only big castle for my whole pre-AFOL LEGO time. Most of my MOCs of that time was either inspired by this set, or at least used a lot of pieces from it. It was one of few sets that I sometimes used to rebuild, just because it was so awesome! I really liked the tudor house part and the working portcullis and drawbridge. Details as the well, the secret escape door and the ghost tower was often copied in my MOCs.

I still like this set very much (sadly it lies de-constructed at my dad's place with my other LEGO from the pre-dark ages), but there are some minor details that I'm not too fond of. Firstly I don't like the raised baseplate. Really annoying with lots of studless areas and weird slopes. I much prefer flat baseplates or just regular plates. Secondly I think the left and back side of the castle is quite bad with just a one brick high wall. Not much of a defence I think And while black certainly is a useful colour I'm not sure it works so well as walls. I prefer grey in that case.

But even with those disadvantages I still consider this set one of the top 3 LEGO castles ever. :thumbup:

[KurttKrueger]

I never got to own this castle, so I've been waiting for someone to post a review about it.

Excellent design and content, and great review.

Thanks!

[metalandi]

Thanks! I will try to put up a review of a classic castle set now every week, if i have enough time. I have some more sets left, that need a review here on Eurobricks!

[Legorski]

Awesome, I really got to get me some of those mini-figs! XD

[deAraujo]

I´m also a proud owner of this set. And I must say, once built this castle is definitely a looker among all the others!!

Very nice review, covering all the important aspects

And btw, your bricks and instructions are almost like new!

Congratulations

[metalandi]

Yep, i got this set about a year and a half back in almost new condition. I had only got to do very less cleaning, as there just was a little bit of sust on the parts. With it beeing in such good condition, it's definitely a set i won't give away anytime soon.

[Lordofdragonss]

Yay! More castle reviews!

This is the third best castle imo, great buildings, great playablity but it's still not 6080 King's Castle

[Sandy]

Firstly I don't like the raised baseplate. Really annoying with lots of studless areas and weird slopes. I much prefer flat baseplates or just regular plates. Secondly I think the left and back side of the castle is quite bad with just a one brick high wall. Not much of a defence I think

But with the raised baseplate, the walls don't have to be taller than a few bricks. It seems you forgot to take the height added by the baseplate in consideration.

You also have to think about the accessibility of the inside of the castle. If all the walls would be very tall, it would be quite difficult for children to play with the interior.

I really like the raised baseplate, it adds to the interesting architecture and gives shape to the whole structure, and the slopes and gaps add playability. I fail to see what's so negative about it, really.

[WhiteFang]

My all time favourite medieval castle of all times! In fact, this is the very castle, where WhiteFang is born.

This is the most powerhouse castle ever released, with great assortment of minifigs, that not only appear less generic from one another in terms of their outfits and weapons armament plus a solid knights formation taking place with very 2 unique bardings that is exclusive to this castle, and more importantly, the special minifig, "White Knight", aka moi sigfig in this incredible castle.

I love it very much, and it's my favourite childhood castle set. Love the tall majestic castle gates, with high towers with archers guarding, along with a dark creepy underground prison for our beloved prisoner sharing together with a water well. Furthermore, there is even a back gate for solders to escape or manoeuvres from the rear to counter the enemies, and where all of the enemies are defeated, the solders can have a great time chilling down with barrels of beer! What a great inspiring playing concept!

Seriously, I love this set so much, until it bothers me for a long while to tempt myself to find a second MISB set in the open market, so I can experience the playing sensation once more.

Perfect "5" set, with no regrets for more!

Thanks metalandi for sharing this review with us, and it sure made me very happy as I am typing this comment to you.

[jyves]

Great set.

Not my favourite set but great elements and nice quantity of Minifigs.

[chris1]

nice castle set i wish i had it but whats with the ghost whats the ghost got to do with knights is the ghost going to

scar the baddies

[metalandi]

Well there always have been stories that old castles and mansions and so on have been haunted, so i guess that's why lego came up with the idea to include ghosts in castle sets. And today we have undead skeletons, trolls and dwarves, so we are past the ghost thing already

[Etzel]

But with the raised baseplate, the walls don't have to be taller than a few bricks. It seems you forgot to take the height added by the baseplate in consideration.

But the front of the caste got a full high wall even when it's on the raised baseplate. And I still think a wall needs to be a bit higher than what it is on the back side, it's not offering much protection from arrows and such.

You also have to think about the accessibility of the inside of the castle. If all the walls would be very tall, it would be quite difficult for children to play with the interior.

True, but I don't care much about playability, I prefer the building process. And there are other ways of making the castle accessible for play, like folding it out like King's Castle.

I really like the raised baseplate, it adds to the interesting architecture and gives shape to the whole structure, and the slopes and gaps add playability. I fail to see what's so negative about it, really.

I think I don't like it because it's so big. It's like on huge <insert that tiresome argument> piece that limits your building abilities on it. It's a cheap and easy way to raise the castle and make it look bigger that it really is and I'm not liking that.

[Big Cam]

Great review!! So many good pictures and they really bring me back, this is one my cousins had and I loathed.

Gotta love that knight!

[Tobiasz]

Great, best castle ever, when I was a boy I always want this set and after years I at least got it. It's the most realistic of lego castle, also it has a lot of minifigures and many of unique parts for example the big flag - only on this set, 2 horse bardings with dragon pattern, tudor walls, dragon plumes in many colours and many more, seriously it's amazing and magnificent set.

[funkybrick]

Great review! And great set!

I'll probably get myself a copy it if I witness a good deal sometime

Edited January 27, 2010 by funkybrick

[boba_jagoda]

Absolutely inspiring! Both the set and especially the minifigs!

My display case is full of them

(link to image)

[Jack Bricker]

I have to say that this is one of my favorite castles. Even though I have never owned one I do have the Royal Knights Castle and that is very similer in terms of the color scheme and overall feel of the set. I also really liked you review of the set and I really enjoyed all of the pictures that you provided of the minifigures and the back of the beautiful set. Thank you for such a good review of one of the best Castles Lego ever produced.

[BlueBard]

Thanks for the review, and for bring me back so good memories... This castle was my first big set and I think I'm still in love with it Weren't the design and the MFs amazing? Four knights! Where do you find that nowadays?

[Albero - BEL]

Very good review.

I was already outside the LEGO world when this set came out and it is the first time I have the occasion to look it closer thanks to your review. I must admit that, even if it has a raised baseplate, it is really really good. Well designed, playability, lots of nice details and so on. Very very good. I hope one day LEGO will come up again with something like this, but without baseplate :)

[Lorentzen]

Thank you for this great review.

I just bought this set second hand a couple of weeks ago. It is an AMAZING set - one of the best, if not the best designed Lego Castles.

12 minifigs, with very rare plumes, horse bardings, a very rare flag, the lovely baseplate, the black walls and the gate, along with the prisoner, the ghost, the secret ghost tower, the well and the cellar/prison.... this set is incredible. Incredible

[Wout]

Thank you for the nice review.

I like this castle as much as the big old grey from 1984 and I think it's too difficult to say that the one is better than the other. There is 8 years difference in designing and that could be a very big distance (look to Knights Kingdom 1 which was still available at the beginning of 2002) .

I like the design of the big front tower very much which is probably an grandson of the 1984 castle, but the building on the right is very great and have a more civilised feeling to it.

The return of a ghost (after the first ghosts in 1990) is very nice and gives, with a wolfpack guy, extra playability.

Some people don't like the raised baseplate, but you always could build a different castle with a flat plate. I even have bought a second hand raised baseplate, because I never had one and just want to try something with it.

Although I will admid that it is sometimes annoying to fill the gap in the middle.