Review: 852922 Dragon Knight's Battle Pack

[metalandi]

Set Number/Name: 852922 Dragon Knight's Battle Pack

Theme: Castle/Kingdoms/Dragon Knights

Year Released: 2010

Pieces Count: *have still yet to count them myself*

Minifigures: 5

Price: 12,99 €

I was lucky to receive my little package of new items before the weekend, so as promised, here i bring you the review of the brand new Dragon Knight's battle pack!

All the cast together:

Don't they look fine at first sight? Let's go a bit more into detail...

Detailed views:

These are prett much the "standard" guards with the helmets we already know. The adding of the fire piece is pretty nice.

These are the brave knights with the great new helmet. I like the look of the guy without armor, he looks kinda like a leader to me with his cape.

Here are some more pictures from the armoured knight and the helmet:

Last but not least, the accesoires you get wuth this set:

Everything quite awesome so far isn't it? But now onto the negative side of the battle pack: The quality. This is an issue that really overshadows the purchasing of this set a bit for me. First of all as you might notice from some pictures, there is clearly a different, less "glossy" or "shiny" kind of plastic used for the torso and legs of the figs. Second, while the printing is spot-on and nothing to complain about there, and the hands stay in place in the arms just like they should, the weapons tend to fall out of the hands easily, and also i noticed the legs are much easier to move like on normal figs. That can be a bit annoying, since they always move when you touch the figs. All in all, this set brings us some great new figs and a nice amount of shields and accesoires, but if you like the figs to look exactly like the ones in normal sets, this battle pack isn't for you. It doesn't bother me that much, but i can see that someone that wants the highest possible quality, will be disappointed with it. Hope that helped, tell me what you think about it folks!

[Commodore Hornbricker]

Thanks for the nice review. It is a shame about the quality issue. The figures are otherwise very nice and I really like the printing and design on this line of castle figures.

[The Cobra]

I rate it average because of the awful price/piece&quality ratio and the figs coming already built.

Give us back classic boxed battle packs! And cut the chinese cr*p!

[General Redwater]

Great review, very informative!

I rate it average because of the awful price/piece&quality ratio and the figs coming already built.

Give us back classic boxed battle packs! And cut the chinese cr*p!

Same here, ever since they making things in China, the quality issues have really gone up. I`m sick of it!

Anyway, thank you for the review!

-

General Redwater

Edited June 4, 2010 by General Redwater

[josykay]

Thanks for the nice review. It is a shame about the quality issue.

I totally agree. That is sad. But at the other hand the dragon knights get two bucket helmets and a printed breastplate! Especially the breastplate is a reason to buy it. So you can build a green general without the castle set.

Btw:

The set contains a lance but there are no mounted knights of the Dragon Knights in all sets. Can I somehow get a dark green, black or dark gray saddle to build a knight?

Edited June 4, 2010 by josykay

[metalandi]

I don't know about the other colors, but there were a few horses with dark grey saddles i the previous castle sets.

[josykay]

Thanks a lot. I guess 7092 Skeletons' Prison Carriage is the cheapest one, that contains a dark gray saddle, isn´t it? (The only other set I found was the orc keep)

Edited June 4, 2010 by josykay

[Sirens-of-Titan]

That really is upsetting,

When did Lego give up on quality? That was a major reason i loved it back in the 90's so much; all the pieces were solid. To, even if only a part of a minifigure is flawed it ruins the entire figure.

Can you please post a pic with a battle pack soldier and a regular set soldier just for comparison please?

[not-in-use-anymore]

This is a good set for evening out the armies, but is it the lighting or is that a Dark green cape? It's probably the lighting. The only reason I like the new helmets is because (for some reason) I like headgear that only shows the eyes.

[MandalorianWig]

Until i came to this site, i never thought battle packs suffered poorer quality than minifigs in sets.

This is not what i expect from TLG, any set you buy be it battle packs or full sets should be of the highest quality bar none

Shame as these look like great new designs

[metalandi]

That really is upsetting,

When did Lego give up on quality? That was a major reason i loved it back in the 90's so much; all the pieces were solid. To, even if only a part of a minifigure is flawed it ruins the entire figure.

Can you please post a pic with a battle pack soldier and a regular set soldier just for comparison please?

I tried that before, but i myself couldn't tell much difference on the picture (though it IS visible when you look at them in reality). I'm gonna try it once more again tomorrow though, when i have better light.

Btw., the cape is black.

[blueandwhite]

Honestly, things like this really bother me. At $19.99 per pack (Cdn), these guys are anything but cheap. At over $4 a figure after taxes, I would hope that the quality was top notch. Hearing that these are yet again the cheaper plastic we've seen with the collector's figs and Toy Story sets is a real disappointment. LEGO needs to realize that you don't charge a premium for a sub-standard product. This line really is becoming a bit of a letdown.

I was going to pick up four of these, but right now I think I'm going to pass. I'll take my chances with Bricklink; the prices can't be much worse.

[metalandi]

Yeah, the price really is not acceptable at all. I'm glad i ordered just one set cause i wanted to see such a battle pack myself for once, but i don't need another one. I have the feeling that the plastic from the packaging actually maks more percentage of the price, than the figs themselves.

[Artifex]

Thanks for the great review, Metalandi!

Thanks for bringing up the plastic quality issue - I was ordering a couple of Battle Packs, but I'll now buy only one to check it out first.

And I, too, ask for a pic comparing the standard minifigs with the battle pack ones.

[Alex the Great]

That is quite a let down, I was going to get a few of these, but I'll get one to see how bad it is. I don't really care too much on the quality, but with the light gray weapons and the high price I might pass on getting more.

[metalandi]

Just tried to get a comparison picture, and it worked out pretty well. On the left is a fig from the battle pack and on the right the one from the siege cart promo set. Face the difference! I also provide a little video to demonstrate how easy for example a shield falls off from the hand of a fig from the battle pack. I hope it can show at least a bit how easy it comes off. Don't forget to have the sound on to hear how smoothly it slides in and out the hand.

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Edited January 23, 2011 by metalandi

[Sirens-of-Titan]

Just tried to get a comparison picture, and it worked out pretty well. On the left is a fig from the battle pack and on the left the one from the siege cart promo set. Face the difference! I also provide a little video to demonstrate how easy for example a shield falls off from the hand of a fig from the battle pack. I hope it can show at least a bit how easy it comes off. Don't forget to have the sound on to hear how smoothly it slides in and out the hand.

Darn that is a real disappointment, thank you for letting us know though Metalandi

I guess, you could always get a few black legs off of old Lego figures and replace these, but I guess that still leaves the flimsy shields issue. I was so looking forward to these...

Were the recent Castle battle packs this poor quality as well? I never bought them, and now I'm regretting not getting a huge force while I could

[lightningtiger]

Thanks 'metalandi' for the review, maybe it's lucky we don't get these in Oz - beacause only kids wont notice the difference ans as AFOL's would - I wouldn't buy them personally for myself, but my son I would (he custom MOC's his minfigures - he's dam good at it too sometimes).

I guess if you have spare hands you'll swap hands so the weapons don't fall out.

In the photo of the two sided by sided, yes I can see the difference - the battle pack one is not as glossy and printing doesn't have the same shine.

I&#39;m a conformist&#33; !

[metalandi]

While the printing itself actually is good, you can also spot a difference in colours, from the "normal set figure" to the battle pack one It's more yellowish, and the gold doesn't come out as shiny. I'm pretty sure that actually also comes from the difference in plastic beeing used.

[DaleDVM]

Thanks Metalandi. Great review. I truly find the video the most disturbing thing. My 25 year old figs hold a shield better than that! . I guess TLG hopes the kids will buy because AFOL's will be let down. I just can't believe they haven't fixed these issues yet.

I don't mind the stamp inside of the arm so collectors can tell the difference between a battle pack fig and one from the sets but why let them be of lower quality as well?

I absolutely love the new designs but ouch on the quality. The shields, helmets, and accessories are great. The downside on the dragons is that chain heavy torso which you cover up anyway. I wish they had two of the archer's torso. Last but not least those weapons really needed to be dark pearl. Why oh why are they not dark pearl?

Needless to say I will probably buy atleast 10 of these. I may wait a bit to see if they address the quality issue at all. What can I say I am an army builder and I am goofy!

[josykay]

Maybe you should compare the "holding the weapons" problem of the BP minifigs with a regular minifig in your video. If you just show one minifig there is nothing the viewer could compare with.

Did you change the hands with a regular minifig? Is that a possible solution of the hand problem?

If there would be only a difference in the quality of the hands it would be ok, but there are no dark pearl weapons und differend colours of the clothes.

However, the colours of the BP minifig next to the regular minifig are very bad. So the BPs do not fit as good armybuilder because the minifigs look different. But what can we use s an armybuilder? The cheapest set does not contain a regular soldier.

So sadly there are only three reasons for buying the BP: The two helmets and the breastplate. But are those 3 parts worth 12.95 Euro?

Edited June 4, 2010 by josykay

[metalandi]

Yes, the issue is with the hands. I tried the shield on a normal fig, and it stays there just as it should. I think you can see that it comes off WAY to easily from the video i took with the battle pack minifig, so i don't see a reason for comparing. We know that weapons usually stay properly in the hands of a minifig, but in the video you can see that it comes off just with touching. If you'd touch it in the hand of a normal fig, the only thing that would happen would be that the arm slides a bit back, but the shield wouldn't come off. I don't think it is okay, even if the issue is "just" with the hands. The figs should be up to the normal standards as a whole, and they aren't. That should be solved.

Edited June 4, 2010 by metalandi

[Artifex]

Maybe you should compare the "holding the weapons" problem of the BP minifigs with a regular minifig in your video. If you just show one minifig there is nothing the viewer could compare with.

Did you change the hands with a regular minifig? Is that a possible solution of the hand problem?

If there would be only a difference in the quality of the hands it would be ok, but there are no dark pearl weapons und differend colours of the clothes.

However, the colours of the BP minifig next to the regular minifig are very bad. So the BPs do not fit as good armybuilder because the minifigs look different. But what can we use s an armybuilder? The cheapest set does not contain a regular soldier.

So sadly there are only three reasons for buying the BP: The two helmets and the breastplate. But are those 3 parts worth 12.95 Euro?

Josykay said pretty much everything. What was supposed to be a good army builder turned out to be... A big disappointment?

One option in my opinion would be changing ALL figures for the ones in the Battle Packs so you can't really notice the difference - but that is just as frustrating, I guess (paying for figures to hide them away?)

The only other option would be thinking of the Battle Pack figures as "battle-hardened" knights/soldiers, I guess. But if lack of quality is now solved by imagination, I wonder where this new line is ging to end.

[Mac-K]

Thank you for the review metalandi!

Well, I'm not sure what else there is to say other than, what a rather big letdown. These battlepacks were precisely what I was waiting for to purchase next, and then this disappointing continuation in poor quality persists. I mean, minifigs that can barely even hold their own accessories when just getting picked up? That's pretty bad. I would say that at least I can get the minifigs from Bricklink instead, once they start to show up there. But it will be very difficult if not impossible to tell whether you're getting normal quality figs from the regular sets or these sub-par ones.

I hate to keep complaining about this issue, I really do. I like to think I'm fairly open minded when it comes to Lego pursuing new ways with their product. This sacrifice in quality is just too much to ignore, though. The price for these packs is unfortunately higher than I can justify, considering the noticeably lesser product we are getting in return.

[beans]

Price wise, it would seem like you'd be better off getting 7949 and 7950s as army builders instead. In CAD, 7949 gives you 6 Minifigs for about $27 and 7950 gives you 4 for $20. You'd be sacrificing a fig for a handful of pieces, and there's a different distribution of factions, but at least quality wouldn't be an issue.

I just wish the Dragon Knights were available in larger quantities in sets.