16 replies to this topic

[Zorro]

The Dragon Defender Catapult has a deceiving name! It appears this weapons is used for defensive reasons while it is actually engineered to do the opposite! What castle can withstand the combined power of a battery of Dragon Defenders, a few dragons and a wizard? Together they form the ultimate siege army...

Set name: Dragon Defender
Theme: Castle
Subtheme: Dragon Masters
Set number: 6043
Number of pieces: 151
Minifigs: 2
Released: 1994 (discontinued)
Release price: 12 USD
Current price: 10-15 USD on ebay and Bricklink; 35 USD for MINT

Brickshelf
Peeron
Bricklink

Box

The front, found on Brickshelf: with thanks to Theif for this and the next picture!


And the back: including some very nice alternatives, I especcialy like the war tower variant.

The instructions

The front of the instructions, showing the catapult and minifigs.


A step-by-step building plan, so, although not intended  , it can also be made by children... These pages show you a bit more about how the dragon's head is constructed.


And the back. Just two other pictures of the Dragon Defender catapult.

Minifigs

An officer and a "grunt", the yellow dragon plumes are very nice and can be used for a lot of things  !


The Dragon Knights have the standard old style, non-printed backs.

Parts

There are 2 weapons and a shield for every soldier, and the dragon wings and helmet are very nice items as well, you do get value for your money when you purchase this set!

Blocking pin

The blocking pin is very easy to use and effective: it blocks the mechanism from firing.

The set

Here we have a nice frontal view of the Dragon Defender catapult: the dragonhead must be a fearsome sight for the enemy...


And a side view, showing the mechanism. Another nice point is that there are many additional weapons attached to the catapult, the only weapon I miss is a bow and arrows (or a crossbow).

Price: 9/10 (You can find them at a very good price, even now! If you love the Castle theme, this is a must-buy!)
Design: 9/10 (IMHO One of the best catapult designs ever, and they are made of many little bricks, not of a few large pieces like the more modern ones.)
Minifigs and parts: 8/10 (Two minifigs is just enough for a set of this size and price, still I wouldn't mind paying another dollar or two/three to include a dragon! Also contents a lot of weapons for your soldiers.)
Playability: 8/10 (If this set included one enemy soldier or a dragon this rating would be 10/10, we just don't have a good target to fire at right now  )

Overall: 8,5/10 (One of the stronger Castle sets that includes a lot of useful parts and weapons, actually.... I think I like the entire Dragon Knights line!  )

Conclusion: Just buy a castle of a random faction, then get two Dragon Defenders assisted by a Wizard, a dragon or two and some ground forces and you already have a perfect battlefield!
While these catapults bombard the castle, the Wizard uses his magical powers to weaken the walls and defenders inside.
The dragons attack from the sky, breathing fire towards the besieged castle...the Dragon Knights await their turn to finish them off, and will only attack when the enemy (both castle and army) lies in ruins!

Thank you for reading my 6043 Dragon Defender review, I hope you enjoyed it! (and to those that concerns it, please feel free to index this review). Thanks!

Edited by zorro3999, 20 December 2008 - 12:14 AM.
Review added to index

[Guss]

that's a nice review of a nice set, my cousin owned it , but it was just before my dark age, so I didn't play with it a lot^^

[WhiteFang]

Such a beautiful dragon siege machine. The Dragon Knights/Masters are one of my favourite faction of Classic Castle, of course Black Knights and Forestmen carried much more emphasis though.   The dragon shields and soldiers are some of the nice little touch. By the way, the last comical section is hilarious. Oh, I have just indexed your review.  

By the way, where is your poll?

[Zorro]

WhiteFang, on Dec 18 2008, 02:47 AM, said:

The last comical section is hilarious. Oh, I have just indexed your review.  
By the way, where is your poll?

Thanks, I hope KimT likes it as well .
Poll added.

[KimT]

zorro3999, on Dec 20 2008, 01:16 AM, said:

Thanks, I hope KimT likes it as well .
Poll added.

So you're saying I have no sense of humor?

Good review and the final comic did make me laugh.

[Zorro]

Thanks for the praise guys!

KimT, on Dec 20 2008, 01:20 AM, said:

So you're saying I have no sense of humor?

*Looks he can still login*
Logs in.
*Looks at his title and signature*
Breaths in...

O yes, it appears you do , it was because I know you have a sense of humor...and because of the white beard of course   .
Your recent reviews are very good too, I didn't even know that unreleased soldier impulse set existed!

[iamded]

Nice review, zorro3999! This is a very cool set, I didn't realise it fires in the way it does, I always just assumed it fired in, I don't know, some boring way. But this great siege dragon, rolling towards the enemy must have been an intimidating site, and even more so when it brought it's fire breathing face down to troop level whilst simultaneously launching large chunks of boulders at the enemy walls. Very cool, and a superb addition to any Dragon Knight's army. I'm sure Dragonator would agree.
Oh yes, and a great little comic at the end too!
~Peace

Edited by iamded, 20 December 2008 - 11:07 AM.

[Mörs]

Outstanding! Probably the best official LEGO catapult I've ever seen!

...Or is it really a trebuchet?

[Hound Knight]

Mörs, on Dec 26 2009, 03:03 PM, said:

Outstanding! Probably the best official LEGO catapult I've ever seen!

...Or is it really a trebuchet?

Trebuchets have a giant sling that holds the objects that they throw, so I would say this is a catapult.

But please don't dig up dead topics.  

[Mörs]

Quote

But please don't dig up dead topics.

Why not?

[Hound Knight]

I don't know really... It's just considered bad form I guess.

[Mörs]

So if I wanted to talk about this set, I'm supposed to make a new thread about it, instead of simply posting here?

[Sandy]

I have to say, at least this set has some imagination incorporated in it, despite being just a catapult.

It's just that I've seen so many LEGO catapults in Castle sets that I've come to despise them. Sure, they add an element of playability, but isn't LEGO about building things, not just flicking pieces all around the playroom? I can only be happy that I don't have kids...

[Clone O'Patra]

Mörs, on Dec 26 2009, 04:39 PM, said:

So if I wanted to talk about this set, I'm supposed to make a new thread about it, instead of simply posting here?

No, you did just the right thing to discuss a set.

That's why we make reviews of old sets, in order to learn about them and discuss them.  Discussion topics that have been dead a long time are most often useless to bump up, but reviews are and should be timeless.  I love reviewing old sets myself, and I'm always happy when somebody bumps an older review back up in order to discuss the set.

Anyway, back to the set, no, it's certainly not a trebuchet.  But it is a big, interesting catapult.  What I like about the dragon knights subtheme was that all of the sets easily conveyed the symbol of the faction: the dragon.  Though it is slightly odd and probably unrealistic, having that big dragon head there really conveys who this catapult belongs to, and gives a very child-toy feeling to the set since it's so big and goofy.  A little too garish for my taste, though, is all that blue used.  Perhaps with the new dark shades of colors that LEGO often uses now these different colors would work, but the bright blue is just all wrong to me in this use.  On the top of castles, yes, but on catapults, no.

[WhiteFang]

Hound Knight, on Dec 27 2009, 04:19 AM, said:

But please don't dig up dead topics.  

Hound Knight, it's alright for EB Members to revive dead topics, if its deemed necessary and valued to add into past discussion.

Mörs, on Dec 27 2009, 04:39 AM, said:

So if I wanted to talk about this set, I'm supposed to make a new thread about it, instead of simply posting here?

No, you are not supposed to make a new thread when there is a similar existing discussion in place.

Read this topic to find out more with regards to "Reviving old threads".

Thanks.

[Hound Knight]

WhiteFang, on Dec 27 2009, 02:51 AM, said:

Hound Knight, it's alright for EB Members to revive dead topics, if its deemed necessary and valued to add into past discussion.

Hoho! I did not know that. Thanks for the info, I have often refrained from posting on old topics in the past because I thought it was frowned upon.

[supertoad64]

I got this set as a kid and I loved it! It still looks great now, with all those small pieces adding a lot of detail. It may look better if the colors were less garish (maybe brown instead of red?), but the Dragon Masters sets were all kind of uniformly gaudy. I hope that the new Kingdoms line takes some inspiration from the Dragon Masters, as that theme was really very fun and playable, despite having some issues with its architectural execution.