REVIEW: 6009 Black Knight

[Clone OPatra]

What better way to use my 500th post than to review a Knight? Enjoy!

While on my lovely beach vacation, I popped into an intriguing new store that sells old toys, called Yesterday's Fun. Apart from lots of old action figures (about which I care not), there were also old LEGO sets in the front glass counter, and a bin of minifigure parts from which one could assemble a minifigure for $2 a piece. Most of the sets in the case were Star Wars, and since I didn't really care to get another Ewok Attack (for $108), I decided to go for this…

Set Title: Black Knight

Set #: 6009 (flip it around and it's the same!)

Theme: Castle, Black Knights (surprise sunrise)

Interlocking Pieces: 19

Minifigures: 1

Year of Release: 1992

Price at Release: USD $3.25 (according to Peeron. A picture on Bricklink shows the box with a "$2.69" sticker on it, but this might be discount)

Buy it? Inventory? Bricklink Peeron

INTORDUCTION

I already introduced how I got it, but let me set the scene of the set. This set came out back in the good old time of human protagonists and antagonists. Sure, there was the occasional ghost, like in 6034 Black Monarch's Ghost, but there were none of these trolls, undead skeletons, Lord of the Rings rip-off dwarves, or anything of that sort. All there was in '92 was the bandits (the Wolfpack) and Knights in not-so-shining old dark grey armor (the Black Knights) who fought the Black Falcons, I believe. What it really boils down to is that both sides were humans and both sides looked pretty much the same, so the kids could decide who teamed up with who to fight who, and so forth. But hey, all this history stuff is getting a wee tad boring isn't it, let's look at some plastic, or at least pictures of pictures of plastic.

BOX

If you pay quadruple the original price like I did, you better get the set MISB. I even took pictures before I tore the box open this time, and the box is so small it fit in my makeshift studio (apologies about the flowery napkin pattern appearing in all the pics):

The front. I love the very plain look of these old sets. They displayed the contents nicely, but did not overdo it. The eternally happy-looking knight just seems to be having a nice horse ride. I must also note that there are the ages and the Black Knights logo on this box. While that may not seem so important, these features are not on the box shown in the other review of this set on Eurobricks. I believe my version was from a later run, or else just a different release.

The back. LEGO even went to the trouble of making alternate builds for a set with just five bricks. That's dedication. I'm not sure I love the alternate models, but it's still fun that they're there. And if you couldn't figure it out, they showed you how to open the guy's helmet.

The top. This is the only place with the set name. Somebody also seemed really excited that building instructions were included!

This is the only side that says the piece count. LEGO sure liked to spread out set info in those days, but I like it not being all cluttered on the front. You can also see the price that I got it for.

This side displays a different picture of the jovial knight and his trusty steed. There's no to-scale minifigure picture on this box, but I don't miss it.

Overall, quite a nice little box. Not too big at all for a small set, and the contents hardly rattle around. I like the plainer design of the box, but I can see why kids might rather go for all the bright colors and action that we see on boxes nowadays. In some ways, the plain yellow background and pose of the knight remind me of an Akira Kurosawa movie.

CONTENTS

Alright, time to punch open that old tab and see what we get on the inside! I like the old tabs much better than the new taping style: no scissors needed!

Inside the box are five things: a warning, the old kind of bag without all the writing on it, a loose horse, a poster, and the instructions sheet.

WARNING! Don't eat it. I'm not so sure why this was thrown in. The warning was already stated on the box, but maybe that happy little knight proved just too tempting for some young mouths.

INSTURCTIONS

The front of the instructions sheet is quite similar to the box front, which makes it great.

One side shows you how to assemble the complex minifigure anatomy and horse variations. The odd thing is that to make the horse without the saddle you need two pieces that make the weapons rack stand up. I'll illustrate that later.

The flip side shows how to build the detailed weapons rack, and a different picture of the completed set. Quite simple, as it should be.

A close up on that cute picture also reveals that these instructions were printed in Denmark by my favorite Danish printing company. Mmmmm… danish.

POSTER

A great thing that came in this set and a lot of sets in the early '90s is a nicely photographed catalog poster showing sets around at the time and advertising some new sets that were not yet available. This being a Castle set, one whole side of the poster is taken up with a nice Castle picture and Castle sets.

The other side has a smattering of other things: Pirates, City type stuff, Space, and Belville. I love the pictures of the set all together.

There is one strange thing about this poster in relation to the set. While the set clearly came out in 1992 (all sources agree and the box says ©1992), the poster advertises sets new to September 1994. Also, in the other review of this set on EB, the poster is different and older. I think the set was still being produced in 1994, and I got one of those.

Still, it's a nice poster, even if it doesn't advertise any Black Knights.

PARTS

First let's look at the loose interlocking piece: the horse. It comes in this set in the most common of colors, black, but you couldn't expect them to throw in a rarer brown horse is such a small set. This particular black horse appears in roughly 48 sets, while the white horse appears in 42, and the old brown one in just 19. There is also a newer reddish brown horse that appears in just two sets so far.

Here we have the old style hole-y bag that contains the other 18 of our 19 interlocking pieces. (I think the horse counts as an interlocking piece.)

I laid all the pieces out nicely for you to see. There are only five bricks, and all the other pieces are accessories. Who knew a Knight would need two shortswords, a lance, a crossbow, and a shield? This is a lot more weaponry than is found in today's impulse, which only has a spear, a sword, and a shield.

The rare or more interesting parts, in my opinion, are these. The dragon plumes appear in just 19 sets, the most recent of which being the Dragon Fortress in 2003. The breastplate armor in dark gray was not rare at all at the time of this set's release, but the last set it was in was a Castle accessories pack in 1994, so fifteen years later it is hard to find in this color. The shield was only ever in seven sets in the early '90s, and was last produced in a 1995 castle accessories pack.

In sum, quite a fine parts selection for a tiny set. Comparing it with today's impulse, this set certainly wins on parts for having a horse and way more weapons than a knight can carry.

MINIFIGURE

Ah, herein lies the biggest draw of this set, the powerful, no-nonsense Black Knight. Just the name makes him sound an intimidating foe!

First, let's see the Black Knight in all his glory, topped with red dragon plumage. I'm not sure if the Black Knights were good guys or bad guys (you decide!), but he seems pretty ready to beat up some peasants in this pose. This exact minifigure was exclusive to this set, which is also a big draw.

Now from the side, he still looks intimidating. The black pointed visor gives him a stern look. In a Hollywood movie, a knight that looked like this would definitely be the bad guy just for wearing so much dark clothing. I also like that while he is a Black Knight, he isn't clothed in all black. Black just seems to mean dark in this case, which is good, because the different colors work together to convey darkness.

There is not much to see from the back except the lovely molding on the armor piece that has become so common today in shiny colors and with printing. In some ways, I like the plain look of the Black Knight's armor more than the ungabluzzened prints on today's knights.

Perhaps it's a good thing, perhaps not, but when the Black Knight takes off his armor, he is revealed to be an almost comical looking Scotsman with crazy red whiskers. Notice that like most minifigures back then, his face print is a smiley face with additives. My Black Knight also has a weepy eye. I really like the old body print that appeared in a variety of colors back then, but the happy face is just so silly in comparison to his stern, armored look. But maybe I'm just being too stereotypical, wanting a stern face on a stern knight. Maybe LEGO is saying that inside a tough knight is really just a jovial person with a big heart.

From the back, he's just plain and simple. Could be anybody.

But then he puts his armor back on and weapons up, and you know this guy means business no matter what his smile and red whiskers might imply. In other words, he looks tough and awesome, so great to get in such a small set.

BUILD

The build is very straightforward, seeing as it only uses five bricks. Here are the first three steps:

The fourth step is adding the weapons. The instructions do not show you how to put the flag on the pole; I guess they think you can figure it out yourself.

COMPLETED SET

Here is the Black Knight, showing off his Black Knight pride in front of his trusty steed and lame weapons rack. He is obviously the biggest draw of the set, and the only thing that pushes this set above other sets. Had this set included a regular stock knight without armor, it would be a fine army builder, but nothing special.

You can see a better view of the weapons rack in this angle. Looking at it, it's pretty bad. It is completely unrealistic, and is unimpressive next to the awesome knight and his horse. If only this set had had a proper weapons rack, like the one in the 2008 impulse.

One of the options in the instructions is to fill in the horse. This, however, creates a problem, because you must take away the support of the weapons rack, and the rack is so poorly designed that it won't be able to stand up with the pole on it.

The only option you have left is to stack it all up on the filled in horse, which I guess is a good playability feature…

To conclude this portion, I can just say that the Knight with his horse would make a fine set without the three-second-build weapons rack, but at least you get more weapons this way, which is always great if you're building armies or just changing up how your Knight fights.

PLAYABILITY

If you think I'm going to have YouTube videos for a $3.25 set with one guy, you're out of your mind. Oh.

In all seriousness, though, there isn't a whole lot you can do without a second minifigure. But hey, that's not what an impulse is about, is it? It's just about expanding your ranks, and then once you have two big armies, they can fight each other, same as today.

However, if you happen to have bought this set in a shop that has a make-your-own-minifigure-for-$2 option, you can have more fun…

CONCLUSION

This set is great. It has an exclusive and awesome Black Knight, complete with cool red dragon plumes, that old standard body print, and an insanely happy face with equally insane red whiskers. At the time I'm sure it was also a great set and a great way to build up an army of Black Knights with lots of weapon options. The exclusiveness of the figure, the horse, and the amount of weaponry all put this set above the 2008 impulse, which had two measly weapons and another stock crownie. The only thing better about the modern impulse is the weapon rack, but I think we can agree that the Black Knight is way better than ten well-designed weapon racks.

As time moves along, and LEGO sets and minifigures get increasingly more detailed, even minifigures from as recently as the early '90s become classic and their simpleness give them an everlasting charm. No Mars Mission or SPIII minifigures will ever out fly the classic smiley spacemen, and no gold knight will ever outshine the one clad in black and gray wearing a ridiculous grin.

RATINGS

Minifigures: 10/10 - Did I not say why already? You can't ask for more than an exclusive guy in a cheap set.

Interlocking Pieces: 8/10 - Weapons are good, but a better five pieces could have been picked to make a better stand.

Build: N/A - Sure, I could give this a lousy rating instead, but you can't expect to build much of anything in a set so small.

Price: 10/10 - I actually didn't mind paying $14 for it, but if I was paying $3.25, I'd be more than happy.

Playability: N/A - I have to go with "you can't expect any" for this too. It's one guy, and that's all it needs to be.

Overall: 9.4/10 - It's a little less than 10 out of 10 because of the lame weapons rack, but 9.4 is still a very solid "go get it!' You can get it for less than $14 on Bricklink, but not MISB. You could also try to get just the minifigure, he is worth it! So if you can get it, do it, you won't be disappointed.

Until next time!

[JeffD984]

Man, this really takes me back... I had several of these growing up. And that poster is amazing! Good in depth review for such a tiny set!

[ILikePi]

Great and detailed review, Clone O'Patra!

This impulse set is much better than the one that we got last year (?) because of all of those accessories. The red dragon plumes are a great addition to the knight, along with the fact that it's an exclusive minifigure!

Your video was funny, too.

And congratulations on being promoted to a knight!

[WhiteFang]

Wow! I will be excited like yourself, when you are opening up a MISB Castle set that has been stored away for 19 years!

Smell the taste of MISB, sure feels good. This is my all time favourite black knights castle set. I own one myself, and bought a couple used sets to make up for the forces in Black Knights Kingdom. It's really worth every cent back in those days, and its complete full array of weapons accessories especially the armor and shield, plus a lovely horse, sums up the key reasons of getting or I should said, "Must get", to add into your castle collection for any castle fan.

Well done, and thanks for sharing.

[Lordofdragonss]

*Stops laughing* Yours Video makes me lol.Now I want dragon plumes, they are awesome!

[KimT]

What a nice stroll down "Memory lane".

Thanks for bringing back a zillion memories of playing with the Dragon Knights, fending off the 'evil' Falcon knights, while waiting for King Lionheart to return from the Crusades

A great review for a set this size I must say.

[ziljin]

Wish they had some sort of special order system from discontinued sets.

[Clone OPatra]

Thanks for bringing back a zillion memories of playing with the Dragon Knights, fending off the 'evil' Falcon knights, while waiting for King Lionheart to return from the Crusades

I still don't understand how the Falcon Knights could be badguys. They are the least evil looking of everybody!

[Fluyt]

This is a very nice set, and the smallest one you could get the armor and visor in I think. I got about 4 or 5 of these when I was a kid (in a fairly short time-span, maybe even all on one birthday), I hated getting multiples of sets when I was younger, but now I'm glad I have them.

Brings back memories

[Svelte]

Thanks for the detailed review!

I can't say I'm overly amazed by your alternate build , but this set looks fun and not bad value. Reddy McWhiskers facial arrangement is indeed terrifying. He looks like he's growing whiskers. Animal whiskers, not the beardy kind

Dragon Knights came out well into my Dark Ages, so I never found them that interesting. I also find the plumage kind of... showy. I much prefer the simple feathers from the older sets. With this complicated top and sides arrangement, Reddy looks less like a fearsome knight and more like a hanging children's mobile.

Wait, Falcons were the bad guys?

[WhiteFang]

Wait, Falcons were the bad guys?

I thought the Black Falcons are friendly???

Then again, it's really up to us to decide. Some of them feel that Black Knights are evil, but I feel its light and strength from them.

[Raven Brickroft]

I still don't understand how the Falcon Knights could be badguys. They are the least evil looking of everybody!

I don't think they are the badguys per se. Remember, it's LEGO. It's up to the child who he wants to be cast in to the role of good and bad guy.

They were always in black costumes, maybe that's why the child's mind mostly associates them to be the lesser good faction.

[CDC]

I really miss such great sets. Small but so effin awesome.

I have this one but i think the two swords that came with it are a little bit different than yours. Mine are probably from the same material as armour, i mean they look somehow more shiny then the rest of my swords. I bought it from this guy and it crossed my mind that he might have made it by himself... I guess LEGO used different material back then.

[Clone OPatra]

Mine are probably from the same material as armour, i mean they look somehow more shiny then the rest of my swords.

I also have a few of the alternate hard swords (that's not what anybody said), which I found while pawing through my accoutrements bin the other day. I wonder what was up with that. I like the odd hard ones much better than the normal soft kind. The soft ones get all scratched up at the hilt.

Also, I'm not entirely sure that the Falcons were supposed to be bad. What I do know, though, is that on another poster I have it says that the Black Knights and Wolfpack will have to stop the fierce Dragon Knights. So that's for sure, and sorry to confuse anybody about Falcons. I really don't know about them.

[-JD-]

Great review! It is a shame we do not have these types of stores in England. Nifty little set there...

[QQS]

Many Thanks for the interesting and detailed Review- I've got 6009 without instruction and box, but I'm very pleased with it ;) I like minifig's facial expression, because it's unique. I created a black knight cloak for him and I'm pleased with the result ;)

[BearHeart]

This set holds a special spot in my heart. I still remember when my grandfather and I went out on the town one day back in 1993 and he bought me this set. Rest in Peace.

[Big Cam]

Oh, how this set brings me back. I also am a proud owner of this set and this makes me want to dig those pieces out of my Old LEGO tub and build it up.

Great review!

[Klaus-Dieter]

Thank you very much for this great review, Clon O'Patra!

I voted for

Excellent

since this set is simply excellent.

You get everything a knight on horseback needs:

-a knight with full armor and helmet to open

-sword, lance, buckler and crossbow

-horse with saddle

It's a pity that TLG stopped these small sets with only one knight and a horse included!

Klaus-Dieter

[Rocketbilly]

Great review.

I remember many variations of this set....the Ninja one with the Shogun, the Knight's Kingdom one with King Leo....

I share the same thoughts about these kind of sets as many members do; I wish they still made them.

It's a shame, that TLC restricts itself so much with their sizes and prices. But I suppose they have to maximise profit.

Either way, a lovely set from the not-so distant past.

And waht's up with that alternate build, with the knight with a brick between his torso and his hips?

Looks like he's been interrogated onthe rack!

Will/Rocketbilly

[ThatLegoBrick]

The knights with the Dragon decals were the "Baddies" I remember it well. Not easy to find down under!! If only I didn't give it all away 10years ago :(

[Legonardo]

The knights with the Dragon decals were the "Baddies" I remember it well. Not easy to find down under!! If only I didn't give it all away 10years ago :(

Hey mate, 4 year old topic with no real new input, bumping is sorta frowned upon.

have you introduced yourself here? Welcome to the community BTW