Review: 7188 King's Carriage Ambush

[Lego Otaku]

My first review so please feel free to criticize me. Don't bother flaming me since I have 10,000 flame element, I am virtually immune to flames. ;)

Info

Set # - 7188

Name - King's Carriage Ambush

Theme/Subtheme - Castle/Kingdoms

Year - 2011

Piece Count - 285

Minifigures - 4 + 2 horses

Price - MSRP $40 US

Box

The front of the box is nicely done with 2 bandit ambushing the carriage, while both the King and the driver are ready to fight back if needed. The forested area and the 2 bandits are almost reminiscent of my favorite castle era: Forestmen series. The carriage's wheels were blurred to simulate speedy movement.

The back of the boxes shows 3 small panels and a larger pictures of various battle scenes between King, the driver, and the bandits. It also shows how the hammer attack works, by flicking the 5L lift arm to flip the hammer. The larger picture also has very nice picture.

I may cut the box up and frame the 2 nicer scenes =)

box content

3 poly bags numbered 1, 2, and 3 and 2 manuals. Manual 1 is for the carriage and requires bag 1 and 2 to complete. Manual 2 is for the 2 forest pieces and requires the last bag.

Instruction

By miracle, the manual arrived flat and wrinkle free! I took a couple random pages:

from book 1

from book 2

2 pages of part list.

Pieces

Front of King and Driver minifigs and 2 horses. Cloak and helmet was not attached.

Back of the Driver and King minifig. King has no alternate face but the driver has a fearful face.

Same 2 minifigs, fully outfitted (minus King's cloak) and some interesting pieces from bag 1 and 2. There are 2 arches of style I hadn't seen before, and the elusive square macaroni bricks, first discovered last year in the train sets. Not pictured, this set had lots of warm gold pieces including 1x1 with clip, 1x1 round plate, 1x3 curved slopes, horse's helmets, etc.

Bandit minifig's front and some pieces. There are some darker green (compare with LEGO's "Dark Green" 6x8 plate) and some brown bricks that doesn't look reddish brown. There's also a clear bottle that could pass for wine or whiskey bottle.

Back side of the bandit minifigs.

The Build

Darn me, i was having too much fun putting this together I didn't take enough picture of its progress. Like most other, I started with instruction book #1:

About half way through with the carriage. The treasure chest contained a cup, 2 round 1x1 plates, and 2 gems.

Nearly completed with the carriage

Completed carriage. There are 2 halberds and 2 shields mounted on either side of the carriage. The roof of the carriage comes off easy as it's held in place by only 2 studs, which should make it easy to insert and remove the King. The harness is a bit more flexible than the older harness I'm used to seeing in older castle sets.

Another view of the carriage with more of the warm gold pieces visible.

I was left with 3 leftover pieces: warm gold 1x1 round plate (can add it to the chest), brown 1x1 round plate, and black 1x1 round plate. There are also 2 of 1x2 white plate and 2 of 1x2 white bricks, which are used on the horses if you remove the harness so not an extra pieces.

Onto instruction book #2

About half way done on the tree #1. The lift arm there holds another lift arm for the flipping hammer part. The hammer goes onto the side, on the naked brown technic pin.

Completed tree #2. Flick the lift arm, it causes the hammer to flip over and smash the unsuspecting minifig on the other side of the tree. Nice big hammer, might steal that one for a hulk type minifig ;)

A bit before half way on tree #2, the wine bottle is up in place.

Completed tree #2, the spider web flips to reveal hiding spot for the bandits to sleep and drink. On top there's a missile launcher (seems out of place somehow) for attacking the passing carriage. One reddish brown cheese slope and one technic pin are leftovers as shown in the picture.

Final Thoughts

Design/Build: This is quite different from most of the castle themed sets, and I had some fun putting it together. This set is very much like it's from Robin Hood, if you think of those bandits as good people who steals from the rich to give to the poor. If you replace the 4 minifigs included with older series minifig, you could probably merge this carriage and tree sets into the 80's era castle sets. Especially the Forestmen sets. 9/10

Pieces: For $40, it's on the pricey side in term of piece counts. However it does have a variety of warm gold pieces, large wagon wheels, some different arches, and it could be worth getting it. Plus those darker shade of green leaves, when mixed with normal "Dark Green" leaves could make for colorful tree, and brown pieces were rather hard to find recently when LEGO choose to stick with reddish-brown color. I'm a tad dissapointed there's only 1 alternate face from all of the 4 included minifigs. if you're buying for parts, I'd probably wait until your local store has a good sale on these series (such as Toys R Us' Buy One Get One 1/2 off deal) to buy them. 7/10

Playability: Defiantly fun concept for playing when you use this with some castle sets or with Forestment sets. By itself, it will get a bit old quickly. I'd suggest a few decent castle sets first before getting this one though. 8/10

Verdict: I'd rate this one rather high on castle fan's must have list because it's different from the usual sets. And good collection of pieces in hard to find colors. The only real negative point is the $40 USD for only 285 pieces, which comes out to about $0.14 per pieces. Which is about on par with most of the licensed sets but a bit pricey for non licensed set.

EDIT: few typo, couple formatting issue

EDIT #2 forgot about 2 leftover parts from bag 3...

Edited May 21, 2011 by Rufus
Indexed! Poll Added

[Zeya]

Thank you for the nice review! I don't think anybody's going to flame your review. That doesn't happen so much on this forum, thankfully. (Who flames people about tiny plastic bricks anyway, I mean come on!)

Those horses are drool-worthy. I also really like the axe-head on the dragon knight's weapon. It's a nice dark pearl and looks like it has some nice detailing to it, instead of just being flat, unless my eyes are tricking me.

I also like the theme of this set. I miss forestmen as much as the next guy. I would love to see that theme or a similar one like it return. The web and spider will be new to my collection, by the way. Greenery (leaves) are always welcome as well.

[Gryphon Ink]

This is actually a very nice set, but I completely fail to understand why it's priced that high. Extremely disappointing that the only unique minifig here is the King. It does have some nice pieces, but for the most part you can find them in other, more exciting sets. I'm waiting for the sales to get this one.

[Erynlasgalen]

I was excited to see this set when it was first announced since I needed a king and haven't had the cash to spend on the castle. Lucky for me I was in the Lego store the other day and the King key chain was on clearance for .99 so I bought two to make up for it.

The printed horses are gorgeous, and I like the overall look of the carriage. I can't really tell from the pictures but the carriage seems to be a good size height-wise. I wonder how it will look along side MMV and the new Mill?

I will be waiting for this to go on sale though too, because I can't justify spending 40.00 on it for a few trees and a carriage.

[Donut]

Thanks for the review! The sheets served nicely as the background.

This is actually a very nice set, but I completely fail to understand why it's priced that high. Extremely disappointing that the only unique minifig here is the King. It does have some nice pieces, but for the most part you can find them in other, more exciting sets.

This is exactly my thoughts when I saw it at the LEGO store. I would be a little disappointed after opening the box and finding out that there are only 3 bags. Aside from the printed horses, nothing else in this set appeals to me.

I don't understand why there needs to be two instruction booklets. All the big castles sets from the 80s and 90s only came with one booklet.

[ZO6]

Thanks for this look at the King Carriage Ambush, Lego Otaku!

I really like this set (along with the summer wave of Kingdoms sets as a whole), and a carriage for the King is just what the theme needs at this point. TLC seems to have fixed most of the issues with the previous carriage...err chariot - such as including two horses, making proportions better, plus the added Dragon knights hideout and traps are a bonus. This has a decent selection of minifigs, and the printing on the horses is gorgeous!

[Lego Otaku]

The printed horses are gorgeous, and I like the overall look of the carriage. I can't really tell from the pictures but the carriage seems to be a good size height-wise. I wonder how it will look along side MMV and the new Mill?

excluding the wheels and the harness, the carriage is 14 studs long (plus towballs on rear, towball clip on front) and 8 wide. 9 bricks plus 1 plate high from bottom of carriage to top not counting flags or wheels. Total height with wheels and flags is 13 bricks + 1 plate high.

The price will be the thorn that may kill this set prematurely. Stock up when they are on sale just in case this set ends up a short lived set that gets killed quickly.

Edited May 20, 2011 by Lego Otaku

[lightningtiger]

Thanks 'Lego Otaku' for this review, my impression of it has changed....it's a cool set - reason is those horses, the printing on them is AWESOME.

Though I do like the carriage, it should be like a real one and have some doors on it but they must be applying the city ideas to this - no doors just a brick that will do !

The play features are a fusion of Batman (the giant hammer) and Star Wars (flick fire missiles) and it is highly playable - kids will have fun battling though the forest of....only two trees - oh, well that's what MOCing is for right - more trees ?

This might go on the shopping list - it's the other two sets that I want this year.

Brick On Everyone !

[Gregorovich]

Thanks for sharing this excellent first review! The photos are excellent!

The set looks very nice. It's got a lot of lovely parts, like the bottle, the pearl gold parts and the treasure. The carriage is a lot better than the last edition, and the trees are nice.

Thanks again for the review!

[kill will]

Wow, it looks like Lego finally made a half-decent carriage. I don't see myself buying this set, but thanks for the awesome review.

[meyerc13]

Thanks for the great review! Unfortunately it still isn't convincing me to buy it. I can't understand what LEGO is thinking on the price. For only $10 more I can buy The London Escape set which has two horses, 5 mini-figs, two carriages, and a nice building - in a licensed theme! I'd have to find a pretty good sale on this set to give it serious consideration.

[Gabe]

Well, this set is starting to look a bit better than i originally thought. Great prints on the king and the horses, some brown slopes and greenery and some interesting pieces like the arches and the bottle. But as always, the price is the sore point. $40US will look something like $80 by the time it reaches Australia, and even at 20% off i wouldn't be tempted to get this. Going to be saving my pennies for the Mill Raid instead!

[prateek]

Great set, but in no way worth $40. I'd say $30 max.

[kermit]

I was wondering if the carriage can fit through the doorway/gate of the kings castle?..Does anyone know?

[Zeya]

I was wondering if the carriage can fit through the doorway/gate of the kings castle?..Does anyone know?

I'm almost certain it can't. The king on his horse couldn't fit through the castle gate. The carriage looks to be even taller, if not wider as well.

[Nicker]

I was wondering if the carriage can fit through the doorway/gate of the kings castle?..Does anyone know?

No it can't. It's not even close to fitting.

[XimenaPaulina]

Nice review Lego Otaku, thanks for sharing. Interesting to see those new printed horses, which look great but at the downside is not as 'flexibe' in potential use as the standard non-printed ones. A well-designed set overall, though a bit pricey at 40 bucks, this coming from a LSW fan who's used to overpriced SW sets.

[Ratshot]

Those horses are absolutely beautiful, this set is a must for me, the figs are good too.

Thanks for the review.

[kermit]

One would think since this set is meant to compliment the 1st wave of kingdoms lego would of thought about making either the door of the castle (whilst in production or the carriage a size that would allow for them to fit nicely together playability-wise, I guess the king will have to camp outside his castle but since mine is surrounded by water i`ll have to make a parking lot.

[Vindicare]

Thanks 'Lego Otaku' for this review, my impression of it has changed....it's a cool set - reason is those horses, the printing on them is AWESOME.

Though I do like the carriage, it should be like a real one and have some doors on it but they must be applying the city ideas to this - no doors just a brick that will do !

The play features are a fusion of Batman (the giant hammer) and Star Wars (flick fire missiles) and it is highly playable - kids will have fun battling though the forest of....only two trees - oh, well that's what MOCing is for right - more trees ?

This might go on the shopping list - it's the other two sets that I want this year.

Brick On Everyone !

Hey, it's one more than the Forbidden "Forest" set

They could've made this more like the one in PotC London Escape set, it even has doors!

[Haltiamieli]

One would think since this set is meant to compliment the 1st wave of kingdoms lego would of thought about making either the door of the castle (whilst in production or the carriage a size that would allow for them to fit nicely together playability-wise, I guess the king will have to camp outside his castle but since mine is surrounded by water i`ll have to make a parking lot.

The carriage would have to be radically smaller to fit nicely with King's Castle. It's not only a question of the gate size but also the square inside is much too small for the carriage to park comfortably. According to the reviewer the carriage alone is 14 studs long, whereas the square is just 17(-18) studs. I suspect even the carriage from London Escape is too big to maneuver in the castle quadrangle, while it propably does fit through the gate.

This is a good looking set, but like many others I might wait until sales to pick it for myself.

[KristofBD]

Great set, great review! I like the dragon/forest part most, but the carriage itself is also nice. Definitively a must-buy!

[Rufus]

Your pictures are clear and in focus, but I'm not sure about the tablecloth!

Looks to be a good set. I've indexed your review and added a poll

[Plissken]

Nice review. The set looks way better in hand. The carriage is well build and the print on the horses is This wave of Castle sets looks like the best in years.

[Baylego]

Great review! I like this set, but I really don't like the $40 price tag.