Action Figure Review: King Jayko

[InfurnallDragon]

Set Title: King Jayko

Set #: 8701

Theme: Knights Kingdom II (Final Action Figures Wave)

Pieces: 130

Year of release: 2006

Price at Release: $20.00 or £12.99

Advertising Blurb:

] [/b]

Swift Sir Jayko, the Knight of the Hawk, has become the King of Morcia! Equipped with his new sword, crown, cape, and royal armor, he leads his knights into battle. With sword-swinging action and his fireball-launching Axe-Ram by his side, King Jayko is sure to defeat the forces of evil!

• Launch a fireball!
  

Source

And we will get to that fireball in a few more sections!

Intro; Some Background and Info:

This is my first LEGO review! Sorry about how half the images seem to be really blurry. I took about 6 takes of each picture to try and get these as perfect as I could, but alas! This camera hates my guts! Tell me how well I do, Im not expecting this to be Academy Approved or anything but I will try.

I originally got this "new in the box" set for spare parts, but this is also a homage to LEGO's one other Constraction line to run along BIONICLE that met an ill fate due to design choices and popularity. It had a lot of potential, but sadly did possess much compatability with BIONICLE's system til its later years. This line did introduce interesting and unique armor pieces that were largely never seen again as well as the unique swords, and the flails that I think are now used in rare cases such as Ogrum's.

This particular set is from the final wave of Knights Kingdom (II) and features Jayko, the primary protagonist of the series as well as a catapult that launches flaming boulders. Jayko has appeared in every action figure wave and in many of the Castle playsets that ran simultaneously with the action figures. The only other character to do this was the main antagonist Lord Vladek.

In the story, Lord Vladek had imprisoned King Mathias. It was up to three experienced knights Santis, Danju, and Rascus to save him while accompanied by a younger and more inexperienced Jayko. This first part of the plot seems to have been inspired by the Three Musketeers with the older knights being the musketeers while Jayko takes the place of d'Artagnan. After a couple of adventures in the line's plot, the throne was given to Jayko when he became more responsible and wise.

Edit: What I find interesting about Knights Kingdom as this point in the plot is a sudden, sobering acknowledgement of mortality. The older characters disappear from the line entirely here and Jayko- who was once the youngest of all- is now the eldest.

The front of the box is featured at the top; here is the back as well as an exciting picture from the instructions.

^^This Pic advertises the Castle line of '06 ( A glorious time for constraction as well as System LEGO.)^^

The Pieces/Unboxing: (The reason I got this set )

All 130 pieces were actually Like New in the Box to my great pleasure! I was a little worried about signs of the box being resealed (odd gluing ).

^^The '06 LEGO Magazine Brochure! (... I'm leavin' this brochure in mint condition! )

A Back View of Ol' Jayko's torso with built in gearbox (more on that later) as well as his shield.

Interesting Parts:

I am Pretty sure the King Jayko shield and torso are recolors of Jayko's old shield and torso from the second action figure wave; Also the crown, but that was originally Mathias'.

I did not take many pics during construction, but here is a better look at the shield's back after adding its conenction pieces. These pieces seem to be a LEGO System to Technic converter for adding swiveling or spinning parts, and a bright blue Technic pin:

As you can see, the shield can be used with the Hero Factory hand, and quite well. This is big, positive aspect of the set. Sadly the hawk insignia of Jayko may clash with OC's in MoCing, but it would privde an easy transition for anyone looking to MoC Jayko in the Modern System for sure!

Edit: it is worthy to note that it has that 2x4 stud surface. With the right pieces and ingenuity one maybe be able to cover the hawk or draw attention away from it.

(I used Cragger's hand for this, but his parts are being used in a WIP MoC. Im sorry I couldnt show you Cragger going Sword&Board )

Here are the front and back images of his sword, as well as a comparison pic of it and the shield with one of Brutaka's for size reference:

This strange inversion on the sword's back is rather unpleasant, but the overall shape and design of the sword is quite nice. It is also very compatible with BIONICLE or CCBS systems pieces. It is rather large too, unlike my recollection of the first wave of Knight's Kingdom swords.

(The shape of this blade is what drew me to King Jayko rather than the other sets. It is similar to the designs of one of my original character's in a project I am working on and also plan to MoC when I get some Blue CCBS shells )

Here are the armor pieces, as well as an arm and a leg (the usual price of vintage collectors items ) for comparison:

Edit: I had forgotten to photo, or note how the armor works. The shoulder armor is pretty simple, 1 technic pinhole. The shinguards actually have undersides of 2x6 bricks roughly in their midsection.

Here is an axe [bottom left] and the sword again in comparison with Axon's axe:

To my knowledge, this axe is not unique to this set, but it is unique to the final wave of Knights Kingdom II Action Figures. Two of these axes are used for the function of the catapult, which I will discuss in a moment. It too is rather large is size and excellent for MoCing.Unlike Axon's however, it has this interesting blade behind the main blade to make it the battleaxe of a knight (or in this case, siege weapon ) and not the hatchet of some serf.

And then theres... this...

... Knights Kingdom head. This piece is dislike by most for incompatability and design. Personally, I find the headpieces to be pretty cool. Sure they look out of place when used on BIONICLE, but they do look more like LEGO minifigures, but BIGGER! It is my theory that in order to appeal to those who did not like BIONICLE because it did not look anything like most LEGO pieces to the prejudiced eye, and they made an action figure line that tried very hard to look more like traditional LEGO. To the credit of the set designers, they did succeed. (Ill share this with you because after I saw it- it could not be unseen! Not only is Jayko the King of Morcia, he is also the King of Selfie Duck-Lips! Yes ladies, it is good to be the king)

Honestly, I am not sure if this next piece is unique. It did catch my interest however (sorry for the quality):

Two of these pieces are later used to make the catapult. As you can (mostly) see, it has this strange array of Technic pinholes, as well as two System stud points at the top, and it has a 1x4 System block underside. This could have some more interesting implications for Technic-System conversions than what it is briefly used for, but that remains to be seen by me. This is a really odd-shaped piece, but I can definitely see it hiding between some body plates and a skeleton, or just hanging on the back of a skeleton in order to offer a place for System pieces to add some necessity or flair.

The Boulder Pieces:

These are pretty neat to see in LEGO sets, and really uncommon in Constraction. I believe the partly trans red fireball is nothing new, and has been used multiple System sets.The completed fireball sits on the black-colored bottom piece that makes up the catapult's (tray ?) for the flingling function.

Here is the crown piece and, for a size size comparison, a green Kakama:

You may find this piece dissapointing because it is molded with only the KKII head in mind. It does feature one- just one- connector piece other than the stud on the crown's crown: there is an underside system connection that I (unfortunately) couldnt feature (due to glare issues with the reflective brassy-gold color). One might be able to put this on something like a Brain Attack or Glatorian head using a blue pin, but even at that point it would look quite odd because it is not made for those heads and it would rise off the head a bit. Therefore the MoCing potential for characters not using Knights' heads is rather limited.

I almost forgot to photograph this one:

This came in a little white box all folded up. The wrinkles are a little annoying but the major lines sort of form that wavy appearance featured in the art. These are really nice to see in action figures that fit with them. This coloration of royal blue adds a very regal look to whoever wears it. Who best to demonstrate this and its size than our good friend, Vezon:

(What? Its good to be the King! )

Be right back as I assemble this regal ruler...

Here is Jayko complete, and in the instruction's cramped-looking reference pose.

I will go ahead and list some Pros and Cons he has, as if he were packaged seperately as a Knight:

Pro: He is pretty tall (as I will compare to Vezon and Mata Lewa)

Pro: He has a very nice Silver, Gold, and white color scheme.

Con: The only things that throw this off is the blue pin (that you will only see if he is in this very vulnerable stance), the fact that his shoulders have a darker shade with a glittery sort of texture, that crown that is a little darker than the chest armor, and (for the truly picky) the Knights Kingdom ratchet pins are not really silver, but a sort of quiet blue.

Con: The Knights Kingdom joints. As much as I love the aesthetics of most the Knights Kingdom action figures, their joints are as annoying as Karzahni (the place )! Actually posing him for pictures is extremely difficult, and I jsut settled for the very cramped reference pose. This pose itself is somewhat of a con because it is so cramped.

Pro: The arms look pretty complete for a Constraction set! They aren't really exposed anywhere except for maybe the forearms, part of which are already shaped to sort of resemble gauntlets.

Pro: The back also looks pretty complete, and the cape helps with this and also with the below, but not fully.

Con: Like pretty much all Constraction figures, he lacks armor on the backs of his legs. What armor he does have on the front of his legs hinders posing the feet.

Pro: The function of the figure is actually pretty good. While you do have to adjust the arms a bit for certain poses, they are probably the easiest to pose part of his whole build. The function itself has two movement gears that function independantly, which is a huge plus! This allows for a sort of Rock 'em Sock 'em independant arm swinging so they can bash with their shields, block, or swing the spiffy sword!

Overall, I like the appearance of this figure and the function a lot. Its a real shame about the poseability though which is a tremendous drawback. Without the catapult it would really be a sort of clone of Mathias or any of the other Knight's sets really.

Now on to the Aforementioned Catapult!

The catapult features two really neat functions, made possible mainly by the standard LEGO System. The catapult is about the right size, and made to work with the action figure. Despite the large ammount of System pieces it is a part of an Action Figure set.

The main function is- of course- to launch things!

... which it can do pretty well. This thing can in fact compete with most Action Figure blasters for distance and in a way it is Jayko's blaster. If you can fight past the posing and strange angling, and give Jayko something heavy enough to bash the lever with (possibly his shield), you can make him launch the fireball.

The fireball:

(Sorry for Blurry )

The fireball is the two halves of the boulder, with three (3) trans reddish-orange cyinder-type 1x1s. It is intended to fall apart on impact with whatever it hits, scattering pieces everywhere! (it wouldnt be fun if we didnt have that risk of losing pieces, right Zamor fans? )

A secondary feature:

As the catapult rolls forward, it chops (

)

This is how it works:

The axes are each mounted on long axles like so, and those are attached freely via pin to the sides of the catapult.

Each wheel has these Technic-compatible half-bricks that are also attached freely by pins to the catapult. As the wheels turn, the bricks underneath bump the axes up and down sharply (no pun intended, but it may as well have been).

Final Pic (and attempt to pose with these joints):

Final Thoughts:

The set itself is really awesome as a whole, the king being "cool" on his own as well. The overall appearance is pleasing.

All the functions are great- the catapult itself is great for pelting cats or running over minifigs if you are into those sorts of things (I did not and would not pelt my family's cat ).

I cannot really find any cons with the catapult, except that it looks a little weak in the sides.

The set itself is really amazing for parts, providing two different kinds of weapons (3 with the complete catapult), as well as the ever-nifty medieval armor for knights.

If you can get this at a reasonable price like I did (avoiding sellers of "Collector's Items") it is well worth it. The original retail price is USD $20.00, which is pretty standard for Titans and I do consider King Jayko to be a KKII equivalent of a titan. Sadly, when compared to other titans he is pretty lacking (mostly in complexity, but so much so that comparing to BIONICLE's makes him look pretty bad)

Build: 8/10 pretty solid in appearance in color scheme. Lacking a little on the fortification side of constraction.

Parts: 7/10 (I did get the set for this reason however:) Despite having a good sum of technic parts and System parts, this is an action figure set and System and parts and Knight's Kingdom limbs and torsos are kind of a liability to action figure sets for MoCing purposes. It is not impossible to use these pieces for action figure MoC's, but it can be difficult. In partial compensation, it does give us quite a few converters and pins/connectors though plus the equipment which can work a lot better for CCBS and Technic use.

Price: 10/10 I felt it was worth the fun of putting together and playing with a bit, and it also has serious MoCing potential. If you could get its original retail price (like I did)- or maybe just 10 over- and then compare that price-to-plastic ratio to modern constraction figures', this definitely seems about right.

Overall: 8.7/10 This is just averaging the scores of the other categories and adding a bit on, because I do find this to be a very decent set. It almost feels wrong to disassemble his suit of armor for my own due to just how complete and nearly perfect the set looks. I am very glad to have gotten this set.

I kind of wish Knights Kingdom II hadnt ended. They did some very interesting things with it towards the end and I would have liked to see more. (Here's hoping they consider KKIII in CCBS )

How did I do? How does this set look for you?

Edit: Fix'd as many typing errors as I could. Added notes I left out. Also corrected tags.

Edited October 11, 2014 by InfurnallDragon

[bacem]

nice one, considering this is your first one. some pictures is indeed blurry, but they're still recognizeable, so it's fine.

about that black piece, that you put after the head picture, that piece actually appear a lot on technic sets, tough mainly in light bluish grey.

to be honest i never really like these KK figures, and even after read this, i still don't, tough i love some of the pieces. but, if they were to consider KKIII in ccbs, i wouldn't really against it, after looking how they pull off mediaval warrior style in this year's chima ultrabuild.

[Bigger Fish]

Neat, I wish LEGO made more stereotypical broadswords for stuff like BIONICLE and Hero Factory. Great for MOCing.