REVIEW: 7949 Prison Carriage Rescue

[-R8-]

Hello Eurobricks, I'm -R8- and I'll be reviewing one of the newest sets to hit the market - 7949 Prison Carriage Rescue. This is my first review on Eurobricks I got this from the LEGO Store back in June, although I've only gotten a chance to review it until now. Without further ado, let's take a closer look at one of the smaller sets Kingdoms has to offer - enjoy!

In the midst of an unending war between the Lion and the Dragon factions, a lone Lion Knight is taken hostage and held in a prison carriage. A knight in shining armor dashes to save his brethren from the clutch of the Dragon Knight, but this isn't your average "save the princess" story. Let's see how everything unfolds...

Name: 7949 Prison Carriage Rescue

Theme: Castle/Kingdoms

Year: 2010

Pieces: 50

Minifigs: 3

Price: USD 9.99, GBP 9.99, EUR 9.99

Further Reference: LEGO Shop@Home, Brickset.com, Bricklink.com, Peeron.com, flickr

The Box: Front

The box art is what you would expect from a Castle sub-theme. The theme name "Kingdoms" is in medieval style lettering along with a coat of arms next to it, providing for a royal and majestic design. All of the technical information and the LEGO logo is situated inside of a green banner, set right on top of a weathered stone wall. The background illustration goes well with the banner and theme name. However the knight must have a lot of energy if he can keep up with the horse carriage

The Box: Back

Looks like our knight's making a run for it The back also showcases this set's only playability feature - moving the mini ladder up and down. How exciting!

The Instructions: Front and End

As with any set, the cover of the instructions is the same as the box graphic minus the technical information. Each step is clear and concise with no discrepancies for me to report.

The Pieces

Prison Carriage Rescue comes with a decent range of pieces, but most notable are the horse, plus the dark green and pearl gold pieces. Especially the cheese slopes

Notable Pieces

It's always great seeing existing pieces in uncommon colors like the cheese slopes and the 1x1 vertical clip brick. Since this set has five dark green and three pearl gold cheese slopes (one of each as extra pieces), it is a cheap source for getting a decent amount of them. Also shown is the new horse battle helmet and the horn piece, which look great on the horse.

Minifigures: Front

LEGO has done an excellent job with minifigure printing this year, and the Kingdoms line is no exception. I'm also a big fan of the new closed helmets for the more 'elite' knights. Even with new headgear, it's always nice to see the traditional helmet return year after year. Although I must say that knights with scared expressions always seem to find their way into Castle sets in recent years

Minifigures: Heads

Nothing new here - all of the heads have been seen before. The scared head is double sided, but most of you probably knew that.

Minifigures: Back

All three minifigs have back printing too! Equally as great as the front.

The Build

The set puts itself together in minutes. Not a challenging build at all, but that is only to be expected from a small set.

Design and Playability

The Set

The set in its entirety. Even though the Dragon Knight laughs evilly at his success, little does he know of the Lion Knight approaching the carriage...

The Horse

I like the slant on the horse's helmet - gives him a more intimidating look.

The Prison

My major gripe with this set is the prison. It's not so much of a prison if the walls are short enough to climb out of. A fully enclosed prison would have been better, but that would be easy to mod in.

Victory!

The tide has turned!

Conclusion

So, what does this boil down to?

Pieces: 6/10 - Has some pieces in pearl gold and dark green, a horse, his helmet, as well as neat equipment, but everything else is just ordinary.

Minifigs: 8/10 - Great printing and there are three of 'em

Design: 3/10 - Unfortunately, the focal part of this set wasn't well designed.

Playablity: 4/10 - Like many cheaper sets, there isn't too much you can do with them without some of the larger kits.

Price: 5/10 - Pricey for 50 pieces but I suppose that is to be expected.

Overall: 5.2/10

You get what you pay for. Some of the pieces and the good amount of minifigs are a nice feature of this set, but the overall design is lackluster in appearance.

But what's this? An epilogue?

Thanks for reading

[prateek]

Great review! I really like this set, and it has 3 figs compared to 2 figs in other sets at this price point

[lightningtiger]

Thanks for the review '-R8-', I actually like the set, but I do agree that the carriage is a little basic and could have been designed better.

Now the figures is what I like the most of this set.

I'm a conformist! !