REVIEW: 7948 Outpost Attack

[Rumble Strike]

Since coming back into the Lego fold last year, my buying habits have been largely unfocused. Most of the Atlantis range at first, then some City, some Star Wars, some Pirates of the Caribbean, all of Prince of Persia. But it hasn't been until I found the Kingdoms line that I really felt back “at home” with Lego, as these sets seem to remind me most strongly of the sets I had when I was 25, 30 years younger, when Castle was all the rage.

This is a review of the mid-range set in the 2010 Kingdoms line, the Outpost Attack.

BASIC INFORMATION:

Set Name: Outpost Attack

Set Number: 7948

Number of Pieces: 194

Minifigs: 3

Price: USD 19.99, GBP 20.99, EUR 19.99

Theme: Kingdoms

Year Released: 2010

ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:

LEGO Shop @ Home

Brickset

Peeron

My photo set on Flickr

THE REVIEW:

BOX:

Front:

We start with a bright, colourful box, akin to the other Kingdoms sets, showing off the contents of the set well. It presents a very striking and attractive package on the shelf.

Back:

If the front didn't show off the Lion Knights in the outpost at their most alert whilst being attacked, then the back of the box again does them no favours as the Dragon Knight catapult attacks from behind while they pose for a picture.

Side:

The side of the box shows off the three included minifigs, with the 1:1 picture turned on its side, similar to 7949 Prison Carriage Rescue.

IN THE BOX:

Contents

There are only two numbered bags in this set, which seemed a bit low, but they are chock full of pieces. The first bag makes the catapult and the minifigures, whilst the second bag makes the outpost. There is a tiny sticker sheet, and one instruction booklet.

Instruction Booklet:

There is an oddity with the instruction booklet that eagle-eyed readers may well have spotted between the last photo and this one. The cover of the booklet is in landscape but the inside is in portrait! Very strange! Apart from this, it's very easy to follow, with colour differentiation being spot on between the various greys and blacks. The booklet takes you through the catapult build and then the outpost build, so that's how I'll do it here.

Sticker Sheet:

Here is the sticker sheet, you can see mine was curled up a lot in the box. It only has two stickers, both of which are used on the tower to provide extra detail.

BAG 1 – MINIFIGURES AND CATAPULT:

The Pieces:

This is bag one's contents. A nice mix of earthy greens and browns, and stark black.

Pieces of interest:

Parts of interest in this bag include 4 large black round pieces, used for the wheels of the catapult, a bucket and arm piece, which is the primary mechanism of the catapult's throwing action, and lots of cheese slopes in green and pearl gold. Yummy!

MINIFIGS:

Front:

The front of the three minifigs. Note that whilst the box art and booklet front have the archer wearing the chain-mail torso, in the instructions he is given the Lion Knights quartered torso. This may be to differentiate him from the poor guy being taken prisoner in the Prison Carriage Rescue set, as they would both have the chain-mail and the pointed helmet.

Back:

There is back printing on all three of the minifigs, but sadly not one alternate expression in the group, which is a shame as all three wear helmets which would conceal them.

Accessories:

Quite a few accessories for these minifigures, it's nice to see. I love all the different weapons the Kingdoms sets give us, and especially in 2 different colours. I really like the wide-brimmed style of helmet too, they look like they really mean business! Let's take a closer, individual look at the minifigs with their accessories.

Lion Knight Archer:

The Lego site calls both good guys “King's soldiers”, but this guy is definitely an archer, because he has his quiver and crossb- wait a minute! Where's his crossbow? Is he just going to throw arrows at the enemy? Don't worry Mr archer man, your crossbow isn't actually part of bag one, it seems as though the bow is an armament of the tower outpost and therefore is in bag two, so we will just have to see pics of him fully armed later. The face is slightly inappropriate, as he looks fairly cheery. It's not really a surprise as the box art shows, he clearly can't actually see when the enemy is right outside his door and so remains blissfully ignorant and happy.

Lion Knight soldier:

This guy looks really imposing due to the spear and the wide-brimmed helmet. You can see the detailing on the helmet, with all the rivets. A lovely piece. The expression on the face is one that has been used with great regularity in other Lego sets – I'm sure I have a policeman with the same face – but it does seem to work very well inside the enclosed helmet.

Dragon Knight Soldier:

As usual in these sets, the Dragon Knight soldier is outnumbered. Which must be why the Dragons have started cloning their soldiers. He has the same face as the solitary Dragon Knight soldier in the Prison Carriage Rescue set! He does get a Dragon Knight-coloured version of the wide-brimmed helmet to call his own, though, and it looks even more imposing in the darker colour. He also gets a spear and a flaming torch, utilising the telescope piece for the holder. This is a good extra.

Here is a shot showing the two Dragon Knight soldiers from the two sets, this one and Prison Carriage Rescue. As you can see, although the expression is the same, with the distinctive sneer, due to the different styles of helmet as well as the different accessories, it isn't all that noticeable. Lego just about gets away with this reuse.

THE CATAPULT BUILD AND COMPLETED SHOTS:

Next up is the Dragon Knight siege weapon, the catapult!

By step 5, the base of the catapult has been established.

At step 10, there is more of an emphasis on the brown pieces. See the Dragon shield in the middle? There's another one on the other side. Nice! It's just about ready now for the catapult assembly...

... which is the next stage. The catapult assembly is a similar mechanism to the one in the Knight's Showdown set, but on a much larger scale. This one is already looking a bit bigger than I anticipated.

The final steps are to put the four wheels on, with the innovative use of the cheese slopes as decoration. I think those make the whole thing look really sharp! There are also two barrels constructed for use as projectiles.

Here's a shot of the completed catapult with the Dragon Knight soldier. You can see from this angle that the barrels fit nicely into the bucket. I didn't seem to be able to spot an easy place to put the spare barrel, though.

These next two pictures compare this catapult to the one found in the Knight's Showdown set. You can see that the Dragon's catapult is much bigger and meaner looking!

From this birds-eye view you can see how puny the bucket is on the smaller catapult. I know it was in a smaller and much less expensive set but the Dragon catapult here is a clear winner. I guess it helps level the playing field a bit when the Lion Knights have the numerical advantage in every set.

BAG 2 – OUTPOST:

Now we move on to the contents of bag two.

The Pieces:

Lots of greys here, along with red accent colours signifying that this is a Lion Knight outpost.

Pieces of interest:

Parts of interest in bag two include a window piece and casement, a large castle wall, a printed flag piece with the lion crest on both sides! And red cheese slopes, along with red and pearl gold flags for the top of the tower.

THE OUTPOST BUILD AND COMPLETED SHOTS:

Last thing to build is the titular outpost. I'm really looking forward to this, it's my first “castle” building in years!

By step 8, the ground floor is built and the ivy detailing stickers are put on the big castle wall pieces. I know people don't like stickers but I think these are pretty harmless, and do add to the look of the outpost overall.

Step 14 has the ground floor finished off with the two axes either side of the entrance, and work beginning on the second level.

By step 19, the side battlements are added. Can you spot the rookie mistake in my build? That's right, the second dark slope piece at the back should be facing the other way. I fixed it before the next shot!

Step 25 finds the ground work done for the third level, I especially like the way they used brown slopes because they look like wooden joists.

Step 30 and we are almost done. The third level has the battlements set up and finally the archer has his weapon to use. Notice the big hole in the second floor?

That's because the last step constructs a window and wall piece that slots in to the hole.

These were the extra pieces. The two cheese slopes on the left are from the outpost, while the cheese slopes, Technic doohicky and flame piece are from the catapult.

Let's take a look around the completed structure:

The front of the outpost. I like this, I think it's big enough to have fun with. I love that printed flag piece, it makes the whole front of the outpost really pop visually.

The side view shows how thin the outpost structure is. There's not a great deal of room in there really. It's certainly not deep enough to fit more than a couple of figures. The other side view is practically identical. Pic is on my flickr set if you really need to see it.

The back shows a couple of sins. There is nothing in the outpost! No boxes, barrels, fish, bottles or assorted animals, basically it lacks anything Lego usually puts in to a set to make their structures appear less empty. Also, due to the size, there are no stairs or any way for the figures to move between floors. One of those fold-down ladders would have sufficed.

It's always going to look a bit empty without any minifigs though. Here we see the archer, happy now that he actually has a weapon. The top battlements have plenty of room for at least a couple of figures.

The second Lion Knight soldier stands guard in the doorway. See how nicely he fits in, even if there's not a great deal of room behind him.

The side battlements offer another vantage point for the minifigures but it is a tight squeeze to get one in there. In this shot you can see the archer happily waving to us – that's because he can't stand there with his arm down as it's blocked by the battlement. I also moved the second soldier further inside the building so he can be seen in the side doorway. That shows you how much room there is on the ground. I have a couple of closeups of the two soldiers in my Flickr set.

Here is a shot of the removable window piece. It's the outpost's main action feature. However you can see that the outpost itself is constructed so that without the piece, the two arches on the first and second levels match. This is a really nice design touch, giving a different, more open look to the outpost if wanted.

You can see how the window piece slides onto the brown tiles, pushed in from the back of the outpost. Once it is in place, the two brown cheese slopes make sure it can not fall out from the front.

COMPLETED SET:

As with many of the Kingdoms sets, there is a great deal of playability to be had here, as we have built a Dragon Knight siege weapon and a Lion Knight stronghold:

The Dragon Knight soldier approaches the outpost with his deadly catapult.

Closer, closer... He needs to set up his shot perfectly.

From high atop the tower, the Lion archer can see the enemy approach, but his arrows are sadly molded into his quiver and his crossbow and he can do nothing. See how high the outpost is?

The valiant spearman can only watch as the leering Dragon Knight soldier readies his terrifying weapon.

The Dragon Knight catapult strikes a fearsome blow, as the projectile flies through the air and smashes into the outpost, obliterating the second level window! (I actually lined the shot up as I was taking these photos, thinking “This'll never work”, and hit it first time! Go me!)

The barrel projectile perches precariously on the edge of the second level battlements as the window is smashed cleanly through the outpost to the outside. The Dragon Knights have won this day!

Totals:

Design: 9/10 – I'm giving this a high score here because I think both designs are very solid. Sure, there are minor quibbles about the outpost deco being a bit sparse, and I know some might wish that Lego had ditched the catapult entirely to free up more parts for the outpost, but I think both sides come out well.

Parts: 8/10 - There are a lot of nice parts here. There are many different arch pieces, lots and lots of weapons, not just on the minifigs but the axes on the outpost and shields on the catapult. Lots of cheese slopes too, and who doesn't love them? Plus, that printed flag piece!

Build: 7/10 – With two distinct builds here this is an interesting set to construct. I really enjoyed building the outpost, and the vertical build was refreshing.

Minifigs: 8/10 – Three very good minifigs with lovely printing, but conversely, three well-used faces with no alternate expressions. Can't argue with all the helmets and weaponry they come with, though. As always, an extra minifig here (preferably a Dragon Knight to even up the numbers) would have been amazing.

Playability: 8/10 – As mentioned before, the Kingdoms line seems to want to offer playable scenarios straight out of the box, with no other sets necessary. This does the job in spades. The catapult is a real threat to the outpost as proved above!

Price: 8/10 – The parts per piece ratio might not be stellar with this set but you do feel like you are getting a lot for your money with the two distinct constructs. I am certainly satisfied.

Total: 48/60 – A great mid-priced set for the Kingdoms line, this combines good minifigures, nice parts, tons of weapons and conflict. I love this set, and hope that other sets in Kingdoms are as good as this one.

I hope you enjoyed this review; the third of my Reviewers Academy reviews. I would love constructive comments and feedback below. Thanks!

Edited June 28, 2011 by Rumble Strike

[prateek]

Great review. For the price, I think this set is very good

Hopefully I can find it on sale, as I am a cheapo

[de Gothia]

Nice review! I don´t have this set, although it would be nice to have it. The minifigs are great! Gotto love those Dragon Knights!

de Gothia

[Lorentzen]

Sweet sweet review. I love all of your photos. Even the angles are excellent.

I am this close to buying this set. Its a great mid priced set

[Hoboman]

Very good review. Nice and clean.

Of the new sets, I liked this one quite a bit because of the catapult. I like this larger, more powerful looking catapult.

[Ogre]

Nice review. Very detailed.

I have this set and like it, though it's not exactly an IMPRESSIVE set. I pretty much only have it due to being a 'completist'. The better deal, IMO, is the new 'Escape from Dragons Prison' from this year's wave. Extra fig, plus horse (with barding) for two dollars less than 'Outpost Attack' (in my neck of the woods, anyway).

Still, 'Outpost Attack' is a decent addition to 'Kings Castle' and nets you a nice seige weapon for the Dragons.

[Rumble Strike]

Thank you for the kind words. The teachers at the Reviewers Academy have been giving me advice on photo setup and composition and I think these ones turned out very well. My favourite is the photo under "Completed Set" with the Dragon Knight catapult approaching the outpost at an angle.

I would definitely recommend this set to anyone who is undecided about it. I had a great time playing with it!

Ogre, I have bought Escape From Dragon Prison as I was fascinated by the Dragon Knight General on the armoured horse. Hopefully that will be a set I can do as an Academy review soon!

[Sir Bricksalot]

Nice review, sir! This is a pretty great mid-sized set. The outpost isn't quite as tall as the fantasy era outpost, but it makes up for it in aesthetic quality. And despite the general disdain for catapults and similar siege engines, I find this catapult to be a beauty. It's at a good scale and has an excellent color scheme. I voted above average, but I think an extra Dragon Knight would make this outstanding.

Edited June 30, 2011 by Sir Bricksalot

[I Scream Clone]

Lovely work on the review, now you have made me want these Kingdom sets even more Some really nice angles and perspective as well.

[ZO6]

Fantastic review, Rumble Strike. Lovely pictures, too!

Though I initially put off picking up any Kingdoms sets, one day I saw this heavily discounted and I just couldn't resist. It was a fantastic introductory set for me to the line, and it wasn't long before I had to go out and buy the rest of the Kingdoms set!

I fully admit that I spent a good half hour using the catapult to shoot at the tower. I'm usually not a fan of catapults in modern Lego sets and think that they're far too abundant, but there was something hugely addictive with this one. This fun over-powered the fact that there is a non-existent interior and not even a ladder to be used. Good thing Lego can easily be modded!

[Gryphon Ink]

Nice review, Rumble Strike. I like this set much more than the Dragons' Prison set, which gives you a little facade structure that can't possibly stand on its own and doesn't blend well with the main Dragon fortress. This one has a good-looking tower and a really nice siege engine. It also contains a good number of the parts you really need for castle building, such as angled wall pieces and arches. If it came with a horse or a second Dragon soldier, I would have considered this an almost perfect set for this price point.

[TheLegoDr]

I agree with others where this structure is much better, but the figures are better in the escape from dragon prison set. Oh well, that's why you buy both!

[Tria]

Another helpful review!

I cannot say that I am excited about this set..

The catapult reminds the fantasy era stuff and I would prefer at least one more minifig (maybe an engineer responsible for the catapult or/and another dragon soldier-archer or with a dragon soldier with sword as an additional assault unit)

[Legoman of War]

I think this set definitely needs an additional figure. The fourth would even it up. Additionally, the tower needs something. Maybe a small wall outcropping on each side would give it more meat to the set.

LMW