6048 Majisto's Magical Workshop

[Sisco]

Before we begin, I'd like to apologize for the long-is intro. The writer side of me got inspired, so you get this somewhat long dialogue. So please, bear with me, and attempt to chuckle every once in a while. Also, while I'm at it, I'd like to put in a Nostalgia Alert. Yup, I get nostalgic in this review. Sorry!

It was a dark and stormy night. A night, much like tonight. Lord Draconius Draco "Draggy" Dragon Knight the Fourth, Esquire rode into the Black Forest, looking for someone, someone who could assist him on his quest to be the Draggiest Dragon Knight there ever was. Lord Draconius Draco "Draggy" Dragon Knight the Fourth, Esquire was looking for a Magician. A magician by the name of Majisto. Lord Draconius Draco "Draggy" Dragon Knight the Fourth, Esquire had heard that Majisto's Magical Workshop was hidden somewhere in the darkness of the Black Forest, and he intended to find the Majestic Majisto.

"Why, hello there, good fellow!" A strange voice shook Draggy from his reverie. "Who might you be?"

"Oh, er... *AHEM*... I am Lord Draconius Draco "Draggy" Dragon Knight the Fourth, Esquire. You may call me Draggy for short. Are you Majisto?" Draggy was wary, as this man was certainly a strange one.

"Indeed I am, good chap! What brings you to my workshop on this loathsome night?"

"Success!" Draggy exclaimed in his head. "I have sought you so that you may make me the Draggiest Dragon Knight there ever was, dear Majisto. Comply or die."

Majisto shrank back in fear. "Of course, Draggy. Just follow me into my workshop, enjoy some wine with me, and we'll begin!" "Fool," Majisto thought to himself. "I may be getting old, but I will NOT be threatened. Let's see what tricks I have up my sleeve..."

Set#: 6048

Name: Majisto's Magical Workshop

Theme: Dragon Knights

Year: 1993

Parts: 185

Minifigs: 2

Price: ??? Original.

Brickset

Peeron

Bricklink

Flickr

The Box

The box is a little beat up. I suppose even Majisto's magic can't withstand the curse of time. But it's actually still in nice condition, considering it's 18 years old now. Also, don't mind the sticker on it, the BL seller just didn't get it off right. That's okay. But it's really the things on the box that I'm interested in. Like that "System" Logo. Brings me back to the good 'ol days. And look at that cool "Dragon Masters" shield graphic!

Speaking of the good 'ol days, look at the back! Alternative models, FTW! God, I miss these. My favorite has to be the one to the very left, the one with the tower and dog house-looking structure.

Awesome, there's a little box that shows that Majisto's wand glows in the dark! That's really cool. I'm sorry, I'm just having a nerd-gasm over this box.

Instructions

What is with me and bad instructions? 5525 had horrible instructions, and these aren't too terribly much better. They clock in at a mere 20 steps for this small-mid set, which I suppose is alright, but rage-inducing when you miss a piece. Yes, these instructions don't pull any punches. But I have to say... Bring it on!

20 Steps later, we arrive at the end of the instructions. No ads. Better yet, no screaming kid yelling "WIN!!!"! Suddenly, I like these instructions a lot more.

Pieces

Ahem. Please excuse the editing fail, it doesn't happen often.

Anyway, the pieces are pretty magnificent. Loads of black pieces, a few red plates, two halberds... Good haul, if you ask me.

Interesting Pieces

Very interesting pieces indeed. The wizard hat is lovely. That's my first old style cape. It's quite... Odd? I guess that's the word I'm looking for. The Helmet is astonishing. So much detail! The shield is a piece of art by itself. That is one beautiful dragon, and I'm sure glad to own it. The blue dragon thing looks pretty cool, as well. That printed tile with the page of writing? Awesome! The two bricks are a mystery to me. I've never seen anything like them. I love 'em both! Very useful!

Minifigures

Here's Lord Draconius Draco "Draggy" Dragon Knight the Fourth, Esquire himself, and Majisto. Both are extremely detailed for early nineties figures, and thankfully lacking in the early nineties hairstyles. All kidding aside, both are great figures. Draggy has a great torso print (er... Accidentally hidden behind the shield. Oops. . Well, the making of this review has been dragging on for about a month now, so I may go back and edit in a picture of the torsos at a later date.), as does Majisto. Speaking of Majisto, sorry about his wand. That thing was a bitch to catch on camera. You'd think it was a vampire or something!

And here's the back. Not as detailed as the front, but what do you expect? These guys are 18 years old. Majisto is sporting a quite sexy cape, however.

The Build

This is after step one. Like I said, those instructions weren't pulling any punches. I suppose I should be glad that they weren't nearly as bad as 5525 Amusement park, but I did mess up a few times.

Step two. No, I won't be doing this review step-by-step, I just wanted to show you how much progress is made from each step. Here we see some interior details are added, and the walls are beginning to go up.

About 12 steps later, and we have this. I'm loving the "natural" look Majisto went for with his workshop- it works for him.

Two steps later, we have the beginnings of a roof. We're using those weird but awesome bricks now!

A few steps later, and it's finished. Here it is opened, on the inside. Let's close 'er up and show you all the views of this puppy.

Set in Full

Here it is at an angle looking at the front. Huh. Where's the door? That's odd...

Oh, so that's how you open it. Okay, I can dig it.

Let's continue this 360 spin and look at the side. Looks awful thin at this angle, doesn't it? And dusty. That's what I get for buying "slightly used".

Continuing on... Dude! There's a giant hole in your house/workshop! This may not seem like a big deal to the average reader, but it's a pretty big design flaw to me. It's not like we need to be sticking our hands in a hole like this, the set opens up... Oh well. Skylight, anyone?

This side is exactly the same as the other side, but I knew someone would ask for a picture. Here it is, to save you the trouble of asking, dear reader.

Play Time

Yup, I'm going to have a section labeled "Play Time". There aren't really an features to talk about, so you're getting some pictures of what the average child/ child-at-heart would do with this set.

Look at that magic spell lying on the table! Where's Majisto, we need to see what this thing does!

Treasure chest! Let's open it!

Oh no! Lord Draconius Draco "Draggy" Dragon Knight the Fourth, Esquire is in Majisto's Workshop! Get 'im, Majisto!

Oh, looks like Lord Draconius Draco "Draggy" Dragon Knight the Fourth, Esquire just wanted to make nice and have a cup of Gin with Majisto. Alright, happy ending!

The Final Verdict

Design: 6/10. Can anyone say "Big Gaping Hole"? This may be a minor quibble to you, but it's a major gripe to me. Even back in '93, the designers should've known better than that. I also wish that the table was something other than a grey brick. And the BURPs were a bit lack-luster for making details on the outside. But it's a cute design, with the opening workshop with lots of play opportunities.

Build: 7/10. This build was fun, and slightly challenging. The instructions made this build a little frustrating, but it was okay in the end. Good piece usage, I just really wish I had used some different pieces for a more detailed design.

Playability: 10/10. This set has no "flick-firing missiles" or other bad "playability" features that kids these days seem to love. No, this set cuts through the crap and lets us use our imaginations. There's a clear good guy and a clear bad guy, a treasure chest, a pot and campfire, a table, two cups, a barrel, some weapons, and a building to use them in. As you probably saw in the "Play Time" portion of the review, I love stuff like this. TLC, please make more like this instead of the usual "flick-firing missile" crap you make nowadays.

Minifigures: 8/10. These minifigures hold their own to this day. I know my "Minifigures" section was a little thin, but they really are special. Both have some great personality. They may not have back or leg printing that's becoming more and more common in modern figures, but they're still spectacular figures that I really love having in my collection.

Price: 10/10. I'm not quite sure how much this set was when it was new (I'm guessing right around 15-20 USD), but I got it for $23 USD, in pretty good shape, with box and instructions. That's absolutely well below what you'd expect a classic set to go for, so I have no complaining whatsoever to do about the price.

Overall: 8/10. This set is pretty dang good. It's design is a little buggy and the instructions are a smidgeon difficult, but it's from 1993. That was 18 years ago, just to save you some counting. And this set still holds its own against newer castle sets! I actually prefer this one to a few of the newer Kingdoms sets, to be honest. So if you get a chance to pick this set up, do it. You won't regret it.

Parting Shot

And we thought he was an old coot in '93!

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[Donut]

This is really an outstanding set, perhaps the best set from the Dragon Master series. Talk about nostalgia, I miss the yellow background with the sun and the alternative builds on the back of the box.

A fantastic review and I am glad to see you had fun building it.

[drevim]

I'm still abit old school, so the "multi-piece by step" builds are still preferred to the style we have now. The big hole in the roof, I have no argument for, just something we dealt with, in the pre-internet days, when we could see what everyone else thought of sets, with the exception of R.T.L.

Great review of a great "old school" set, thanks for the flashback.

PS - have to call out the fact that should be the old style skeley, in the final pic

Edited July 17, 2011 by drevim

[Hoboman]

While the set does nothing for me either way, I love the glow in the dark wand.

Nice review though. Well Done.

[Sisco]

A fantastic review and I am glad to see you had fun building it.

Thanks, I did indeed have a lot of fun building it... My little cousins are over now, and they're having a ball battling with Majisto and Draggy.

PS - have to call out the fact that should be the old style skeley, in the final pic

Trust me, I know. I only have one, and apparently I've lost it. I looked high and low before taking that picture, just because I knew someone would point out if I used a new skeley.

While the set does nothing for me either way, I love the glow in the dark wand.

Nice review though. Well Done.

I love the wand as well, it was just horrible to photograph. Gosh, that thing was invisible...

Thanks for the comments, guys!

[ZO6]

Thanks for this review, cralegoboy!

I know there are a lot of people out there would dislike the Dragon Knights theme and believe it was the beginning of the end for Castle (up until some of the most recent stuff at least). Personally I've always loved the line and thought that the sets looked very unique. I liked the attention that was given to the new dragon figure and to the wizard Majisto, with the latter receiving his own little headquarters. Majisto's Magical Workshop seemed to have very strong Forestmen vibes (well, I suppose a number of the sets from this line do for that matter), and that makes it all the more appealing. As you said, this set is great for playability - another factor which has always made me adore it even more. I was lucky enough to pick up this set and most of the others from the line in MISB form last year, and I have zero regrets. Now after reading your review I want to get out all the sets to play around with!

[WhiteFang]

I love your introduction and it kind of reminded me of the EBRP which I had enjoyed it very much with Draggy, Shadows and the rest. Brought back memories.

This is a nice and decent set for a powerful wizard like Majisto to live in. I still have this on mine display and I assume mine set is complete. In a way, this set is definitely part of the Classic Castle for me, even though it was near to its end. Like what Z06 had mentioned, I will love to take all of my classic factions out and arrange them side by side. It will be fun.

Nice review and thanks for sharing.

[TheLegoDr]

This is a nice and decent set for a powerful wizard like Majisto to live in. I still have this on mine display and I assume mine set is complete. In a way, this set is definitely part of the Classic Castle for me, even though it was near to its end. Like what Z06 had mentioned, I will love to take all of my classic factions out and arrange them side by side. It will be fun.

That does sound like fun. I need to dig out all of my previous sets from storage and see how they all look I had close to all of the castle themed sets from late 80s/early to mid 90s. Then for some reason I thought I was too old for legos and quit buying them...