The Lego Dragon Knights Sets 1993-1995

[SirSven7]

Hello again all

Continuing in my almost never ending quest to write about every pirate and castle set ever released, I have now finaly finished my next post.

This time I am onto Dragon Masters.

Dragon Masters Sets

Have a look if you fancy a trip down memory lane

Cheers all

[Ardelon]

Good to see more material from you, SirSven7!

Dragon Masters were the faction that drew me in to LEGO Castle, so they have a special place in my heart. I had some Black Knights sets, but they didn’t spark my interest in LEGO much. As such, I couldn't even see the DM as bad guys, what they probably were supposed to be, according to the backstory.

I don't know if I mentioned this somewhere already, but I explained away the similarity of DM and Black Knight shields as Majisto recruiting his force from the Black Knights, who simply repainted their old shields. It fitted with the DM appearing after the Black Knights as well as the Dragon Master in the Royal Knights drawbridge set having a Black Knight shield.

And lol at the commercial: Maniac not Included!

[K-Nut]

Dragon Masters are my favorite theme from Castle, and the Fire Breathing Fortress is my favorite set of all time. You do the line justice. good job!

[Niku]

I have been reading your recent opinions about the forestmen and the wolf party.

And have enjoyed them all. I was expecting with desire the dragon masters, and have like it too.

Keep them coming.

[smitty9999]

I'm fortunate that I own most of the Dragon Masters sets and I think your review is pretty spot on. The Dark Dragons Den gets quite a bad reputation among Lego fans but I agree with you that if it's viewed as an outpost, rather than a castle, it becomes a much more enjoyable set. The Fire Breathing Fortress is really nice in person. I like the large area where the trap door is; many mini-figs can fit there.

[Lorentzen]

Great work SirSven :)

It's always a great pleasure to read your articles.

[Jack Bricker]

I really enjoyed your review on the dragon masters. I was around 5 years old when those sets were out and I was just crazy over them and the pirate sets that were out at that time. Thanks for putting that article together and sharing it with us. Great memories.

[Skipper]

Thanks for another great blog SirSven, your commentary and all the alternate and advertising pics you find are really interesting. The weird thing is, I like most of the alternate designs more than the original sets. Keep it up!

[-obelix-]

Thank you for yet another great blog entry SirSven7! Please, continue your efforts in bringing us these articles as, I am sure, lots of us are enjoying them!

[Nagyzee]

Nice review, thanks a lot.

As a kid me and my brother got one each of both 1736 Wizard's Cart and 6020 Magic Shop. That's all we had from Dragon Masters. But I remember liking Majisto's Magical Workshop a lot and wanting one. Also we were awed by the traps in the Fortress set (we saw them in a Lego catalogue) and tried to incorporate similar traps into our Black Falcon Fortress sets.

Looking back however my opinion on the Dragon Masters is not that positive. It was an okay theme but is far from my favourites. In my opinion the Den looks horrible, and while I still like the play features of the Fortress I don't really like its general look. The Workshop I still find nice but the lack of a door is a glaring oversight. The Wagon set is one of the best in its category though. I think the main thing dragging the theme down for me are the faces of the minifigures. I like the classic simple minifig heads and the current modern detailed ones, too. The Dragon Masters' faces are halfway inbetween in this regard and I think it simply doesn't work. They would have been better off without those ridiculous moustaches and stuff. Worst offender is this head.

[SirSven7]

wow guys cheers for the positive feedback, its really nice of all of you

Ardelon I like your explaintion as to why the shields are the same, i remember you mentioning it before, I think I will have to include that in the post as well (as a little side comment )

From what alot of you are saying the review is pretty accurate, which is good because I agonised for ages over my conclusion for these guy, initally my view was a little harsh, but the more I looked at the sets the more I liked them and both the larger ones are much better in person than on paper, whiched surprise me alot.

Though I do like the alternate builds alot for some of these sets

Nagyzee you echo my own thoughts before I delved into the Dragon Masters world, though I can't forgive the lack of door oversite on the workshop alot of the other sets are great once you see them in person and I agree some of the heads are not brilliant hwoever we needed this stage of development to get what we had now, not all stages of evolution are pretty if you do get a chance to pick up any of these sets from a reasonable price (I got my Dragon den in a car boot for £15, though it was missing the Dragon) give it a go you might find your view changing

cheers all

[Artanis I]

I have a lot of these sets, even as a kid I was cluey enough to get the minifig pack 2x. The blue/black knight was just too awesome, plus it came with a horse. I also got the wizard tree set 2x, they stacked on top of each other perfectly.

For me what made this faction so cool were the dragons, wizards & their beards, glow in the dark wands, capes, dragon helmets, dragon plumes (although not really new), new halberd, new faces, new dragon torsos and green dragon shields.

Regarding the Dragon Den, I placed mine with its back to the side of the Mountain Fortress, it fits well (despite a small gap) and makes 2 otherwise small forts into something comparable to the other castles.

...and of course there is no obvious door on the SECRET workshop, otherwise anyone could just wander in there and find out all the secrets! Only the wizard knows the magic entrance...

[DaleDVM]

Thank you for your great work on the history of LEGO castle!

I liked the Dragon Masters as a faction alot. I loved the new printed capes and the printed cloth flags. This made their army really stand out for me.

I didn't like most of the sets nearly as much. I had been collecting castle for quite a while already when these came out. In comparison to classic castle sets the builds seemed <insert that tiresome argument>. The structures were undefendable and fanciful IMHO.

The dragon head that dropped rocks was particularly large and silly to me. The dragon defender was disastrous. I found the dragon wagon as kind of flimsy and easily escapable.

However, Majistos workshop and some of the tiny sets were bright points for me.

I did not find that the Dragon Knights were the beginning of the end. After 1994 the Royal Knights and Dark Forest sets were nicely done and recieved well in the LEGO castle community. However, I think the Dragon Knights were the first example of the same flawed set designs that followed in 1998 with the Fright Knights and later with KK2. Since they had some similar flaws to those later unpopular themes, some collectors label the dragon masters as the beginning of the end.

Edited January 9, 2012 by DaleDVM

[SirSven7]

I like the idea of combining the two large sets for Dragon Masters, I'll have to dig mine out again and give it a try

[TheLegoDr]

Classic castle being my favorite theme, this is yet another great read. I love reading the backstory and history of every faction Lego gave us. Black Knights are my favorite, and these guys are a close second. Or wait, Black Falcons are high on the list..and Forestmen.. OMGosh, and those Crusaders.... too many to choose heh

But I do love the Dragon aspect of these and the Black Knights. Yes, it was a little lazy to recolor an existing shield, but it helps people like me who want to combine armies. I have Black Knights and Dragon Knights together, just as different ranks mostly. The green and the blue don't go super well together, but you can make it work. I stick with the original Black Knight shield, but also use the new helm and horse armor.

Looking at the sets, I could swear I had more of them, but when my mom gave me my sets this last summer, I didn't have any, but the wizard's workshop. So I don't know, unless they are hidden in another box somewhere. I need to get to collecting some of those sets though.

Thanks for another great read. I will read it again and again. I can't wait to read more.

And maybe sometime I'll get around to posting my armies.

[Aanchir]

Dragon Masters is a theme I grew up with! I ought to comment on one thing-- you mention a "cardboard castle" that comes with the Majisto's Tower set. This is in fact just the box of the set; two of its sides are printed with castle decorations. It's OK within the context of the set, but ends up feeling rather pointless in a larger collection, since it only resembles a castle from a few angles. The doors can be cut open, but I remember it was difficult to put anything inside and actually play with it, even with my then child-size hands! The main value I got out of that set was its vaguely conical roof and its spiral staircase, both rare pieces nowadays. Not to mention the lovely printed archway and window that were typical of Dragon Masters.

Majisto's Magical Workshop could very easily be my all-time favorite castle set. Even today it feels like it could go head-to-head with modern set designs. Of course, that's partly that it doesn't use any defunct joint styles, besides the shutters, and that it had a well-designed interior and exterior. The fact that it has no door never bothered me as a child, since Majisto, being a wizard, could use his magic to open and close the building-- which was at that time my explanation for the lovely opening function.

Fire Breathing Fortress was another set I really liked as a kid, but in retrospect it is a rather poor castle compared to some larger and more strategically-shaped offerings. It's very bunker-like with its huge flat roof, although the tower helps. The fire-breathing function is nice and realistic compared to many things in the theme; a mechanism for dropping hot coals on intruders. Overall, though, while I didn't own any more interesting-looking castles until the somewhat iffy designs of Knights' Kingdom I and II, I liked this set.

Dragon Masters was one of the Castle themes I collected most thoroughly, and most of my memories of building castles during my childhood involve building them for the Dragon Masters, with their distinctive black walls, dragon-patterned parts, gray walkways, and bright red roofs.

I should also point out that while you say Majisto was the first named castle figure, names varied by country! In Dutch catalogs, the name of Majisto's Magical Workshop was Huize Hokus, de werkplaats van Tovenaar Pokus (Hokus House, the Workplace of the Wizard Pokus). In the UK, the Wizard's Cart was unambiguously titled Merlin's Magic Box. In catalogs from the UK, the Forestmen sets almost invariably identified the protagonist as Robin Hood himself, such as in the case of the Camouflaged Outpost, there known as Robin Hood's Secret Cave. A catalog from the Netherlands identified the Knight's Castle as the difficult-for-me-to-translate Kasteel «Donkervoort» bewoond door Ridder Jan Swartegeest (Castle "Donkervoort", inhabited by the Knight Jan Swartegeest). I have an Excel spreadsheet of the names I've found for various sets, but haven't posted it online as it's woefully incomplete-- if you'd like me to I'd happily do so!

[de Gothia]

Thanks for another great review!!

I´m not really fond of the Dragon Masters as they are the guys who replaced my favourite faction, the Black Knights.. Also they are the ones who came in with the fantasy elements! So the figs are relly good looking but overall this faction is not in the top for me...

[drakke]

Ah.. the Dragon Masters. They reached me when I was at my "peak" of lego castle playing, and eventhough I had more of them than of any other faction, I prefered other ones (Black Knights, Black Falcons...) I Disliked too the Royal knights and even more the Fright knights, so I stopped collecting there. I was biased towards all clastle themes from then on, until I realized that some of the new sets are very beautifull (village mill raid, etc). Nevertheless, they still bring me good memories.

[Mencot]

Dragon masters, that is were I stopped wanting Lego. Maybe it didn`t have to do with this faction more then I reached a age I didn`t feel playing and building Lego was cool. But Dragon masters there were noting wrong with them, didn`t like the fantasy them so much but the Castles and other buildings were good. And the minifigs, I always thought they looked oriental, with dragons and stuff. I don`t know if it was suppouse to be so or is it just be. But I played them ancient chinese. Overall a good faction but the olders were better. Golden era ended here.

Golden ere child

[The_Cook]

Good review, it's caused me to rethink the series a bit but I still consider it to be all baseplates and BURPs, although I'll admit to having picked up a Majisto's Magical Workshop.

The point about re-purposing many of the Majisto minifigs into peasants is interesting. Whilst they haven't changed the design significantly TLG have changed where the printing on the Magician minifig goes. Majisto has a belt and pouch printed onto the torso whilst the magician from 2010 Kingdoms advent calendar has the belt and pouch printed onto the legs.

[lego tripper]

I was about 10 when the Dragon Masters were released, and they were instant-love for me back then. I LOVED the dragons and the wizard. For me that was very much Castle's golden age. The Royal Knights were on a crusade against what they perceived as users of dark magic the Dragon Masters and Fright Knights (I still don't get why these seem to get so little love), whilst Robin Hood of the Dark Forest was defending Lionheart's kingdom from the opportunistic Wolfpack. The Dragon Masters were not bad guys in my stories, but rather misunderstood anti-heroes who had inadvertently caused the rise of the actual dark magic users the Fright Knights and only wished to correct their mistake. Good times...

However! In retrospect, I can definitely see why people consider the Dragon Masters the end of classic castle, with all those bigger parts (although I have no problem whatsoever with the faces as some have pointed out earlier in this thread). As an adult I MUCH prefer the non-fantasy castle sets before this, and I've gone out of my way to collect most of them. I always wanted the Black Knight's Castle as a kid, and now I do!

(Ironically, it eventually were the fantasy-themed Trolls and Dwarves that got me out of my dark ages.)

[SirSven7]

Wow this has caused some interesting and indepth discussion Im so pleased

TheLegoDr:

Thank you for your lovely comment, I also suffer from liking too many factions from classic castle, though I am not a hugh fan of combining my armies though I do use the new helm from these sets on a few key figs in other armies (to symbolise importance of course ) p.s I would love to see your armies posted, I keep hopeing to do the same thing but I ordered a camera from amazon ages ago and it never a arrived so since them I have been a bit camera phobic (I will get over it eventually).

Aanchir:

Thanks for clearing up the question of the cardboard castle, I agree that the workshop is a wonderful set but I can't fully let it hit my own personal top ten because of the lack of a door (once I mod it I can though). as for other set designs with the dragon masters I apericate that LEGO tried to do soemthing different and I love they way these guys stand out from alot of the other factions, something different is always interesting and often good.

Thanks for the info on names that helps alot, however with these guys we get our first identifiable minifig, some of the sets have different names on them (like Black Monarchs Castle for example) however we don't actually get a fig to identify with the name (whos the Black Monarch?), if you ask online who the robin hood fig is and you would get a whole bunch of different answers, ask about Majisto and you will mostly get one, that was the point I was trying to make, in germany for example he was called Cerlin link, so I was more saying he is the firsted named fig not that his name is Majisto (I should probably make that clearer). If you post your list I would love to see it, just one final question what did you actually think of my article? is there anyway I could improve

de Gothia thanks again, its always nice to hear from your p.s you have my condolencees about your favorite faction being userped

drakke, I am quite similar I was biased towards the classic sets until I started seeing castle and kingdoms in the shops, these sets brought me back to LEGO castle (just like Pirates 2009 brought me back to LEGO)

Mencot: I never saw them as oriental.......Until Now! OMG, still I think the golden age lasts a bit longer for me.

The_Cook whats wrong with a set being all baseplates? I love baseplates, as for BURPS Ican do without them and some of the sets are a little BURP covered. I like using the old fig as a peasent becsue of the torso sadly the new wiz dosnt hae it so it doesn't look as good with a plain blue torso piece. still its fun to experiment.

lego tipper: I was six when the Dragons came out, so you can guess I was mad for them, at the time they all lokked so much more exciting than my drab uniformed crusaders with the plain faces, I saw them as good guys as a kid (and they always fought the dragons never sided with them). Again when I got older I looked back on them and much prefered the older factions, Dragon masters is a brilliant childrens faction and others are great for all.

Cheers for all the comments everyone

[Orange Leader]

Dragon Masters was a sub theme from Castle that I loved the most as a kid. I always liked the fantasy aspect of knights and dragons, so It did really well for me. I never saw them as badguys unlike the Wolfpack who raid and steal things. They're more dark neutral in my book. As for opposing forces: I thought the Lion Heart fraction where snobby and keeping everything for them selfs with there stuck up king and his fancy chrome parts. I saw them as the badguys. But that's to each there own and just shows how versatile and neutral fractions from the past can be.

And as for the BURPS: I loved them when I was a kid and could built well with them. Now I don't like them as much. Perhaps we should hold a BURP build contest in the future, just for the fun of it.

[lego tripper]

lego tipper: I was six when the Dragons came out, so you can guess I was mad for them, at the time they all lokked so much more exciting than my drab uniformed crusaders with the plain faces, I saw them as good guys as a kid (and they always fought the dragons never sided with them).

Ha, in my story Majisto had captured the dragon queen with his magic, forcing her children to fight alongside his knights (yes I totally stole that from WarCraft II) against the evil Willa the witch who had once been his student but had betrayed him and now used magic for evil purposes. Awakening the ancient dragons however caused great displeasure with the Royal Knights, who believed that the pagan dragons had been put to sleep by their god and therefore started a holy crusade against the Dragon Knights, completely oblivious to the real threat that was posed by the Fright Knights.

Oh this is fun. I'm so curious what all you guys' stories were.

Edited January 17, 2012 by lego tripper

[Ardelon]

Dragon Masters was a sub theme from Castle that I loved the most as a kid. I always liked the fantasy aspect of knights and dragons, so It did really well for me. I never saw them as badguys unlike the Wolfpack who raid and steal things. They're more dark neutral in my book. As for opposing forces: I thought the Lion Heart fraction where snobby and keeping everything for them selfs with there stuck up king and his fancy chrome parts. I saw them as the badguys. But that's to each there own and just shows how versatile and neutral fractions from the past can be.

That was exactly the way I saw the DM and Royal Knights as well!