Clone OPatra

I never thought as Ninja as a castle subtheme, I just thought it was its own thing. If Ninja is a subtheme, then why would Vikings not be? Just because they have next to no buildings? Still, it was a very nice article. The only improvement I would suggest for future articles is to include a picture of at least one iconic set that really represents each subtheme. You do this for some subthemes in this article, but you don't really show the essence of KKI or Fright Knights because you only show the chrome-laden guy from KKI and Basil the Batlord from Fright Knights. Overall, though, you've done a great job!

There were also the different helmets with or without holes for a visor that the spacemen came with. Nice overview of the minifigure!

Never is a long time. I'm sure at some point LEGO will end the fantasy line, wait a year or two, and then put out some new Castle sets with a different theme. That's what they've always done.

I think it's fine, although it is a bit harder to read than black. Is that the darkest green? If there is a darker shade, I'd try that, but what you've got right now is readable.

Yes, please please resize the pics. It does no good to not resize them and say sorry as I've seen many others do, just take the five minutes to do it. Any simple program will, and there are plenty of tutorials about it in the tutorial index. It can really kill people's computers to have pics so big.

I'd love some Elves, if LEGO made the sets like castle intertwined with trees, if you know what I mean. And I don't see how the fantasy elements have stopped LEGO from making some regular type building. Take the new drawbridge for example. That's just a beautifully normal Medieval piece of architecture, but it happens to come with skeletons as the bad guys. And then there was the King's Castle, the tower in Tower Raid, the coastal outpost with the Skeleton Ship, and many more. If it takes fantasy creatures to make LEGO make beautiful non-fantasy buildings, why not continue? When LEGO did make men against men just three years ago, the buildings they came up with pretty much stunk.

Well, I consider in the 9s to be an A, 8s to be a B, 7s C, 6s D, 5s and below F. In less technical terms, 9s are Great!, 8s are Not Bad - Not Great, 7s are Mediocre, 6s are Bad, 5s are Don't Even Think About It. However, I can see that others who are used to different grading systems may not think a 7.7 is as "meh" as I see it to be. I think I'll tweak the ratings a little to bring the overall down.

Hello, friends! Time for my first review as a teacher in the Reviewers' Academy. As such, I decided it would be great to include some short videos to demonstrate the play features. And no, don't worry, I don't just flick some flick-fire missiles a bunch of times because this set predates the "flick-fire invasion." Title: Gargoyle Bridge Set #: 8822 Theme: Knights' Kingdom II Pieces: 250 Minifigures: 3 Year of Release: 2006 Price at Release: USD $30 Buy it? Inventory? Bricklink Peeron INTRODUCTION 8822 was one of the final four sets in the Knights' Kingdom II line (rundown). LEGO was probably running out of steam with the story line, still using Vladek as the bad guy even though Jayko was now as old as King Mathias was in the first sets. I know, call me a freak for knowing too much about LEGO's plotlines. But really, how old could that Vladek guy get? And by this time, he'd enlisted bad knights in underwear! But I digress. I shall try to hold off on slamming the absurd story line for a minute (yes, I do get back to it) because what you all really care about is the minifigures, the pieces, the splendor, the grandeur, the awesome power of… you know, the LEGO, not the made up part for kids (or kids at heart). CATALOG Before I even start reviewing what came in the box, I'd like to show how clouded in mystery this set was. Here's a picture of 8822 in a 2006 Holiday Shop at Home. Sorry about the glare, but it doesn't cover the interesting part. See the four silver bionicle pieces by the ax on the tower? Those are gold in the set. I find that odd. But wait, there's more! Order now, and you'll get the Slapchop deluxe… oh. Anyway, this is the description of that set in the same catalog, but closer up. I'd like you to read it. Ok, did you read it? It said that the knights had to cross the bridge. It also said Sir Adric had to get past the gargoyles. It also made it sound as if Karzon's battering ram was waiting for Sir Adric on the bridge. Now let's see what Adric is actually doing. Hmmm. It seems he's waiting on the bridge (not crossing it) between the sculpted gargoyles (not a threat) and actually waiting for Karzon to haul his battering ram over there. I see a big disconnect. Does it greatly affect the set? I guess not. But it means a few people at LEGO were confused about this set in the first place. In any case, I'll get over it… INSTRUCTIONS I could use a box picture I found on Bricklink, but it turns out to be the wrong one! I don't know why, but there were actually two different boxes (maybe one was a prototype?) for both this set and 8821. Here is what was on the box that I got. The back of the instruction have a nice display of three of the final KKII sets. It's also on the back of the instructions in 8821. But wait, there are problems in this picture too! Can you find all six problems just in this close up? (check at bottom of review for answers) A random page. Since this set is so big size-wise, each page gets one step. The color distinction in good. MINIFIGURES Great! Now we're out of glich-in-pics zone, and into the set itself! Here they are from the front. They are quite nice. The red armor piece on Sir Adric is lovely, and I can imagine many Castle MOC uses for it. Likewise, Karzon's (guy in center) armor piece is very nice, and the stock Rogue Knight has speckle copper and black armor, not silver and black. I think the copper and black armor is exclusive to this set. Light blue is also a nice color to get minifig legs in because it is not so common. From the back, they are unremarkable. You still have to love that copper armor though! Hats off, boys! Now you can better see what are minifig friends look like. Sir Adric's face was the only one that was new for the sets that had him. Now it has been reused as a regular crownie. Karzon's face is from the viking sets, and the Rogue Knight's head is one from Orient Expidition that was reused a million times. Here are the minifigures with their friends from 8821. The minifigures are pretty similar, except in different colors. Maybe Karzon is yelling because he thinks wearing underwear was a stupid idea for his Rogue Knight brethren. In sum, the minifigures are quite good in this set, for castle fans and castle builders anyway. ACCESSORIES For what is a minifigure without a weapon? The shields are both lovely, although both of them kind of look evil. The spekley halbred is also a great weapon, and it mostly came in expensive sets, so this is a nice way to get it. The other weapons and accessories are nothing special, but they still decorate the set, which is good. With their weapons, the minifigures are ready for battle! INTERESTING PARTS Here I've picked out what I find to be the interesting part in this set. The mask on the left is from the Karzon action figure, and the axe is from the Sir Adric action figure. This set includes four marbled green and silvery BURPS (I think that's what they're called), which only appear in a few sets and are very neat. There are two gargoyle pieces, which are the head of the Vikings Fenris Wolf in pearl light grey, and two of those doors, which aren't that rare, but are still cool. BUILD - Karzon's Battering Ram Karzon's battering ram is the first thing to build. After four steps, who knows what that is? At eight steps, it's starting to shape up. I applaud LEGO's use of the tower piece and the ram part going through it. I think that's the most ingenious thing about the set (which isn't saying too much, unfortunately). At twelve steps, the mask from the big Karzon action figure has been added to the front, as well as the battering mechanism, which is just the gear turning against the plate with teeth (video coming up!) SET - Karzon's Battering Ram I decided it would make the most logical sense to show off Karzon's battering ram right now because I just went through its build. I shall follow the same order for the bridge. This is the ram in an angled view. I like the structure very much because it looks medieval, and the front part with its spikes and evil mask are quite menacing. Coming straight at you, it looks like it could knock your house down. Side left. I like how the colors of brown to dark bley are consistent on the vehicle and the ram itself. Back. Not much to note here, except that the ram is pretty skinny, which is good for easy transporting. Above-ish. Now it kind of looks puny, but we already know it looks tough straight on from the front. And now, my first video! Here we take a look at how well the mechanism of turning the gear works for the ram. Will Karzon break through the bridge gates, or will the gates prove to be the winner? Click to find out! Hmmm. I guess kids should probably smash the ram through the gates with their hands instead of sitting there and turning the gear. I stamp this play feature with a FAIL. Maybe LEGO will make up for it with the other play features in this set. BUILD - The Bridge As I said above, I will first show the build, then talk about the model, and after that I'll talk more about the set as a whole. So here we go. At four step we've already connected two of the lovely dark green plates with a gaggle of bley in light and dark varieties. Eight steps, and two of the lovely BURPS have been added. It's bridge-like already. Twelve steps, and the other BURPS have been connected via big bley arches, and the gated area is getting a floor. Sixteen steps. Now the floor of the bridge has been added with its dropping mechanism. Twenty steps. More things making it look like a bridge. Twenty-four steps. The tower is being built up and the gold triangles have been added. Twenty-eight steps. Now the tower is getting a floor. Thirty-two steps. Now the floor of the tower is complete with railings to keep Sir Adric from falling down, and what will become the axe-dropping mechanism is being built. Thirty-six steps. The axe-dropping mechanism is complete, and fires have been added. SET - The Bridge The bridge in its angled view of glory! It's a nice looking bridge, rising up from dark green marshes to grey stone, and the gatehouse looks good too. A side view. It's good and long (that's not what anybody said), like a bridge should be, but at the same time it does look kind of too straight and plain. The use of the long black pieces as the ramps is ok, but some interesting steps would have been much better. Front view. From this angle, you can hardly tell what you're looking at. Back view. Now you can't even tell there is a bridge. Top view. You can see that there is a bridge from this angle, and you can see the top of the tower. But do you notice those holes between the planks… Those holes aren't helpful for clumsy knights. SET DETAILS In every review I do, I just make up whatever random headings I feel like. Is that good or bad? I don't know. First let's look at the details that aren't play features, starting out with a key part of the set that gave it its name: the gargoyles. They're two wolf heads, and I guess they're nice, but they're just stuck on. If LEGO had made some cool gargoyle minifigures that look like statues or something that's playable, that would have been much cooler. But as it is, LEGO couldn't just name it Bridge, so they had to think of something. On each side of the gatehouse there are fires, which I suppose Adric could take down and hurl at the enemy. LEGO liked their fire in black tree thingy, they used it in 8821 also. Now, I don't care what the catalog said because this is clearly Adric's outpost, decorated with a spear flying his color and the color of Sir Kentis (except that the green flag is regular green, not dark green, which has always puzzled me). PLAY FEATURES You know what this means… video time! Even with those few details, this bridge would be a boring grey blob without some patented LEGO play features! I already showed the battering feature above, so here I'll display the falling axes and dropping bridge. First, the falling axes. Will Adric be able to defeat his enemy with two axes that must weigh a ton? Or will they fail of miserably and leave him helpless to the Rogue Knight swarm? Click to find out! Second, the collapsing bridge. Can Adric collapse the bridge to keep his enemies away? Or will he need some Godly intervention if he is to be saved? Click to find out! Well, as you saw, Adric was able to defeat his enemy with two axes that must weigh a ton. The only problem with that feature is that the axes are heavy and sometimes fall down by themselves, but that doesn't happen too often. The axes get a PASS. On the other hand, Adric needed some Godly intervention if he was to be saved by the collapsing bridge. Honestly LEGO, you must have known by then that LEGO bricks have a lot of friction and aren't just going to slide against each other! I hope whoever designed that feature has been moved into the DUPLO design department. Ok, not really, but I'd never seen LEGO come up with such a terrible trapdoor. They never did something as bad again though, so that's a plus! Anyway, the collapsing bridge gets an EPIC FAIL. PLAY Since only one play feature got a pass from me (and how many times can you drop some axes?), I had to come up with a play idea. This time, I'm actually following the catalog description, even though everything about the set points against it. Sir Adric is strolling along, when he sees Karzon and a Rogue Knight behind him. Quickly, he dashes for the bridge! But once he's at the foot of the bridge, he pauses to look up. He sees the evil gargoyles and huge-as-megablocks axes, and a fear creeps over him. He then looks at the bottom of the bridge. He sees it's only some green marshes, so… WITH 8821 This set can easily be combined with 8821 (my review here) for a bit more fun. That set has a lot more playability. CONCLUSION Time to wrap it up. The ram is nice looking, with a good color scheme and parts choice and whatnot, but the battering feature pretty much sucks. Who's going to sit there and turn that gear anyway? The bridge is big and bridge-like, but it looks a bit plain. Some plants, headlight bricks with cheese slopes (like in another bridge set, hint hint), or some kind of other details would have made it a better model. The dropping axes are a nice play feature because at least they actually work, but an additional catapult or flick-fire crossbow (like in another bridge set, hint hint) would have made the playability level better. I can see this bridge in a castle layout or a Morcia diorama, but as its own thing this set is lacking. The best part are the minifigures, and I'd definitely suggest trying to get some speckle copper armor. RATINGS Minifigures: 9/10 - They're nice, but some torso printing could have helped, and a different face for the Rogue Knight too. Parts: 7.5/10 - 250 for $30 isn't so bad, but there aren't very many interesting parts, and most of them are bley. Build: 7/10 - It's mostly just building a bridge, which isn't too repetitive, but isn't exciting either. Price: 7/10 - This was tough. It isn't the wrong price for 250 pieces, but I don't know why you'd want to pay $30 for a bland bridge. Playability: 5.5/10 - There isn't a whole lot to do, and if you try to use what LEGO gave you, you get annoyed. Overall: 7/10 - In my book, that is not a good rating. If this set was out now, I'd advise you against buying it. See if you can score some copper armor on Bricklink though! I hope you enjoyed my second KK2 review, and I hope to be back soon for another review with videos of another bridge (maybe with a comparison to this one)! (*answers to pic with six problems, not in any specific order: 1. Adric's hands are red. 2. Adric has a viking axe. 3. Adric's shield is grey instead of pearl gold. 4. Karzon has a halberd instead of a mace. 5. The part of the bridge going down is clipped to a blue piece, which should be black. 6. Those Bionicle pieces by the axes are still silver.)

I'm worried about this too. While the bag looks great, it may be meant for kids and so not fit on adults, like all the past backpacks, sportsbags, etc. that I remember LEGO putting out. But they did make adult SW watches, so maybe they've realized adults want awesome accessories too and are willing to make some! How many kids care about classic space, anyway?

Some sets had the parts list in 2006, like the Knights' Kingdom sets. KuchN, nice first review. You've covered the goods and bads of the set in your ratings, and your pictures have a nice non-distracting background. Don't worry about the writing skills, everything you have said is clearly understandable. I think a review is a great way to introduce yourself! Thanks for taking the time to do it! About the set, I got this set too when it came out. The set wasn't great, but an extra Vader is always welcome, and some nice parts were included.

Minifigure collecting is just another kind of collecting, and they are an item that is quite collectible. With the LEGO Fan universe, there are those that collect sets to leave them in their boxes stacked in piles, those that like to build each set as it comes and leave it on display, those that take the models apart and MOC… all kinds of people with different motives for buying LEGO sets. One of those motives is for the figures. Personally, I love the minifigures, and in the SW sets they're even more special because they represent awesome characters in awesome movies. And sure, sometimes even in bigger sets it's really the minifigures that sell the set, and I can see why some people would actually just want the minifigures. Often, I do buy the sets for the minifigures, and I figure it's cheaper than buying them on Bricklink and you get an ok model with a bunch of parts too!

I was not going to ask for a while, but since it might be close to getting bumped off the page, I thought I'd say my review of 7078 has yet to be added. Thanks!

5150 Lego, there is really no point to continue this argument. I think Eilif's list is a true and just one, and no one wants his step number seven to come. One of your major points has been: "You have the right to voice your complaint, and disagree or be unhappy with the job some moderators are doing." You have succeeded at this, your complaint has been voiced, and you have (at times very strongly) disagreed and been unhappy with the job some moderators are doing. Then, in post number 13 of this topic, you said: "I'm not saying, nor do i expect any kind of "change in site policy'" You said it yourself, then why do you continue to argue? You voiced your concern over and over and over, and the staff members left you the reply, as did other non-staff, that they think the staff is doing a fine job, and does not need to change policy (just like you said they wouldn't). So, your counter has been: "I don't care whether or not others agree, or don't agree with me." and "If i see something i don't like and i feel its a real problem then i will bring it up. Whether or not i feel I'll have others support." Well, that's great, but don't you think that you have brought up the same argument at least ten times? You obviously don't have others support, and that hasn't stopped you from saying the same thing over and over, but you've gone three pages and gotten nowhere, absolutely nowhere. You can say that you don't care about getting nowhere, but nobody cares to hear it! And that's not because you are disliked or hated in some weird way, it's just that everyone is getting a little ticked off that you have nothing more to say but continue anyway. The argument is over, and I'm sure if you continue it this thread will be locked and Eilif's number 7 will come true. -O'Patra

This looks very nice WhiteFang. I would suggest adding some signage outside identifying it as a museum, if you can. Perhaps also a ticket booth, or is this a free museum? I would also agree with TheBrickster, a few pointy windows, and perhaps some snot around to make it look even more like ruins. Right now, the front wall looks a little plain. But I do really like it!

If it's a picture (which it must be), post it on some image-hosting site and then deeplink it in your sig as you would anything else, using the picture button.

I don't think you needed to include this, this topic is certainly on-topic and directly about how members interact with other members (in a way). My sig is pretty self explanatory, it's just my reviews. But deeper than that, I want people to take a look at reviews of sets that they might be interested in, or see a new opinion about a set. Also, I hope my reviews can go as an example of how great the Reviewers' Academy, and encourage more members to join the ever-enlarging army of reviewers. With new members posting reviews, or members that had not done so before now reviewing, it seems to be working (whether I'm directly affecting it or not)!

Well, it's time to join the bandwagon and show my face. Have fun trying to see it! Taken when I got my new camera, using my old camera in the picture. I held both, that's why it's blurryish.

I use a Mac for everything (ok, not eating and sleeping… you know what I mean), so no worries for any Mac users out there, you will be just fine in the Academy! I can't wait to start seeing reviews from all you new students.

I believe Svelte was talking about caste pieces in the Castle line, not KK2. I, however, have several crownie torsos, shields, etc, and none have unaligned printing. I filled in the customer service form, so in the next three weeks I should get new gold armor! I have also taken pictures of a few of my other messed up parts. First, a faded tan suit (with comparison to regular on the right): A racer guy who always smirks: And a shogun that is speechless: Comparisons for racer and shogun.

I could be guessing wrong, but in America "favourite" is usually spelled "favorite," and "programme" is spelled "program." That is why I surmised that the person who wrote my newest title was either not American, or at least learned English in Europe or has a translator program that is designed to produce European/British spellings.

Yes, it is his pic, as I mentioned above the picture so as to not look like I was stealing . The armor actually looks a lot worse in person than it does in the picture for some reason. And on the box, the gray on his armor is shiny silver, but I guess that is not the reality for anybody. This is my first misprinted Castle piece, I think. Everything else looks great.

Over the years, I have gotten several minifigures that are missing printing on their heads, or have faded or badly printed torsos right out of the box. I'll post some pictures of that stuff later. My most recent badly printed minifig part came in Drawbridge Defense, which I bought earlier today. It's a great set with great minifigures, but the armor of my gold knight was messed up! (Don't ask me how all that dust got there. I think it was a combination of how close up I was, the lighting, and how much dust is constantly blowing around the room where I took the picture) For comparison, the gold knight should look like this (from mania3's review): Do you think I should write to LEGO Customer Service and ask for a replacement? I think that is what I will do, but I have never called customer service before so I don't know if it's a good idea to do so. Any advice? (I know questions don't really belong in this thread, but since it pertains to a misprint, I didn't want to start a new topic to ask it.)

My two have been: Silver SW Reviewer - Most of the first six reviews I did in the academy and before were of Star Wars sets, so I was given this tag when I got my silver reviewer tag. I think WhiteFang gave it to me, but maybe he could clarify that. Introducing Reviewer's favourite weight loss programme - I was given this after Svelte_Corps made a comparison between a picture from my first or second academy review and a picture from my ninth when I became a teacher. I bet WhiteFang gave me this one also, but what I know for sure is that the giver was not American or things would be spelled differently.

The overall design is alright, and it it a nice alternative to usual things (as you said), but I really don't think much of it. The mechanism to lift the captain is ok, but it looks to me from your picture that it just opens up to reveal a bunch of technic pieces that don't fit in with the rest of the set. I think it could be bulkier, right now it looks a bit bare. Is it just me, or does that Obi-Wan look angrier than before?

Oh, I think asking for girl advice on this type of site is completely out of place, and vastly different from the mundane type of "silly" brought up in favorite this and that threads. "What's your favorite *insert object here*" threads let members know a little something about one another, and have pleasant chats about whatever the topic is. That especially applies to things like food, music, and what you bought today, because those show something about personality and deep likes and dislikes. What cell phone you have, however, doesn't really show anything about a person except "Oh, I like gadgets that flip a million different ways and look skinny or bulky…" That doesn't add to community value. And even if someone thinks it did, if a mod closed for whatever reason, then a mod closed it. The mods do an excellent job here on Eurobricks, and are always quick to catch something that doesn't belong. You don't have to always agree with them, but that's the way it is between people of differing degrees of power, somebody will always disagree. I've seen you write before: if you don't have something constructive to say, then move on. Well, since it doesn't really impact you too terribly that the mods close a few frivolous threads once and a while, then you should move on. Does it make a difference that you now can't find out what cellphone a handful more members have, or your ability to give dating advice to a tenth grader is compromised? (I know there are more examples than that, but the same questions can be asked of each.) If it doesn't make too big of a difference, and I hope it doesn't, then let the mods do their job in the excellent way they have always done, and leave them be.