6097 - Night Lord's Castle

Rating:
Pros: A fun modular design; lots of bricks and mini-figs to make it a standalone set
Cons: I wouldn't have minded some more weapons (although magic makes for a formidable equalizer).
Contents: 598 pieces including 7 mini-figs, 1 skeleton, 2 horses, and 1 black dragon
Price: $79.99 - Discontinued
Reviewed: 22-Jan-1997
Reviewed by: Joseph Gonzalez

Deep in the center of Darkwood Forest is an almost unknown structure - a foreboding construction where even woodland creatures seldom travel. It is rightly called a shadow in darkness, the Castle Von Schatten.
Tonight there is a particularly threatening cloud over the castle as Baron Von Schatten has discovered the Akam ruby is missing from its case. Only recently acquired, its supernatural powers were meant to bring the King's armies to its knees in battle at sunrise. The Baron is raging and normally fearless guards scurry out of his path. Even the stoic undead servant, Nosfert, seems to tread more silently than usual around the master.
In a final act of desperation and suspicion, the Baron jumps atop his ebony dragon steed and flies out to search for the witch that helped him acquire the now sought-for gem, while a brave knight of the royal order silently lets himself down the dark castle walls and disappears into the forest.

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Despite negative comments and reviews from other sources, I have to say that I am pleased with the Night Lord's Castle. I'm excited about Lego stretching out into new territory of a witch, different colored dragon (I hope there is the possibility of a red one in the future), and a new castle warlord.
The NLC is a module model which means it is actually three models that come together to make one large castle. The first model is a five-story tower. Level one is a small study with one wall bearing a scroll and some potion vials. This wall also happens to be a revolving door, so that if any intruders try to go for the magical goodies, the wall spins around and a skeleton is there to grab them. The next floor up is another small room with two walls. This room has a crystal ball sitting on top of a barrel. Through simple design a skull bobs up and appears inside the crystal ball for any conjuring needs your castle inhabitants may have. The third floor is a prison cell with a swinging door that is held shut with a chain element that wraps around the castle walls. The fourth floor is another simple shelter, and the final floor of the tower is an open turret with a telescope for observing surrounding territories.
The second module I will term the "back half" of the castle. This houses the throne for the lord of the castle. The lower floor is fairly bare, but there is another revolving door directly behind the throne. The roof of this structure is suspended a good two floors up by the new pillar elements. There is no actual second floor although there is a small walkway for guards to stand on just over the revolving door. The third floor is an open platform with one section having a trap door to drop someone down to the first floor (a really good way to take five or six inches off your height!).
The third and final module is the "front half" of the castle with the main entrance. A portcullis is raised and lowered with another chain element - there is no winch. Here, again, there is no second floor, but the third floor sports the witch's cauldron which is shown holding some 1x1x1 pegs that can be dumped over on unwanted visitors coming through the front gate. (Now there's an Excedrin headache for ya.)
The three modules are shown in the instructions as being put together as front and back half of a castle with the tower sitting atop the back half (makes a whopping seven-story castle), or placed side by side with the tower between castle halves for a wider/shorter castle.
This set is a blast to put together! There are a total of seven minifigs (three guards, horseman, witch, lord, and royal knight) but not a lot of weapons to go around.
New/unique elements with the set include a new Fright Knight horse dressing (red with black crossing stripes), new window grates for the 1x2x3 arched windows (these grates are slightly different from previous diagonal bar grates), a cauldron (cool!), revolving doors, a new 3x6 castle wall, the new inverted arch bricks in red, a three-point Fright Knight cloth banner, the 2x2x10 round pillars and other new Fright Knight stuff (broom, bat ornaments, etc.)
There are some drawbacks here because the castle does seem to have a lot of open areas and it comes with only two swords and some spears and halberds (older sets used to come with LOTS of swords), but compared to the 6090-Royal Knight's Castle, I like it a lot more. Even at the Shop at Home price of $88.00, I think it is worth the money.
I don't make it a habit to buy more than one large castle set, but I'll probably make an exception with this set.