Lego's Guarded Treasury Show Me The Money!
Written: Jul 25 '02 (Updated Jul 25 '02)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Nice castle elements, two figures, cool weapons, easy to build, tons of replay value.
Cons: No longer manufactured, hard to find.
The Bottom Line: If you fell in love with any of the Castle or Dark Knight series from Lego, this is a must have for your collection!
|
|
|
| Freak369's Full Review: LEGO - Guarded Treasury |
The Lego Guarded Treasury is one of my favorite mid sized sets Knights Kingdom series. It has enough pieces to construct several different models as well as fitting perfectly to scale with other sets from the Castle or Dark Knights series. Since this is an older set, finding it may be a chore so I suggest checking online auction sites for new sets or scouring the smaller, non-chain toy stores to see if they have any of these sitting on the shelf collecting dust.
The set is comprised of two individual structures, each sitting on raised 8x8 platforms. These are not flat base plate pieces so the buildings are boosted up by about 1/4 of an inch, a very nice touch by the Lego designers. When these buildings are added to other sets from any of the above-mentioned series, they stand out from the rest because of these thick brick plates. They can be removed from the platform and places within a scene if you want a more uniformed look.
The Guarded Treasury
This two storied dwelling serves as a very nice visual piece for the set. The shiny silver sword stands in the center of the bottom portion of the building and gives the set some real class. The textured wall pieces on the front of the building help to break up the design of the building by giving it a sloped look. The two dragon / lion sconces used on the front of the building definitely give this a unique look and are great pieces to collect to build an impressive looking castle.
The second level of the treasury is rather cheesy and for me, a die-hard Lego fanatic to say that – it must be pretty bad. There wall frame has a small window cut out from it and the blue roof tiles [5] stack on top of it. It would have been nice to have a back end to it and to make the bottom portion a little bigger, but I guess Lego wanted to skimp on the pieces. Even so, the sight of it from the front is impressive.
On the front of the instruction booklet you see that ‘action mode’ of the halberds knocking a round Lego element downward to the two figures. Sadly, there are no instructions included to create this, but if you look at the picture, you can figure it out with minimal effort. This is a nice feature but personally I prefer the double halberd look. Then again, I am a stickler for symmetry.
The Pillory
Almost half the size of the main building in this set, it carries itself well – from the front door to the almost wicked looking stakes – this is a must have for any Dark Knights fanatic. With a few minor modifications this can easily be adapted to any of the medieval series that Lego released.
The base of the building rests on a raised green 8x8 baseplate – and I strongly suggest that you use this piece when building it rather than having it as a stand-alone dwelling. This provides support for the walls as well as allowing the door to have complete mobility. While the inside of the building is rather small – it’s big enough to house about 5 Lego figures without an overcrowding situation. But my personal favorite part of this portion of the set had to be the two eerie torches that are mounted to the outside walls. The contrast of the gray bricks against the yellow transparent torch pods gives it a ‘true to life’ feel. Add into the mix the two brown spears / stakes that are ever present at the top of the building and you have one hell of a creepy domain.
The other pieces from the Dark Knights and Knights Kingdom series – most notably the castle walls, castle tops, roof tiles and castle doors – are all fully interchangeable and match exactly to scale. The only exception to this would be the short-lived Hidden Dungeon that was an accessory add on kit. It allowed part of the floor to fall away and reveal a secret chamber underneath, the problem was getting the Lego figures or objects out, without taking apart one of the walls, your prisoners were doomed to a plastic death. This accessory pack won’t work with other sets due to the fact that it rests under the flooring and raises the building or structure by five inches.
Weapons
There are two shields in this set, one for the Black Bulls and one for the Blue Lions. The Black Bull and Blue Lion ‘teams’ were included with some of the series to give the user the ability to create small medieval wars or to create alliances. The halberds can be used for a multitude of applications and can easily be used on any of the buildings or held by the two Lego figures. If you plan on doing this, make sure you have the halberd held not at mid point but rather closer to the blade. This will help to keep the figure from falling over. If you press the Lego figure into the base plate, this will also prevent the figure from tipping over.
A small gray crossbow and gray sword are also included with this set and can easily be handled by the figures or made to hang from the walls of the buildings by adding a few connector pieces [not included with this set]. The two brown spears that rest on the pillory building can also be used by the figures or made to hang from the walls using connector pieces.
The Downside
You would think that you would get some gold coins or a treasure box in this set, however, none are included. This leads me to think that it’s the sword that is being protected rather than gold, money or jewels. The inside of the pillory could have been a little bigger as well. Overall the few shortcomings of the set are soon forgotten when you see the finished product. With lots of replay value and cool elements, this is a must have set for collectors.
Instructions
The 24 page booklet gives you very clear and accurate instruction on how to construct this set. The first page shows you the assembly of the two figures included with the set, which is a nice touch for those who are newer to building Lego sets. The instructions are very detailed and give you a close up look at the building process and because of this, it would be a great set for kids who are transitioning from smaller sets or just getting into Lego’s. Pages 21 and 23 show alternative methods of construction but don’t let that dictate your creativity. There are a tremendous number of buildings that can be built from the provided pieces and an endless number if you incorporate other Lego sets into the mix. There are also a few cartoons added into the back of the booklet and a one page instruction sheet on how to convert the two single structures into one by stacking them on top of each other -= this is extremely cool looking when built and can easily be taken apart to restore it to the original version.
The Bottom Line
I’m currently in the process of building a huge castle scene using older Lego sets so when I came across a seller on EBay that had several of these up for grabs I didn’t waste a single second and bid on all of them. The unique pieces can easily be adapted to other Lego sets or in my case, used to create a huge setting. The thick brick bases are great for making sections rise above others and in my castle scene I used them for the base of a water well and as a platform for a gazebo. It looks cooler than it sounds and I hope to have some pictures up on my homepage within the next few weeks.
If you come across this set and have a liking for the medieval series from Lego, this is well worth the price. If you can find it on sale or at a reduced price, even better. As with all Lego sets, there are small pieces that could present a chocking hazard to smaller kids. The weapons – halberds and spears could also do damage f a small child fell on them so use caution of older kids will be sharing the same place area as the little ones.
The Stats
Set Name: Guarded Treasury
Family Set: Knights Kingdom
Lego Set: 6094
Number of Pieces: 101
Age Recommendation: 6 –10
Ease Of Assembly: Moderate
Time Of Assembly: 15 - 20 minutes
Cost: $5.00 EBay [plus shipping]
Normal price ranges from $14.99 to $22.99
so be sure to look for this on sale!
As always, thanks for the visit!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© Freak369 2002
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $5.00
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Whole Family
|
|
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.