For more than a few years I have been working on building a huge Lego castle using sets, personal designs and bulk purchase elements. When I acquired the Dacta Fright Knight Castle I was thrilled with the pieces that came with it but still didn;t have enough arches and scalloped elements to complete the tops and sides of the different areas of the castle. I knew that Lego had sold the Castle Expander Pack in the past but I had a hard time finding it at the Lego World Shop. As luck would have it, I finally managed to track it down and I ordered a few of the packages. The assortment gives you four of each style featured in the add on set but after doing the math, I was going to need at least 48 more of the 1 x 6 and 1 x 8 overpass pieces. As much as I hated to do it, I had to ditch the Lego online store and go with a brock vendor for these peices. Even so, the Castle Expander Pack did allow me to add some extra color to the tops of the castle peaks with the blue trangles and the small 1 x 4 overpass pieces came in handy when I wanted to add some reinforcement to the bottom of the bridge.

Most people don’t know that Lego sells these types of sets at their website and through their Shop At Home catalog. You can get them for castles, space, vehicles, folliage and even plain old bulk bricks. While this is listed as a castle set, the pieces can be used for anything that you like but since most people order them for building castles, well, that’s the name that got slapped on it. These are the same exact pieces that you would find in sets like the Knights Kingdom Dungeon and the Siege Tower so there are no differences in size, scale or color. These are all grey in color except for the blue dome elements. Now, these are not dark grey, if you want those you will have to get them from another assortment.

The assortment has four each of the following pieces; three pegged scalloped ‘teeth’, these look great when used outside a building to break up floors or levels. On castles they give it a rough and rugged look. You also get three different sized overpass pieces; these can be used on draw bridges, to add a safety rail to a tower or lining the entrance way to the front gate. You get four each of the 1 x 8, 1 x 6 and small 1 x 4. There are four standard arch pieces; you need two of these to make a complete arch unless you are using them for a buttress [to add support to a wall]. Before I picked up that tip from a castle book, I was having a hard time getting enough support for outside walls and add on sections. The last set of pieces are blue triangular dones. I wasn’t too crazy about the color at first and was half tempted to pain them black or gold but when I saw how well they went with the colors in the Royal Joust I decided to leave them as is.

Things To Know

• If you need a lot of a certain type of element, consider checking out a brick vendor like Baylit [Bricks As You Like Them]. You can buy individual pieces in case you need more than a handful of a certain type. While these expander packs are really nice, if you need fifty to a hundred of a certain type of brick, plate or element, it’s more cost effective to go with a brick reseller.

• This doesn’t come in a box nor does it have any instructions, you get it packaged in a plastic bag with the name and set number on it and that’s about it. If you need the arch pieces consider getting the Grey Arch package [set 10047, 36 pieces, $5.99] that gives you 24 of the arches and 12 1 x 4 grey plates.

The Bottom Line

If you need a small handful of embelishments for your castle or are missing pieces from a set this is a really nice expander pack to get. While I did end up purchasing a few of these, it wasn’t cost effective for me to invest in ten to fifteen of them just to get the arched sections that I needed. I am really glad that Lego offers such accessory sets, it allows people to build bigger, stronger structures and add the detail that they want. You can find other accessory and expander packs at the Lego Online Store as well as in the Shop At Home catalog. If you are planning on ordering a number of them, check to see if they are still offering a discount. Buy five bags, save 5%, buy ten bags and save 10%, buy fifteen and save 15%. That’s the cut off line though, it doesn’t incease with each five piece lot.


The Stats

Set Name: Castle Expander Pack
Family Set: : Accessory Packs
Lego Set: 3732
Number of Pieces: 24
Age Recommendation: 6 and older
Cost: $ 4.99


As always, thanks for the read!

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2006 Freak369


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Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 4.99
Type of Toy: Blocks
Age Range of Child: Kids to Teens