Speaking of treasure, 24 hours after I took a photo of them on a layout, I had three Kung-Fu Minions stolen.

Coincidence?

@Atuin:
Modern reissues of these torsos seem to use new printing pads, and designs that are not quite exact matches for the originals. The Bricktober reissue of the Boack Falcon soldier was noted for having a narrower point at the bottom of the shield compared to the original run. So, just because you can point to a post-2000 version doesn’t preclude a modern torso featuring the old print resulting in another distinct variant.

A lovely little set and a proper Lion Knight!

if anyone has ever tried this they will realize very quickly it is far easy to push than pull a cart.

We need more treasure in new sets. And treasure chests. And chrome gold stuff. And keep producing the old rounded lid while you're at it! Our treasure horde must continue to grow!

One of the very few Crusaders / Lion Knights sets that I don't (yet) have, due to it's limited availability. But I always loved these little sets that expanded the medieval LEGO world and gave minifigs something to do beyond defending castles or catapulting them.

This really felt like the crusading part of the crusaders theme. Hot desert sun, cart full of treasure? Yup, he's been to the holy land.
I remember getting this way back in the day, but now I'm not certain if it was 1992 or 1997. I did have a couple of Fright Knights sets so it's possible I got this around the same time. Either way, it was a pleasant addition to the little castle scene I had, and now I think I'm going to try building one out of parts!

@NotProfessorWhymzi:
Well, consider the background. As a club, we’ve done somewhere between 250-300 shows over two decades. I’m probably closing in on 200 myself, at this point. This particular show is seven days straight, twelve hours per day, and half of the people doing this show have to work during the week. We can see hundreds of public come through daily, and we’re not used to thinking of them as potential thieves. For this show, I went a little Minions crazy and put out eight different scenes with a combined 29 Minions (27 actual Minions minifigs, one modified giant Kevin, and one custom Stuart-as-a-banana). I put a few scenes a little too close to the edge, in places where I didn’t have a clear view of them, and they disappeared. The odd thing is, they were inches away from a cluster of ten Minions wearing overalls, superhero SpongeBob/Patrick, Batman, Superman, Plasticman, and the real Captain Marvel, so it could have been a lot worse. I’m guessing the Kung-Fu Minions were targeted over the ones in overalls because they only come in the two most expensive Minions sets. I shifted a few scenes around so now I have a clear view of all of those minifigs now.

Anyways, two others I’d forgotten about were someone had the HP executioner (replaced, because it’s needed for a scene) and a Mr. Krabbs (not replaced) stolen previously, and we won’t know for sure if the Minions were the only victims at this show until the absent members return and can check over their stuff. I had to fix a few other IP minifigs that I noticed had been knocked down, but I don’t remember every minifig that was placed on the layout.

@dimc:
Groups like the Knights Templar got rich over time, but rarely from looting. The Teutonic Knights did basically form their own nation, which they ruled pretty harshly, but the Hospitallers were formed to run a literal hospital, and the Templars were one of a few that were formed to guard pilgrimages and drive out/defend against Muslim invaders of the Holy Land. The Templars in particular did get very wealthy, but the individual knights generally took vows of poverty and had strict rules detailing what possessions they were allowed to own. Their immense wealth came from a combination of said vows of poverty (newly initiated members had to donate their worldly possessions to the organization), their standing as a lending bank that brought in money through interest, and I’m sure other people donated to the cause as well. Their fortune grew so vast that the King of France pressured the pope to dissolve the organization and declare them heretics under false confessions obtained through torture, all so he could confiscate their holdings in France and write off his significant debts to the knighthood. I’m sure they did guard caravans of loot that were being hauled to or from Jerusalem, but they didn’t really need to do any looting themselves. If they did, it was probably directed at things reported to be holy relics, like chicken bones, more for the purpose of safeguarding them than because of any perceived monetary value.

Well that's a lot of history I was only vaguely aware of, @PurpleDave! Thank you.

This set is so meta. It should fit in itself.

@Zordboy said:
" @MCLegoboy said: "Trans-Yellow and Trans-Red 1x1 studs are NOT treasure, they're literally everywhere and should have barely any economic value."

In the mid-90s, I was really obsessed with the idea of Lego treasure chests.

Actual gold coins started to come out in the late 80s (and be far more common in the early 90s), and the Divers line in the mid-90s (where Lego themselves started to get creative with the contents of treasure chests in sets) really solidified that idea, for me. So I bought a heap of spare treasure chests, and I'd put them on trains and in buildings, and things like that?

And of course I used gold coins, but I used the transparent round 1x1 pieces, as well as wizard wands, transparent-clear (and yellow) goblets, pirate cutlasses (which you had to put, in a certain way, because they didn't fit otherwise). Then we got to the late 90s/early 00s, and Lego made the actual jewel piece, as well as the gold one ring (from the LOTR sets) and then we had pink and transparent treasure chests themselves, and I used a few of those (I filled a transparent treasure chest with every variety of jewel I could find, and hid that in my Hogwarts Castle).

And now, there's so many shiny or special parts (weapons and treasures. Even the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, I had a few of those spare, so used them in a few). It makes me happy to see how far Lego treasure has come."

Run the Jewels. => [=

Technically, I don't have this; rather, I have the polybag from the original year. Accepting that the sprues make my original ever so slightly different, in general terms I have this set enough to say that I am very fond of it. Of course, 6081 King's Mountain Fortress was the first set I bought myself and this was the only Lion supplement to it until I got the Legends 10000 Guarded Inn. But as a child, this lad was a bit lost, arguably the most forgotten or bland of my Lions--possibly because he lacked any black in his colour scheme, unlike the King's Mountain Fortress crew, who had black-and-red pants or even black helms.

I made up for this as an adult, making this soldier the everyman protagonist of my first attempt at a LEGO comic.

@T79 said: "We always used the sprues from the round 1 x 1 plates as treasure (you know when those round 1 x 1 plates came by two on a sprue?)"

Yeah, I did the same thing!

The red freight engine released in '91? It had a flatbed carriage with a pallet of barrels, and I filled the barrels with the sprues that held the 1x1 transparent round plates.

@dimc:
@PurpleDave:

It is important not to confuse the military-religious orders (the Knights Templar, Knights Hospitaller, and Teutonic Knights were the 3 largest and most famous although others existed) with crusaders (i.e., those who took a crusading vow). As the crusading vow was temporary, crusaders tended to arrive and depart in waves and some crusaders did loot quite a bit (though this was sometimes directed towards other Christians as the Fourth Crusade illustrates) as they may not have been too concerned with long-term repercussions of their actions in their theatre of action.

On the other hand, membership in the military-religious orders was generally for life, and their members took triple vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience similar to those taken by other religious orders. Ironically, their permanent status and focus on the defense of the holy land (at least before 1291) generally meant that they actually became less zealous against Muslims in terms of cultural tolerance and diplomacy (though not in battle) than popular culture often assumes as it was in their interests to maintain friendly relations with at least some of their Muslim neighbors who greatly outnumbered them.