Random set of the day: Night Lord's Castle
Posted by Huwbot,Today's random set is 6097 Night Lord's Castle, released during 1997. It's one of 13 Castle sets produced that year. It contains 601 pieces and 8 minifigs, and its retail price was US$80.
It's owned by 2,056 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.
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44 comments on this article
I know it's an unpopular opinion, but *this* is the theme I was hoping the 90th Castle would've been based on. Yes I'm an edge lord, but it's October now so I'm allowed to be.
Fright Knights in Spooktober? I'll allow it.
Ah, my first discount set discovery. KB Toys in the USA had loads for $40 each around early 1999. Could not get enough and the beautiful covered window box.
One of the ones I stared at for hours in magazines. I’m not sure why, but the weirdness just clicked for me. Love it.
For a Lord of the Night, you would think he'd ask his wizard to cloak his castle more in shadow.
The sky seems to be on fire, which is definitely not the right spell.
I was never that big on Fright Knights, but I would like to have that black dragon, even if Lego has done more impressive dragons since, some of which I own.
Ooooh how sp-sp-spoooky I believe I may be fr-friiightened!
When I bought this new, it was missing one bag and had a duplicate of another. I could replace almost all of the missing parts from my collection, and the extras were better IMO than the missing ones so I kept it. Later I found it on clearance for 30 or 40% off, so I bought another so I'd have a complete one.
Holy crap, the Lion King evolved into a human on a horse!
Oh, I loved that Black Dragon. That was the coolest thing. And you could get the black dragon in a smaller set (unlike the Green Dragon, that was only really available in big, expensive castle sets).
Anyway, wasn't this guy the Bat Lord? I don't remember anyone calling him the Night Lord before.
This thing always reminded me more of a cathedral than a castle. I like the modularity and the tall tower but dislike the giant gaps in the walls and the lack of a proper gatehouse for the portcullis. Also that knight/mounted soldier on the left could use a little more something
@Zordboy:
6056, 6037.
Got this set cheapish a while back. Glad I didn’t pay the aftermarket price!
Pros were the way the castle was built in 3 sections that were stackable or could be set beside each other, the figures and animals were good (barding!), it has cloth pieces like a cape and flag and it is a overall a good size. The tower dungeon play feature is also unique.
The one con for me is that it has larger pieces than I would like (though partly necessary because of the modular design); coming from classical castle sets of the 80s and early 90s, this was in my opinion beginning to devolve into juniorisation.
My friend had this castle back in second grade. It was the biggest set I’d ever seen and remained the biggest set I’d ever seen for many years
More of a "Sunset" Lord...or "Sunrise", depending on time-of-day...
I actually have it built right now. I probably got this at Argos. The large black pillars inspired me to want to build Goodrich castle. The great hall has a large pillar, albeit, red sandstone. I never built that castle as Jim Carney did a great job already.
Never had this set back in the day. It has some design issues, but I like the idea of it; tall and intimidating looking fortress for the scary castle faction.
Would love to see them revisit Fright Knights at some point. Lot of room for creativity and imaginative sets. Beyond the medieval setting, it felt like pretty much anything goes.
Curious what the height is on this set, it looks pretty impressive.
Had a chance to buy one of these new on a shelf way back when for about 50-60 USD, never bought it, thought it was a bit cheesy.. Now seeing what it goes for on eBay.. Ugh...
I know some people think these sets are cheesy, but I feel like they were well done. Sure, they don’t have the coolest piece types, but I feel like the structures were done pretty well back then. Hope they bring back designs close to that type.
I have a lot of Fright Knights minifigs from smaller sets. I had great plans of a sci-fi mashup with Blacktron. Never happened...probably won't at this point, unless I put something together digitally.
I don't remember this set at all - it's a cool, weird castle, and that tower is surprisingly tall.
@SolidState said:
"Curious what the height is on this set, it looks pretty impressive."
a bit over 45 cm I think. 1 or 2 cm more than vampyre castle
One of the worst castles, but the PIECES are amazing. I bet nowadays I could build a way better castle than this using just those pieces.
Wonder why that lone Lion Knight is hanging out with the Fright Knights. The box art seems to indicate he’s just helping guard the castle.
Seems more like a tower than a castle
Pretty sure this was the biggest set I ever got as a kid. I always wanted a castle for the playability and this is the one I could finally afford. It is weird, and not the best representation of a castle per se, but Bat Lord and the Witch were both GREAT antagonists for my LEGO heroes!
I miss skeletons with flappy arms, they were so funny.
Fright Knights! Yeah back to 1997!
I was really kind of hyped for this theme in early 1997 and got all the smaller sets, but due to other themes (mostly UFO) taking up my interest at the time I forgot a bit about this (it was also that summer that I first saw 6090, it's direct precursor first hand...)
However since I built an incomplete version of this at my cousins, I desperately wanted this set. I took me like 5 years to hunt down a sealed copy at hidden-away toy shop in a ridiculously small town, but it was worth the wait. This is still amongst my favourite owned sets today and carefully kept with box, inner trays and everything.
Fright Knights got a lot of criticism as being juniorised and 'unrealistic', but to be honest, most of this set's problems are present in 6090 as well (I won't even talk about 6091/6098, that WAS juniorized! Although I still kinda like it...) The thing with Basil's home was probably just that it really heavily missed the average Castle AFOL's taste - the fantasy elements could not be overseen and on top of it, it was clearly spooky with a taste of 'evil'.
Unfortunately there is a little design flaw I just can't ignore nowadays: they somehow thought it a good idea to leave out two pairs of tiny gates in one of the floor sections, leaving to gaping holes in the main wall... Anyone an idea that is explaining this without mentioning simply cost-cutting?
I'm also not very keen on the vibrant green floor - it kind of ruins a bit the 'spooky-ness'. But on the other hand all 1984-1997 had green floors, so I guess it's good they sticked with one color? At first glance I was also somewhat sceptical about the thick Free Style baseplates, but since it makes the castle so much sturdier for transport, I can overlook that as well.
On to the positive things:
That thing is absolutely huge! When I first built it, I had to be careful keeping it far enough from the lamps hanging over the table it stood on... Also you could rearrange the parts in a more 'castle wall' style configuration, were the large tower sits in between the two bottom halves. According to the Time Cruisers comic, this is the 'original' configuration of the castle, whereas the tower version was created by Willa to send a signal to lure the 'Star People' (Alpha Dragonis' UFO fleet) to Earth.
The tower itself (which is built first) has multiple levels: On the first floor there's one of the revolving doors that were new for Fright Knights, with a magic scroll (same as Majisto's from 1993) on one side and a skeleton on the other. The next floor has a neat little mechanism, that when triggered makes a skull 'appear' in the witch's crystal ball. Above that sits the prison, made from the 1996 1x4x2 bar pieces and a chain (also new that year) to secure the door. A captured Royal Knight is waiting there to be hexed by Willa (or worse...). Above the prison is a tiny treasure room with a 'jewel' (1x1 round plates) filled chest. The interesting thing is, the front is made up of a part that is unique to this set and a Dacta set (DesignID 30100). The top of the tower features a telescope for Willa to observe the stars (or lure Zotaxian aliens to Earth...)
The back lower half features Basil's throne room at ground level (complete with a rather rare black goblet) as well as the second revolving door with a built in chimney. The top of this section is designed to fit the tower section, so there is not much else going on, except 2 of the smaller bat shields on the outside (there is a total of 4 in the set). The front lower half features the stables (for the 2 included horses) made up of a brown D-Basket placed on a hanger for each horse. It also has the gate house, although there is only a portcullis (moved by another chain) and no drawbridge. Above the gate there is a little balcony for guards to stand watch (although the instructions put Basil up there). It is finished up with those nice red curved pieces and the exclusive Fright Knights cloth flag (same shape and size as in 6090 and 6082). The last features being a small trapdoor and the witch's cauld
The last features being a small trapdoor and the witch's cauldron (that can be lowered to pour out stuff on invaders) on the large floor on top.
Minifigure wise it didn't not come with anything too special, but it is the only set to include all 5 Fright Knights characters and the uncommon horse barding. If you want just one Fright Knights set, this one is surely the best pick.
On to the other facts:
Did you notice that all mainline Fright Knights sets have a set number ending in the 'magical' number seven?
Lego seemingly was very undecisive considering Basil's 'true' identity. It was never directly stated that he is a vampire, despite the obvious iconography nor was any reference made to the fictional or historical Dracula, that he is obviously based upon. However Lego Racers showed him with fangs and blood red eyes when he was smiling.
The black dragon is called 'Draco' in the US and 'Slimowitch' in Germany.
The witch has a different name in almost every country it seems: Willa the Witch (US), Hylia (Denmark), Hubble Bubble (UK), Buta/Izralda (Germany).
The 'head knight' of the Fright Knights, the black dressed guy with the bushy moustache/goatee might probably be just a Time Twister in disguise...
@PurpleDave said:
" @Zordboy:
6056, 6037."
Neither of those is what kid-me considered "small", plus, you don't even get the red wings in the latter.
Got its flaws, but got a real soft spot for this one; I think mostly due to that gigantic tower making it stand out from the more big standard turrets most other castles have
Basil the Bat Lord
When I saw this set being the RSOTD I was worried the comment section would be full of people mindlessly bashing this set and the Fright Knights theme. I am pleasantly surprised that is not the case, and a lot of people seem to hold a soft spot over it!
This set is my only large classic castle set. When I was little every year we would visit a neighbour's house for his birthday. They let other kids build with their lego, and amongst the parts were sets like 6076, 6766, 6761 and 6571. I often tried to build this set and one time set 6076 in the evening that I was there. I never fully succeeded. In 6076's case most of the parts were common in there, but not the convex roof tiles. And in this set's case it was because it was just so large. Sometimes I only got around to the tower (it's the first thing you build), one other time I got all the way to the front gate.
Years later, in 2014, I bought the set online, soon followed by 6076. I'm still very happy to own it. Every time I build it it feels very satisfying to complete it. And IMHO the ability to rearrange the three sections is a lot of fun. The addition of two revolving doors, a trapdoor, a dropping cauldron of bricks, the pop-up skull in a crystal ball, jail cell, places to put horses near the gate complete with baskets, the raising gate and throne room all make for a fun model.
It's just a very complete model.
@SolidState, The height IS pretty impressive. It's one of the tallest models I own, the others being 7905 Building Crane, 10202 Ultimate Dume, 10204 Vezon and Kardas and 9468 Vampyre Castle (due to the tall spires). Out of those, only the Building Crane is even taller than 6097, although I don't have 6097 built right now to compare it.
This was the largest set my parents gifted to me as a child. Up until that point I had only received small castle sets nothing over the $20 range so getting it was a big deal. I have always been fond of it and the faction as a whole and it is still proudly displayed in my Lego room today.
I had the little Basil and then the Traitor Transport. Loved the black dragons, I never had any green (and have somehow only managed to acquire one in recent years). They terrorised all of my other castle sets way back when!
As @LordDunsany mentioned, this felt more like a cathedral and I liked the arches and parts that felt like they were in disrepair. Perhaps Willa is using magic to make it appear like this to non-magic humans (including the builder) and in reality it isn't full of gaping holes?
@Vladtheb:
He’s probably muttering something similar to the Planet of the Apes line from the end of Spaceballs.
@ecleme11:
The definition of “castle” has varied quite a bit over the centuries. At one point it probably meant something along the lines of a fortified palace, but gunpowder kinda threw a wrench in that mentality, and now it’s kinda synonymous with “mansion”. The “Tower of Joy” from GoT was represented by the Castillo de Zafra (Castle of Zafra) in Guadalajara, Spain, which is dominated by a large tower on one side, so there’s clearly some common ground between the two.
@Zordboy:
6056 is one of the sets I had to smuggle into the house because I was deemed “too old” for toys at that point. If it fit under my shirt without drawing my parents’ attention, it counted as “small” in my book. And that’s not actually a dragon in 6037. It’s a balloon that’s shaped like a dragon.
The tower seems to merge into the background, given it a precarious atmosphere as if it was built by a child who just wanted height but didn't have enough pieces. From e-bay the main castle looks rather narrow and empty inside which does not justify the crazy secondary market prices. Mainly, as apart from the dragon, just a mix of standard arches, pillars and classic castle walls and bricks, which the previous child could throw together.
@ambr said:
"...the main castle looks rather...empty inside..."
The same could be said for most LEGO castles - they are mainly just walls and towers enclosing empty space. I think that this set actually has as much or more going on inside than most previous castle sets, especially if you factor in all of the different floors of the multi-leveled tower!
Always loved this theme even though I don't have any of the sets.
When I was a kid I saw the movie Beastmaster. In it, there was this race of bat men (no relation to Bruce). I always imagined the knight with the bat helmet was affiliated with them.
Among the weakest entries in the castle series "large" sets, from the era when LEGO seemed to lose their way a bit. But still, a castle is a castle is a tower is a castle. I loved them all, even the ugly ones.
Such a step down from all the castles that came before it. The biggest draw was the black dragon, but fortunately you could get that separately for $4 in 6007.
I didn't know it in the 90s, I was into Royal Knights until I grow up...
As an adult and into LEGO again, I bought this castle about 10 years ago to put all the villains and it's a nice castle having 7 levels. As a child, I'd say it's a great castle with 7 levels !
This set has a lot of design holes--some literal holes too--but sign me up for Team Night Lord's Castle. Of the major"classic" LEGO Castles I don't own (this, 6080 , 6085 , 6082 , 6098 ), this is far and away the one I most covet.
EDIT: Oh, and I forgot to say: the 90s LEGO set closest to having true Lord of the Rings architecture.
I was always a fan of the Fright Knights as a faction, even if their builds weren't a Black Knight's Castle or anything.
And I do have this set. While nowadays the colour scheme doesn't appeal to me that much, I still really like the build of the tower roof with those inverted arches which, to my memory, first came out in this Castle. They have the witch-y look to the tower that it needed.
I would absolutely buy a modernised version of this set nowadays.