Random set of the day: Dragon Mountain
Posted by Huwbot,Today's random set is 70403 Dragon Mountain, released during 2013. It's one of 5 Castle sets produced that year. It contains 376 pieces and 5 minifigs, and its retail price was US$49.99/£34.99.
It's owned by 5,688 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you should find it for sale at BrickLink, where new ones sell for around $155.60, or eBay.
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42 comments on this article
One of my favourite modern Castle sets.
The 2013 Castle line was MASSIVELY underrated
Dragon Mountain!
Dragon Mountain!
You burn me with hot smouldery goodness...
This is basically a worthy rehash of the Fantasy era set with the dark red dragon, 7093. Both are great in their own right. Have this one, still want the other one.
I was a Castle kid in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, collecting the entire range before going into my dark ages. My youngest son got this set at LEGO Kids Fest one year and I knew LEGO Castle was back. This was a great set!
@oukexergon said:
"This is basically a worthy rehash of the Fantasy era set with the dark red dragon, 7093. Both are great in their own right. Have this one, still want the other one."
Have the other one (and the black dragon), but somehow missed that this ever happened until a few years ago.
Bought the dragon of this set on Bricklink some time ago. Love it!
Hmm... Need to get more dragons!
21348 has given me an even greater appreciation for the molded dragon here and in the Fantasy era sets. That brick-built dragon is beautiful, but oh so fragile, particularly in the head. I only have the dark red version of that molded dragon, but it's a lot more play friendly and still looks great.
Absolutely great set. I have the castle - slightly modded - and the dragon in my display collection next to the dragon from 7093-1.
My brothers and I collected all of the 2013 Castle sets... except this one. I'll have to get it on the secondary market at one point, just for completion's sake.
Also, fun fact, I believe this is the first non-minidoll set to use a minidoll hair piece for one of the minifigures.
Hmmm...I see 'the Dragon', but...maybe Lego got the name backwards? "Mountain Dragon"? Sounds 'D&D-ish' too:)
One of my favorite castle sets. I miss these classic dragons.
I do see a dungeon and a dragon all right.
Shame there's no baseplate. It's just asking for one with a printed river under the bridge.
Very meh build.
Buyable Dungeons & Dragons set. It only misses the tavern.
Brickdor was a man
I mean, he was a dragon-man
Or maybe he was just a dragon
It's a pretty good theme. I wasn't too concerned with the Castle-theme at the time (since it wasn't Monster Fighters), but the builds and pieces and joyful designs made the theme age pretty well. We've got some crazy overdesigned sets around right now that dwarf this particular set in terms of parts-count, build-techniques and price-tags, but I wouldn't say it looks bad. Man, it looks fun.
Building wise the 2013 Castle line had some really good impacts (probably inspired by the LotR sets from the earlier year).
However, like the Pirates line from 2014 (or was it 2015?) it kinda felt a bit uninspired if you followed Lego Castle on a long term. A lot of the set concepts seemed to be more or less copied over from the 2007 line, though stripped from much of it's modern fantasy influences and put on a somewhat lighter tone.
All in all this would not have been bad at all, had the (sub-) theme seen a second wave that added something to make it more distinct, however we never saw that. Unfortunately it was at the time where a lot of larger buildings suffered from being just a wall with little play space available; "Dragon Mountain" where the dragon is bigger than the mountain is a bit meh to me.
Dark Dragon's Den from 1993, although admittedly a very different scale ratio for the dragon and barely more than a bunch of LURPs and BURPs felt a lot more wholesome in it's entire look. The 2007 Evil Wizard Tower on the other hand felt way more menacing and impressive (despite it's overly cartoony He-Man aesthetic). To me, this set looks more like the ruined remains of an old castle (a nicely designed one though, if you would skip the bright red stuff).
Had they expanded the 'evil' faction more, I think this theme would have fared better; however I also guess they were too afraid putting that much emphasis on a medieval/fantasy line while they hold the Hobbit/LotR license.
@oukexergon said:
"This is basically a worthy rehash of the Fantasy era set with the dark red dragon, 7093. Both are great in their own right. Have this one, still want the other one."
I have the 7093 and it's my favourite set ever, ever since it appeared in that Clutch Powers movie i have always wanted it and when i got it I wasn't dissapointed. I hope you're able to get it one day.
@Atuin said:
"Building wise the 2013 Castle line had some really good impacts (probably inspired by the LotR sets from the earlier year).
However, like the Pirates line from 2014 (or was it 2015?) it kinda felt a bit uninspired if you followed Lego Castle on a long term. A lot of the set concepts seemed to be more or less copied over from the 2007 line, though stripped from much of it's modern fantasy influences and put on a somewhat lighter tone.
All in all this would not have been bad at all, had the (sub-) theme seen a second wave that added something to make it more distinct, however we never saw that. Unfortunately it was at the time where a lot of larger buildings suffered from being just a wall with little play space available; "Dragon Mountain" where the dragon is bigger than the mountain is a bit meh to me.
Dark Dragon's Den from 1993, although admittedly a very different scale ratio for the dragon and barely more than a bunch of LURPs and BURPs felt a lot more wholesome in it's entire look. The 2007 Evil Wizard Tower on the other hand felt way more menacing and impressive (despite it's overly cartoony He-Man aesthetic). To me, this set looks more like the ruined remains of an old castle (a nicely designed one though, if you would skip the bright red stuff).
Had they expanded the 'evil' faction more, I think this theme would have fared better; however I also guess they were too afraid putting that much emphasis on a medieval/fantasy line while they hold the Hobbit/LotR license."
I agree for both Castle 2013 and Pirates 2015. I wont repeat your points but yep all true.
It's the main reason I think these themes 'failed', I believe kids still like medieval fantasy and pirates stuff, its just lego really couldnt give a damn and put zero effort into the sets. So they became less popular.
If the support given to themes like ninjago and dreamzz was given to a castle or pirates theme it would be great.
For 2013 castle I didnt buy any sets even though I preferred the blue. I already had a number of Kingdoms sets and they were so similar. But the other main reason was it was weird having blue lion knights and red lion knights. I couldnt justify that.
I dont understand why lego couldnt have come up with literally any other symbol for a faction.
Man I really hope the popularity of the D&D CMF will convince LEGO to do a Castle(-like) theme again. Even D&D itself would be a perfect theme as it's in a fantasy medieval setting.
One of the last sets containing real gold. I miss it.
Today‘s pearl gold or drum lacquered gold just isn’t the same.
@greenhorn said:
"One of the last sets containing real gold. I miss it.
Today‘s pearl gold or drum lacquered gold just isn’t the same."
It is brittle a.f. Got a bulk with numerous Ninjago sets and the 'proper gold' pieces are falling apart.
The Lion Knight minifigs from the 2013 Caste sets were absolutely awesome, even if some of the sets they were in were a bit lackluster. This was definitely one of the better entries and happy it's getting some praise.
@Ridgeheart said:
"Brickdor was a man
I mean, he was a dragon-man
Or maybe he was just a dragon
It's a pretty good theme. I wasn't too concerned with the Castle-theme at the time (since it wasn't Monster Fighters), but the builds and pieces and joyful designs made the theme age pretty well. We've got some crazy overdesigned sets around right now that dwarf this particular set in terms of parts-count, build-techniques and price-tags, but I wouldn't say it looks bad. Man, it looks fun."
It doesn't look bad. But maybe strong bad in a good way.
The swang song of the castle series...
As I miss many sets from the previous Fantasy Era series (it was released during my dark ages), I bought this one in its entirety (except for the battle packs).
Maybe not the best castle series, but quite solid and well made. I like it, expecially the castle 40704 that reminds me old castles from '80s.
I remember I was a bit disappointed from this set in particular, because it appeared very poor compared to the corrispettive 7093 from Fantasy Era.
I mean it’s not a bad set, certainly got a lot of character, but it’s quite a hollow build when you actually have it even if that hollowness is at least a little by design because a solid jail cell isn’t going to hold anyone. Definitely works better as some abandoned ruin than a proper bad guy fort, and was absolutely just an excuse to give us that dragon
@jkb said:
" @greenhorn said:
"One of the last sets containing real gold. I miss it.
Today‘s pearl gold or drum lacquered gold just isn’t the same."
It is brittle a.f. Got a bulk with numerous Ninjago sets and the 'proper gold' pieces are falling apart."
Wait... Which gold pieces are the brittle ones? O_o
Do I have to fear that my Dragonborn Knight will "not feel so good" in a few years?
@RaiderOfTheLostBrick said:
"Also, fun fact, I believe this is the first non-minidoll set to use a minidoll hair piece for one of the minifigures."
I could swear there was a hard plastic minifig-style hair introduced with a male minidoll, but I’m not seeing one in the first two years of Friends. Even if I’m right and it came later, this set being concurrent with Year 2 of Friends leaves a very short window to beat that claim.
@brick_r:
Molehill Dragon.
@Brickchap:
I think having a full spread of licensed themes really makes it hard for generic in-house themes to stand out. Ninjago is a rare case where an in-house genre theme managed to last so long, but it also has a quality TV series backing it up. In a way, it seems more like a typical licensed theme than an in-house one. It certainly benefits from the “free” marketing from the TV series like a lot of licensed themes.
As for the Lion emblems, I believe that was fairly common when splitting off cadet families. It would show that you’re related, but treated as a separate house.
@Crasha said:
" @jkb said:
" @greenhorn said:
"One of the last sets containing real gold. I miss it.
Today‘s pearl gold or drum lacquered gold just isn’t the same."
It is brittle a.f. Got a bulk with numerous Ninjago sets and the 'proper gold' pieces are falling apart."
Wait... Which gold pieces are the brittle ones? O_o
Do I have to fear that my Dragonborn Knight will "not feel so good" in a few years?"
That one should be safe. Wouldn't expose it to fluctuating temperatures, though.
Good line, but I only got one of this and didn't open it yet... not as exciting for me as 7093 (similar pieces, prices, figs/dragon, bad guy castle, etc)
I remember when this came out. I believe that this was the only 'fantasy' set in the 2013 line. It underwhelmed me when it came out, as the actual build looks very tiny compared to the dragon and even the minifigs. Even to itself, as the actual tower is just one room and the rest is all 'mountain'.
Personally I think that huge catapult shouldn't have eaten so much budget. It makes the 'mountain' look even smaller. But what do I know?
But man, what I wouldn't do for sets like this right now. I guess we have Dreamzzz at least...
When I saw this, I thought at first that it was a Ninjago set, and that we had another day where the RMotD and RSotD were from the same theme. but then I saw the dragon and the words "one of 5 Castle sets" and realized my mistake.
@Ridgeheart said:
"Brickdor was a man
I mean, he was a dragon-man
Or maybe he was just a dragon"
But he was still BRICKDOR!
Burninating the countryside
Burninating the peasants
Burninating all the peoples
Who lived in brick-built cottages
Brick-built cottages!
The beginning of the end. I remember passing up on most of Castle 2013 as I thought it was a big step down from... well, any Castle theme of the 2000s and Kingdoms. So I just waited for its hopefully much better successor.
That day still hasn't come.
@PurpleDave: No, that would its hatchling form...or after 'the party' got through with it...:D
Also just realized: Is it me or...does the Princess look waaaay too happy about 'the situation' at hand...:)
I know they are a dragon emblem, but the longer snout looks like an emaciated wolf to me *shrug*
The set I’ve seen before but so little that it’s almost like I dreamt it up
Where are they dragon the mountain to?
I can't be the only one who sees the scene where Shrek initially meets Fiona, right?
@lordofdragonss said:
"Very meh build."
Compared to 7093 yeah