Random set of the day: Fright Force
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6031 Fright Force, released during 1998. It's one of 20 Castle sets produced that year. It contains 30 pieces and 4 minifigs, and its retail price was US$6.
It's owned by 977 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 $144.00, or eBay.
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28 comments on this article
I actually got a couple of extra Batlord CMF's to give the updated Basil a little army. Still need to get some heads and new helms to finish them though.
Lots of love for Fright Knights. The builds weren't the best - this is when LEGO was getting very juniorized and frankly somewhat messy - but the CONCEPT is soooooo cool.
Fright Knights remains one of the coolest Castle themes. What they maybe lacked in complexity they more than made up for in aesthetic and concept. And their castle (fortified tower really) is one of my favorite castle designs period.
If these were 6$ nowadays I would buy about a million.
I was turned off by the sets from this theme at the time but I do love these battlepacks to an unhealthy degree. :o)
I'm pretty sure this is one Castle minifig pack that I never got. I know I owned at least one Basil, but never the witch.
Nice pack of minifigures, and a horse, too.
@WemWem said:
"Lots of love for Fright Knights. The builds weren't the best - this is when LEGO was getting very juniorized and frankly somewhat messy - but the CONCEPT is soooooo cool."
Plus, "Fright Knights" had the classic Lego dragon in black, in a small set, so it was easy for a kid to save up and buy one.
I loved this line for that alone.
@Zordboy said:
" @WemWem said:
"Lots of love for Fright Knights. The builds weren't the best - this is when LEGO was getting very juniorized and frankly somewhat messy - but the CONCEPT is soooooo cool."
Plus, "Fright Knights" had the classic Lego dragon in black, in a small set, so it was easy for a kid to save up and buy one.
I loved this line for that alone."
If they released this set today, I wonder how many they'd sell. Quite a few, I imagine.
A theme that deserves a comeback.
@Zordboy said:
" @WemWem said:
"Lots of love for Fright Knights. The builds weren't the best - this is when LEGO was getting very juniorized and frankly somewhat messy - but the CONCEPT is soooooo cool."
Plus, "Fright Knights" had the classic Lego dragon in black, in a small set, so it was easy for a kid to save up and buy one.
I loved this line for that alone."
Nothing's stopping Lego from selling small sets like this again, apart from artificial scarcity.
Oh no, the Halloween-themed knights are coming to steal Christmas!
On Christmas Eve?! 2spooky4me
Fright Knights rule! Bring em back!
One of two sets I miss from this line (I even have the obscure Shell and promotional sets).
Actually it's one I don't mind missing that much.
If you don't have any other Fright Knights sets, it might be worth it still. You get almost all the minifigs of the line (only missing the dark grey guard) and at least both shields.
Having both Basil and Willa included, but only 2 regular knights (of which one is a higher ranking guy it seems) makes this a bit of a poor army builder I guess...
Like the tiny sets, almost all figures are missing some important accesories (capes, plumes). The horse neither having the mask nor the caparison is likely carried over from this set's precursor 6105, but at least that one had the capes and plumes. Also Basil missing his iconic bat staff thingy (axe? mace? wand? scepter?) feels a bit cheaped out. But hey - it's the only Fright Knights set to come with a minifig head for a crystal ball!
Willa is an odd case of a minifig having a different name in many countries:
US - Willa the Witch
Denmark - Heksen Hylia
UK - Hubble Bubble
Germany - Izralda/Buta/Hylia?
Basil was at least somewhat more consistent, usually being an attempted translation of the Danish "Grev Flagermus" meaning "Count Bat".
I also like the German name of the faction itself: "Bitterböse Buben" having a rather bizarre overuse of alliteration. It roughly translates to "bitterly evil boys".
The odd thing about this set is that it came out a year after the initial wave (also it's the same box size as fellow Fright Knights set 6027) - especially when you consider that the traditional Castle line saw it's end in 1998. This kind of makes it the last "Castle I" set ever. If you don't get the connection between individual Castle lines, look at some sets and how the factions were interwoven starting in 1984 and ending in 1998:
-6021 and 6102: Lion Knights and Black Falcons
-6103: Forestmen, Lion Knights, Black Falcons and Peasants
-6060: Lion Knights and Black Knights
-6057 and 6059: Black Knights and Black Falcons
-6086: Black Knights and Wolf Pack
-6105: Dragon Masters and Wolf Pack
-6078: Royal Knights and Dragon Masters
-6079: Dark Forest and Dragon Masters
-6046: Dark Forest and Royal Knights
-6047 and 6097: Fright Knights and Royal Knights
-6087: Fright Knights and Dark Forest
Neither Classic Castle (1978-1983) nor the later Castle lines (1998-2014) had such a strong interconnection inside the sets themselves (having the exact same minifigs and heraldry).
This was by far the best offering from a tremendously disappointing wave of Castle sets. The buildings were unsightly and heavily juniorized (before that was even a term) and the color scheme was so incredibly drab and unappealing. The shield and torso designs were the saving grace from the Fright Knights sub theme, and I'll admit the black dragon was quite cool, but otherwise I disliked everything about it.
This was the theme that, fittingly in retrospect, set off my 'dark ages', and I wouldn't fully return to LEGO until two decades later. When I got back into LEGO, however, I did collect Castle sets I missed out on in the preceding years, including some Fright Knight sets. To this day, I still think those are some of the worst looking builds that were produced in the entirety of the LEGO Castle series, and even my nostalgia goggles can't persuade me otherwise. The minifigs are alright, though, and I'll acknowledge they rank way above those from the Castle wave released in 2000. Also, the recent Fright Knight CMF was an absolutely awesome remake!
@MCLegoboy said:
"On Christmas Eve?! 2spooky4me"
Well, it's just a day off: DEC 25 = OCT 31
Ooh A neat little minifigure pack!
I loved the Fright Knights as a kid!
Just added the back of the box to the database. Maybe I'll find the front in high resolution too, as I'm not a fan of the US boxes with their warning labels and part counts.
I have these figs but with capes as I'm fortunate to own the Night Lord's Castle. This one is a decent battlepack. Even though Basil and Willa are not massable, it must be great to get them at this price point. And Basil can always be used as generic knights because of the mask helmet. That said, these are all found in tiny box sets too if those had been around for you.
The accessories and horse make this set though. The crystal ball isn't very common, and those weapons and shields... good stuff.
The most interesting thing though is the yearr of release. Apparently this came out after the rest of the theme beside a cuple of polybags/tiny boxes.
@Atuin said:
" @MCLegoboy said:
"On Christmas Eve?! 2spooky4me"
Well, it's just a day off: DEC 25 = OCT 31"
Finally someone else who gets the joke!
@Zordboy said:
"Plus, "Fright Knights" had the classic Lego dragon in black, in a small set, so it was easy for a kid to save up and buy one. "
I never had a whole lot of interest in Fright Knights (although I will definitely admit that 71045-3 is a cool figure, and I'm happy to have it), but 6007 is on my wanted list (the only Fright Knights set there, actually) for that dragon alone. Thinking about it, I may just Bricklink the dragon and sit 71045-3 on it. Incidentally, the tab on 6007's inventory page is one hundred percent complete, which rather surprised me, considering the set's age.
Brickalili said:"Oh no, the Halloween-themed knights are coming to steal Christmas!"
They're going to start singing Making Christmas any moment now...
"Fright Force" is a fantastic name.
@TheOtherMike said:
"
Incidentally, the tab on 6007 's inventory page is one hundred percent complete, which rather surprised me, considering the set's age.
"
Lego did surprisingly update the old 90s torsos like half a year ago alongside a few other items, so it's not so long ago that it wasn't.
@TheOtherMike said:
" @Brickalili said:"Oh no, the Halloween-themed knights are coming to steal Christmas!"
They're going to start singing Making Christmas any moment now..."
All together, bats and witch,
With all our bricks we’re making Christmas time!
Back when "battle packs" gave you basically every character you need for dirt cheap.
Artificial scarcity and overpricing are the biggest problems with Lego, though unfortunately all profit-driven businesses will inherently always trend towards giving consumers the worst value they can get away with.
This was my first set with Willa (I would later get the Windship) and given how prominent she's been as a villain in my lore, I suppose this was something of a cornerstone set for me.
That's not Basil, though--given that I had the superior one with the dragon, this was his much-maligned deputy, Barty.
@Nikolaevna said:
" @Zordboy said:
" @WemWem said:
"Lots of love for Fright Knights. The builds weren't the best - this is when LEGO was getting very juniorized and frankly somewhat messy - but the CONCEPT is soooooo cool."
Plus, "Fright Knights" had the classic Lego dragon in black, in a small set, so it was easy for a kid to save up and buy one.
I loved this line for that alone."
Nothing's stopping Lego from selling small sets like this again, apart from artificial scarcity."
LEGO still sell small sets like this. A couple of days ago, I bought 71805 for a family friend kid. £9 RRP, actual price paid just over £6. 4 minifigures, 78 pieces.