Random set of the day: King Leo's Castle
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6098 King Leo's Castle, released in 2000. It's one of 22 Castle sets produced that year. It contains 529 pieces and 8 minifigs, and its retail price was US$90.
It's owned by 1093 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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22 comments on this article
I LOVE Lego Castles. That is literally the only thing I build, so seeing this makes me so happy! A castle I built actually won a contest a couple months ago. Thanks for all these Random Sets Of The Day, or RSOTD
I miss those raised baseplates. They may have just been one piece and rather uncreative but they gave the sets a certain charm and allowed you to build something quickly that was still rather substantial.
I'm sorry, but the Castle theme deserved to die after this poor showing. The juniorization trend of the late 90s finally made its way to this once mighty theme in 2000 with Knights' Kingdom. One only has to look back at the 1995 Royal Knights subtheme to see how simplistic this new kingdom was. While heavy on action features (primarily in the siege weaponry of the Bull Knights, or whatever they were called), the sets were lackluster. Towers and structures were just facades. All wheels became that clunky round 4x4x1 circle brick instead of that elegant wooden spoked wheel. The armor design was funky, too, for the royal knights and there was just a haphazard, slapdash approach to decorations and aesthetic touches. Even innovations like the lion's-head brick couldn't pull this theme from the truth of what it really was: the dumping of the Castle theme into oblivion. King Leo is dead. But he leaves no great legacy to the land.
Pirates, space (favourites: ufo, exploriens), castle (favourite: freight knights). The 3 most important lego themes, and all 3 missing from the current palette.
It would be great, if lego would release some classic sets, like the black monarch labelled subtheme castle.
I own this set,it is awesome!One of the best castle sets ever!
Yeah, around the turn of the century, castles started to look pretty dodgy. I think the next best castle after this one was the final and fourth release of Hogwarts.
Nice pieces, however, I was not a fan of this product line and the lines around year 2000 either.
I actualy have this set but it is only (very)good for (some)parts for AFOL. Children might liked it for playability back then.
A castle I've set my eyes upon many times as a kid, wanting it so bad. Looking at it now, I can't overlook the flaws. For instance: It's treated like a courtyard castle, because it has a drawbridge (that doesn't even lift up) leading to the entrance. That should have been a stairs leading to a big wooden door. Then there is the sides and the back.. and the unused ground floor. Great set to modify, though! That's what I'm doing right now. Can't wait to share the result one day.
I like the throwbacks we receive with these "random set of the day" articles! Makes up for some interesting discussions and thoughts :)
This one is, in particular, "interesting" for its time. Its inevitable to avoid Legos own dark age when going through their catalogue of rather well thought out themes and play. The Castle theme is a classic, and one which has been around since long before i was born. I am a child of the 90'ies and i was brought up on the medieval series. I remember my fascination of the sets. They were detailed, had great accessories, and they offered a lot of alternative building
This line of the theme did not offer those things. They were blocky, had less interesting parts, and they were juniorized to a point where even 7 year-old kids felt bored playing with it. Its like lego went full out "duplo" at this point. Taking it further, the colors looked dull, and the blue roofs had such a strange appearance. Its like everything was diluted. It offered absolutely zero challenge at any point.
This is indeed the flagship set of the lego crisis, in my opinion. And how glad i am, that they overcame this hurdle!
Not a huge fan of the set but I always liked Knights' Kingdom's Minifigures.
They had a book about this set in my elementary school library. I did a project on it. Ahh, those were the days...
Such a neat set! I never got any actual castles due to budget, but I wish I did. Someday...
Iv got this set it’s great!!
Iv got this set it’s great!!
My favorite castle was ( edit: and still is!) 6081-1 King’s Mountain Fortress. It wasn’t a great big one, but with the prison cell, princess, ghost, and hidden treasure storeroom, it had a lot of play in its compact space.
My brother’s was 6074-1 Black Falcon’s Fortress.
King Leo’s Castle doesn’t compare to either of those.
This set may be pretty juniorised and have many design flaws, but I still love it. It's a great playset and I remember all the hours I played with it in my childhood. The minifigs look awesome and the set still has some great pieces. It's also really easy to modify.
I don't get why this set is so hated.
As a young adult who still bought some Lego despite a dark age (looking back, it is possible the offering induced it, as I never really stop playing with the bricks, but I remember being way less excited with buying them), I remember finding some of the theme's minifigs nice and useful - and sets like 4811 made them relatively easy to buy in larger amounts - but the sets were usually quite awful. They didn't stand the comparison with earlier sets from the decade and, of course, the 80's castle lineup. Lego indeed came a long way since then. Now if we could just get the Castle line back!
Gotta love that box art and raised baseplates.
This was one of my older brother’s first sets. He has since passed on all his Lego to me and my younger brother (we had quite the quarrel as to who would get what) but most of the parts are still there. Sadly, I don’t know whatever happened to that wonderful baseplate, so I haven’t been able to reconstruct it again.
A very nostalgic set indeed!
I wonder why Cedric the Bull wanted to capture this juniorized mess so badly.
^ Maybe Cedric's juniorised mess was even worse?