Featured set of the day: Camouflaged Outpost
Posted by Huw,
ForestUnicorn has chosen a set from the highly regarded Forestmen Castle subtheme for us today:
I was thrilled beyond belief when 6066 Camouflaged Outpost came up as Huwbot's random set of the day a few months ago, because this was a formative Lego set for me as a kid.
I didn't actually have that much Lego growing up - I think, in hindsight, my parents didn't see it as good value for money, but the few sets I had -- a few Classic Space, this set and 6074 Black Falcon's Fortress -- were played with endlessly!
Camouflaged Outpost was the clear winner, however. I was obsessed with Robin Hood stories and the Errol Flynn film when I was given this set for my 8th or 9th birthday. I couldn't believe such a set existed - it was amazing! The playability was outstanding and I built, or attempted to build, all the alternative images that were supplied on the instruction leaflet (I really wish Lego still did this sort of thing today).
(pictures from Steve's LEGO Blog)
Like so many AFOLs, I lost track of Lego in the high school and college years (took a back seat to sports, boys and parties... ;), but I've rediscovered it with a vengeance now that I have kids who are old enough to be keen.
Lego Elves (sadly missed in my house) has been a decent substitute for Classic Castle, though the best present I received for my most recent birthday was my husband's gift of a boxed set of 375 Castle -- a treat my younger self would've loved, and my current self totally did!
Sadly, this set was given away many years ago, but there's always BrickLink and Ebay...
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36 comments on this article
Forestmen sets are absolutely fantastic, but unfortunately they’re also very expensive... I’ve always been partial to Forestmen’s Crossing in particular, but each set from the line is excellent.
I don't know about what anyone else is seeing, but that outpost isn't that camouflaged....
Never had much 80s Castles sets myself, but this is a great one.
Especially love the alternate build suggestions, this set has just 211 pieces but really diverse builds.
I also had very few few sets as a kid, and this was my biggest and most loved. Along with a few of the smaller castle sets like the supply wagon, siege cart, horse cart, maidens cart, prison cart, armor shop, castle guard, twin catapult, I had enough for a decent knights versus forestmen action, but I never had a castle, they were too expensive. Vikings brought me out of my dark age, but I wasn't very taken with the fantasy era castle theme until the market village came along, that was my first big AFOL purchase (I got two), then the kingdoms range came and that was really good, I wish I had bought more of it, and then LOTR came which was awesome, and I also got some of the 2013 range, and a bunch of the CMF knights too, which means in total I now have about 8 or 9 knights factions, plus a viking horde, and I picked up some wolf pack along the way as well, but my favourite of all of them is still the forestmen. Oh and I love ALL the robin hood films! (except maybe the Russel Crowe one...)
I think that was my very first Lego set, bought just after the opening of the Berlin wall during my family's first trip to West-Berlin. So many memories.
One of my favourite sets, and one of very few Christmas presents I was ever allowed early, just because my dad really wanted to see this one built :-D
A friend of mine had this and a couple of other castle sets, but that was my absolute favorite. I remember trying to get this around 2002/03 when the Legends set and the Blacksmith set came out, but what can I say, it was already expensive at that time and I took my money elsewhere, when the AT-AT came out..
I clearly remember my father coming home late one evening after a long work related trip to the states. He brought this one back which hadn’t been released here in Denmark yet. Pre internet my brother and I hadn’t any idea Forestmen were even in the pipeline. Or green leafs. Or this amount of detail and character. We were mind blown and it was a very long day in school the next day before we could get home and build it.
@Slobrojoe said:
"I don't know about what anyone else is seeing, but that outpost isn't that camouflaged...."
I think that seen from the side the sun is on in the picture, the structure is relatively concealed. If you imagine it in a wooded setting - they are forest-men after all - the building might be quite hard to see except up close.
This was THE set that kept me from falling into a dark age. I was 15 at the time and hadn't gotten any sets since I was 13. The six forestmen, brown horse, and tree cave combo blew me away! I bought it with my own money and started collecting seriously from that point on. Thank you forestmen! Lol
LEGO forestmen hold a special place in my LEGO heart. Praying that The Lego Ideas Castle in the Forest will get turned into a set!
I’d like to see this get the barracuda bay treatment
Thank you for the wonderful article! The Camouflaged Outpost was my absolute favorite set from childhood, and I had many adventures with the Forestmen. I quickly lost a few of the pieces though and was unable to rebuild the set in its entirety. However, a couple years ago, I ordered the missing pieces through BrickLink and restored the outpost to its former glory. It now has a permanent place on my shelf!
I’m so glad so many other Brickset readers like Camouflaged Outpost as much as I do! I think I may have made a numbering mistake when I submitted my set review though: my recent present was Yellow Castle - a lot more exciting than 375! Though still not quite as exciting as Camouflaged Outpost... ??
@ForestUnicorn said:
"I’m so glad so many other Brickset readers like Camouflaged Outpost as much as I do! I think I may have made a numbering mistake when I submitted my set review though: my recent present was Yellow Castle - a lot more exciting than 375! Though still not quite as exciting as Camouflaged Outpost... ??"
The set number is right. It had been used before though, so Yellow Castle is 375-2 .
This was a good set in a nice sub-theme of castle. Too bad that in 1987 I was more into Transformers and missed out on this set.
This was the best medium sized castle set ever made, and the forestmen were the best series.
Endless memories.
*sigh* This is one of the big misses of my childhood. Of all the Castle sets, this is the one I wanted the most, and I never got it. I did get the Hideout and River Fortress, but this is the one I was always trying to emulate.
I keep seeing sets that I've sold over the past year. :o
That being said, I never sell from my childhood bins and I probably still have all the pieces to rebuild this one if I ever feel the need.
I certainly agree that this is a top notch 80's set which I rebuilt prior to selling and I gave it 5 stars in my full review.
@ForestUnicorn said:
"I’m so glad so many other Brickset readers like Camouflaged Outpost as much as I do! I think I may have made a numbering mistake when I submitted my set review though: my recent present was Yellow Castle - a lot more exciting than 375! Though still not quite as exciting as Camouflaged Outpost... ??"
Sorry about that -- my script for converting set numbers into hyperlinks assumes a -1 suffix. The castle is 375-2. Now corrected.
I love this and wish I'd had it as a kid!
70358-1: Aaron's Stone Destroyer (2017) has a reference to Forestmen via the robot figure hat + 1x1 tile on the front.
But Nexo Knights never really expanded on it's location sets (even while a Forest was featured in the show/books).
Even a tribe of Forest Monsters was shown in books but never made into LEGO.
However IDEAS Castle in the Forest reached 10.000 5 days ago.
https://ideas.lego.com/projects/94db894f-c510-4468-83d2-7a079eb83ac5
When I was a kid this set was one of many that I dreamed of. I never got it then, but I spent countless hours just looking at it in the catalog. I came out of my Dark Ages in 2015 and after a few months I was talking with a friend and casually asked if he maybe has some old lego bin in the attic. He said- sure, gimme a minute! And within a minute he came back with a heavy box of Lego. When i came home with it and started browsing through the pieces i have found this set among many others. I downloaded instructions and started building it and to my surprise it was like 99% complete, just two or three pieces missing! This set is an absolute beauty from every side. It has this completenes, walls from every side, unlike most other sets from lego, it looks great and has a lot of possible play options. After five years out of my DA i have plenty of sets and this one is easily in my top 5. Long live the Forestmen!
This is indeed a top-notch 80s set. I got this for my birthday when I was 14. Still one of my favorites. :) And, yeah, there's camouflage. It's besides a tree amongst others in a forest plus within a large slab of rock, with another rock as its doorway.
23 dollars when out, BUT had 6 figures, really good value for this set IMO.
Excellent set. Lego also perhaps took some inspiration from their own alternate builds in developing future sets, such as the 6054 Forestmen's Hideout the next year (1988) and 6075 Wolfpack Tower (1992).
As a girl, I never received Lego as a kid - but my brother did! He had this set, and I spent SO MANY HOURS building castles with it. Robin Hood was my favorite Disney movie, and this set put me in that world. My brother still has most of his bricks, so we could probably get this set mostly back together, and I've spent the last few years amassing my own collection at last (including most of the Elves sets - so good!).
With LEGO remaking the Barracuda could space exist to remake a lot of these sets?
Like a lot of people in high school, I stopped playing with Lego, but this set appealed to me so much that I bought it for myself during college. I built it and kept it displayed on a shelf, and it made me so happy. Because I had (sadly) given up all of the Lego I had when I was a kid, this was my only Lego set for a very long time, and I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for it.
This set is amazing! None of the other Forestmen sets had so many archers (there are 5 of them!). This set alone gives you a nice band of merry men and a secret cave hideout. Despite the absence of the characteristic stag shields, archery targets, and vines that would appear in later Forestmen sets, this set would be the one to pick if I had to choose only one.
A brown horse!
Best minifig ratio in a set at his range along with 6049 Viking Voyager...
I remember when I received this for my 8° birthday I was in a park and I literally built it on a bench. With all my friends looking and helping me finding the right pieces..
Impossible to stop a boy with his new LEGO.
Received this while I was in hospital. Disney's Robin Hood cartoon was easily my favorite, so I was excited beyond imagination. Plus, the superb minifigs, the brown horse, the leaves, this set had them all.
I played it a lot and immediately lost a couple pieces, so it also became the first set for which I cannibalized other sets to replace parts.
What outpost?
This was one of the first Lego sets I owned. I just built it last month with my little guy.