Random set of the day: Black Monarch's Castle

Posted by ,
Black Monarch's Castle

Black Monarch's Castle

©1988 LEGO Group

Today's random set is 6085 Black Monarch's Castle, released in 1988. It's one of 7 Castle sets produced that year. It contains 702 pieces and 12 minifigs, and its retail price was US$68.

It's owned by 3212 Brickset members. If you want to add it to your collection you might find it for sale at BrickLink or eBay.

Help me come to life! If you like the set I've chosen for you today, please pledge your support for me on LEGO Ideas so I have a chance of becoming an official LEGO set!


47 comments on this article

Gravatar
By in Portugal,

Humm... Rumours that 2021 will be the return of Castle theme have surfaced all over Internet...

I wonder how "innocent" this RSOTD might be... Lol

Gravatar
By in Netherlands,

Just an amazing set, large amount of figures and horses, good pieces and mechanics, considering the 80s.

Even if this is just 1 faction of knights, back then there was plenty of choice in other sets, Black Knights sets were around until 1992.

Gravatar
By in United States,

It's no yellow castle, but this is still an iconic set!

Gravatar
By in Australia,

Beautiful castle.

Gravatar
By in United States,

IDEAS has the potential to bring a similar kind of set, check out the most recent list of approved submissions. Fingers crossed...

Gravatar
By in United States,

Who is this mysterious "Black Monarch"?

*strokes beard*

Gravatar
By in United States,

I had a few random small sets, but getting this at the mall was the real start of my lego obsession all those years ago. My sons have recently rebuilt it and I am looking at it in our lego room as I type. Epic!

Gravatar
By in United States,

A dark but improved clone of 6080, this was the last (non-modular) castle that could be opened up into a long wall section that could connect with other wall section sets (a pity that there were so few black walled-sets to integrate this with as well as the discrepancy in base-plate thickness among sets). This castle (along with the aforementioned 6080) included 12 minifigs total (16 if you include the 4 horses), all from the same faction (no ghosts, skeletons, or attackers/prisoners from opposing factions)! I really enjoy the imposing look of the gatehouse flanked by its elevated rampart sections and appreciate the fact that all knights and soldiers excluding the 4 archers were equipped with shields.

Gravatar
By in United States,

@Darth_Mule:
6034. He...didn't get better. I feel like this is some sort of Odysseus situation, where everyone is just hanging out at his house, drinking all his booze, and spending all his money.

Gravatar
By in United States,

$68... you were so close to greatness

Gravatar
By in United States,

@legoninjago69 said:
"$68... you were so close to greatness"

Adjusted for inflation, that corresponds to $151.42 in 2020...not as cheap as you might think. However, it is very unlikely that LEGO would release a castle set with such a large faction "army" today.

Gravatar
By in United States,

The best castle.

Gravatar
By in Poland,

The stuff of dreams. We were solidly into Classic Space, but this one definitely got attention.

Gravatar
By in Turkey,

I like the more realistic way of the Castle theme. All that mumbo jumbo sci-fi nexo stuff just doesn't do it for me. Having said that, I wouldn't mind occasional dragons showing up from time to time :)

Gravatar
By in United States,

@LordDunsany said:
" @legoninjago69 said:
"$68... you were so close to greatness"

Adjusted for inflation, that corresponds to $151.42 in 2020...not as cheap as you might think. However, it is very unlikely that LEGO would release a castle set with such a large faction "army" today."


Nor would it likely be $150, probably closer to $100.

Gravatar
By in Canada,

IMHO, the best of the classic castles of the 20th century. Wonderful set. Will never sell mine.

Gravatar
By in United States,

Ironic given the Classic Castle in the recent Ideas article

Haven't tuned into Brickset in a while, Looks like I missed a Bohrok and Basil the Batlord in RSotD. Oh well...

Gravatar
By in United States,

Truly one of the best Castle sets, and along with 6080, an important part of my childhood Lego experience. :)

Gravatar
By in Norway,

I do not remember a lot from when I was young. However I remember my brother got this for his birthday, but he was too young to build it so I had to help him. Ended up being a great gift for both of us and was by far the biggest set in our childhood collection :D

Gravatar
By in New Zealand,

No correlation with the upcoming Ideas set I suppose...no, of course not.

Gravatar
By in United States,

I can put myself in the headspace that if I was a child growing up in the 80s, this castle would've been revolutionary and wondrous to behold. A must-have for any Castle collector and up to that point, the greatest LEGO Castle set. However, I am a child of the 90s, and the Black Knights ended up with an even better castle with even more amazingly-armed and armored knights in 1992 with 6086 Black Knights' Castle (or Dungeon Master's Castle for some). So, with this one being the start of my favorite Castle faction, I give the Black Monarch's Castle its ample due. Without it, there is no 6086 and dare I say no other black-walled Castle structures (including the very impressive and personal favorite, Royal Knights' Castle from 1995). A true LEGO legend!

Speaking of legends, I guess we are still wondering about the fate of the Black Monarch. I am still a fan of the assassination theory, although I suspect LEGO themselves are fond of thinking he just met his fate due to an unlucky accident (thrown from his horse? Fell from the ramparts? Got stuck in a locked gatehouse during a game of hide-and-seek?).

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

Would get panned today, lacking interior detail!

Gravatar
By in Croatia,

The only LEGO Castle set with a primarily black color scheme instead of grey... That makes it quite unique.

Gravatar
By in United States,

The other two things that make this set great are the red and blue horse barding pieces. Privileged to have picked up 2 copies of this set a few years back at a decent price.

Gravatar
By in Netherlands,

This is one of the best castles. Great build and a lot of figures.

Gravatar
By in United States,

Such a happy memory to see this today. Thank you Huwbot.

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

Never owned a castle set, but I thought they looked cool. This was a good one.
Castle, town, pirates and space. Good days, what more could you want.

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

Even though only 700 pieces this was a great castle for your own designs especially when combined with 6059 the RSOD last week. If you click on 6085 and click on catalogues there are some great landscape photos of the castle at the center of everything from 1988 to 1991, which shows the price at around £43.

Gravatar
By in United States,

@LordDunsany:
Read his comment, and then look at his username. Then read his comment again...and look at his username again.

And if this was released today, it would probably cost...$69.99 USD. Inflation hasn't been on speaking terms with LEGO prices in over four decades.

Gravatar
By in Netherlands,

This set was my life for a good deal of time as a young child. Built and tore down and rebuilt more times than I can count. And the first time I received a small army in minifigures in one set. So much play value.

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

@Nick said:
"And the first time I received a small army in minifigures in one set. So much play value."
I don’t think that kids today or even AFOLs in their twenties appreciate that back in the ‘80s (and ‘70s) it wasn’t easy to obtain large numbers of specific minifigures. You were pretty much limited to whatever ones came with sets.

Occasionally, LEGO would release a minifigures box, but they were always assortments, meaning there might be some minifigures that didn’t interest you. Also, at least in the UK, those minifigure only boxes were not widely available.

CMFs, BAM, B&P, BrickLink and Ebay make it very much easier to get minifigures.

Gravatar
By in Japan,

Finally a random set of the day is the one I owned (when I was very young)

Lovely set!

Gravatar
By in United Kingdom,

I mean, not quite as good as 6086 IMO, but a pretty solid set nonetheless. Being great instead of amazing is still something to be be proud of!

Gravatar
By in Netherlands,

Kid me wished he had that. Adult me wishes kid me had that as well.

Gravatar
By in United States,

According to brickset I own this. I pulled all of my instructions & minifigs from my childhood home a few years ago but haven't gone through the bricks yet. I have some sorting to do.

Gravatar
By in United States,

@PurpleDave said:
" @LordDunsany :
Read his comment, and then look at his username. Then read his comment again...and look at his username again.

And if this was released today, it would probably cost...$69.99 USD. Inflation hasn't been on speaking terms with LEGO prices in over four decades."


Yeah, I realized that soon after posting (and see that you have proposed an estimated cost accordingly). All joking aside, while it's true inflation doesn't quite follow LEGO pricing, there are still many people who see the older prices and think "LEGO was so much cheaper in the past". It is important to remember that the average costs of goods and living has changed over time (on a related note, it does seem that used copies of several sets from this period have ballooned in price over the past decade - the cheapest complete copies (without any broken parts) of this set that I see on Bricklink are almost double what I paid for this set almost 10 years ago).
I think if this set were released today, it would cost $90-120 and contain 5-6 defenders and 3 attackers from an opposing faction, if more recent castles are any indication. This set really was the last large castle that gave you a large starter army of a single faction (even the much-loved 6086 replaced 2 of the soldiers with a ghost and a Wolfpack thief/prisoner).

Gravatar
By in Russian Federation,

Great set!
Even if there will be no castle theme in 2021, i hope to see a big CREATOR 3-in-1 castle set - something great like 31109 Pirate Ship from 2020! With horses, but not the brick-built ones please! :D

Gravatar
By in Turkey,

I still got this one, with its box and everything! Such an amazing reminder from my childhood.

Gravatar
By in United States,

I have mine currently displayed on the shelf attached to Knight's Stronghold (6059) creating a lovely hexagonal design. This was the best birthday present ever when I was a child - glad I still have these years later.
No matter how much more advanced LEGO gets, there's still something about the Castle sets from this era that still captivate me... (...might just be my nostalgia talking!!)

Gravatar
By in United States,

For some reason, I don't think I got this one growing up. I had the earlier ones and some from this era as well, but I'm pretty sure I didn't have it so it doesn't have the nostalgia of 375 or 6080.

I've got it now though, but no desire to build it, so just for sale on Bricklink whenever I reopen.

Gravatar
By in United States,

LOVE. This is one of two sets that remained built and mostly intact from 1988/89 until our first child was born, and I came out of my LEGO dark ages, in 2016. The other one being 6285, of course. The Barracuda still sails the seas, but 6085 has recently been combined with several other contemporary Castle sets to make . . . Black Monarch's Mountain Fortress!

Gravatar
By in Serbia,

@darkstonegrey said:
"The other two things that make this set great are the red and blue horse barding pieces. Privileged to have picked up 2 copies of this set a few years back at a decent price."

I had some leftover parts from my original set when I was a kid,so after discovering bricklink and a store that accepted something other than paypal (Serbia...paypal came in late) I bought a new one...and than got another one as part of a set someone was selling as a moc based upon Dragon master castle ...so ended up having two and a half sets of this masterpiece...I want to be buried with it...it is destiny that we are to be together...

Gravatar
By in France,

Great set!!! Hope Lego Castle theme returns!!

Gravatar
By in United States,

@bogdanst said:
" @darkstonegrey said:
"The other two things that make this set great are the red and blue horse barding pieces. Privileged to have picked up 2 copies of this set a few years back at a decent price."

I had some leftover parts from my original set when I was a kid,so after discovering bricklink and a store that accepted something other than paypal (Serbia...paypal came in late) I bought a new one...and than got another one as part of a set someone was selling as a moc based upon Dragon master castle ...so ended up having two and a half sets of this masterpiece...I want to be buried with it...it is destiny that we are to be together..."


Haha, nice!

I absolutely had to acquire 2 sets in order to be able to have that superb alternate build version of the Knight's Tournament along side the main build (I feel that alt build is actually superior to the main one). Some clever build techniques in there!

Return to home page »