Random set of the day: Royal Joust
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6095 Royal Joust, released in 2000. It's one of 22 Castle sets produced that year. It contains 101 pieces and 3 minifigs, and its retail price was US$20.
It's owned by 1631 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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47 comments on this article
why does the guy riding the blue and white horse have a red and black color scheme?
So is this MORE or LESS violent than actual jousting?
On the one hand, your shoulder isn't getting impacted with a lance, on the other, you have an axe coming to lob your whole arm off if not more.
Decisions, decisions....
This is gonna be a bad day for both lion-horse-lady AND bull-horse-dragon-dude:
No matter who hits their target, they both taste the Slizer™...
The stained glass window was nice.
It always baffled me that this line of Castle had so many large, blocky baseplates. They weren't even plates, they were large bricks. Did Lego have a surplus of those, at the time?
@bananaworld said:
This is gonna be a bad day for both lion-horse-lady AND bull-horse-dragon-dude
The lion-horse-lady is a man in this set; you are thinking of 4816 or 6091/6098.
The visored helm looks way too large on a figure not also wearing the corresponding armor breastplate piece also released in 1990. I also wish the king was flanked by two living guards (trap halberds don't count!)
@LordDunsany said:
"The lion-horse-lady is a man in this set(...)"
Fun Fact: she drew on a comedy moustache & beard in order to be able to enter this otherwise-discriminatory tournament.
...would have won it too, if her first hit hadn't decapitated everyone within 30 paces.
Welcome back Castle theme! May your return become a long stay!
@MCLegoboy:
I feel like it's an IQ test, wrapped up in a spiky, choppy package. The only safe answer is to stop short before you get into range of the halberds and let the other sucker hit his target. Doing so will cause the entire thing to spin, and the poor guy will catch a halberd to the back of the head while you...just have to figure out how to get a spray of blood out of your clothes. And horse.
One of the sets I own! It's funny that LEGO Island 2's Castle Island joust is more true to life than this... but to be honest, this had way more play value, imaginary gore notwithstanding. It was extremely satisfying to strike a shield target in a way that sent the blades spinning. Only downside was that the base is not stable at all, making it rather easy to just knock the entire contraption over by accident. The video game joust, in comparison, was merely an incredibly frustrating and unfun button-mashing sequence that took tremendous effort to pass.
Other aspects of this set I love are the stained glass, the gem stash, the fact that King Leo is guarded by halberd traps, the fact that this was an easy and inexpensive way to get Cedric the Bull (besides 4818 with his chrome helmet), the chain on his horse, and of course, the alternate builds.
@Zordboy said:
"It always baffled me that this line of Castle had so many large, blocky baseplates. They weren't even plates, they were large bricks. Did Lego have a surplus of those, at the time?"
I think juniorization was a part of it, but also, the large brick bases allowed these to be used as interchangeable modules, particularly in conjunction with King Leo's castle, albeit not terribly well from a design perspective. But it worked, and it was something.
@bananaworld said:
"Fun Fact: she drew on a comedy moustache & beard in order to be able to enter this otherwise-discriminatory tournament.
...would have won it too, if her first hit hadn't decapitated everyone within 30 paces."
Knights' Kingdom I was surprisingly inclusive: Princess Storm was allowed to be herself and lore-wise actually outranked most of King Leo's knights (possibly except Richard the Strong, I'm not sure).
I knew the middle ages were violent, but I never guessed they had anything like THAT.
Also, the spinny axe thing appears to be biased. It has a shield with a lion on it.
I didn’t get to finish the joust…
This is pretty cool. Never seen this one. The king and the stained glass window are nice.
Of the LEGO jousting sets, I own 6060 Knight’s Challenge. First time remember getting the barrel piece, and having enough weapons was great. Including the peasant and the lovely maiden was a bonus to a set I’ve always loved.
LEGO got really bad at utilizing color during this era. The way they mix grey, tan and black bricks here seems to be completely random.
Also weird that the king is viewing the joust not from a tent, but from a tiny stone structure complete with a stained glass window.
The king's viewing seat thing appears to have two rotating axes on it that could swing down on something...
@LordDunsany said:
" @bananaworld said:
This is gonna be a bad day for both lion-horse-lady AND bull-horse-dragon-dude
The lion-horse-lady is a man in this set; you are thinking of 4816 or 6091/6098.
The visored helm looks way too large on a figure not also wearing the corresponding armor breastplate piece also released in 1990. I also wish the king was flanked by two living guards (trap halberds don't count!)"
HOLY COW THAT GIRL BE SCRAWNY!!!
Seriously, her waistline makes it look like she hasn’t eaten since who knows when.
And the king just sits there and watches both “competitors” slaughtered in gruesome, unbiased fashion. Typical example of the sick hierarchical corruption in which the suffering and demise of the working class is mere entertainment for those in power. Way to promote this rich history of subjugation and oppression, LEGO!
Not the best era of Lego Castle, I think most would agree. As someone mentioned, the colors of the sets are not cohesive and are actually somewhat unpleasant to look at.
I've heard rumors we're getting a LEGO Creator Castle set this fall. I hope one of the alternate builds is a joust, I missed out on that Kingdoms one back in 2012 but would always drool over it.
"Stop this madness in the name of your king!"
Oh, I wish we had game of thrones sets at the time...
Never owned this set, but it still makes me nostalgic.
This is actually just a quite clever plan by the king to end Cedric the bull. See, King Leo knows Cedric is right-handed, so he sends his only left-handed knight to the duel, where he is protected from the spinning halberd by the shield in his right hand. Whereas Cedric holds his lance in his right, and shield in the left, so he gets decapitated in a deviously effective way.
I own this and as a kid, I didn't ask any questions.
Seeing it again, I wonder how I was using this thing.
I guess no one lived to see tomorrow when I was playing.
Also, why is the king sitting there with a sword in his hand?
What is he afraid of?
Is the sword not too heavy to keep it lifted up during the match?
Of course it's not, because the matches end once they start.
So was this the first castle theme to attempt to have, like, a lore behind it? A lot of the minfigs had names and described characters, whereas before they'd all been fairly generic, interchangeable knights. Was this Lego testing out putting story behind their sets?
@brickengineeringdude:
it's a sneaky form of defense. If you're approaching the king, and you hate him _SO_BADLY_ that you just can't resist taking a shot at any royal insignia you happen to pass by..
I ‘inherited’ a box of Lego a while back from an acquaintance.
This set explains where a whole load of bits are from. I think I see a reconstruction project in the near future...
The problem with normal jousting is that the jouster himself could be injured making contact with a non-moveable object. So the pivoting shield prevented this, where the first person to hit the shield would have time enough to speed out of the way of the returning axe, whereas the second person would be caught short by the axe. If you were very agile you could duck (or fall off your horse) as the axe was more shoulder head height as they didn't want to injury a good horse.
God I miss LEGO Castle.
@Brickalili said:
"So was this the first castle theme to attempt to have, like, a lore behind it? A lot of the minfigs had names and described characters, whereas before they'd all been fairly generic, interchangeable knights. Was this Lego testing out putting story behind their sets?"
Yes, LEGO was experimenting with integrating a story into their sets a lot during this era. They continued that trend with Knight's Kingdom 2, which had a fully fledged storyline with a comic series and several books. But for whatever reason, they stopped doing that after the 2007 Fantasy Castle reboot, reverting back to unnamed generic minifigs and dropping having any sort of storyline entirely. It does kind of make you question why they did that, since story-based themes have proven to be quite popular over the years (Bionicle being a prime example of that).
"Stop this madness" (King Robert from GOT in the tournament)
@LegoDavid said:
" @Brickalili said:
"So was this the first castle theme to attempt to have, like, a lore behind it? *snip*"
Yes, LEGO was experimenting with integrating a story into their sets a lot during this era. They continued that trend with Knight's Kingdom 2, which had a fully fledged storyline with a comic series and several books. But for whatever reason, they stopped doing that after the 2007 Fantasy Castle reboot, reverting back to unnamed generic minifigs and dropping having any sort of storyline entirely. It does kind of make you question why they did that, since story-based themes have proven to be quite popular over the years (Bionicle being a prime example of that)."
Unless I am mistaken, it is because Lego product testing determined Pirates and Castle were seen as childish to older kids. This is the reason that the most recent Pirate theme and Kingdoms sets were lacking an expansive story and had simpler builds.
@legoninjago69 said:
"why does the guy riding the blue and white horse have a red and black color scheme?"
this was the beginning of the downward slide for castle...
While this set is kind of wacky as others have commented, I kept the one I found in a random lot a few years ago because it also has some really nice printed pieces. I love the stained glass window!
Castle, Castle, CASTLE!
(Where's Benny the Knight when you need him?)
Ohh lego island memories
“Pepper Roni on a pony. Way cool”
@Dash_Justice said:
" @LegoDavid said:
" @Brickalili said:
"So was this the first castle theme to attempt to have, like, a lore behind it? *snip*"
Yes, LEGO was experimenting with integrating a story into their sets a lot during this era. They continued that trend with Knight's Kingdom 2, which had a fully fledged storyline with a comic series and several books. But for whatever reason, they stopped doing that after the 2007 Fantasy Castle reboot, reverting back to unnamed generic minifigs and dropping having any sort of storyline entirely. It does kind of make you question why they did that, since story-based themes have proven to be quite popular over the years (Bionicle being a prime example of that)."
Unless I am mistaken, it is because Lego product testing determined Pirates and Castle were seen as childish to older kids. This is the reason that the most recent Pirate theme and Kingdoms sets were lacking an expansive story and had simpler builds.
"
It is super ironic how Castle and Pirates are something that AFOLs are obsessed with, yet LEGO determined that those themes are "childish".
@legoninjago69 said:
"why does the guy riding the blue and white horse have a red and black color scheme?"
Good point!
@LegoDavid:
I’d agree with you...but I’ve met a _lot_of AFOLs.
@LegoDavid, Creating, maintaining and distributing all the material associated with characters and stories is costly and complex. LEGO would have done a cost-benefit analysis and concluded it wasn’t financially worthwhile for the 2007 reboot.
@ambr, AFAIK there was never a double quintain that two knights rode at simultaneously from opposite directions. There definitely were, however, single quintains that would swing round when the target (often a shield) was struck. If the knight wasn’t going fast enough, the quintain would swing round and hit him with a blunt weapon (a flail or a suspended sack filled with something heavy).
Let's get a 2022 $20 Joust set with the new Black Falcons and some horse barding.
@Zordboy said:
"It always baffled me that this line of Castle had so many large, blocky baseplates. They weren't even plates, they were large bricks. Did Lego have a surplus of those, at the time?"
Adventurers Dino Island came out around the same time and had similar issues. I wonder if it was an early attempt from Lego to move away from baseplates, similar to the new road system.
I got this set in a thrift store haul last year. Still working on completing it...just need about a dozen parts/minifig pieces.
Although I don't own the set, however, I find it to be nice, and I got to agree on 2 points:
1- The color theme of the knight on the white horse
2- The Battleaxes on the joust is too much Mortal Kombat. so I feel it could be removed and to be used as an extra accessory.
In terms of parts, I see it has interesting different and unique parts.
2000 Castle was fairly simplified , but it has horses, best part of this set, 2 horses, 2 knights and a King.
Nowadays, horses are super rare in the last few years, there have been none in non-licensed themes until the 2021 Blacksmith brought one back. (not counting the Friends style horses which are different)
I don't expect horses in the rumoured 3-in-1 Castle, but I do hope LEGO surprises us and uses horses in that set instead of Brick-Built animals for a change, would certainly even be more incentive to get 3 of that set if the builds are good.
It is interesting how a few poor color and piece choices in these late 90's and early 00's sets can instantly turn me off of a set and theme. Maybe it is the way they were doing the box art? Compare this to Knight's Challenge (6060) or even Jousting Knights (6021) and you will see the difference. In my opinion this set just has a cheaper and less crafted feel than those older sets which is odd since they had many more pieces to choose from at this time. The last few Extreme Team sets have just the worst color schemes.
@CarolinaOnMyMind said:
"And the king just sits there and watches both “competitors” slaughtered in gruesome, unbiased fashion. Typical example of the sick hierarchical corruption in which the suffering and demise of the working class is mere entertainment for those in power. Way to promote this rich history of subjugation and oppression, LEGO!"
Dennis the Peasant: "Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I'm being repressed!"
@Vladtheb said:
" @Zordboy said:
"It always baffled me that this line of Castle had so many large, blocky baseplates. They weren't even plates, they were large bricks. Did Lego have a surplus of those, at the time?"
Adventurers Dino Island came out around the same time and had similar issues. I wonder if it was an early attempt from Lego to move away from baseplates, similar to the new road system."
The largest sets from Fright Knights (6097, 6087) and Ninja (6093, 6089) had the same thing.