Random set of the day: King's Oarsmen
Posted by Huwbot,
Today's random set is 6017 King's Oarsmen, released in 1987. It's one of 5 Castle sets produced that year. It contains 45 pieces and 2 minifigs, and its retail price was US$3.75/£2.5.
It's owned by 3114 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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31 comments on this article
Had the king only waited two more years, he could have stolen some real oars from pirates!
For oarsmen, they have worryingly few oars
Not sure if it can challenge the entire Viking Navy, but it might be nice for an afternoon boat ride.
Ya like how they’re frozen in place
“Welp guess we’ll have to wait the winter out here George...”
With sails that small, do you think they could even make one knot in anything short of a gale force wind?
An oarsome set
King’s Axe-and-Spearmen
Frank...you know that an axe and an oar are different things, right?
Wow. Between yesterday's motocross car and today's boat, you're running a lot of my childhood sets.
I had this as a kid! There’s no room for the king and they don’t actually have oars, but it’s a fun set all the same.
Adjusted for inflation, that's £6 in today's money. Worth it.
@MCLegoboy said:
"Had the king only waited two more years, he could have stolen some real oars from pirates!"
Set was still around in 89, according to the Lego book.
Nice enough little set, but I love the box art. The mirror to suggest water strikes just the right balance between interesting visuals and imagination. They sure don’t make ‘em like that anymore.
Careful, conditions are a little... choppy.
I misread their job titles and had to double take. Ohhh
Great set. I would buy a tonne of these.
Shouldn’t Humpty Dumpty be in this set?
"I'm the king('s oarsman) of the world!"
@SpaceCadet said:
"Nice enough little set, but I love the box art. The mirror to suggest water strikes just the right balance between interesting visuals and imagination. They sure don’t make ‘em like that anymore."
I love the box art of sets in Lion Knights and Crusaders subthemes - the sunset they all share always felt somewhat magical
This is a rather advanced way to sail, shall I say.
Sails that are just flapping about, axes instead of oars, sitting on ice rather than water...not a particularly high standard of seamanship from the king's oarsmen is there?
Ya' know; if that plate weren't at the bottom, it'd probably look more natural in relation to the water(er, ice)...just sayin'...:)
6017 is the first of what I consider the "Castle Small Boats" series which had a new boat released every 3 years. I remember missing this and eventually getting its successor 6018 which had interesting new parts back then -- oars, crossbow and barrel. The dragon head design of 6018 was a novelty back then, a design which inspired its successor 1547.
Lovely little set. Every now and then one oft the flag clips would come oft so that today my boat weil hardly have any sails left.
We had this, and for a while this little thing was *all* of the Castle navy (indeed, there wasn't even anything to do on water until we had 6077 Forestmen's River Fortress and 6075 Wolfpack Tower) although once we had 6049 Viking Voyager the King's Oarsmen (which, as has been pointed out, don't have oars) were severely outclassed. 6049 didn't have oars either but I thought the spears there looked the part better than the oars from the Pirates theme in 6018 Battle Dragon...
It's genius! Use the axe as an oar and should you be attacked, use the oar as an axe!
An awesome set, just not sure where the King would sit? I always thought they were smiling as they knew they were been silly going out in the freezing cold and now they were stuck in the ice and needed rescuing, with him tapping the axe on the ice to see how thick it was and the guy in front pretending this was nothing to do with him.
The way that guy's holding the axe, I'm not sure it's supposed to be an oar. I think it might be a rudder. If it is an oar, then 6049 did better with the whole weapons-as-oars thing.
So no king and no oars, but at least the men are still there. One out of three is not great, not terrible.
Just what did they for water? Textured glass?
Seafaring vessels in castle themes, would be nice to see a return. I guess we would need the return of a castle theme first though.... smh
I bought a second one of these because all the sail pieces broke. It was my first castle set so I’m sure I was rough on those pieces! It’s still my favorite small castle set!