6075 Wolfpack Tower: showcasing what can be done with one classic LEGO set
Posted by Huw,
This #ThrowbackThursday article has been contributed by WoutA:
What I like most about classic LEGO is its versatility. One day a piece is used as a ray gun to protect an explorer against alien threats, the next day it becomes a torch in a haunted castle. One could definitely argue the same applies to LEGO today but since the number of specialised pieces and, even more so, of colours was way smaller in the past, you had no other choice but to be creative.
This versatility could not only be seen in the pieces but even in complete sets. What today has evolved into the separate Creator 3-in-1 theme, once was commonplace, with LEGO providing inspiration to build different models using the bricks of only one set. Inspiration, that is, in the form of just one picture per build on the back or the inside of the box. But thanks to the online AFOL community, it has become a lot easier to construct these alternates.
So let’s see just how much building fun you can have with a classic LEGO set that was released precisely thirty years ago. This article has everything you ever wanted to know about 6075 Wolfpack Tower, and then probably some more, too.
Renegades and a ghost
6075 Wolfpack Tower, or Wolves’ Island Lair or Wolf Peoples’ Island Lair as it was also sometimes known, was first released in 1992. At about 235 pieces, it was by far the largest of three Wolfpack sets LEGO put on the market. According to their creators, the Wolfpack were “a feared group of renegades. They won’t let anything or anyone stop their quest for riches.”
For a renegade gang, the Wolfpack were surprisingly well organised, with all of them wearing a brown torso with their emblem, which also appears on their shields and flags. The troops, of which we find two here, were the same in all sets, with a moustache, grey pants, brown hood and red cape. The Wolfpack leader on the other hand always wears an eye patch, black pants and a black hood, and in this case a black cape.
The last inhabitant of the Wolfpack Tower is a glow in the dark smiling ghost, which also appeared in Time Cruisers and Amusement Park packagings. Of course, we can not forget the black bird, which seems to be the Wolfpack mascot as it was included in all of their sets, although he also appeared in Black Knights and Dragon Knights sets.
Description and design
The side of the box shows how the Wolfpack Tower is build on a rocky island in a lake. It consists of a front tower and a slightly higher back tower with prison cell and is connected to the nearby shore through a stone bridge. On the back of the box, you can see how the glow in the dark ghost works and how the hinged path on the bridge can be used to close of the Wolfpack Tower. Intruders would also have to pass by one of two ladders, integrated into the beautiful front gate design.
Since no plates are used on the blue 16 x 32 baseplate, it seems the Wolfpack’s basement is flooded. Luckily, their treasure chest, hidden underneath the other hinged part of the entrance path, is held just above water by two tiles with handles. The inside of the tower can be accessed by opening the hinged rock pieces, another great play feature which is teasingly shown on the inside of the box too.
Pieces and prices
Obviously, there is no comparing a thirty-year-old LEGO set to one being released today. Even so, building the Wolfpack Tower still remains a delight. It is simple yet elegant and clever. Its design makes use of quite a few at the time newly released parts. This set saw the introduction of the dark grey BURP and LURP, the Big and Little Ugly Rock Piece which I don’t think are that ugly at all.
The black turret on top of the BURP also made its first appearance in 1992, in black and light grey, both for the castle theme, while the slope with five studs first appeared in black and yellow in castle and pirates sets. These slopes hold those great looking slanted red roofs on the front and back. Finally, this building uses no less than eight castle corner panels, of which one with the stone pattern print.
The Wolfpack Tower has a great design, was the largest set of one of the best loved classic castle factions and was released thirty years ago, which means lots of people who earn their money today got it or drooled over it as a kid, so the nostalgia factor is pretty big too.
No wonder it is pretty popular on the second hand market. The used price is about 100 dollar, not too bad for a set which originally retailed for less than 30 dollars, even when taking 30 years of inflation into account. No new sets were sold on Bricklink the last six months but two mint copies are on sale right now, each costing you around no less than 1000 dollars. If you happen to have one of these, my advice would be to sell it and buy 10 used sets instead…
Alternate builds
The back and the inside of the Wolfpack Castle box show more than just some details of the main build. All together you can find four alternate builds here: the Wolfpack Pier with a little boat, the high Wolfpack River Fortress, the Wolfpack Camp without the baseplate and the sturdy Wolfpack Bastion. The latter two are also shown on the front page of the instruction manual. Their names were given by AFOL Daniel Belardini, who added instructions for all of these a couple of months ago to backoftheboxbuilds.com. Thanks to him, we can start building straight away.
I first constructed the Bastion, using about two thirds of the total amount of pieces, making it the smallest alternate build. The bastion sits on plates, so the baseplate isn’t used, and is stable thanks to the V-construction with the gate on one side and the rocks on the other. I like the hinged roof above the turret lookout post but otherwise, this is a pretty basic and not very interesting build.
The River Fortress, probably named after the vaguely similarly looking 6077 Forestmen's River Fortress, is all about height. The BURP and LURP are used to construct a small island, with some arches providing extra foundation for the building. Elements that stuck out to me are the tilted double flag above the entrance and the hatch on the upper floor.
Camp and Pier
Maybe a little surprisingly, the Camp uses the most pieces of the alternate builds, with only about 30 of them left over. It’s also the only alternate build including the hinges, which are used to make the construction almost completely round, providing stability without the need for the blue baseplate. Furthermore, there are some interesting building techniques, such as SNOT headlight bricks to turn a hinged plate into a small door. I also really like the ramp, which leads to a little house with a red stepped gable roof and a lovely chimney.
Probably my favourite alternate build is the Pier, though. I think it might have influenced some newer AFOL MOC’s such as the Wolfpack Fortress by Mefju and the Wolfpack Castle by BrickHammer, both LEGO Ideas entries with a pier. The Pier uses approximately the same amount of pieces as the River Fortress.
The LURP, the BURP (hiding the treasure chest) and two corner panels form a backdrop / lookout wall. A roofed gate leads to the pier, where we can just see a small boat leaving. Although this wasn’t the first use of corner panels for a boat (6060 Knight’s Challenge from 1989 has a similar, really nice alternate boat build on the back), it is still pretty amazing to see a thirty-year-old SNOT construction. The tower in the back, although not functional by any means, also stands out for the hinged roof.
Island Hideout MOC
Finally, inspired by everything above, I build my own little creation, using only bricks from the original Wolfpack Tower. I tried to integrate some of the things I liked about all five previous builds into my Island Hideout. These include the hinged BURP with turret from the Tower, the pier from the Pier, the door and the chimney from the Camp and the asymmetric roofs and the height from the River Fortress. After adding some black rocks in the turbulent sea, I had only 25 pieces left over.
I started out this article by asking myself how much building fun one classic LEGO set could give you. The answer is a tonne, of course, just as newer sets do. I spent a couple of hours building everything you see on these pictures. Florien Sijbers-Bos inspired me to ‘Rebuild Your Set’ with two articles (in Dutch) in which she first built the original 6059 Knight's Stronghold and its three alt builds and then added six more of her own, all of them different and inventive. This is a great way to rediscover sets you already own, to find building fun without spending any money and to challenge your creativity and building skills.
Leg godt!
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47 comments on this article
This is a great throwback article but the idea that "there were less specialised parts" in some past golden age is a myth busted on this very website. For decades, there have been a lot of specialised pieces *and* sets where you "only build one thing" *and* broadly useful pieces *and* sets where you can build anything. There is a golden age of Lego and it's always "whatever you enjoy doing with Lego"
"The River Fortress, probably named after the vaguely similarly looking 6077 Knight's Procession, is all about height"
Hmmm, think you mean the forestmen set :)
Interesting article, I wonder what the first back of the box alternate build that people hear built?
For me it was one the the alts from 6973, and I could only build the small garage building with the sliding door, the rest of the build was too hard for my small mind to work out how to build.
Excellent article, I enjoyed it immensely! Thank you!
I always find it odd that it shares the same set number as the US yellow castle. I’m sure there’s other examples of this happening, but this one gums up my eBay searches all the time.
Loved this set as a kid and always wanted more Wolfpack characters.
Wolfpack are probably my favourite faction and were the first vintage sets I hunted down as an AFOL. Remember winning a copy of 6075 on ebay for £5 at the time... (around 2010).
Really glad that back of the box/alt-builds are finally becoming more of a reality. I know as a kid they were often pipe-dream for me, either due to lack of ability/lack of instructions/or just not wanting to take the original set apart!
Backoftheboxbuilds.com is a great community resource. I've also been making some MOC Wolfpack builds and posted one just yesterday on instagram
https://www.instagram.com/p/CcA0K_Jr20U/
I now know what I’m doing today.
@saltytbone said:
"I always find it odd that it shares the same set number as the US yellow castle. I’m sure there’s other examples of this happening, but this one gums up my eBay searches all the time. "
Duplicated set numbers are the bane of my life!
I literally check the secondary market everyday for this set…dang I miss Castle and all the sub-themes
This is a fun and interesting article, but one thing stood out to me as a little odd. Black Bird???
I had a ton of those parrot pieces from the era in my collection and I always thought it was grey, not black, it certainly looks more like the grey colored bricks of the period than anything LEGO ever did with Black back in the 80s/90s.
Is that imagination rearing itself in this day and age or was it honestly meant to represent a black bird and not some kind of weird grey parrot from the pits of Tartarus? :D
I think getting rid of the alternate builds was a mistake. The only theme that really does it now is Minecraft. I also blame the abundance of licensed sets for the “build one thing then nothing else” mentality that seems to creep into many builders nowadays.
Not even LEGO’s own sets suggest alternate builds anymore. If the concern was a lack of instructions for them, why not just make digital versions you can access via QR code?
I miss the days where creativity was a thing. I liked the alternate builds.
I wish there were more Wolfpack sets back then. Were there like 2 and a minifig pack with them?
I miss the back of the box builds too. I always heard that kids got frustrated that they couldn't build the models on the back, and Lego didn't want to release instructions because they didn't meet their standards of stability/safety/legality etc. It presumably also means 4x as much 'designing' for each set.
If any of the old designers happen to be reading this comment section, I'd be really interested to hear how those alternate models came about! Did you just all sit down with the bricks for a set, build away, and just stick the coolest models on the back? Or was it a more formal process than that?
I love this kind of article! Especially great job with the alternate builds.
I had the Wolfpack cart set, and it was easily one of my favorite sets. I loved their logo and colors, the lack of Castle themed releases now a days is tragic. 12 Spiderman mechs but no castles, cmonnnn
@Odeinoichus said:
"This is a fun and interesting article, but one thing stood out to me as a little odd. Black Bird???
I had a ton of those parrot pieces from the era in my collection and I always thought it was grey, not black, it certainly looks more like the grey colored bricks of the period than anything LEGO ever did with Black back in the 80s/90s.
Is that imagination rearing itself in this day and age or was it honestly meant to represent a black bird and not some kind of weird grey parrot from the pits of Tartarus? :D"
The black bird only appeared in 6081 King's Mountain Fortress, most of the time when it wasn't brightly coloured it came in gray, like this one here.
The alternative build I as a kid always wanted (but never succeeded) was this: https://www.backoftheboxbuilds.com/6080-back-a/
@PixelTheDragon said:
"I think getting rid of the alternate builds was a mistake. The only theme that really does it now is Minecraft. I also blame the abundance of licensed sets for the “build one thing then nothing else” mentality that seems to creep into many builders nowadays.
Not even LEGO’s own sets suggest alternate builds anymore. If the concern was a lack of instructions for them, why not just make digital versions you can access via QR code? "
Exactly! I too wish that we would see even one alternate option these days. LEGO did the alternate builds with the Dimensions series which was a wonderful nod to the past but it died on the vine with that series. :(
I linked this up with 6086, connecting up the little drawbridge at the back of that to the front of the bridge here, create an almost lighthouse-like outcropping so the castle can watch the waters
I am suprised that 'rebrickable' has not been mentioned in this article (or I missed it completely if it has).
Rebrickable does exactly just that: you search the set number of a set you own and rebrickable will present you a list of creations built with the parts of that set. Some of these instructions include a fee - but at least you know what you pay for in advance - If anything, just the pictures of what was done could give you that little nudge needed to create your own thing. Some creations are often better than the original model! (definitely worth a look every so often)
Excellent article, I now know the inspiration for the Vitruvius Ghost minifigure in the 70818 Double-Decker Couch set from The LEGO Movie. The newer shroud has essentially the same design, except for the headband.
Great article, love the variety of builds, even with quite a bunch of "specialized" pieces. But also look at the picture with all the parts: A blue baseplate, lots of grey and black, and just a handfull of other colors. And not a single weird one...
@MisterBrickster said:
"I always heard that kids got frustrated that they couldn't build the models on the back...."
I truly wonder if there EVER has been one kid that complained about that....
Builds back in the day were simple enough that you could often replicate them from just a single picture. Maybe not exactly, but close enough. Just use your imagination for whatever you couldn't see. For years they even made ideas books that in large part relied on that very principle, with only step-by-step instructions for a few builds.
@johleth said:
"Interesting article, I wonder what the first back of the box alternate build that people hear built?"
I was never that interested in the alternate builds as a kid, and by the time it started to intrigue me, they had mostly gone away (and I hadn't kept the old box images... oh the regret!). Therefore the first one that I built was the one from 7250 Clone Scout Walker in 2005 - from perhaps the last wave of sets to have alternate building ideas (the picture of the model for that one is on the set's 'more images' tab here on Brickset). I also tried the alt build for 7257, from the same wave, but the image was unfortunately too small for me to make sense of it.
I agree though, definitely a cool article! :D Wolfpack was... not *quite* before my time, but I was less than a year old when the sets debuted, so a little too young for it! It's super-fascinating to get a close look at some of the neat older sets like this; are there plans to do any more articles in this vein? ^^
@Huw said:
" @saltytbone said:
"I always find it odd that it shares the same set number as the US yellow castle. I’m sure there’s other examples of this happening, but this one gums up my eBay searches all the time. "
Duplicated set numbers are the bane of my life!"
As someone that has a past life of doing data analytics, I also love unique IDs.
@WoutA, Great article and set of pictures!
I especially like how you placed the ghost in each picture so that it appears to be floating. I have the same minifigure in my display collection but mine came from 6034, one of the first sets I bought as an AFOL.
Enjoyed this, a classic Wolfpack set I always drooled over as a kid, only bought it maybe 7 years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly.
@WizardOfOss said:
" @MisterBrickster said:
"I always heard that kids got frustrated that they couldn't build the models on the back...."
I truly wonder if there EVER has been one kid that complained about that....
Builds back in the day were simple enough that you could often replicate them from just a single picture. Maybe not exactly, but close enough. Just use your imagination for whatever you couldn't see. For years they even made ideas books that in large part relied on that very principle, with only step-by-step instructions for a few builds."
A fair question! But given we're the ones who stuck with it to the degree that we're on a fan site, we might not be representative of the typical child.
Great idea for an article!
It's a bit odd that concept artwork for the Wolf People exists, where the brown hooded one is the leader (simply called 'Wolf', he was mentioned as well in the audio drama series as 'The Big Wolf'), despite his lack of uniueness in this set!
The same concept artwork also mentions the raven's name as 'Sir Duke' and the Ghost as 'Shamrock', who was the cousin of the Royal King (Richard Lionheart). He haunts the area because he seeks to find the king's son Henry, who got abducted at birth. It turns out, that said son is now being raised as the adopted son of Wolf, the robber chief under the name 'Dickens'. Unfortunately there is no artwork of Dickens, so it's unclear if he is based on an actual minifigure. https://brickset.com/minifigs/cas008 maybe?
This set is full of special pieces compared to the one set my family had when I was a kid, 375 Deluxe Basic set. We didn't even have plates, only bricks & wheels.
I fully agree with the article. The early 90s had a good balance of bricks, plates and (comparatively) few specialised pieces. The alternate model suggestions were superb and really triggered me as a kid to build my own creations. It's was much more fun than the building by the book and displaying I usually do these days.
The only thing missing in this set was a boat to be hidden inside the island. Easy fix.
@T79 said:
" @Odeinoichus said:
"This is a fun and interesting article, but one thing stood out to me as a little odd. Black Bird???
I had a ton of those parrot pieces from the era in my collection and I always thought it was grey, not black, it certainly looks more like the grey colored bricks of the period than anything LEGO ever did with Black back in the 80s/90s.
Is that imagination rearing itself in this day and age or was it honestly meant to represent a black bird and not some kind of weird grey parrot from the pits of Tartarus? :D"
The black bird only appeared in 6081 King's Mountain Fortress, most of the time when it wasn't brightly coloured it came in gray, like this one here.
The alternative build I as a kid always wanted (but never succeeded) was this: https://www.backoftheboxbuilds.com/6080-back-a/"
Ah, I thought so.
This is making me nostalgic for some classic Castle sets. I really wish LEGO would bring it back, the Harry Potter sets are not satisfactorily scratching that itch for me and I have, sadly, no funds currently for the Ideas Medieval set since I'm trying to save my VIP points for the new Jurassic World listings.
This is why I love what they did with Queen Watevra in The LEGO Movie 2, the set with all the various alternate models and what you could build on the poster beyond what was in the instructions was pure brilliance. We need more Themes and sets like that again.
I didn't have this set but I used to build custom castles from 6078: Royal Drawbridge + 6036: Skeleton Surprise .
Might not have had a lot of pieces but good pieces.
Recently re-parted it together from a eBay lot; probably keeping it.. I miss the alternate builds on the boxes....
@Yooha:
The Wolfpack sets were: 1596, 6038, and 6075. The minifigs also appeared in the castles 6082 and 6086, as well as the minifig pack 6105.
@johleth:
I actually bought 6073 and 6939 with the intention of building one of the alternate builds but ended up liking the main model well enough in both cases that they were never disassembled! I did end up building some of the alternate models for 6277 and 6985 once I had acquired another copy of each. I never had much luck reverse-engineering alternate builds in any but the smallest sets as a child.
The moment they took the alternative builds from sets is the moment Lego started to change for worse.
Excellent. Enjoyed the whole thing, comments included. This is what BrickSet is all about and why it is the best.
Epic article and we need more of these in the future (especially for castle and pirates)! Not only does it bring out our inner child but it explores alternative builds, something I never quite did as a child. Reverse engineering was not even a remote idea back then. See, as a child, I wanted to be an archeologist instead of an engineer :P
At least nowadays one can search online for instructions of alt builds (if one of our age wants them ofc). Keep up the great job!
P.S: The joy and versatility of LEGO Castle factions can be clearly shown as well by the fact that my Wolves were always allied to my Forestmen against all those separate "knights" factions during the "Great battles era" of my youth. Not having enough minifigs of these two factions also helped shape that alliance :P
What a joyous article!
It's a great set, the article is well written and thourough, and it's always great to get more Throwback Thursday articles!
I love alternate builds. I used to try and reverse engineer those of medium sets, as large sets often had poor resolution images. But ever since I've had to pack away my intstructions it wasn't possible anymore, as scans of boxes and instructions are not great for making out small details in a small image.
Backoftheboxbuilds is great in that regard!
I also love making my own alternate builds: to make entirely different things with just one set. It's just fun to be creative and make a helicopter out of a car for example.
Modern sets are both great and terrible for it. Small sets are fun because the higher amount of small and SNOT parts gives a lot more options. But anything larger and it gets overwhelming. Will you have enough parts to make the full thing? It's not very intuitive anymore because a lot of parts are like puzzle pieces. You can't build walls with brackets alone. Or roofs with 1x1 parts alone. Older sets are less 'specialized' in that regard. There were more 1x2 2x2 and 2x4 bricks due to the studs up construction. And the parts that were specialized like the BURPS or doors can be used as starting points for a build.
If the rock face was made entirely from slopes you wouldn't as easily make another cliff face from it unless you realize this, as on their own they're just unmatching slopes.
@MisterBrickster said:
"A fair question! But given we're the ones who stuck with it to the degree that we're on a fan site, we might not be representative of the typical child."
You have a point there. But thinking like that, I do wonder when Lego starts selling pre-assembled sets to prevent more people from getting frustrated...
@WizardOfOss said:
" @MisterBrickster said:
"A fair question! But given we're the ones who stuck with it to the degree that we're on a fan site, we might not be representative of the typical child."
You have a point there. But thinking like that, I do wonder when Lego starts selling pre-assembled sets to prevent more people from getting frustrated..."
Well... have you heard of Jack Stone and Town Junior? Those were actually like that because Lego was seriously fearing that kids didn't want to spend too long on building before they got to play with their sets. In part because of their declining sales due to digital toys like video games.
Lego actually DID try that!
I've heard of those....but not much more than that since that was well in my dark ages...
Considering those themes aren't around anymore I assume it wasn't a success? I'm kind a glad about that....
These sets were amazing! I have a few, even though I am only 15. I’ve always wanted to collect them all. (Not like a Pokémon fan, haha.) I feel like these sets were very accurate for the early years of LEGO. Although I know nobody is going to read this, it just gives me the satisfaction that I am writing a comment on something that has these amazing LEGO sets as I said in the beginning. I don’t own any of the wolf ones. Yet, I do own a lot from the seventies. A lot of these sets are better than the new ones coming out these days. I do like that they are coming out with new knight sets finally with the LEGO ideas sets. That is all I have to say. Have a great day, whoever sees this!
For the longest time I've wondered if anyone's managed to make a compendium of alternate builds and/or instructions for them, so the links and websites mentioned here are greatly apricated!
This article didn’t have as many clickable ads so I actually got to read it. I love old sets. I pick them up any time I can. They make me use my imagination to build something more modern, bigger. They will always have a place in my home.
After reading this found the instructions in my wife’s lego st the in laws. Parts now found and castle built! Awesome set.