Rebuilding the Past: 6033 Treasure Transport

Another ninja set to reminisce over. I don't remember much about this set. I do remember not liking the little glass dome part and that I was not impressed when I saw it in the box, but eventually decided to pick it up anyway. But I'm glad I did.

Two robbers and a ninja are a nice selection of figures. The strong-box is nicely constructed too. Though I do think the handles for it are too long. And I'm not really sure the blue antenna piece was necessary...

Comparing this set to some of the more recent sets of similar size is interesting (7040, 7090, 7950). They all seem to have similiar piece and figure counts. And really, with the exception of the dwarf thing, the prices have stayed nearly the same over 12 years.

Though, the comparison makes the recent sets seem somehow lacking. Its not something I can put my finger on. Maybe some of it is nostalgia, even though I don't have a great deal of nostalgia for the ninja line. I think some of it is that this set is unique. Its not another catapult or goofy shooting vehicle. And its not a prison carriage. Its more of a slice of almost civilian life: two guys carrying a strong box. Though of course, there is still the potential for conflict play, with the ninja lying in wait.

One other thing I'd like to mention. I'm very disappointed with how easily the leaves break off the bamboo pieces. Both of the ones in this set lost leaves and nearly half of the ones from this line are broken. While I like the piece for landscaping and texturing, I'm not sure Lego did a good job designing this piece.

Rebuilding the Past: 6040 Ninja Surprise

I wonder what the surprise is... That the robbers have taken over the cave? That the flying ninja is dropping from the sky? Or the axe cutting off the greedy gem thief's hand? Or that Lego did not go with their usual alliterative name for the set?

Anyhow, this was one first ninja set I picked up. It had everything: a ninja, a hanglider, bamboo pieces, a light grey axe and a trans-flourescent-yellow gem (I think this was the first color it came in other than red).

Not much to say about this set. I've covered most of the highlights. I'm still not sure what Lego was going for with this set. Is it a shrine? Is it a cave? It is a cave-shrine?

But since this is a short post, I'll do some padding and talk about another issue I have with the Ninja line: all the traps. But I'm not going to complain about the idea of traps, that's been done a lot. I'm going to complain about how they were executed in the Ninja line. Specifically, I don't like how all the pins that hold the traps in place are so prone to falling out. It is nearly impossible to move any of these sets without the pin falling out. I've got big pins, small pins, some as big as your head (oh wait, that last bit is about coconuts) laying all over my Ninja shelves.

Maybe that was the surprise: falling pins.

Rebuilding the Past: 6093 Flying Ninja Fortress

Looks like we're going to go through the Asian section of memory lane first. The Flying Ninja Fortress (I wonder why Lego goes with alliterative names on some sets, but doesn't bother on others) was released in 1998, though I didn't acquire my copy until a few years later on ebay. Though I don't recall the exact year, I can tell you that tt was a happier time for the used Lego buyer; the AFOL community hadn't fully exploded on the internet and ebay sellers were letting go of Lego dirt cheap. I snagged this little gem for less than half MSRP after shipping (that was my cut-off for Lego on ebay back then). The instructions and box were not included, but I've never been much of a box man and peeron had the instruction scans, so how could I go wrong?

This is a great set, though it has some flaws. The one tower seems a bit too big and open in places, but in other parts its nicely solid. Also as discussed before, I'm not a huge fan of the blocky plates its build on; it really makes it stick out from other more traditional baseplate models. Then there is the modularity, which I'm not sure I like. And, its really only a flying ninja half fortress.

The set also has some little details that I like. The lantern/sculpture things on the corner are an ingenious detail. And the little yellow sword stand inside has a simple elegance. Nine figures is also a nice touch, though three ninja's seems a bit overkill (did feudal Japan really have armies of ninjas running around?). Not to mention that the whole thing is, at least to my mind, a very accurate reproduction of a Japanese fortress, even more so than most of the Castle sets.

I don't have much else to add on this set. I wish I'd have bought a second one to see how it would look fully enclosed, but the price for it has gone up so much, I don't think I'll make the investment... I wonder if I could MOC out some back wall modules for it from spare parts.

Old Sets by Athos

I've been playing with Lego since I was four years old, in 1983. Unlike many fans, I never had a dark age, though throughout my higher educational career, I kept most of my Lego stored away in a shed at my parents' house. In the past year, however, I was able to move into a house with a basement that I am planning to transform into a den of all things Lego.

So, with that in mind, I recently recovered all my old Lego Castle sets from my parents' storage. After washing the dust and dead (and some not so dead) spiders from the sets, I disassembled the sets (several of them had not been taken apart since the day they were built). I packed them approximately 400 miles to their new home and am currently in the process of rebuilding them (with a bit of washing out the missed spider carcasses).

Throughout the years, I've been fortunate enough to acquire nearly every Castle set from the Kings Castle released in 1984 to King Leo's Castle, released in 2000. And many other sets in between (I'm a particularly big Adventurers fan)

So, I thought it might be interesting to blog a bit about each set as I attempted to rebuild the past. Just to clarify, this isn't a review blog. Enough people have reviewed these sets and I don't want to hassle with taking a ton of pictures. Though that doesn't mean, I won't tell you what I like and dislike about the sets. What this is, is, a hopefully coherent, stream of consciousness writing about my thoughts and feelings on each set, with maybe a bit of comparison and contrasting with other themes and sets and a dash nostalgia and historic context thrown in for flavor.

I hope it is interesting for you.