Lego Prison Tower Rescue

Lego's recent overhaul of the Castle theme has both good and bad elements- I personally liked the outlandish elements of the Fantasy era, trolls and huge dragons and walking skeletons and such. The new "Kingdoms" line, however, has a much more realistic feel and has introduced some great new armor and accessory designs. The first set I bought from the new line is 7947 Lego Prison Tower Rescue, and this is my analysis of it.

The LEGO "architecture" represented in this set shows a dramatic departure from the previous Castle fantasy offerings. (Compare with 2007's similarly priced and themed 7093 Skeleton Tower) The dramatic uses of the dark brown and dark green colors, as well as the level of detail not normally found in sets of this type are very satisfying.

Overall, the more realistic look and feel of this set are very welcome to those of us who have been hoping LEGO would continue the direction established by the Medieval Market set into the rest of the Castle line.

The minifigs are fun; there are 5 including 2 lion knights, 2 dragon knights, and the damsel in distress. The level of fine detail in the torso and face printing is commendable.

The build is easy with no repetition at all, and the finished product is a very sturdy and handsome building.

There are several corner pieces and window pieces that I believe are new, or at least relatively uncommon. Two dark green baby dragons that function as gargoyles are neat.

The new portcullis piece is awesome, and we get several new pieces of armor (helmets, swords, shields and such) that add to the realistic feel of the set.

The horse has richly detailed barding, and a new head armor piece that is a bit sleeker and more stylish that the older ones. Also several of the soldiers have printed leg pieces, which is a very nice bit of detail.

Complaints with this set are very minimal. The obligatory but useless catapult is present, and the interior is not quite as detailed as I would have hoped. At the retail price of just under $50 USD this set is a bit expensive for its 360ish piece count.

All things considered, however, 7947 Lego Prison Tower Rescue is an excellent set. Don't miss your chance to add it to your collection!

As the Lego Kingdoms line has progressed, we have gotten several more sets that compliment the look and feel of the Prison Tower Rescue set. One such set is 7187 Escape from the Dragon's Prison which looks like it was designed to fit with Lego Prison Tower Rescue exactly.

These two sets together allow for the possibility of a larger Lego knight battleground, as pictured above. Dedicated Lego Castle fans who enjoy the unique designs and colors of these sets shouldn't hesitate to buy both sets!

The one incredibly strange thing to me is that these two sets, so perfectly aligned in color, architecture, and overall feel, should have one major difference- the baseplate colors are different! As I noted in my review of Escape from the Dragon's Prison, the sets are identical in look except for this one thing, which breaks the continuity when they are placed side-by-side. Annoying!

Probably the coolest elements of these sets are the awesome minifigs, particularly these two armored knights. The Lion knight is from 7947 Lego Prison Tower Rescue and the Dragon knight is from 7187 Escape from the Dragon's Prison, and you can see from the pictures above that they are parallel designs. These are two of the best Lego Castle minifigures ever! The level of detail in the printing is phenomenal, and the different armor pieces are beautiful! Get both sets to have the ultimate Lego Castle showdown!

Check out my review of another great Kingdoms set, Lego 7187 Escape from Dragon's Prison

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