Author Topic: 6627 Dragon Knights' Fort & 6628 Eagle Knights' Attack Tower  (Read 1914 times)

Offline StJohn

  • Playmo Master
  • *****
  • Posts: 1018
  • Gender: Male
There are some keen reviewers active in this forum, and I don’t buy all that much new stuff, so it doesn’t often happen that I have the chance to contribute something new to Report & Review. And now I better hurry, for while the following sets were only released in June 2016, they have already been discontinued at PM’s German web shop and might soon disappear from the shops. So why the delay? It is because the 2016 Novelties Catalogue justifiably stirred quite a bit of enthusiasm, but when it comes to the classical knights theme, spirits were downcast. Basically, what is shown here are the only mainstream new items in the catalogue, and they are essentially repeats. So why the bother? I got them - at a fair price, I must say - because of the Blue Eagle Knights, and a lovely bunch they are. :love: Just too bad it had to come with a lot of baggage. :-[

Having the preliminaries out of the way, on with the review. We are looking at 6627 Drachenritter-Bastion/Dragon Knights' Fort as well as 6628 Adlerritter-Angriffsturm/Eagle Knights` Attack Tower. This is the box art:









And this is what was inside the boxes (not too empty):



On to the assembled sets:



In 6627 the fort baseplate, in slightly different colour schemes, is familiar from earlier releases, and the Barbarian Assault Tower was seen before in set 4439 (2005), albeit with different wheels, plastic colour, and without printing. As a siege engine, it is useless (the ram has no velocity), but I see its play value and suppose it is good to see the item return to the shops after 10 years. The new ladder is definitely an improvement.

Not sure what the pole with fire on the fort is about  ???:



The bowl isn't fixed to the platform.

Having the big parts out of the way, we move on to the interesting bits, the figures:







I’m not at all keen on samurai kit on knights :hmm:, so I’ll ignore the two gents on the left entirely, but am VERY fond of their four colleagues on the right.

Blue Eagle Knights had hitherto only been known as family men (though bad at shaving) from the 6324 Knights Family, as well as from the SuperSet 4012 Knights Fort. It is good to see some variation, in particular with Mr. 2nd-from-the-right with the inverted colour pattern of the body. And Mr. In-the-middle was the first to sport this FANTASTIC beard in that colour, meanwhile seen elsewhere, too (9209).

Rounding up, the shooting gear:



The support for the catapult on the right was only seen once before, in the US exclusive 5860, so very nice to get this back in the shops.

And finally the horse, Animobil's Horse Vers 2 Left Foot Black with Grey Mane, a rarity too:



I like the saddle cloth with pegs for hanging items.

Rounding up: Is it any good? Yes, if you are a new customer wanting to play with Playmobil knights. Perhaps, if you are a collector, and then only so if you are into Eagle Knights, and particularly those of the Blue kind. I happen to be one of those, so am actually quite pleased. Just too bad they come with all those huge parts that need to be accommodated somewhere.

Best wishes
StJohn
« Last Edit: May 06, 2017, 11:31:01 by StJohn »

Offline Tiermann

  • Playmo Master
  • *****
  • Posts: 8952
  • Gender: Male
  • Playmosaurus friendus
    • Animobil
Re: 6627 Dragon Knights' Fort & 6628 Eagle Knights' Attack Tower
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2017, 19:14:22 »
Thanks for the great review. I didn't feel I needed there particular knights so I skipped these sets, but I did order some of the fire ring pieces that haven't been available since the Dragon Temple. Nice to have them for bigger fires. They are paired with the fire piece that fits inside a barrel, also a nice piece to have around but more common.

Offline tahra

  • Playmo Guru
  • ******
  • Posts: 14760
  • Gender: Female
    • playkingdoms
Re: 6627 Dragon Knights' Fort & 6628 Eagle Knights' Attack Tower
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2017, 19:28:58 »
Thanks for the detailed review!  ;D

Not sure what the pole with fire on the fort is about  ???:

Actually, that is my main interest in that set  :P

I’m not at all keen on samurai kit on knights :hmm:, so I’ll ignore the two gents on the left entirely, but am VERY fond of their four colleagues on the right.

I am also not fond of the samurai upper armor, especially when not on the samurai...

I do love the white falcons - I named them that when they first showed up, not sure why - I mean, there were the red falcons, and these are the same but in white?


And Mr. In-the-middle was the first to sport this FANTASTIC beard in that colour, meanwhile seen elsewhere, too (9209).

Those beards are AMAZING, and what I really wanted from that set - bought a couple of expensive ones  :-[


And finally the horse, Animobil's Horse Vers 2 Left Foot Black with Grey Mane, a rarity too:

I didn't know the horsy was rare...  I have no idea if we have one  :-[

I like the saddle cloth with pegs for hanging items.

Very very handy :)


Thanks for the great review. I didn't feel I needed there particular knights so I skipped these sets, but I did order some of the fire ring pieces that haven't been available since the Dragon Temple. Nice to have them for bigger fires. They are paired with the fire piece that fits inside a barrel, also a nice piece to have around but more common.

But the fire is new, no? Or maybe I just have really old "barrel fires"?


Offline Pynedor

  • Playmo Master
  • *****
  • Posts: 3849
  • Gender: Male
Re: 6627 Dragon Knights' Fort & 6628 Eagle Knights' Attack Tower
« Reply #3 on: May 07, 2017, 21:18:06 »
Great review. I'm not too fond of that style of lamellar armour on knights either, but there are some nice parts in the sets.
~Pynedor~

Offline Tiermann

  • Playmo Master
  • *****
  • Posts: 8952
  • Gender: Male
  • Playmosaurus friendus
    • Animobil
Re: 6627 Dragon Knights' Fort & 6628 Eagle Knights' Attack Tower
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2017, 18:34:55 »
But the fire is new, no? Or maybe I just have really old "barrel fires"?

Part number is the same as has been around for a while. http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30%2009%209070

Offline tahra

  • Playmo Guru
  • ******
  • Posts: 14760
  • Gender: Female
    • playkingdoms
Re: 6627 Dragon Knights' Fort & 6628 Eagle Knights' Attack Tower
« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2017, 19:32:48 »
Part number is the same as has been around for a while. http://playmodb.org/cgi-bin/showpart.pl?partnum=30%2009%209070

Uhm.. well... as seen from the PROCESS, I OBVIOUSLY need glasses.
(we have those)

Thanks Tiermann!

Offline Klickteryx

  • Playmo Master
  • *****
  • Posts: 1591
Re: 6627 Dragon Knights' Fort & 6628 Eagle Knights' Attack Tower
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2017, 05:09:46 »
The pole with fire on it is a beacon, a warning light.

This is probably a frontier fort so when the enemy army shows up the beacon is lit to warn the rest of the kingdom to gather the army. It may be one of a chain of such beacons depending on how large the kingdom is.

Offline marinebaer

  • Playmo Pal
  • Posts: 27
Re: 6627 Dragon Knights' Fort & 6628 Eagle Knights' Attack Tower
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2017, 15:43:12 »
The pole with fire on it is a beacon, a warning light.

This is probably a frontier fort so when the enemy army shows up the beacon is lit to warn the rest of the kingdom to gather the army. It may be one of a chain of such beacons depending on how large the kingdom is.

I would support this meaning! Similar to a Hadrian's Post with its fire-baskets.
And nice as many others pointed out already. Also got one back home.