Up next is 70539:
consisting of the following parts:
I need to level with you that, of my new sets, I like this one least – one pregnant reason for this to be flagged up later in this post. Don't get me wrong, I'm still happy with it, but it is not as good as the others, mainly because the figures aren't very appealing.
I got it because of an old love for the
Barbarian Ruin 4435 of 2005, and this set is a reissue of that glorious building, albeit in different colours, illustrated here for the big chunks, with 4435 in the top, and 70539 in the bottom row:
The inner architecture is identical, with the floorboards in a different, dark-red colour. The building is constructed in System X, with the yellow and red connectors. The stonework facade is dark grey (
anthrazit in German), and that colour matches the Burnham Raiders castle 70221, as do the dark-red floorboards. This dark grey is the same colour as that of the walls of earlier Playmobil castles of the "dark" side, such as 3269 Dragon Rock Castle or 4866 Falcon Knight's Castle. The fact that the 70539 stone facade is colour matched to lots of interesting castle walls is the main reason why I wanted to get hold of this set.
The 70539 woodwork facade, by contrast, is in a new shade of brown that does not match any existing System-X walls, as far as I know. (The wooden facade of its predecessor 4435 was of the same colour as the wooden walls of the Viking Longhouse 3151, etc.)
If the building is the same, its furnishings are not. I miss the greenery that appears on the walls of 4435, and also the big bull-faced banner that hangs over the door of the woodwork facade in that set. In 70539 we also get a banner (with the Burnham Raiders "heraldry"), but now attached to the stonework facade, affixed at the top with a two-part flagpole (here illustrated with a different banner):
The flagpole can be slotted into a cleft at the top of the stone facade. This indentation was of course already in place in 4435, but back then nothing was connected to it. Seeing this now makes me wonder whether the top of the stone facade of 4435 was actually left unfinished: it looks as if it was meant to be crowned with some feature that has been cancelled before the artwork was created, but only after the design of the facade and the production of its mould had gone ahead [see
Appendix]. What was meant to appear at the top is anyone's guess, but I seriously doubt that this flagpole was originally intended – it feels ... improvised.
Just like 4435, 70539 comes with four figures. But whilst 4435 gave us a cozy household of barbarians, 70539 brings us two mini-factions of combatants, two against two, and armed to the teeth. Three of them are not particularly noteworthy. On the side of the assailants we have Francis, who is almost identical (except for the neckpiece and belt) to the fat guy in the
army building pack 9836, and Shiko, with an Asian head but otherwise quite similar to the dark-haired one of the same pack. On the side of the defendants we get Lucifex, known from the castle 70221 and a recent magazine. Luckily the fourth figure, Flinton, is something special:
I don't like his neckpiece much (previously seen on
Grimmel in 70039), nor his chicken legs, but do get very excited about his legionnaire's arms. Just imagine a whole lot of them, and matching legs
... Please note that with my figure the body was printed WAY out of centre – the source of my frustration I mentioned at the start.
From the accessories I only highlight the big barrel in black, here shown with its twin from 3627, etc. The older barrel was printed but this one comes with a sticker.
That's as much as I wanted to share about this set. Lots of it will have to go, but not the stone facade, or a pair of arms.
Appendix: There is another unexplained oddity about the 4435/70539 stone facade – the doorframe. As you can see below, there are four holes for hinge clips, two on either side. The bottom ones are framed by protrusions above and below, which clearly suggests that the clips were meant to support the hinges of a double door, which then wasn't produced (and no Playmobil door fits this frame). I asked a friendly barbarian to demonstrate what they then did with the doorframe for set 4435: the bottom holes were left empty, and halberts are fitted into the clips of the top holes, resting on the top knob of the bottom holes.
Clearly, this is an improvisation (but a much better one than in 70539, where all four holes are simply left empty). So we conclude that the stone facade was originally meant to look quite different than what we see in the sets: with double doors, and a mysterious crowning piece at the top. I have no idea why this wasn't executed as planned.
