I bought the above a few months back, and at the time assumed I wouldn’t get to it for a year or more. But I’ve recently been on a LEGO-making bender and my backlog is almost empty. It was time therefore to open this magnificent kit.
With over 4500 pieces, this is the biggest LEGO set I’ve ever built. The pieces filled 35 individual bags, and the instructions were split between two hefty manuals. Happily the kit contained no stickers!
Construction took me many hours – more than 10 – over about a week. The engineering was incredible, and there are many unusual uses of pieces and assembly tricks to create the walls and turrets of the castle. It was enormously entertaining to put together: one of the funnest builds I’ve ever done.
One example of the creativity is shown above. This is a hinged section of the wall, above which is placed a triple-jointed crenellation. When the building is opened, the crenellation straightens and a section slides into a cavity in the leftmost wall. It’s smooth and seamless and an amazing achievement using just LEGO.
The castle is made in two halves, which connect together to make the whole. It’s massive, and no, I don’t know exactly where I’m going to display this thing!
Here’s photos of the finished model from front and back:
And here it is opened up showing the interior detail and all the minifigs:
The interiors are no less impressive than the exterior, and the rooms include a bakery, mill, blacksmith, music room, dining room, bedroom and more. Here’s a couple of detail shots:
Oh and the castle has many play-features as well, including dungeons with opening doors, a few trapdoors, a water wheel, a movable wall, a drawbridge that can be raised or lowered and a portcullis:
But my favourite little secret concerns one particular room high in the tower. Once called a garderobe, this room features a single seat above an opening in the wall, and down below at ground level a brown frog piece sits directly below the opening:
Hint: it’s not a frog!