This set has been out now for a while but has not been reviewed in this forum. I suspect it is not very much loved, so I want to speak up for it. This does not come easily because of some flaws, but, as a Playmobil castle, it merits our attention. Perhaps even a little bit of love.
A comparison must be made to set 4440 (a.k.a. 5803) Knight's Take Along Castle of 2007, another castle that does not stir a lot of affection in the Playmobil community but which I quite like, simply because it requires no assembly work whatsoever when you fancy filling spare minutes with a bit of knights play but otherwise like to keep your place free of bulky toys. I will come back to it later, but let me now draw attention to 4440's main weakness: its
dreadful wolf emblem. Coincidence or not, 6697 too carries the wolf badge, less objectionable in its design perhaps, but still a far cry from the pretty Playmobil heraldry of yore.
Now over to 6697. Handy big box with flip lid, and quite full as well:
Bags and bits:
Not too many stickers:
Most stickers are for decorating the castle residence: four on the walls, one (a lovely carpet!) on the floor. Little markers point to their correct position, which is handy. Not optimal is the fact that the background grey of the stickers does not match the colour of the walls, slightly spoiling the effect of a hanging shield with swords:
The hardest sticker to place is the sixth, on the door. Cat lovers might consider leaving it out altogether:
Assembly is easy, and this is the finished model, basically a big central tower plus flanking walls with smaller corner towers (for clarity's sake I will refer to the latter as turrets). There is a breakaway element in the left-hand wall.
The tower is quite sturdy, and it might be a challenge to take off the roof after assembly (the wolf heads cover the slots for the clips that fasten the roof, and themselves cannot be removed without excessive force). The hinges for the side walls and first floor rear wall function well. The building is of the same bluish grey colour as the dragon towers 4835 and 4836, so quite different from the standard grey of most Playmobil castles. The stonework relief is rather nice (with mortar lines running uninterrupted from the tower onto the side walls), and is reminiscent of the pattern appearing on the walls of castles 4865 and 4866.
The handle has a neat little ball that prevents it from dropping down on your indoor scenes:
The castle is meant to be folded together for storage and transport, to which end the walls are wrapped around the tower. To achieve this, the top of the turrets will have to come off, and the allure (walkway) removed and stored, with its supports turned sideways:
The compacted model then looks like this:
As can be expected, there is not much scope for customizing, as far as I can see. But it was a positive surprise that the smaller wolf heads on the turrets are fixed with the help of yellow System X connectors, and can be used elsewhere:
Two features of the castle I do not understand:
It is great that the castle offers a way of accessing the tower roof, with a ladder and a lockable hatch:
But why the big hole? I assume that the classic hatch (30076140, etc) was not suitable (because it cannot be locked), but this does not explain why the opening is taking up about half of the platform. At any rate, the hatch seems to be a new part (slightly shorter but wider than a door).
The other one is the first floor apartment. As can be seen in one of the above pictures, the floor does not extend all the way to the back of the tower. Why? Space is premium, and the Black Baron and his treasure chest effectively take up all the room there is. His suite could easily have been a few centimetres deeper.
Moving on to the Klickies:
The two soldiers come with wrist guards that I have not seen before: longer and slimmer than the ubiquitous older model.
The red footman is looking good (but why always the long-sleeved undervests?) but I prefer him without the grey shoulder pieces. His helmet's nose protector hides the lovely irregular lock of his new-style classic hair. And why did he not get a shield?
The archer is too grey for a medieval figure, and strikes me more as modern military or police if we can disregard his elaborate collar. I have not encountered his bow in that colour before.
Black Baron is a nice figure. Unfamiliar as I am with the TV series, I'm at a loss to explain his anachronistic appearance, with uniform-style trousers but knight arms. Nor do I grasp the reason why his left and right arm are different. The chain around his neck is quite nice. His new type of new hair (as discussed
before) has the partition out of the centre. It can indeed be worn by any other Klicky, with the same effect of covering one eye (red footman squeezing in!):
The Black Baron has nice face printing, but beware of printed beards that merely accentuate the lack of a chin!
The set is modest in accessories. It comes with two free-standing torches and an ornate treasure chest, with a bag of coins to fill it (alleviating the worry that coins might be phased out). The chest is of a new colour, and the plastic has a pleasing wavy texture:
The best accessory to my mind is the wall-mounted ballista with two types of projectiles. It is a new model, also featuring (in a different colour) in 6002, and superior to the free-standing ballista first seen in the Roman sets of 2006: it is mobile yet secure, shoots well, and looks menacing. The ballista can be mounted on castle walls of set 4268, etc.:
as well as walls of castle 4865, etc.:
but does not fit Steck walls (
).
There is only one ladder included in the set, but the castle requires four to be fully accessible. Geobra could have been more generous here.
It is time to reach a verdict. How does the Black Baron's Castle compare to 4440? Both sets have the same play features (mobility, breakaway wall, launcher) but are radically different is size and weight: 6697 may be taller but is far more compact than 4440, and also lighter. This makes it a more suitable "take along" castle in little hands.
The size reduction comes at a price, though. It is already noticeable in the box art that the turrets of 6697 are quite unrealistic, with the parapet reaching no higher than a Klicky's middle and offering very little space for action. Clearly, current design philosophy favours playability and convenience over realism. We need to bear this in mind when considering 6697's very rudimentary drawbridge (compared to 4440's fully operational one, albeit in red
), or its two minimalistic rock elements that only symbolize a mountain landscape but cannot be climbed by the figures (3665 where are you??
).
Some might regret this, but perhaps it is better to accept current trends in toy design and stop comparing the new with the old. The launch price of set 6697 was a bit hefty but I'm glad I purchased it in a sale. I still prefer 4440 for its more monumental look and deeper commitment to realism, but see that 6697 is a good and aesthetically pleasing toy.
StJohn
