5783 Eagle Castle vs 3268 Knights Empire Castle: a brief comparison

[Martin Milner]

These two castles are both built with the system-X, but 3268 costs 25-50% more - so is it worth the extra cost?

The bulk of the castles are built from the same components, and the colour of the stonework is the same, so these units can easily be combined to make a mega-castle.

The main difference is that the 3268 set incorporates a domestic side, with a (Count or King or Baron) and his lady, and a herald, living in a keep - with an outside garderobe (medieval toilet) and a stable underneath which may be intended as a dungeon, and a falcon and a dog for hunting. The drawbridge on the 3268 set doesn't have the breakaway portion, though there is still a breakaway wall section.

The red-tiled roofs give it a more cosy feeling, but I dislike the blue doors and windows - I'd refer a generic castle which I can populate with my chosen band of knights, and I'll replace the blue windows and doors with direct order spares in time.

The magnificent gatehouse with drawbridge is the same in both sets.The red clip-on tops in 3268 give the guards a little more comfort, though they wouldn't last long in a siege.

The box pictures for 3268 do not show that the back of the keep is open, so you can play with figures inside.

If your (inner) children only play battles, then the Eagle castle has everything you need. If they want to recreate the domestic side of castle life, then the extra features of the larger set are useful.

[Richard]

Thank you for a very nice comparison and report, Martin!

It seems that these two castles might be said to be the SystemX versions of the Steck System's small and large castles (see attachments).

[Martin Milner]

It seems that these two castles might be said to be the SystemX versions of the Steck System's small and large castles (see attachments).

I see what you mean Richard, very much parallels.

I  started too late to get any Steck system castles (unless I pay £££ on eBay), but once you get used to it, SystemX is certainly adaptable. I've spent much of the weekend jigging re-jigging my design.

I'm not fond of the little red & yellow connectors, but I can see now why they're necessary, and accept them - and they put in a bag of each, so there's plenty of spares.

My main problem with this system is the thought of a child receiving this huge box under the tree at Christmas. If I were the parent of a 5-year old boy, I'd be torn between opening the box first and preparing all the pieces, or letting the kid have the "fresh box" experience, but then getting frustrated during set up.

I guess I'd give him the figures to play with while I put castle together.

[playmofire]

My main problem with this system is the thought of a child receiving this huge box under the tree at Christmas. If I were the parent of a 5-year old boy, I'd be torn between opening the box first and preparing all the pieces, or letting the kid have the "fresh box" experience, but then getting frustrated during set up.

I guess I'd give him the figures to play with while I put castle together.

I believe that the thinking in Playmobil is that the "getting ready for play" part of Playmobil is a shared experience between parent and child.  This is why even sets such as the Specials (despite being basically a single figure) have an element of "construction" involved, as well as it being cost saving.

[Timotheos]

I  started too late to get any Steck system castles (unless I pay £££ on eBay), but once you get used to it, SystemX is certainly adaptable. I've spent much of the weekend jigging re-jigging my design.

Thanks for the good review, Martin.

Castle 3666 (steck large castle) is very nice, with even more domestic aspects (baron, wife with castle key, son, maid, man-servant, herald, guards).  It occasionally pops up MIB for a reasonable price (at least on US ebay, US$130-US$180).  It's a set not to lose sight of (same with the Merry Men Banquet).   

I've made peace with system X, also.  My complaint is that the System X castles lost the ability to stack walls vertically, as Steck can do.  I don't consider this a fault inherent in system X, but with the design decisions taken in designing the System X castle parts.  The (inner) child is much more constrained in what he can do with the pieces available in 3268.  He can make the courtyard more spacious with more pieces, but due to the large pieces that make up the keep, there isn't much he can do to re-design the keep or make higher walls.  However, with more System X from other non-castle sets, I believe somebody could introduce interior buildings to the courtyard or expand the keep.

(I have both 3268 and 3666 and have wrestled to combine the two.  I wind up using the 3268 walls as outer city walls and the steck pieces for my manor.  System X walls are shorter than Steck, so even touching them together (and pretending they are interlocked) doesn't look real great).

[core]

These two castles are both built with the system-X, but 3268 costs 25-50% more - so is it worth the extra cost?

Is that the price differential in the UK?!  Over this side of the 'pond we're looking at a >300% difference in price! (US$50 vs. $180)

[Arizzo]

Is that the price differential in the UK?!  Over this side of the 'pond we're looking at a >300% difference in price! (US$50 vs. $180)

maybe this is due to the fact that the 5783 is a US exclusive (not available in europe via "normal" distribution) whereas the 3268 probably is a regular imported playmobil item

eventually target fixed the price of the US exclusive set in the contract with geobra - another hint for this theory might be that there are two pics existing for the 5783: the one which is shown in this thread and another one with an added tower on one of the corners of the castle. Due to increasing prices, currency exchanges etc. maybe the original planned version WITH the tower was cut down to the actual current version without the tower to keep the fixed price - but increasing prices and currency exchanges do occur on the regular 3268 castle

just a guess though ...