As a big fan of LOTR, it was only a matter of time until I put my Lego money to this set, and was it ever worth it, even nine years later! Obviously, I can't recommend the current price for a sealed version of this set, but given that it was nine years old, sealed, and above all is just a great set, the price I paid was fair. On to the set:

I admit, I'm not a castle fan, buying this set only because its from LOTR, but if there was a set that could get me into castles, it would be this one. The overall shape whilst being small, is sufficiently accurate to the film. I am happy with the height of the walls and they all have about the same proportions. The pieces used to make the windows slightly smaller is quite clever although they take up some space inside. The small wooden doors above the gate actually work, and you can drop small items on the Orcs from above. (All I want is a PJ minifig to go with that particular feature.) The interior of the main castle is quite empty, which isn't a big deal for me, but for kids at the time, it would probably have been disappointing. The detail is saved for the inner wall which is simply placed inside the outer wall. One problem it has is that it's not tall enough compared to the outer wall. I raised mine two bricks high and it looks a lot better on display. Its interior has been influenced by the keep, which is actually inside the mountain. It is inaccurate, but the details are welcome! It has King Theodens campaign throne, some weapons, and a table and chairs. I also like the large stickered banner with a white horse on a green background. The tower Hornburg is noticeably shorter than the real one and the top is kind of a mess of bricks. Still, it has the horn, and a long ladder to climb to the top. I also mustn't forget the Gimli (and Aragorn) tossing function. It has been the most played with feature on my set, its quite fun to toss Gimli and send the Orcs toppling! Also included is the small door for them to sneak out of, a detail which actually surprised me was included. Next is the Deeping Wall. The wall is obviously too small, but as purchasing #9471 Uruk Hai Army at the same time is basically a given, it quickly becomes a suitable length. Something I don't find fault with, the set is designed to be expanded on. One surprising thing I noticed was the complete failure of the exploding function! It actually did not work! The lever directly connected to the technic axle has two pieces on the end. Push it down, and the adjoining piece hits the table and the wall maybe tips a little. Easily fixed by removing those two pieces, but I'm quite surprised that they designed it that way. Once fixed however, it works seamlessly! (I still think that if the Gondorians had just built the culvert grate flush with the outside of the wall, Sarumans bomb would have failed miserably lol) The set also has a nice amount of torches which really brighten up the boring grey and green. Well, thats probably enough on the build itself, but it is quite solid, and whilst being too small overall, is very accurate looking. Minifigs next:

This set comes with eight minifigs, four for each "side" offering nice battle action. The set on its own looks quite sparse, but once again, when added to its counterpart, it gets another four Uruk Hai, Eomer, a Rohan soldier, and another horse. Add Legolas, and you've got a very fine fifteen minifigs. On a humorous note, I always thought the elf in the set was Legolas. Fast-forward to me actually getting the set and realising that I did not in fact have Legolas and would have to spend more money on Lego. Haldir was a very welcome addition though, and thirty dollars for a Legolas really isn't bad. King Theoden, Aragorn, Gimli, and Haldir are all included. Gimli has a nice helmet, but in order for him to request a box, you have to remove his legs. Aragorn and Haldir aren't anything amazing minifig wise, but are excellent to have. King Theoden is where you start admiring the amazing printing. He is an exclusive minifig, and a handsome one as well. He has a standard Rohan helmet, but it has beautiful golden horse printing on it. He also has a cleanly printed shield and exclusive printed armour. The included Uruk Hai are the same as #9471, but are detailed well. There is also the exclusive Uruk which lights the fuse of Sarumans bomb. He is a somewhat basic looking minifig, but offers some nice variation to the Uruk army. These minifigs on their own aren't quite enough for the castle, but add a few more and you've got an army!

This set just makes me wish all the more that I had got these sets when they were available An impressive set then, and now! I can't speak for everyone on the price, but if you want one, buy it now before these go up in value with the new Amazon show coming out soon! Thanks for reading!

As a kid my favorite Lego set growing up was the King's Castle set (6080). However it is still the only Lego castle that I own. My only other set from the castle theme of the 80's was the Armor Shop (6041), and I've never gotten anything castle related since. So I was pretty excited to get this set, and while it's very different from my childhood set, it is a fantastic set.

Minifigures

The minifigures to this set are incredible. In fact, it is because I had received this sets collection of minifigures from a friend who was moving that I got into the whole LOTR/Hobbit line. With 8 minifigures in this set equally divided between good and bad you sure have a lot to play with.

There are 4 orcs. 3 of them are identical with the only exception that one of the three doesn't wear armor, and they all look great. The unique orc is the berserker orc who lights the fuse to the bomb. He is actually completely unique to any of the orcs in the entire line, so he is definitely a minifigure you will want to get your hands on. While his legs aren't detailed, and he has no hair or helmet, he still looks great.

Then you get the good guys. Two of whom are Aragon and Gimli (surprisingly Legolas is missing). These two are very common appearing in several other sets each, but still very nice to have.

For the elves, we get Haldir. Personally I don't think he looks all that unique and is certainly interchangeable with some of the elves from the Hobbit line. However this isn't a bad thing since those elves could then easily be brought into this set to join him, and we really don't need another Legolas minifigure.

Finally we get King Theodin who is without a doubt the highlight of this set and maybe even the entire line. The printing on his torso and legs is the clothing he wears and while very accurate are nowhere near as exciting as the attire of some of the elves. However what sets him is his armor. His body armor is the same mold that two of the orcs from this set wear, however Theodin's armor is printed magnificently. His helmet is also amazing, I'm not sure if it is the same mold as Gimli's helmet, but even if it is the printing looks great. But how do you make a great minifigure even better? Give him one of the new horses with the poseable legs.

Parts

This set contains an absolutely amazing collection of parts for anyone wanting to build a castle, including 10 window panels and 4 corner walls. Now these parts have changed a lot since the 80's, but if anything they are probably easier to use as they are now square. Besides them you of course have mostly light gray, but unlike the monotone Tower of Orthanc, you also have a healthy collection of dark grays, blacks, browns, sand greens, and a few other colors. Not to mention you get lots of large parts and tons of hinges.

The Build

I spent 4 hours building this set, but much of that time was spent sorting and looking for bricks as I got the set used and the bricks were all mixed together in a large container. Because there are so many different sections to the build, it is constantly changing and introducing different techniques which keeps it pretty exciting. Even the symmetrical builds require you to pay attention as sand green bricks get scattered randomly throughout the builds.

The curved walls are reminiscent to the Attack on Weathertop set in that you alternate stacking hinges and bricks, only in this set each curved panel is much larger. I was more impressed with Weathertop as it packed this technique into a much smaller space, but it is definitely nice to see this technique used on a much larger scale as well.

The breakaway wall is interesting as at first it seems very simple, but then as you continue building you see that you are stacking breakaway section after section to create a rather complex and compelling explosion when you activate what is this sets one and only play feature (aside from a couple of tiny catapults). Unfortunately the effect doesn't work great as the wall chunks don't go flying, but they do definitely fall apart.

The build is also completely modular, allowing you to connect any section to any other section on either side. Including the large section containing the throne room which wouldn't normally be attached. This is of course how you attach 9471 if you have the add on set.

What's amazing about this set is how much it is able to achieve with just simple stacking. There is very little technic or SNOT in the set.

Overall

I absolutely love this set. It definitely is a castle, and the throne room is incredibly well detailed (even though it relies on stickers). Unlike my childhood set however, it is not a complete castle as it does not enclose itself but is rather just a facade with one interior room. But because it all comes apart and can be repositioned, you could certainly lay it out to create an enclosed space.

Anyways, I highly recommend this set to any castle or LOTR fans. It truly looks amazing and is impressively large as well. Combine that with a fantastic collection of minifigures, a constantly changing build, and the ability to be rearranged to create any look you like, and you have one of the best Lego sets ever made.

Let me start this off by saying, I loved the Lord of the Rings movies, and when I heard Lego was releasing a theme based on this I had to get them. My collection started with the Orc Forge and quickly grew to include many other sets as well. The one that stood at to me above all else was by far the Helms Deep set. There are so many different possibilities with this set, all of the minifigures you could want to play out epic scenes from the movies.

I was especially happy at the berserker orc and loved the detail on the head. The Uruk-Hai army is nice as the armor differentiates from one main set and so allows you to have what looks close enough to be an army but yet doesn't look absolutely identical. Gimli and Aragorn are in many of the other sets but still give multiple options for playing or dynamic set-ups. Haldir looks great and you can almost picture him shouting orders to his men. Theodin looks great alone, but when you put on his chest plate and helmet he really looks like a great king of Middle Earth.

Though the age range is from 10 - 14 I suggest any adult to purchase this and as long as a child can build it, he/she would have so much fun playing with it. Though the build can be tough I would say it's a moderate model as most they break it down into easy to handle parts and then snap them together with pins. This also allows it to easily be taken apart and transported.

It is absolutely huge as it sprawls over a 22 inches wide and the tower is just under 15 inches tall. Playability has no limits as this model has everything from an exploding castle wall to the working catapults placed strategically along the wall. I also love how you can buy the Rohan set and connect it with this one to create an even larger scene. You could even buy 10 of them and have an even larger castle. While this may not sound like a good way to spend your money (and trust me it isn't) it would definitely improve the scene and playability.

All in all I would definitely give this model 5 stars!

Parts

The part selection is rather boring for a 1300+ pieces set, since it's mostly grey bricks, though it includes mason bricks, many panels in different sizes and lots of hinges. Otherwise, very little to note, a golden plate, a chicken leg... also weapons are very nice, way better than in the castle theme. Overall, very good source of grey bricks and that's all.

Minifigures

Minifigs could be the best as well as the most lacking part of the set. They are excellent, though 3 of them are clones. 3 are exclusive. I would say the berserker is the weakest one due to no leg printing. they all have back printing. they all have double sided face. 1 printed armor. 2 printed helmets. I would say it's my best set for minifigures, except maybe for pirate ship ambush. Now, what is lacking? Well, too little of them of course. At least getting more orcs or uruk-hais isn't too hard, but there are only 4 defenders for the whole castle. There should have been some generic elves or humans soldiers, especially when those are so rare...

The build

It's a rather easy and repetitive build. advanced technics include building at various angles and SNOT, which is hardly more challenging. I would say the rear section was the most interesting to build.

Playability

Unfortunately, not a ton for a set of this price. you have the mandatory 2 opposing armies, 4 ways to enter the castle (main gate, hidden gate, ladder, and blowing up a wall), there is not a lot of interactions, except for blowing up a wall (more like collapsing actually) and some catapults.

The completed model

Very nice. I knew it wouldn't be very tall, but it is large, it must be close to 50 x 40cm. I think the tower is 25cm. It is larger than the picture shows, but the rear section isn't that high, it's lower than the main gate.

Overall opinion

I like how the layout is very 3 dimensionnal and has several layers, instead of just being a flat fascade like many lego buildings. Now the castle is noticeably low, and uruk-hai could climb the wall very easily which is innacurate to movie, but it is consistent with the way lego castles are built, they always have irrealistically small dimensions. One possible improvement could have been to make the moutain under the main gate higher.

Yeah so, lots of 3/5 ratings and the final mark is 5. Makes sense, right? As a display model I think it does well, I like it better than I thought (and the minifigs should be a 5 too). Now for playing, I would rate this lower. Of course it looks fun, it's a castle, and it's Helm's Deep, but there are many cheaper sets which offer many more play features.

Box/Instructions

The set comes in a standard box.

Parts

There are some great parts, including a few mossy green, gray brick pieces along with rails to make the ladder. They also included an elephant trunk that is used as a horn for Gimli to blow. Also, the set comes with little slanted blocks that go great with the castle.

Minifigures

This set comes with 3 exclusive minifigures, including the KING THEODEN!!!! This guy has amazing detail on his shield, torso, and helmet. Haldir also comes in this set, and he has an Elven bow along with great torso and pant printing, and an exclusive face. The berserker Uruk-Hai, who has a metal plate on the back of his head, and has a torch. Also, King Theoden has his horse. The one thing I could've asked for would be maybe one more Orc? Or some Rohan guards? Lego makes you buy the Uruk Hai army to get them!

The build

The build takes a while, considering there is so much detail! They have an amazing new door that you have to build along with water in the drainage part. and arrow slits for archers to shoot out of!

The completed model

The model along with the minifigures is great! Exactly what I wanted and more!

Overall opinion

This set is way worth the money! The minifigures Gimli, Aragorn, the King, Uruk Hai's, and Haldir!! I rate this set a 5/5!!! Thanks for reading!