What a great set! Once again, I never owned this as a kid, but I used to dream about how fun it had to be whenever I spent hours staring at the beautiful scenarios that Lego used to put for each of their themes in their catalogues. When I did finally get my hands on it, as an adult, it was all I hoped it would be! It has a surprising amount of mini figures for it's size, and has many fun play features! Some figures have different coloured prints that are extremely hard to find in other Forest Men sets. Highly recommended!

This is one of my most cherished Lego sets. I really loved the Forestmen and I wish I got more of them as a kid. I used to play wars between these guys and the ones from my Black Fortress castle or even against my Pirates even though it did'nt make historical sense... I always like these guys as I saw them as underdogs against the bigger guys.

It is not a complicated build although you don't really understand what you're building until it all comes together at the end. It really plays well with the whole camouflage theme as there is two secret entrances and a lot of green leaves. There is also the added bonus of being able to open the building and having a different angle to play with.

There is not really any unique or rare parts to make the building. The minifigs are another story as I lost a lot of the feathers, hats and accessories over the years. I even lost the yellow forestman which I believe is Robin Hood and that makes me very sad to only have five of the six figs. I also lost the neck basket for the black fig.

As you can see I was able to make up for the lost hats and feathers with regular hair, castle feathers and a pirate hat. I hope I can replace those eventually as with my lost Robin Hood...

So If you have the opportunity to find this set, I highly recommend it. I wish the Forestmen could make a comeback...

Overall Rating

5/5. For 1987, this is an amazing set. Awesome, playability, parts, and figures.

Building Experience

I had this one as a kid and recently rebuilt from my childhood bins. Even with the difficulty in finding all the parts mixed together with 50 other sets, the build came together sort of quickly. It's a fun build and there are some good techniques as well. The only thing I would say is that it would probably look better with the tree being brown (although the needed parts in brown didn't exist at the time).

Parts

Lots and lots of trees and leaves which for the time period were fairly rare. A brown horse, a variety of forest men (including the very rare black feather), lots of archers, a treasure chest, my favorite printed grey castle wall piece, etc. Excellent parts on the whole.

Playability

Fantastic playability with 6 minifigs, a horse, and an interesting base for them. The secret entrances are awesome and provided for a ton of fun. It helps to have another castle set to have these guys have someone to fight against, but even without it, you could come up with some scenarios given the differences in the types of forest men included.

Value for the Money

I see $23 as the original cost which would be about $50 today. That would definitely be worth it in my opinion in 1987. You can still pick up a complete one for < $100 on Bricklink and that's still a good value for the history, nostalgia, and quality of the set.

Overall 5 bricks : This is a great set from a great (sub)theme, the Forestmen. Reviewing a set from 1987 in a time when you have the great Hobbit sets with Elfs is double hard because it easy but unfair to compare them. Although Lego had a lot less parts to choose from than now this set is still great in parts, construction and playability, I think today it would still be a huge succes.

Building 5 bricks : Old school building with a lot of small bricks and several panels make this great fun, it is not too difficult. You start with building the cave on 2 small base plates connected with hinges. It has 2 hidden entrances, a side door and the hidden hatch. The top is camouflaged with tree branches with leaves and has a turret for a guard. When finished you can close the 2 parts with a lovely building as result.

Parts 4 bricks : Not the full 5 because there are some things left to wish. The amount of 6 Merry men is great but maybe 4 and 2 opposite mini figures would have been better. And maybe some brown parts for the tree branches instead of black would have been nice. But overall great parts, 2 trees and 11 leaf parts, 2 printed wall panels, a load of black arches and all very useful parts for MOC's.

Playability 4 bricks : As mentioned before some enemy many figures would have been great and would have made it 5 bricks. But the set has great playability of course with the 6 mini figures including a horseman, hidden entries, a treasure and the possibility to open it.

Value 4 bricks : The 1987 retail price, being I guess some € 25.00, was great. According to Bricklink the average used price is nowadays some 52 euro's which is expensive but worth it for a collector. If i had to choose between a new Hobbit set with Elves or this one for €50.00 I would grab this great set anytime !

Though it's not a Castle, I think this is one of the top sets from the Theme. In terms of character, uniqueness, and playability, this set cannot be beat.

Parts

I'm not a "piece" expert, so I can't say what is unique or rare, but I can say that the leafy-fronds, the treasure chest, and the goblets all stand out as fun and interesting components.

Minifigures

Robin Hood, Little John, and 4 Redshirts. You might pick them out as Will Scarlet (red details) and Alan-a-Dale, but everyone knows who the top two are. Hand a kid this book and this set, and they're set for weeks of entertainment.

Cool hats, archery gear, and a basket backpack. Love 'em.

The completed model

A concealed main door, a secret door, a skeletal battlement, lots of branches and limbs to climb/stand on--a stall inside for your horse. There's lots of room inside for everyone to hide out if the Sheriff comes by. The set hinges open for increased play environments.

Top marks for layout and design.

Overall opinion

This set defines the Forestmen subtheme. Other kits are larger or more "foresty", but this is the perfect fusion of the grey of Castle combined with the forest growth of Forestmen. It's healthy number of MFs (6! and a horse!) establishes the Forestmen as an instant army.

If you don't have it, buy it.