I saw lots reviews on youtube, and some didn't like it that much, yet they still find it BETTER than the Ice Cream Machine and the Trash Chomper, for me its a Castle Theme and I like Castle.

Though I wanted something with a gate, and this is a 2 in 1 set, and I was confused between this set and the Gatehouse Raid from the Original Castle theme, and I saw that the both had cool features, but I ended up buying this.

Box/Instructions

Box:

• Nice Colorful box, too sad no more flip covers
• Shows in the back the things you could do with the set

Comes with three instruction booklets:

• Book No.1 for the minifiguers and Micro Manager.
• Book No. 2 for the Castle Cavalry built,
• Book No. 3 for the gate set

Parts

This is why I got confused between this and the Gatehouse Raid, it has the basket, the round rail, wheels, bone & skull, catapults and most important The Lion Head, this is a very interesting part you can get for those who don't have it.

Sadly the stickers are sometimes a pain to place.

The downside it didn't have a spare spear, or came with Swords and shields as it should, also a treasure chest or a treasure barrel will be nice to be added and a couple of ladders as well.

Minifigures

Comes with three minifigures, the three of them has printed torsos from the front and back, only the Knight, Sir Stackabrick, who has shiny printed legs, and as for the face a printed red beard, I'm guessing this is everybody's favorite minifiguer.

The Gallant Guard, has nice shiny helmet, and a dirty look beard.

Sharon Shoehorn, comes with a red top and doubled sided face, one with a panicking look and the other the smirk smile.

The build

The first time I built the set, with the micro-manager, took me about 1 hour and 30 min or so, this is because I did not separate the parts as per colors. Now when taking the pieces a part and rebuild into one of the 2 options takes me around 40 min or a little less.

The completed model

The Castle Cavalry (The Pod Racer as People Name It): its pretty nice and if you just removed the towers it looks like a boat, so it could be a speed boat as well and not just a flying machine, even when you add the towers on the side, the only change I did is rotating the towers by having the holes of the tower to the Top, for me it makes more sense for when rescuing the Actress you could put her there, or it could be used more as a storage or adding extra minifiguers on each side.

The Gate: Nicer than the Gatehouse Raid, it has a nice rocky structure feeling, could be used as a river check point or a secret cave entrance... or anything that comes in your mind. The build also includes a catapult carriage that the guard moves it around. People didn't like the lanterns, but I guess its a nice small touch for it, and there are leftovers pieces when you finish it, but I was able to create a chair.
The nicest thing about the gate, is that it gives you a solid structure that you feel the pieces are holding up together, not a loose set, but it does need a ladder to climb up.

Overall opinion

I love the set, though people didn't like most of the Lego Movie 2 in 1 Sets, and sometimes they don't find it realistic, maybe because of the idea of making a castle thing into a flying machine, I simply named it the "Enchanted Gate" that has powers, or you could create a scenario like the series "Once Upon A Time" that having different realms or themes living together, and as I said previously it could be a racing boat, don't stick to what's in the box, but what is you can see in it counts as well. Lego is about imagination, so what can you see in it? If you find something in it go for it, otherwise forget about it.

One more thing, this set has the only Micro-Manager that comes with wheel and a grabbing claw or hand.

Needs couple of swords, shields and a ladder.

Summary

I watched the Lego Movie just before going out to see Lego Movie 2. One of the scenes I likes was the one where the inhabitants built their own vehicles to go after the Micromanagers and Lord Business. One of the more striking vehicles thereof was the Castle Cavalry, resembling a Star Wars podracer, and which was also produced as a Lego set. My local non-official Lego store had one on sale, so I went for it. I am not sure what to make of the final result, though I do not regret getting the set. The build was ok, though not superb. The end result looks nice, but peculiar. It plays OK, but is not extremely sturdy.... the micromanager is fun though. Overall I consider the original price for this set justified, and IMHO it is worth adding this set to one's Lego collection.

Build experience

The build itself is not too challenging, and I consider the age range appropriate. There are few stickers, which are easy to apply. The construction of the Micromanager is a fun little build, somewhat different from the more common (and larger) forms.

The build of the castle 'pod-racer' is OK. There is lots of plate-stacking and adding small bricks involved. The flick-fire missile launching mechanism is simple, effective and nicely integrated. The 'pods' are simple, and attached to the rest of the vehicle by a simple cross axle. This could have been a more sturdy connection, IMHO. There are a nice few brick pieces, as well as blue decorative parts. The designer has done a nice job integrating the parts used for a whole different scene into a cohesive whole; the use of the wheels is a nice example of this.

There are few specialty pieces, most notably the two tower wall elements and especially the lion's head. I really like the latter.

The minifigures

The three included minifigures are somewhat basic but lovely designs. Better yet, all three are unique to this set!

Sharon Shoehorn has a nice hair piece, and only print on the front of the torso. It looks like there might be some issue with the red base torso bleeding through her decolletage print. Her face has a double face print.

Sir Stackabrick and the Gallant Guard are two medieval figures, that could have come directly from any castle theme. The Gallant Guard has a fairly basic torso print with some detail. He has a somewhat scruffy face print, Unfortunately the white half of his gambeson comes in as light grey due to the base colour bleeding through a bit. He wears a silver old style helmet (open face with nose guard).

Sir Stackabrick is brilliant, and a superb minifigure. The print on the torso, especially the front, is highly detailed and busy, and simply lovely. He - unfortunatly - suffers from the same colour bleeding issue as the Gallant Guard, bit much of it is covered by a metal breast plate (in print). On the legs there is some plate armour on top, with bronze knee caps. He has a nice red beard, silver helmet with visor bars and blue feather.

The build

The Mircomanager is rather small (pretty much a 4x4 plate cubed) but I think it is actually one of the better designs. I like the many sensors, as well as the one single 'tentacle' to grab minifigures. The best feature of it are the two wheels which can be flipped out, enabling it to ride on the ground. That configuration is actually remarkably stable.

The cavalry element is as much cavalry as a modern tank is - no horse in sight. It in many ways resembles a pod from the Star Wars series. I like the overall look, and think the designer has done well to utilise all the parts for an attractive 2-in-1. It also shows clearly what the original 'function' of the bricks is, in this case being a gate and cart. It looks quite well finished. For me there are only a few minor things: the attachment of the pods to the central element, and the design of the engine exhausts could have been slightly improved upon (the pin uses is a little too long, adding a plate would have been good enough).

Play vs display

To me, this is more a play set, that could well be displayed as part of a 'modified vehicles' line up, combining it with the likes of the ice cream van or the trash chomper.

This set has good swooshability, though I can see children having some difficulty to figure out how to hold the set while simultanuously shooting the flick fire missiles or operating the two onagers. The slight flex in the attachment of the pods is not a hindrance. The Micromanager I can see being used as a pursuit vehicle, perhaps not only of Lego minifigures, but also adults. I like that this set leaves ample upportunity to act out pursuit scenarios.

This set is IMHO good enough to be a display piece (especially as part of a line-up). Some weaknesses (like the attachment) could fairly easily be remedied through simple modification.

The verdict

Overall, I think this is a pretty good set overall, worth the price. This is probably not the best set of this series of vehicles turned fighters 2-1's of the Lego Movie wave of sets. I can see this definitely be the set with the most 'love-it-or-hate-it' character of that wave. In some ways it biggest draw is getting some 'Castle' Lego without there being any 'castle' around. I do think the set offers good value for money, with three unique minifigures, the number of pieces (though many small) and the two build options offered.

I had 2 very distinct impressions when building this set. First, the Castle build:

Likes:

- Good level of details: textured bricks, torches, gates, banners, skeleton, wheel barrel

- Highly playable, despite some pieces falling off rather easily (small bits, mostly tower top decotarions)

- Fantastic price

Dislikes:

- It's a generic small castle set

- In terms of movie relevance, I could not really remember where it came from, then I spotted it at the Lord Business and Vitruvius intro scene (they are guarding the room where Vitruvius is)

Second build, Castle Cavalry

Likes:

- Not much, the whole thing seems a mess of parts smashed together

Dislikes:

- The whole build, which looks very uninspiring and, for lack of better adjective: ugly (or visually unattractive, if you prefer)

Mini selection:

- Very poor. All 3 are secondary characters, at best.

As I said before, these were my initial impressions after building both versions. Needless to say, I didn't enjoy very much. I was confused about how come one build look and felt like a proper Lego set (well thought, visually attractive, full of nice details) and the other was mostly a mess of bricks smashed together.

Then, when looking at it from a certain distance, it finally hit me: from a narrative perspective, considering the movie's main plot, this set is perfect. The Castle Cavalry build is exactly what children do with their sets once they are done with the "instructed" built: break it apart and put it together in whatever ways fits their story. Which, at least for me, serves to explain the awkwardness of the Calvary built.

However, even thought this would account for the design decision, it still not that attractive from an adult's perspective. Thankfully, the market for this set is pretty cold and you can usually find for cheap, sometimes even cheaper than the original retail price.

Set #70806 Castle Cavalry: More LEGO 2-1 builds to discuss, this time it's a typical Castle outpost turning into a... Podracer? This set is sort of amusing, sort of dissappointing and all around in the middle ground of LEGO Movie sets. It isn't bad, but it isn't the best either. And here's why.

Box/Instructions

Again a great design for the boxes in this theme, they display the contents in a very lively and eye catching manner with some nice cool colours and some decent space for the contents inside. They don't feel too crammed in like with some boxes.

Again we have three manuals, two numbered booklets (one which is again too thin as it just shows how to build the Micromanager and the Minifigs) and the other non-numbered booklet for the secondary build. All of them look and function like any other LEGO manuals, really by this point I find that the design for LEGO Instructions have been pretty much perfected. They showcase the steps for building the models adequately and mostly include ads that don't clutter them too badly. I do wish that LEGO would adopt the Checklists for Minifigures for every Theme they do though.

Parts

Your standard Castle parts in this set, nothing really new here as far as I can see. I do think it may have benefited from a few different pieces, then again this set does have a large number of the sculpted brick piece.

Minifigures

Micromanager: This tiny Minifig capturing tool from Lord Business is a small flying unit with a secret, it can fold out some wheels which turn it into a wheeled unit for chasing minifigures on the ground. No flick-fire missiles here, this one has a large grasper arm to capture the citizens of Bricksberg... Overall it's another fun little buildable character to menace your LEGO Movie Characters.

Gallant Guard: This is your basic LEGO Castle Good Knight kind of character, he's using the Crown Knight symbol from recent Castle Themes so he makes for a decent addition to your LEGO Castle display. Not much printing here, just a double-sided torso and single-sided face. He uses a spear and has a nice silver helmet. Really nothing too exciting to mention about him.

Sir Stackabrick: This is a much better Minifigure design, he has a double-sided torso print and leg printing included printed metal armour, his facial print looks great with a happy smile and red mustache and sideburns. His weapon of choice is the crossbow and his helmet is a nice silver coloured fully covering design with three slits to see through.

Sharon Shoehorn: This is the actress from Dude Where's my Pants? and she's another fun Minifigure. She's wearing a smart red top which is a double-sided print, has no leg printing and a double-sided facial print. One side with a fun little smirk the other with a tooth gritting look of fear. She has no accessories and a blonde hair piece... I think we've seen this same one on the Mermaid from the CMF line if I'm not mistaken.

The build

Again this is a two-in-one build from the Movie Theme, each build has very similar steps.

The flying vehicle that many have compared to the Podracer uses every piece in it's construction and looks pretty awkward honestly. The build is basically creating a flying Castle Outpost and many of the steps do come across as similar.

The outpost you can build alternatively uses much less pieces, and honestly looks kind of lacking. Similar outposts have incorporated much better build and design elements, I find this build to be the weakest out of this set. Honestly I've enjoyed more actual Castle sets in their builds compared to this one.

The completed model

For the primary build for the set from Middle Zealand we get to take a small castle outpost and build a flying vehicle of some kind. Don’t ask me what kind of propulsion it’s using, I honestly think these Middle Zelanders are tapping into the powers of the Force or something. A lot of reviewers have likened this vehicle to a Podracer, and personally that makes sense, to a certain degree, the design is partially like a Podracer in the way it looks, but in all honesty I think the real fun of this design is seeing a castle outpost turned into a vehicle barreling down on the Micro-Managers.

Unlike the Ice Cream Machine and the Trash Chomper sets this build uses all of the pieces in the main build. It incorporates tons of medieval architecture, and crossbows to attack with, it also features two missiles. Push on the technic pins in the back and you’ll ‘flick’ the flick-fire missiles next to the stone lion sculpted piece.

The rear section also has two working catapults. It’s a truly dangerous arsenal, be careful not to lose any pieces though when attacking the Micro-Manager and Robo-SWAT forces of Lord Business. I love the look of this set, as a fan of Castle I really love what LEGO has done with this particular set. You have a small outpost and with some clever imagination and Master Builder powers you get a flying assault craft to defend the LEGO universe from Lord Business and his evil plans.

The alternative model is a basic looking Castle Outpost, it has a working gate, a catapult launcher wagon and two small lanterns. There's nothing too wrong with this build, however I feel it suffers from a lack of decent forethought. For one thing there is no ladder or staircase for the two knights to reach the parapets, I will admit though it does look like the pair guarding it tore it apart to rebuild it into the 'podracer'. It would probably look better next to a few other Castle builds, if you incorporate other elements from the Castle Theme into it.

Overall opinion

Overall I'd say this is one 2-1 set that has a better flying vehicle model compared to it's alternate build, where the Ice Cream Machine looked great in both modes I was just expecting a bit more out of this castle outpost I think considering how many awesome builds LEGO has given us in the past. Perhaps it suffered from having to be a 2-1 build for the Movie Theme.

As a stand alone Castle set I couldn't really recommend it, but as a LEGO Movie flying castle based Podracer I wholeheartedly recommend this set. It's just got a load of charm in it as a whacky flying vehicle, like something out of Hanna Barbera's Whacky Racers cartoon, hmmm perhaps we could get a Caveman themed vehicle for the sequel.