Hi my Lego friends! A lot of fellow fanatics have written reviews to this set. Most of them have listed pros and cons, minifigs, traps etc. Let me leave these fetarues out from my review and please just read my personal feelings about this wonderful set.

The reason I use 'Dr. Kilroy' as a nickname is because an Orient Expedition set (actually Tygurah's Roar) has brought me back from my 'Dark Ages' in 2004 and from that time I'm a collector of all Orient Expedition and Adventurers sets. In fact I consider 'Orient Expedition' as an Adventurers subtheme, and I'd never list it on its own, but never mind...

Looking at the Dragon Fortress right in front of me on my desk, I hardly find words to describe my fascination by the beauty and the grandeur of this set. I've bought this set in 2005, built it several times and I've never gotten bored of building and playing with it.

It is very rare nowadays for Lego to build alternatives and include alternative building pictures on the box, because the sets are very specialized nowadys. It is not a complaint from me, I like modern Lego sets too, but this set is so OLD FASHIONED - in a good sense, and Lego included two fantastic alternative building pictures on the box and I've spent a lot of time just be trying to build them. It was so much fun, and I've managed to built the one which is similar to the Flying Ninja Fortress. The other one was so hard, I needed to add some extra pieces from my spares to manage to finish it.

The main attraction of course is the Dragon Fortress itself, which is not only a fantastic (actually the best) Adventurers set, but it is a great Castle set too, and it can be used in a modern Lego city too as Chinese Restaurant. That's what I call versatility. By an aeshetical point of view, it is simply perfect. The tan-red-black colour scheme is perfect and every little detail is there to please the spectators (yes, again!).

Everytime I build it, I marvel at the perfection of the finished building and the lot of playing features inculded in this set. Moreover, it does the big raised simmetrical baseplate justice. This special part is often critized in the 6091/6098, 8781 and 10176 reviews. The reason is because those sets are use this baseplate in a - somehow -wrong way, but not this one. Here we have a huge main building right over the middle section behind a stairway, which is usual in the Adventurers theme (see 7627 and 7327 too) but Lego designers didn't want to fill up the four little wholes with tiny and fragile separate towers, like in 10176, they've just added little supplementary buildings, weapons and ornaments etc. which did not not consume the pieces and did not detract them from being built to the main part of the building. That's why the main part of the Fortress is so beautiful. It has enough pieces to be detailed and beautiful. So if you use that big raised baseplate cleverly you won't have problem with it (the other fine example is the Amazon Ancient Ruins).

What's more to say? Using the included parts I have endless building possibilities on my own too! I like the minifigs very much and if I find the chinese gurads a little few in number I just place there the other two guys from the Emperor's Ship, which is a cheap army builder set if you want to have more chinese guards. I'm the one who like the board game too and I've played it several times with my sons, however the first part of the game included in the Temple of Mount Everest can be played better. The good thing is, that you can change the rules if you want, so you can raise the playing possibilities.

This set is an ultimate masterpice and after few years of its release it is already a Legend! Don't you miss it! Don't pass by, if you can get it.

This is the largest set of the Orient Expedition Sub Theme of the Old Adventurers Theme.

And sadly, the last set ever made for the storyline of the Adventurers theme.

Back in 2003, I was so excited to buy this set and when I finally had it, I could not wait to build it. And let me tell you, if you ever find this set somewhere, it will be worth to buy it.

The Minifigs:

There are quite a few minifgs in this set, about 10 to be exact, and for this sets price, I find that the minifig total is well worth the set. You get some of the most iconic Lego minifigs ever made, one of course being the great Johnny Thunder minifig and the evil Baron von Baron minifig. Also you get a really nice emperor for the fortress, Gail Storm, Dr. Kilroy, a female guide, and four fortress guards.

There are two additional characters included in the set, one of them being the fortress guardian, and he is awesome with all grey rare armor, and the Golden Dragon, which is the coolest artifact in the Adventurers Theme. Both of these two characters are very rare and overall are great for collections.

The Build:

I was not a very fast builder when I got this set, so in total it took me a few hours. The set is humongous, and to add to that, the level of detail in the fortress makes the build one of the more challenging builds of a lego set.

There are three main parts to the build. The first part deals with the minifigs and the big truck. The second part deals with the base of the fortress, which is the longest part of the entire building process. And Lastly the third part deals with the upper piece of the fortress.

So let's start with Part 1. The vehicle truck is very nice and the treads on the back wheels makes it a very sturdy truck. Also the equipment that comes with the truck is plentiful. The characters, I already talked about.

Part 2 of the build is like I said, the longest time wise portion to build. Everything is built around a nice base plate, and there are many contraptions and a secret hiding place for the dragon to hide. Also the guardian's room acts as a key to the secret room for the dragon. In order to access the dragon's room, there are two key rooms to the side of the guardian's room, and inside both rooms are contraptions that with the turn of a wheel, set the guardian's room free and allow access to the dragon. All in all, this contraption is very intricate and works superbly.

Part 3 of the build is the top half of the fortress. In this part there is a golden helmet artifact, a trapdoor, a secret treasure hole, and two booby traps that send rocks falling down of those at the front door to the fortress. The trapdoor also works as a secondary booby trap to send more rocks down on those whom enter the fortress. Overall the build of the top half resembles a lot of Asian architecture and this is a very nice touch.

Overall:

This set is great, you get many traps, and awesome minifigs to play for hours on end. This set has it all. I loved the Adventurers theme and I still do. It incorporates everything that Lego stands for. A nice story, awesome playability, and a fun and intuitive build.

Pros:

-12 or so Minifigs

-Big and fun set

-Very nice functions and traps

-Very nice Truck

-Worth the $100 dollars paid, compared to sets nowadays, this set is worth it

Cons:

-a silly boardgame that comes with the set (I left this out of the review, because I never bothered to even use it)

-The last Adventurers set ever made :(

Overall, I highly recommend this set to anyone who can find it, and for everyone who does own this set and remembers how much fun they had with the Adventurers theme, share in my nostalgia. I hope lego decides to continue this amazing theme. So this set gets an outstanding 5/5!

Intro

Somehow when I posted my review of this set yesterday, the last two paragraphs got cut off. So, here's the exciting conclusion of my review. Get ready to finish analyzing the dragon fortress in fortress of playability, part 2!

Second Floor

Overall

I spent one Christmas Eve barely able to sleep hoping I would get this set! After getting it built, I couldn't stop playing with it! This set is one of my favorites its packed with cool chambers, traps, rare pieces and great minifigures! Best of all it features the Golden Dragon relic which is extremely detailed! Below are pros and cons

Pros-
*Awesome Minifigures
*Cool rooms and chambers
*Detailed relics including Golden Dragon, keys, and helmet
*Cool vehicle

Cons-
*Small rocks that are released out of catapult can be lost fairly easy, other than that none really.

so many new elements and colors provide a fun build and endless posibilities for other creations. Including: new green, cool base plate, Golden dragon, Golden helmet, and cool emperor cape. Also smaller dishes, and cool lanterns.
Fantastic playability make for great play without compramising the overall athstetics of the structure. overall great set, one of the best in years. Also it has great value.