Knights Kingdom II was the Ninjago theme before the introduction of Ninjago and I loved it. Those knights had so much character and satisfying designs.
I love seeing how many themes draw inspiration from Knights' Kingdom with the four colorful characters. Exo-Force is another theme that feels incredibly similar, even though the setting is completely different
Bionicle arguably introduced the color coded team to lego themes. The story team originally planned to just have 4 toa, one for each classical element, but lego wanted 6 sets.
@@FlushedNoob... Classic Space did assigned colors to specific specialist, but eXtreme Team predates Bionicle, and there were slight personalities to the characters in that theme, which featured assigned colors.
LEGO Executive #1: "Alright, Knight's Kingdom undersold, how could we make it cooler?" LEGO Executive #2: "Well what's cooler than knights? I can't think of anything kids like more than knights!" LEGO Executive #3: "NINJAS!!!" And thus, Ninjago was born...
This was such a great theme that had so much thought and love put into it- I think it teaches a lot of lessons for making a successful theme. Fleshed out lore, memorable and unique characters, and enough of its own identity repeated/revisited throughout various sets to make it feel cohesive and planned out. Great video!
I really wish I had the chess set back then. It's legit just a big army builder set lmao. So many soldiers for both sides, meanwhile the main sets have like, one soldier...
My goodness.....I was 9 when this theme came out, and it has such a dear place reserved in my nostalgia-filled heart for lines like this, with fun, simple storylines and colorful original characters. I hope Lego brings something like this back one day. 😭
I had the Citidel of Orlan. I got it for christmas in 04 and our state had a winter vortex with freezing rain and most of the state was without power for the better part of a week. My mom dad and I spent christmas morning in our garage/workshop because the house was too cold and we had a wood burning stove in it so i built the set in the workshop that chrismas day. I also have a distinct memory of playing with one of the knights kingdom sets while watching Master and Commander Far Side of The World. This video brings back some memories.
This was an awesome theme with great lore and interesting characters. I got Border Ambush a couple years ago for Christmas and it still holds up really well even after 20 years. The minifigs are super cool and unique too and I hope to get some more. It’s a great theme that I think is really underrated, especially in the LEGO Castle community. Though I’ve always thought it’s weird that this is the same theme as the earlier Knights Kingdom sets with the Bull Knights since they aren’t connected at all afaik.
Remember having a few of these and went to my grandparents and sure enough my grandmother kept them and my brother and i actually had ALL phase 1 sets(main map), spent 2 days putting them all back together and only missing 25 basic pieces ie flames and holders, going to look for them but worse case will just buy them to finish them all out. Huge nostalgia hit
I love these videos. No reaction, no review just information about the sets and any cool details about them. I had a lot of these sets as a kid and it's nice to see them lovingly displayed.
Cheesey: first and foremost congratulations on reaching 100.000+ subscribers!!! I’m not at all surprised you hit this milestone so quickly and I think this video is a testimony on why. Not only are you wholesome, honest, down to earth, intelligent and relaxing to watch but you have some of the highest quality LEGO content out there. These videos must take for ever to make but are so worth it in the end as we the viewer can see the amount of effort you put into these videos. I have no doubt you’ll break the next goal really soon!
2000s lego is infinitely fascinating, they were just throwing so many amazing ideas at the wall, maybe not all of them stuck but they're all extremely memorable
Maybe "Vladek encounter" was supposed to be sold alongside those two last sets That could explain wju Danju isn't in the Knights' wall, because he was originally planed to be included in "Vladek's siege engine" along with the catapult. It sounds like one of those situations where somebody decided that they needed to split it into more sets so they could sell them separatly
I loved every era of the Lego Knights including this particular theme. My brother and I had the GBA game, the watch, the magnets, the random non-story related wall and siege tower and all the knights and Vladek. This theme holds a special place in my heart as well.
The adventure box was one of my favorite sets as a kid! One of the most interesting pieces of gear is the Legoland photo frame that includes Jayko and Johnny Thunder
So glad you did a video on Knights Kingdom! I’m such a huge fan of the theme! It’s very underrated! I grew up on this theme and got into lego castle! For my 4th birthday I had a cake full of the huge technical knight figures!
I never had any of these sets, but distinctly remember finding the story book in my library and getting sucked into that. I'm really glad to have the chance to see what the sets and theme were like, having somehow managed to get nostalgic for sets I never even had. Thanks!
One of my earliest lego childhood memories was walking into Toys R Us and buying the Citadel set. I loved this theme and had several of the sets but never managed to get Danju :( Lego has missed out on having a castle theme for years now. These were top notch with their play features
I always thought this theme was a great mixture of more story-intensive themes like Bionicle/Ninjago/etc and the more “generalized” theming of many classic ranges. It was never hard to grasp for a newcomer looking for fun Castle sets, but it did have an ongoing narrative. Real shame about the interiors, though. We’re so spoiled by that kind of detail in sets now, it could get pretty dire back in the day
One major thing they left out was the knights horses. That would’ve been awesome to have not just for the small sets but also the full sized action figures.
Knights' Kingdom was possibly the most foundational LEGO theme for me growing up - probably split between that, Johnny Thunder, and Bionicle. Those themes together informed my love for serialized storytelling, lore, character archetypes, and worldbuilding. Combining the comics with the sets, the trading cards, and the young reader novelizations starts to paint a surprisingly complete picture of the world they were building. I have all of the standard retail sets for wave one and two of KK, sadly missing most from the third wave. I also thought all the play features built into the sets were really solid, with the Citadel of Orlan being the real stand-out there. This theme will never fail to fill me with absolute nostalgia. And yes, please, absolutely do more Revisiting videos for the Knights' Kingdom line!
There's a magic to this theme we've never seen from any other LEGO castle theme. I'll always look back on it very fondly too! I'm happy to let you know that I've managed to get all the wave 2 sets now too - so a Revisiting video should show up eventually :)
A little fun anecdote regarding Mike Rayhawk, behind much of the artwork of this line, is that he's also the one behind the unofficial lego-derived wargame "Brikwars", which apparently was more influential (mainly through the artwork for it) to Lego than they would ever admit a wargame about maximum violence, carnage and fun be.
@@CheeseyStudios I mean, Knights Kingdom, Exo-Force, Power Miners, Mars Mission. Lego had some really interesting original IPs and fun sets in the late 2000s and early 2010s
You just got a new sub. I gad a massive smile on my face watching this reflecting on my early days of collecting castle. Thanks for bringing back great memories.
I like to think the polybag minifigs with generic helmets are younger versions of the knights. Like maybe they were just regular soldiers until they were found and knighted. And I guess Vladek looked like Johnny when he was younger.
This is what I had as a kid, my first Lego castles I remember as a kid I was frustrated by the base plate and as it didn't open up it was difficult to play with it. But loved being the good guys. The scorpion castle on the other hand I was obsessed with as it opened out and I could lay down and play along the whole of length of the castle and their battles with the knights! Such nostalgia!
Knights Kingdom was one of my favorite lines when I was a kid, and I still have some of those sets built today! I remember my parents getting me the special edition of the Grand Tournament that came with big foam versions of Vladek's sword and shield, and as a seven year old, that was sick! Great video!
As a child, at Legoland, I had the choice of picking up this or 10131, a set of four TIE fighters and I am so glad I went with the castle. It’s aged so well and is iconic.
Congrats on 100,000 subs! You deserve all of it and more. Knights Kingdom really feels like the forerunner to Ninjago, with concrete storylines and fleshed-out characters. Looking forward to a part 2!
Ayy, thank you so much! There really are a lot of Ninjago similarities - it's pretty cool to see. Good news is that I'm well on my way to getting all the wave 2 sets I need :)
Man I LOVED this theme when I was younger. It completely absorbed me. I remember checking the LEGO website constantly for info on the knights and their stories.
I have been binge watching all of your videos on 2000s Lego themes, and It’s bringing back so much memories. I knew I was building Lego young, always thought I started at 5 yrs old, but based on this theme, I’m starting to think my parents must’ve gotten me started a lot younger than I realized 😆
These came out around the time my parents exposed me to the lord of the rings for the first time and I’ve been a lover of this fantasy genre ever since. So many fond memories of 10 year old me playing with these sets in combination with the castle theme sets. I still have Vladek’s castle on display in my Lego room to this day ❤ Lovely to see a retrospective of wave 1 and can’t wait for wave 2!!
Great video! A real joy to watch! I really look forward to you covering the next wave of this theme! They were some of the first lego sets I ever collected and I love this theme so much!
Very nice, perfect timing on the video, I put it on quietly in the background while I did other things, would definitely be interested in a video on the other waves!
So big spiky castle, huh? Find of reminds me of Knighton's Castle in the rock monster's wave of sets from NEXO Knights. Even the knights' armor is cool and interesting.
Knights Kingdom II is my favorite theme of all time. I was lucky enough as a kid to have every set of wave 1 except the polybags (which I have now). I played the board game a ton. 7 year old me didn’t care what adults on board game geek had to say about it. I’m looking forward to the wave 2 video!
I really loved this castle. It was my first ever set, that I got back in '04. Recently I decided to rebuild it, after having it disassembled for almost 15 years. But I thought, I could still improve the build, so first I swapped all colored bricks to light and dark grey. Then I made the 4 towers taller, which definitely makes it look better now. I also connected the gate to the raised baseplate, so it's all stable now 😁. I might try to improve the castle further in the following days.
The 2007 Castle series was probably my favorite LEGO series ever. I had so many of the sets, and each one had so many cool gameplay features and little details.
Knights Kingdom was my first introduction to LEGO Castle, even though the only set I had from this first wave was the small blue catapult polybag. I'd love to see you do a video on the Wave 2 sets--they were spectacular!
My brother had the giant Blue Castle set and I remember it's whay got me into Lego and remember it being an amazing set I use to play with him in general,It was our dungeons and dragon's
This was MY theme, I was obsessed with these sets as a kid and got a bundle of the large figures for my birthday. Good stuff. Man wish I got more if the system sets tho, so cool man.
The system sets were so much fun, especially for the first wave. I never had the Citadel as a kid, but even now that I'm in my 20s, I love messing around with it!
I really appreciate you highlighting imo one of the most influential castle themes. I am so lucky that I picked up Vladeks Dark Fortress brand new in Toys R Us long ago and I still have most of the Kingdoms 2 line. Before this I feel like castle fans were all adults who grew up with the 80s and 90s theme, and this is before 2007 castle theme, so this was attempting to bring in a new younger wave of castle fans. One thing I really love which I hope you cover in the next series is how in this line there are TWO CASTLES! One bad and one good castle so that you could in theory have battles between two factions. Sadly the 2010 and 2013 line did not have a Dragon Knight/Evil Castle. It is without a doubt that this line had the BEST EVIL CASTLE EVER.
Knights Kingdom was my very first castle theme as a young kid. 2007 Castle will probably always be my favorite nostalgia wise. But I adored every set of Knights Kingdom i owned. As a side story. Ill never forget going to my local toys r us and seeing a ton of the border ambush set sitting in a bin outside the stores main doors and on sale. Almost like what toys r us did with outdoors toys. It sounds insane now but i have an extremely vivid memory of begging my mom to get it from that bin while it was on sale.
Border ambush and the citadel as a kid looked so cool in the instruction booklets, especially the ambush with its bridge to me looked like a crazy new technique which I had no pieces in my collection to recreate it (especially the green spiderman web strings) and the chrome key too!
The first big set I ever got was Vladek's Dark Fortress for my birthday. Was so fun to play with. Many great pieces in there (especially the dark red and tan plates) that I still use in MOCs to this day.
Knights kingdom was one of my OG lego themes. Got my first kit when I was like five. I remember me and my dad having some good fun with the jousting set. Of course, Bionicle was introduced to me with the Metro-Nui arc, and then, I was hooked for life on that series.
I was 5 when this theme was released,such a BIG BIG part of my childhood,and what got me into fantasy,because I was scared shitless by LOTR orcs at that time,but this and the later Castle really made me appreciate the genre,and also got me to love villains,because,let's admit,Vladek is hella sick and menacing,especially in the second and third wave. And,as much as I loved and still love pretty much every set,the highlight for me,especially now as an adult,is the art by the crazy-talented Mike Rayhawk,he's on a whole other level,I love how he put a certain degree of scariness,seriousness and epicness into his art,especially if you think about the Sorcerer and Gargoyle trading cards,the giant scorpion,Sir Danju on the brink of being cooked in lava etc... I could very well see this story being transformed into a limited series,still in animated form,but also not for kids, 'cause I'd love to see some actual kills and blood,to see those Shadow Knights being torn into pieces! Wild dreaming all-around tho,if anything like that is to happen,it's gotta be fan-made
I remember me and my brother getting the buildable figures and some of the system sets, and we were born 00 and 02, we were young and it still had such an impact on me
Such an interesting and a one of a kind lego-theme. My brother got the castle back in the days and i used the amazing baseplate for countless of moc builts ever since.
Knights kingdom is absolutely my favorite theme throughout all the themes, the big castle was my very first big set that I got as a kid. I also had the GBA game and still play it from time to time
Was a great theme growing up, so much to play with and at a good price definitly considering the size of the buildings. I guess that's a plus side to the big elements used.
Fun fact, the artist for most of the stylized Knight's Kingdom artwork actually went on to make an (unlicensed) Lego-based TT strategy game called "BrikWars", which is a ton of fun.
My younger brother and i had the castle and the big figures. Loved the castle and the theme altogether. I also had the knight themed chess set. I would love to see a video on that set!
5:08 While I didn’t have any of these sets, I really like these Angled Greatswords! So, back in November I picked one in pearl sand blue up for my 2011 Kingdoms Dragon Knight, cas462 & I really like it!
I love these kind of videos that take me on a trip down a memory lane that I didnt even know I had, fantastic video! I would also love to see a video about the lego board game theme Heroica, as I absolutely loved it as a kid and always thought that it had a lot of potential but not enough exposure and I haven't seen anyone talk about it.
I love and miss the Knights Kingdom theme! Beside the fantasy era it was one of my favorite themes back than. Thank you so much for this video to that awesome castle theme!
Oh man, I remember pouring over these sets in the LEGO catalogs I'd get in the mail. Such a cool theme with awesome features and unique elements. I'm more partial to the buildable figures, as their armor and weapons look really good on Bionicle mocs. Always fun to see you deep dive the older themes!
Glad you enjoyed! It was very interesting to see how many Bionicle fans visited the comments of the Action Figure video. I suppose the crossover shouldn't come as much of a surprise as there's a lot of potential when using the parts of each!
I loved the castle themes, and really enjoyed Knights Kingdom. I still have all 4 of the main knights and Vladek. The variation and colors, all of the named characters and the storyline were so cool, and was one of my favorite Lego themes. I sort of suspect the polybags with the odd minifigs may have been the original minifigs for the line, like concept minis, with the main line figures being the final designs.
I always called it royal blue, but now I know it's violet blue is probably my favorite blue. My wife sorted all my Lego by color and she said it was her favorite too. Shame it was short lived. But now look what you made me do, I'll have to go through my parts and see if I can't build this castle again! Amlsot 20 years later! The thing I liked about Lego back then, was like rock raiders, alpha team and these knights is that each character is unique head to toe. Newer themes have a too unified look between characters.
So great to see you on TH-cam after Lego Masters! Thanks for making me aware of how inexpensive KK can be on the secondary market. I think there is definitely some value here and it would be fun to do AFOL rebuilds or improvements of some of these sets.
I'd love to do some MOC-ified KK stuff in the future. That would be so fun! The colors and locations would make for some really striking castle builds.
I like this review series on my favorite theme. The best yet to be covered is the redesigned minifigs. Chest pieces with their animals on them. Vladeks curved shield. And the gold jayko chest piece. All bits i still hold onto.
Bionicle, Knight's Kingdom and Power Miners. These themes made my childhood. I even went out and bought action figure of Danju from second-hand not long ago when nostalgia suddenly hit
Knights Kingdom II was the Ninjago theme before the introduction of Ninjago and I loved it. Those knights had so much character and satisfying designs.
I love seeing how many themes draw inspiration from Knights' Kingdom with the four colorful characters. Exo-Force is another theme that feels incredibly similar, even though the setting is completely different
Bionicle arguably introduced the color coded team to lego themes. The story team originally planned to just have 4 toa, one for each classical element, but lego wanted 6 sets.
Yeh man the blue knight was called Jayko and blue ninja was Jay..
@@FlushedNoob... Classic Space did assigned colors to specific specialist, but eXtreme Team predates Bionicle, and there were slight personalities to the characters in that theme, which featured assigned colors.
LEGO Executive #1: "Alright, Knight's Kingdom undersold, how could we make it cooler?"
LEGO Executive #2: "Well what's cooler than knights? I can't think of anything kids like more than knights!"
LEGO Executive #3: "NINJAS!!!"
And thus, Ninjago was born...
This theme was my first exposure to a Lego castle theme, I was about 10 years old too. One of my favourite and most nostalgic themes!
I really think it makes for a great introduction to Castle. It's so full of heart and imagination - such a rich world!
same dude... i had all the Knights, i think they're still around here somewhere.
It was the same for me and I’m still a retainer of danju’s helmet and head still need to find armor and nody tho
This was such a great theme that had so much thought and love put into it- I think it teaches a lot of lessons for making a successful theme. Fleshed out lore, memorable and unique characters, and enough of its own identity repeated/revisited throughout various sets to make it feel cohesive and planned out. Great video!
Thank you! I honestly think it's those same reasons why Ninjago was successful too. LEGO, the secret formula isn't mobile apps 🤣
That chess set was the ultimate army build as a kid. Made the castle look really cool kitted out with a full defending force
I hope I can find it for a good price some day. Some amazing figures in there!
Yep I used the chess set to arm a giant white castle build. The light blue soldiers looked good with it
Kid me wishes I bought two of them.
I really wish I had the chess set back then. It's legit just a big army builder set lmao. So many soldiers for both sides, meanwhile the main sets have like, one soldier...
Just picked one of these up for a decent price, awesome set
Yes, please don’t stop here. I would love to see the rest of this series get finished
I'm making pretty good progress on getting all the wave 2 sets!
As a kid I spent so much time just looking at the Citadel in the Lego catalog. Really a set I wish I had back then. Great video man.
Appreciate it!
I actually had it. It was a pretty cool set.
Sadly a few parts have vanished over the years.
My goodness.....I was 9 when this theme came out, and it has such a dear place reserved in my nostalgia-filled heart for lines like this, with fun, simple storylines and colorful original characters. I hope Lego brings something like this back one day. 😭
There was a lot of love put into this theme, and it really shows. I sure wish we'd see more original themes like this from LEGO too
LOL. I was old then when it came out. still old. lol
I had the Citidel of Orlan. I got it for christmas in 04 and our state had a winter vortex with freezing rain and most of the state was without power for the better part of a week. My mom dad and I spent christmas morning in our garage/workshop because the house was too cold and we had a wood burning stove in it so i built the set in the workshop that chrismas day. I also have a distinct memory of playing with one of the knights kingdom sets while watching Master and Commander Far Side of The World. This video brings back some memories.
I love this theme! Please do a part 2 of the second wave!
I'll definitely have to make it happen :)
This was an awesome theme with great lore and interesting characters. I got Border Ambush a couple years ago for Christmas and it still holds up really well even after 20 years. The minifigs are super cool and unique too and I hope to get some more. It’s a great theme that I think is really underrated, especially in the LEGO Castle community. Though I’ve always thought it’s weird that this is the same theme as the earlier Knights Kingdom sets with the Bull Knights since they aren’t connected at all afaik.
Yeah, it really does seem there's no connection between the two Knights' Kingdoms funnily enough! Glad you got Border Ambush. Love that set so much :)
18:10 That play feature is awesome!! Something like this needs to make an appearance in the new indiana jones wave.
I'd love to see this done again too! With modern pieces, I feel it would be even more reliable
Remember having a few of these and went to my grandparents and sure enough my grandmother kept them and my brother and i actually had ALL phase 1 sets(main map), spent 2 days putting them all back together and only missing 25 basic pieces ie flames and holders, going to look for them but worse case will just buy them to finish them all out. Huge nostalgia hit
Ayy, that's awesome. These are such great sets!
I love these videos. No reaction, no review just information about the sets and any cool details about them. I had a lot of these sets as a kid and it's nice to see them lovingly displayed.
Really glad you enjoy them! These are always a blast to make
Cheesey: first and foremost congratulations on reaching 100.000+ subscribers!!! I’m not at all surprised you hit this milestone so quickly and I think this video is a testimony on why. Not only are you wholesome, honest, down to earth, intelligent and relaxing to watch but you have some of the highest quality LEGO content out there. These videos must take for ever to make but are so worth it in the end as we the viewer can see the amount of effort you put into these videos. I have no doubt you’ll break the next goal really soon!
Greatly appreciated. ❤ Love making videos for you all, and thanks for always tuning in!
2000s lego is infinitely fascinating, they were just throwing so many amazing ideas at the wall, maybe not all of them stuck but they're all extremely memorable
Maybe "Vladek encounter" was supposed to be sold alongside those two last sets That could explain wju Danju isn't in the Knights' wall, because he was originally planed to be included in "Vladek's siege engine" along with the catapult. It sounds like one of those situations where somebody decided that they needed to split it into more sets so they could sell them separatly
Could be!
I loved every era of the Lego Knights including this particular theme. My brother and I had the GBA game, the watch, the magnets, the random non-story related wall and siege tower and all the knights and Vladek. This theme holds a special place in my heart as well.
Oh dang! He was all merched out 😂
Lego Castle but with more lore, story, and character development. I LOVED this theme growing up!
It's such a good one! I'm glad it was my first taste of LEGO.
Did you notice that in the first Lego movie, there’s a scene with a map dividing different worlds/lands, and one of them is called Vladek’s realm
Yesss! I love that Easter egg
The adventure box was one of my favorite sets as a kid! One of the most interesting pieces of gear is the Legoland photo frame that includes Jayko and Johnny Thunder
Oh wow! Didn't know about that one. What a fun pairing!
So glad you did a video on Knights Kingdom! I’m such a huge fan of the theme! It’s very underrated! I grew up on this theme and got into lego castle! For my 4th birthday I had a cake full of the huge technical knight figures!
It is so underrated! Loved this theme so much as a kid
Don't think I'll ever tire of these videos
Love to hear it ❤ There's lots more of these in the works! :D
Cannot even express how hype I am to jump into this video
I love to hear it! This one was especially fun to put together - such a nostalgia trip!
Thank you for taking us on that nostalgic journey ! Great presentation as always, cheers from France !
Thank you! ❤️
I never had any of these sets, but distinctly remember finding the story book in my library and getting sucked into that. I'm really glad to have the chance to see what the sets and theme were like, having somehow managed to get nostalgic for sets I never even had. Thanks!
Had the 8801 Knights' Attack Barge set from 2005 when I was younger. Such a simple set but I had so much fun with it. Such a great line!
Can't wait to cover those wave 2 sets - there's some great ones in there!
One of my earliest lego childhood memories was walking into Toys R Us and buying the Citadel set. I loved this theme and had several of the sets but never managed to get Danju :( Lego has missed out on having a castle theme for years now. These were top notch with their play features
I never had a Danju either, always wanted him when I was younger
Ah, I do miss Toys R Us, even if the prices were insane there. It was always fun to see the selection!
I always thought this theme was a great mixture of more story-intensive themes like Bionicle/Ninjago/etc and the more “generalized” theming of many classic ranges. It was never hard to grasp for a newcomer looking for fun Castle sets, but it did have an ongoing narrative.
Real shame about the interiors, though. We’re so spoiled by that kind of detail in sets now, it could get pretty dire back in the day
One major thing they left out was the knights horses. That would’ve been awesome to have not just for the small sets but also the full sized action figures.
Right! They would have been pricey, but could have been so cool
Feel like this is one of the first channels I've found that has nostalgia for all the same themes I do. I guess we must be about the same age 😆
What a time to be a kid, ay? 😂
Knights' Kingdom was possibly the most foundational LEGO theme for me growing up - probably split between that, Johnny Thunder, and Bionicle. Those themes together informed my love for serialized storytelling, lore, character archetypes, and worldbuilding.
Combining the comics with the sets, the trading cards, and the young reader novelizations starts to paint a surprisingly complete picture of the world they were building. I have all of the standard retail sets for wave one and two of KK, sadly missing most from the third wave. I also thought all the play features built into the sets were really solid, with the Citadel of Orlan being the real stand-out there. This theme will never fail to fill me with absolute nostalgia.
And yes, please, absolutely do more Revisiting videos for the Knights' Kingdom line!
There's a magic to this theme we've never seen from any other LEGO castle theme. I'll always look back on it very fondly too! I'm happy to let you know that I've managed to get all the wave 2 sets now too - so a Revisiting video should show up eventually :)
@@CheeseyStudios Oh lovely to hear, already looking forward to it!
A little fun anecdote regarding Mike Rayhawk, behind much of the artwork of this line, is that he's also the one behind the unofficial lego-derived wargame "Brikwars", which apparently was more influential (mainly through the artwork for it) to Lego than they would ever admit a wargame about maximum violence, carnage and fun be.
So glad you covered this! Talk about a blast from the past. Very nostalgic. I miss classic castle.
Me too. We're certainly overdue for another original castle playtheme!
This was an overload of nostalgia. This set was amazing. I lost the sets, but found several pieces in my old Lego bin every now and then.
Knights Kingdom was one of my favorite themes when I was a kid.
It was so much fun. It was a good time to be a kid!
@@CheeseyStudios I mean, Knights Kingdom, Exo-Force, Power Miners, Mars Mission. Lego had some really interesting original IPs and fun sets in the late 2000s and early 2010s
You just got a new sub. I gad a massive smile on my face watching this reflecting on my early days of collecting castle. Thanks for bringing back great memories.
It's my pleasure! Glad you enjoyed. Making these is such a nostalgia trip. Lots of good memories here too :)
I love how you said that a play feature like the jousting one would never fly today... And then Lego sonic is revealed and it has that exact feature
That's so wild to me lol!
I just wanted to say you always do a great job with your background music, it's always niely fitting and never too loud or too soft
Really appreciate it! That's good to know too - I'll be sure to keep it going that way.
I like to think the polybag minifigs with generic helmets are younger versions of the knights. Like maybe they were just regular soldiers until they were found and knighted. And I guess Vladek looked like Johnny when he was younger.
That's a fun way of looking at it!
You are probably the most chill LEGO youtuber in existence.
I try my best! I don't care much for the drama 😂
I’m tryna do a stop motion channel, but idk where to start.
This is what I had as a kid, my first Lego castles I remember as a kid I was frustrated by the base plate and as it didn't open up it was difficult to play with it. But loved being the good guys. The scorpion castle on the other hand I was obsessed with as it opened out and I could lay down and play along the whole of length of the castle and their battles with the knights! Such nostalgia!
It was a really fun theme. I'd love another castle line again like this.
Knights Kingdom was one of my favorite lines when I was a kid, and I still have some of those sets built today! I remember my parents getting me the special edition of the Grand Tournament that came with big foam versions of Vladek's sword and shield, and as a seven year old, that was sick! Great video!
As a child, at Legoland, I had the choice of picking up this or 10131, a set of four TIE fighters and I am so glad I went with the castle. It’s aged so well and is iconic.
A good choice indeed! I don't think the TIE pack aged as well 😂
Congrats on 100,000 subs! You deserve all of it and more.
Knights Kingdom really feels like the forerunner to Ninjago, with concrete storylines and fleshed-out characters. Looking forward to a part 2!
Ayy, thank you so much! There really are a lot of Ninjago similarities - it's pretty cool to see. Good news is that I'm well on my way to getting all the wave 2 sets I need :)
Man I LOVED this theme when I was younger. It completely absorbed me. I remember checking the LEGO website constantly for info on the knights and their stories.
Those were the days... I loved the old LEGO.com with the flash games and bonus info. Good times!
21:14 "A wild Vladek has appeared" vibes lol
True that 😂
I have been binge watching all of your videos on 2000s Lego themes, and It’s bringing back so much memories. I knew I was building Lego young, always thought I started at 5 yrs old, but based on this theme, I’m starting to think my parents must’ve gotten me started a lot younger than I realized 😆
Excellent review of the theme. I love the amount of passion you have for what you're reviewing.
Thank you! These themes are definitely near and dear to my heart.
These came out around the time my parents exposed me to the lord of the rings for the first time and I’ve been a lover of this fantasy genre ever since. So many fond memories of 10 year old me playing with these sets in combination with the castle theme sets. I still have Vladek’s castle on display in my Lego room to this day ❤ Lovely to see a retrospective of wave 1 and can’t wait for wave 2!!
Vladek's Fortress is such an epic model! Very excited to do a wave 2 Revisiting
Great video! A real joy to watch! I really look forward to you covering the next wave of this theme! They were some of the first lego sets I ever collected and I love this theme so much!
That's awesome! I've been slowly getting all the wave 2 sets together :)
Very nice, perfect timing on the video, I put it on quietly in the background while I did other things, would definitely be interested in a video on the other waves!
Awesome! Well, I've got good news - I've been working on getting the wave 2 sets :)
So big spiky castle, huh? Find of reminds me of Knighton's Castle in the rock monster's wave of sets from NEXO Knights. Even the knights' armor is cool and interesting.
Seeing wave 2 would be awesome, that's the wave I had the most of growing up :>
I think I'll be able to make it happen :)
Just picked up the red and green Knights minifigs the other day! I miss this theme more than others from my childhood days.
Oh hey, nice! So many good memories
Knights Kingdom II is my favorite theme of all time. I was lucky enough as a kid to have every set of wave 1 except the polybags (which I have now). I played the board game a ton. 7 year old me didn’t care what adults on board game geek had to say about it. I’m looking forward to the wave 2 video!
Glad you got joy out of the board game 😂 Hey, as long as the target audience liked it, that's all that matters!
I really loved this castle. It was my first ever set, that I got back in '04. Recently I decided to rebuild it, after having it disassembled for almost 15 years. But I thought, I could still improve the build, so first I swapped all colored bricks to light and dark grey. Then I made the 4 towers taller, which definitely makes it look better now. I also connected the gate to the raised baseplate, so it's all stable now 😁.
I might try to improve the castle further in the following days.
The 2007 Castle series was probably my favorite LEGO series ever. I had so many of the sets, and each one had so many cool gameplay features and little details.
I'm very much looking forward to 'Revisiting' those sets too! Probably won't happen this year, but hopefully in 2025!
I still have my Danju that came with the Vladek encounter. Not parting with him or Vladek. I did part out the catapult, though.
Catapult isn't too noteworthy so I don't blame ya 🤣
Knights Kingdom was my first introduction to LEGO Castle, even though the only set I had from this first wave was the small blue catapult polybag. I'd love to see you do a video on the Wave 2 sets--they were spectacular!
Way overdue response, but I'm hoping to have the wave 2 video out here in April!
@@CheeseyStudios Take your time; quality over quantity, as they say!
My brother had the giant Blue Castle set and I remember it's whay got me into Lego and remember it being an amazing set I use to play with him in general,It was our dungeons and dragon's
So cool! I love that castle
Thanks to you, I now am on the search for more of this theme..great job and video
I feel like I'm going to drive you broke 😂
This was MY theme, I was obsessed with these sets as a kid and got a bundle of the large figures for my birthday. Good stuff.
Man wish I got more if the system sets tho, so cool man.
The system sets were so much fun, especially for the first wave. I never had the Citadel as a kid, but even now that I'm in my 20s, I love messing around with it!
I really appreciate you highlighting imo one of the most influential castle themes. I am so lucky that I picked up Vladeks Dark Fortress brand new in Toys R Us long ago and I still have most of the Kingdoms 2 line. Before this I feel like castle fans were all adults who grew up with the 80s and 90s theme, and this is before 2007 castle theme, so this was attempting to bring in a new younger wave of castle fans. One thing I really love which I hope you cover in the next series is how in this line there are TWO CASTLES! One bad and one good castle so that you could in theory have battles between two factions. Sadly the 2010 and 2013 line did not have a Dragon Knight/Evil Castle. It is without a doubt that this line had the BEST EVIL CASTLE EVER.
I just picked up Vladek's Dark Fortress earlier this year! So excited to cover it. What an incredible set!
I actually still have the Chessboard, its super cool and was great for army building.
That's awesome! I'd love to pick it up one day if I can get it at a decent price
This was one of the first themes I fell in love with. Probably what got me hooked on lego castle. Would love to see videos on wave 2 and 3!
I hope I can make those future videos happen :)
Knights Kingdom was my very first castle theme as a young kid. 2007 Castle will probably always be my favorite nostalgia wise. But I adored every set of Knights Kingdom i owned.
As a side story. Ill never forget going to my local toys r us and seeing a ton of the border ambush set sitting in a bin outside the stores main doors and on sale. Almost like what toys r us did with outdoors toys. It sounds insane now but i have an extremely vivid memory of begging my mom to get it from that bin while it was on sale.
I completely understand the having very specific ToysRUs core memories 🤣
Border ambush and the citadel as a kid looked so cool in the instruction booklets, especially the ambush with its bridge to me looked like a crazy new technique which I had no pieces in my collection to recreate it (especially the green spiderman web strings) and the chrome key too!
The sets really did have some awesome pieces! Loved that rope bridge as a kid too
The first big set I ever got was Vladek's Dark Fortress for my birthday. Was so fun to play with.
Many great pieces in there (especially the dark red and tan plates) that I still use in MOCs to this day.
I was just able to pick that up a month ago! Amazing set
Thank you for making this, this was some of my favorite stuff as a kid. Needed all the lore on it
Really glad you enjoyed!
I would love to see more Knights Kingdom
I'll definitely do my best to make it happen :)
Knights kingdom was one of my OG lego themes. Got my first kit when I was like five. I remember me and my dad having some good fun with the jousting set.
Of course, Bionicle was introduced to me with the Metro-Nui arc, and then, I was hooked for life on that series.
It was such a great theme to start out with. I don't think I would have had it any other way, either!
Knights Kingdom is what got me into lego way back when I was younger it will always be my favorite
Same here. So many good memories!
I grew up looking at these sets in catalogs and always dying to get one! I may have to go back now and grab a few
I don't think you'll be disappointed! There's a lot of fun to be had with these sets. Border Ambush is especially delightful
I was 5 when this theme was released,such a BIG BIG part of my childhood,and what got me into fantasy,because I was scared shitless by LOTR orcs at that time,but this and the later Castle really made me appreciate the genre,and also got me to love villains,because,let's admit,Vladek is hella sick and menacing,especially in the second and third wave.
And,as much as I loved and still love pretty much every set,the highlight for me,especially now as an adult,is the art by the crazy-talented Mike Rayhawk,he's on a whole other level,I love how he put a certain degree of scariness,seriousness and epicness into his art,especially if you think about the Sorcerer and Gargoyle trading cards,the giant scorpion,Sir Danju on the brink of being cooked in lava etc...
I could very well see this story being transformed into a limited series,still in animated form,but also not for kids, 'cause I'd love to see some actual kills and blood,to see those Shadow Knights being torn into pieces! Wild dreaming all-around tho,if anything like that is to happen,it's gotta be fan-made
A limited series would have been a lot of fun. Surprised they didn't do that honestly back in the day!
Immediately liked for that sweet medieval theater build. I’ve never heard of Blue Violet Lego pieces until now and now I think I’m obsessed with it.
Thank you! That was a fun little build. That blue-violet is great - really wish it was produced for more pieces!
Man, I loved this series! Never would have thought my little "Vladok encounter" set would be worth 3 times the price!
Yeah - that price is insane now!
I remember me and my brother getting the buildable figures and some of the system sets, and we were born 00 and 02, we were young and it still had such an impact on me
we also got the chessboard, and it is still on display in our family home lmao
That chess set is great. Hope I can get it at some point!
I’ve never heard of these!!! Really
Enjoy your format of these videos. Hope you cover as many as possible.
Thank you! Glad to hear you're learning about some new stuff 😄
Such an interesting and a one of a kind lego-theme. My brother got the castle back in the days and i used the amazing baseplate for countless of moc builts ever since.
Yeah, those baseplates were such a great foundation for building anything!
Knights kingdom is absolutely my favorite theme throughout all the themes, the big castle was my very first big set that I got as a kid. I also had the GBA game and still play it from time to time
That's awesome! Glad there's still people out there that remember this theme so fondly too ❤️
The Citadel was the first "big" set I ever got as a kid. It really holds a special place in my heart and was a gift I cherished greatly.
I do wish I had had that one as a kid! It's such a fun set
Was a great theme growing up, so much to play with and at a good price definitly considering the size of the buildings. I guess that's a plus side to the big elements used.
The price per part ration might not be great with these, but I'm pretty sure the price per WEIGHT was off the charts - so many big pieces!
@@CheeseyStudios Haha it sure might be! Looking forward to seeing the second wave of sets as I somewhat lost interest after the first wave as a kid.
Fun fact, the artist for most of the stylized Knight's Kingdom artwork actually went on to make an (unlicensed) Lego-based TT strategy game called "BrikWars", which is a ton of fun.
My younger brother and i had the castle and the big figures. Loved the castle and the theme altogether.
I also had the knight themed chess set. I would love to see a video on that set!
Wow this theme truly is awesome, I love the design for all of the sets and minifigures. Can't wait for a video on the second wave of sets
I sure love this one too. It's just so unique in the world of LEGO Castle
5:08 While I didn’t have any of these sets, I really like these Angled Greatswords! So, back in November I picked one in pearl sand blue up for my 2011 Kingdoms Dragon Knight, cas462 & I really like it!
The swords do look really nice! And they came in so many colors too
I love these kind of videos that take me on a trip down a memory lane that I didnt even know I had, fantastic video! I would also love to see a video about the lego board game theme Heroica, as I absolutely loved it as a kid and always thought that it had a lot of potential but not enough exposure and I haven't seen anyone talk about it.
These came out when I was so deep into fantasy novels and the LotR hype - loved it, especially for making some new armor and weapon shapes 🔥
I love and miss the Knights Kingdom theme! Beside the fantasy era it was one of my favorite themes back than. Thank you so much for this video to that awesome castle theme!
Really glad you enjoyed! Hope I can get to those later waves sometime soon too :)
Oh man, I remember pouring over these sets in the LEGO catalogs I'd get in the mail. Such a cool theme with awesome features and unique elements. I'm more partial to the buildable figures, as their armor and weapons look really good on Bionicle mocs.
Always fun to see you deep dive the older themes!
Glad you enjoyed! It was very interesting to see how many Bionicle fans visited the comments of the Action Figure video. I suppose the crossover shouldn't come as much of a surprise as there's a lot of potential when using the parts of each!
I loved the castle themes, and really enjoyed Knights Kingdom. I still have all 4 of the main knights and Vladek. The variation and colors, all of the named characters and the storyline were so cool, and was one of my favorite Lego themes. I sort of suspect the polybags with the odd minifigs may have been the original minifigs for the line, like concept minis, with the main line figures being the final designs.
Same here - one of my all-time favorites too! There's just something really special about it. It's so unique compared to other castle themes!
I always called it royal blue, but now I know it's violet blue is probably my favorite blue. My wife sorted all my Lego by color and she said it was her favorite too. Shame it was short lived.
But now look what you made me do, I'll have to go through my parts and see if I can't build this castle again! Amlsot 20 years later!
The thing I liked about Lego back then, was like rock raiders, alpha team and these knights is that each character is unique head to toe. Newer themes have a too unified look between characters.
It's a great color. Kinda surprised it was never really repurposed 😪
I loved these as a kid I’m gonna buy all the sets on bricklink to heal my childhood trauma some more 😊
lol I feel that
So great to see you on TH-cam after Lego Masters! Thanks for making me aware of how inexpensive KK can be on the secondary market. I think there is definitely some value here and it would be fun to do AFOL rebuilds or improvements of some of these sets.
I'd love to do some MOC-ified KK stuff in the future. That would be so fun! The colors and locations would make for some really striking castle builds.
I like this review series on my favorite theme. The best yet to be covered is the redesigned minifigs. Chest pieces with their animals on them. Vladeks curved shield. And the gold jayko chest piece. All bits i still hold onto.
Love these sets!!! Great video
Hiiiiii
Bionicle, Knight's Kingdom and Power Miners. These themes made my childhood.
I even went out and bought action figure of Danju from second-hand not long ago when nostalgia suddenly hit
That's epic! Gotta love those action figures
loved this theme. My brothers owned a lot of these sets & they were fantastic!
I loved this theme... nostalgia
It's a good one. Rebuilding these sets was sure a trip down memory lane!
I think you and I must be about the same age because this was a Lego theme I appreciated when very young as well. Please keep the KC content coming
Themes like this one definitely shaped a whole generation of future builders!