Had a Knight’s Kingdom themed birthday party for my 6th or 7th birthday, We had the invites, and I think there was some other themed party stuff too. Core memory for sure!
I love that most people have the original Cloud City as a holy grail set, but you want an obscure Scala set, lol. Although I see why, there are some crazy pieces in that set
The Belville and Scala lines are such a treasure trove of bizarre parts. I did end up getting "The Princess and the Pea" (the other set that features Vladek's crystal ball) while editing this video since I found it sealed at a great price! 😂
Legitimately one of the best castles Lego ever made. It’s also possible to pretty easily make it fully enclosed by attaching the Scorpion Outpost and the castle landing to it.
Growing up playing Runescape when I was 10 years old loving knights. When I saw Vladek's Dark Fortress in the store back in the day I immediately asked my mom and dad to buy this set. 100 Euro was a lot of money and I thought I might not be able to get the set, but I was surprised my parents agreed to buy it. It was my very first LEGO set I got and also started my LEGO journey into having more castle sets. I still remember the moment when I saw this set, because it meant so much to me. It made me the LEGO castle fan I am today.
Knight’s Kindgom and Orient Expedition were my “gateway drugs” into Lego as well. I regret not being able to get EVERY set from both, but I definitely remember having so much fun with the Castle of Morcia and Vladek’s Dark Fortress!
I have absolutely loved every minute of your retrospectives on Knights Kingdom. It's not just the nostalgia talking, either; both the theme and your videos are top-notch excellence! 😊
Something I noticed about wave 2 is that Sir Rascus' minifigure was always depicted with dark green hands, dark green hips and a dark green helmet as his accent color. Whether it be promotional pictures of the sets he appeared in, his minifigure form in the comic panels or even his own action figure, he had dark green hands. However his official figure always came with black hands instead which made him the odd one out compared to his fellow knights whose accent colors also featured darker colors (Jayko with dark blue hands, hips and helmet, Santis with dark tan hands, hips and helmet and Danju with dark bluish gray hands, hips and helmet). I don't know why Rascus was the only exception to the rule as he would've been the first minifigure with dark green hands but I assume it had something to do with quality issues. Regardless, dark green hands made their actual first appearance in 2013 with Legends of Chima. I swapped his hands with the correct color and the figure looks complete and consistent with the others now and I highly recommend this change to anyone.
I didn't know this theme existed until around 2012. My grandma found a box of Lego at a thrift store and saved it for my brother and I and it contained the original Gringotts Bank and Dueling club, about half a bionicle, and Vladek's Dark Fortress which I had never seen before. The instructions were included but the cover was missing, so we were building it at her kitchen table with no idea what it would look like when it was complete. This was one of the last times we visited her house before she passed, so it holds a ton of nostalgia for me. So cool to see it appreciated in a modern review video!
I got a couple of the Knight's Kingdom sets for Christmas back in the day. In recent years, I've worked on expanding the number of characters in both factions. After getting one of the Fantasy Era sets, I decided to make the knights from that theme the foot soldiers for the kingdom of Morica who assist the four main knights in their missions (it helps that the kingdoms' colors of both themes are blue and gold.) I also made wives for the two rulers. Queen Mathias wears the blue dress from the Fantasy Era Queen while Lady Vladek is clad in the robes of the Evil Wizard from whatever minifigure series he's from.
I grew up in the 2010’s with themes like superheroes, City, Ninjago and Nexo Knights and I’ve always found these older original themes I missed out on fascinating to watch in your videos, partially tempted to try and buy some of these sets you review here
There's some real gems from this era. One of my favorite Knights' Kingdom sets would be "Border Ambush" (from wave one). It's a smaller set well worth picking up that would give you a taste of what this theme has to offer!
Knights Kingdom II is one of the most nostalgic Lego themes for me! I had a couple sets, every single action figure from all the waves and even the board game. I distinctly remember going to Legoland as a kid and getting foam swords and helmet to fight my friends (who’s family was also at legoland with us) on the big castle, with the dragon ride.
The impressive thing is, despite me not liking the Knights Kingdom era, I was still very interested in watching this video and found it quite enjoyable. That's the power of Cheesey: even if you don't love the theme, he still makes the video engaging and interesting. Thats the mark of a great YT creator. P.S. I think I need to cop that Vladek Fortress now...
I absolutely love these videos, it is really interesting to see a closer look at some older lego themes that I never got to experience and learn about all of the niche pieces and facts about them
I'm so glad to hear it! It's great that you're able to learn a few new things. That's part of the reason why I love making these videos too. I'm always finding out about rare parts and sometimes even whole new sets I've never seen before!
Your excitement for this series is so amazing to see. I really loved these sets, especially Vladek's fortress, which still holds the record for the longest time I've had a set without taking it apart. Glad you can enjoy it now as well!
I missed out on so many sets during this era as I was going through a "I only like action figure" phase as I entered highschool. I did collect the figures and I was a big fan of Bionicle but wow the build sets here are amazing
There was a lot of other great LEGO stuff to be distracted by at the time, so I get it! Glad you got some of the Knights' Kingdom action figures though - some of them are actually pretty awesome.
Same! I was fully invested in Bionicle. Missed out on a majority of Kingdoms, Fantasy, Knights Kingdom, Power Miners, and even Exo Force. I really regret that, but then again I didn't have my own income source then, so my hands were already tied.
Gosh, I absolutely ADORED that! Knights Kingdom has a really special place in my heart. I discovered it long after it had discontinued when I was little, and it was through bits and pieces of second hand Lego I got from multiple different people, most of the sets being incomplete. It always stuck out as a bit of an oddity to me for some reason, probably because I’d never heard of it and it felt like this strange elusive theme, but it had such a distinct feel and it’s become so nostalgic to me. There’s something about it that I can’t quite explain, but I just love it! You did a phenomenal job revisiting it, and I love hearing the excitement in your voice due to the nostalgia you have for this theme, it’s so wholesome. And along with the cozy and nostalgic feel of your videos it just makes for such an enjoy experience overall! As always, I love the work you do man. You’re a real gem in the community 🙌🏽🧡
Man, I really appreciate you bringing up the weight of Vladek's Fortress. Price-per-mass of a LEGO set has always been my go-to metric and it's nice to see others use it and not just drone on about price per part.
Price per part is just so out of whack these days when half the parts are 1x1 plates 😂 Another good metric has always been Jangbrick's, which is based purely on "vibes" lol
@CheeseyStudios yea, I've always agreed with Jang's vibes approach, though I do think the detail inherent in the more recent sets with tons of tiny pieces works for me.
I saw your first review of the Knights Kingdom several months ago. I’m just now realizing you did wave 2, and this was such a blast to the past. Really enjoy your reviewing style and commentary. Excellent work! Can’t wait to see more.
25:20 Oh I may be one of the few who has figured it out. Its been a while, so I don't recall exactly, but what I did was hold my finger on the cog firmly, with a bit of downward force, then roll the cog backwards with as much speed as you can whilst maintaining a bit of said downward force. When you get it right, its insanely powerful, more so than the spring launcher. Not the most intuitive design, but definitely definitely a fun one. I remember rolling it so hard that the "toothed plate" piece would jam up in the front against the cheese slope.
I remember standing in line outside Target early on Black Friday '05 with my mom in order to get the Dark Fortress set for just $50… absolutely appreciate all that it came with, and this video is a fantastic explosion of nostalgia that gets right at the heart of the story and play features we had back then. Thank you so much for researching and assembling all of this quality content!!
Your channel always throws my brain into blissful nostalgia. Thank you for doing these videos. It really just brings me back. I didn't get many Lego sets but I had the Lego magazine and seeing all these sets made me want them so badly. It's cool to see them "in person"
I absolutely love these sets and I think you did them justice. I do a lot of moc building and you have just made me want to do a knights kingdom moc so badly. Can’t wait for wave 3!
man, I was fortunate enough to get Vladek's Dark Fortress as a kid, and have gone to Lego Land CA during the time when they were selling Knight's Kingdom foam swords and masks as well as doing stage performances. So much nostalgia watching this video, I really ought to go thank my parents.
Ah, that's so wholesome! That's so cool that they did stage performances - I didn't even realize that. I'm sure Knights' Kingdom was all the rage since there's always been such a big castle presence at the park.
@@CheeseyStudios It was a really big deal at the time, back then there was a huge classic castle area of the park and the Knight's Kingdom theme was front and center. This was maybe 2005-6 I believe! right when Bionicle was enjoying their golden age and the Star Wars theme was just taking off. Great time to be a kid.
Thanks for this nostalgia trip. I recently fell back in love with Lego and I got all my knights from this series from my parents place. They now live in my lego animal crossing village!
You have single-handedly rekindled my love of Lego. It's been so long since I've even though about picking up a kit. I had no idea Bricklink was a thing either!
Love these theme reviews! This wave must have came out when I wasn’t into Lego? I had some of the first wave of Knights Kingdom 2 and later had Fantasy era. So these sets are basically new to me?! Glad you’re here to fly the Knights Kingdom flag- it was a core part of my Lego experience while growing up 😃
It's sad to think our Knights' Kingdom journey is coming to a close.... Still lots of cool things to see though, and I can't wait to cover the last wave of action figures and playsets!
This video series is peak, please keep it going! I'd love to see more coverage of 2000s - 90s LEGO themes like this (Still waiting on the Mars Mission wave 2 video btw)
I recognized the piece on the end of the mini catapult at 10:36 as a pot almost immediately. I got one of those pots in my second ever lego set, and knew about the ability to hold cylinder bricks in it like that. Never thought about using it as a catapult though. Color me surprised!
Love the respect for Ice Blade, that is still one of my all-time favorite sets! Had the best transforming feature out of that wave too! I love Knights Kingdom II, it's my favorite castle theme. It feels how castle should be if it existed in the Lego universe, the right mix of fantasy and Lego. I also really miss the comic strip they would put on the boxes or instruction manual. I would spend hours rereading them as a kid and appreciating the art. That's one of the reasons I like the Hidden Side's box art. I'm sad they don't really do that today. I guess it exists digitally but it sure did make the instructions unique and worth keeping.
Ice Blade is definitely an all-timer! One day once I've got a few more Revisiting videos under my belt, I'd love to do a "Revisiting Revisiting" lol and highlight my 5 or 10 favorite sets, and you KNOW Ice Blade's gonna be on that list!
As a child I had both castles of the Knights Kingdom Series, it was so awesome to play with them, I loved it! Then the dark fortress fell apart, because my father dropped it while making room for my brother's weight bench, which he never actually used :( but it's Lego, so I could rebuild it like I wanted to, good times :)
I actually got a few of the wave three action figures from ABC when I was down there filming the LM Christmas special. It was good that I found them too, as some of them can be quite rare!
Ugh, this is wonderful. Thank you so much for the trip down the memory lane with nostalgia, which was my childhood too. My UA-cam account was opened at the same time hence the numbers.
Again an excellent revisit, well done! 😊 I was well off into my dark ages when these sets were released, but picked some sets up a couple of years ago (including 8877 that was glued together 😬)
There's a lot of fun to be had with that one. That was definitely a favorite of mine growing up, and served as the big bad guy castle since I never had the Dark Fortress!
I have a battery-operated sword from Knights Kingdom year 2 based on Vladek's design in the action figure. the idea is that as you swing the sword it makes sounds of clashing blades. It was also packed with some of the action figures if I recall correctly.
The Knights Kingdom line is over all a really cool line up in general and gives much room for more Medieval based stories for kids., and really could go a long way probably if it made a third resurgence, hell make them cameo with Ninjago.
As a kid, I was always a little bummed that Lego never made a generic good-guy knight. Especially since the shadow knights are all corrupted Kingdom knights. Could have made a cool transformation feature in a set (like the anakin to vader transformation in 2005)
I absolutely love the sets from this era, Lego's creativity was through the roof. I would love to see you revisit Galaxy Squad as that is one of my favorite!
I remember buying a Scorpion prison cave and foam sword bundle like 12-13 years ago sealed in the box/ plastic foil in a local toy store. I wish I still had that set, might have to buy a used one for nostalgia purposes.
This was a really wonderful revisiting video, even as someone who didn’t have that much of it definitely something I’ll keep an eye out for. Not to short change your wonderful revisiting video but I found it absolutely hilarious that you mentioned 5962 The Tinderbox because that infarct is also my dream Belleville set, to the point where I’ve got a BL wanted list of it parted out xD. Wonderful job with these revisiting vids they have improved so much and as much as I’m aware you’ve got just a Bunch of them in the making I think some of the old ones could use a newer vid (not to say that they’re still not my favourites) Great job!
Ha, thank you! I'm glad to hear that the Tinderbox also got your eye. 😂 What a crazy set! I'm looking forward to hopefully remastering Mars Mission later this year, and covering wave two!
'Eyo, back at it again relating everything to Bionicle. Those pearl gold shoulder armour pieces are actually really cool to use on Bionicle mocs as there isn't really any piece that can quite replicate that shape, especially not in pearl gold which is a much more limited colour than you would imagine. You can actually also get the shin pieces in pearl gold as well. During the tail end of 2005 when they switched from flat gold to pearl gold a few sets that were supposed to have flat gold pieces, like Rascus, shipped with pearl gold instead. They're substantially more rare, I only know two people who have sets of them, and they're probably way more difficult to acquire since there could very easily be mixed up with reddish gold pieces instead. A shame, since the shin piece is even harder to replicate with available pearl gold pieces.
When making the wave 2 action figures video, those shoulder pads were always the hardest pieces to find lol - some colors are only in a handful of stores in the US! I kinda figured they had all been snatched up by Bionicle fans, and this does seem to confirm that xD
Great video as always, look forward to your next Exo-Force video! Recently managed to get my hands on a golden guardian, can’t wait to put it together!!
Ah, Knights Kingdom. Easily one of my favorite themes, right up there with Bionicle and Star Wars. Thank you for these retrospective videos, it brings back good memories. Keep up the good work. Also, Bionicle retrospective when?
@@CheeseyStudios It's been interesting see how much LEGO has changed over the last 20 years. To see all the different building techniques that they use in these newer sets, it's been fun getting back into buying LEGO's but it's been harder to get some cus of how expensive some of these sets are.
I have most of a copy of this set, including that side build ballista. I believe at 25:56 you demonstrated pretty much exactly how it's supposed to work. It's very finnicky but basically you hold the ballista in place and run your finger over the wheel which should propel the projectile forward. Difficult to make it go far. If I can get a good demonstration with my decrepit copy I could upload!
LEGO just needs to focus on play features again in general. Sets these days just aren't nearly as fun as they used to be, even if they generally look a lot nicer
Fireball Catapult is one of my favorite Castle themed sets ever. I didn't need to be invested in the story, it was just a nice little build, a couple of well designed knights with color scheme implied alignment of good and evil, and a horse.
The fact almost the entire wave was dedicated to the villains is unheard of with todays LEGO and this is something I think they should do more rotate waves for each side in Star Wars, Dreamzzz, Ninjago etc also it is possible to find the dark fortress landing by itself but it’s very hard to find these days
One of my favorite childhood sets was Vladek's Dark Fortress. Such an amazing set, and one I want to rebuild one day because I completely regret disassembling it. I suspect some of its pieces are in Storage, because there are some pieces I've failed to rediscover in my collection.
@@CheeseyStudios Thanks, I hope so too. I'm fairly certain I never sold or gave away my LEGO pieces, but I noticed while sorting that I'm missing some very distinct pieces from that era. Not just Knights Kingdom, but pieces from Bionicle, Star Wars, and Spiderman sets as well. I think I even had an Alpha Teams set with some missing pieces. Which is why I assume they're in storage, because I'm making a greater effort now to organize my pieces.
Huh. I knew I had some Knight's Kingdom theme sets, but oddly I have no memory of owning Vladic's castle, but every time you brought up exclusive or rare pieces, I was like "Wait a second...", went over to my LEGO collection and lo and behold, I had the exact piece. The more I looked at it, the more pieces I recognized and found in my collection, until eventually I just had to accept that my eyes were correct and I totally must've owned this set. The reason I remembered so many of the pieces was because I used them ALL THE TIME in my custom builds, so clearly I must've very quickly cannibalized the castle before the memory of what it was had time to settle in my brain. So on the one hand, I guess I "missed out" on playing with this super cool castle, but on the other hand I suppose I just played with LEGO as intended, letting my imagination use the pieces as it saw fit. Either way, I guess I ended up loving this set dearly because I got so much usage and fun out of its pieces, even to this day!
At the end of the day, I think you got the better deal. Building your own stuff is what this hobby is all about! It does make for a funny story here too 😂
The villain builds in this wave were the perfection of lego, going back to classic castle: big pieces that look great and speed up the building process with enough detail spread in that it looks good. Sets today are so arduous to put together and take so much time that it's daunting to reconfigure them, even though the freedom afforded by many more smaller pieces is so high.
I do believe somewhere in the last decade LEGO seems to have forgotten that they make TOYS lol... Yeah, I find myself missing the simplicity too. If I want a beautiful model, I'll make one myself. I feel like kids these days don't have the patience for these 500-1000 piece playsets.
I was a lucky kid getting both these castles after a wait as I got the knights castle and then after a wait, got the scorpion castle later and it was just so dope. I favoured the scorpion castle as it opens out and as a kid I got frustrated by the knights castle not opening out so it was hard to play with. But still I loved it. Epic!
I had Vladek's castle as a kid. I've always been more of a "Legos-as-parts" kind of person than a "Legos-as-sets" person, preferring to make a set once, play with it a bit, then disassemble it and make something else from the parts. But I think I played with the intended configuration of Vladek's castle longer than any other set. I did eventually disassemble it, an inevitably have tragically misplaced many of the parts.
I suppose the knight's boat having the same design scheme as the castle is good cohesion but it does weirdly imply this sea worthy vessle is made of....stone
While I personally preferred 1 and 3, Vladek's fortress remains my favorite castle playset. It's huge and has lots of playfeatures. I think it gets even better when you combine it with "Dark Fortress Landing".
Cheesey, there were official alternate builds for ALL the knights kingdom sets! They were included on the fold-up-underneath box art. I specifically remember them :)
knights kingdom 2 is the best of the best, honestly. so happy to see another vid on it! although, idk how I feel about you being so excited to see a skeleton and drop hot coals on people...........
I have been very sick at home for weeks now and these deep-dive videos about older Lego themes have been very relaxing and informative. Will you also make one for Atlantis or Galaxy Squad?
Hope you feel better soon! I'm glad this can be of some small comfort. I have all the Atlantis sets ready to go. :) Hopefully I can get part 1 of 3 out later in the summer!
Here would be a suggestion. In the video you mentioned there are ways to improve it I wonder if it would be interesting to people to see you use your expertise to improve it with a similar spirit of Lego's style at that time. Thanks for all you do😊
It's my favorite series to make, too! :) Lots more to come - more Exo-Force, Knights' Kingdom, and Harry Potter, but also Atlantis, Prince of Persia, Dinosaur, Space Police, and more!
It's bittersweet seeing the Dark Fortress again. On one hand, it's a blast of nostalgia, but on the other hand, hearing how much it goes for now makes me sad that I broke it down over fifteen years ago. :'( Had to for a move, and I just... never put it back together.
Found a tub from 20 years ago of my old toys at my grandparents had every wave 1 set from when me and my brother were kids, reconstructed them all and only missing a handful of basic pieces, huge hit of nostalgia and actual buying the missing ones to return them to 100%@@CheeseyStudios
I was pretty little when this theme came out, but I was lucky enough to have Vladek's Dark Fortress. I still have a decent amount of the pieces in storage, and I have the knights proudly diplayed on my wall.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
This revisited series is always like Christmas coming early. I just booked myself a 45 minute meeting at work in order fit this in.
Stick it to the man
lolol I love that so much
Vladek was pondering the orb before it was cool
what a trendsetter
Had a Knight’s Kingdom themed birthday party for my 6th or 7th birthday, We had the invites, and I think there was some other themed party stuff too. Core memory for sure!
That sounds legendary honestly - what a party it must have been!
Dude, that is awesome! :D
I can’t wait for the Lego Castle troll sets to be reviewed. Such nostalgia
That'll definitely be a fun batch of videos to do :)
I love that most people have the original Cloud City as a holy grail set, but you want an obscure Scala set, lol. Although I see why, there are some crazy pieces in that set
wait what
The Belville and Scala lines are such a treasure trove of bizarre parts. I did end up getting "The Princess and the Pea" (the other set that features Vladek's crystal ball) while editing this video since I found it sealed at a great price! 😂
Legitimately one of the best castles Lego ever made. It’s also possible to pretty easily make it fully enclosed by attaching the Scorpion Outpost and the castle landing to it.
Oooh, that’s a great idea! :0
That sounds like a truly epic fortress!
Love the midnight vibe with the lights in the background
Thank you! It's always a fun setup to do for these videos
Growing up playing Runescape when I was 10 years old loving knights. When I saw Vladek's Dark Fortress in the store back in the day I immediately asked my mom and dad to buy this set. 100 Euro was a lot of money and I thought I might not be able to get the set, but I was surprised my parents agreed to buy it. It was my very first LEGO set I got and also started my LEGO journey into having more castle sets. I still remember the moment when I saw this set, because it meant so much to me. It made me the LEGO castle fan I am today.
That's awesome you got to experience it as a kid! It's one of the greatest LEGO castles of all time - no doubt about it.
I also loved RuneScape and LEGO Knights as a kid! :D
Knight’s Kindgom and Orient Expedition were my “gateway drugs” into Lego as well. I regret not being able to get EVERY set from both, but I definitely remember having so much fun with the Castle of Morcia and Vladek’s Dark Fortress!
That's so epic you had both! The battles that must have been waged, haha...
I have absolutely loved every minute of your retrospectives on Knights Kingdom. It's not just the nostalgia talking, either; both the theme and your videos are top-notch excellence! 😊
Something I noticed about wave 2 is that Sir Rascus' minifigure was always depicted with dark green hands, dark green hips and a dark green helmet as his accent color. Whether it be promotional pictures of the sets he appeared in, his minifigure form in the comic panels or even his own action figure, he had dark green hands. However his official figure always came with black hands instead which made him the odd one out compared to his fellow knights whose accent colors also featured darker colors (Jayko with dark blue hands, hips and helmet, Santis with dark tan hands, hips and helmet and Danju with dark bluish gray hands, hips and helmet).
I don't know why Rascus was the only exception to the rule as he would've been the first minifigure with dark green hands but I assume it had something to do with quality issues. Regardless, dark green hands made their actual first appearance in 2013 with Legends of Chima.
I swapped his hands with the correct color and the figure looks complete and consistent with the others now and I highly recommend this change to anyone.
Great catch! I'll have to do the same for my figures.
"Reload"
"Reload"
"Re...dammit, horseman, can you move a bit to the left?"
I didn't know this theme existed until around 2012. My grandma found a box of Lego at a thrift store and saved it for my brother and I and it contained the original Gringotts Bank and Dueling club, about half a bionicle, and Vladek's Dark Fortress which I had never seen before. The instructions were included but the cover was missing, so we were building it at her kitchen table with no idea what it would look like when it was complete. This was one of the last times we visited her house before she passed, so it holds a ton of nostalgia for me. So cool to see it appreciated in a modern review video!
What a great memory to have! Lots of great sets. I love the idea of building the fortress with no idea how it'll turn out in the end
I got a couple of the Knight's Kingdom sets for Christmas back in the day. In recent years, I've worked on expanding the number of characters in both factions. After getting one of the Fantasy Era sets, I decided to make the knights from that theme the foot soldiers for the kingdom of Morica who assist the four main knights in their missions (it helps that the kingdoms' colors of both themes are blue and gold.)
I also made wives for the two rulers. Queen Mathias wears the blue dress from the Fantasy Era Queen while Lady Vladek is clad in the robes of the Evil Wizard from whatever minifigure series he's from.
I think the dragon knights from the 2014 line (I think 2014) could be great vladek foot soldier if you need more.
Growing up, I had both the Battle Wagon and the King's Siege Tower from Wave 2. Kept me entertained for countless hours. 😊
Yes! So perfect for many, many epic LEGO battles
I grew up in the 2010’s with themes like superheroes, City, Ninjago and Nexo Knights and I’ve always found these older original themes I missed out on fascinating to watch in your videos, partially tempted to try and buy some of these sets you review here
There's some real gems from this era. One of my favorite Knights' Kingdom sets would be "Border Ambush" (from wave one). It's a smaller set well worth picking up that would give you a taste of what this theme has to offer!
Same for me. I was definitely a Ninjago and Hero Factory kid and still am to this day.
Knights Kingdom II is one of the most nostalgic Lego themes for me! I had a couple sets, every single action figure from all the waves and even the board game. I distinctly remember going to Legoland as a kid and getting foam swords and helmet to fight my friends (who’s family was also at legoland with us) on the big castle, with the dragon ride.
The foam swords were too much fun!
The impressive thing is, despite me not liking the Knights Kingdom era, I was still very interested in watching this video and found it quite enjoyable. That's the power of Cheesey: even if you don't love the theme, he still makes the video engaging and interesting. Thats the mark of a great YT creator.
P.S. I think I need to cop that Vladek Fortress now...
Ha! I love to hear it 😂 You definitely can't go wrong with the Fortress. It's gotta be one of the most epic LEGO castles ever!
I absolutely love these videos, it is really interesting to see a closer look at some older lego themes that I never got to experience and learn about all of the niche pieces and facts about them
I'm so glad to hear it! It's great that you're able to learn a few new things. That's part of the reason why I love making these videos too. I'm always finding out about rare parts and sometimes even whole new sets I've never seen before!
This was my favorite theme growing up. Thanks for allowing me to relive some good childhood memories 👍😊
So glad you enjoyed!
Your excitement for this series is so amazing to see. I really loved these sets, especially Vladek's fortress, which still holds the record for the longest time I've had a set without taking it apart. Glad you can enjoy it now as well!
Yesss! It's such a beauty. I wish everyone could experience it for themselves!
I missed out on so many sets during this era as I was going through a "I only like action figure" phase as I entered highschool. I did collect the figures and I was a big fan of Bionicle but wow the build sets here are amazing
There was a lot of other great LEGO stuff to be distracted by at the time, so I get it! Glad you got some of the Knights' Kingdom action figures though - some of them are actually pretty awesome.
Same! I was fully invested in Bionicle. Missed out on a majority of Kingdoms, Fantasy, Knights Kingdom, Power Miners, and even Exo Force. I really regret that, but then again I didn't have my own income source then, so my hands were already tied.
Amazing video! I also used to have the foam swords and Vladek mask, awesome stuff
Glad you got to experience those for yourself! I love the random stuff LEGO makes like that.
Gosh, I absolutely ADORED that! Knights Kingdom has a really special place in my heart. I discovered it long after it had discontinued when I was little, and it was through bits and pieces of second hand Lego I got from multiple different people, most of the sets being incomplete. It always stuck out as a bit of an oddity to me for some reason, probably because I’d never heard of it and it felt like this strange elusive theme, but it had such a distinct feel and it’s become so nostalgic to me. There’s something about it that I can’t quite explain, but I just love it! You did a phenomenal job revisiting it, and I love hearing the excitement in your voice due to the nostalgia you have for this theme, it’s so wholesome. And along with the cozy and nostalgic feel of your videos it just makes for such an enjoy experience overall! As always, I love the work you do man. You’re a real gem in the community 🙌🏽🧡
Man, I really appreciate you bringing up the weight of Vladek's Fortress. Price-per-mass of a LEGO set has always been my go-to metric and it's nice to see others use it and not just drone on about price per part.
Price per part is just so out of whack these days when half the parts are 1x1 plates 😂 Another good metric has always been Jangbrick's, which is based purely on "vibes" lol
@CheeseyStudios yea, I've always agreed with Jang's vibes approach, though I do think the detail inherent in the more recent sets with tons of tiny pieces works for me.
Really love these videos that go over not as popular / not as well known themes.
These are my favorite videos to make, too! I love highlighting these old themes. The 2000s really were a second golden age for LEGO.
I saw your first review of the Knights Kingdom several months ago. I’m just now realizing you did wave 2, and this was such a blast to the past.
Really enjoy your reviewing style and commentary. Excellent work! Can’t wait to see more.
Much appreciated!
@@CheeseyStudios Look forward to the final wave if you ever decide to review it!
I only managed one or two sets out of that one.
25:20 Oh I may be one of the few who has figured it out. Its been a while, so I don't recall exactly, but what I did was hold my finger on the cog firmly, with a bit of downward force, then roll the cog backwards with as much speed as you can whilst maintaining a bit of said downward force. When you get it right, its insanely powerful, more so than the spring launcher. Not the most intuitive design, but definitely definitely a fun one. I remember rolling it so hard that the "toothed plate" piece would jam up in the front against the cheese slope.
Alright, I'm gonna have to give it another go lol! Thanks for the tips!
I remember standing in line outside Target early on Black Friday '05 with my mom in order to get the Dark Fortress set for just $50… absolutely appreciate all that it came with, and this video is a fantastic explosion of nostalgia that gets right at the heart of the story and play features we had back then. Thank you so much for researching and assembling all of this quality content!!
It's my pleasure! I'm so glad to hear it's appreciated. I absolutely love making these Revisiting videos.
Your channel always throws my brain into blissful nostalgia. Thank you for doing these videos. It really just brings me back. I didn't get many Lego sets but I had the Lego magazine and seeing all these sets made me want them so badly. It's cool to see them "in person"
No problem at all! It's fun to relive my childhood dreams by purchasing these sets as an adult. Glad I can share the joy!
@@CheeseyStudios Keep it up! I'll never not be excited to see you upload a video revisiting these classic sets 👊
I absolutely love these sets and I think you did them justice. I do a lot of moc building and you have just made me want to do a knights kingdom moc so badly. Can’t wait for wave 3!
I'm so excited to cover wave three too! The action figures are so cool
I really wish they could bring back this theme. Watching this video brings back so many childhood memories
This was such a fun one. It's almost like Ninjago meets Castle. I miss original LEGO themes...
Another phenomenal video! LOVE the artistry with the presentation of the models and the way you describe the sets. Can’t wait for the next one!
Thank you, Chris!
These sets were also THE wave of my childhood- totally legendary! Thanks as always for the exemplary walk down memory lane
It's my pleasure! It was so fun to rebuild all these.
Another great video, love this series!
Thank you!
man, I was fortunate enough to get Vladek's Dark Fortress as a kid, and have gone to Lego Land CA during the time when they were selling Knight's Kingdom foam swords and masks as well as doing stage performances. So much nostalgia watching this video, I really ought to go thank my parents.
Ah, that's so wholesome! That's so cool that they did stage performances - I didn't even realize that. I'm sure Knights' Kingdom was all the rage since there's always been such a big castle presence at the park.
@@CheeseyStudios It was a really big deal at the time, back then there was a huge classic castle area of the park and the Knight's Kingdom theme was front and center. This was maybe 2005-6 I believe! right when Bionicle was enjoying their golden age and the Star Wars theme was just taking off. Great time to be a kid.
Thanks for this nostalgia trip. I recently fell back in love with Lego and I got all my knights from this series from my parents place. They now live in my lego animal crossing village!
That's awesome! I can definitely see those colorful knights being right at home there 😂
You have single-handedly rekindled my love of Lego. It's been so long since I've even though about picking up a kit. I had no idea Bricklink was a thing either!
Bricklink is gonna change your life, ha! Welcome back to the fold :)
Love these theme reviews! This wave must have came out when I wasn’t into Lego? I had some of the first wave of Knights Kingdom 2 and later had Fantasy era. So these sets are basically new to me?! Glad you’re here to fly the Knights Kingdom flag- it was a core part of my Lego experience while growing up 😃
Well hey, I'm glad I could introduce you to these! Wave 2 had some fantastic sets. There are very few castles that top the Dark Fortress!
My favourite series! Revisiting Knights Kingdom 2 has been a treat so far, can't wait to discover the next waves
It's sad to think our Knights' Kingdom journey is coming to a close.... Still lots of cool things to see though, and I can't wait to cover the last wave of action figures and playsets!
8876 was my first ever lego set and I loved it, the prison cage was always a favourite feature of mine
The whole thing has such a fun layout, too! You got a lot of bang for your buck with that one I feel
Awesome video!! I can’t wait for the third wave!!👍💯🔥
Thank you! I'm really excited to cover the next batch of sets, too :)
This video series is peak, please keep it going!
I'd love to see more coverage of 2000s - 90s LEGO themes like this
(Still waiting on the Mars Mission wave 2 video btw)
Don't you worry - lots more to come!
I recognized the piece on the end of the mini catapult at 10:36 as a pot almost immediately. I got one of those pots in my second ever lego set, and knew about the ability to hold cylinder bricks in it like that. Never thought about using it as a catapult though. Color me surprised!
I love it when the designers think up clever parts usage like that!
Love the reviews. The blasts from the past are so sweet!
Love the respect for Ice Blade, that is still one of my all-time favorite sets! Had the best transforming feature out of that wave too!
I love Knights Kingdom II, it's my favorite castle theme. It feels how castle should be if it existed in the Lego universe, the right mix of fantasy and Lego. I also really miss the comic strip they would put on the boxes or instruction manual. I would spend hours rereading them as a kid and appreciating the art. That's one of the reasons I like the Hidden Side's box art. I'm sad they don't really do that today. I guess it exists digitally but it sure did make the instructions unique and worth keeping.
The lego Dreamzzz sets actually include a comic page for each section of the building process and the ninjago Core sets do too
Ice Blade is definitely an all-timer! One day once I've got a few more Revisiting videos under my belt, I'd love to do a "Revisiting Revisiting" lol and highlight my 5 or 10 favorite sets, and you KNOW Ice Blade's gonna be on that list!
As a child I had both castles of the Knights Kingdom Series, it was so awesome to play with them, I loved it! Then the dark fortress fell apart, because my father dropped it while making room for my brother's weight bench, which he never actually used :( but it's Lego, so I could rebuild it like I wanted to, good times :)
That is the beauty of LEGO! Still, that was probably pretty traumatic as a kid 😭
Yay, more moreeeee... Knights Kingdom 2 baby . Love it .. great job
Appreciate it, Grumpy
@@CheeseyStudios at Orlando brick co, there's a few I'm eyeing
I actually got a few of the wave three action figures from ABC when I was down there filming the LM Christmas special. It was good that I found them too, as some of them can be quite rare!
Ugh, this is wonderful. Thank you so much for the trip down the memory lane with nostalgia, which was my childhood too. My UA-cam account was opened at the same time hence the numbers.
That's too cool, ha! It was a great time to be alive, that's for sure.
Again an excellent revisit, well done! 😊
I was well off into my dark ages when these sets were released, but picked some sets up a couple of years ago (including 8877 that was glued together 😬)
The amount of effort that it would take to glue a set like that is so ridiculous 🤣 Whhhhhyyyyyyyyyyyyy
@@CheeseyStudios crazy people, right! 😂
CASTLE BEST THEME 🎉🎉🎉
facts
I actually just picked up wave 1 and 2 fully of Knights' Kingdom II and I'm so glad to see you talk about them here as well
That's awesome! Glad you've gotten to experience these all in person!
I have so much nostalgia for the Scorpion Prison Cave set. Love the skeleton, white horse, and scorpion build.
There's a lot of fun to be had with that one. That was definitely a favorite of mine growing up, and served as the big bad guy castle since I never had the Dark Fortress!
I have a battery-operated sword from Knights Kingdom year 2 based on Vladek's design in the action figure. the idea is that as you swing the sword it makes sounds of clashing blades. It was also packed with some of the action figures if I recall correctly.
That sounds so awesome
The Knights Kingdom line is over all a really cool line up in general and gives much room for more Medieval based stories for kids., and really could go a long way probably if it made a third resurgence, hell make them cameo with Ninjago.
This video convinced me to buy a sealed copy of vladek’s dark fortress
One of the best sets I own it’s awesome!
Ooh, that sounds awesome! I'm guessing the box for that one is quite cool
And again we got an amazing video! Thank you for these! This was my childhood as well, great stuff!
So glad you enjoyed!
As a kid, I was always a little bummed that Lego never made a generic good-guy knight. Especially since the shadow knights are all corrupted Kingdom knights. Could have made a cool transformation feature in a set (like the anakin to vader transformation in 2005)
Right?? The closest we got was the chess set, but that wasn't nearly as easy to find, or even desirable for most kids.
Been waiting for this one! Loved this theme as a kid and I had mostly wave 2 sets.
Nevermind, I had the wave 1 siege engine. Don't think I had any wave 2 sets 😂
Ripperoni xD Ah, to be fair, the two first waves blend together so nicely that it's hard to tell them apart!
Man, I just love your videos.
Really appreciate it!
I absolutely love the sets from this era, Lego's creativity was through the roof. I would love to see you revisit Galaxy Squad as that is one of my favorite!
I love the imagination the company had back during this decade! I'd love to get to Galaxy Squad some day.
Nice that you brought up weight as a better value gauge. Excellent topic and video!
Appreciate it!
Vladek's Dark Fortress was easily my all-time favorite childhood set. What a glorious castle!
Right?! I'm not sure LEGO has ever had a cooler villain HQ!
I remember buying a Scorpion prison cave and foam sword bundle like 12-13 years ago sealed in the box/ plastic foil in a local toy store. I wish I still had that set, might have to buy a used one for nostalgia purposes.
It really is a fun set, and heck, I'm sure the sword would still be plenty of fun too lol!
This was a really wonderful revisiting video, even as someone who didn’t have that much of it definitely something I’ll keep an eye out for. Not to short change your wonderful revisiting video but I found it absolutely hilarious that you mentioned 5962 The Tinderbox because that infarct is also my dream Belleville set, to the point where I’ve got a BL wanted list of it parted out xD. Wonderful job with these revisiting vids they have improved so much and as much as I’m aware you’ve got just a Bunch of them in the making I think some of the old ones could use a newer vid (not to say that they’re still not my favourites) Great job!
Ha, thank you! I'm glad to hear that the Tinderbox also got your eye. 😂 What a crazy set! I'm looking forward to hopefully remastering Mars Mission later this year, and covering wave two!
'Eyo, back at it again relating everything to Bionicle. Those pearl gold shoulder armour pieces are actually really cool to use on Bionicle mocs as there isn't really any piece that can quite replicate that shape, especially not in pearl gold which is a much more limited colour than you would imagine. You can actually also get the shin pieces in pearl gold as well. During the tail end of 2005 when they switched from flat gold to pearl gold a few sets that were supposed to have flat gold pieces, like Rascus, shipped with pearl gold instead. They're substantially more rare, I only know two people who have sets of them, and they're probably way more difficult to acquire since there could very easily be mixed up with reddish gold pieces instead. A shame, since the shin piece is even harder to replicate with available pearl gold pieces.
When making the wave 2 action figures video, those shoulder pads were always the hardest pieces to find lol - some colors are only in a handful of stores in the US! I kinda figured they had all been snatched up by Bionicle fans, and this does seem to confirm that xD
Knights Kingdom should get a remake. Same story, but modern pieces and sensibilities.
That would be so cool. Looking at the success of Ninjago, I feel there's a lot of potential still for original, story-driven themes from LEGO.
Great video as always, look forward to your next Exo-Force video! Recently managed to get my hands on a golden guardian, can’t wait to put it together!!
Ooh, that's such a good one! Glad you were able to get it
Ah, Knights Kingdom. Easily one of my favorite themes, right up there with Bionicle and Star Wars. Thank you for these retrospective videos, it brings back good memories. Keep up the good work. Also, Bionicle retrospective when?
So glad you enjoy these! It was such a good time to be a kid. LEGO really was at their most creative
@@CheeseyStudios It's been interesting see how much LEGO has changed over the last 20 years. To see all the different building techniques that they use in these newer sets, it's been fun getting back into buying LEGO's but it's been harder to get some cus of how expensive some of these sets are.
I have most of a copy of this set, including that side build ballista. I believe at 25:56 you demonstrated pretty much exactly how it's supposed to work. It's very finnicky but basically you hold the ballista in place and run your finger over the wheel which should propel the projectile forward. Difficult to make it go far. If I can get a good demonstration with my decrepit copy I could upload!
It is such a weird mechanism! There had to be a hundred better ways to do that. Props for originality I guess? 😂
The idea of knocking the mask off is pretty cool. Lego should have made more things with that gimmick.
LEGO just needs to focus on play features again in general. Sets these days just aren't nearly as fun as they used to be, even if they generally look a lot nicer
Fireball Catapult is one of my favorite Castle themed sets ever. I didn't need to be invested in the story, it was just a nice little build, a couple of well designed knights with color scheme implied alignment of good and evil, and a horse.
Small sets honestly go so hard sometimes. It had everything you needed here!
These are my favourite videos of yours! Hope to see more in the future :)) Would love one of the battle of geonosis lego sets
Lots more to come, don't you worry!
The fact almost the entire wave was dedicated to the villains is unheard of with todays LEGO and this is something I think they should do more rotate waves for each side in Star Wars, Dreamzzz, Ninjago etc also it is possible to find the dark fortress landing by itself but it’s very hard to find these days
Agreed! Bad guy stuff is always so cool 😂
One of my favorite childhood sets was Vladek's Dark Fortress. Such an amazing set, and one I want to rebuild one day because I completely regret disassembling it. I suspect some of its pieces are in Storage, because there are some pieces I've failed to rediscover in my collection.
I hope you can find all the pieces again at some point. I think you'd have a lot of fun building it back together!
@@CheeseyStudios Thanks, I hope so too. I'm fairly certain I never sold or gave away my LEGO pieces, but I noticed while sorting that I'm missing some very distinct pieces from that era. Not just Knights Kingdom, but pieces from Bionicle, Star Wars, and Spiderman sets as well. I think I even had an Alpha Teams set with some missing pieces.
Which is why I assume they're in storage, because I'm making a greater effort now to organize my pieces.
I was literally just wondering when this would come out. Wonderful.
Ay, perfect timing! Hopefully I can get started on the wave three videos soon.
Huh. I knew I had some Knight's Kingdom theme sets, but oddly I have no memory of owning Vladic's castle, but every time you brought up exclusive or rare pieces, I was like "Wait a second...", went over to my LEGO collection and lo and behold, I had the exact piece. The more I looked at it, the more pieces I recognized and found in my collection, until eventually I just had to accept that my eyes were correct and I totally must've owned this set.
The reason I remembered so many of the pieces was because I used them ALL THE TIME in my custom builds, so clearly I must've very quickly cannibalized the castle before the memory of what it was had time to settle in my brain.
So on the one hand, I guess I "missed out" on playing with this super cool castle, but on the other hand I suppose I just played with LEGO as intended, letting my imagination use the pieces as it saw fit. Either way, I guess I ended up loving this set dearly because I got so much usage and fun out of its pieces, even to this day!
At the end of the day, I think you got the better deal. Building your own stuff is what this hobby is all about! It does make for a funny story here too 😂
The villain builds in this wave were the perfection of lego, going back to classic castle: big pieces that look great and speed up the building process with enough detail spread in that it looks good. Sets today are so arduous to put together and take so much time that it's daunting to reconfigure them, even though the freedom afforded by many more smaller pieces is so high.
I do believe somewhere in the last decade LEGO seems to have forgotten that they make TOYS lol... Yeah, I find myself missing the simplicity too. If I want a beautiful model, I'll make one myself. I feel like kids these days don't have the patience for these 500-1000 piece playsets.
This was a cool retrospective. I look forward to the Wave three breakdown.
Really glad you enjoyed! I'm sure excited too. Lots of fun things to talk about :)
This is my lego castle theme as well. great waves and love the minifigs.
I'm glad we got at least a few years out of it, too! There's so much variety in this theme
Yay part 2!!! Thank you so much
I've got you covered :)
I was a lucky kid getting both these castles after a wait as I got the knights castle and then after a wait, got the scorpion castle later and it was just so dope. I favoured the scorpion castle as it opens out and as a kid I got frustrated by the knights castle not opening out so it was hard to play with. But still I loved it. Epic!
Vladek's Fortress really is an incredible model. It was a delight to finally experience it in person!
I had Vladek's castle as a kid. I've always been more of a "Legos-as-parts" kind of person than a "Legos-as-sets" person, preferring to make a set once, play with it a bit, then disassemble it and make something else from the parts. But I think I played with the intended configuration of Vladek's castle longer than any other set. I did eventually disassemble it, an inevitably have tragically misplaced many of the parts.
I definitely respect the destroying if sets. That's where the real LEGO magic happens!
I suppose the knight's boat having the same design scheme as the castle is good cohesion but it does weirdly imply this sea worthy vessle is made of....stone
Indeed... 🤣
While I personally preferred 1 and 3, Vladek's fortress remains my favorite castle playset. It's huge and has lots of playfeatures.
I think it gets even better when you combine it with "Dark Fortress Landing".
You could create quite the complex between the Fortress, Prison Tower, and Landing! It was so epic.
Cheesey, there were official alternate builds for ALL the knights kingdom sets! They were included on the fold-up-underneath box art. I specifically remember them :)
Ahhh, I wish I had been able to get some of the packaging! They can be so hard to find.
knights kingdom 2 is the best of the best, honestly. so happy to see another vid on it! although, idk how I feel about you being so excited to see a skeleton and drop hot coals on people...........
d e a t h
I have been very sick at home for weeks now and these deep-dive videos about older Lego themes have been very relaxing and informative. Will you also make one for Atlantis or Galaxy Squad?
Hope you feel better soon! I'm glad this can be of some small comfort. I have all the Atlantis sets ready to go. :) Hopefully I can get part 1 of 3 out later in the summer!
@@CheeseyStudios Thanks. And I look forward to the videos.
I found those exact birthday cards but for Bionicle 2004 at a goodwill. It's cool to see Lego did this for other lines.
That's so epic! I miss silly little things like that honestly
Knight’s Kingdom was my favorite theme at the time and I actually used the birthday invitations for my 6th birthday party!
Ayy, that's epic! Did your party have any of the other decorations?
@@CheeseyStudios I think we might’ve had plates and napkins. The highlight was getting out all the foam weaponry and whacking each other.
Thanks for this video , you convinced me to buy vladeck castle for 160 € its PERFECT almost new box and all and I love it
Awesome find! It's such an incredible set
Here would be a suggestion. In the video you mentioned there are ways to improve it I wonder if it would be interesting to people to see you use your expertise to improve it with a similar spirit of Lego's style at that time.
Thanks for all you do😊
That would be a fun idea! I'd love to do some Knights' Kingdom custom builds some day
Hmm this video ended in an extra posivite way with your narration sytle. I guess needed it, thanks.
I really love the revisiting series, you shouldn't stop with it❤
It's my favorite series to make, too! :) Lots more to come - more Exo-Force, Knights' Kingdom, and Harry Potter, but also Atlantis, Prince of Persia, Dinosaur, Space Police, and more!
cannot wait for the Third Wave,by far,my favorite of the theme,and a lot of that has to do with my boy Jayco getting a kingly makeover!
I'm excited to cover it too! There's some really cool stuff in the final wave
Scorpion prison cave and The Batwing: The Joker's Aerial Assault were my first sets
Very nice! There were so many good sets in these years.
It's bittersweet seeing the Dark Fortress again. On one hand, it's a blast of nostalgia, but on the other hand, hearing how much it goes for now makes me sad that I broke it down over fifteen years ago. :'( Had to for a move, and I just... never put it back together.
If you still have the pieces, you should definitely reconstruct it! It's such a glorious model.
Found a tub from 20 years ago of my old toys at my grandparents had every wave 1 set from when me and my brother were kids, reconstructed them all and only missing a handful of basic pieces, huge hit of nostalgia and actual buying the missing ones to return them to 100%@@CheeseyStudios
I was pretty little when this theme came out, but I was lucky enough to have Vladek's Dark Fortress. I still have a decent amount of the pieces in storage, and I have the knights proudly diplayed on my wall.
It just doesn't get better than the Dark Fortress - what an incredible castle!
I've been waiting so long for this
Hope you enjoy! More to come :)
I’ve been waiting a long time for this one
So excited to get to the last two Knights' Kingdom videos too. This theme has been a lot of fun to cover!