Quoted By:
Set Name = Knights Tournament 386 and 6083
Piece Count = 213
Year Released = 1979 and 1981
The Knights Tournament is my personal favourite set from this era, and that is due to one reason, the inclusion of the civilian figs, I remember when I was at school (at about the age of 10 or 12) my art teacher had this exact set glued upside down to the ceiling in his classroom (weird but true). Even in these very early sets, you can see that LEGO had a clear view to include civilians alongside the knights (after all what’s the point in being a good knight if you have no one to defend).
This set is very colourful but it works well, the red and white roof, fits perfectly with the blue wall and yellow seats, everything is combined well, and the attention to detail is fantastic, the blue cups for the spectators, the tree and the barding for the horse’s are all completely new to the castle theme at the time.
It should be noted that the female’s hair is an extremely rare piece (and even rarer due to its colour) and all the figs are unique to this set (excluding the service pack again), put simply if you own this set you have some very nice collector’s items. Again the alternative models for the set show that there was a lot of versatility in these old sets, something sadly lacking in the modern ones.
If I had one flaw with the set it would be the fact that the printing on the figs (and flag) do not fit with the Castle set, it would have been nice to have the same faction owning the Castle and the Tournament, still that is a minor flaw in something that was very original (at the time).
1/2