Black Knights The Black Knights were one of the various factions of LEGO ' s " Castle " theme and were introduced in 1988 . During its run , a total of thirteen sets were released as part this series , including two major castles , making it one of the larger " LEGO Castle " factions of this era . The black colour of their fortifications was one of the features that set the " Black Knights " apart from earlier factions . The " Black Knights " were also distinguished by their symbol , which was a blue wyvern dragon featured on their shields and banners , a motif that was also used by the " Dragon Masters " with different colours . The " Black Knights " were phased out as regular theme after 1994 but the crest still made occasional appearances until 1996 . History . First years . The first well known " Black Knights " set released was the 6085 Black Monarch ' s Castle in 1988 , which marked the beginning of the " Black Knights " series . The enormous black castle was guarded by twelve knights , four of them mounted on horses . This was one of the first sets to include the horse armor piece or barding . Also , the triangular dragon shields were originally invented to represent the Black Knights . An interesting feature the castle had was that it could be opened and closed using the special " hinge " pieces for more play in the interior . In 1989 , three Black Knights were included in the Knights ' Challenge set . Two more Black Knights sets were released in 1990 , which were 6059 Knight ' s Stronghold , a set that featured a town gate and five knights along with a big catapult , and 6034 Black Monarch ' s Ghost , a set that included a lone armored knight and a glow in the dark ghost . These two sets were one of the last LEGO Castle sets to carry the LEGOLAND banner . The two 1990 castle sets were re - released in 1992 with the LEGO System banner on the boxes , but the instruction booklets of the sets , still had the LEGOLAND banner . The only changes that were made to the 1992 re - release sets , were the horse saddles . The saddles were changed from one clip to two clips since 1992 was the year that introduced the altered LEGO horse saddle . 1992 . In 1992 , the LEGO Group introduced the 6086 Black Knight ' s Castle that was originally called Dungeon Master ' s Castle until 1994 , when the name was changed during its last year . Mounted on a raised baseplate , this was the largest set in the Castle theme during its production run , being considered one of the best castles ever released . It included four mounted knights , six soldiers / guards , a " Wolfpack " renegade prisoner , and a glow in the dark ghost . Like Black Monarch ' s Castle , it included the horse armor or barding piece , but now two out of the four mounted knights had helmet visors and breastplate armor pieces like the knights introduced in 1990 . There were new dragon plumes available in four different colours ( just like the feather plumes ) , as well as introducing a new oval shield with a red and blue dragon printed . The older dragon triangular shield continued to be used in the set , to be carried by foot soldiers . This set was the first major castle to have minifigures with facial hair , mustache and beard faces rather than only having the usual plain , grin face . Two other main Black Knights sets were released 1992 as well . There was the 6057 Sea Serpent , the biggest LEGO Castle boat ever released in the 1990s and also the last set to include Black Falcon figures . The other was the 6009 Black Knight , a small set that included a single , full armored knight , along with new accessories such as the oval shield , dragon plumes , and beard face . Last sets . In 1993 four smaller sets were released that did not appear in any catalogue . Instead , the sets from 1992 were still included until the end of 1994 when the Black Knights ceased to exist as a proper " Castle " theme . 1993 also saw the introduction of the new " Dragon Masters " theme , which reused the oval dragon shields but featured green dragons instead of blue ones . The theme also reused the " dragon plumes " introduced in 1992 . In 1995 and 1996 there were still new sets released that included minifigure s with the " Black Knights " crest . 6078 Royal Drawbridge included a knight who carried an oval " Black Knights " shield with a blue dragon but was otherwise dressed like a " Dragon Masters " knight and 6079 Dark Forest Fortress included a cart whose driver carried a classical triangular " Black Knights " shield . Castles and equipment . With two castles , a fortified gate ( 6059 Knight ' s Stronghold ) and two smaller buildings ( 6034 Black Monarch ' s Ghost and 1888 Black Knight ' s Guardshack ) the " Black Knights " were a faction that was especially strong on buildings . However , they didn ' t own any noteworthy land vehicles , such as carriages or carts ( except the debatable appearance in 6079 Dark Forest Fortress ) . Even their complement of war material is far from impressive , with only one mobile siege engine ( 1971 Battering Ram ) and two stationary catapults ( 1491 Dual Defender and 1917 King ' s Catapult ) . A fact that is partially remedied by a rather large fleet for a Castle faction , encompassing a big sailing ship ( 6057 Sea Serpent ) and a boat ( 1547 Black Knight ' s Boat ) , only comparable to the fleet of the Crusaders . Their first castle , was similar in layout to the " Crusaders ' " " King ' s Castle " and reprised its fold - out feature , but used mainly black elements and had an overall more elaborate design with less repetitive outer walls and octagonal towers . The " Black Knights ' " second castle made use of the new raised baseplates . Another notable building was a gate with foldable walls that was obviously intended to be used as a supplement for the previous castles since it was no enclosed structure . Symbols and ornaments . The Black Knights ' coat of arms and main symbol was a blue dragon as seen on their shields and actually resembled a classical wyvern dragon . This heraldic animal had only two legs and the wings in contrast to the dragons seen in other LEGO sets that had four limbs in addition to their wings . The dragon first appeared on the classical triangular shields and a small flag included in the first set 6085 Black Monarch ' s Castle from 1988 . In this first crest the blue dragon had yellow accents in the form of its beak and tail tip . The background was red . On the oval shields that appeared after 1992 , the background was changed to yellow and the details of the dragon were now red . The dragon motif also appeared on horse bardings . In 1992 various other forms of presenting the dragon symbol were introduced . The Black Knights were the first ones to trade the old feather plume for a new " dragon plume " that consisted of a small dragon figure mounted on the top of helmets with movable visors and two small dragon wings mounted on the helmets ' sides . The dragon plumes were also used as ornaments on castles and ships and were later reused in the new Dragon Masters theme where they were mounted to entirely new helmets . 1992 also saw the introduction of a rare flag which was only available in 6086 Black Knight ' s Castle . The flag had four rectangular fields which were either red or blue and contained yellow dragons . The dragons were simply side views of the dragon figures of the new plume . This motif also appeared on the sail of the 6057 Sea Serpent . The Black Knights were also the first " Castle " theme that was equipped with oval shields and adapted the dragon from the triangular shields to fit the new elongated form . The oval shields were reused by the " Dragon Masters " , but then the dragon was coloured in green . Sadly , they never had a unique torso print .