8779 The Grand Tournament

8779 The Grand Tournament is a Knights' Kingdom II set that was released in 2004. The set includes a small fortress to watch the tournament from, including a throne for King Mathias, two slammers, Jayko and Vladek on their brick-built horse mounts, and three stands.
== Description ==
The Grand Tournament is made up of eight parts: the main building, the two slammers, the two Roller Horses, and the three stands.
;Main Building
The building has a bottom level, which is empty at the back. On the top level is a rail with three colour-switching segments, and a throne for King Mathias. The throne can flip up, and a set of coins is hidden underneath. Above King Mathias is a small roof, with two bars extending from the sides. On each of these is a flag with King Mathias' lion symbol, which, when flipped up, reveals Vladek's scorpion symbol on the reverse.
;Roller Horses
Two brick-built horses with wheels are includes in the set. These are ridden by Jayko and Vladek, two of the minifigures included in the set.
Jayko's roller horse has four light stone grey 4x4 wheels connect on to two 1x6 white pieces with holes in them. Jakyo sits above this on two white sloped bricks. In front of the blue knight is a raised section, with a light blue horse-helmet a the front.
Vladek's roller horse is the same build as Jayko's, except the light blue pieces are replaced by maroon ones, and the white pieces by black ones. This one also has dark stone grey wheels instead of light stone grey ones.
;Slammers
The two slammers included for the roller-horses are built identically. They have large light stone grey pieces to the sides sloping forwards, with other pieces the same colour sloping slightly inwards. Three light sand cylinder bricks are placed in between them. At the front are to pillars, with a small archway connecting them together. Above this are two light stone grey pieces sloping sharply inwards. In the center of each slammer is a 'handle' that can be pressed down to fire the roller horses out. The two slammers have bricks on them to show which of the participants that slammer is: light blue for Jayko and maroon for Vladek.
;Stands
The set also includes three small stands. One holds four weapons on black clip in a squarwe space with a blue 'cone' on the top. The weapons include: the swords for Vladek and Jayko, a halberb, and a glaive.
The other two stands hold large versions of Jayko's and Vladek's shields. These are the same pieces used in the large versions of the characters. The shields are supported by light stone grey pillars, with a flag of the participant's colour at the top, light blue for Jayko and maroon for Vladek.
== Background ==
The Grand Tournament was the method of determining the next king of Morcia. Many years before the 2004 storyline took place, Vladek lost the tournament to Mathias, resulting in Mathias becoming king. When Vladek claimed that Mathias was either killed or captured, a tournament was issued to choose a new king.
The four main protagonists of the theme: Danju, Santis, Rascus and Jayko, were sent on a mission by Mathias to find the Heart of the Shield of Ages. It was while they were gone that the order for the tournament was issued, so the four knights knew nothing about it until their return.
After many trials, the knights received the Shield, and returned back to Morcia. Jayko then entered in the tournament in King Mathias' place, and won against Vladek, reclaiming the throne for Mathias.
Later, in the 2005 storyline, King Mathias crowned Jayko king after the battle at the Dark Fortress.
== LEGO.com Description ==
== Minifigures Included ==
== Gallery ==
8779 Alternate Model.jpg|Alternate model
8779 Glorified.jpg
GrandTournamentArena.jpg|The tournament as it appears in an image of Morcia
KnightsJoust.JPG|The tournament as depicted in a mini-comic
== External links ==
Category:2004 sets
Category:8000 sets
Category:Knights' Kingdom II
Category:Castle