10176 King's Castle

10176 King's Castle is a Knights' Kingdom set released in 2006 and was only available in LEGO Stores and LEGO's online shop. The set was also sold at Costco stores in 2008 as the Royal Castle, where the "Knights' Kingdom" label was replaced with a "Special Edition" label. It contains a large castle, a small attack force with a Ballista siege cart, and twelve minifigures in total, including a ghost, two skeletons, and two mounted knights with horses, as well as a king.
Although its box art features the logo of the Knights' Kingdom II line from 2004, it features crests and factions from the first Knights' Kingdom theme from 2000 and is therefore attributed to this series instead. The castle and its soldiers bear the lion symbol of King Leo while the small attack force carries the crest of Cedric The Bull.
== Description ==
The castle has a similar layout as King Leo's Castle as it appeared in sets 6091 and 6098 from Knights' Kingdom in 2000. King's Castle features the very same raised baseplate as the two other sets but its superstructure has a more elaborate design with higher walls and towers as well as more interior furnishing.
The raised baseplate is rectangular in shape and has two ridges at the sides with a wide trench in between. Each ridge ends in two wide bumps with a recess in their centers. The castle itself consists of one large segment built on a green plate that spans the trench of the baseplate, and four further segments situated on the four corners of the castle, each one occupying one of the four bumps of the raised basepate. The hollow space in the trench below the castle's main section contains a blacksmith shop with a fireplace and an anvil. There's also a torture rack with a chained skeleton. This cavern is closed with bars at the front and can be accessed via a barred gate at its rear.
The large central segment of the castle contains the king's throne room on its main level. Which means that this room is situated directly behind the castle's main gate, only protected by a portcullis. In front of this gate is a black ramp that can be tilted like a drawbridge but features no ropes or winches. On the upper level is a laboratory for the wizard which contains a stand for a scroll, a flame and a table with goblets. Right above it is the roof.
The segments that make up the two corners at front of the castle share the same design. Both have small rotatable catapults at the top and are just one story high. The rear right tower comprises two stories and has a barred hatch at the ground floor that leads directly into a recess in the baseplate, which serves as jail and is occupied by a skeleton. On the first floor is a lever for the crane on the top floor. The left rear segment, which is again just one story high, has a prefabricated door in its outer wall which serves as alternative entrance to the castle. Each of the four segments has a small turret with a pointed roof on it and features a fixed crossbow.
On the royal side are seven minifigures, comprising the king himself, his wizard, a mounted knight, a short-legged blacksmith and three generic soldiers. The attackers comprise one mounted knight and a soldier. Their small siege engine is a simple push cart with a halberd and a crossbow.
This set also contained a rat, two grey birds, a snake, a dog, a bat and two horses.
== Notes ==
* The castle is supposedly inspired by 6090 Royal Knight's Castle from 1995, but shares more structural similarities with King Leo's Castle.
* This particular baseplate only appeared in this set, and the two versions of King Leo's Castle, 6091 and 6098.
* The symbols on the shields and flags are stickers instead of being printed onto the pieces.
* None of the minifigures has printed legs or torsos.
* The king may represent King Leo but features a completely different face. The Bull knight has also a different face than the original Cedric The Bull.
* The black wall panels with the column pattern originally appeared in 6090 Royal Knight's Castle and two other sets in the time between 1995 and 1997. Their sudden reappearance in a single set in 2006 is quite unusual. They also did not appear again.
== LEGO.com Description ==
== Minifigures Included ==
== Gallery ==
10176 Ballista.jpg|The Ballista
10176 Close up of Door.jpg|A close up of the door
10176 Gate.jpg|The Gate
10176 Side View.gif|A side view of the castle
10176 Throne Room.jpg|The Throne Room
10176 Wizard.jpg|The Wizard
== See also ==
* 6090 Royal Knight's Castle
* 6091 King Leo's Castle
* 6098 King Leo's Castle
* Other sets named King's Castle
== External links ==
Category:Knights' Kingdom
Category:Exclusives