Zander
Explorer
Viking Catapult versus the Nidhogg Dragon review
Here’s my review of the other set that I got from the Vikings range. This review has been written so that it can be understood independently of the review of the Viking challenges the Fenris Wolf set above. As a result, I have had to repeat some of my comments from that review. Please excuse the repetitions.
Viking Catapult versus the Nidhogg Dragon 7017
As its title suggest, this set contains a catapult and a dragon as well as a couple of viking warrior minifigs.
Minifigs & Weapons
Lego seems to be a bit confused about the number of viking minifigs in this set. The artwork that they have released online for this set (which can be seen at the Brickset link in the first post in this thread), which is the same as the cover art for the instruction booklet, shows only one viking. But the box art and the inside of the instruction booklet depicts two vikings. Thankfully, there are indeed two viking warrior minifigs in this set.
The viking minifigs come with horned, metal-effect helmets. The horns are detachable but the helmets looks funny without them. They can also be rotated so the horns can be worn downwards and towards the eyes - which is a viable alternative to the traditional upward position.
The metalic look of the helmet isn't surface applied (silk screened). It seems that the plastic is made this way which means that the pattern won't come off even if you want it to. The ferrous effect is fairly realistic which begs the question: What does the rest of the armour, which isn't metallic but is grey, represent? One of the vikings is supposed to have a mail coif but being grey, it doesn’t look right next to the metal-like helmet.
The mail-coifed viking has scale mail armour painted on his torso and is armed with a two-handed poll axe. The poll axe is one of the best features of this set. Unlike other minifig weapons, it comes in two parts: a haft and a head. The head is the same metallic plastic as the helmet while the haft is plain brown to represent wood. If you have a second axe head from another set or from Ebay, you can attach both to a single handle to create a wonderful double-headed weapon. The heads are designed to line up when you do this.
The other viking is armed with a sword and a shield. Unfortunately, the sword is made of relatively soft plastic so the sword's grip gets chewed when the weapon in taken in or out of a minifig's hand. The shield is made up of two pieces: the face and the handle. The handle fits in a hole in the middle of the shield in one of two ways. It can be assembled so that the handle runs entirely parallel to the inside of the shield (with the bottom of the T-shaped handle inserted in the shield) or so that it forms an L-shaped grip like those of the original Castle minifigs. The shield comes with a choice of two stickers with which to decorate it; one yellow and blue with runes and the other black and white with a Nordic dragon design.
The minifigs also come with a treasure chest and four yellow gems.
The Siege Weapon
The catapult in this set is one of Lego’s better siege engines. More accurately described as a ballista, it has four large wheels though it’s not clear how two vikings could move such a large machine on their own.
Although this giant crossbow comes with springy prongs (the bow parts of a crossbow) and a chain for a string, they aren’t really used to shoot the bolts (projectiles). Instead, a spring-loaded tab serves the purpose. It is quite strong, and can launch the bolts about 18 inches (45cm). The ‘magazine’ that holds the bolts is cleverly designed so that the three bolts can be shot in rapid succession. It is also designed so that the bolts cannot easily be shot without their protective heads – a wise move on Lego’s behalf.
A gondola attaches to the side of the siege engine that holds a minifig. But this renders the machine asymmetric. It works just as well with or without it but looks better without. It is very easily removed (or simply not put in the first place).
My greatest reservation about the catapult is that it has neither a turntable nor a hinge built into it to adjust the windage and the elevation. If it had included these elements, it would have turned a good siege weapon into a great one.
The Monster
The monster in this set is a Nidhogg dragon. It is assembled from lots of parts and in this regard is different from earlier minifig monsters such as those from the Harry Potter sets. This has two advantages: the monster can be easily customised provided you have sufficient pieces from other sets, and it has many joints to strike all the right poses. The disadvantage is that it looks distinctly robotic. Indeed, one imagines that Bionicles have invaded Dark Age Europe and made robo-monsters based on viking myth to terrorise the locals.
The artwork for this set doesn't do the size of the dragon justice. The picture of this set gives the impression that the dragon is not much larger than the older dragons from various Castle sets. Not so! The head of the Nidhogg dragon (excluding the horns) is longer than a minifig is tall. You can almost fit an entire viking inside this creature’s mouth (munch, munch, burp).
The size alone would make this dragon imposing, but it has also been given a ferocious face (in this regard, the artwork is accurate) and cruel claws. Parents with nervous children should avoid giving their kids this set. The Nidhogg dragon is seriously scary.
Its wings are single pieces but thanks to rotator joints at the dragon’s shoulders, they can be set at almost any angle.
The tail consists of three parts and can be placed in a variety of suitably draconic positions.
There were a few features of this dragon that could have been improved. For one thing, the mouth doesn’t close properly even if you remove the flame pieces. A small adjustment is all that is required but it would have been better if this were not needed. Another quibble is that the neck is fixed to the body with a single pin joint. Given that the dragon’s head and neck will probably see quite a lot of adjustment in play, this seems insufficiently strong. Another play-related drawback is the spines on its back. One of these pops out too easily and because it is a small piece, is difficult to find. It’s a good thing that this set comes with a spare. Lastly, the underside of the torso is strangely flat. It would only have taken a few extra pieces to fill out the contour of the dragon’s belly and one wonders why Lego doesn’t provide these.
Despite these shortcomings, the dragon is one of the most impressive monsters Lego has produced and should help the company challenge the threat posed by Mega Bloks.
Overall
The artwork for this set gave the impression that it has only one viking and a modestly sized dragon. In fact there are two warriors and the dragon is awe-inspiring. This set is not perfect but still makes a worthy addition to any Lego collection. Overall, I give Viking Catapult versus the Nidhogg Dragon A-.
Here’s my review of the other set that I got from the Vikings range. This review has been written so that it can be understood independently of the review of the Viking challenges the Fenris Wolf set above. As a result, I have had to repeat some of my comments from that review. Please excuse the repetitions.
Viking Catapult versus the Nidhogg Dragon 7017
As its title suggest, this set contains a catapult and a dragon as well as a couple of viking warrior minifigs.
Minifigs & Weapons
Lego seems to be a bit confused about the number of viking minifigs in this set. The artwork that they have released online for this set (which can be seen at the Brickset link in the first post in this thread), which is the same as the cover art for the instruction booklet, shows only one viking. But the box art and the inside of the instruction booklet depicts two vikings. Thankfully, there are indeed two viking warrior minifigs in this set.
The viking minifigs come with horned, metal-effect helmets. The horns are detachable but the helmets looks funny without them. They can also be rotated so the horns can be worn downwards and towards the eyes - which is a viable alternative to the traditional upward position.
The metalic look of the helmet isn't surface applied (silk screened). It seems that the plastic is made this way which means that the pattern won't come off even if you want it to. The ferrous effect is fairly realistic which begs the question: What does the rest of the armour, which isn't metallic but is grey, represent? One of the vikings is supposed to have a mail coif but being grey, it doesn’t look right next to the metal-like helmet.
The mail-coifed viking has scale mail armour painted on his torso and is armed with a two-handed poll axe. The poll axe is one of the best features of this set. Unlike other minifig weapons, it comes in two parts: a haft and a head. The head is the same metallic plastic as the helmet while the haft is plain brown to represent wood. If you have a second axe head from another set or from Ebay, you can attach both to a single handle to create a wonderful double-headed weapon. The heads are designed to line up when you do this.
The other viking is armed with a sword and a shield. Unfortunately, the sword is made of relatively soft plastic so the sword's grip gets chewed when the weapon in taken in or out of a minifig's hand. The shield is made up of two pieces: the face and the handle. The handle fits in a hole in the middle of the shield in one of two ways. It can be assembled so that the handle runs entirely parallel to the inside of the shield (with the bottom of the T-shaped handle inserted in the shield) or so that it forms an L-shaped grip like those of the original Castle minifigs. The shield comes with a choice of two stickers with which to decorate it; one yellow and blue with runes and the other black and white with a Nordic dragon design.
The minifigs also come with a treasure chest and four yellow gems.
The Siege Weapon
The catapult in this set is one of Lego’s better siege engines. More accurately described as a ballista, it has four large wheels though it’s not clear how two vikings could move such a large machine on their own.
Although this giant crossbow comes with springy prongs (the bow parts of a crossbow) and a chain for a string, they aren’t really used to shoot the bolts (projectiles). Instead, a spring-loaded tab serves the purpose. It is quite strong, and can launch the bolts about 18 inches (45cm). The ‘magazine’ that holds the bolts is cleverly designed so that the three bolts can be shot in rapid succession. It is also designed so that the bolts cannot easily be shot without their protective heads – a wise move on Lego’s behalf.
A gondola attaches to the side of the siege engine that holds a minifig. But this renders the machine asymmetric. It works just as well with or without it but looks better without. It is very easily removed (or simply not put in the first place).
My greatest reservation about the catapult is that it has neither a turntable nor a hinge built into it to adjust the windage and the elevation. If it had included these elements, it would have turned a good siege weapon into a great one.
The Monster
The monster in this set is a Nidhogg dragon. It is assembled from lots of parts and in this regard is different from earlier minifig monsters such as those from the Harry Potter sets. This has two advantages: the monster can be easily customised provided you have sufficient pieces from other sets, and it has many joints to strike all the right poses. The disadvantage is that it looks distinctly robotic. Indeed, one imagines that Bionicles have invaded Dark Age Europe and made robo-monsters based on viking myth to terrorise the locals.
The artwork for this set doesn't do the size of the dragon justice. The picture of this set gives the impression that the dragon is not much larger than the older dragons from various Castle sets. Not so! The head of the Nidhogg dragon (excluding the horns) is longer than a minifig is tall. You can almost fit an entire viking inside this creature’s mouth (munch, munch, burp).
The size alone would make this dragon imposing, but it has also been given a ferocious face (in this regard, the artwork is accurate) and cruel claws. Parents with nervous children should avoid giving their kids this set. The Nidhogg dragon is seriously scary.
Its wings are single pieces but thanks to rotator joints at the dragon’s shoulders, they can be set at almost any angle.
The tail consists of three parts and can be placed in a variety of suitably draconic positions.
There were a few features of this dragon that could have been improved. For one thing, the mouth doesn’t close properly even if you remove the flame pieces. A small adjustment is all that is required but it would have been better if this were not needed. Another quibble is that the neck is fixed to the body with a single pin joint. Given that the dragon’s head and neck will probably see quite a lot of adjustment in play, this seems insufficiently strong. Another play-related drawback is the spines on its back. One of these pops out too easily and because it is a small piece, is difficult to find. It’s a good thing that this set comes with a spare. Lastly, the underside of the torso is strangely flat. It would only have taken a few extra pieces to fill out the contour of the dragon’s belly and one wonders why Lego doesn’t provide these.
Despite these shortcomings, the dragon is one of the most impressive monsters Lego has produced and should help the company challenge the threat posed by Mega Bloks.
Overall
The artwork for this set gave the impression that it has only one viking and a modestly sized dragon. In fact there are two warriors and the dragon is awe-inspiring. This set is not perfect but still makes a worthy addition to any Lego collection. Overall, I give Viking Catapult versus the Nidhogg Dragon A-.
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