ASIN : B0007YDCMM
Ramparts of Ryousan
Manufacturer : Mega Bloks
List Price: $69.99
Price: $59.99
You save: $10.00 (14%)
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Total New: 1
Total Used: 0
Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours
Toy
UPC : 065541098138
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FEATURES
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Includes battering ram, magnetic cannon, and catapult
Includes six action figures and poseable dragon
Includes 185-piece set
Compatible with other MEGA BLOKS toys
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Weight in pounds: 8.50
Dimensions in inches: 13.90 by 27.10 by 4.30
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REVIEWS
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Summary: Awe-Struck
Date: 2005-11-13
Rating: 5
Review: This set is unlike all others.
Gryndel the shadow dragon is soooo cool to look at.
Buy it.
I would give it 50 stars if they would let me.
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Summary: Impressive-looking, but not without its flaws
Date: 2005-11-09
Rating: 3
Review: It's nice to see Mega Bloks finally constructing a castle that doesn't look just like all the others. Rampart of Ryousan has a very distinct and Oriental look to it. It's tall and majestic, and those tall front doors are simply awe inspiring. There's also a good deal of detail and activity happening on top of the castle walls, inspiring a child's (or adult's) imaginative fancy.
Unfortunately, the castle also has a good number of setbacks that anyone planning to buy the set should know about:
1. This castle is exceptionally difficult to put together. It's not challenging; it's frusterating. The instructions are very vague when it comes to placing bricks on random spots on large base panels, wall pieces don't snap in the way that they should, fine detail points toward the end of construction force you to go back and correct errors you made in the begining, or (worse yet) cause walls to snap out of place, forcing you to backtrack and reconstruct a large chunk of the castle. Finally, when it's all done, if you even attempt to pick the castle up, it will crumble to pieces unless you've done a super-thorough and flawless job constructing it and handle it very delicately.
2. There is absolutely nothing happening inside the castle walls. The other side of the castle walls is hollow and unfinished and, aside from a nice winding staircase leading down from the wall, there are no props, accessories, or details of any kind; just random pieces holding together the base plates. Mega Bloks really skimped out on this part.
3. There are far too few figures included in this set. There are four Odaku people to defend the entire castle, and only two attacking enemies. It's very hard to play out a story with this set. Since the Odaku are a new race and the Norvaks are now clad in a new armor, you won't have any luck using figures from old sets to replenish the ranks either. Mega Bloks is really forcing you to buy more sets in order to build your army. In the past, all of their sets have included enough soldiers to get a good story going (sometimes including up to fourteen soldiers). This giant castle only includes six. Something isn't right about that.
The special features of this set are interesting, but nothing to write home about. The generic catapult from previous sets is now attached to the roof, the generic cannon is now on wheels and shooting a magnetic projectile that attaches to the main doors, the main doors are also magnetic and close together (which is actually quite nice), the ladder on wheels is uninteresting, and a large hunk of Jade is included for no good reason. It reminds me of the krystals from Krystal Wars, but is less impressive and has no electronic function.
Lastly, the dragon is simply pathetic. He's a cheap piece of bendable rubber with an opposable jaw. He looks impressive on the box, but is quite a joke when you take him out. Definitely Mega Bloks' worst dragon yet. Again, I think this is an attempt to make you buy more things. It seems like no coincidence that Ramparts was released along with a vast new selection of dragons that are sold separately.
All in all, this is a beautiful set, but would be highly frusterating for a child to put together (it frusterated me immensely!), and is lacking in several departments (largely in an attempt to save money and make you buy more stuff). I'm still happy with mine, but you may not feel the same way. Ramparts of Ryousan would function better as an elaborate defensive wall protecting a seperate castle (as the title seems to suggest) than as a castle on its own. Mega Bloks just needs to get around to building such a castle to match the Odaku style now. They also need to stop skimping out in an effort to make more money.
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Summary: the great battle
Date: 2005-11-06
Rating: 4
Review: I love Ramparts of Ryousan I would have to say this is the best castle I have ever made in my whole life I also suggest you really get this toy for your son or daugther because it is edcutional and fun I just can`t stop having wars with the norvagen army and also I really suggest you get this toy because it comes with an ultra cool dragon named Gryndel who is fully poseable and has a very cool!! tail and if you do buy this toy I really think you should get the ODAKU ARMORY which comes with THIRTY weapons and the coolest dragon of them all named SLAAN(he is my favorite from all the metal ages dragons)
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Summary: Bigger is not always better
Date: 2005-10-04
Rating: 2
Review: Dragons: Part 4: The Metal Ages. Hmm... Has the Mega Bloks Dragons series perhaps finally run its course? Let's find out...
This set constructs the Ramparts Of Ryousan, a large fortress that serves as the backdrop for a confrontation between the Norvagen forces and evil Odaku. Dashing Prince Dev of "Fire & Ice" fame makes a reappearance here. He is accompanied by a Norvagen soldier. We also get three Odaku soldiers and a new character, Gorhagar. The new characters here are nice, and this time they have pegs on their backs like the Mega Bloks Command Ops soldiers do. You can attach a guy's weapon to his back, and for the most part it looks like he has the weapon slung over his shoulder on a strap.
But here we arrive at my first gripe with this set. There are only six guys here. By Mega Bloks standards, that's a ridiculously low number of warriors for such a large set. Back in 2002, a small Battle Gate set gave me a total of eight warriors and a nice battlefield for them to duke it out on. The larger Dragons sets came with even more warriors. Having watched the Mega Bloks Dragons saga unfold over the years, I've noticed that they've been giving us less and less for our money each year. One thing that enamored me with the Dragons series to begin with was the large armies of warriors we were given.
But there is good news in The Metal Ages. New weapons! The "Fire & Ice" series didn't really offer anything new in the weaponry department. It's nice to see some new arms for our men at arms. There are swords, a few strange-looking edged-hafted and blunt weapons, and one of our guys carries a crossbow. After three years of using hatchets, axes, clubs, and maces, our warriors have finally invented a ranged attack weapon. I always wondered where the bows and arrows were. Strangely, none of the six guys here has the presence of mind to bring along a shield.
This set comes with one dragon. Just one? Previous Dragons sets of comparable size came with two or sometimes three dragons. This dragon is dark blue, and he sports impressive articulation in the wings and tail, which are flexible. There aren't any joints here, so you can bend and pose his wings and tail any which way you choose. His neck is a bit stiff, offering a lesser degree of posability. Well, what about his arms and legs, you say? He doesn't have any! He's clearly intended to be an eastern style dragon, in keeping with the Oriental motif of The Metal Ages. At first, the lack of arms and legs caught me off guard; but having spent some time with this dragon, I have to say that he's very nice, and he has a wicked spiked tail that he can use to cause all kinds of damage and fun mayhem. He also sports some great detail on his head, body and wings. So does he live up to the standard set by previous dragons? Yes, I'd say he does, and quite nicely at that.
The meat of this set is a sprawling fortress with towering walls that at first glance looks like it would put any Lego castle to shame. It's big and wide. Upon closer inspection, I found myself very disappointed with it. The castle walls are large, tall pieces reminiscent of Dragon Mountain. That's fine. It's when we get to the second floor and above that everything seems to fall apart. The "towers" here barely qualify as towers. They look very incomplete. The design here is incredibly sloppy. Slap a few walls and pillars down, top 'em off with floorboards, slap on a few railings, torches, and ornamental blades to try and cover up the fact that there's hardly anything here, add in a couple ladders and a staircase, and we've got what could possibly be the worst designed castle in Mega Bloks history. It's easy to build, but it's nowhere near as nice as castles in previous series. Also, the fortress is constructed on four of the standard base plates. If we're not building this on a stable, flat surface, you can forget about it holding together. The large wall pieces do not stick to the base plates very well. And once fully assembled, forget about trying to move it.
To the set's credit, the detail here is spectacular. The castle's towering front gate has some eye-catching gold designs on it, and there's some great detail on the stone walls, rock walls, and ornamental fixtures. There's a lot of gold here. Ornamental blades, battlements, tower walls (for whatever that's worth), window frames on the stone walls... Lots of gold.
There are few working features here. The front gate is magnetic. Projectiles from a portable spring-loaded cannon are supposed to stick to it, but I've found that they usually knock the double doors inward instead. Behind the gate is a battering ram that can swing down to smash through the doors and bonk whoever's there square in the nose. Atop the ramparts is a stable catapult. Lego would have this thing on a turntable so you can aim with it. As it stands, our valiant warriors had better hope that whoever they're launching boulders at happens to be standing within their catapult's line of fire. Siege engines for attacking the fortress include the aforementioned portable cannon and a siege tower with adjustable ramp. One final detail: A cloth flag with the Odaku emblem on it.
It's been three years since Mega Bloks graced the world of building toys with those lovable Dragons. Has the Dragons series finally run its course? I believe it has. The time has come for something new. This set was disappointing in so many ways. The dragon and details on the parts are the best things it has going for it. While the dragon is cool in his own right, I'm going to have to give this set a thumbs down.
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Summary: Mega Bloks =Mega Fun
Date: 2005-08-14
Rating: 5
Review: Great! Great! Great! What more can I say. This is an exceptional addition to any childs toy collection even if they have never played with Mega Bloks Dragons before. It's an instant winner of a product hands down!
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