The Black Falcons

Lego Castle theme attracts me with its castles, knights and horses. After all, it's about medieval times full of adventures and mystery although it did not represent actual history.

"The Black Falcons" is the name given by Lego fans for Lego Castle sets that featured a crest with a black and white bird against a black and white background, split down the middle, with a blue or gold border. Mini-figures that have the bird emblem on their chest often come with black helmets, blue torsos with black sleeves and black legs; sometimes with red hips. Several sets have mini-figures with gray helmets and gray legs though.

Compared to other Castle Classic themes like Crusaders ( with Lion crest ) and Black Knights ( with Dragon Crest ), I favoured Black Falcons the most for its black and blue colour combination; which for me, it represents law enforcer; something more like police force during medieval era. Perhaps you had seen the movie about King Arthur starring Sean Connery and Richard Gere? I think the title is 'First Knight' but that movie was several years ahead since The Black Falcons sets were produced within year 1984 - 1992.

I used to divide my Black Falcons mini-figures into 3 groups based on type of helmet they're wearing ; neck-protector as Guard (infantry) - usually armed with spear or halberd, chin-guard as Archer or Crossbowman - equipped with bow and quiver or crossbow, and lastly grill helmet as Knight which wield lance, shield and short sword as secondary weapon.

Left: Guards (foot soldier) , mid : Archer with red hips, right :Knight with breastplate torso and yellow feather on its grill helmet.

As far as I remember, the one and only castle I ever had was set 6074 Black Falcon's Fortress (1986) but I only had it in 1989 - the most expensive Lego set my dad ever bought for me. The construction of the castle was quite complicated for a 9-year boy like me so my brother helped me to build it. The unique characteristic of the castle were its octagonal corner pieces and the yellow Tudor wall. The set included with 2 Guards, 2 Archers, 2 knights and 2 horses ( 1 white, 1 black).

Today's price for this 24-year old set ? Up to USD 1,380.00 for mint in sealed box (MISB) set.