Lego 6242 Soldier's Fort

Prologue

This is the last vital set of the Pirates II (2009) line which I have been slowly gathering. Below is a cover art of the set. Like most Pirates II sets, it features marine creatures, pirates, jewels and Imperial Guards in this one. Of course this set features heavily on the Imperial Guards.

The person who sold it to me had informed me before hand that the box was not in good condition but all tape seals were intact. Mentally I was picturing a horribly squashed box but on the day I went down to collect this set I was pleasantly surprised. Yes the box was warped but not squashed. So I was one happy camper as I used my grubby hands to haul this precious home.

One thing I really liked about the this is the artwork on the box featuring the map motif.

One side features the scale and lists all the minifigures that come with the set and they look very good indeed.

The back of the box shows how the set is made up of smaller parts connected by technic pins together, the accessories, play features and the fort in an action sequence. The lower left pimps the Brickbeard's Bounty. If you are a fan of Pirates II like me, you got to get the ship too.

Items List

Here is a shot of the bags, manuals and stickers of this set and since it is not that large, we are able to capture it all in one screenshot.

This set has 2 instruction manuals, 4 numbered polybags, a small sticker sheet and a plastic printed flag..

The Build

This set features six minifigures like the Shipwreck Hideout except this leans more heavily on the Imperial Guards. The line up of characters is quite standard with the exception of the governor. The 2 animals feature in this set are the money holding a key and a crocodile. A nice mix of characters though I am always more biased to getting more minifigures in a set.

Like a row reversal of Shipwreck Hideout, we now have Brickbeard in a row boat. This time the boat is reddish-brown instead of earth blue and the paddles are brown instead of white. Also he has a jolly roger at the bow and carries a stick of dynamite at back of it.

Now onto the first module. It features a nice palm tree, some plants and steps like a mini bridge. The palm tree piece looks really really great and is probably not a very common.

It has a small recess underneath the tree that stores some gems under it. Something about buried treasure I guess but not sure what it is about here with the Imperial Guards who are the good guys here.

The second module is more interesting. It features a jail house and a cannon position on top of it. If you ask me, I would not have designed a defensive position directly above a place where the bad guys are held. Just think too many things can go wrong if the bad guys escape. Oh well this is Lego after all, where for some reason we have more Firemen and Police sets than civilian buildings. Seems such things are legit in the Lego universe.

The jail house features a back wall which can be removed to simulate it being blown away by a kamikaze Captain Brickbeard on his row boat loaded with dynamite. The sticker on the walls are a nice touch. Just that I screwed it up by getting the stickers wrong. Who would have noticed that the spider in the cobweb are in different positions...
   

So here is the scene where you have an oblivious guard manning the cannon and a monkey being paid a banana in exchange for the key to get out of jail. The stickers on the panel really add a nice touch and is a pity indeed that they are not printed.

The third module has the most base plates but the simplest of structures. It is an open shelter with some defensive turrets and a flagpole. What is special about this module is that it is a "corner unit".

As a result, it has 3 connecting locations with one on the other side as shown below. This helps make the soldier's fort less elongated looking I guess.

Here is a scene of a soldier going towards the shelter. A familiar scene towards all NSFs I am sure.

The fourth and final module is the tallest and has the highest brick count, though to me, it is not the nicest of the bunch. It is a tower with a crane on top of it.

The back part of it is open air like most Lego sets of this type. The crane works pretty well except one has to really winch quit a bit to raise the cargo due to the small diameter of the pulley.

So for this scene, I put the governor at his blaconey overseeing the smooth running of the fort while another soldier is acting busy...again something all NSFs know a lot about! No one is manning the crane with its precious cargo...

 

Finally of course I could not resist doing a small MOC since I had some parts lying around that matched the colour scheme of this set. Yeah, I used the Eygptian Stele/Stela as pillars for this set. I move part of the Cannon Battle into it plus the weapons rack of the Soldier's Arsenal into it. When my HK ordered cannons arrive, I intend to me this a 2 level cannon fire base.

The back part is open to allow easy access to place minifigs.

Final Thoughts

This set was bought from someone in LUGS at a very good price as the box had some shelf wear. It is a fun set to own but is it worth buying? Well it is one of the larger pirate sets and for the imperials the largest land-based set, if you like the pirates line, this is a must have and it adds a different dimension in a sense as it is a fort whereas most of the other sets are mostly ship related. What it does offer though is a set with some interesting play features such as the modular nature of the set. It allows you to put some creativity in assembling the fort into a configuration that you like. Also, this set has the governor who is the leader of the Imperials and can be found only in this set and the Imperial Flagship. Plus there are quite a few imperial soldiers in it which I have a fondness for. I feel most pirates II sets are short of the good guys and this helps shift the balance a bit. I leave this review with pictures of the whole set.

Here it is on top of the cupboard with all my other nonsense. It is also unmodified.

Here it is with my own module added. I feel it looks slightly bigger and more fitting of a fort.

A close up of the set without all the distractions.