By request, here is a review of the tower from the Toys R Us exclusive "True Legends" Warrior Battle Set.
The mold for this toy dates back to the early 90's. Chap Mei first released this under their "Legends Of Knights" line both separately and in a larger set that contained a second tower and a hollow castle front with a lowering drawbridge, but I believe this TRU release under their "True Legends" line is the first actual, non import, release in the United States. (the two long empty slots. one on either side of the tower, where the hollow castle front attached are still present in the mold).
Front:
Back:
Top:
The tower is a three level playset. The bottom level is a jail cell complete with opening door and some molded bones and chains on the floor. The second level has a ladder leading up to it and an open doorway allowing access to the tower interior where there is room for a two or 3 figures to stand. The uppermost level is an open cupola atop the tower. There are four small pegs around the edge of the cupola for the attachment of an enormously ridiculous spring loaded crossbow platform to be attached.
Jail:
Second level:
The quality of the plastic is quite good and should hold up to some serious play. The tower itself comes apart rather easily for storage, it breaks apart at the brown ledge separating the jail and second levels and the flared cupola at the top can also be separated from the second level.
The sculpted details are a bit softer than higher end medieval items from Schleich, but are still very nice. The interior walls of the tower are detailed with negatives of the exteriors, which are architecturally inaccurate to how these types of structures are built, but are still visually more interesting than a blank, smooth interior would be.
A nice added detail are the removable torches with transparent red fire. They are a bit too thick for most action figures to hold in their hands, but are still preferable to ones that would have been sculpted directly into the detailing of the walls like a lot of toys companies would have done.
Like most Chap Mei items, only the front of the toy has any painted details, leaving the rest of the tower bare plastic. While this set was purchased with customization in mind and it will be modified and painted anyway, I do feel that this is a cheap move on the manufacturer's part and might disappoint all but the youngest kids who might receive this as a gift.
This set, while being an "off brand" item, works very well with most 3 3/4" and 4" figures.
Pics with a 3 3/4" figure for scale:
The set comes with four action figures: 2 Elves and 2 Orcs (although their build makes them look more like Trolls to me), several accessories for them, a great winged dragon with a saddle for a figure to ride it, a working catapult w/2 boulders, a working battering ram and the aforementioned spring loaded crossbow platform. This is a lot of plastic on one box and should make kids happy. Just about everything in the box can be of use to customizers as well. The only real downside are the figures as they are somewhat chunky in design and sport low articulation. The Elves have neck (although somewhat limited due to their hair), shoulder, hips and wrists and Orcs have neck, shoulders and waists (they are one solid piece from the waist down). The crossbow platform is useful if you remove the giant crossbow.
The $39.99 retail price is not bad for all of these items, although I can really see $29.99 or $34.99 being more reasonable myself.
