Castle: Black Knights

Black Knights (1988–1994)
A Black Knight minifigure.Much like the Lion Knights, the Black Knights officially appeared in 1992 and were based on earlier, non-subtheme-affiliated sets, some of which were retrospectively included in the group. They are characterized by a red, yellow, and blue dragon shield.

The first well-known Black Knights-style set released was Black Monarch's Castle in 1988, which was also the largest Black Knights set ever released. The enormous black castle was effectively an upgraded version of King's Castle, with the same general layout and the same complement of soldiers - four archers, four axe/spearmen, and four knights on horseback. The big difference was its inclusion of octagonal turrets. This was one of the first sets to include the horse armor barding. An interesting feature the castle had was it could be opened and closed using special "hinge" pieces, and snapped closed using a peg and hole mechanism; this enabled it to combine with Knight's Stronghold and Black Monarch's Ghost (see below) to create even bigger super-castles. In 1989, three Black Knights-style figures were included in the Knights' Challenge set.

Two more Black Knights-style sets were released in 1990; one was the Knights Stronghold town gate set that featured one mounted knight, four soldiers, along with a big catapult, and Black Monarch's Ghost, a set that included a lone mounted knight and a glow-in-the-dark ghost. Like the King's Mountain Fortress, Knights Stronghold and Black Monarch's Ghost featured the newly invented helmet visor and armor breastplate pieces for the knights. These two sets were also among the last Lego Castle sets to carry the Legoland banner. The two 1990 castle sets were re-released in 1992 with the Lego System banner on the boxes, but the instruction booklets of the sets still had the Legoland banner. The only changes that were made to the 1992 re-release sets were the horse saddles. The saddles were changed from one clip to two clips since 1992 was the year that introduced the altered Lego horse saddle.

When the Black Knights were officially launched in 1992, the Dungeon Master's Castle (renamed Black Knights Castle in 1994) was released to replace Black Monarch's Castle. A number of new entities were created for the new sets, including a new oval shape for shields carried by mounted knights, a somewhat different dragon design for the shields, an ornate new kind of helmet, new shirt designs for the mini-figures, and new dragon plumes available in four different colors (just like the feather plumes). The movable visors for the older helmets were redesigned to accommodate plumes on the sides, not just on the top. The older dragon triangular shield was still used in the sets for infantry and guards. These sets, along with Wolfpack, were the first castle sets to have minifigures with mustache and beard faces. Two other main Black Knights sets were released the same year as the Black Knights Castle in 1992. They were the Sea Serpent (the biggest Lego Castle boat ever released in the 1990s) and Black Knight, a small set that included a single, full armored knight, along with accessories. Older sets such as the Knights Stronghold and Black Monarch's Ghost were retroactively included as part of the Black Knights.

As the Knights Stronghold and Sea Serpent featured the Black Falcons, this suggested that the two factions were rivals, particularly in Knights Stronghold where the Black Knights defend the gates against a Black Falcons siege. The Black Knights were also opponents to the Wolfpack Renegades (the 1992 catalogue diorama shows Black Knights soldiers pursuing a Wolfpack Renegade wagon, while the Black Knight's Castle contains a Wolfpack figure as a prisoner) and Dragon Masters (the 1993 catalogue diorama shows Majisto the Wizard on a dragon engaging the Black Knights). Like the Black Falcons and Lion Knights/Crusaders

The Black Knights series continued until the end of 1994 when they were superseded by the Royal Knights in 1995. One of the last Black Knights sets released was King's Catapult in 1993, a miniset that included a knight who manned a tiny catapult. It was re-released in 1998. 1988 Leaflet introducing the Black Knights featuring a Black Knight mounted on horse (with horse armor), along with his squire. Notice the (6085) Black Monarch's Castle in the background.