The box proclaims Outpost Attack is comprised of 194 pieces, which include three minifigs a catapult and the outpost tower itself. The box contains an instruction booklet, a small sheet with two stickers, and two numbered baggies of bricks. This is the first time I got a set with only two bags and had them numbered. Baggie number one contained the parts for the minifigs and the catapult, while the second baggie had the parts for the tower. The build didn’t take me that long. It was well under an hour, but I still found it to be fairly satisfying and while the tower is undertandably short compared to the Prison Tower from the last set, it’s construction was a bit more complex than I was expecting.

As I said, you get three minifigs with this set and man, am I having fun collecting the Kingdoms minifigs. This time around you get two Lion Knights who are defending the Outpost and one lone Dragon Knight who is doing all the sieging by himself. Two of them are basically the same figure, only colored for each side. They both have pike helmets, the other Lion Knight is a crossbowman who also comes with a quiver of bolts he can wear on his back.

The catapult is a larger, more complex version of the one that came in the Knights Showdown set, which I looked at a few weeks ago. It’s basically the same idea, but it hurls a much bigger brick and thanks to a construction gimmick in the tower you can use it to blast a chunk out of the front of it, but more on that in a minute. You get the bricks to build two projectiles and the catapult holds two Dragon Knight shields.

The Outpost Tower is fairly simple, and it’s got a false back just like the Prison Tower so you can get in there with the minifigs and use it as a playset. It’s a nice looking structure, albeit very functional. There are clips two hold two included halberds on either side of the main gateway, there’s a socket to mount the crossbow at the very top and there is a flagpost with flags. It would have been cool to toss in a portcullis, but it probably would have required too many additional bricks.

The breakaway wall gimmick just involves the center wall with the window not being secured in anyway. If you aim your attack with the catapult just right you can blow it right out the back. It took me quite a few tries, but I nailed it twice and it worked really well. The wall holds in there pretty well too, so you don’t have to worry about it constantly falling out when you don’t want it to.

For a $20 set, I was really satisfied with this one. It was a fun build and it seemed more substantial than some of the other $20 Lego sets I own. I’m really tempted to get a second one of these sets so I can mount them back to back and make a bigger and more fleshed out structure. Considering it’s only a $20 set and I’d be happy to get the extra catapult and minifigs, the prospect is looking more and more appealing to me.

[As a nice little surprise, it was announced at Toy Fair today that Lego would be releasing four brand new Kingdoms sets in 2011! This made me a very happy camper! I only hope they’re fairly substantial and not just the impulse sets. -FF]