My son got the Imaginext Dragon World Fortress for Christmas, because his aunt and uncle are awesome. I didn't realize my wife had it on my son's wish list until it showed up under the Christmas tree. And boy, what a gift!
Where to start? The castle is one big, awesome sculpt. The amount of thought that went into the castle is astonishing - there is a dragon motif incorporated into everything, from the bedspread on the bed to the secret stairs. Centaurs are sculpted into the columns, vampire bats adorn the outer walls, and if you look closely at the picture you can see that the green dragon head matches the rough-hewn stone of the lower section to form a complete dragon. As a miniature painter myself, it's so pretty I want to paint it.
Counting the roof and the dungeon, this play set has FIVE levels. Starting with the base, the castle is configurable two ways. One way opens a secret door into the dungeon, while the other provides a helpful entrance with steps into the ground floor - which is actually an ingenious lure, because it completes the winding funnel that is a rolling boulder trap. Swiveling out the secret door has the added benefit of giving the castle a sturdier base.
Foolish mortals who manage to make it past the boulder trap face off against the portcullis. It's here that there are footholds for the two knights. Simply put the knights' feet into the footholds and turn to active the mechanism. It sounds good in practice but is harder for my nearly three-year-old boy. He asks me to do it. Turning the footholds causes the portcullis to raise or lower along with an accompanying ka-CHUNK, thunder and lightning, and even an owl hooting. The portcullis mechanism itself is a series of wheels and gears, along with a little rope that winds through it. You don't find this level of detail on professional gaming miniature sculpts!
As if getting crushed by a boulder or speared by a portcullis wasn't bad enough, there's an animated dragon head that can be manipulated from the other side of the castle. The head swings up and down and side to side. When slamming it down over the poor fool standing in the handholds, the mouth opens and closes. After scooping up the hapless victim, it can then swing out and drop him into the moat! This doesn't always work - the mouth on the dragon must be slammed down pretty hard to guarantee it "eats" somebody, but the effect is glorious to behold when it works.
Also in the base of the castle is another foothold mechanism to reveal a series of red secret steps. Turning the foothold opens and closes these spiraling steps to the dungeon.
The next level features wooden steps, complete with metal rivets. It has a beautifully sculpted dragon chandelier that hangs by a real string. My guess is you drop it on any invading knight who happens to have made it this far, but in practice it doesn't really do much but dangle. There's also an accompanying bed that probably goes here. To give you an idea of the detail of this toy, flipping the bed over reveals a broadsword fastened to the bottom (it's part of the sculpt, not a separate sword). Fisher Price thought of everything!
The next level features the beginning of the boulder trap. A trap door is triggered by a little button on the side. There are two sound animations to accompany the boulder rolling its way to crush the enemy - one sounds like fine china being smashed, while the other has a cat shrieking in dismay. My son could press this button all day long if we let him. Speaking of the boulders, they get quite a bit of momentum as they roll down the trap, but aren't so heavy that they'll do any toy real harm.
At the top of the castle is the piece de resistance: the concealed dragon face. By turning the footholds at the top of the castle, a snout, teeth, and eyes appear. The bristling claws on either tower extend (but not much) to the accompanying roar of a dragon. It's theoretically possible to position a knight in the "mouth" of this dragon, which would cause him to fall out of it as soon as it was activated with the footholds, but in practice this doesn't work - the mouth is too flimsy to hold anybody. It's a cool effect, but might be frightening for younger children. My son didn't seem to mind it.
Also atop the castle are a place for dragon-shaped flags and a cannon. If there's a concern for little kids playing with this toy, it's this cannon, which fires a crossbow-shaped bolt. It doesn't shoot it very far but it's extremely sensitive, so it's easy to fire the thing by accident (like in your eye, for example). We won't let my son play with it until he's older.
The knights have fully posable arms and legs. The red knight looks surprised, the gray knight wears a fierce frown. Their arms rotate in the sockets as well as the wrists, and each can hold their own color-coded shield and sword. The armor is an upper-torso affair, covering most of the head and locking it into place. It can be a bit of a challenge to get the suits of armor on knights if their heads are turned as a result.
I could go on and on. The short of it is that this set is awesome. My son loves it too, although he won't really be able to fully enjoy the entire set until he gets older. That's okay though, the toy can grow along with him. In the mean time, we keep the dragon busy eating astronauts from another play set. And let's face it, they deserve it...anyone attempting to invade the castle is asking to be crushed, skewered, chomped, bludgeoned, terrified, or speared.