Customer Reviews

Fisher-Price Imaginext Dragon World Fortress

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

My husband picked this out for my son's 4th birthday and he absolutely loves it! The lights flash and the dragon comes down when you pull a lever and will actually pick up a man in his mouth. The front door to the castle resembles a garage door and my son really likes that! It took us a few days to figure out that the boulders actually swirl down the slide which is also part of the dragon's tale. Also, there is a little button like thing at the top of the slide that makes a noise and sends the boulder down the slide. This thing is just so nice. I only wish that the rooms were a little deaper...they are a bit shallow, but the men are pretty small, so it's no big deal. Almost all of the Imaginext toys are built so well, so I really recommend them to anyone with younger children. They even have some for girls now=) They aren't called Imaginext, but they are the exact same type of people and they are also Fisher Price Brand. We own the large Pirate Ship, another Castle, Coast Guard Boat, Space Ship, Space Station, Bat Cave, FireStation, Ambulance, and many other little Imaginext items and we can't wait until they come out with even more...

This is the only toy that we can get all our kids to play together, nicely. We bought it for our son's third birthday, but it quickly became communal property in our house. Our seven-year-old and one and half-year-old daughters love it almost as much as the boy. They play with it for long stretches at a time, and the little characters that come with it make frequent adventures elsewhere throughout our home as well. Well worth your investment!

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.

Our son got this for his fourth birthday. He plays with it every day, and he uses it with other toys. For example, he has some action figures that he now plays with at the Dragon World Fortress. It is a good toy for two or more children to play with at one time. The various lights, sounds and moving parts make it even more fun, but it is not overly complicated. It is about two feet tall but is narrow enough to put off to the side when he is not playing with it. We paid fifty dollars on Amazon which was a fair price.

The product is great with regard to my children loving it. Generally, it is well constructed but I had to take it back because the gate wouldn't work; the day after Christmas. After returning it the same thing happened on the same day, the gate wouldn't work. So I took it apart and found that the hold up is a piece that is connected to the round-spoked wheel on the front. The wheel is simply for looks (turning) and the mechanism that is used to get it to turn on the front of the fortress is not well built. This mechanism gets behined the gate lever and locks it up. So I just removed the piece and now it works fine. Additionally, I read in one of the reviews that the dragon's mouth is supposed to open and pick up a person. Ours never opened. Although the issues, my 3 year old still loves it.

My son plays with this quite a bit (he is 8). I love the fact he can play imaginatively and I like to see him playing something other than video games. We like all our Imaginetx toys. His only complaint is he wants more people.

My 4-year-old loves this toy. The monster sounds and flashing lights are great. He loves to send the boulders down the spiral slide. We've had it for 2 weeks, so durability is really unknown. However, our first purchase had the drawbridge stop functioning within an hour, so we returned it and got another (a newer version) which is working fine.

People have commented about the stability of the unit. The first one we got fell over backwards a lot. The second one we got must be a newer version because it included a triangle wedge for the back to keep it from tipping over backwards. It has not toppled since.

I bought this toy about 1 month ago for my 3 yr old son and he loves his "Dragon Castle". I am a little disapointed with the quality of the mechanisms and worry about their longevity. all of the movements seem a little chinsy or cheap and really do not do very much. for the price this toy should have much more interaction. for instance; the claws should come out more on the top when operating the mechanism for the mouth on top. It is also hard for my son to operate the gate. I did not buy this toy for it's educational value because it has none. Again, my son loves it but I worry about it's durability.

First of all, if the price on this site is more than $50 I highly recommend shopping for it in the big toyRthem store chain everyone knows about. As for the toy itself I love how much my sons love this! I originally bought it for my three year old for his third birthday. To me it was a boy version of a dollhouse which is very much a GIRL'S toy to my boys. Not only did my three year old love it, my eight year old did, too. That made my day since so many of their interests are seperated by their obvious difference in age/maturity. My boys can play with this together for hours imagining and re-imagining stories for their knights and dragons without being confined to the plot of some movie or comic book. They can vanquish evil and fight for honor and chivalry. They can slay the monster (the bad guy) and the brave knight (the good guy) can win. I've since purchased the extra dragons and knights that are sold seperately to complete the set. I've shopped around, used my 'reward points', and saved more than I would have if I'd shopped on this site. Again, if you can do so I suggest you check it out at your local toy store first. It's well worth the effort. Plus, your boys will have a blast with this if they're into 'good guys versus bad guys' like my little men are.

I bought this for my son last Christmas and he loves it. He has a very extensive collection of Imaginext toys and they are pretty much all he plays with. This review is more for the Imaginext line of toys than this toy specifically.

I highly recommend the entire Imaginext line. It's basically Playmobil for younger kids (although older ones like it too). The quality of the toys is excellent they have stood up to many years of heavy play. My son is 7 now and it's still his favorite toy, he keeps asking for more additions to his collection, his 9 year old brother even plays with them. If you're looking for a great set to start for your kids I would definitely go with Imaginext. It will be a set they play with for years.