Review: LEGO® 40775 Mini Knight's Castle gift with purchase

First up: My apologies this will be a rushed review, as LEGO® Insiders Weekend ends at midnight (which has already passed down under!), so I must urgently tell you about the Gift with Purchase (GwP) 40775 Mini Knight's Castle. In short: yes, it comes at the shockingly high threshold of 250€/ $250/ £225/ AU$410, which is out of reach for many people. However, if you intend spending that amount on LEGO sets and/or Pick a Brick parts in the near future, and you love classic sets or microscale architecture, or just any great GwP – this comes highly recommended. I think it is just exquisite.

Products in this article were gifted by The LEGO Group; the author's opinions are their own.
This article contains affiliate links to LEGO.com; we may get a small commission if you purchase.

40775 Mini Knight's Castle

• Release date: 22 and 23 November 2025, for LEGO Insiders only
• Pieces: 590

Threshold:

• US$ 250 on LEGO.com US
• GB£ 225 on LEGO.com UK
• AU$ 410 on LEGO.com Australia
• NZ$ 420 on LEGO.com New Zealand
• DE€ 250€ on LEGO.com Deutschland, Nederland, France etc
• PLN 1070 on LEGO.com Polska

Other countries click here

 

Background

The set contains two models of castles – or rather, LEGO castles, from the "classic" era: 

• 6073 Knight’s Castle, designed by The LEGO Group's first ever foreign-born designer, American Daniel August Krentz. It has 408 pieces and was released in 1984
• 6086 Black Knight’s Castle which was designed by the legendary Niels Milan Pedersen, who still works at The LEGO Group. It was released in 1992 and has 588 pieces.

The GwP faithfully recreates each set in microscale using modern day LEGO elements. 

At 590 pieces, this is a more-than-substantial GwP. Ideally, it would be released as a set or at least each model separated into two lower threshold GwPs, however the purpose of GwPs is to encourage spending, possibly at a higher amount than usual, and nostalgic, well-made treats like this certainly achieve the goal of sweetening the deal. 

Like it or not, desirable GwPs are here to stay – the good news, however, is that this one is pretty easy to recreate if you can't afford the threshold.

Elements 

There are no exclusive elements in the set, and no stickers. This is brick-building at its purest! There is one element you may find a little trickier or expensive to obtain at the moment, however.

1x Brick Special Arch 1 x 2 Jumper in Black (6540658 | 38583) as it has only appeared in one set so far, but is available from loose parts sellers including LEGO Pick a Brick. You could just get away with using two 1x1 plates and a 1x2 jumper plate in its place, although it is prominent on the model.

Unsurprisingly, most pieces in the set are small. As you may have noticed, the piece count of this set is not far off the originals! The 408-piece Knight’s Castle is here recreated with 174 pieces by my reckoning, and the 588-piece Black Knight’s Castle comes in at 416 pieces in microscale form. Hasn't LEGO play come a long way?

The build

I don't recall the last time I enjoyed building a GwP so much, although it is worth pointing out my bias towards microscale architecture, and indeed that I am a child of the 1970s. It is nostalgic for me to build with just classic colours, and I love seeing the ways elements are used to represent architecture. Furthermore, elements are used here to represent elements – more on that in a bit.

Knight's Castle

The smaller model is constructed first, and is vastly smaller and simpler.

This GwP uses a lot of offset techniques to bring pieces out of (and back into) the LEGO grid. Many builders dislike half-module offset because of the complications it quickly brings to sideways building, but I love it – and enjoyed seeing "new" pieces used in offset, such as the grey 3x3 curved plate with cutout (68568) being placed a half-module off of the two black rounded 1x2 plates (35480) – which are themselves offset. This is my kind of LEGO fun.

From that stage onwards, everything further is created as sub-builds attached to the main model. You can see how detailed and delicate – and somewhat flimsy – these sections are, and the model is prone to falling apart more easily than you're used to with a LEGO model. 

Here's the finished Knight's Castle – but first, can we just give that microscale horsie some love? His stubby little legs make him fall over a lot, and I adore him all the more for it.

Castellations over the entrance are achieved by lining up the undersides of four roller skate pieces (18747). The printed dark grey arched windows either side of the entrance are represented by the exposed ends of LEGO Technic pins, which you will note I failed to rotate nicely so they both sit in the same position.

The drawbridge function is present, although it feels odd for it to not reach the ground. This can perhaps be excused by the castle sitting on a black "display" border.

The other function of the original set – hinged wall sections – is also present!

Black Knight’s Castle

Construction moves on to the second instruction booklet, featuring the 1990s set.

Righthand images of LEGO part 2552 by meregt are ©Rebrickable, used with permission

The thrilling Baseplate Raised 32 x 32 with Ramp and Pit (2552) was introduced in 1989 as a means for children to create grand models much faster – and although the vacuum-forming process was expensive, as The LEGO Group used an external supplier, it certainly saved using a heap of individual elements to achieve something the same size.

So it is ironic, and joyful, that we create it out of elements here, and spend the best part of 55 pages doing so. (The instruction booklet for the whole of the original set is 32 pages long.)

Soon comes my favourite technique in the model, to create a narrow window on the corner of a faceted wall. At first glance of this page of the instructions I thought this was simply a black 2x2 facet brick, but when I couldn't find one in the bag, I took a second look!

Of course, the effect is lost once you place it in the model. Or is it? It seems the designer left one crack of space behind these pieces, so if you hold the model up to the light at the right angle, you get a glint of light through the window. I was unable to photograph this for you. 

 Look at this lovely technique for placing a curved tile tightly within the corner of a wall.

Here's another lovely microscale reference to a LEGO element. The original model uses the 8x8 lattice plate (4151) to cover the dungeon (which is in the recess of the raised baseplate), but here the old 1x4x2 lattice fence (3185) is neatly affixed sideways.

The completed set is adorable – in fact, I think it thinks I'm adorable – is it winking and poking its tongue out at me? 

It also has a drawbridge, and even the portcullis element in microscale!

 

 I'd love to talk through more of the wonderful details included in this model, but you'll just have to pore over these images instead. A special shout out to the castellated tops of the towers, though.

 

There's one spooky detail of the set that I haven't pictured for you... but yes, it's there!

©1992 The LEGO Group

Conclusion

I don't have any complaints about this set at all, other than the cost and accessibility issues involved in GwPs generally – and this certainly is an egregious example. However, the model comes up trumps. It is charming, respectful, entertaining and above all a great hit of nostalgia.

It is marked as an 18+ model, likely largely because of the nostalgia factor, but it would certainly prove a tricky and frustrating build for young builders. The Knight's Castle in particular won't stand up to any sort of rough play, and neigh-ther will them horsies.

  

READ MORE: LEGO Insiders Weekend: all the GwPs and sales

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